Long Time Gone

Dear Editor, I support the day workers who congregate along El Camino Real daily, looking for odd jobs from passersby. And I support undocumented workers who risk their lives, take on the possibility of never seeing their families again, and risk exploitation for the possibility of a better life here in California. They are not here to feed off our system--they work their fingers to the bone with two or three jobs and send most of the money back home. It's not that we need to stem the flow of immigrants, necessarily; we need to find a way to legitimize their presence here. Yes, the cost of their healthcare is an issue, but we need fundamental reform of that system anyway. Unemployment is low, so they're not taking our jobs. Racism has always been a factor toward new immigrant populations. I'm glad to hear the day worker center is expanding its programs. Let's take this opportunity to welcome new Americans into our fold, as was done for all of our families when the...

Madonna's face is looking increasingly the same over the years; rumor has it she has oxygen facials daily and has had other "work done." As these procedures become more affordable, will our faces eventually become frozen in time?

With all the descriptions that meterologists use to talk about climate, one would think they'd have a term for "yellow-colored air due to nearby forest fires." At least that's what I thought of today when I looked outside and the first word that came to mind about the day was "yellow," and the fact that there are about 800 forest fires state-wide.

It's annoying that even after Hilary Clinton conceded the nomination (sort of), the pundits spend half their time talking about the Senator and her husband and who will mend the damage they've caused the party with their millions of dollars of debt. Someone pointed out that Bill probably wants his legacy to be as the best two-term Democratic president of modern political history, and that he probably feels threatened by Barack Obama, the young, charismatic upstart who is a bit like the similarly-talented Bill when he first ran for president. I also think that Bill blows up at the media so often because he's venting the frustration he felt at eight years of [perceived] mistreated by the media. Whether he was treated unfairly or not is a different story, but I do think he feels slighted by several events, including the Republican Congressional landslide that made it difficult to get any of his stuff passed. I think he's a very bitter, complicated, and smart man.

Ralph Nader went off the deep end today when addressing the racial dynamics of Barack's presidential bid. His racial discourse sounds about 30 years old, as he used phrases like "white guilt" and reduced Barack's value as a human to the color of his skin. My new favorite New York Times reporter, Bob Herbert, managed to skewer Nader with language that didn't sound remotely one-sided, the way pundit-ese can sound. Chris Matthews invited Herbert and Joan somebody, managing editor of Salon or Slate, which I keep confusing, to discuss Nader's gaffe. Maybe that's why they brought it up, since "gaffe" appears to be the buzzword of this news cycle, thanks to John McCain's advisor's remark about how another 9/11-like attack would help McCain's candidacy.

While we're on the subject (I've been volunteering/working with the Obama campaign since March and have heard about little else for some time), I know I've changed a lot in the months I've been away, and it's hard to find a writer's voice again. Plus a lot of this stuff is personal and still shifting around inside, so this is a bit of forced writing, for now, at the behest of friends and family who remind me that this period of my life is particularly worth recording. At the moment I'm thinking of Jiles, the African-American guy with the Irish name who said that when he's angry, he's a black man, but the rest of the time he's African-American. A native Indianan, he volunteered in our Indianapolis office.

It's been months since I've posted and I can't think of anything to say. It's a cliché, but I'm out of inspiration. There are too many experiences to digest, I think, and some perspective is needed before I can process much of what has happened. I am reading about the Dust Bowl, however, which is interesting since it's more of a man-made environmental disaster than I realized. The Great Depression sounds rather nasty, too. No wonder my dad won't eat stewed tomatoes, 70 years later! I'm curious as to the effect Dust Bowl refugees to Southern California may or may not have had on the conservative political climate there. I've just returned from South Dakota and do miss the silence. The lack of electro-magnetic energy is deafening, almost; at least noticeably absent. Felt a bit like a campground, as our housing was on the edge of town, with nothing but big sky and an even bigger landscape dominating. The weather, too, was always an event. Thund...