#76 Top 100 Bush Moment

#76 Best Bush Moment

I don't have the heart to actually show Bush on this historic day. Or technically, it's just after 1am Alaska time, so last night. A bunch of George Washington University students celebrate outside the White House, which, I'm sorry, but if I lived in D.C. I think I'd want to be doing the same. This is the point at which they break into the "Star Spangled Banner."

Nonetheless, it is certainly one of my favorite moments involving Bush in his entire presidency.

I Voted, I Volunteered, Now I'm Going Stir Crazy

I went to the voting booth today excited, but didn't expect to get quite as emotional as I did.

It was similar to being in Denver, waiting for Obama to make his acceptance of the nomination speech. Exactly 45 years, to the day, of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech.

I related this in a post months ago, but I was remembering it as I entered the booth. That morning, one of the Alaska delegates, Cal, had surprised me when he was introduced as one of two in the Alaska democratic delegation who had been present during Dr King's speech.

When I asked him, as we boarded the plane back to Alaska, if he thought that he believed back then, listening to the speech, that there could be a black president in his lifetime. After some thought, he said that no, back then, and originally from the south, he guessed he didn't really think of that as a possibility. They hoped, back then, to be able to elect someone who could be an advocate for black rights, for civil rights.

I watched this morning on television as the news covered many people getting overcome with emotion as they voted, or even just before they voted. I am not black, but as a minority - or more importantly, simply as an American - it is moving to me that we are truly staring Dr. King's dream in the face.

Dr. King did not dream of a black president. I think that is too simplistic. He dreamed that "one day" his children would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of the character.

Is this not what we have achieved today?

I was so proud of everyone I saw in those lines today. Here in Alaska, long lines just aren't ever a problem. But I watched the coverage of state after state of people willing to get up to go to the polls at 3am, and wait until they opened. Or people waiting for five, six, seven hours to vote. They showed some states had over half the state's voter population vote - by yesterday! The black population is voting in unprecedented numbers - and yet still all of America is voting in unprecedented numbers. The next president, if nothing else, will be decided by a true majority of the people.

A moment of humor at polling place, as well. My family all live within about a mile and a half of each other (I know, we didn't spread our wings well) and have the same precinct to report to. The tradition has been that the first one to vote begins the phone tree - because they know everyone who hasn't voted yet. Within a few hours, we all trek the quarter mile to go vote. We have, in times past, been called the "viting family." Not catchy, but a little bit of pride.

Today, there were different volunteers than usual. I was about midway in the family line of voters, and they commented that there were already several of us in (we all have the same last name.) The last to vote, my sister just an hour ago - the lady exclaimed, "Wow - there are a bunch of you!"

I'm proud to have voted today, and proud of a country that is coming out in full force to demand a change for the country. Even if the vote goes for McCain (at which point you won't be hearing from me for several days,) it has been truly a historic day in which the country was able to vote for a black president.

I leave you with the full text of Dr. King's speech:

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.

Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of injustice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.

No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the
heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every
mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

The polls are open...

Okay, they're not really open up here for another six hours. But my election day insomnia has kept me awake long enough to watch the polls open in ten states, including a bunch of battleground states. By the way, if you are in one of those states and you waited in one of those horrendously long lines, the next time you make it to Alaska, I would like to buy you a drink!

I don't understand why there are still undecideds, but there seem to be. So I will both cast my (public) vote, and make a last ditch effort for both Alaskans and non-Alaskans alike.

President:

Barack Obama

For me personally, his Native American plans are pretty key, but if you're really wondeirng where he wants to take the country, his website is a big help. Early childhood education, the war in Iraq, health care and the environment - there are many, many issues that I agree with Obama about. I've previously covered some endorsements by major Native American leaders and organizations, and it really is because they see their future as best in the hands of Obama.

Senator:

Mark Begich

Much has been made of this election, as one of the senate seats that could very well switch parties. But outside of paty politics, I wish people could really take a look at Anchorage before Mark, and Anchorage after. It wasn't a cesspool before, so I think people don't get the contrast as much. But we're much improved, we have so much development, yet unprecedented measures taken for the environment. My household is now able to do curbside recycling! Add to this a great candidate to advocate for Native issues, education and early childhood plans that make sense, and finally someone who is looking at the social problems as problems to fix.

Congressman:

Ethan Berkowitz

To this, I hope I do not do a disservice to Berkowitz in acknowledging I don't know much about him except for his stated issues, and a few public appearances. I agree with most of the stands he takes on the issues, but hope to see him take some strong stands, and get work done, in the future for Rural Alaska and Alaska Native people, energy (not just oil, but real energy reform) and education. Everything I've seen points to a smart, energized candidate, and that is enough for me to give him a chance for the the next few years.


Now if you haven't voted yet - stop reading. Go vote.

#77 Top 100 Bush Moment

#77 Best (or Worst) Bush Moment

With just 77 days to go, we are finally electing a new president. Evidence below as to why this is important...





A "B" in Econ 101?

If there is a last straw with Palin, this is it

Let us put the "Palin's not using her husband's heritage to her advantage" arguments to rest.



In case you missed that, when asked what Palin is going to do to encourage more minority involvement...

"We've got to be all about the equality. Our constitution preaches...Todd is Alaskan Native and if you go up to Alaska, we have a problem with him being a minority up there. We live it."

We're going to ignore the fact that she didn't even come close to answering the question - or understanding it - and move right on to You've Got to Be Freakin' Kidding Me?!

So Sarah "lives" it? Please, please, please enlighten me. No minority person can look at this video and take her seriously. Those of us who live in Alaska, and have actually faced some hardships due to race can take her less seriously still. It is absolutely unimaginable to me that this woman can look a man straight in the face and claim to be part of a vast injured party - a party she has done nothing for, and has unrolled too many initiatives against.

I have posted these before, but just a few of Palin's highlight - apparently the result of "living it."
Sarah Palin's Record on Alaska Native and Tribal Issues

Palin and Sexual Abuse Poilicies

An Alaska Native man about his governor

But what could Palin have done about it?

There are plenty more, but really, Palin is no friend to the Native people of Alaska. Many have spoken out, and many more would like to speak out but cannot out of fear of retribution (and in all honesty, I can't blame them.)

The "experience" of being a minority is not a singular experience. I have had my own experiences, my own upbringings, have known the joy and pride, the pain and frustration of being an Alaska Native woman in Alaska.

Sarah Palin does not know what this is like. She has not, for one second of her life, "lived it." I cannot tell you just how much this belittles what it is to be Native in Alaska.

You do not get a buy in from your associations, no matter how many times she has tried to use it - or deny it - in the past. With this line of thinking, she is also a card-carrying member of the Alaskan Independance Party. But it didn't work when she tried to be a union member by association, and it won't work now.

I think what has been most frustrating is how many times I've been told by Palin fans that she's not using Todd's heritage to her advantage - that's just the McCain campaign, and she can't do anything about that. Besides the fact that she absolutely can do something about it, can we at last put to rest the argument? I haven't seen anything yet that Sarah won't grab onto to further her ambitions, and her husband and children's heritage is no exception.

I have yet to crack the Sarah gibberish code to know even remotely what she means by "..we have a problem with him being a minority up there" either, but it doesn't bode well for future Native policies in this state.

If Sarah really knew what a "problem" being Native was in Alaska, she would be fighting for better sexual assault policies, not charging women for rape kits.

If Sarah really knew what a "problem" being Native was in Alaska, she would be paying attention to the mass exodus from the villages because they can't pay their $2,000/month energy bills, instead of paying off the citizens with an ineffective bribe.

If Sarah really knew what a "problem" being a Native in Alaska was, she would be fighting for a public safety division that would get the backup and funding it needed, instead of cutting millions from it and firing commissioners over personal issues.

If Sarah really knew what a "problem" being a Native in Alaska was, she would be meeting with Native leaders, instead of repeatedly blowing them off and ignoring the issues.

If Sarah really knew what a "problem" being a minority in Alaska was, she woud be addressing the issues, being a leader on the problems, instead of not being present at all.


To pull a line from her now infamous acceptance speech, "Being a minority is kinda like being married to a guy with Yup'ik bloodlines, only you have actual experience."

Your right is a privilege many fought for

Most of this post is from an e-mail I got sent - many of you may have gotten it as well. I wasn't going to post it, then I heard a few people comment that they might not vote if it meant standing in a long line. Long lines are pretty much unheard of hear in Alaska - in the few years I've been voting I've never once had to wait. But this amazing election has meant the early voting locations have big lines, and I can only imagine Tuesday will be a little crazier.

Too often we take our privileges as a right. That may sound weird - voting is a right, of course. But not everywhere. It is a right in America, but it is too rare a thing in this world, and it did not come without a mountain of people before us fighting, suffering, and dying. I'm not sure of the author of the following, but keep it in mind if the line seems to long.

Facts:

First democratically elected leader of this country: 1789

Black men gained right to vote: 1870 (though some years before this was a reality, not just law)

Most women gained right to vote: 1920

Native people gain citizenship (not right to vote): 1924

All Native people gain right to vote (at least in New Mexico and Arizona): 1947
Native people can vote in Alaska without provisions (literacy tests, giving up culture): 1956

The people who fought for these rights are not ancients of generations past - 1956? This time was not so long ago.

From the e-mail:

WHY WOMEN SHOULD VOTE

This is the story of our Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers; they lived only 90 years ago.

Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.

The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote.


(Lucy Burns)
And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic. They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.

(Dora Lewis)
They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cell mate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.

Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote.
For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.

(Alice Paul)
When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.

So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because -why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's
raining?

Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie 'Iron Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the
reminder.

All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote. Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient.

My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she looked angry. She was--with herself. 'One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,' she said. 'What would those women think of the way I use, or don't use, my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn.' The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her 'all over again.'

HBO released the movie on video and DVD . I wish all history, social studies and
government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum I want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order.

It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.

The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.'

Please, if you are so inclined, pass this on to all the women you know.

We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic, republican or independent party - remember to vote.

History is being made.

#80-#78 Top Bush Moments

#80 Best (or Worst) Bush Moment

This is an impersonator and W. together - funny but also frightening. Two Dubya's?



#79 Best (or Worst) Bush Moment

Bush drinking, being a jerk.



#78 Best (Or Worst) Bush Moment

He he. Dubya "picks" a running mate.