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Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts

failing equality

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President Obama
1990-Harvard

image and photo credit here



Johnathan Capehart has something to say in the Washington Post today-here
- read it and weep

add women to the mix, gay and lesbian American citizens , and children-who we are failing terribly.





ny times 1990 harvard here

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One Year Later in My Little Town



When I started this blog, I talked with a client about finding the topic, the subject- the right note. She wisely told me- It is yours. Say what is on your mind.

Political Blogs- I am sure they are out there. Gosh, Just like any topic you imagine and some you haven't- there are blogs and more blogs. This will not be one, but it for a moment a little visit back to a year ago and a look at what I did today.

TODAY

Today I put up a little display in our public library- My HOPE is it will instill some pride and joy in a child's mind and heart.
















A little glimpse at My Town-








photo by Ute Bowen( above and below)







LAST YEAR


NC Primary May 2008
we educated
we canvassed




We Cooked Out-July 2008

we ate
we laughed



Last Day to Early Vote- October 2008

we yelled
we laughed






Summer & Fall 2008

we organized
we met
(at the Miracles Barbershop)






A little glimpse at the Jazz Event our group pulled together for OBAMA last Fall-

October 2008
we sang
we danced



















Last year I was campaigning for President Obama with a super motivated group of people who wanted to bring a positive message to a very small entrenched Southern town- the place I grew up and have returned to- Yes , by God, you can go Home.





As a friend said during the campaign last year- You are living in the place where CHANGE is needed. It is imperative. This road has not been, nor will it be easy here- in this little place.





November 2008
we canvassed
we worked








November 2008-after the Election
we celebrated
we educated






I HOPE things will be better. A lot of hard work has been done- and the work goes on. The group has stayed intact and is still working to improve the community-



Shall We Gather?

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...it all started with Dafs. As mentioned my favorite yellow- and for some reason this year, I have been remiss in gathering them. My grandmother had borders thick- and never- did she pick.

Dafs in tulipiere




Maybe just an occasional bloom or two would go in her heavy brass vase made in India. She never visited India~ Nor could I imagine her there- though she did follow my grandfather to a little town- gathering wayside flowers as she traveled- not taboo in the 20's.


Naomi, a triple exposure with the fading figure of my grandfather in the background


I have always enjoyed masses of daffodils in the house- however after writing about my preference to gather- it seemed that this year- I wanted to drink them in as Naomi did-where they grow. Flower petals, stem and bulb all feeding til they fade. Naomi gathered family; this was her preference.

but With the Dafs fading, I decided to gather. Admiring the nuanced colors, many specimens and generally gushing over them in a simple white tulipiere.





I plant a few new Daffodils every year- I have accumulated: simple Dafs that naturalize, Tazetta, Jonquil, Daffodil White Lion, Delmashaugh, Narcissus Thalia, Calgary, Snow, Safina, Lemon Drop (Double Dafs)- to name a few.... the hunting part.

...& then, along came the eggs. Eighteen to be exact. A dozen and a half beautiful eggs in extraordinary wash of colors.


eighteen eggs




I was bowled over. My gentlemen farmer friends (really a she and a he)- gathered these and dropped them off at the house right before Easter. What luck to have perfectly dyed eggs- compliments of nature and of friends. Had I tried to get these shades- I would have failed, Miserably.




Fairly new friends, these "farmers", We met while gathering in our small- shall we say- Southern Gothic town to campaign for Barack Obama. A small group gathered new voters throughout the summer- anxious to see how far this little place had come. I thought to myself-If everyone across the country in places like this are gathering too ( A Miracle in of itself) Change Will Come.


Southern Gothic uptown




Change did come. New Friendships came.

...and then the eggs.







...that started me thinking about another collection of Eggs I had gathered; the last of a vast collection of prints from the NATURAL HISTORY of the NESTS and EGGS of BRITISH BIRDS by the Rev. F. O. MORRIS. Purchased in a baker's dozen, the overwhelmingly nuanced collection were the eggs no one else wanted.






What fascinates is the ever so slight difference in each of the prints.


the British Eggs of Reverend F.O. Morris













...landing me right in the chicken coops and hen houses of my great grandmother- Avie Eustean Fleig, known to all as MaMa.

MaMa was ancient when I was born, so it seemed to me and when she died at the age of 89- I was 19. MaMa was not so ancient, but the world had changed and she was still"of her day," not to mention the fact that M. sewed for four daughters, designed an occasional wedding dress for a county bride, gardened-vegetables and flowers, tended chickens, chopped wood, wielded a mean shovel to put down a snake and cooked on a wood stove most of her life (another topic to be sure). She sat in the kitchen in a rocker near the radio-Supervising. I guess it was her throne of sorts and well deserved.


Gathering~
the MaMa I always knew




I remember MaMa-
a two story log house- with a newel post that as a child- I could not get my arms around, yet every time I went out to MaMa's I would try it out. Eventually I was able to ring around and wondered what the fuss was all about.

...but about the Eggs. Always in abundance at MaMa's, along with huge cardboard boxes of little peeps in the kitchen around the same time each year.


Peeps to Coops, to Chicken Yard, to Eggs. MaMa sold eggs to a local grocer and to "private clients." MaMa gathered it all- family too. Pictures lined the polished log walls in her sitting room and bedroom- dozens and dozens, daughters traveling, moving far, but staying near-through still images and stories MaMa told... as we gathered round her chair.


We all gather, and if blessed- the simple things and the irreplaceable people come our way.


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