hopelessness

When kids have to deal with homelessness, they don't have a whole lotta time to worry about excelling in school.

When they don't advance in school, they limit their ability to succeed in the job market.

8 years of misery under failed Republican policies, coupled with barriers and obstacles put in place as punitive measures to keep hopeless, poverty-stricken, desperate people even further down. A housing crisis beyond comparison. An economy in turmoil and freefall. Gas prices set to enrich the privileged few at the expense of the many poor.

Photo by F.S. Upton

What a difference a year makes. So glad I'm not there anymore. So glad I was there then.

Last night we came one step closer to Barack Obama becoming our next President.

Barack Obama is the quintessential American story. A skinny kid who was the son of a goat herder, he became the change he wanted America to be.

I've been chasing the American Dream for some 30 years now, and the closest I've ever come to achieving it has been during the last few years.

The Oregon presidential primary
has been around for nearly a century.

And has proved to be as treacherous,
for front runners,late in the campaign
as NH is early in the campaign.

Gene McCarthy,Frank Church & Gary Hart
all upset the apple cart by defeating front runners
in the late May Oregon primary.

Since getting kinda-sorta sacked (I really will explain later, but I'm trying to avoid getting semi-dooced, so sorry for being vague), this glorious perspective has descended upon me. It was already coming, honestly, but I was in denial for a while about it.

It was August 2001.

I had been in Grad School for two years.  In 1999, I arrived on the campus of Wake Forest University with a full scholarship and a fantastic, freaking gleam in my eye.  Beaming with pride and excitement, I was ready to Get My Masters Degree On.  Here I was, ready to start real research and studies in my chosen field!