I probably won't be writing much on politics, but it'll come up every now and then.
I been watching the Republican convention on my computer, and I must comment. Fred Thompson, who's charge was to talk about John McCain's service to the country, made sure to go into graphic detail about McCain's experience as a POW in Vietnam. He talked about McCain's suffering, about Viet-cong beating him. "Look at the horrible things this man has gone through for his country at the hands of a foriegn people, look how he was noble all through it," he seemed to be saying. Granted, McCain has come out strongly against torture, and I respect him for it. But to bring that up in a general Republican gathering, when this party and their leader have supported exactly the same sort of actions against others (or worse, McCain was not waterboarded, I don't think), is weak, and hypocritical.
And, by the way, "Country First" is a slogan that embodies why I dislike Republican propaganda. It imples that if you don't agree with McCain you are not patriotic. Just like the Bush administration did with anyone who quesitoned the war on terror. I have only one thing to say: U...S...A, U.S.A, U.S.A!
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Staten Island Voter Pwer Campaign
I am currently looking for full time organizing positions in New York. Until that happens, however, I’m doing some part time electoral organizing in Staten Island. Make the Road New York, the organization I also did my internship with, has an office in Port Richmond, a neighborhood on the north shore of the island with a high percentage of latinos. We’re mostly focused on getting out the vote: getting more Latinos to the polls. The campaign in general is oriented towards the congressional race. Staten Island (NY-13) has had the distinction of being the only congressional district in New York city to be sending a Republican to the House of Representatives. We’re working indirectly to change that.
So, our work is to try and turn people out for the Sept 9th primaries, and then for the general election in November. That has involved a lot of door to door canvassing, using public voting lists to find active Latino voters in the area, and then going to them, encouraging them to vote, and asking a few questions about general issues so we can get a sense of whether or not they could be members of the organization, or whether we want to follow up with them. More recently we’ve been trying to get people out to a community meeting that we want to have before the congressional primaries. The idea is to begin to get recognition now, to begin to bring people together, and to begin to get a core of volunteers and members from the neighborhood to work with us. Because, after all, the idea is to get people out to vote, but to also begin to build a base in the neighborhood, one where Make the Road has no organizing efforts.
After the primary on the 9th we’ll do a few other events, but hopefully begin to integrate people into our efforts. I’d personally like to see people wanting to confront some of the areas most pressing issues—immigration and crime being the two largest. I’d like to see some people get involved with the organization, and begin to think about how to get people in Port Richmond together, to build power.
That’s a brief overview of the campaign. I’ll fill in the details here and there in my next posts.
So, our work is to try and turn people out for the Sept 9th primaries, and then for the general election in November. That has involved a lot of door to door canvassing, using public voting lists to find active Latino voters in the area, and then going to them, encouraging them to vote, and asking a few questions about general issues so we can get a sense of whether or not they could be members of the organization, or whether we want to follow up with them. More recently we’ve been trying to get people out to a community meeting that we want to have before the congressional primaries. The idea is to begin to get recognition now, to begin to bring people together, and to begin to get a core of volunteers and members from the neighborhood to work with us. Because, after all, the idea is to get people out to vote, but to also begin to build a base in the neighborhood, one where Make the Road has no organizing efforts.
After the primary on the 9th we’ll do a few other events, but hopefully begin to integrate people into our efforts. I’d personally like to see people wanting to confront some of the areas most pressing issues—immigration and crime being the two largest. I’d like to see some people get involved with the organization, and begin to think about how to get people in Port Richmond together, to build power.
That’s a brief overview of the campaign. I’ll fill in the details here and there in my next posts.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Why a Blog?
A number of different occurrences and trends in my life have led me to start a blog. In a general sense, I've been feeling the need to get my thoughts down in some way shape or form for a long time. "Make sure you document what you're doing or thinking regularly, if you hope to learn anything," a person who's opinion I trust (I think) told me a few months ago. And I have been abysmal. So the blog exists as something that will be more--if not much more--than a long word document that sits, gathering moss, in the dark recesses of my computer.
Secondly, I have begun to appreciate the blogosphere more than I once did. In college, the news was a break from reading what I needed to, I read it to refresh myself. Now, three months deep in adulthood, I've noticed that the news becomes what I do when I use the computer. The absence of some other intellectual project has made me focus my brain power on finding out stuff. I've come to appreciate the possibilities a blog holds, in terms of getting opinions out, in terms of bringing other opinions in, and in terms of moving between and to interesting information. Given that my energies are no longer used to understand Heidigger (not that I gave him much effort, Being and Time was probably one of the things I read in college that I understood the least) I have found myself wanting opinions and thoughts on whats going on in the world. So, having been softened up a bit by a recent intensification in my web-surfing, I've started this blog.
Thirdly, I want to stay in the habit of expressing myself in writing. I feel my emails geting clunkier, my sentences worse, and my ability to express what I'm thinking in words deteriorating. So I've started the blog, if only because the prospect of writing in a place where other people can read--even if this is the scribbling on a dive bar bathroom wall equivalent to writing for other people--will make me more careful about what I write.
Lastly, and this was what actually put the actual concrete idea into my head as a way to deal with these nagging thoughts, I recently saw a friend start a blog. So, on top of being a twentysomething with general directionlessness, I'm a copycat. Then again, who's not?
Self-deprecation aside, this is a blog I'll post my thoughts about a variety of subjects on. You might even find a link to something I found interesting. Please respond to what is written.
Secondly, I have begun to appreciate the blogosphere more than I once did. In college, the news was a break from reading what I needed to, I read it to refresh myself. Now, three months deep in adulthood, I've noticed that the news becomes what I do when I use the computer. The absence of some other intellectual project has made me focus my brain power on finding out stuff. I've come to appreciate the possibilities a blog holds, in terms of getting opinions out, in terms of bringing other opinions in, and in terms of moving between and to interesting information. Given that my energies are no longer used to understand Heidigger (not that I gave him much effort, Being and Time was probably one of the things I read in college that I understood the least) I have found myself wanting opinions and thoughts on whats going on in the world. So, having been softened up a bit by a recent intensification in my web-surfing, I've started this blog.
Thirdly, I want to stay in the habit of expressing myself in writing. I feel my emails geting clunkier, my sentences worse, and my ability to express what I'm thinking in words deteriorating. So I've started the blog, if only because the prospect of writing in a place where other people can read--even if this is the scribbling on a dive bar bathroom wall equivalent to writing for other people--will make me more careful about what I write.
Lastly, and this was what actually put the actual concrete idea into my head as a way to deal with these nagging thoughts, I recently saw a friend start a blog. So, on top of being a twentysomething with general directionlessness, I'm a copycat. Then again, who's not?
Self-deprecation aside, this is a blog I'll post my thoughts about a variety of subjects on. You might even find a link to something I found interesting. Please respond to what is written.
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