“Take That Palin”

thats my motto for the day. she deserved that loss. we deserved our win. CONGRATULATIONS!

Call to Action – Adams Morgan

On Saturday night, there was another shooting in Adams Morgan.  I am having trouble finding media coverage on it (surprise!  the media is not there when you need them) but I have heard that 2 people were shot.  On the same night, a girl was followed home leaving the bars.  Thankfully she is ok and acted smartly.

Tonight there is a meeting to discuss the crime.  Its important to vocalize our fear and demand to know why the crime in Adams Morgan has increased exponentially in the past month.

 

“Neighbors:

Vice Chair of ANC 1C Mindy Moretti put out an email earlier today about the public meeting of the ANC and The Metropolitan Police Department. I want to reiterate that this is a very important meeting for residents of Adams Morgan. And not just becasue of the shooting Saturday night.

Since September 1st we have had over 30 violent crimes and 14 reported shootings in Adams Morgan. The violent crimes include numerous robberies (muggings), assaults with a deadly weapons, and at least one hate crime.

These crimes have been in every pocket of our neighborhood, and not just contained to historic hot spots of “18th Street” or “17th and Euclid” — these are serious days in our beloved community and our voices need to be heard by District leaders and 3D Police.  

I urge you to join commissioner Mindy Moretti and ANC 1C’s community meeting tonight at 7 p.m.  The meeting will be held in the lobby of the apartment building at 1841 Columbia Rd., NW (enter between Fleet Feet and the framing shop). This meeting is held in conjunction with the Metropolitan Police Department’s PSA 303 meeting.

Please attend,

Bryan Weaver
Chair, ANC 1C”

The Power of Empathy

Empathy can be defined in many ways.  Wikipedia defines it as: “Empathy is the capacity to recognize or understand another’s state of mind or emotion. It is often characterized as the ability to “put oneself into another’s shoes”, or to in some way experience the outlook or emotions of another being within oneself.”  I think that being able to empathize with someone else, someone wearing a different pair of shoes than yourself, is one of the most admirable qualities.  Empathy is a skill, it can be something learned over time.  Part of bettering oneself is challenging oneself to empathize with other people and other situations.  Consequently, empathy allows you to understand others which therefore allows you to understand yourself.  I find that I often grumble and feel down about my life, my job, my money problems, my emotional problems, but really, I dont have a bad life.  I am lucky in so many ways.  Everyone faces hardships and who am I to judge who’s hardships are worse than others?  But for me, I am quick to drop my personal complaints when I see/meet/hear of someone who is facing obstacles and challenges that far surpass my pain and misery.  Maybe that isnt empathy.  Maybe there is a different word for it.  But the longer I spend my energy brooding over the little challenges in my life, the less time I have to concentrate on helping someone in a worse situation.  I dont think its fair to feel down on my life when women are getting raped for sport, people cannot find enough food to feed their children, or disease is dictating people’s paths.  Those problems are universal.  Or even problems closer to home.  We have friends in our city unable to pay their rent, neighbors who are being shot and mugged for sport, friends and neighbors having a hard time paying bills/feeding themselves or their families, etc.  I digress.  My point is that I truely believe that in order to appreciate what you have, whether it has been given to you or earned, you need to appreciate what others have and do not have, what challenges others face or do not face.

For argument’s sake, its important to live your life for you, and to live it how you want to.  It’s important to appreciate what you have given yourself and the life you are making.  It’s important to make yourself happy and create an atmosphere condusive to self-preservation.  But to live your life simply thinking about yourself, and your hard job, and your simple money problems, when over all your life is good and healthy, is to live a very unfortunate and lonely existence.  As often as people feel that we were put on this earth to live OUR lives, it wouldnt be possible to do so without other people.  If you choose to live such a lonely existence, there has to be a better place for you.  There are people next door who may also be feeling pain and agony, but unless you care enough to wonder, to ask or to help, then there is no way to know.

 

Just my thoughts for the day.  I am not perfect.  I will never claim to be.  But everyday I try to make someone else’s life easier.  Not only to better myself (which could be argued as selfish), but to maybe better someone else?  Who knows – you know me, I dabble where I should dibble.  But this is important to me and its part of how I personally define a good person.

Top 5 Bands for September 2008

I havent really had a chance to sit down and listen to some great new music recently.  No excuses, I know!  But a “few oldies but goodies” are circulating back into my ears…

 

 

1.  Avenged Sevenfold

2.  Thao Nyugen

3.  Bouncing Souls

4.  Veruca Salt

5.  Pearl Jam*

* To me, Pearl Jam is the forever go-to band.  Their album, Ten, never gets old and is forever soothing.  While I dont sit there and swoon over the lyrics or melody, the songs bring me back to a happy time with happy people.  I remember being in 6th or 7th grade listening to the songs with a few people back in lower school (you know who you are…). I love how a song, smell, thought, word, etc. can bring you back 15 years to a time you would never have remembered. sigh…

!Boycott CMJ!

CMJ Sucks.  They have sold out.

I bought a year long subscription to CMJ new music monthly back in december.  Since then, and please note that it is almost october, I have only received TWO issues! TWO. TWO ISSUES in a 10 month timeframe.  Not only is that unacceptable when you charge a ridiculous amount for a one year subscription, but CMJ’s customer service should be called “we’re an independent magazine and that makes us too cool to write back to you and answer your questions about your subscription that was paid with your hard earned money- department.”  After weeks of emailing and basically getting only dismissive one-word replies or “another issue is on its way!”, I have decided that CMJ is a bad music magazine.  I like hearing new music and I love reading new music reviews, but I can find it elsewhere.  I am assuming that the business and/or distribution department has not yet grasped the concept that music is run by listenership.  and when you dont provide what the listeners pay to receive, then they boycott you.  I have asked for a refund, and they have not responded.  I have come to grips with the fact that I am not getting that money back.  Yes money is important,  but whats more important here is that we ALL BOYCOTT CMJ.

!Danger!

On Sunday, September 21, 2008, a little kitty named Danger decided to make my apartment her new home.  She is a ten-month old gray tabby who meows and purrs more than any other cat I’ve ever met!  She has black spots and black stripes which make her look just like a gray leopard.  Its only been 2 days that she has lived with us but she seems to making herself right at home.  She has jumped on top of the huge fish tanks and spends hours swatting at the fish, and just cant understand why she isnt getting the fish!  Thank god she doesnt know how to open the tank’s lid!  She loves to take naps with Travis and purrs/meows when she thinks you’re not giving her enough attention.  Poor Travis now has two women in his life who need constant attention

Danger loves her feather toys and her kitty treats.  Its too soon to see what her greatest loves/hates are but we’re happy to introduce her to the world as part of the Smith-McCarthy household!  I will upload pictures of Danger as soon as we have good ones…right now we just want to make sure she is happy and healthy in her new home. xoxoxo

 

She looks just like Danger!

When a young person dies…

One of my freshman year roommates, Lisa, is facing one of the hardest times of her life.  Both her and her family have to deal with the unexpected, unfair death of Lisa’s younger brother, Paul.  I have lost touch with her over the years, but through the wonders of Facebook, saw the pain that she is experiencing.  I feel for her and her family and hope that her brother, Paul, is in a happier place.

 

Student killed by cars in Brooklyn

By Chris James and Ariel Siegel

September 22, 2008

http://www.nyunews.com/news/city_state/1.750417

 

When Paul Fortini went on dates with his girlfriend, he didn’t want her roommate to have to stay home alone. So sometimes, he’d take her out too — pull up an extra chair, hold both of their hands and talk about the state of modern love. They called them “triple dates.”

 

Fortini, a 19-year-old CAS sophomore from Duxbury, Mass., was killed in Brooklyn late Friday after a night out with friends. He was hit by two cars while he walked along the side of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in Williamsburg, according to his parents and published reports. But yesterday, as his friends mourned and remembered his life, they mostly recalled a selfless, dedicated friend, who checked in on them nightly and was there when they were lonely, or in trouble, or just needed to talk.

 

That was the kind of guy he was, they said: there for them, always.

 

“With each person, he would really make an effort and it showed,” said LSP sophomore Melanie Wallner, the third in Fortini’s triple dates. “He really cared about all his friends.”

 

Fortini’s parents, Kathy and Ken Fortini, flew to New York from Boston after learning that their son was missing. Members of his fraternity, Sigma Phi Epsilon, spent much of Friday evening and early Saturday morning searching for him before learning he had been killed.

 

Though the police have not officially determined through dental records that the body is Fortini’s, his mother says it was him.

 

“I went down to the morgue to identify the body, and I can tell you that it was my boy,” she said.

 

Last night, sitting in Fortini’s apartment in Gramercy Green residence hall, his parents sat surrounded by some of his closest friends at NYU. The mood was somber, but there were no tears; the group sat laughing, remembering Fortini fondly.

 

“He was a blond guy with wicked blue eyes,” his mother said. “He naturally fit in so many places.”

 

Fortini was fascinated by Asian culture. He was a talented trumpet player, and in high school, he performed in Radio City Music Hall, Disney World and San Francisco. He was a good cook and loved making meals for friends.

 

He read voraciously; his mother recalled Nietzche and The Communist Manifesto as recent choices.

 

“He found a volume of short stories by Ernest Hemingway and came home glowing,” added CAS sophomore Michael Bolton, his roommate and fraternity brother.

 

Fortini joined the fraternity last spring, where he quickly became a model member.

 

“It was guys like Paul that reminded you why you joined the fraternity,” said Josh Terrill, the Sigma Phi Epsilon chapter adviser, who graduated in May.

 

Sigma Phi Epsilon president and Steinhardt senior Eric Lum said Fortini embodied the fraternity’s philosophy.

 

“We usually refer to that prototypical, all-around great guy as a stud,” he said. “Paul was definitely a stud.”

 

But most of all, he was remembered as a man of many friends.

 

“He had so many different groups of friends,” LSP sophomore Mina Kaneko said. “Socially, he crossed several spheres.”

 

Kathy Fortini said she was shocked to learn that her son was walking along the notoriously busy Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. But when she drove to the scene with NYU Public Safety officers yesterday, she saw the area was located off the busy highway, with trees and grass. It could have happened to anyone, she said.

 

Ken Fortini, her husband, said he wants students to understand how crucial it is to call Public Safety officers when facing dangers such as those that killed his son.

 

“Kids in college don’t realize that they can call for help,” he said. “They think it’s a sign of weakness. If you are in trouble in the city, call NYU Public Safety. That’s what us parents are paying for.”

 

He added: “Unfortunately, lapses of judgment happen because of your ages. It’s due to a lack of living long enough to deal with your experiences and the belief that you’re invincible.”

Answer this, Palin!

An Open Letter to Gov. Sarah Palin on Women’s Rights

By Lynn Paltrow, National Advocates for Pregnant Women

Dear Governor Sarah Palin:

Many Americans agree with your position regarding abortion — they do this as a matter of faith, ethics, personal experience and sometimes politics. I am just wondering though, if you have thought about what would happen if you succeeded in getting your position — that fetuses have a right to life — established as the law of the land? Did you know that it not only threatens the lives, health and freedom of women who might want or need someday to end their pregnancies, it would also give the government the power to control the lives of women — like you who — go to term?

Your last pregnancy, the one that has become the topic of widespread discussion and speculation provides an important opportunity to demonstrate how this could be true.

According to press reports your water broke while you were giving a keynote speech in Texas at the Republican Governors’ Energy Conference. You did not immediately go to the hospital — instead you gave your speech and then waited at least 11 hours to get to a hospital. You evaluated the risks, made a choice, and were able to carry on your life without state interference. Texas Governor Rick Perry worried about your pregnancy but didn’t stop you from speaking or take you into custody to protect the rights of the fetus.

After Ayesha Madyun’s water broke, she went to the hospital where she hoped and planned to have a vaginal birth. When she didn’t give birth in a time-frame comfortable to her doctors, they argued that she should have a C-section. The doctors asserted that the fetus faced a 50-75 percent chance of infection if not delivered surgically. (Risks of infection are believed by some health care providers to increase with each hour after a woman’s water has broken and she hasn’t delivered).

The court, believing like you that fetuses have a right to life, said, “[a]ll that stood between the Madyun fetus and its independent existence, separate from its mother, was put simply, a doctor’s scalpel.” With that, the court granted the order and the scalpel sliced through Ms. Madyun’s flesh, the muscles of her abdominal wall, and her uterus. The core principle justifying an end to legal abortion in the U.S. provided the same grounds used to deprive this pregnant and laboring woman of her rights to due process, bodily integrity, and physical liberty. When the procedure was done, there was no evidence of infection.

According to the press reports, instead of going straight to a hospital you chose to get on a long airplane flight back to Alaska.

When Pamela Rae Stewart, allegedly, didn’t get to the hospital quickly enough on the day of her delivery, she was arrested in California on the theory that she had violated the rights of her fetus.

When Laura Pemberton chose to give birth at home in Florida, a Sheriff came to her house. Doctors believed that she was posing a risk to the life of her unborn child by having a vaginal birth after having had a previous c-section and were in the process of getting a court order to force her to have a c-section. The sheriff took her into custody during active labor, strapped her legs together and forced her to go to a hospital where an emergency hearing was taking place to determine the rights of her fetus. She was “allowed” to represent herself. A lawyer was appointed for the fetus. This woman, who vehemently opposes abortion, nevertheless believed in her right to evaluate medical risks and benefits to herself and her unborn child. She was forced to have the unnecessary surgery and when she later sued for violations of her civil rights, was told fetal rights outweighed hers.

You chose to continue working throughout your pregnancy — even during your labor. Until 1991 women who worked in high paying blue color jobs that provided health benefits were being fired based on “fetal rights” policies that claimed if the woman became pregnant she would expose the unborn child to workplace health risks. Eventually, the Supreme Court said employers covered by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (the PDA) could not do this. But, millions of American women work part time or for small employers who are not covered by the PDA. If your political position on abortion is accepted — all of these women could be forced to give up their jobs because an employer, family member, or state agent believed it necessary to ensure the health and rights of their unborn child.

Governor Palin, you have led an extraordinary life, balancing work and family, public service and private family obligations. We hope you know though that your freedom relies on exactly the same legal principals that guarantee that American women can choose to have an abortion when they need and want one.

Sixty one percent of women who have abortions are already mothers. Eighty-four percent of these will be mothers by the time they are in their forties. As a proud mother of five beautiful children, we hope you will recognize that the issue isn’t abortion — it is ensuring the lives, dignity and freedom of all pregnant women and their families.

Lynn Paltrow

Executive Director

National Advocates for Pregnant Women

 

http://www.advocatesforpregnantwomen.org/

National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW) works to secure the human and civil rights, health and welfare of all women, focusing particularly on pregnant and parenting women, and those who are most vulnerable – low income women, women of color, and drug-using women. NAPW seeks to ensure that women do not lose their constitutional and human rights as a result of pregnancy, that addiction and other health and welfare problems they face during pregnancy are addressed as health issues, not as crimes; that families are not needlessly separated, based on medical misinformation; and that pregnant and parenting women have access to a full range of reproductive health services, as well as non-punitive drug treatment services. By focusing on the rights of pregnant women, NAPW broadens and strengthens the reproductive justice, drug policy reform, and other interconnected social justice movements in America today.

We Brave Bee Stings and All

I was tired, grumpy, and dreading my commute this hot and humid Friday morning, until i heard this song.  “Swimming Pools” by Thao Nguyen.  Its the perfect summer song.

 

We are sore the length of our bodies
We restore water we cry
We are nothing if not your granddaughters
We have been nothing but dignified

We, we brave bee stings and all
And we don’t dive, we cannonball
And we splash our eyes full of chemicals
Just so there’s none left for little girls
Just so there’s none left for little girls

Roll, roll, roll up your denim
We’ve got to pedal 10 hours south
They pour it down from their balconies
You’ve got to push all the doubt to the side of your mouth

We, we brave bee stings and all
And we don’t dive, we cannonball
And we splash our eyes full of chemicals
Just so there’s none left for little girls
Just so there’s none left for little girls

We are sore the length of our bodies
We restore water we cry
We are nothing if not your granddaughters
We have been nothing but dignified

We, we brave bee stings and all
And we don’t dive, we cannonball
And we splash our eyes full of chemicals
Just so there’s none left for little girls
Just so there’s none left for little girls

Top 5 Bands for August 2008

Every month I hope to post my current top 5 bands for each month.  This month there is no particular order…

 

For August 2008:

1.  Thao Nyugen and the Get Down Stay Down

2.  Operation Ivy

3.  The Gossip

4.  Yeah Yeah Yeahs

5.  Bouncing Souls