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January 1, 2009 by Dave.
Sophia and I were playing another round of rocketship rescue—which is where she picks an animal to rescue from her big encyclopedia of animals to rescue somewhere in the walk in closet— and she was playing reindeer doctor to Dasher. She was pretending to listen with a stethoscope when she started this conversation:
Sophia: “Daddy?”
Me: “Yes?”
Sophia: “Is a heartbeat good?”
Me (trying not to laugh): “Yes, it means you’re alive.”
Sophia: “Does it means you’re okay?”
Me: “Yes. It does.”
Sophia: “Daddy.”
Me: “Yes?”
Sophia: “The reindeer has a heartbeat.”
Me: “I should hope so.”
Sophia: “What if you don’t have a heartbeat?”
Me: “You wouldn’t be alive.”
Sophia: “Daddy?”
Me: “Yeah?”
Sophia: “What about great grandma?”
I had NO idea where this came from.
Me: “What about great grandma?”
Sophia: “Does she have a heartbeat?”
Me: “Not anymore.”
I told her about my parent’s parents earlier this month talking about this month. She knows they existed but they are all passed on.
Sophia: “So she’s not alive?”
Me: “No, she died.”
Sophia: “A while ago.”
Me: “Yeah.”
Sophia: “That’s why great grandma died, she had no heartbeat.”
At which point I agreed with her and left the closet so I could write this down as best I could remember it.
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November 22, 2008 by Dave.
Still on my political junkie fix, I’ve been watching a lot of what’s going on with the Obama transition and naming of cabinet members. Personally I’m not a big fan of all the names being named. If I really wanted to see another Clinton administration, I would have voted for Hillary (and I only voted for her husband once in 1992). However I said in an earlier blog that Obama is, in fact, a centrist, not a progressive. As a matter of fact, if he is as shrewd as he seems, he’s getting a lot of other veteran left-centrist politicians who can get things done so that he can get things done. So really this shouldn’t be too surprising.
What is surprising is possibly some of the motives behind two of the big stories this week: Clinton as Secretary of State and Joe Lieberman keeping his chairmanship. No one expected either to happen and the intense debate has flared up possible schisms within and among the Democratic Party and/or progressive democrats. Those who are for and against Hillary as SoS and for and against Lieberman as chair of Homeland Security are burning up the blogosphere, radio and airwaves. There are valid reasons on either side of both issues and plenty of room for debate. However everyone seems to refer back to one source: Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book “Team of Rivals” about Abraham Lincoln’s presidency and his political cabinet, who were mostly made up of political rivals and those of contrary views to Lincoln. Obama has said to be inspired by the book and is re-reading that book again as he picks his cabinet (”Team of Rivals” is now number 12 on Amazon.com best-seller list; both of Obama’s books are in the top ten). However, I think there is a different source of inspiration for these two big news items.
Over the weekend, AMC was running a Godfather marathon on its heavy rotation schedule. It was part way through Godfather II, specifically during the scene where Michael Corleone talks to Pantangeli in his father’s old house. That scene contains the most prescient nugget of wisdom from those movies—aside from “Leave the gun, take the canoli”— which is “Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer.” Keith Olbermann touched upon this first on Countdown late last week, and others are now repeating it, but this is what I think Obama is doing.
Senator Clinton still has presidential aspirations and the senate is still her best place to make her play as and consolidate her power base— either helping Obama or challenging him. Some of her worst attacks against him in the primaries had to do with his lack of foreign policy experience. And, of course, then there’s Bill. To quote Stephen Colbert, Bill Clinton still can’t compliment Obama without “looking like he’s passing a stone.” Making her Secretary of State, while putting in her in a position to show off her foreign policy acumen, keeps her in line with Obama’s policies and makes her a follower not a leader. She has to follow his lead, otherwise she threatens American national and international security by trying to speak in her own voice (which could eventually backlash on her if she does run for president again). And Bill has been bending over backwards to help her get the position. Strategically, it’s a smart move. Lieberman wanted (nee demanded) to keep his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee or bolt to the Republicans. This from a Senator who spoke at the RNC, towed the Palin Republican party line during the campaign to bad mouth Obama, then backpedaled like crazy when it looked like McCain was going to lose. Any other time, the Dems would have said bye-bye Leiberman and punished his actions. But when Obama said publicly that he wanted Lieberman to continue to caucus with the Democrats, that one statement saved his ass and his chairmanship. In a country that has taken a huge shift to the left and a state where he faces a potentially tough reelection, the only hope Lieberman has is to help Obama realize his agenda. As much as we want Lieberman to hang by the scrotum, Obama’s move puts him on a leash (we’re not sure how short or long it is until Liberman starts spouting off that neo-con babble again). Again, strategically it’s a smart move.
I admit being more cynical than most, but it seems as much as Obama wants to emulate Lincoln in formulating his cabinet, he also knows enough pop culture to know the Godfather reference and smart enough to have read the line’s original source material (Machiavelli and/or Sun Tzu). He’s smart enough to be successful in politics and it’s possible to pull this off. Granted we’ve just seen what happens to the last group of people who practice those kind of power politics. Also granted, the guy hasn’t even taken office yet. We have yet to see, and we’ll just keep playing Monday morning quarterback until they do.
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November 18, 2008 by Dave.
On her MSNBC show, Rachel Maddow suggested a “honey do” list for President-elect Barack Obama dealing with things that should be of the highest priority when he takes office on January 20, 2009. This is a bit of that, with some actual suggestions on how to go about it (not that I am ANY kind of expert on governmental budgets or appropriations). My mom referred to my get out the vote email as my “manifesto.” Actually in some ways, this is closer to an actual manifesto. In addition to sending this to friends and such, I’ve already sent a copy to Rachel Maddow and and President-elect Obama (or at least to the transition team). If I am picked up by the CIA, make sure people know this is why.
NAG LIST
Defense Department Reprioritizing: There are ways to efficiently cut the budgets in order to accomplish better goals. First of all, by the Pentagon’s own admission, the DoD is generally 15% over budget, meaning they can cut 15% of their current budget without hurting any of their current operations—though this doesn’t include operations in Iraq. Trim 10% off the DoD budget—until all troops are taken out of Iraq and the financial crisis looks closer to over, then you can extend to the full 15%— to, one, increase the budget to the Veteran’s Administration; and two, give a pay raise for noncom soldiers. Second, responsibly get us out of Iraq.
Health Care Reform: While universal health care is a goal of this administration (although not sure if they actually mean single-payer or not), the extent of the fiscal crisis and the subsequent bailout ensures that this goal is attainable but still a ways off. Until we stop hemorrhaging money, we should at least try to fix existing systems as a stop-gap/on-ramp (the bridge comes later). Extend SCHIP to insure all children in the US. And empower the government to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for the drug coverage under the Medicaid Part-D, as well as fill in the “donut hole” in the plan, so the elderly and other vulnerable segments of the society is covered. Small steps are better than no steps. (note: also fix the existing laws so that either Viagra is not covered by insurance or that birth control methods are covered—got to go one way or the other). (I know I’m going against two people I respect with this one: my mom and Dr. Paul Krugman. My mom is an activist for universal single-payer health care in America, and pretty much wants it to happen NOW. Krugman is advocating that Obama go big with his new agenda in order to stabilize things in America, including going to universal single-payer health care. Granted it’s not wise to go against the advice of a Nobel Prize winning economist and my mom, but if this is what we can afford, let’s do this and keep the main goal in sight)
Close Corporate Tax Loopholes: If anything is going to happen to the Tax Codes in the first year, this is it. There are too many loopholes that corporations are taking advantage of to pay less taxes or no taxes. I have no problem with deducting whatever you can; I do have a problem when corporations pay less in taxes than the janitors they hire. The most egregious loopholes should be closed up, including the ones that allow jobs to be outsourced overseas, the offshore banking loopholes, and “Made in USA” label loopholes. This will produce the fair share of revenues that America needs to start getting things back on track.
Adjust the AMT and create a Corporate AMT: The Alternative Minimum Tax was created to keep the rich from avoiding paying taxes all together. However since it hasn’t been adjusted for inflation for quite some time, many middle class families are getting caught in it; and the rationale for not adjusting it is the loss of many hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. Now is the time to finally adjust the AMT, and then institute an AMT for corporations (again, corporations paying less taxes than their lowest paid wage workers is wrong). The Corporate AMT can (and should) be graduated— rather than the flat corporate tax— to give smaller corporations a break.
Use Capital Gains Tax as a Reward: This goes back to the Paul Tsongas’ economics model— give a capital gains tax cut to companies that do the right thing. For example, a $5,000 capital gains tax cut for each job created (which Obama has already proposed during the campaign); a $25,000 capital gains tax cut for each factory built (which creates jobs and gets you the $5,000 capital gains tax cut for each job for each job to fill the factory). You can also give capital gains tax cuts to companies that partner with schools or local food pantries, who have 100% union employees, and other such measures for the public good.
Infrastructure Investment: Actually this should be named “re-investment” since we’ve let it go for so long. This is pretty much a no-brainer. Unemployment is up; the state of our roads, bridges, electrical grids are down. Invest in rebuilding the infrastructure, fix the state of our roads, bridges, and electrical grids, and get people to work. If it worked in the ’30s, it’ll work now. Expect to see a program for this early in the administration— first six months to a year.
Emergency Auto Industry Loan: I didn’t like the bailout idea, especially when it was finally loaded with pork and had little oversight. If one truly believes in the free market, the financial companies should be left to fail. The auto industry is a bit different in that if one of the auto companies fails, it has a bigger ripple effect; in this case if that industry fails (which it might) at least 2.5 million people are out of work. That’s too extensive to have happen now. We should save the industry with some MAJOR caveats:
This is a LOAN, not a giveaway: Chrysler paid back its 1979 bailout loan in four years. These people should do the same as soon as possible.
No opposition to raising CAFE standards: The industry has been fighting this for years (it’s one of the bills that McCain was right on). If they want taxpayer help, the CAFE standards go up to 35 miles per gallon, no arguments.
More production of green cars: Like infrastructure investment, this will be key. The engine that will drive this industry (and the economy) for the next generation will be environmentally conscious transportation. The rest of the world has a jump on us concerning green cars and we need to catch up. Creating more hybrid cars is a start; creating next generation non-gasoline cars and other new innovations will carry it even further faster.
Fire current executive board: Self-explanatory. This board got into this mess, they deserve to lose their jobs.
Green Industry Investment: Being far behind in the green movement and in an economic mess, at least gives us a chance to catch up. Environmentally conscious industries will be the engine that drives the economy— at least says George Soros, billionaire hedge fund manager (who am I to argue with that guy?). It seems like a large expenditure up front, but it pays for itself in the back end, in this case with more revenues streams from a stronger economy and more tax revenue streams due to the increase in employment.
Congressional Accountability: Congress has voted itself a pay raise 18 times in the last 25 years, while in the same time period of time, the minimum wage has been raised only five times—including the most recent in 2008, and the last time before that in 1997. While the minimum wage will increase to $7.25 this summer, Congress needs to resist the temptation to raise its own pay until they get some stuff done for the rest of America. It’s pretty annoying to hear congressmen and women complain about CEO salaries and golden parachutes when they themselves will never be working at below the poverty line— or even close to it. While they’re at it, they should divest themselves from the congressional pension plans, which also adjusts each year to the cost of living and inflation. Maybe then they’ll understand the problems of average workers.
Employee Free Choice Act: While government regulations is a way to keep businesses accountable. Another way to do so is the existence of unions. This act will encourage and allow workers to organize without fear of recrimination (check out Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price for some info). The bill is already working its way through Congress and needs to be passed by the end of next year.
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November 13, 2008 by Dave.
Obama has won a decisive victory to become the first African American president of the United States. Terrific! The Democrats have increased their majority in the Senate and Congress. Great! The great conservative philosophy of small government and even less taxes has been rejected by a large majority of Americans. Amazing! So everything’s cool. Not by a long shot. We have a lot of work to do.
The damage done to America and American politics by the neo-cons is severe. Our economy has finally tanked due to eight years of Republican rule and two decades of deregulation, and yet we the people are bailing out the financial industry to the tune of $1 trillion or more. We are involved in two wars in the Middle East, and even if we can finagle our way out of one of them it will only be to shore up the efforts in the other. While these election results have been a step to repair our international reputation, we will still be looked at with skepticism if we try to claim ourselves a superpower amongst a group of global citizens. Health insurance is still a privileged benefit in American society afforded to some but not all. All those outsourced jobs will not be coming back, with India being the 1-800 help center of the world. Until we stop putting gas in cars, oil companies will continue to mount huge profits and get tax benefits in the process. The effects of the last eight years of radical-right rule will still be felt for another two decades if not more— no matter whom got elected.
While this historic election result is a dramatic return to hope, it is not by any means a cure all. We voted for change and projected every hope (and some fears) we had onto Senator Obama. He was a blank slate to reflect whatever we wanted him to be— he said so himself in similar words. He is not the Messiah, nor anti-American, nor a progressive, nor a socialist, nor a radical, a terrorist, a jihadist, a tax-and-spend liberal, a reformist, or an extremist. He is a liberal-centrist politician—a smart, shrewd, talented liberal-leaning centrist. There’s no guarantee of a progressive agenda coming out of this administration. So far a lot of former Clinton staffers and appointees are showing up in Obama’s administration. While that is great news for getting us out of a recession, it is not necessarily the best news on other economic fronts. Keep in mind that Clinton gave us both NAFTA and the Telecommunications Act (which brought us the media conglomeration/take over of the early 2000s). And Lawrence Summers— Clinton era Treasury Secretary on the short list for the job again— is of the free-market deregulation fundamentalist ilk that got us into this economic clusterfuck. If anyone thought this election would change everything, you’re delusional.
What we now have is a better chance to get things done. I went into the voting booth without any misconceptions for whom I was voting for. After eight years of the tyranny of arrogance, I voted for someone who would most likely listen to the public they govern. All the millions of people who donated $250 or less over the last 21 months are official shareholders of the Obama presidency. This is the closest we’ve come to real accountability and transparency in respects to our government. This is not yet truly for the people and by the people, but it’s damn close. However the only way we can make that work and get results out of this incoming administration is if we the public are vigilant. Our democracy is only as strong as the publics’ will to hold their elected officials to account. Now is the time to speak up.
There will be a LOT of organizations to lobby the new president with their platforms. MoveOn.org and other such liberal watchdog groups exist because people have organized on the grassroots level to try and be heard by their representatives and others in government. Already articles and petitions are going up trying to sharpen the focus on a progressive agenda. Even though the Republicans are dealing with their own internal conflicts and schisms, there is obviously going to be a push on the conservative side to have things done their way. This includes efforts to delegitimize Obama’s presidency before it even starts. Some conservative pundits are saying that America is a “center-right” country; others are saying that Obama doesn’t have a mandate (as if losing the popular vote and winning by four electoral votes gives you authorization to shred the Bill of Rights); others are simply ready to pounce on Obama for any incident no matter how slight. We’re hearing a lot of backseat driving about where to steer this country from every critic, liberal or conservative, within ten feet of a camera. Whose voice gets lost in all this—the populace who elected the incoming administration. That is unless we speak out.
We cannot get lazy now. President-elect Obama said in his election night victory speech that his win is not change itself, but the chance for change. The only way to bring that change about is to be vigilant, alert and active. The historian, activist, and veteran Howard Zinn wrote, “historically, government, whether in the hands of Republicans or Democrats, conservatives or liberals, has failed its responsibilities, until forced to by direct action: sit-ins and Freedom Rides for the rights of black people, strikes and boycotts for the rights of workers, mutinies and desertions of soldiers in order to stop a war. Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens.” We are now entering the thick of a democratic struggle—in terms of small-d democracy. With forces from either side trying to come to bear on this incoming administration, we need to be actively alert to what is happening and call our officials out on it when necessary. And it will be necessary. Every administration will make mistakes, but it will only get away with the most egregious of them if our elected officials fail to hold themselves accountable, and worse if we fail to hold them accountable.
To paraphrase Obama, “don’t believe for a second this election is over. We have to work like our future depends on it, because it does.” We can choose to let other people speak for us on issues we care about, or we can make our own voices heard loud and clear. We can choose to go back to being apathetic, or remain attentive political observers. We can choose to give our elected officials complete free reign over our society, or reinvest ourselves in our world and hold them to standards. We can choose to go back to sleep and dream of a better world, or we can wake up and try to make that world a reality. That’s what’s at stake and what we’re fighting for. If we keep watching the events of the day, pay attention to what those in power do, pay attention to what people do to obtain and/or retain power, speak to your own situations and your own truths, speak out against corruption and malfeasance, fight for your core issues, fight for your beliefs, fight for your rights and those of your neighbors, we will not only pull American society out of the abyss, but we will emerge a stronger country connected to each other and focused on a common good for all Americans and the global community.
So thanks for voting. NOW LET’S GET TO WORK!
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October 28, 2008 by Dave.
As some of you may remember, a month after the tragedy of September 11, 2001, I wrote an email to all of you, my friends, to talk about my feelings at the moment. It was angry, soon after the attacks and close before we attacked Afghanistan. I talked about the need to change US policies abroad and at home if we really want to win a “war” on terrorism, since the only way to fight terrorism is to end poverty and renew community. The following year, I basically sent a thank you note for all of you for staying in touch and remaining friends. The next year I wrote another angry one about the need to get out and vote. Seeing how this election is playing out, I figured I should renew that tradition about urging people to vote.
I’m still angry. I’ve been angry for a while now. I used to be angry about apathy in this nation. With what had been going on in this country ever since the towers fell, you think people would try to be more aware of what is going on. Instead, or maybe because of it, we disregarded what we saw and believed the lies spoken to us on a daily basis. Maybe we chose to believe them because knowing the truth would be too hard to believe. We were lied by this administration before they entered office. They lied about being compassionate conservatives, they lied about their environmental programs, they lied to us about their energy policy. Then September 11 happened. And the lies continued. They lied about the US’ own complicity in the past with the men who financed the attacks, they lied to us about wanting to build an international coalition, they lied us into a war, and they lied 4,000 soldiers into their graves.
It’s seven years later and I’m still angry. However now I’m angry at the viciousness and rancor that’s been spewed over the last couple of months. Since the end of August, we have spent day after day treading in bile that’s spilled over from an increasingly ugly campaign waged for the presidency. While both sides have dealt in half-truths and stretching for points, the Republicans have ran one of the most negative, sleaziest, vilest campaigns I’ve ever seen (granted I only remember presidential campaigns since 1984, but there are those who remember campaigns as far back as 1960 who say the same). While mudslinging is par for the course, I’ve never seen this level of it to where I’ve been scared for the physical well-being of a candidate if he is elected. We’ve had two people killed in a Unitarian Church in Knoxville, TN, this summer because of the shooter’s hatred of the “liberal agenda. We don’t need any more violence against people based on what they think. Add to all this, the continued rising unemployment, rising foreclosures—do I need to even mention the economic crisis these days? We all feel this tenseness in the pit of our stomachs as well as being front and center in our minds. It’s overwhelming and will drag the mightiest of us down.
However with all of this negativity, it is actually one of the more hopeful elections I’ve been seen. I know there are some people that don’t believe that their vote doesn’t matter. Since the year 2000 presidential theft and the 2004 Ohio problems, few citizens have faith in out election system. However this year, more people have registered to vote than ever before. New voters and young voters are signing up to make their voices heard. People who have foregone the process are rushing to get involved again. With so much at stake, people are rising to their civic duty to go and vote. The need to do our civic duty has never been greater. We’ve heard this all our lives, but to some it has never meant more than this year. Every election year over the last eight years we’ve heard that this election is the most crucial one we’ve seen in our lifetimes. However this year it actually feels like the most crucial election in our lifetimes. The need to go out and vote is essential. I have always believed in that system flaws and all. But I know that its flaws can only be further exploited if we as citizens stop believing in the system of elections. So I’m sending this around again as a tool to show how important it is to vote.
The first tool is a little political ice breaking game used in my days at college. It should really hit home about how far we’ve come in voting rights and how important the right to vote is. It works best in a group setting, so gather everyone in your area around you and ask them to stand up. Then read the following instructions aloud:
Ask: “Does anyone here own their own property? If not, sit down.” Until 1843, only people who were land owners could vote.
Ask: “Are you white? If not, sit down.” People of Color could not vote until the 15th Amendment to the Constitution was passed in 1870.
Ask: “Are you male? If not, sit down.” Women were not allowed to vote until the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920.
Ask: “Do you have $2 in your pockets right now? If not sit down.” States could charge a poll tax to voters until the 24th Amendment was passed in 1964 (Southern states used the poll tax to deny the 15th Amendment rights to People of Color).
Ask: “Are you over the age of 21? If not, sit down” The voting age was 21 years of age until the 26th amendment lowered the age to 18.
Tell those seated to look around at those people standing (if there are any). Then ask everyone seated “Would you want those people standing to tell you how to run your life? That’s what you’re doing when you don’t vote.”
The second tool (which can also be read at the end of the exercise above) is listed below:
Historical Facts On The Power Of Just One Vote
1645—One vote gave Oliver Cromwell control of England.
1776—One vote gave America the English language instead of German.
1868—One vote saved President Andrew Jackson from impeachment.
1875—One vote changed France from a monarchy to a republic.
1876—One vote gave Rutherford B. Hayes the Presidency of the United States of
America.
1923—One vote gave Adolf Hitler leadership of the Nazi Party.
1941—One vote saved the Selective Service - just weeks before Pearl Harbor was
attacked.
1990—One vote decided a state House race in Oakland County, Michigan.
(if combining with the first exercise) Ask those people standing if they voted in the last presidential election. Count up the number of people who voted. How many didn’t vote? How could that have tipped the balance?
Again ask only those people standing to repeat after you, then yell something out loud. Then have everyone seated to stand back up. Ask everyone to repeat after you, then yell something out loud. Point out how much louder it sounds with ALL voices heard.
If you think otherwise, history is proof of the lasting ramifications one deciding vote can have.
Over the last few years, we have only been given two choices: you’re either with us or against us. You either agree with our opinions or you’re a traitor or unpatriotic or un-American or wrong (choose your phrase). The divisions amongst us have risen to staggering new heights and continue to hold the windpipe of democracy and choking the very life out of our liberties, our luxuries and even our happiness. I have never believed that arrogance is the path of righteous and light, and I will continue to believe that whatever the results of this election. I also know that I have to stand up for my own beliefs because no one else will but me. However I know I’m not alone in this world and there are others that will stand with me. While that last sentence has often felt foreign at times, I stand at a time when I know that to be true.
Once again, as I did years ago when I first started sending these messages out, I say this as a passionate patriot. Not one that is draped in the flag and blindly follows our leaders, but as a patriot that believes firmly in the people of this country and the ideals which we hold in our heart but have yet to truly achieve. I firmly believe in the democratic principles by which we live, and I am not willing to see it subverted by those in power who keep repeating the mistakes of past actions that have caused the problems we are in. This election has galvanized us on either side of the philosophies and brought people together as Americans. But it only works if you, in fact, go out and do your civic responsibility. This election is not over yet—as tired as we are of this endless campaign and as much as we may want it to be over. There is still one week left for you to get your ballots out and counted. If you hate the direction this country has taken, if you want to ensure a better future for you and your families, if you want to ensure your vote count, you MUST make yourself heard on November 4. I’ll be joining my voice along with yours as well.
NOW GET OUT AND VOTE!
With love and faith,
David “Hussein” Concepcion
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September 5, 2008 by m_priest7.
Sophia was finally accepted to a kindergarten about a week ago. We were a little worried as we were very late getting her registered and hoping to have her settled before August to give us a little idea what to be ready for. We were on three waiting lists and we were set up at Dante Aligheri Elementary school nearby. It’s not a block and a half away as Sophia’s mom wanted, Susan, but she’ll just have to walk the extra nine or ten blocks.
Sophia of course has been very apprehensive about going to school. Part of it had to do with the move that took her out of Head Start—because of it she lost a space in head start since it was all filled up in East Boston. However a lot of it also had to do with the stop gap idea we had to get her into summer camp to get her ready for school socially. I was hoping it would be a good place for her to get used to school life in kindergarten, but instead she got ready for junior high and high school. This wasn’t commonplace but she got teased and bullied a few times, and since this wasn’t as structured or competent an environment as head start or kindergarten, I don’t she didn’t get much help from the counselors. I remember when I was a summer counselor at 15, and I know I wasn’t ready to help deal with infighting amongst five and eight year olds. I don’t think much has changed. I think Sophia had no idea how do deal with that and she did act out a lot over the summer. Apparently also her older brother being at her house almost all summer all the time was also a problem. He teased her too. Even though it was just a sibling thing, I know from experience that when you get teased at school and then get the same at home you tend act out all the more and/or withdraw a lot. So Sophia’s been very sad and frustrated with the idea of going to kindergarten, and it was only through trying to talk to her in little bits that we figured out all the past reasons why.
We did a couple of things to try and get her into going. The other day I took her to the playground/play area behind the school itself. A friend suggested I do that to get them used to the school itself. It’s a cute space that looks like a smaller version of the large playground in my neighborhood. Plus it had a small amphitheater and I got to explain what that was, too. She had a fun time with that. Yesterday we took her shopping for her school uniforms (white shirts and navy blue pants and skirts). That sucked trying to get stuff in the madhouse the day BEFORE the older kids started school. Still, she was still worried about going. I told Susan to call the school and see if we could have Sophia tour the classroom and we were able to go there today. It’s smaller than her head start classroom, but basically looks just like it. We met with the two teachers who run the class and will be teaching the 22 students in this year’s class (last year it was 16). They explained to me and Susan the rules in the class, which keeps the other kids from bullying each other. Susan was listening intently, I was watching Sophia play with the dollhouse they had there. They both calmed down a lot after that school visit.
After leaving the school, Sophia still seemed sad; this time it was because she didn’t want to leave the school.
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July 1, 2008 by m_priest7.
I know I’ve been way out of touch for a while, even worse than when I was neck deep in writing and pre-production of my web series. Actually that’s kind of the root of what’s been going on. In May, is was starting to rehearse for the second episode of “Calling Home” but I didn’t have everyone. I couldn’t get in touch with our lead at all. I kept trying to contact him with no luck and it meant pushing back the shoot date of the series. At the end of May, it was evident that I had to let our lead go. This meant having to recast the role and then reshoot the first episode. I really hated it but that’s what I had to do, but I still haven’t recast the role yet. I can’t find Latino actors willing to commit to the role and the time for it, or who are right for it. This was the problem I had in January and it’s now grown more troublesome now.
In addition a few things happened at the exact same time. I was in communication with a couple of women that I was interested in going out with. Things were going well at the time, but I was insanely busy. With the Democratic primaries still undecided, since mid-April every Tuesday (normally my day off) I worked an OT shift to help with the extended news coverage. This limited any time to go out with anyone. Still I tried to eke out some time for me. However in the time it took to make time, almost all the women I was talking to found a relationship. Others disappeared, sort of like my actor. So many people “abandoning” me at one time just shoved me down and threw me into a serious depression. When I get depressed, I tend to abandon the world the way I felt I was abandoned. Doesn’t help the depression or correcting anything. My work suffers (very few people at work knew something was up and my ability to do my job was lackluster to say the least), my creativity suffers (haven’t really written anything for the series or anything else; and this is the first blog I’ve posted in how long?), and relationships suffer. I’ve missed birthdays of Myspace friends while racking up lots of points on Pack Rat on Facebook, which basically means I’ve been pretty useless for the last two months.
I at least want to apologize for not keeping up with some people and missing a bunch of people’s birthdays. Most of all I’m sorry for being so far out of touch with folks. Only now I’m starting to come out of it, but I’m still buried in my own little hell. I no longer have to put “Get out of bed” on a to-do list, but other stuff is still a struggle.
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April 23, 2008 by Dave.
As a writer, part of my job is to figure out what project fits into what form. There are stories the can be told in almost any form— song, poem, short story, theatrical play, etc; and there are some stories that only work well in one form— could Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane” ever survive outside of the film medium?
Last May, I was allowed to participate in a pitch session to NEHST Studios and their founder Larry Meistrich (Shooting Gallery) at Rutgers University. I pitched them my strongest script to date (about the homeless situation in NYC) in hopes to get funding for the project. It was a 2-3 minute pitch that went pretty well. However the problem was the project itself. As I was the last pitch, Mr. Meistrich talked about the new company. From what I gathered from the talk, 10 years ago my pitch would have sold an independent studio on the film. Today it is too risky a venture. In fact, the pitches that most piqued the new company’s interest were pitches for internet based ventures. Having worked on that script for a year and spending another 10 years trying to get it off the ground, I spent the first half of the drive from New Jersey pissed and depressed about the state of film today and my dwindling chances of getting my scripts produced. However because I am a writer, I spent the second half of the drive back to Boston trying to understand the format of writing for internet based productions and figuring out how to crack it.
By the time I got back to Boston, I had the strains of two different ideas in mind. One was a sitcom based on vlogs, and a drama about a soldier overseas communicating with his family back home. Nothing was firm; I just had the vaguest of ideas. I spent a good part of the summer doing some research and prep work for the sitcom idea, but I also approached a friend of mine at work, Bryan Ferreira, about working on the military drama idea together. What made the war story an interesting prospect would be that it would really use a bunch of different mediums into one. It would be done on the internet so that’s video/film production. I thought that it would work best if it was done in a split-screen “computer’s eye” view of the action format, so that was more the realm of TV/film. And I felt the best way to get that done was to do it all in one take, live to tape, so that brought in live TV and/or theater where anything could happen.
When I looked at how to do the war drama, I was torn about how to do it. Normally I’d try to get a Latino character in the lead. But if I did that, I would also have to deal with the immigration issues that were at its height in 2007. It would be hard enough to get an honest portrayal of the interpersonal dynamics of a US soldier’s family and the dynamics of pro-war and anti-war conversations, that if I had to deal with immigration on top of that I would lose my mind. So I went back and forth as to what to make the lead character: White or Black? Plus should the family be in the Boston area or somewhere else? Each posed its own problems as well as their own rewards.
What I did then was ask Bryan if the family should be White or Black and where they should be from? Of course, Bryan said they should be Latino from the Southwestern US. I was so ready to kill him at that point. However when I confronted him, he made this point about his choice: the idea is dramatic in that you’re seeing a person being sent to fight for his country when the country he’s fighting for is changing out from under him. That concept stuck with me and soon possessed me. What I thought would be a huge headache for me turned into a fascinating challenge, one that I was willing to take on.
August was spent figuring out who these characters were and creating biographies for them. While the soldier is the main character, I had to figure out the family dynamic as well and the only way I was able to do that was to figure out who the father was. Having the parents come, not from Mexico but from Nicaragua, really opened more avenues for me. We could bring in the whole US history of covert military campaigns and ways their actions destabilized countries in the past, as well as dealing with the 1987 amnesty, both during the Reagan administration, and how those actions (and the administration) reverberates within national policies today. Also we would set the story in the start of the war. This was also one of Bryan’s suggestions. The brilliance of this would be that the drama of the piece is caused by hindsight. We would look back on the way people reacted to and recounted events back then with knowledge of what has happened in the following five years of armed conflict, as well as the escalation of the anti-immigration fervor from small rumblings to a mass movement. Yet I still had to tie all this in within the microcosm of one family.
During this time, I also got back in touch with my town’s public access station, Arlington Studio. I worked with them years before and wanted to look them up to, not only see if there was any way they could help me, but to see if they were still around. At one point they were being run by Comcast and there was some discussions about not renewing the contracts with Comcast and going non-profit and independent. At the town day in Arlington, MA, I was walking around and they had a booth up. They were now officially a non-profit and doing their own thing without Comcast to serve the community. And they were an HD studio. I signed up with them a short time later and basically had an HD studio at my disposal as well as a distribution outlet (they could both help me launch it online and show it on their cable channels)—all for an annual fee of $20. When I went to the IFP conference in September, which was heavily geared towards explaining and demystifying the whole internet/DV production and distribution side, getting this series written and off the ground was all I could think about.
Once all the bios were finished, I started working out he pilot script. I kept showing the progress to Bryan, as I considered him a co-creator of the project. He gave me notes and I worked everything out. All this writing was being done while holding down a full-time job and being a father to a fussy five-year-old. I got very little sleep but it would all be worth it. By the time December rolled around, I had the pilot script ready to go. It had everything that I was hoping for. However I would discover that with all the hard work of research, creating a “bible” and a time line, this would be the easy part of the whole endeavor. My job as a writer was over and my job as a producer/director was just beginning.
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April 1, 2008 by Dave.
One of my favorite moments of the NALIP conference happened on the very last day at the very last luncheon, which was really the last thing I expected. The luncheons were held outside the main restaurant of the resort. They set up a tent overlooking the Pacific and the Laguna hills. If there is one thing I love about this conference is that it’s the one film conference I’ve ever gone to where they feed you—meals are included in the registration price! No one ever does that. I love that they go by that old film crew mantra: you don’t have to pay ’em, but you have to feed ’em. Of course it could also be a another thing: who ever heard of any Latino get together where there isn’t food?
Anyway I was hoping to sit with the other volunteers (check out my last blog to understand why), but that table was completely filled up. I looked around and sat down at a fairly empty table except for three older gentlemen sitting and finishing their meals. For the most part, I ate in silence but I could hear their conversations. The three of them were talking about acting. The first day of the conference was an actor’s fest put on by Back Stage, so every Latino actor in town was here for that, too. All three of these guys— Ramon Hilario, Henry Vega, and Louis Olivios— were busy joking about people they knew on the sets or stuff they auditioned for. They were relatively new to the acting scene. From their attitudes and conversations they were too busy living life to worry about acting until recently only being around it for, at most, the past eight years (at least on film). These guy reminded me—and almost sounded like— those older guys sitting on the stoops back in Brooklyn who drank maybe a little much, always smoked too much and always had some sort of fun and wild tale to tell to anyone who would listen. They were chatting away about acting and auditioning, when one of them mentioned an actor that guested on the TV show Cane. I thought I knew who it was that got the role but I was wrong. Still I told them what I thought and jumped headlong into their conversation. I couldn’t tell you a lot of what was said, but I was laughing most of the time.
As this was the final luncheon of the conference, the heads of the conference were up thanking everyone from the executive directors on down. Of course us volunteers were thanked as “all the volunteers who made the conference happen.” I knew the guy at the mike saying thanks to everyone that he could see, but I wasn’t going to say anything to him. The next thing I know, my name is being screamed out by Henry, Ramon and Louis behind me to the guy on stage. My friend on stage looks over to the table, says my name, and those three guys behind me start cheering and clapping—and I’m pretty sure only those three in the entire tent clapped. But that was the nicest applause I think I’ve ever received in my life. Hands down it was my favorite moment of the conference.
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March 26, 2008 by Dave.
It’s one week until we shoot the first episode of the web series and I’m liking where things are going. It’s taken a long time for things to come together and they are finally starting to. I finally have the full cast and that only happened right after I got back from LA. One of the people I auditioned for the lead role has taken the part of the younger brother. This was key as, as my screenwriting lab mentor mentioned to me, the acting has to be right on as well as the writing. I’m confident in my writing but was worried about the actors. After today’s rehearsal, I’m not so worried about any of the actors anymore. So the casting has finally come together, now if we can get rehearsals going. I still haven’t had a full rehearsal yet because of various scheduling issues. If one actor is working their job, another one is away for the weekend. It’s been piecemeal. Luckily with this script I’m able to segment it a little more and work with each actor or groups of actors separately. Once I hear everyone read it all the way through in the same room together I’ll be very happy.
One of my best friends has written theme music that is really perfect for the show. His name is Antonio Jacobs, who also works under the name Blacklieder (look on my blogroll or my homepage for a link) or with his band Jazzique, so be on the look out for him (he’s been tapped to go to a NEH summer institute in Germany to study Bach). I’m telling him to get ready to make money in ring tones. The only hurdle now is the technical stuff. I was supposed to have settled that today, but another scheduling issue messed that up. However It did give me a chance to talk with my technical director and get an idea of visually setting the stage. This however sets me back and we still don’t know exactly which cameras we’ll be using and whatnot to set the look. I have ideas but unless you have the hardware to play around with, it’s just theoretical. Next I’ve got to get the costumes and set design in order. I’m ordering some ASU stuff online, have to run to the only army surplus store I know on Newbury street to get desert camos and a Che Guevarra T-shirt, and find various things to design the interior of a Latino household in Arizona.
It’s been a challenge but I’m always one to rise to a creative challenge.
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