Guy LeCharles Gonzalez (aka glecharles) (aka loudpoet)

An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Obama Visibility in Union Square

I attended my first “visibility” event for Barack Obama yesterday, in Union Square, right in the midst of the Greenmarket, a perfect location to both be seen by and talk to a pretty diverse range of New Yorkers. There were approx. 20 of us spread throughout the Market, armed with “Obama ’08” signs and, with the deadline to register to vote in the Feb. 5th primary having passed, sign-up forms for people to pledge their support for him and offer to volunteer to help the campaign. I signed up 12 people during the 2.5 hours I was out there (including three potential volunteers), got a thumbs up from a few dozen more who said they were already supporting him, and had interesting discussions with a handful of people, including one who was tentatively supporting Hillary Clinton but keeping an open mind.

As a former Jehovah’s Witness, the whole steup was very familiar, and within about a half-hour, I was pretty comfortable being out there, not missing a beat when I bumped into a former co-worker, something that had always felt awkward back in those days of, um…campaigning for God. One of the things I learned back then was to read body language and faces and eyes, to discern between those who don’t see you and are actively avoiding seeing you, and those instincts were still pretty strong yesterday.

Interestingly, and purely anecdotal and subjective, most of those I saw who openly supported Obama — either by signing up or offering encouraging comments — were white, while a lot of the black people who passed me by either noticeably avoided making eye contact or had looks that I interpreted as an odd mix of melancholy and wistfulness. Of the various people I spoke to, several of them, all intending to vote for whomever the Democrats ultimately put forward, spoke of a deep distrust of the Clintons, one in particular whose comments were so outlandish I had to not-so-subtly shoo him away.

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Carbon Offsets Not Just an Indulgence

Even though I self-identify as a progressive and/or liberal — and definitely am on specific hot-button issues like same-sex marriage and abortion — overall I’m probably much more of a moderate, and when it comes to environmental issues, while I enjoyed Happy Feet and every one of Carl Hiaasen’s novels, my opinion on them has generally mirrored my concerns about cancer when I was a regular smoker: I basically ignored it.

Not because I don’t care, of course, but because there was seemingly nothing I could do about it. While you can usually quit smoking with some effort and self-discipline — and I eventually did — unless you’re wealthy, it just isn’t easy living green, especially when it comes to cars.

I’d love to be able to bike to work, but it’s simply too far, so I take public transportation, which is fine. Salomé would have to leave home around 6am, though, in order to get to work on time, which isn’t fine, so she drives the 6 miles each way, every day. On the weekends, we run our errands, maybe take a trip over to Nyack, or out to Jersey or (less and less these days) up to New England.  Throw in a trip or two down to my mother’s in Virginia and we’re still barely hitting 10,000 miles/year, putting our estimated carbon footprint at 6,984 lbs carbon dioxide last year, according to TerraPass, well below the national average of 19,564 lbs (based on EPA estimated national average of 231 miles/week per vehicle).

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Borders’ Open-Door Poetry

Borders -- partnering with The Student Publishing Program, one of the top high school writing programs in the country -- has launched an interesting new online program promoting poetry called Open-Door Poetry: "Open-Door Poetry" is for anyone who has ever wanted to communicate to others in some way while opening the door for viewers to become active participants. Each compelling episode features seven to 10 "spoken-word" and "academic" poets giving writing advice or reciting poems live from locations ranging from the streets and rooftops in New York City to the living room in the home of the poet. Each episode…

Continue ReadingBorders’ Open-Door Poetry
An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

The Problem With John McCain

I said elsewhere recently that I thought John McCain would be the least likely Republican candidate to make a Freudian slip and drop a racial epithet if running against Barack Obama. I’d forgotten about his reference to “gooks” during the 2000 presidential primaries, though. And then, during last night’s Republican debate on Fox — one of the most depressing things I’ve watched in years, BTW — he dropped this beauty and I realized exactly how important this year’s election is: 

“I’m not interested in trading with al-Qaeda. All they want to trade is burqas. I don’t want to travel with them. They like one-way tickets.”

Generally speaking, I had considered McCain the most palatable of the Republican field despite his aggressive stance on the war, but this kind of casually racist — and clearly pre-scripted — comment, presumably okay because it’s in reference to an enemy — his justification for the “gook” comment, too — brings to mind Stephen King’s Dead Zone, visions of his crazy ass starting World War III being even clearer than those I’ve had of Dubya. (Fred Thompson has a noticeably itchy trigger finger, too, and is looking more like a potential VP choice for McCain, which is scary as hell.)

I watched about 30 minutes of the debate before I couldn’t take it anymore and came away with a better understanding of the appeal of Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul, who at least come off as sincere representatives of their respective platforms, even though the latter seems easily distracted from the point he’s making at any given moment. Paul was the recipient of some unwarranted contempt and derision from both the moderator, the insufferable Britt Hume, as well as several of his fellow candidates, and while he has no real shot at winning the nomination, with the impressive financial support he’s received, I can see him launching a 3rd party candidacy that siphons some votes from the Republicans and possibly even some of the ill-informed progressives who blindly backed Howard Dean in 2004.

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Calm down, people (Part II)

One of the must-read blogs for coverage of the primaries is Talking Point Memo's Election Central, and they've just posted the text of an Obama campaign memo noting the strong fundraising over the first 8 days of the new year -- more than $8 million plus 35,000 new donors, which includes me and my now $100 in donations -- and their strategy and prospects for the upcoming primaries in Nevada, South Carolina and Super Duper Tuesday. Of particular note: In all of the February 5th states, we have active chapters at most colleges and universities and are pursuing support from independent voters aggressively…

Continue ReadingCalm down, people (Part II)
An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Calm down, people

“In the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope!”
— Barack Obama

Anyone falling for the media spin that Hillary Clinton’s victory last night in New Hampshire was an upset (or even a comeback) is suffering from a seriously short attention span. She was leading pretty comfortably there before Iowa and managed to salvage a 3% victory over the upstart Barack Obama who, I think, got a little caught up in the hype around the historical import of his candidacy and coasted a little bit. She did it through a mix of old school political strategy, going negative against Obama in the final couple of days, and an accidental slip of her robotic demeanor that revealed the human being underneath. Anyone who thinks the latter will come to define her campaign moving forward is crazy.

That said, I think her narrowly winning NH is a good thing for Obama as he will benefit more than her from an extended campaign that runs, at least, through Super Duper Tuesday — I refuse to call it Tsunami Tuesday — because it will give him the opportunity to clarify a couple of things about himself, including the simple fact that on the political experience front, he trumps both Clinton and Edwards, as Phil West pointed out on his Obama blog:

But the top three Dem candidates actually have very similar resumes, despite Clinton’s familiarity with the White House from having lived in it. All three are lawyers who have folded activism in some form into their legal careers. If you’re looking at their careers as elected officials, Obama actually has the edge, having spent a decade in either the U.S. Senate or the Illinois legislature, whereas Clinton is on her seventh year as a U.S. Senator (with no prior eleced office) and Edwards served one six-year term. 

Speaking of Edwards, I’m glad he’s not dropping out yet because his voice is an important one to have in the mix and my guess is he will continue to target Clinton as the “status quo” candidate, allowing Obama to focus on representing his campaign’s powerful message of hope. His speech last night was arguably as good, if not better, than his speech Iowa as it had a slightly harder edge to it, challenging Americans to stand up and be heard, to not let anyone tell us what can’t be done, echoing JFK’s “Ask not…” with his own catchphrase, “Yes We Can!”

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe751kMBwms]

Check out the full text of Obama’s “Yes we can!” speech.

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Spindle State of Mind

It’s kind of hard to believe it’s 2008 already and that Spindle‘s official launch is less than 36 hours away!

I spent a lot of time this weekend preparing the content for Tuesday’s update, sending off the last of a handful of acceptances and rejections, the latter of which have gotten no easier since the first one — though my basic rejection letter has gotten a lot nicer, if more impersonal — especially when it involves people I know personally.  One of the biggest differences between running a reading series vs. a publication is that the latter is less welcoming by definition as there is no open mic. Whatever I accept for publication is not just a reflection on Spindle and myself, it’s also a reflection upon everyone else whose work I accept and I want to ensure that Spindle is viewed as a quality outlet for a variety of work and not someplace that publishes just anybody. It’s something I take very seriously and can make for some awkward moments when rejecting people I know and respect.

Some acceptances and rejections happen immediately upon first reading, and some I come back to several times over a few weeks, or more. Most are purely my call while some poems get passed on to my editors for their opinions — and some, eventually, will come directly from their own solicitation efforts — especially when it comes to certain forms as I am not a big fan of formal poetry. Or rhyming. That said, I bring the spirit of the open mic to my reviewing of submissions, being as open to everything as I reasonably can be, and have already published a few poems that at first glance I wouldn’t have thought I’d liked.

All in all, the “soft launch” has worked out better than I hoped it would as the past six months of tweaking the site — first behind-the-scenes and then, as of September 12, 2007, live with regularly updated content — have paid off not only in it being ready for primetime on January 8th, but in there being more strong content already posted than I imagined I’d have at this point.

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