sometimes the world looks better in black and white

i did not take that picture, and there isn't that much snow here,but it has snowed every day since i got home! how fun! i hope you're all going to have a lovely thanksgiving! i am very thankful for each and every one of you. lots of love, rach

on the road again...i just can't wait to get on the road again...

it's vacation time here at uts-pcse, so as soon as my friends history section is over we are off! i'm going up to jersey tonight to drop her off and stay the night there then home to state college in the morning. i get a whole week off! that's pretty exciting. i'll be able to go to the pre advent soup supper at church and get to spend some quality time with all my friends. wahoo! i do have a lot of work i need to keep up with over break, some papers to work on, hebrew to stay on top of, and dad and i are planning thanksgiving :O) it should be a fun week! i hope you all are having a great fall! i'll post next week from a coffee shop in state college :O) hugs! r

holy break batman!

so i found out today that my christmas break is 5 weeks long !! that's some serious time back in PA! i'm going to have to read a bunch of books for my jan class and i'll have to do some work, and continue to study hebrew, but really 5 weeks! i think i'm going to try and work at the bookstore if they need help. i'm poor and money from anywhere would be fantastic. plus i'd be able to walk there and back and would be some good exercise since i'll be away from the gym. we'll see. if they don't need help maybe i can get a job in retail for that time, hopefully people will still be shopping! that gives me something to do during thanksgiving break--find a job for christmas break :O)

we went out to dinner tonight for my roommates birthday, went to a little mexican place that was cheap and pretty good. the most fun though was singing along with the soundtrack to 'rent' on they way home :O)

hope you're all doing well, hugs, r

Sunrise

There are drops of dew that show like sapphires in the grass as soon as the morning sun appears, and leaves stir behind the hushed flight of an escaping dove. Thomas Merton

what a difference a year makes...

this time last year (exactly one year) i wrote this on my blog:

tuesday sucks

we got to the hospital around 11:30 this morning and mom told us. dads liver was in place and the blood was flowing through it, but it wasn't doing anything. they did a third biopsy and compared them and found that the liver was dying. so dad is back on the transplant list. this time right at the top, and this time for a 3 state radius. if a liver becomes available from 'pittsburgh to delaware' the doc said, dad gets first dibs. i assume that since they're putting him on this list that they think he can live through the surgery. but i think i have to confront the reality that he might die. if they don't get a liver soon enough, i don't know how long he will live, even being in the hospital and hooked up to a million machines, i'm not sure how much they can do. i know that life isn't fair. and our family has had a pretty blessed existence, but it just feels like it's not fair. my siblings are young, i'm only 26, i don't feel like i'm old enough to be losing a parent. i just want to scream and cry and kick the floor, a good old fashioned temper tantrum. there's nothing i can do but pray for strength and peace.

It's been a long road from that place. On November 14th Dad had his second liver transplant in 6 days. The difference between the two was like night and day. While we waited around for 5 days to see if the first liver would start to work, the second started to work before they had even closed him up. The second surgery only took 5 hours, the first took over 12. A year ago I was staying at my parents house, watching my brother, trying to keep his life as normal as possible while still shuttling in between state college and danville as much as possible to visit dad. It was hard, both timewise and emotionally. About three days after the first transplant he became pretty non responsive. He was battling an infection as well as trying to make the liver work. He was on dialysis because his kidneys were failing because the liver wouldn't work, and he had developed diabetes because the organs weren't functioning and his eyes were totally bloodshot, his arms bruised anytime anyone touched him. He was in bad shape. I don't know what life would be like today if he hadn't been given the second transplant. It's really to hard to think about. I know I would have moved on, but would I be here at seminary? or would I be at home with my mom and brother. I don't know. I'll never know, because we were blessed with the second liver. I haven't been able to think about the donor. I know he was only 23 and in good health. Some sort of accident had to have ended his life. I will be forever greatful for his donation. He saved my fathers life. I know even less about the first donor, but that person also saved dad's life. The first liver kept him alive until he received his second. The doctors told us the night of the first transplant that if they hadn't done the operation that dad wouldn't have lived through the weekend. His second transplant was on a Wednesday. Without the first, he wouldn't have made it to Wednesday. It's still hard to sit here a year later and look back on that time. The reality of life and death so present in my every day life. It's something that you have to face, but that isn't a daily reality for most of us.
I want to thank each and every one of you for your support, love, prayers, happy thoughts, rainbows, butterflies, cards, meals, phone calls, text messages and hugs. I could not live this life without each of you, and most certainly couldn't have made it through last year without you. I love you all!
rach

"Nobody's free until everybody's free."

I find myself recently both elated and demoralized. I am thrilled at the election of Barack Obama for many reasons. He's smart, he cares about our country, he's articulate, he's a democrat, he cares about national service (and not just military service), he loves his family, he has inspired a nation, and last but not least he is an African American. For him to be elected to the highest office in the land, for the people, by the people, in a country that not 200 years ago was embracing slavery is a phenomenal leap forward. It is by no means and end to the discrimination and racism that still plauge our country, but it is an impressive victory. So why with all the positives that come from an Obama victory am I demoralized? It all goes back to the Fannie Lou Hamer quote above, "Nobody's free until everybody's free." I know I've written before about this quote, mostly when I returned from a conference on poverty this summer, but it is coming up and hitting me again this week. I think that for a lot of us there is the understanding that the different types of oppression are just that, different types of oppresion. They don't see connections between racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-semitism,or albeism. But they are connected. If "nobody's free until everybody's free" then it seems to reason that if one of us is oppressed then everyone is oppressed. I got in a discussion with someone today about states rights. He was tellingme that I should be happy with an Obama victory and not worry about the rights that gays and lesbians lost on Tuesday night. That since I didn't live in any of those states that I shouldn't worry about it. To me this is missing a fundamental part of what it is to be human. We are all connected in this great chain of being. If my brothers and sisters in California, Florida, Arizona and Arkansas have lost some of their rights, then I have also lost some of my rights. Jesus said that the greatest commandment was to love God and love your neighbor. In my opinion if you're doing these two things then you will find the way home. If you're oppressing your neighbor, taking their rights away, allowing them to be considered less than full citizens then you're not loving your neighbor. You're not even loving God. We are as a people of this planet connected, what affects one of us affects all of us. We need to fight for equality and justice for ALL. It is what our country was founded on, and I don't think it's unreasonable to hold our leadership to that standard. Indeed, "Nobody's free until everybody's free."

welcome back to the blog....

the election is over and i'm hoping to return to blogging as usual. life here has been pretty normal, just trucking along in classes and starting to think about what i'm going to do this coming summer. i have a few options for different internships and i need to figure out where i want to go. yesterday there were a few different things that really stuck out to me. the number of people who went out and voted for the first time was pretty awesome, and the fact that obama was elected in a landslide. it was so great to go to bed knowing who the president was and being happy with it. balancing out my joy for these two things is my sadness for the different amendments/propositions/bans that passed regarding gay marriage. from feminisiting:

"Proposition 8 in California: Passed. This is such a crushing loss. I went to bed last night before the final results were in, and woke up to the news that the people of California actually approved the gay marriage ban. So devastating.

Amendment 2 in Florida: Passed. Yet another gay marriage ban.

Proposition 102 in Arizona: Passed. As Dana noted previously, "Arizona became the first state in the nation to reject an anti-gay marriage amendment in 2006, but they're likely to pass the measure this year, now that it has been stripped of language that also denied domestic partnership benefits to hetero couples." Looks like that was the magic change to make bigotry palatable to Arizona voters.

Act 1 in Arkansas: Passed. Now gay couples are unable to adopt or foster-parent children. This from a state with 3700 children in the foster-care system, and only 1000 foster homes. Disgusting."


that we can be embracing change and at the same time adopting laws that relegate so many of our citizens to second class status is just heartbreaking for me. my thoughts and prayers go out to all of you directly affected by these decisions as well as a country that still needs to work on their legacy of hate and separation.

president elect obama

For that is the true genius of America – that America can change. Our union can be perfected. And what we have already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that’s on my mind tonight is about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She’s a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing – Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn’t vote for two reasons – because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.

And tonight, I think about all that she’s seen throughout her century in America – the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can’t, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when women’s voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.

When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs and a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.

When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.

She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that “We Shall Overcome.” Yes we can.

A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination. And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change. Yes we can.

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves – if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment. This is our time – to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth – that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people:

Yes We Can. Thank you, God bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.
President Elect Barack Obama

don't forget...

it's election day here in the united states! get out and vote! be sure to prepare for lines at your local polling place, bring a book and something to drink, maybe a snack, just be sure you vote! this is your chance to let your voice be heard! happy election day everyone!

lets see how far we've come...

original article here

Obama Takes Gay Rights Stand Four Days Before the Election -- Can This Be Real?

Filed by: Nancy Polikoff

In a move drawing outrage from gay rights leaders and the San Francisco District Attorney, the campaign to eliminate marriage for same-sex couples in California mailed flyers to voters with a picture of Barack Obama -- and Michele -- and a quote: "I'm not in favor of gay marriage." The message "Vote Yes on Prop 8" appears under Obama's image.

But Obama had gone on record AGAINST Prop 8, and the flyer was a blatant attempt to mislead California voters into believing to the contrary.

When National Center for Lesbian Rights legal director Shannon Minter brought this to my attention, I said it was especially infuriating because four days before the election Obama could not afford to publicly disavow it. Well, I was selling short the man I hope will be our next President. In fact, late Friday evening his campaign put out a statement reaffirming his opposition to Prop 8. It gave me a pinch-me-I-must-be-dreaming moment.

In response to the mailer, the Obama campaign released the following statement:

Senators Obama and Biden have made clear their commitment to fighting for equal rights for all Americans whether it's by granting LGBT Americans all the civil rights and benefits available to heterosexual couples, or repealing 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.' Senator Obama has already announced that the Obama-Biden ticket opposes Proposition 8 and similar discriminatory constitutional amendments that could roll back the civil rights he and Senator Biden strongly believe should be afforded to all Americans.

When Congress passed DOMA weeks before the 1996 election, President Clinton signed it. It was widely believed that a veto would torpedo his reelection. Obama's response to this one misleading flyer is nowhere near as consequential as vetoing a law passed by Congress, but, still, I expected caution on Obama's part, and therefore silence.

I'm writing tonight from Hampton, Virginia, where I've been working this week on Get Out The Vote. The volunteers range from young people to 92. We work tirelessly. We have fun. We have faith in the future. And tonight my faith just deepened.