Thursday, April 10, 2008

Staying Up Late











25 comments:

Rachel said...

Did anybody faint from the sheer overpowering joy of hearing the Obamessiah speak? ;)

naoko fujimoto said...

Cool! How is the speach?

Anonymous said...

AWESOME...

one of the greatest things I may ever be apart of...

Eric said...

Is that Kelcey, Michael, and Chad in the last photo? Well...I know it's Chad; the hair is unmistakable. But what about the others? And how'd this go, too?

Charmi said...

The speech was very good. I'm too old to faint, but perhaps someone else was awed enough to fall. However, a proper faint really wouldn't have been possible because we were packed in like sardines. Good thing I didn't have to pee. A baby was offered up for kissing ;-) That child will have a story to tell.

I took notes, and yes, I'll be voting for Obama.

I agree with most of his platform. Now I want to see if he can deliver. I believe he's the best hope we have.

The issues:

Get out of Irag. ($10 billion/month)
Get healthcare coverage for everyone. (?$ - in place during first term.)
Improve education/demonstate education equality at every level. (?$)
Invest in alternative energy technology. (Americans spend $1 billion/day on foreign oil.)
Eliminate tax breaks for companies sending jobs overseas.
Hold our global trade partners to stiff labor/environmental/safety standards.
Restore the paradigm of diplomacy/negotiation.
Earn back the respect of the world.

The photos:

Obama
Tom (my son)
Dane
Chad and who knows who else...

Charmi said...

I'll never forget:

The look on my friend's face when security lifted up her shirt to look at her belt buckle. For a girl who used to wear bikinis, she's mighty shy.

Andy said...

Must be at ND, huh?

Charmi said...

I wish you were here, Andy. It was at Washington High School. Have you made your decision?

Mark said...

I still can't wrap my head around the concept of Barack Obama, a shoe-in presidential candidate (and if there's any justice, our next prez) was speaking in MY OLD HIGH SCHOOL.

Obama. At Washington High School.

What the hell?

:)

Rachel said...

Sigh...like lemmings over a cliff.

R. Sanford said...

I'm going to take the high road RE: Rachel's comment and not take a very, very open shot at religious folk.

dane said...

Lemmings leave when food is scarce... What hope do we have now?

The first time I have felt real pride in calling myself an American was watching Barack speak. I had chills the entire time, unquestiionably one of the strongest experiences of my entire life.

I believe he speaks with a mindset displaying the progression America starves for.

Talia Reed said...

I have to agree with Rachel. Obama's list reads like a lot more of my paycheck flying out of my pocket. Health insurance coverage for everyone will cost ME more. More than I pay for expensive health insurance now...and then the health care system will slump down the way the education (which everyone is so unhappy with) has. I don't understand why, if your not happy with the way the government runs education, why give them more power and ask them to run other aspects of our lives?

But, 'tis a mesmerism I can't fight here.

Charmi said...

It's not a mesmerism, Talia, and neither am I a lemming, Rachel. I have a strong, strong belief that there are good ways to spend money, like education and healthcare, and extremely poor ways to spend money, like Iraq.

Obama would require public service in exchange for $4,000 in college money. Rachel, how much debt have you wracked up in student loans? Do you think your education is important? Do you think that only part of our society should be able to achieve higher education? Only part of society should be able to afford to have healthcare?

You all know that I crack the whip when it comes to personal responsibility. I have no sympathy for whiners, people who want me to carry them all day long. I also have no sympathy for tight-fisted people who are only concerned about their own welfare and can't see the necessity of radical love, love that allows others to have the same opportunities that I have.

Now, can government do all that? No, but it can aid in the process. Governments aren't love by any means. And I hate structures. But some structures can give people the tools they need so I won't have to carry them around.

So much for my rant. It shouldn't be any surprise, however. You can slap me when you see me this afternoon.

Charmi said...

And yes, that was a lot more self righteous than it should have been.

Rachel said...

Ryan, it's only taking the high road if you don't go ahead and say it. ;)

Personally, I was just joking and didn't mean to piss anybody off. I'm so sick of politicians and the whole corrupt system that I just want to move to an island somewhere until the stupid election is OVER.

Rachel said...

No, I should not excuse myself. I apologize if I hurt anybody's feelings; I have nothing but respect for you guys, and certainly did not mean to imply anything else. It was an ill-advised statement, even as a joke, and I'm sorry.

I'm just so sick of the vitriol on all sides, it doesn't make much sense for me to add to it.

Charmi said...

No need to apologize, Rachel. You didn't hurt my feelings. Occasionally, though, I think it's a good idea to let people know exactly where I stand and why I stand there. I don't love you any less ;-)

Talia Reed said...

I believe in rugged individualism. I also believe that there are times when we have to lean on someone (like Joe and I have had to do a bit through this unemployment period) but plans like that are already in place. For those who can't afford higher ed, there are lots of government-funded grants--lots. Maybe there should be more, because I agree, that higher learning is an important componenet of the whole self-responsibility thing. But, think about all the extra overhead and buearacracy and wasted $$$ that a mandatory public service would cost us. And $4,000.00 really isn't that much money when you come to think of it. In my own experience, paying for my own education has made me more responsible toward it. Same goes with health care. For those who can't afford, there is already a system in place. An expensive system for taxpayers.

Talia Reed said...

Radical love. When the governement takes the money from my paycheck that is not radical love, that is stealing. If we're hoping to acheive radical love and giving, shouldn't it be voluntary?

I am all for giving. Giving to the poor, giving to my church, giving to the less fortunate, giving to the parents who need to come up with money to fund their child's expensive and necessary surgery. But how about, let me decide to give it. How about instead of giving it to some government agency that is totally ineffecient, totally in debt, completely irresponsible and wasteful, let me give it. Most of the time, when there is real need, that's when all the giving takes place anyhow.

And we know that every time we say, ok, you be in charge of my (fill in the blank) they will....they will determine the quality of education, of healthcare, of housing, of food, and it will never be as good.

Charmi said...

I applaud your spirit, Talia. We certainly need to do the things you're talking about, but it's not enough and you and I alone cannot do what needs to be done. It's too big of a job. We need the effort of the entire country.

We're going to be out of oil in 40 short years. Do you have the money to invest in alternative energy technology? Is industry investing in any meaningful way that will prepare us for life w/o oil? No. Can our educational system invest in science education? Yes.

As far as rugged individualism goes, I'd say I, too, fit that bill.

Radical love for me has to do with social justice, having systems in place so that everyone has opportunities.

I also believe in educational choice, you know my kids have been home schooled part-time, but they also benefit greatly from public education.

I'm not trying to win you over. We're both pretty set in our opinions. The diversity is very interesting.

Charmi said...

And one other thing about stealing. Teachers are one of our most valuable resources, and when we denigrate their worth by paying them poorly, that is the worst kind of stealing of all. This is not at all to belittle Joe's job, but what he is doing is far less important than what you will do as a teacher. We need to demand more from our teachers, push them to excellence, but also pay them for that excellence.

Talia Reed said...

Teachers. I think teahers are paid "decently." I really do. I'm the last one who will complain about the wages of teachers and this is why: oftentimes when we think of the importance of teachers in our society we try to account for the emotion. And our first response is to reward them financially, but how can you do that?

And you're right about Joe's job. They made him go through a tremendouly grueling 6 hour interview last week because they want to make sure that Joe will make them money. That's their bottom line and all they care about. But, how would teachers be paid if people and companies weren't making that money? That's where my paycheck ultimately comes from.

Rachel said...

Charmi, I completely agree with your sentiment about teachers. Paying excellent teachers the same thing we pay terrible teachers is a joke, as is the near impossibility of firing terrible teachers after a certain amount of time.

The concept of radical love rings true with me as well, but I agree that it won't come from the government. It needs to come from the church as a body, which unfortunately seems to be sorely lacking sometimes in an increasingly secular world. But there are times it shines through. For instance, after Hurricane Katrina, the first semi trucks that rolled into New Orleans were not sent by the gov't (which proved completely inadequate); they were packed and sent by Lester Sumrall's church and other churches like his. That is the way to implement true radical love, partly because you can cut through all the bureaucratic red tape.

Charmi said...

We need all the parts to survive.