If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
More and more, it appears, people are not just voting with their feet to visit and use parks, but they are literally casting their ballots and voting with their pocketbooks to say that parks are crucial parts of their communities.
There, laid out on an enormous table, was a spread so grand and delectable, I stopped in my tracks. There were enormous cookies, individually wrapped (I'd wrapped four dainty cookies in one package), Blondies, each as big as a piece of toast, miniature breads of all varieties, muffins and cupcakes sporting whimsical toppings.
It's the first Tuesday after the first Monday of the Month of November. We all know what that means, right? It means "Election Day": the day on which...
When the votes are tallied in the Commonwealth of Virginia this coming Tuesday, few doubt that recent polls will bear out and that Terry McAuliffe will be named the state's 72nd Governor.
This Election Day, Tuesday, November 5th, millions of voters will head to the polls and stand up for what matters most in our communities and our lives. Although it's not a presidential election year, hitting the polls and participating in our democracy remains as crucial as ever.
The pendulum, after 20 years of Rudy/Mike, has swung a bit wide to one side. A modest course correction will not bring down the house. Schools were priority-one for Michael Bloomberg. Can we agree that there is still room for improvement with our public school system?
We celebrate "Dream Day" as the anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, and if we really plan on advancing the dream, we must recognize that every Election Day is Dream Day.
Is it worrisome that our federal government is paralyzed in partisan deadlock? Have we so little expectation of officeholders that we view politics as simply a sideshow; and if we vote at all, do we pull the lever based on nothing more than name recognition?
People have responsibilities to children, family, and friends, which makes Tuesday a difficult day to go to the polls. In fact, that makes any day a difficult one to go to the polls. How can we encourage voter turnout and reduce disenfranchisement while preserving the quality and integrity of voting systems?
Prompted by the long waits President Obama criticized in his victory speech on November 6, the Senate is now the official arbiter of dozens of election reform proposals.
Historic, prediction-defying, shocking. These are some of the words used in the past week and a half to describe the outcomes of the November 6th election. Inspiring. That's the word I keep coming back to.
While most might remember November 6, 2012 as the day Barack Obama won his reelection, I will always think of it as the day I drove two ex-convicts to the polls.
The days were long, but the dedication of these volunteers was inspiring. When I would look around the room, I knew I wasn't surrounded by my regular church family, but I was surprised that it still felt like church for me.
We don't just need more jobs, we also need a rehab of the American dream. To build a new economy we have to let go of the old dream, of that American dream that equates work with necessary evil.
Overcoming a wave of voter suppression laws, misinformation, long lines, longer lies and Hurricane Sandy, millions of people still had their voices heard and ensured their votes counted.
Enforcement-only policies drive immigrants underground, where they're not only susceptible to hardened criminal elements but also powerless in improving their neighborhoods and partnering with schools in the educational lives of their children. In other words, enforcement-only policies are imprudent.
