Voter Suppresion (My Pessimism)

Written in response to an article by RJ Taylor-Hahn

RJ, I agree completely with your analysis of the attacks on voting rights.  It is true that our focus as 'liberals' is scattered among various issues, and I, personally, find attacks on voting rights the most challenging obstacle we face in the coming election!  With the current makeup of the FEC and the federal judiciary, I find myself at a loss as to how to combat this problem.  With voter suppression occurring at so many levels of government it is going to take an enormous push to change newly enacted legislation before the next election.  I admit I have been thinking that the most likely way voter suppression will be dealt with is a popular uprising after the election fails to bring changes that the majority demand.

WTF? GOP

Religious preferences of employers must not be imposed on the rights of individuals.  Our constitution guarantees us freedom from religous oppression.  Why is the GOP trying to pervert the intentions of the Founding Fathers?  Birth control is a personal decision that should be made by a woman in agreement with her physician.  Stop the GOP war on women's rights!

With Pen In Hand

I've been sitting here looking at this blog post page typing and deleting for an hour.  This way of writing still seems so foreign to me.  I thought it would become more natural after tweeting for so long, but it hasn't.  When I really feel like I have something to say I still reach for my notebook and pen.  I'm hoping to eliminate that step from my writing, but so far, it's just not working out.  When I do transcribe from the notebook to the computer I always change it a lot--it's not like I end up with the same thing I had on paper.  So I'm not sure why it matters so much.  I'm the kind of writer who covers the whole page in the notebook, with words squeezed in and up and down the margins.  There are lines and arrows drawn between clauses and phrases that I use as a guide to reorder my message to create the impact I want.  I use different colors of ink to highlight places where I think I may want to come back later and add or change something.   This prevents disruption of, what is to me, a compelling stream of ideas.  I actually feel excited thinking about that process.  Sadly, it's not a feeling that is replicated while typing on a keyboard.

Although I don't plan to make this searchable, if you happen to see it and have helpful ideas, I welcome your comments.