Thursday, November 27, 2008

The Magnitude of Gratitude

Happy Thanksgiving, all.

Thank you to all my wonderful friends. I love you all so much.

I had the great good fortune to spend Thanksgiving with some of the most special people in my life: Laurie and her 3 girls (+ Filipe) and husband Mike, Osito, Melissa, & Dean. Heidi texted me with some simple words that touched me to the core.

I am grateful for SO MANY things, such as the ability to recognize that gratitude, in and of itself, carries with it an awesome power to transform, to heal, to evolve.

To add some fun to today's post, here is a favorite joke that I won't be telling after January 20th:

Q: How many Bush Administration officials does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A: None. There is nothing wrong with the light bulb; its conditions are improving every day. Any reports of its lack of incandescence are a delusional spin from the liberal media. That light bulb has served honorably, and anything you say undermines the lighting effect. Why do you hate freedom?

Monday, November 24, 2008

Bambino

Fact: one of Babe Ruth's nickname was "El Bambino", who, as you know, played for the Yankees. This very beautiful head was spotted in my beloved Queens, home to the New York METS, so maybe this should have been named "Mookie".

Be that as it may, those are three very beautiful cornrows. And her eyebrows do much to offset her fetal alcohol syndrome facial structure. Blue eyeshadow is very fashionable. What's that? It went out in the 70s? Oh... Anyway, If you need a retro makover, cornrows, and a throw-back nickname, I suggest this lovely little beauty parlor in Woodside.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Marcelo Lucero and Christopher Columbus

I swiped this pic from Newsday.

Unless your name is Sacagawea (mine isn't), or you mom's name is/was Sacagawea (again, nope), you're an immigrant. We are a nation, almost entirely, populated by immigrants. Talk about illegal immigration - you know, I went to the Smithsonian recently and nowhere did I see Christopher Columbus' green card. No visa or passport. Wanna know why? Because he was an illegal immigrant.

Fast forward to 2008 and the story of a man - Marcelo Lucero - from Ecuador who came here to make a better life for himself and his family. Just like millions before him who came to these shores - perhaps like your family, or mine (if we were even lucky enough to make the choice to come here, as opposed to being chained on a ship...).
Seven teens from Long Island are charged with his death. Seven. Teens. WTF? So here is the brilliant response from Steve Levy, Suffolk's County Exec:
'El plan de Levy incluye un lema de campaña en las escuelas que dice, “odiar no es chévere”.' The plan includes a school campaign called "hate ain't cool". That's it? That's how we combat modern day lynchings? My heart aches.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Bad Day for Bears

Pobre! At 138th and Willis in El Bronx November 14th 2008

Yikes! 2nd Avenue and 12th Street in Manhattan November 14, 2008

The bear in the top pic has been attached to the lamppost for a while. It's a yellow Care Bear in a onsie. S/he has rosary beads, and used to have a beer can wedged between the legs, but its gone now.
Raggedy Ann or Andy is another story. Someone has drawn...male parts...on it. I think the artist is Jewish, if you know what I mean....

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

In Honor of Kim

Disclosure: I didn't get permission to use this pic, but I'm thinking its ok...this is Kim with her husband Dave and their son, Hudson.

Kim was my boss and a really great girl. She passed away on Sunday, November 9th, 2008. We hadn't been in touch too much, but I really want to honor her memory. She handled life with grace and humor. She was the kind of person who had your back and pushed you to have confidence in yourself. Kim will be dearly missed.

Reminder: now might be a good time to tell someone that [nice] thing you've been meaning to...you know what I mean.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Keep On Keepin' On

Seriously? I just found out that my ex voted for McPalin! At least we're already broken up, because that's just unacceptable. Apparently his boyfriend pressured him into it. [insert muttering here.]

And just for fun, check this out.....

And here, watch this every day

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

Can you believe it? Si se puede. Si hicimos!
Today has me thinking about hope, about renewal, about change. About what a newly imagined future for this country could and will be.
It also has me thinking about Sarah Palin. I deeply disagree with so much of her political ideology, and with what [I think] is her personal outlook on the world. She spoke a lot about god's will in the election. Does this mean that god likes Barack Obama better? Does she believe that god had a hand in this outcome or does she believe that this is the work of the devil? If things don't go her way, generally, would that be attributed to the devil? How does she decide what is god's will and what isn't? That's a nice, easy coin to flip, isn't it?
It's all pretty exciting, isn't it? Let's hope this ushers in a new wave of political engagement for all Americans. Let's hold our leaders to a higher standard. Let's hope none of them get caught in some horrible illegal activity.....

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Let America be America

Courtesy of REW

for Barack Obama

by Langston Hughes
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars
?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!