not falling down

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM TV’S MARIO LOPEZ!

A few minutes ago I endorsed a candidate with actual money, and it’s kind of a strange feeling. In 2000, I wrote in a vote for Dave Barry. That was deliberate–I pre-emptively excused myself from blame or credit for and deprived myself of the right to complain about the actions of whoever won. I’m still okay with that.

Both my worldview and my attention to current events have changed since then, and I feel more confident now about my ability to choose well. I don’t believe I have the right or obligation to choose for other people, and I’m going to maintain my policy of not discussing politics here, in the most public record of my thoughts.

I probably won’t talk about them in person, either, unless asked in a real and honest fashion. Dinner-table or car-seat political discussions, in my experience, are rarely better than self-serving. Worse, they frequently cause problems in areas that should have nothing to do with them. They accomplish nothing. The only way to affect the election is with your own considered, educated, immensely powerful vote.

I won’t try to instruct you what to do with that vote, except this: make sure it is considered, educated and well-used. Read the news. Search for information on issues that matter most to you, but consider broader political stances as well. Distinguish spin from fact. Ignore scandal headlines (there have been some already, and there will be more) and check the last paragraphs, where summaries take over from hype.

Media urgings to vote that air in October have always seemed pointless to me: what do you accomplish if you’re only prodded into going to a booth by a TV anchor? A vote by someone who doesn’t understand what he or she is doing with it is worse than no vote at all.

So I’m asking you to begin your consideration now, before the new year begins. 2004 is going to be very big. With some effort and some thought, you can be equal to it.

And if, after that, you choose to vote for Dave Barry, then I think you and I will understand each other.

Hey, Strother got a blog! Well played, Strother! (You may remember that I have talked about Strother before.)

Tonight, trying to get to rehearsal, in the dark and the cold and the rain, I walked from Bearno’s to Bellarmine. The other side of Bellarmine.

Anyway, if you understand what that means and you’ve got a minute, I could use some chicken soup.

Of all the songs I was grateful I’d never have to hear again… “Butterfly Kisses” just came on the radio in the cube next to mine. Heeeaaaiiiahghhh. Quickly, to the headphones!

“Before the bodies are wrapped and bound, however, the blankets are opened twice: first so that a cleric can rub a bit of dirt on the face and hands of the dead. In extreme circumstances, the ritual is considered an acceptable substitute for washing the body.

Then a man with a video camera bends over the face, panning down to a number written on a scrap of newsprint folded into the funeral shroud. The footage will be made available to families looking for loved ones, along with a record of where they were buried.”

In the Post, a description of people trying to impart spiritual significance to the mass-grave burial of tens of thousands. It’s pretty affecting.

Apparently they’re getting plenty of aid in Bam, which is good–even American planes landed there, and were welcomed, for the first time in ten years (edit: twenty-two). But it doesn’t seem likely that any amount of aid is going to make much of a difference now.

In Iran, a mother held her baby girl to shield her from falling rubble, and it worked–rescuers found the mother dead, but six-month-old Nassil lived.

I wonder if I’d have had the presence of mind to do that myself.

“casual day” sucks

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I went running today, and got catcalled! By a man.