Because It Matters

A moment of hope: Mudflats Press reports that over 1400 people took a stand on the library lawn in Anchorage to say, "Sarah Palin doesn't speak for me!" Intimidation was the order of the day: Home phone numbers of the organizers given out on the radio by right wing radio hosts, death threats... and still, more than 1400 came out and stood firm. The largest demonstration in Anchorage history, they say.

Hold that moment of hope close! God knows we need all the hope we can get as the race tightens and Wall Street implodes.

I personally have done what I can to nurture my hopes and keep my nightmares at bay by making the biggest political contribution of my life to the Obama campaign.

When I did, I thought of a colleague who has since left TransFair. Whenever she'd made yet another contribution to one of the environmental organizations she supports, she would say, "It's all about the polar bears." I agree. Polar bear mothers are now so hungry they are eating their young. For the first time since records have been kept, the Northwest passage and the Northern Sea Route across Europe are both open at the same time.

But it's also about the young women who have never known what it's like to choose among these distasteful options: A back alley abortion, a hidden pregnancy, an unwanted marriage. And it's about the lesbians and gay men who are only just beginning to be able to live their lives without fear. Its about the people of color who deserve what our country has never offered them--a fair chance, a real voice, a place at the table. And its about the young men and women who will be sent off to die in Iraq, Iran, or whatever country is next up on the Axis of Evil hit parade--inevitably, they will be disproportionately poor. It's about so much--health care, education, wages that don't keep pace with bills, the Supreme Court...so much that I am exhausted just by trying to catalog what it's about.

But, I mean this to be a message of hope, not of exhaustion. So, three cheers for the good people of Anchorage who didn't let a right wing radio demagogue and his henchmen keep them from exercising their first amendment rights.