The Economic Draft

From The New York Times - "More Joining American Military as Jobs Dwindle"
19 January 2009

"As the number of jobs across the nation dwindles, more Americans are joining the military, lured by a steady paycheck, benefits and training.

The last fiscal year was a banner one for the military, with all active-duty and reserve forces meeting or exceeding their recruitment goals for the first time since 2004, the year that violence in Iraq intensified drastically, Pentagon officials said."

Go here for the rest of the article.

Nobama

I didn't watch, but, apparently, the Reverend Gene Robinson's invocation at the inaugural concert was not broadcast. And, also apparently, the Gay Men's Chorus was not identified as such. If you're at all interested in the latest dust-up, go here and take time to read the comments.

In other things inaugural, the department with which I'm affiliated has "Chili Tuesdays" to raise money for breast cancer organizations. We volunteered to bring dessert this week. We're going to bring something called a "Texas Sheet Cake" with a note that it is in celebration of Bush's (permanent) return to Texas. Yeah, I'll figure out a way to work it tactfully, but I think everyone is pretty much in agreement.

Hopefully I can post more soon, but things have been crazy busy. We're home today on our fourth school closure, so we'll see what the day brings.

Press

I've not posted in a while. I've been crazy busy dealing with our lawyer, our builder, and getting ready to teach this semester. But, since the article below is being picked up by other blogs, I thought I should go ahead and post it on my own. I could quibble with a few things, but overall, I'm fine with what was used. I also did about four minutes on KCBS radio earlier today and have another with KGO radio scheduled for this evening. I'm actually hopeful that Congress will see this through. Weird to be saying so.

Obama will end 'don't ask' policy, aide says
Matthew B. Stannard, [San Francisco] Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 14, 2009

(01-13) 20:21 PST -- President Obama will end the 15-year-old "don't ask, don't tell" policy that has prevented homosexual and bisexual men and women from serving openly within the U.S. military, a spokesman for the president-elect said.

Obama said during the campaign that he opposed the policy, but since his election in November he has made statements that have been interpreted as backpedaling. On Friday, however, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs, responding on the transition team's Web site to a Michigan resident who asked if the new administration planned to get rid of the policy, said:

"You don't hear politicians give a one-word answer much. But it's 'Yes.' "

The little-noticed response, made in a video posted on change.gov, made barely a ripple outside blogs focused on the gay community, but that's not surprising, said those who have been pushing to overturn the ban. Not only was Obama's position expected, they said, but support for reviewing or repealing the policy has grown markedly in recent years, including some from unexpected quarters.

The end of "don't ask, don't tell" might not happen immediately, several critics of the policy said. Although they appreciate clarity from Obama on the issue, they anticipate that the demands of the economy and two wars are likely to trump a speedy policy reversal.

"The question isn't if we do it, and the question isn't when we do it, it's how we do it," said Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Walnut Creek, whose 2006 bill to repeal the ban earned broad support among Democrats in Congress but did not move forward in the face of a near-certain veto by President Bush.

"I'm going to reintroduce the bill in the next few weeks," Tauscher said. "We've got the American people behind us."

Changing attitudes

An ABC poll in July found that three-quarters of Americans supported allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military compared to 44 percent of Americans who expressed the same support in 1993, when President Bill Clinton approved "don't ask, don't tell" as what he called an "honorable compromise" that nevertheless bitterly disappointed his supporters in the gay community.

Colin Powell, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., both of whom backed the 1993 policy, recently called for it to be re-evaluated. John Shalikashvili, who followed Powell as chairman, has called for its repeal, as has former Georgia Republican Rep. Bob Barr, an opponent of gay rights and legal protections for gays. In an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, Barr disparaged the policy as wasting money and talent.

The current leaders of the military, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have neither supported nor opposed ending the policy in recent comments, saying pointedly that Congress and the president make the laws; the military follows them.

Recently, the main active support for "don't ask, don't tell" has come from the nonprofit Center for Military Readiness, whose founder, Elaine Donnelly, and other officers did not respond to requests for comment.

Donnelly has argued that ending the ban on gays serving openly in the military would devastate unit cohesion and morale by ordering heterosexual troops into "forced cohabitation" with openly gay and lesbian troops. But critics of the policy say society has changed since "don't ask, don't tell" was implemented to address similar concerns.

"We had a decade in the 1990s where people came out, and people came to know that their sisters and their mothers and their colleagues and their children and their friends were gay," said Nathaniel Frank, a senior research fellow with the Palm Center at UC Santa Barbara, which conducts research on sexual minorities in the military.

"Familiarity breeds tolerance and even acceptance."

More recent years have seen high-profile discharges of gay Arabic linguists and other troops whose military jobs were deemed essential in Iraq, Afghanistan and the "war on terror" - dismissals that struck many people as inexplicable, said sociologist Melissa Embser-Herbert, author of "The U.S. Military's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Policy: A Reference Handbook."

"We know of gay, lesbian, bisexual veterans who have served in combat theater, and I think that's also a big piece of it," she said. "It's a much harder sell to the general public that that person who died or lost a leg didn't deserve to be serving their country."

The military also has experienced a shift in attitudes, according to a number of studies. A 2006 Zogby International poll found military members who had served in Iraq or Afghanistan to be split on the issue, with about a quarter saying gays should be able to serve openly and a bit more than a third saying they should not.

But about a quarter of respondents said they knew a gay person already serving in the military, and a large majority of those - about two-thirds - said the presence of a gay person in their unit made no impact on their personal or their unit's morale. Three-quarters said they would have joined the military even if gays were permitted to serve openly.

A more recent, if unscientific, readership survey by the Military Times group of newspapers reported that about 58 percent of active-duty respondents opposed repealing the ban, a number that was cited in some media accounts as reflecting broad military opposition to a change.

But the newspapers that conducted the poll warned that their readers were not a perfect mirror of the military - they were more likely to be older, male, careerists, officers and politically conservative. In that context, sociologist Embser-Herbert said, it is remarkable that the level of opposition was not higher, because it is the younger, enlisted troops who are more likely to favor allowing gays to serve openly.

'Will and Grace' generation

"It's the 'Will and Grace' generation," she said. "They've grown up seeing gay people on TV and having friends in 10th-grade come out."

In the 1980s, when John Caldera was a Navy hospital corpsman, "don't ask, don't tell" was not yet policy, but was practice. Caldera, a gay man now a member of the San Francisco Veterans Commission, recalled how any sailor whose medical problem was diagnosed as HIV would be sequestered in a ward to await the inevitable investigation of presumed homosexuality and likely discharge.

"The policy ... should have never been created," he said. "With this new administration, I look for the light at the end of the tunnel."

Today, Caldera is one of several gay veterans in American Legion District 8 in San Francisco whose commander, Michael Gerold, a veteran injured in a firefight in Afghanistan, appointed an openly gay veteran as district finance officer without hesitation.

"He's an Iraq-Afghanistan veteran. It's just not an issue. Core competencies and leadership, that's what I need," he said. "I don't give a darn about the rest."

Another legion officer, Matt Shea, chief of staff of American Legion Post 911, recalled deploying to Iraq with a friend and fellow squad leader who later came out to him.

"It's about competence, about being able to do your job. He was a better leader than most, took care of his guys better than most I'd seen," said Shea. "Who ... cares? Seriously."

How I Spent My Christmas...

For those of you who did not complete the Evelyn Woodhead Speed Reading Course...

1. After the 2007 experience in which 7YO - then 6YO - woke us up at 1:30 and we finally got up around 3:30, he was told not to wake us until 6. I heard him at 5:09 when he came to "see if we were awake." At 5:19 he came back to ask what time it was (he knows how to read the clock). I said, "It doesn't count if you wake us up to ask the time," but we got up.

2. Lo' and behold, Santa had come. From us, 7YO received Pokemon figures, a Star Wars-Transformers thing (that about put me in the nuthouse last night), Mouse Trap, a game for his DS, and a game for the Wii. The Wii, you may recall, had been purchased as "the big gift," a family gift. Santa brought a car that you can drive on the wall, on the ceiling...

3. We had a quiet morning, a nice breakfast, and P started cooking around 11.

4. Although it was fairly mild, we had a nice fire going in the wood stove. This is a "thank goodness" because, well, see #5 below.

5. At 3:15, when we were about 20 minutes from sitting down to dinner... THE POWER WENT OUT. At first I thought perhaps a circuit had flipped, though I knew this was unlikely. Nope. Power was out in the neighbourhood, and I don't know how far beyond.

6. P made gravy on the woodstove, got the brussel sprouts and stuffing hotter on the woodstove. Everything else had been ready and waiting to be served.

7. I went and found the trusty battery-operated Coleman lantern, cleaned it off, and put the batteries in. P put candles on the table.

8. Things to know - we rely on an electric well pump for water, everything in the house is electric, it gets dark around 4:30.

9. We ate. It was delicious. We put the pie on the woodstove to stay warm.

10. We couldn't do the dishes. We couldn't flush the toilets.

11. 7YO whined about all the things he could not do without power. A good learning experience.

12. We played Mouse Trap by lantern.

13. We went to bed around 8. The house was still warm. ICF + woodstove = fabulous.

14. The lights flickered on around 8:30... and then went off again.

15. The lights came on around 1:30 this morning.

16. We have power. I'm posting this in real time.

17. There's nothing magical about 16 so I'm adding 17 just to avoid a pattern.

18. I like even numbers.

There you have it! I would never have imagined that, after all we've been through, we'd sit down to our first Christmas dinner in the house, in Canada, together and have no power. But, we knew there would be power issues in the area and one of the reasons we wanted this particular kind of wood stove was because we could cook on it. I consider this a victory of sorts.

And now, on to Boxing Day!

Not so random thoughts...

and in no particular order.

1. It's snowing, again.

2. P is back - for good!

3. 7YO is beyond excited for tomorrow.

4. Our builder is the devil.

5. The devil is in the details.

6. An anonymous donor gave $1,000,000 to the folks in Burnsville, MN, mostly already poor, whose apartment complex was destroyed by fire. Those are the stories you like to see.

7. Al Franken is up by 46 votes in the never ending recount in Minnesota.

8. Another expat family has arrived. The folks at Alice in Canada crossed the border last night. Woo-hoo!

9. I love our wood stove.

10. I think we need to buy a snow blower.

11. We're starting to think that most of the people in New Brunswick are crooks.

12. We hope we're wrong.

13. Crazy as it sounds, Facebook and my blogger friends saved (some degree of) my sanity these past four months. Thank you!

14. I'm still able to get up from sitting without pain. Thank heavens for Cortisone.

15. I'm looking forward to a new year that is much less stressful than the past year has been.

16. We're trying to figure out what our next car will be. We're torn between a more practical vehicle for where we live v. a smaller, fuel efficient vehicle. Even if we could get our hands on one, we can't afford a hybrid SUV. Advice is welcome.

Okay, I have to go sequester myself and do some gift wrapping. Then it's one more run to the store before we hunker down for the holiday. Regardless of what you celebrate, or do not, best wishes for a wonderful winter weekend!

No Surprise

In a First, Gay Rights Are Pressed at the U.N.

By Neil MacFarquhar
Published: December 18, 2008

An unprecedented declaration seeking to decriminalize homosexuality won the support of 66 countries in the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, but opponents criticized it as an attempt to legitimize pedophilia and other “deplorable acts.”

The United States refused to support the nonbinding measure, as did Russia, China, the Roman Catholic Church and members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. The Holy See’s observer mission issued a statement saying that the declaration “challenges existing human rights norms.”

The declaration, sponsored by France with broad support in Europe and Latin America, condemned human rights violations based on homophobia, saying such measures run counter to the universal declaration of human rights.

“How can we tolerate the fact that people are stoned, hanged, decapitated and tortured only because of their sexual orientation?” said Rama Yade, the French state secretary for human rights, noting that homosexuality is banned in nearly 80 countries and subject to the death penalty in at least six.

France decided to use the format of a declaration because it did not have the support for an official resolution. Read out by Ambassador Jorge Argüello of Argentina, the declaration was the first on gay rights read in the 192-member General Assembly itself.

Although laws against homosexuality are concentrated in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, more than one speaker addressing a separate conference on the declaration noted that the laws stemmed as much from the British colonial past as from religion or tradition.

Navanethem Pillay, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, speaking by video telephone, said that just like apartheid laws that criminalized sexual relations between different races, laws against homosexuality “are increasingly becoming recognized as anachronistic and as inconsistent both with international law and with traditional values of dignity, inclusion and respect for all.”

The opposing statement read in the General Assembly, supported by nearly 60 nations, rejected the idea that sexual orientation was a matter of genetic coding. The statement, led by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, said the effort threatened to undermine the international framework of human rights by trying to normalize pedophilia, among other acts.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference also failed in a last-minute attempt to alter a formal resolution that Sweden sponsored condemning summary executions. It sought to have the words “sexual orientation” deleted as one of the central reasons for such killings.

Ms. Yade and the Dutch foreign minister, Maxime Verhagen, said at a news conference that they were “disappointed” that the United States failed to support the declaration. Human rights activists went further. “The Bush administration is trying to come up with Christmas presents for the religious right so it will be remembered,” said Scott Long, a director at Human Rights Watch.

The official American position was based on highly technical legal grounds. The text, by using terminology like “without distinction of any kind,” was too broad because it might be interpreted as an attempt by the federal government to override states’ rights on issues like gay marriage, American diplomats and legal experts said.

“We are opposed to any discrimination, legally or politically, but the nature of our federal system prevents us from undertaking commitments and engagements where federal authorities don’t have jurisdiction,” said Alejandro D. Wolff, the deputy permanent representative.

Gay-rights advocates brought to the conference from around the world by France said just having the taboo broken on discussing the topic at the United Nations would aid their battles at home. “People in Africa can have hope that someone is speaking for them,” said the Rev. Jide Macaulay of Nigeria.

********
United States: Nay
Canada: Yea
Mexico: Yea

But, hey, let's keep in mind that the only two countries that have not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child are the United States and Somalia. The rationale of the United States? That it could mean international law might trump U.S. state and federal law and the rights of parents to make decisions about raising and educating their children. Read into that however you wish.

Peace Fellowship

I just felt like posting something positive about a recent college graduate...

"Recent Hamline University graduate Sarah Houghton has received a prestigious Rotary World Peace Fellowship, one of just sixty awarded worldwide, and one of thirteen awarded to students in the United States, which she will use to earn her master’s in international relations from International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan.

The Rotary Foundation awards up to 110 Rotary World Peace Fellowships each year, including sixty master’s degree fellowships and fifty professional development certificate fellowships. Rotary World Peace Fellows are chosen from countries and cultures around the globe, and selection for the master’s degree program is based on the strength of an applicant’s undergraduate degree, the relevance of their post-graduation work experience, and their anticipated ability to have a significant, positive impact on world peace and conflict resolution.

Fellows are recognized as future leaders in promoting national and international cooperation, peace, and the successful resolution of conflict throughout their lives, in their careers and through service activities.

Houghton, who majored in global studies and East Asian studies at Hamline and speaks Chinese and Spanish, hopes to dedicate her career to fostering peace and world understanding by addressing the roots of poverty in struggling countries. Currently, she is serving as director of a water project in Bolivia, also funded by Rotary International. There, she is working with engineers and craftsmen to provide clean water to Bolivian families who have highly contaminated wells.

Houghton graduated summa cum laude from Hamline University in 2007. During her time there, she received an independent research grant to study in China, where she spent time as a grant and publication’s translator for NGO Women’s Legal Aide and as a English teacher for CCTEC Engineering Company, Ltd. She also spent time as a math and reading tutor for elementary school children, was a Model United Nations teaching assistant and president, participated in mediator training, was a student orientation leader, and took a leadership role in several diversity efforts and events on campus. She received a host of awards at Hamline, including the Global Studies Student of Year in 2007.

“My professors at Hamline were instrumental in pushing me academically, mentoring me and helping me to reach my post-graduation goals,” Houghton said. “I chose Hamline because I liked the combination of the small school in a big city. I was impressed by the academic programs, student activism and the access to mentorships, due to the small student-to-staff ratio.”

An active volunteer with a number of nonprofit organizations, Houghton currently serves as ambassador for Etta’s Comedor de Niños, a community center she helped to found in Bolivia. She has also volunteered as a kindergarten teacher at an orphanage in Bolivia, helped out at a Minneapolis food shelf, and spent time as a language camp counselor at Concordia Language Villages. Houghton hails from Ishpeming, Michigan and graduated from Negaunee High School. Her parents, Bruce and Katherine Houghton still reside in Ishpeming. They met each other at Hamline University, where they graduated in 1974 and 1972, respectively."

Not bad for someone who is about 23, if that.

Update on the Knees

As some of you will recall, I've had one hellacious time with my knees this year. On or around 10 July I went to the after hours clinic, since I don't have a family doctor. She wrote a referral to an orthopedic surgeon and said to take ibuprofen. Sometime in early August I called the ortho to see what kind of wait we were looking at. The woman on the phone said 18-24 months. Longer story short, I got an appointment, for today, with an ortho in Calais, Maine. It's about 90 minutes on a good day, meaning clear weather and no border wait.

This morning 7YO and I went out to wait for the bus. It is always right on time, 7:30 sharp. At 7:32, I came to call the school closing line. BTW, they've had two closures in the last two weeks. Turned out, the schools were open, but the buses were running an hour late. So, off we went. We had to do the trick of shifting to first to make the first two downhill corners to the main road, Carlisle Road. Then, we slid a tad and I noticed cars a way down that had their flashers on and were crawling. So, I did the same. We made it to the school - the street of which was well sanded. The principal and the two teachers I spoke with looked at me like I was clearly insane to think of driving to Maine. Practically, and stupidly, in tears, I said, "I've waited four months for this appointment, I can't cancel it." I had some extra time so I knew that I could go slowly. It's all secondary roads.

Off I went, at about 8:00, but only after hearing that 18 cars had slid off the aforementioned Carlisle Road. I took it very slowly on 105 and was reassured by those being equally as cautious. After a while - it was supposed to be creeping its way toward 10 C (50 F) today - people picked up the pace, even passing me on a double yellow line. I was supposed to be at the office at 9:15 for a 9:30 appointment. Fortunately they are on Eastern time so I actually had 2 and quarter hours to make the trip. At 9:18, their time, I was sitting at the border. I arrived at 9:20. Whew! They had a sign, "If you are 15 minutes late you will have to be rescheduled." I would have sat down and cried.

I only waited about 5 minutes - after the 10 minutes it took to get me set up in the computer. The LPN, or whatever she was, took some more history and the ortho came in at what was probably about 15 minutes later. Let's even say it was 10:00. Hold on to your hats. I was with him for 45 minutes. I never even got that kind of time with my primary care physician doing a "complete" physical!

I won't bore you with the whole deal, except to say that after actually listening to me - something that the two doctors I saw about my knee in Saint Paul (one acronym: HMO) failed to do - he said that while I did have "very mild" arthritis in my knees, the real problem was Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome. Reading this site I was, like, "Duh?!"He freaked me out when he asked about some things (e.g., Can you bend your thumb all the way down to your arm? Answer: Yes, in my non-arthritic hand.) He said I had "loose joints," said something about collagen, and said that, judging by my history (e.g., I rode 1600 bike miles in the summer of 1998, did the Breast Cancer 3-Day - 6o miles - in 2004 and 2005, have always done a lot of load bearing activity with, shall we say, an extra load?) I have simply trashed my knees. This all combined with being knock-kneed (I always thought it was just fat), a complicating factor.

So, he patiently went through a list of about a dozen options (e.g., do nothing, ibuprofen, heat/ice on up to surgery) and told me what he did (exercise) and did not (MRI) recommend and why/why not. We decided on a cortisone shot in each knee. He would have done my shoulder - which he said is likely a pinched tendon - but didn't want to do three shots and I opted to focus on my legs since they have been soooooo bad.

Then, having talked about the fact that I am paying out of pocket (I still have US health insurance, but it's a $2300 deductible), he said that he wasn't going to charge me for the shots. Huh? Wow. I don't know how much the office visit will be because contrary to the sign which demanded payment, they said they'd send a bill. I opted not to even ask. Ignorance is bliss - until bills and payday.

After picking up some milk (US$3.14 a gallon instead of about US$6.44 a gallon, adjusting for litres/gallons and the $), which we go through like there's no tomorrow, I headed back. The roads were great on the way back. 7YO was having a blast at a friend's house. Thank you, R, thank you!

My legs are a bit sore, but I can already tell a little bit of difference in how they feel when I get up from sitting. He recommended straight-leg lifts to work on my quads, but no leg extensions; ibuprofen, heat/ice, avoid stairs (which I already do when I can), weight loss (of course) and come back in four weeks. We discussed Synvisc, at about $1100 a knee. If the cortisone and dropping some pounds doesn't help I will consider it. At least then my deductible will be done and anything else for the year is covered at 80%! I just can't keep being so immobile if there is a good option.

So, that's the latest. Someday I'll get a call from the guy here. And, I'll go. Who knows what will be happening by then and I wouldn't want to pass up the opportunity to get in the door.

Oh, the really - is this ironic or coincidental? - thing is that on the way to Calais, the Fredericton CBC did a segment on the problems with the after hours clinics. Apparently, even though they post hours, e.g., 6-10 pm, people have shown up at, say, 9 to find the doctors gone. Turns out that the after hours' doctors are volunteers who come after their "day jobs." They have the right to limit how many people they will see or go home if there's nobody waiting. That was interesting to learn. Needless to say, health care here is in serious crisis. Then, I heard a segment about a pediatric nurse from here who has been living in the UK. She wants to come back, but they want to require her to do all kinds of training in areas in which she has no interest (e.g., psychiatry). She's going to come back and fight them.

As always, there you have it!

Reminders

Yesterday, 12 December, would have been my cousin's 53rd birthday. I say "would have" because Lisa died in July 2001. Her eldest daughter was several weeks away from her 15th birthday. Her younger daughter had turned 13 that March. Lisa was a successful business woman and her husband was and is a nice guy, also successful in his work as a hospital administrator. She had the "picture perfect" life - slender, non-smoker, great family, beautiful home... She was first diagnosed with breast cancer. It looked like she was going to be a survivor, but then she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Even with such an aggressive disease, they were ready to write up her success when things took a turn for the worse. Ultimately, she lost her battle with cancer.

Today, 13 December, I found out that a colleague found out yesterday that she has cancer. From her Caring Bridge site -

"Several months ago (August of 2008), she started experiencing back pain. After an initial MRI, she was told she had a fracture in her vertebrae. For several months Deanna diligently wore a brace to heal the fracture. The past two weeks, the fracture, however, got worse.

On December 8th, Deanna had another MRI and at the doctor's request, a subsequent biopsy of the lower back. She was admitted to the hospital on December 10th because the biopsy had come back malignant. She was admitted by the Spinal doctor, but the Oncologist quickly became involved. It turns out, the bone in the vertebrae had weakened, and had fractured because of the cancer within the back.

After a CT Scan, the news became worse, and that it was not only in the back, but had also gotten to the pelvis, with a couple spots on the lung. Because the form of cancer appeared to be estrogen based, the breast was still the likely culprit. This had not been verified. The doctors still needed to verify the source as the breast, so an ultrasound and biopsy of chest was proposed, and conducted on Thursday, December 11th."

On the 12th they confirmed that the cancer originated in the breast. She has started Tamoxifen and begins five days a week radiation on Monday.

Deanna is a successful academic, adored and respected by students and colleagues, alike. She is involved in her field - religion - locally and nationally. Like my cousin, Deanna's husband is a good guy. Like my cousin, she has two girls, 9 and 12. I am just stunned by the news. This is someone who is not overweight, doesn't smoke, is a vegetarian, gave birth twice (a factor related to breast cancer), etc.

Please keep her in your thoughts. Thanks.

Friday, Friday, Friday

Still working on getting settled. I won't go into the absolute and continuing nightmare of the house as eventually I'll have to wherewithall the update the other blog. Rather, I want to mention a few of the good things that have been happening...

The doorbell rang on Tuesday evening and it was one of our neighbours. They live across the street and a few houses down. She and her teenage daughter had come calling - with a Christmas wreath for our door and the daughter's "card" for babysitting. A sitter right across the street? Score! We chatted for close to an hour. That was a really nice welcome.

The next evening 7YO had his school's Christmas Concert. And, yes, it was a Christmas concert, even including a few less secular tunes like Away in a Manger. That was really weird. It was a great event, but weird to have it be explicitly Christmas oriented. BTW, the school has about 100 students and the auditorium at the high school was close to SRO. I guess it's really one of "the" big events of their year.

The next day 7YO got his gerbils, Brownie and Zipper. He didn't touch his DS or turn on the TV at all. Today, he did watch a DVD and, I think, played a little DS, but all of sudden he'd yell, "Gerbil break!" and go running to his room to visit them. He's having a blast.

Since her arrival last week, P has been cooking up a storm. We've already had ginger carrot soup and butternut squash soup. This evening we had a delightful supper of pumpkin curry soup, spinach salad, and roasted garlic w/ warm baguette. Yum. Let me tell you, immersion blenders absolutely rock.

Earlier today we stopped at the craft show - lots of very good local artisans. Alas, we don't know where we're going to put what we already have so we left empty handed. But, it was fun to look!

Tomorrow we plan to get our Christmas tree. To get to the main road from our house you go down our street (only one direction as it is a dead end), go down another street (only one direction as it dead ends at the turn to our street), and get on a road that takes you to the main drag. At the bottom of that road is the home of a fellow who sells trees. So, we can get one right here in the neighborhood. Then it's off to the farmers' market, of course.

Sunday will involve a lot of baking as I'm taking cookies to the department party on Monday. And, for me, it might involve a lot of shelf hanging. We can't put any more things away until I finish the closets.

P leaves on Wednesday. As soon as I drop her off I'll be on my way to Halifax to pick up a friend from high school at the airport. We met in French class in 1970. yes, we've known each other for 38 years!! Yikes!! She'll be here through Sunday. So, things are busy. Somewhere in all of this I've got to do more work for the course I'm scheduled to teach beginning in January.

It's getting cold. They're talking snow this weekend, but probably not much. Fortunately we should have a garage by the middle of the week. Again, weather permitting.

That's the latest from merry ol' Fredericton.

December?

It's been a busy week. P arrived Wednesday evening - in the rain, hallmark of our entire Canadian adventure. But, we were glad it was rain and not freezing rain or snow as we feared that she might end up spending the night in Toronto.

Since that we have tried to unpack - mostly kitchen stuff - and get a bit more settled. It is a bit inaccurate to say "we" as my legs have rendered me quite useless. I was great at folding the packing paper and bubble wrap for re-use, but forget carrying much of anything up the stairs. It is very frustrating as normally I would have done 5 times the "settling" that's been done thus far. There are blinds to hang, photos to hang, cupboards to organize... but I'm moving at a fraction of my normal pace. Oh, well. It will happen eventually.

We need to get 7YO's room set up as we have promised that when that is done he can get two pet gerbils. I had a mouse and a hamster (at different times) when I was young - though not this young - and when we stopped at the pet store I asked myself, "I agreed to this why?" Oh, well. He's soooo excited. I guess that alone makes it worth it. And, it is all about taking on greater responsibility - his, not mine!

P has done little more than unpack and cook. We had a nice quiet "Thanksgiving dinner" today. P got to play in her new kitchen! Tomorrow she has to buckle down and start studying. She's here until the 10th and then it's back to Minnesota for 12 days of final exams. But, come the 22nd, she's here to stay.

I can't believe that tomorrow is December. Fortunately I have no real holiday shopping left. 7YO's gifts are stashed in my office. And, we agreed, as a family, to work toward a more low-key holiday. We'd really like 7YO to think about it as more about family and giving and less about the gifts. Although P looked out the window this morning and thought that we might actually find a suitable tree on the back of our lot, but I think that next week we'll be going to the Farmers' Market to find one.

That's about it for catching up. I'm trying to follow what I can of the goings-on in Ottawa. I have to make time to do more preparing for the class that begins in early January. And, I continue to wish that I could move a little more quickly. But, as I've said before, we're here!

Imagine my surprise...

Yesterday morning I woke up and, glancing out the window, thought, "Oh, my!" It had snowed. It was snowing. I had no idea it was coming. I snapped this picture out the side door.


As I was taking the photo, I could hear gun shots. No kidding. But, yesterday was the last day of deer season. The things you have to learn...

We were on our way to pick up pup, via the Farmers' Market. We live on a street that, at some points, is probably at about a 45 degree angle; up from a street that, at some points, is probably at about a 45 degree angle. That street connects to a road that, while it eventually deadends is a major thoroughfare in the community. As I was approaching the "T" where you turn onto that road, we just kept sliding. All I could do was say to myself, "I hope there's nobody coming." Fortunately there wasn't. We made our way, slowly, to the market downtown, and then out to the boonies to pick up the pup. Let's just say that the first time I went I told the proprietor, "I'm glad I didn't have to find my way at night," meaning it would be frickin' dark. Her reply was to laugh and say, "Heard the banjos, did ya?" But, telling myself not to care about the people who were probably annoyed, I refused to drive any faster than I felt comfortable doing. Ask me how glad I am about our new Blizzaks! But, what was with the radio - whose station is just up the street from the market - saying that we were expecting a few flurries. Had they looked out the window?

We then made our way back home and seeing that the road had not yet been plowed decided to forego yesterday's scheduled swimming lesson and hunker down. Unlike yesterday, which was gray, gray, gray, today looks to be a beautiful blue sky with sun. And, no hunting. Maybe we'll take the pup for a stroll in his new neighborhood.

Here's a photo taken yesterday afternoon. This is what I see when standing at the kitchen sink.


Beats the view we had in Saint Paul!

Here's what's happening...

1. We have Internet access. My lifeline. On Wednesday, I stopped at a friend's house to pick up blinds that I had had sent to her place, not knowing when I'd be able to receive mail at home. She said, "So you don't have utilities?" And I said, "Oh, we have water, electric..." She cut me off and said, "But no Internet. It's 2008. I consider that a basic utility." I was really pleased to hear somebody who "got" that!

2. We went to a hotel on Tuesday night because the house/construction zone was just too crazy. We came back on Wednesday. Phone and Internet went in Thursday. Almost all of the builder's stuff is out of the house. With a few minor things, what will remain inside is what may end up being know as "the list of 1,000 deficiencies." Oh, well.

3. This morning 7YO and I were outside while the guys framed up the concrete forms for the garage. He wanted to play and I thought, “Great!” I told him he could go just to the edge of the trees as long as he could see me. Then it dawned on me that I had been told that one of the concrete guys was going to be late because he was going to “get in a morning hunt.” So, I asked, “What are the rules about hunting around here?” Two of the guys debated whether it was 250 metres or 400 metres from housing. Then D said, “If he’s going in the trees he ought to have an orange vest on.” Holy @#$% Batman! So, I told 7YO to stay in the “yard.” That would be the open area that is the septic field. Fortunately, deer season ends this weekend. Life in the "country."

4. I hate shopping at Wal-Mart. In the US, I hadn't set foot in a Wal-Mart for years. But, here my choices for run of the mill household stuff are basically Zellers or Wal-Mart. And, Zellers just doesn't seem to offer much in the way of selection. Some things I can get at Canadian Tire. Others, I cannot. I hate shopping at Wal-Mart.

5. It's Friday night. Tomorrow we get to go pick up our pup from the kennel. Well, he's 9 and a half, but he's our pup. He's been there for five weeks. I would never have dreamed it would be that long... 7YO has a new job - taking pup outside. He's never not had a fenced in yard. I wish it weren't already so damn cold. And dark. I hope I don't end up dealing with his encounter with an animal while I'm here alone. Do skunks hibernate?

6. It's Friday night. P arrives Wednesday night. Since her flight should get in before this time, that's technically fewer than five days. I think I might stay in bed for two weeks. She can't wait to get in the new kitchen, clean, organize, etc. I'm toast. Dried up, left in the toaster too long, crispy, toast.

I guess that's it for now. Tomorrow it's an early run to the Farmers' Market and then off to pick up the pup. Back to the house to get him familiarized with the new space, etc. Off to 7YO's swimming lessons. Back to the house to do more cleaning. My legs/knees are screaming at me for the little bit of box moving I did earlier today. But, so it goes. And, again, I'm toast. Crunch.

Five Months

We arrived in Fredericton five months ago today. The theme of this journey has been rain. It rained for most of our trip from Minnesota. It rained for weeks this summer, delaying the building of our new house. And, it's raining today...

But - tomorrow night we will be sleeping in our new home. For those of you who don't visit the blog or catch me on Facebook, here's a snapshot from ten days ago.


There's still a lot to be finished outside, but the goal has been to get us inside. BTW, the roof is galvanized metal, not white.

7YO is exploding with excitement. He can't wait to be in his room. So, tomorrow morning I'll drop him off at school and when I pick him up - new house! Meanwhile, I'll unload the car, start moving things up from the basement, and try to get somewhat settled. Fortunately I've been told that the guys doing the build will be standing by to help move the beds, table, etc. up. This is going to be one crazy busy week! And, P arrives in 10 days!

Lesbian Moms Attacked

This is so sad - and frightening...

This aspect doesn't appear in the above article, but I feel compelled to add it here. The perpetrator has alleged that one of the women used a racial epithet toward him. She denies it. I have no idea. I wasn't there. I will say that, even if it is true, it doesn't justify the assaults. But, it does complicate things. Ugh. The whole thing is so ugly and unfortunate.

I also have to add that, thus far, I have had nothing but overwhelmingly positive experiences at 7YO's school. I wait for him, outside the school doors, each afternoon. There is always the same group of us. One father from England, another who just moved back after living in the US for about a dozen years, a young mother who has probably never been outside the province, a stay-at-home mom closer to my age whose husband is an academic... We chit-chat - often about the weather, of course. Although they've only met me, they know that 7YO has two moms. It came up in talking about why we moved here. At least one of these parents attended the school, as did 7YO's teacher. The school has about 100 kids. It's a very close-knit and comfortable community. Hard to imagine something like this incident. That's not to say there aren't folks who will choose to keep their distance, but so far things have been great. This incident a good reminder that you just never know what absolute nutcase is going to appear. So sad.

More on Prop 8 - Please Read!

This - also reproduced below - says it so much better than I ever could have. Please read! It conveys exactly what I have been feeling about the Obama/Proposition 8 "tension."

Judith Warner
November 13, 2008, 9:00 PM
What It Felt Like to Be Equal

I had barely finished sniffling over Barack Obama’s victory when I received an e-mail message from Amy Silverstein, the wife of my best friend from high school, Angela Padilla.

She had been glad to read last week’s piece on “the groundbreaking immensity of the election of our country’s first African-American president,” she said.

Up to a point.

“I wanted to make sure you knew and appreciated that despite this seeming like an amazing step forward for all who have suffered discrimination and/or who are deeply committed to eliminating it, this election was anything but that for G.L.B.T. people and our families,” she wrote. “Especially in California, but in three other states as well, the electorate convincingly voted to deny us basic civil rights and made clear that we are a long way from being seen and treated as equal. Protecting traditional marriage is simply code for discrimination. There is no ‘triumph’ for us, and the long period of pain, indignity and injustice continues.”

There’s nothing worse than being told you have a major blind spot. That your self-assured joyousness is built upon exclusion.

Particularly when the person telling you this is right.

Now, I hadn’t exactly ignored the spate of anti-gay ballot initiatives that had passed — in California, Arkansas, Florida and Arizona — on Nov. 4. I’d read about the success of Arizona’s long-attempted gay marriage ban and California’s Proposition 8, which prohibited gay marriage just six months after the state’s Supreme Court ruled that the right to marry was fundamental, and constitutionally protected, for all.

I’d read about how voters in Florida had decided to target not only same-sex marriage but all relationships that were the “substantial equivalent” of marriage, like domestic partnerships and civil unions, and how in Arkansas, where gay marriage was already banned, voters had decided to deny anyone “cohabitating outside a valid marriage” the right to adopt or be a foster parent.

How strange, I’d thought, reading about how, on the day of progressive victories — Obama’s historic win, South Dakota voters’ rejection of a wide-ranging abortion ban, Californians voting down a ballot initiative that would have required parental notification for abortion — these states had passed such uniquely reactionary and discriminatory measures. How ugly. That’s really too bad.

And then I’d moved on. As most people who were not directly affected by the anti-gay rights measures did. There was just too much else to feel good about.

“I think the country was like, ‘Look, you get Obama, call it a day and go home,” is how Kyrsten Sinema, a Democratic state representative in Arizona, who’d opposed her state’s anti-gay ballot initiative, put it to The Times last week.

Ed Swanson couldn’t move on.

The day after the election, the San Francisco lawyer and his husband, Paul Herman, a stay-at-home dad, had had to face the fact that Proposition 8 could mean that their marriage would be invalidated. They’d also had to go to parent conferences and tell the teachers that their five-year-old daughter, Liza, might be struggling in school because she was scared that her family might fall apart.

Liza, who has a twin sister, Katie, had peppered Swanson and Herman with questions once she’d realized that marriages uniting “a boy and a boy” were no longer allowed.

“They can’t take yours away, right?” she’d asked her parents. “They can’t take yours away when you have children, can they?”

“That’s when we realized she was afraid something would happen to us,” Swanson told me by phone on Wednesday. “We said, ‘They can’t take us away from you. We will be here for you forever.’”

“It’s difficult to explain to a five-year-old why it is people don’t want your parents to be married,” he continued. “They’re young enough that there was a chance they could have grown up thinking all their lives that their family was equal and accepted. Now they’re not going to have that chance. They’ll have to spend at least part of their lives knowing that their family is something that people don’t feel is acceptable.”

Jeanne Rizzo, the C.E.O. of the Breast Cancer Fund, can’t quite move on either. She spent election night in a reception room at San Francisco’s Westin St. Francis Hotel. She and her long-term partner, Pali Cooper, were married in September, one of 18,000 California couples who managed to wed in the short space of time between the California Supreme Court’s decision to legalize gay marriage and the passage of Proposition 8.

In one room, Obama supporters were jubilant. In another, opponents of Proposition 4 — the parental notification initiative -– shouted their glee. In hers, the opponents of Proposition 8 saw their joy at Obama’s election turn quickly to “absolute disbelief and pain” as the results of the ballot initiative came in. “It was such a kick in the stomach. The whole hotel was just rocking with joy. We felt so disconnected from it,” Rizzo recalled when I talked to her on Wednesday.

It wasn’t that she begrudged Obama his victory. It was just that his historic triumph made the insult to her community all the more painful. An awful thought came to her that night: Now we’re the designated cultural outcasts. “It’s almost like we’re the last group you can be openly bigoted about,” she told me.

“You look around and you think more than half of the people in this state voted to take this away from us? At a time when we’re celebrating the election of an African American to the White House? I don’t know how you heal from it,” she said. “It’s hard to get it out of your bones.”

It’s easy, if you’re straight, to file away the gay marriage issue in a little folder in your mind, to render it, essentially, inessential. It can fall into the category of “bones you throw the religious right because things could be so much worse.” Or “things that would be great in a perfect world.” Or “what’s the big deal?” because you don’t actually get what a big deal it is to be able to get married when you’ve never had to consider the alternative.

Many of the gay men and lesbians I spoke or e-mailed with this week didn’t fully realize what a big deal it was to be married either. Until they were.

“I don’t think I had realized until then what it felt like to be equal,” Swanson told me. “Paul and I went on a honeymoon in Santa Fe. People would ask and we’d say we’re on our honeymoon; we just got married. We could say it not because it was a political statement but because it was a fact.

“I don’t feel equal anymore. It was a great feeling, while it lasted.”

New - maybe - Expat Blog

Allow me to introduce Kurt and Laurie, of Nanaimo, BC and Roseville, MN. Their blog can be found here. I met Laurie back in Minnesota, though, as I recall, we originally "met" through some immigration listserv. As you will see if you visit their blog, they'll be spending the winter in Nanaimo. They are permanent residents and even own a home (currently rented out) in Nanaimo, but are still trying to decide whether to really make the move, for good. Take a minute to visit the blog and welcome them!

Olbermann on Prop 8

This morning I received three emails from my sister, in California, making sure that I had received the link she had sent me. She wanted to be sure that I saw Keith Olbermann's "Special Comment" on Prop 8. Both the text and the video are available at the Countdown website.

I couldn't bring myself to read through the comments - in a scroll I could see too much ignorance and hatred - but I posted this:

I can't think of the right adjective to describe KO's comment. The degree to which he accurately addresses this (red herring) issue of "redefining marriage" is the best I've ever heard - and I teach about sexuality and the law. My sister, in California I might add, forwarded me the link with the note, "I love him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" She forwarded it to me because I couldn't watch his show.

You see, I'm now living in Canada - where my family has legal recognition, where my partner and I are married and treated equally. Our son is able to live in a country where his family "counts." Lest you think, "Ah, but that's just legally. How do people really act?" Let me tell you that we're in a fairly conservative province and nobody bats an eye. Even compared to (formerly) progressive Minnesota, it's just a non-event when people realize that we're a family.

Perhaps you're reading and saying, "Good riddance." Well, so be it. Between the two of us we have two master's degrees, two law degrees, and a Ph.D. Not exactly slackers. But, we were willing to take our chances in a new country because of the hatred that persists across the US. Oh, and on this veteran's day, let me add that I'm also a veteran of the US Army and Army Reserve. Yeah, not welcome there either.

So, Keith... right on. You said it best. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. My family thanks you - albeit from a distance.

******

I have to add that one of the coolest things about this moment was my sister's inclusion of the comment, "I love him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" She is a very reserved person and, even in email, this was really something.

So, if you're down here and you haven't seen the video, please watch if you are able. Thanks!

BTW - Before you offer corrections, I do know that some cable subscribers in Canada do get MSNBC. I do not. And, yes, in Canada, today is Remembrance Day.

Young People Making a Difference

Please go here to read about one of our graduates and what he will be doing for the next year.

If anyone can spare even $5 or $10 to help fund his efforts, that would be terrific. Thanks!

State Sanctioned Hatred

This is long, but worth reading -

Bans in 3 States on Gay Marriage

SAN FRANCISCO — A giant rainbow-colored flag in the gay-friendly Castro neighborhood of San Francisco was flying at half-staff on Wednesday as social and religious conservatives celebrated the passage of measures that ban same-sex marriage in California, Florida, and Arizona.

In California, where same-sex marriage had been performed since June, the ban had more than 52 percent of the vote, according to figures by the secretary of state, and was projected to win by several Californian news media outlets. Opponents of same-sex marriage won by even bigger margins in Arizona and Florida. Just two years ago, Arizona rejected a similar ban.

The across-the-board sweep, coupled with passage of a measure in Arkansas intended to bar gay men and lesbians from adopting children, was a stunning victory for religious conservatives, who had little else to celebrate on an Election Day that saw Senator John McCain lose and other ballot measures, like efforts to restrict abortion in South Dakota, California and Colorado, rejected.

“It was a great victory,” said the Rev. James Garlow, senior pastor of Skyline Church in San Diego County and a leader of the campaign to pass the California measure, Proposition 8. “We saw the people just rise up.”

The losses devastated supporters of same-sex marriage and ignited a debate about whether the movement to expand the rights of same-sex couples had hit a cultural brick wall, even at a time of another civil rights success, the election of a black president.

Thirty states have now passed bans on same-sex marriage.

Supporters of same-sex marriage in California, where the fight on Tuesday was fiercest, appeared to have been outflanked by the measure’s highly organized backers and, exit polls indicated, hurt by the large turnout among black and Hispanic voters drawn to Senator Barack Obama’s candidacy. Mr. Obama opposes same-sex marriage. [bolding mine]

California will still allow same-sex civil unions, but that is not an option in Arizona and Florida. Exit polls in California found that 70 percent of black voters backed the ban. Slightly more than half of Latino voters, who made up almost 20 percent of voters, favored the ban, while 53 percent of whites opposed it.

Julius Turman, a chairman of the Alice B. Toklas L.G.B.T. Democratic Club, a gay political group here, said he called his mother in tears when Mr. Obama won the presidency, only to be crying over the same-sex marriage vote in a different way not much later.

“It is the definition of bittersweet,” Mr. Turman said. “As an African-American, I rejoiced in the symbolism of yesterday. As a gay man, I thought, ‘How can this be happening?’ ”

Proposition 8’s passage left only Massachusetts and Connecticut as states where same-sex marriages are legal, though both Rhode Island and New York will continue to recognize such ceremonies performed elsewhere. Civil unions or domestic partnerships, which carry many of the same rights as marriage, are allowed in a handful of states. More than 40 states now have constitutional bans or laws against same-sex marriages.

On Wednesday, five months of same-sex marriages in California — declared legal by the State Supreme Court in May — appeared to have come to a halt. “This city is no longer marrying people” of the same sex, Gavin Newsom, the mayor of San Francisco, announced at a grim news conference at City Hall, where hundreds of same-sex couples had rushed to marry in the days and hours leading up to Tuesday’s vote.

The status of those marriages, among 17,000 same-sex unions performed in the state, was left in doubt by the vote. The state’s attorney general, Jerry Brown, reiterated Wednesday that he believed that those marriages would remain valid, but legal skirmishes were expected.

The cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco, and Santa Clara County, as well as several civil rights and gay rights groups, said on Wednesday that they would sue to block the ban.

Some opponents of the proposition were also still holding out slim hopes that a batch of perhaps as many as four million provisional and vote-by-mail ballots would somehow turn the tide.

The victory of the social and religious conservatives came on a core issue that has defined their engagement in politics over the past decade.

The Rev. Joel Hunter, an evangelical pastor in Florida, said many religious conservatives felt more urgency about stopping same-sex marriage than about abortion, another hotly contested issue long locked in a stalemate.

“There is enough of the population that is alarmed at the general breakdown of the family, that has been so inundated with images of homosexual relationships in all of the media,” said Mr. Hunter, who gave the benediction at the Democratic National Convention this year, yet supported the same-sex marriage ban in his state. “It’s almost like it’s obligatory these days to have a homosexual couple in every TV show or every movie.”

Supporters of the bans in California, Arizona and Florida benefited from the donations and volunteers mobilized by a broad array of churches and religious groups from across the ethnic spectrum.

The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, a pastor in Sacramento and president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, said the campaign to pass Proposition 8 had begun with white evangelical churches but had spread to more than 1,130 Hispanic churches whose pastors convinced their members that same-sex marriage threatened the traditional family.

“Without the Latino vote,” Mr. Rodriguez said, “Proposition 8 would never have succeeded.”

Frank Schubert, the campaign manager for Protect Marriage, the leading group behind Proposition 8, agreed that minority votes had put the measure over the top, saying that a strategy of working with conservative black pastors and community leaders had paid off.

“It’s a big reason why we won, no doubt about it,” he said.

Proposition 8 was one of the most expensive ballot measures ever waged, with combined spending of more than $75 million. Focus on the Family and other religious conservative groups contributed money to help pass the same-sex marriage measures in all three states.

Forces on both sides viewed California as a critical test of the nation’s acceptance of gay people, who have made remarkable strides in the decades since the 1969 riots in New York at the Stonewall Inn, considered the beginning of the gay rights movement.

Scholars were divided on how large a setback Tuesday’s votes would be for that movement. Andrew Koppelman, a professor of law at Northwestern University and the author of “Same Sex, Different States,” a study of same-sex marriage, said the outcome had a silver lining, namely that it was closer than in previous statewide measures.

A 2000 ballot measure establishing a California state law against same-sex marriage passed with 61 percent of the vote. That law was overturned in May by the State Supreme Court.

In Arizona, where same-sex marriage was already against the law, the victory for Proposition 102, which amends the State Constitution, was met with a shrug by some.

“I think the country was like, ‘Look, you get Obama, call it a day and go home,’ ” said Kyrsten Sinema, a Democratic state representative who led opponents against Proposition 102. “And frankly, I’ll take it.”

Jesse McKinley reported from San Francisco, and Laurie Goodstein from New York.