Doug's Blog

Tahrir Means Liberty

2011-10-10T18:32:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, as I was heading down to register voters at the Caribbean Carnival in Miami Gardens, I began writing a blog about the importance of Twitter and it evolved into a rich commentary on the Arab Awakening…

I wrote, “In the streets of Cairo, Muslims prayed while their Christian compatriots defended them against attacks by camel-mounted thugs with scimitars. Millions gathered in Tahrir Square to peacefully demand their freedom from a decades-old totalitarian regime. They toppled a dictator and tore off the shackles of extremism in favor of unity and a new Egypt.”

Today that tale holds true. But last night violence and riots broke out across Egypt. Coptic Christians and their Muslim neighbors threw stones and rocks and asphalt chunks at one another in a return to age-old clashes that have existed in Egypt for at least a century.

Church-building in the South and sit-ins at the State Television building in Cairo prompted unidentifiable thugs to shoot at and beat up peaceful Christian protesters in Cairo. Once the temporary military regime clamped down and a humvee ran over ten Christian protesters, the Muslims who had come to counter-protest the Christians threw homemade firebombs at the military vehicles in defense of their Christian friends and neighbors. In the face of oppression and in remembrance of the blood sacrificed on the same streets just months ago, Muslims and Christians again stood together.

A cry broke out, “Muslims, Christians One hand, One Hand!”

I do not consider myself an expert on Cairo or Copts or Egyptian Arabs… But today I am saddened but I still have hope that a New Egypt will mean a better Egypt and a little more peace in the world.

Remember Tahrir.

G-d Bless & Salam
Doug

An Updated source: http://english.aljazeera.net/

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/10/2011101011637894517.html

Another Train Day (an Obama Blog) -Friday October 7th 2011

2011-10-08T02:07:00.001-04:00

So its seven minutes to eight AM on a Friday. And I am on another bus. Today I’m not up this early to Obama. Shockingly. :D No, in fact I have an appointment with a specialist. A doctor’s appointment that I had not remember I had until last night at nine thirty when I left the Organizing for America Plantation Office.

Having left the office that late, I knew I was going to go to bed late but thought I would have plenty of time this ‘Happy Friday’ to leisurely wake up and make breakfast sometime about an hour from now… Already had plans to go to L.A. Fitness with a friend who was picking me up at ten. Unfortunately, I decided in an exhausted moos some five hours ago that I didn’t wanna wake up so I turned my cell phone (which shades an alarm) to vibrate and stuck it down on the carpet so there would be no probable way it would rouse me from my slumber.

But my roommate got out of the shower at around seven ten this morning… So he naturally woke me up and asked if I needed to be dropped at the train station. He had wanted to leave by 7:30 but postpones his departure so as to make me on-time for my train. And thereby the bus that followed.

Kinda sucks to not have enough money for the train. I had two dollars cash and some change this morning but that isn’t enough for a five-buck round trip train ticket. So, as I have done all-too-often lately, I hopped the train for free. I am not encouraging people who can afford to pay their fair fare not to. But it is exceedingly easy to go aboard a train and get to the next few stations without ever having seen a security officer - let alone be asked to present a valid ticket for the zone you wish to travel.

Thanks to my extensive history of taking the train at a higher price than I am due (I have yet to have time to get a valid youth “Easy pass” thereby every time I take the train, I am paying up to a dollar more than I should be) and of ChildNet buying me lovely expensive monthly train passes, I feel my fare negligence is forgivable.

At any rate, in Blogs and Tweets and Statuses galore I have talked up the Tri-Rail and RTA (Regional Transportation Agency) network so much that I feel I should be awarded some kind of citizen-journalist award for outstanding information.

^That was a joke. And you - the readers - may well disagree about the usefulness of my information.

Anywhozzles, I’m en route to the specialist where a Vampire awaits to steal many vials of my water and nutrient-deprived blood. I doubt its tasty though there might be a hint of garlic and alfredo from dinner at ten. Garlic and herbs should keep him away. (Unless Wal-Mart garlic doesn’t work!?!?) The nurse’s aide I spoke with Tuesday about today’s appointment instructed me that no water and no vitamins was the way to fast for today’s screenings. ‘Hardcore fasting’ as I call it.

Its supposed to be good for you but my bronchitis has been acting up since the bus driver drove straight on past me yesterday the bench by a construction site (or sand-throwing Autobot battle scene venue) I was next to. Sunlight, exhaust, sand, powdery gray Florida dirt, and fatigue are not on the ingredients list for my Love Potion. Snape maybe. But not me. (Ix-nay on the Unlight-say for Severus.)

So here I am on the bus plowing forth to a whole new place with twenty strangers who are also crossing the County along Sample Road’s Route 34... I ran to greet the bus here because I wasn’t sure if it would stop for the ten or so of us who were a tad behind the timetable wanted us to be as far as timing because we were waving and saying goodbye to the conductor as opposed to running like Inferi with our heads cut off across the railroad tracks.

Wow - we are already at University Drive. Nice. I only wrote a page and a half. This trip was supposed to take an hour and six minutes on this road alone but I debarked the train a mere thirteen minutes ago. See! Public transit CAN surprise you on occasion.

:D

At this point, I debarked from the bus and had little to no trouble running my little errand. Fast forward roughly eighteen hours and that’s where I am right now… The scene: in my plaid jammies pounding out this little Blog for your amusement and inspiration while playing around with a leaflet I may be able to distribute at tomorrow’s “Occupy Wallstreet” Fort Lauderdale gathering outside the Main Library at six PM Saturday evening. Which is about sixteen hours away now…

At any rate, I ended my day much the same way I started it: at a train station. Corey Shearer invited me out to America’s Backyard with the office gang for a complementary buffet. However, I told the bouncer I am 19 when he was asking for I.D. so he asked, “Are you serious? Wow, man, I can’t let you in.” Which sucked because if we had been just twenty minutes earlier - at 8:00 PM, I would have been allowed in. America’s Backyard is an excellent bar I highly recommend next to the Museum of Discovery & Science in the Arts District of Downtown Fort Lauderdale.

So I walked across Broward Boulevard to the Central Bus Terminal. Where I was planning to catch a free shuttle with RTA to the Fort Lauderdale station some ten minutes West on Broward. However, after waiting for the shuttle for ten minutes and seeing no sign of a driver in the vacated (but left running - a waste of gas and an environmental burden, as well as a security hazard) shuttle, I walked over to a County Bus - the 81 - that I knew would drive past the side street that leads to the Station. And of course as soon as I reached the Bus - which would cost me $1.75 for a ten-minute trip - the Shuttle took off. Literally ninety seconds after I had left it…

Sometimes I think we need a patron saint of Public Transit.

So I take the 81 but it leaves four minutes late and in that time it starts to rain and if you’d like to mix metaphors - the weather is a 21st Century Great Flood and I am Noah but the whole Arc of animals is raining on my head. Trudging through the inch-deep water and navigating the currents across Broward Boulevard - with no crosswalk available - was challenging but unfortunately not the worst weather I have had to deal with in my commuting life.

Attempting to jog in order to limit my own ability to freeze from pneumonia or another ailment (just got over Bronchitis last week so yeah - not great to be drenched outside with exhaust all around), I hurried down the winding side street with naught but an “I’m In” Pledge Card to “impervious” (See J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) my glasses from the deluge.

A longer story short (it is now 3:43AM Miami Time on Saturday) . . . Keita Simmons came and got me at the train station. He tied with the train at 10:23PM and we were home in Deerfield Beach by 11. I was soaked and the heater in the car wasn’t working fast enough so to his chagrin I took off my shirt and exposed my hairy abdomen to the drivers-by.

But we were both tired so it was funny and now we have eaten a great dinner and had a fun time of making an uber-awesome American Jobs Act / Obama 2012 Leaflet with contact info for six of Broward’s most active OFA-ers (to be tagged).

Thanks for all of you who read, and comment, and reply to my tags. I appreciate it. And it lets me know someone is listening and that I have indeed, as Hillary said in New Hampshire, “found my voice”.

G-d Bless & Have a Day of Rest & Atonement.

Best Yom Kippur Greetings to you all!

Doug (formerly Cohen in another generation) Hall

That Day in Tampa (an Obama Blog) - Written Thursday 6th October 2011

2011-10-08T01:44:00.000-04:00

Well over a hundred volunteers and Staff from across the State of Florida descended upon Tampa last Saturday. We were all there - from Miami-Dade, from Collier County in the Southwest, from Jacksonville and Gainesville, Apopka, and Orange County; Boca, Ft. Lauderdale, and Tallahassee. Nearly everywhere in the State was represented and we hadn’t made the four hour journey for naught.

The day started fresh and early at nine for complementary breakfast and registration. The schedule stated we would be there for twelve hours. A full day from eight to eight. But the plentiful Dunkin Donuts coffee, bagels, Cokes, and waters available to us would keep us going.

Trudy, Danielle, Patricia and I got there a little after nine thirty. We had feasted upon an excellent array of spicy sausages, piles of scrambled eggs, made-to-order omelettes, and cran-OJ to fuel our fired-up-edness. Embassy Suites Downtown Tampa was a great place to stay and I highly recommend it.

We would have arrived even later thanks to a bus error I made in conjunction with Google Maps. However, as we were walking to where Google led us - four blocks North and two blocks West of the hotel - a woman appeared out of a YMCA building and I asked her if she was familiar with the buses locally. She was, a bit, and directed us where to go. She even used her Android to look up our next bus. Quite a nice lady and she made a great impression for Tampa. The woman, (who seemed to be an Obama sympathizer at the least but whom said something in response to my query of her loyalty and I spoke over her - to Trudy’s later scolding), pointed us in the right direction and headed off to her car in the parking garage across the way.

Well, our happy foursome made our way down the shortcut the nice Tampa denizen had indicated. There were old shady trees with massive trunks and branches that spread out above us almost as high as the buildings they were entwined with. There were fountains on both sides and changes in elevation with steps and rather decorative paving stones underfoot. Awed as we all were, we didn’t immediately notice the woman beckoning to us from her beige minivan. She called to us and I danced on over. She said, “You know, I didn’t think but the University of Tampa is just right that way so I might as well’ve just given y’all a ride.”

Trudy, Patricia, Danielle and I hopped on in the soccer mom-mobile to our collective relief. No more bus fare or uncertainty about where to debark.

It really was just a quick little drive eight minutes over to the UT campus. And a beauty it is. There is a building that looks just like the Kremlin except there are crescents on the spires in lieu of crosses. There is a ‘Hall of Divinity and Worship’ in the middle of the expansive grass courtyard at the heart of the campus. It has gleaming rounded windows and its structure is in and of itself impressive. We came right through the campus - the friendly native had taken classes here in the past so she navigated easily through the winding streets with me garbling out the words, “Its on Drive B or B Street. The parking garage is… But I guess we don’t need it since we are getting dropped off…. Huh…”

Not helpful.

But we made it and settled down. I was excited to see another lanyard available with “Volunteer Leader” inscribed on it. A volunteer leader I am indeed. And there was even a free 2012 pin! We signed media disclosure-release forms in case of pictures getting taken and we got settled in. I found a chair just in front of the sign-in desk and was out with my laptop open, filling out my “story to share” form before Trudy, Patricia and Daniel had settled into a corner on the opposite side of the room.

I ambled over to Daniel - who messaged me on Facebook asking where I was from his phone - to give him my old Kendrick Meek for Senate composition book to take notes in. Was hard to find him but I saw Patricia’s characteristic hat.

John Gilbert, the Florida Statewide Field Director for Organizing for America, was giving his welcome shpeal and it we were all fired up and ready. Pictures were snapped the whole time. I later met a girl on the Media team in an Hispanic outreach pow-wow.

The day was split into five blocks and each block had several different rooms we could go to for trainings on everything from Faith Outreach to Data Entry 202 to Voter Registration Tactics & Strategy. Really I was so hyped up. (Still am writing about it as I sit aboard the Dixie Highway bus 50 heading to Sunrise Boulevard.) Can you imagine the connection I felt with these hundred-plus (maybe two hundred) relative strangers who had all sacrificed their time to come Organize for America, for Florida, and for the good of the Democratic Party’s future. Amazing to me. Inspiring on so many levels.

Anywho, I starred the events I wanted to attend. I chose Hispanic Outreach, Data 202, a Messaging Webstream from David Axelrod’s lieutenant in Chicago, Faith Outreach, and a lesson on what’s working in the Field from the Field Director himself, Mr. John Gilbert.

It was encouraging to have Ashley Pinedo, a feisty young woman who did my initial Fall Fellows training, host a roundtable discussion on the results of a Hispanic Outreach Initiative in Orlando. Over fifty staff and volunteers attended and the logistical lessons learned were insightful. The Campaign is planning at least one in the coming months in South Florida. We suggested there be three in each of the counties of South Florida, preferably tailored to those counties and in centralized locations that everyone can get to.

I met quite a few notable volunteers and organizers from across the State including a man named Emilio who gave us some tips on Latino unions to get in touch with. Very exciting and useful stuff. The bunch of us - maybe 25 of us once you count the stragglers - exchanged contact info and headed out to the next training.

My Block B event was one room over for “Feedback from the Field” with John Gilbert. Another interactive and perception-enhancing talk. We exchanged ideas on what was working best and maybe was “delta” or needed improvement in our districts. This little conversation inspired a couple pages of notes on the back of my schedule for the day.

Next we had an excellent lunch provided by a rather wonderful volunteer who has a catering company. She got her staff to come out and serve us rice and beans and chicken and - geeze, I’m not doing the food justice - there was jerk chicken and yellow rice and flavors of a kind I had never before tasted. All excellent. There was even this amazing fruit lemondae-smoothie thing she made at home that I had three cups of. And I wanted more but there was a limited supply.

So I had some organic green tea courtesy of my new friend Michael of FedEx-Kinkos. He lives down in Wilton Manors with another cool new friend who according to Facebook, is a singer. They were kind enough to give an “I Heart(44th) President Obama” hat draped in flag colors that they had bought in bulk at the Swap Shop here on Sunrise (that I will be passing on the bus in about half an hour hopefully).

Afterwards, I went to Lecture Hall A: “Messaging with David Simas”. David is the messaging guru who served as an assistant to David Axelrod, President Obama’s Chief Aide and Campaign Strategist. We learned a lot of up-to-date polling information about how many Americans support the American Jobs Act and how the President matches up with Governors Romney and Perry - the two likely Republican contenders.

I would say that given the economic and emotional state of this country, the President is proving shockingly resilient and that he has a rather tough base in forty percent of the country. Pretty awesome. If we have this kind of energy in October of 2011, imagine the passions spread on the streets and voting booths of this country come November of 2012.

Full of some yummy delish I headed back on over to the last twenty minutes of Faith Outreach. John Gilbert was walking purposefully right in front of me so I was sure to speed up a bit to get in some quick questions since we were both going the same way. We talked about how long he had been stationed here in Florida and how much progress he’s seen from his post in Tampa and on his frequent jaunts around the State. We have come a long way in the last six months alone. In the last two months since Fall Fellows like myself arrived, in fact. And we have more work to do. I think we will - to quote Larry the Cable Guy - “Get-r-done” but it will take a lot more nights on strangers couches, as well as some sweat and tears, for John and I.

But “Yes We Can” “Get-r-done”.

(^I don’t know how I feel about the combination of those two phrases above. Think its awesome on second thought.^)

I was left with even more of a feeling of encouragement after splaying on the grass with Andrea McKinnon over dinner. Love how Democrats are totally cool with holding meetings in circles on the grass whereas Republicans ought to be more comfy in the stuffy smoke-filled board rooms of Wall Street and in the cocktail lounges of the Hampton’s. This is what the distinction is here in America. Republicans aren’t who you want to be. Be a Democrat. Help me move forward.

G-d Bless & Adieu for now!

-Your Democratic Doug

What I do for Barack Obama Written Wednesday October 5th 2011

2011-10-06T10:40:00.001-04:00

Some people might think I am mad for what I do on this campaign. Other words besides crazy might include devoted, responsible, passionate, and steadfast. But this Blog isn’t about words. Its about effort.

It takes work to build anything in life. Blood and sweat and tears are not just a metaphor for what happens when you give your all for a challenge. They are the reality. As I try to build a better life for myself with a job, an education, and some really devoted friends, I have come to view this campaign as a way for me to advance myself. And it is. It can be for you too.

Every morning I wake up groggily and attempt to watch my Morning Joe on MSNBC. Usually I don’t make it up nowadays I just briefly get up to see my friend off to work. Then I crash back into the confines of my sheets, wake up too late and rush to ready myself for the long journey halfway across the County to the Obama HQ in Plantation. GoogleMaps and a hot shower makes my morning go a bit easier but a one and a half hour trip on a variety of buses, walking, and trains is daunting sometimes.

It takes me ten to fifteen minutes to walk down to the train station. Today I’m on the train headed South to Fort Lauderdale’s Broward Boulevard Station as I write. From there I plan to take a free shuttle to the Central Bus Terminal where I’ll catch the Route 81 to the Lauderhill Mall. Google doesn’t seem to know that free RTA (Regional Transportation Agency) shuttle exists. It suggested I wait in the Florida Sun for twenty-seven minutes. Not gunna happen. Not even when I have pilfered Corey Shearer’s suave brown fedora to shield my eyes.

When I am not writing on the bus or the train, I am usually asking my fellow commuters to sign “I’m In!” Obama 2012 Pledge Cards. Basically the cards ask for your contact info and whether or not you would like to volunteer. I have found that captive audiences like these are more receptive to taking a minute to support the President than are their moving counterparts. Also, fun fact: people are more receptive after work in the cooler nighttime setting than they are when they are hot, tired, and thinking on their morning trips to work. You learn something every day but public transportation sure is a way to learn a whole lot real quick. Life lessons galore.

Once I have navigated my way through the hordes of people at the Central Terminal in a few minutes, I’ll board the 81 Northwest to Lauderhill Mall. The Lauderhill Mall isn’t a lot like other malls I am used to. Its not like Boca Town Center (where I spent yesterday shopping) or Coral Square Mall (which I frequented while growing up rather often). Its smaller. Much smaller. And the clientele is different. More Obama supporters. Less soccer Moms. Lauderhill Mall plays host to eight bus terminals and so it’s a great place for “I’m In!” cards as well.

The office is a mere fifteen minute walk from the Lauderhill Mall if you go at a normal pace. I tend to be a little faster myself. Walk with purpose. It makes people less prone to stopping you, harassing you, or messing with you. And in the life of a public transit frequenter, you will get messed with. For instance, when I got up just past Copans Road on Lyons yesterday in Coconut Creek, I was yelled at and honked at by people driving by. As I am not a pretty girl in a tight red dress and heels I don’t understand why. Who finds it funny to scare the daylights out of innocent passerby? Once - several years ago now - someone even went so far as to throw a glass bottle to smash right beside me at a bus stop off Commercial Boulevard. Sometimes I don’t understand other people’s meanness.

After the walk to the office in about half an hour (its now 1:20PM and I’m on the free RTA shuttle in Downtown Fort Lauderdale), I’ll gop ot the restroom to wipe off some of my sweat before getting down to business.

So what is the business of Obamaing? How do I “organize for America”?

Well, there are many objectives and goals I have through the day. Quotas to meet and meetings to hold. Firstly, I make calls. Lots and lots of calls. My high thus far has been 309 calls in a single day. I have topped or neared 200 three times apart from that. I only have to make 75 a day technically - about seven call sheets - but that takes me less than an hour usually.

The difficulty when you are trying to make calls lies in your attention span. I often get side-tracked when people come up to me to ask for assistance with VoteBuilder.com or entering data or sending e-mails. It takes a lot of learning to see how to budget your time in the office. Making calls is easy enough in itself though. Just know how to talk up the President. Know how to make your call pleasant. I wish people “happy Monday!” and ask them how they are doing “this fine Tuesday evening”. A woman on the phone last night called me quite the charmer. :D

I am on the 81 bus now nearing the Lauderhill Mall. Met a girl Downtown who grew up in South Broward and New York. We are talking race and politics and how insane it is for me to have my laptop out on the bus in front of strangers in a bad area. I believe in the basic goodness of people. As I said to her, there is a certain level of trust you have to put in people when you are riding public transportation. You trust no one is going to follow you off the bus and mug you. You show your wallet to people when you put bills in to get your four dollar daily pass. That’s just the nature of life. Maybe I am naïve. Maybe I am just good-natured. Either way, it would make my life too difficult to scamper around the county clinging to my things, terrified that the random drunk men that happen upon me every few days are going to hurt me or take my bag.

Ran out of time on the bus - had to hurry off the bus and stash my laptop quick before the long walk. Had a long, productive today with lots of help from everyone else in the office and on OFA.NationalField.com.

So get “Fired Up!” & head on over to 4325 West Sunrise Boulevard Plantation 33311 to volunteer with me.

One Night (in Tampa - part 2 (an Obama Blog) Written Wednesday October 5th 2011

2011-10-06T10:27:00.001-04:00

Tampa is gorgeous. At least Downtown is. And the pleasant five-step-break-five-step-break paving stones that led up to the Convention Center were fun. Magical indeed. There was a little mockingbird fluttering at the glass window of one of the doors. It was trying to escape us through the window but didn’t seem to understand the concept of glass. It was brown and speckled and extremely cute. Daniel wanted to catch it but I thought that was mean. So it flew over and away through the thin leaves of a palm tree. A very Disney-esque cheerful sight it was.

There was some hip hop club music playing from what we first thought was a boat on the opposite shore of the River. As we sat with our legs dangling off the side of the Convention Center, Daniel got his jam on. Little fun rotations of his shoulders to the left and then to the right. Priceless.

The view was excellent. The neon skyline was an excellent frame for the deep black of the waters in front of us. I was happy to see some greenery floating amidst the darkness below us and Daniel asked me what I thought it was. I hearkened back to my day’s in Mrs. Frey’s Environmental Science class and decided it was some kind of plant detritus. I grew quiet and took in the scene. We headed home soon after and went to sleep.

President Obama’s campaign had brought me here. To a city four hours away from where I live and have spread my roots. And I loved it. This Organizing for America that I am doing is about more than just the message, the policies, and the candidate… What we are doing is living the American experience. We are engaging new friends and old neighbors to build a better collective future for us all. It’s an innately positive experience and I hope you will join me and consider asking your own friends and neighbors to join you.

Thank you for reading,
G-d Bless & Good Luck!

One Night in Tampa - part 1 (an Obama Blog)

2011-10-03T20:51:00.001-04:00

One Night in Tampa - part 1 (an Obama Blog)

Having only been to Florida’s “Left Coast” once before - on a field trip to the Sarasota Aquarium in the 5th Grade - I was eager to attend this month’s Neighborhood Team Leader conference in Tampa. When the event was first mentioned at a Fall Fellows training several Saturdays ago, I was ecstatic. I was later told there wouldn’t be supporter housing provided for Fall Fellows so I scheduled some work in the Plantation office over the weekend.

Then Trudy Love came over to my desk like the angel she is and offered to put me up in her hotel room for the weekend. The onomonepia “Wahoo” best describes my feeling at that moment. I had a ride there and back as well as a place to rest my head after the long day.

So, I went online to Travelocity and found us a hotel room. Forty-five bucks for a “top-secret” four-star hotel eight miles from the University of Tampa - which had graciously agreed to host our summit. A good deal. Well, Trudy decided to go with Embassy Suites since she had once worked there and liked it. With all the arrangements set, I packed my bags and solicited a couple twenties from my Mom in case we went out to eat.

I was late showering. Daniel, Trudy’s stepson, called me while I was still enjoying the hot water pound my sore back, “We’re here.” Uh-oh. I got out and was quite stern with my perma-wet post-showered hair. Having shown my hair who was boss, I scampered downstairs still buttoning my pre-stickered shirt.

On the four hour and twenty minutes it took to drive across the breadth of the State, Daniel and I created a rather flamboyant Sim on my laptop and Trudy regaled us with stories of her days as a flight attendant and working in the hospitality industry.

The four of us - Patricia Salley, Trudy Love, Daniel Striggles, and I, also talked politics. As we were en route to an Obama convention this was quite fitting. We talked women’s choice politics and the ethics of equal marriage rights. Everyone in the car was against government intervening in the ways of the womb. We also had a consensus that gay marriage should be legal. That what people do in their bedrooms and with their doctors is none of the government’s concern - even though there are differences in the morals of the governed.

This, to me, was quite encouraging and really helped cement the connection I felt for these three people - whom I have now only known for scarcely over a month. Already Patricia calls me her son and I call her my grandmamma. Trudy really respects the work I do in the office and my passion. Daniel enjoyed having someone his own age to talk to - even if I am less interested in Astrology than he might be.

We stopped for snacks, cheaper gas and a bathroom break when we were still about forty minutes inland from downtown Tampa. Stretching our sedentary limbs and getting the cracks out of our backs, we headed into the Shell Station for some snacks. I asked the man behind the counter - a burly tan man with bushy black facial hair - what city we were in. He responded with something utterly indecipherable with an accent I can absolutely not place. Maybe something Middle Eastern?

The man repeated himself several times, and to Daniel and I’s awestruck looks, decided to print out a receipt to show us the name of the new place we were in. Valbuta or something like that. I will Google Map it once I get into the office in an hour or so. (Writing this on an early afternoon train to Ft. Lauderdale).

Having argued against the abomination that are fiery Cheetos and the hodgepodge of eww that is Chex Mix, we headed back out to Patricia’s gassed-up minivan.

I was awed when we entered the Tampa city limits. There were highways snaking all around the sky above us - and lots more on the way from the construction sites aplenty - and the skyscrapers were huge. Bigger by far and more numerous than I was used to than those in my native Fort Lauderdale. The city was also peppered with trees and shrubs and fancy architecture that made the urban heart of Tampa extremely appealing to me.

We arrived at the Embassy Suites and the valet wanted to charge twenty a night to park the car in the garage. He informed us that this was the only way to park besides the city parking garage way towards the west. Well, Patricia doesn’t like handing over her keys so we went on a bit of a journey to find parking while Trudy went in to claim our room.

I had called ahead to a cinema called Channelnine to see if Lion King had any late showings there. I had thought that I wouldn’t be able to see it after Fridays since it was a limited two-week engagement. A man wearing a black Channelnine cinema polo and glasses was walking with his friends along the avenue we were on and he kindly beckoned us to follow him to his car where there was free parking along a sketchy chain link fence between two parking garages.

We each paid a quarter to the Purple Line bus and it took two pleasant minutes to get back to the Embassy Suites from there. The bus let out next to a bench with a statue of a four-time Mayor of Tampa. Dick G-something-or-other. Cool that there are statues there.
We lugged our bags and backpacks into the lobby to be met with fountains, a closed Starbucks (it was nearly Midnight at least) and a very high ceiling. Our room was less than halfway up and it was on the tenth floor. I loved the view of sleeping Tampa’s skyline from the bedroom and the elevator. Romantic and beautiful. Full of water and lights and tall buildings draped in neon light.

President Obama had brought me here. Even if he didn’t know it. And that definitely warrants some brownie points.

Daniel and I went exploring while Trudy and Patricia went to sleep. The beauty of youth is that you can scamper all around town at wee hours then stay awake the next day on three hours of sleep.

We went to retrieve a wine bottle from the car as well as a few other trinkets we had left behind. I filled a publix bag with the trash from the trip and put it into a convenient dog waste bin by the bus stop. Daniel and I took some pictures while we waited for another quarter bus - they came every fifteen minutes until 2 A.M. - and I have to remember to get those off Trudy’s pink camera sometime soon.

After bringing the trinkets up to Room 1009 we headed down to the exercise room and the pool on the third floor. I was impressed with the treadmills complete with bulit-in cable captioned Tvs. Channel nine was CNN. After fifteen minutes of chitchat on the treadmill we went out to the pool even though it was closed. A crowd of drunk tourists came out after us. We walked up to the edge of the patio and took in the view. The River was to our right and the impressive Hilton was just ahead and to our left. The Tampa Convention Center was just to our right and the Forum Stadium was off to the far left. We decided to walk down the outdoor stairs to go up the “magical steps” off the Convention Center closer to the River.

Part 2 Tomorrow!

Thanks for reading & share with your friends!

G-d Bless!

Healthy for America - An Obama Blog

2011-09-29T20:59:00.001-04:00

This fine Thursday morning has me already feeling accomplished. I went to Northwest Medical Center to get some x-rays taken of my chest thanks to my bronchitis. Now I am heading into the OFA Office down in Plantation with a good friend.

My x-ray was paid for courtesy the taxpayers through Medicaid’s Sunshine State plan. For that I am very thankful. President Obama champions fundamental programs like Medicaid that help poor Americans - including millions of children - get the basic health care that they need. As a child, I relied on Medicaid when I got sick to pay my doctors, my medication, and any tests I needed to run. My Mom had Medicaid too until my brother - who still lived with her - turned eighteen. Now she is one of millions of Americans still without health insurance.

This troubles me because she has diabetes.

President Obama is working his butt off to pass legislation to help out ordinary working Americans who need health insurance and need this economy to get back on a growth track. I am hoping you will come out and help me help the President pass the American Jobs Act and get your friends and family involved.

This is a team effort and Team Broward needs your help.

Thanks a bunch,
Doug Hall
DougHall.OFA@gmail.com
954-822-7750

Change vs. More of the Same

2011-09-27T11:12:00.000-04:00

Looking Back
The election of 2008 was a choice. Huge contrasts existed between Barack Obama and John McCain. Voters saw and took these contrasts into account. Voters wanted a change from the policies that had got us into the War in Iraq, tanked the economy, and raised the national debt by trillions in order to pay for tax cuts and handouts to banks, oil companies, stock market speculators, and the wealthiest two percent of Americans. They saw a man that had spent decades in Congress and changed his positions on everything from abortion rights, to immigration reform.
And there was Senator Barack Obama. Barack Obama had barely been in the U.S. Senate for two years. He was an Illinois man. An everyday man who had a calling in public service and in working for the good of his community. Obama was still paying off college loans while John McCain had eleven houses and proclaimed those who make two million a year to be members of the Middle Class. Barack Obama wanted more tax breaks for the Middle Class: those who made under $250,000 a year. Barack Obama had been opposed to the War in Iraq from the beginning and had the foresight back then to say an American military presence there would just inspire further acts of hate and Islamic extremism as well as cause sectarian violence between the different religious groups within Iraq.
John McCain came across as more of a pleasant but forgetful Grandpa whereas Barack Obama could easily have been a husband or father to most of the electorate. These same kinds of distinctions are present today - even if most Americans have yet to tune in to the 2012 race.
Moving Forward
The election of 2012 will be a choice. Massive, important distinctions will be made between the proposed policies of the Republican nominee and those of our Democratic President. President Obama will show he has the record, the stamina, the leadership ability it takes to get this economy moving again whilst trimming the fat from the federal budget. The opponent will likely propose severe cuts to the muscle and bone of the federal government - FEMA, the EPA, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, and Unemployment Benefits. We can’t allow those cuts to happen and when we the American people come out on Tuesday November 6th of 2012, we will vote against attacks on our livelihoods.
But we have to make those contrasts clear. This election is about Change as much as the one in 2008. The War in Iraq may be drawing to a close as President Obama promised, but the wars over economic philosophy being waged in the halls of Congress continue. Immigration reform lies ahead on the agenda. Climate change has not yet been addressed. Infrastructure has improved thanks to the American Reinvestment Act but there is so much more work to do - so many more jobs to create. And it’ll take every weapon in the federal arsenal to drive this economy to the kind of growth we need to put Americans back to work.
The contrast is clear between President Obama and whomever the Republican nominee will be. They want to take away and restrict abortion rights. The President wants to protect them and will appoint judges that will do so. They want same-sex marriage to be against the Constitution. President Obama wants it left up to the states and favors - at the least - domestic partnership rights. The Republicans want to lower taxes on corporations and the wealthy while President Obama wants to fund essential services and programs with the revenue from bringing tax rates to Clinton levels for the top two percent of earners. The radical Republican field want to drill for oil everywhere - in national parks like the Everglades here in my backyard or in the pristine Alaskan National Wildlife Preserve. The Republicans want America to be synonymous with torture while President Obama has put an end to the practice. They want their insurance company backers to be able to kick you off or deny you coverage for preexisting conditions that include even domestic abuse. They want to repeal the healthcare President Obama has extended to children and a larger number of the poor. They want to cut unemployment benefits.
President Obama has America’s best interests at heart and has the sound mind and steady hand we need at the helm in these troubled times. Governor Rick Perry - Bush’s successor in Texas - does not. Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts does not have the steady hand we need, nor the diligent mind. He has flip-flopped on healthcare reform repeatedly (as well as a host of other issues).
So stick with the President. And together you and I can make the change we need in 2012.

What it Means to be "Obama'ing"

2011-09-27T11:11:00.001-04:00

Back in 2008 I coined a term that I think really gets to the essence of what we who work on Barack Obama’s Campaigns are doing. We are working for the community as organizers and advocates. We are lobbying in the interest of the American people. We are representing the Democratic Party and bringing new life to practical policy-making on the grassroots level. We are preaching hope and forging change.
We are Obamaing.
Every day, every hour, every minute invested into this campaign isn’t about the name found at the top of the ticket. Its about you. And me. And what we can do together to work for a better world, a better America for our children and grandchildren and all those who come afterwards. This campaign and the one in 2008 were about a message that has indeed been heard from the smallest fishing villages of Maine to the urban sprawl of Los Angeles and the cold meeting halls of New Hampshire and Iowa. The message has spread in Spanish and Creole and in music. It has been expressed in art and from thousands of voices online. This message is in the hearts of teachers, in the hopes of students, and in the yearning of parents across the Nation.
Yes We Can. There is Hope. If we can have the audacity to dream the American Dream that the future for our children is better than the past we have left behind, we can put on our marching shoes and get out and make the kind of future we all know we need.
There are a great many things yet to be accomplished. Sometimes the odds have looked overwhelming and to many it still feels as though we are in the winter of this Great Recession. But the recovery is happening. There will be a Spring. But we have to work for it. We have to call and e-mail Congress to get the American Jobs Act passed. We have to tell our friends and families to get on board so that we can unite as one nation again and face the challenges of the day - and the many still ahead - in a manner that would make our Founders proud.
We can’t complain anymore. We can’t sit back in revulsion as flip-flopping hypocrites and extremists take the stage and further repress our will to move towards change and progress. We have to get up off the couch and switch off the talking heads who want us to believe that the chances against us are too high too surmount, that we are doomed before we begin - that the truths of 2008 will not ring true to voters in 2012...
In the great story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. President Obama spoke those words on the trail across America back in 2007 and the story of America remains the same today. We will recover. We will be bigger and better and stronger as we move forward. I believe it when I say that America’s best days are still ahead.
So join us on the campaign. Help us out and help keep this country moving forward.

How I Came to Google Barack Obama

2011-09-26T19:40:00.002-04:00

How I came to Google Barack Obama

Having watched the then-senatorial candidate deliver a rousing and passionate speech to the Democratic National Convention in 2004 and then seen him rise as a star in the book world and on the talk show circuit, I already had a semblance of an opinion of the man from Illinois with the big ears and the funny name.

It took my close friend Stephanie Holzinger to prod me towards looking him up. I was researching an extra credit report on presidential contenders to Colonel Osowski in my Army JROTC class Freshman year. I had already been impressed with Senator John McCain’s immigration proposal: the McCain-Kennedy Bill (now long-forgotten as the old pre-Tea Party McCain). Long had I admired Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas’ laws prohibiting smoking around kids in cars or at home - as well as his successful battle against his weight through marathons. Laughing at former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s drag images on Google had provided some comic relief for my searches.

Most of my reports were already done. I only remember looking at the Republican field that night. Stephanie and I were on the floor in her Japanese-accented bedroom complete with bunk beds and some Uncle KC’s Chinese take-out. General Tsao’s Chicken in particular. (Not my favorite.) She said, “Doug, you might wanna check out Barack Obama. Have you heard of him? Know much about him?” To my negative response she said, “No - he’s a-Mazing! At least look him up. He’s great.” Well, I respect Steph’s opinion on a whole host of things so I did look him up.

And that is how I came to Google Barack Obama.

I read that his book, The Audacity of Hope, had rave reviews. As did his earlier memoir, Dreams From My Fathers. He had written that while serving as the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review. And now he was a Senator from my own home State of Illinois. For that, he got definite brownie points. He was the son of a single mom (like myself). He was raised largely by his grandparents (also like me for some of my earlier years). And he grew up in a hot and rainy state full of a variety of interesting and demographically mixed people. Like me here in South Florida.

So young and egotistical me - voted Most Likely to Succeed in 8th Grade and with the magnificently large head that it takes to have an e-mail handle like ‘presidenthall2028’ (2028 being when I am 37 - the first year I’ll be eligible to run for President) now felt as though I had a potential presidential contender with a similar life story running from my home state. It was like G-d Himself spoke to me and told me to start campaigning.

Falling in Love (an Obama Blog)

2011-09-24T12:34:00.001-04:00

Reading Barack Obama’s book ‘The Audacity of Hope’ provided quite a few more personal glimpses and insights into the now-President’s life. I highly recommend every American read it. Especially cynics about his character.

Some of the juiciest nuggets in the book are about his personal relationships. He met Michelle at work at a law firm. At first, she outranked him. They had their first date at a Baskin Robins and shared ice cream cones on the bumper in the parking lot.

Sounds like a very romantic first date.

My first really serious girlfriend and I fell in love over the course of then-Senator Obama’s 2012 campaign.

Anne Stettin first caught my eye in Mrs. Rosemary Bond-Jackson (of Bond, Tennessee)’s 11th Grade Anatomy class. While Anatomy is, and sounds, like a very romantic subject (ever hear someone utter that most convenient of pick-up lines, “wanna come over and learn anatomy?”) I was as surprised as anyone as to how much that class affected my love life.

Mrs. Bond-Jackson, a former nurse practitioner and the head of the Science Department at my high school, was giving one of her daily talks on the current events of the day and wisdom-packed life lessons at the start of class. It was early on into the year and few of us knew each other all too well. Anne was seated at a black slate lab table in the second row and I was back to the left in the third row with my close friend and foster sister, Jessica.

The discussion that fine Fall day was on race. Anne raised her hand to offer a comment. In a thick German accent, the red-brown haired girl perked up and said, “I don’t understand why race is such an issue in your country. I mean, I’m white. You’re black. Some people are brown or pink, why does it even matter? This is the twenty-first century.”

That was the moment I decided to ask Anne Elisabeth Stettin to the first and last Homecoming dance I ever went to over the course of my high school career.
She and I were great together. I took her to her first American McDonald’s and she took pictures. Anne, I remember, was pleasantly surprised to learn that each McDonald’s - built at different times and in different styles - was different. I guess in Germany they are more homogenous?

When I went to BarackObama.com and found an office to go volunteer at, I thought I would ask her if she wanted to tag along. She did. And she was fantastic on the phone. A politically-minded foreign national with a thick Hessen accent would become the best person (besides my not-so-humble-self) I had ever heard on the phone with a voter.

For instance, Senator John McCain of Arizona - then the Republican contender for the White House - had recently had a sit-down with ‘A Purpose Driven Life’ author and evangelical mega-star Rick Warren. Warren asked John McCain identical questions to the one’s he had asked Senator Obama the night before. Whereas Obama pledged not to raise taxes on anyone who made under than 250,000 dollars a year (a pledge he has kept, by the way - giving the largest tax cuts to the Middle Class in American history), Senator McCain said, “Eh, I don’t know. I don’t want to go into numbers.” but Warren pressed him and he replied with this radically-different answer, “One, two million”.

Two million dollar middle class? Less than two percent of Americans make more than a million a year. From a multi-term Senator, multi-book author, with a high speech-making asking price and eleven houses, for Anne, that was too much.

“Are you kidding me? How could you think of voting for that guy? He has eleven houses. Last night, he said that people who make two million dollars are Middle Class. I’m sorry, but that’s just wrong.”

The voter agreed and Anne got to check that they were supporting Barack Obama.

That was the moment I fell in love. And it had everything to do with the Obama Campaign.

Anne and I went on to date for several months but she was only here in the United States for ten months - eight of which I knew her for. She and I continue to chat and talk to this day (three years later) thanks to the miracles that are Skype video-chat and Facebook.

The fact that a young man and a young woman can “court” (as Mrs. Bond-Jackson put it one day) in Anatomy class and fall in love over the course of a Democratic Presidential Campaign says a lot about this country. And gives me hope and pleasure in the knowledge that there is, yes, good in the world.

So come out and volunteer! Who knows? You might meet someone you’ll learn to love.

Thanks and G-d Bless!
Doug Hall

On the Fierce Urgency of Now (an Obama Blog)

2011-09-23T11:49:00.001-04:00

Today as I sit here and celebrate my significant other’s birthday this Friday I reflect on where I am and where I hope to be when I’m thirty. Will I be a Middle School teacher? Will I have lost my job because of budget cuts in the county I live in? Will I worry about my healthcare insurance and spend the morning of my Birthday on the phone with three different medical providers - one of which I can’t afford, an old one, and a prospective new one? Will my preexisting condition make that harder on me?

All of these concerns are problems faced by roommate and lover today. Hope and change are vague notions shared by idealists and optimists. But there is a fierce urgency right NOW that drives me forward and makes me want to turn HOPE and CHANGE into PROGRESS for me and the ones I love.

There are problems out in this county, in this state and all across this vast country that need to be addressed. Change needs to happen. And we are all frustrated - President Obama included - that it has not happened on near the scope and scale that we yearn for as a collective people.

Today there are hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who live in the shadows. They can’t call the police or report to the Census or get health insurance for fear of getting arrested, processed, and deported away from their children, siblings, parents, and families who might already be legal here.

As I write, stock markets across the globe are panicking because of debt issues here in the United States and around the world. This market turmoil effects us all. In our pensions and retirement plans. In the charitable trusts and savings accounts and 401 Ks that most of us rely on for any hope at retirement. Investors lose capital and companies stave off going public, and hiring workers, and spending more money on refurbishing buildings and replacing old worn-out or outdated tools and technologies. This means we as a world are in trouble. We are in crisis. And what about jobs?

Millions of unemployed Americans are out searching for a job. Millions more have given up and sit on the welfare rolls with tax dollars providing for their most basic needs. I myself receive food stamps and do not have any source of income. I am a dependent.
These millions of our neighbors, parents (my Mom is too discouraged by the job market and her lack of employment over the last few years to consider getting a job), friends and family members are stuck in a rut. Our economy is changing and growing but it feels as though we are going forward at a snail’s pace.

President Obama has done all he can to try to reboot this economy and solve these problems. Recently he proposed the ‘American Jobs Act’ to try to stave off a fall back into this Great Recession. The Bill as he proposed it provides for refurbishing a third of America’s schools so that we can put people to work, save money on utilities, and give American kids and teachers a better place to learn and work.

The American Jobs Act, if Congress passes it, would allow for the hiring, re-hiring or prevent the firing of 50,000 American teachers. That means more people off of welfare and paying taxes. It means less daytime TV and more people back into the classroom. It means the working class may be struggling financially but at least the public schools our children go to will be safe, and modern, and will be full of teachers glad to have their jobs and motivated to do the best they can to ensure a smarter, brighter generation of students so we can win the future.

The President passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009 to try to prevent a more severe economic plunge into a Great Depression-style downward spiral. While the economy was in worse shape than was then thought, unemployment would be a lot worse had that package - not as big as most economists would have liked - not passed. Democrats in Congress acted and not only did we manage to pass that stimulus we managed to pass landmark healthcare reform in the Affordable Care Act of 2010 that will save our economy and our government billions of dollars that would otherwise go towards entitlements, and paying for inefficient care that could have been prevented.

So now the Republicans in the people’s House - in your House of Representatives - needs to act. The American Jobs Act is at their feet and the President has been nothing but open to any infrastructure additions or economic ideas they have to propose. He even met with Kentucky’s Junior Senator Rand Paul, a Tea Party hero and the son of Texas Congressman and Republican Presidential Candidate Ron Paul, to talk about infrastructure spending and a bill Senator Paul hopes to propose to make changes to federal spending. The President has invited Speaker John Boehner of Ohio to come with him to golf, and to several state dinners, and to come talk with him at the White House but the Speaker does not seem to want to get to know the President (perhaps because politically that doesn’t go well with his radical Republican peers?) or work with him.

The fierce urgency of now compelled me to write this and it compels me to call Capitol Hill and let the Congressional delegation for my community and my state know that I think they should pass President Obama’s American Jobs Act. We need them to act as quickly as possible. We need to bridge the partisan divide that, even as I write, is preventing a compromise on the stopgap (temporary) budget bill because of a quarrel over disaster relief (disaster relief!!!) as a result of flooding, drought, wildfires, and the spillover effects of Hurricane Irene.

The President has plans beyond the accomplishments he has done so far. Immigration Reform is on the agenda as legislation including the DREAM Act will soon be re-introduced to Congress. It is unlikely that comprehensive immigration reform will be passed in the Republican-controlled House until after 2012 when we return Democrats to power (if you vote!!!). However, issues like immigration would only be worse under a President Mitt Romney or a President Rick Perry. We don’t need to go backwards and cancel out the gains we have fought for so far.

Meanwhile, we are fighting the Republicans in the House and Senate who constantly try to oppose, and filibuster, and blockade his agenda in radical new ways each and every day. We are moving against the tide on new policies at a time of crisis. And so we need every voice we can moving forward. We have to lean in to the current and lend our collective strength to the President’s agenda. We need to Facebook and Tweet and Blog and Google+ about our support. We have to call and text and e-mail all of our representatives in D.C. We need to let our support and our calls for bipartisanship ring from the mountaintops “from coast to coast from sea to shining sea”.

So lend your voice and come and volunteer or donate if at all you can in this economy. It matters in this combative political climate. Every hour you donate, every call you make, and every dollar you can donate matters.

For more on how you can help, stay tuned to this Blog, my Facebook feed, and my Twitter account. Go to www.WhiteHouse.gov or www.BarackObama.com for more.

Thank you for all you are doing & yet will do!

Good luck & G-d Bless!
Remember, together Yes We Can Make the Change We Need
Doug Hall

Buses, Trains, & Making CHANGE

2011-09-22T21:16:00.000-04:00

As I write this, I am actually sitting with an open laptop riding on the Route 18 train here in Broward County down 441 (FL State Rd 7). I am used to riding the bus. And when I was fifteen I grew used to riding the train as well. Moving down to Miramar - because I changed foster homes - I needed a quick and easy way to go far that didn’t involve driving a car.

So I took the train.

Ever since, I have met hundreds (maybe thousands) of people - collected months and months of thirty-one day bus passes and probably ridden the train a hundred times. The Tri-rail runs from Mangonia Park up in Palm Beach County to West Palm Beach International Airport and down to Ft. Lauderdale International in Hollywood and through all the way down to the Miami Airport Station. Very convenient & even quicker than taking the car.

So as I write this I am sitting going in the same place as tens of people from all over the world (chatted with a professor at the University of Costa Rica a couple weeks back on the way to Church)… It really gives you a sense of having something in common with the people around you and really emphasizes the feeling of community that is epitomized in the work Organizing for America does during these campaigns.

As I said to several of my fellow Fall Fellows, it is easy to get people who have nothing to do (lest it be cell phones to play with or bus timetables to sift through) to sign on with the Campaign because President Obama and we in the Democratic Party support public transit. Public Infrastructure and investment is a critical part of the President’s agenda to create jobs. And it is of all of our interest as Americans to invest in these systems that get the Middle Class to work every day in states in all corners of our Union.

The feeling of “oneness” - of having common concerns and interests really does come to mind now as I write and see a Haitian man in a cowboy hat chew gum feel a be-speckled woman with a turquoise blouse sit down less than a foot to my right while listening to an elderly bearded man jabber away in rich Spanish… Riding the bus or on a train or - I imagine - on a Subway or Metrorail - means you are going places. It means you use what the GOVERNMENT (not so bad when its big and useful, huh?) services available to you as a resident in this great country.

So I walk five minutes to the nearest train station and hop on a Southbound Tri-Rail for five bucks round-trip and then catch a bus from the station out West to 441 - where our lovely little Plantation OFA Office is conveniently located at 4325 West Sunrise Blvd in ABR Realty (moderately shameless plug).

Making CHANGE means making jobs. Making change means work. Hard work for you and me and everyone whose blood and sweat and tears sways voters and volunteers and legislators all around the Sunshine State (and the whole U.S.) each and every day. So I urge you to come out and support us. Call or text us. Tweet your support to the President and House and Senate Democrats. Add your voice to the social networking scene and let your friends and followers now on your status that the message that rang true in 2008 is still true today.

Yes we can.

We can elect this President again and we can unite this country to move forward and get out of the challenges that face us in this economy. Yes we can. Yes we can still change this world in continue the movement.

But only if you help.

President Lincoln. President Obama. And me.

2011-09-20T04:55:00.000-04:00

President Abraham Lincoln. President Barack Obama. And Me. Douglas Roger Hall III. What do the three of us all have in common? Well, we all have roots in Illinois. Of the three of us, I was the only one to actually be born in the “Land of Lincoln” as it is now called. Both Lincoln and Obama served as Senators from the State of Illinois. I was born in the City of Rockford in the northern part of the state. My Mother, brother, grandfather, uncle, grandma and a whole host of other family members were born there too.

I moved away before I was two but I remember my Grandpa Doug (Jr.) urging me to lick icicles hanging on the rail off of the balcony of the second floor of our old house in Rockford. I think I tried to break one off but it was too hard - me being just a toddler at the time.

Illinois was always in my heart and I would proudly proclaim I was from there and not the hot, flat, wet place (I have now come to love) called Florida that my family now called home. It was a point of pride to be from the place that President Lincoln came from (I knew that from a rhyming book on the Presidents my Grandpa Doug gave me when I was little.)

We only went back twice that I can remember after we moved. Once to visit my ailing Great-Grandpa Doug (Sr.). He was in a nursing home. A former, World War II fighter and once offered to be Chief of Police for Rockford, he was a well-decorated man. A Grandpa I have come to be proud of. He died a while after our visit though - sometime around when I was five.

The second time we visited was for my Grandma Heidi’s funeral. The light of our family and the glue, bolts, and sweat that held us all together - my Grandma would be sorely missed.

Heidi Lynn Hall was a wonderful lady and a beautiful human being.

A librarian at the local community college in Rockford, Grandma Heidi met my Grandpa on a blind date set up by a mutual friend - a reporter for the Rockford paper. The reporter was doing a piece on the so-called “alternative lifestyle” and they spent the evening at a couple gay bars, a dirty movie theater, and a strip club according to my Grandpa. My Mom refuses to believe it.

I loved folding the quilts with my Grandma and helping out in the kitchen. Making snack crackers with cream cheese or Palmer’s jelly or peanut butter was my favorite thing to do. We had these two large platter plates that I really enjoyed using. Decorative edible fruit plates were also a forte of my six year-old (Dougie) self.

So I knew Illinois through my Grandpa and my Grandma and a little teensy bit through my Mom when I was really young. When my Great-Grandma Florence came to live with us I learned a lot more. The more I knew, the more I loved the state I was born in. So when a young and charismatic man from Illinois made a fiery speech to the Democratic National Convention in Boston in 2004, I was paying attention. And I must’ve loved it because I enjoyed and I remember watching the event - though I didn’t remember the man that made the speech.

At that age I was a Fox News junkie. A teacher of mine in 7th Grade thought I might like to watch Bill O’Reilly. So I did and I really liked the Factor. However, I came to realize that spin didn’t really stop with him on occasion - even if he is a well-intentioned man with common sense and the most successful cable news program.

While watching the news around 2006 and 2007 I began to see more and more of a single man. The man had won a Senate seat in 2004 and had written a well-titled new book with rave reviews. With the first non-incumbency election coming up in fifty years, his name got mentioned as a potential presidential contender. He was from Illinois and wrote a book about hope. His book tour was getting him celebrity-like attention. And I would remember this in late 2007 when I first Googled Barack Obama.

Home Tree Falls (a poem) Sunday Sept. 4th 2011 6:49pm

2011-09-05T18:52:00.002-04:00

HOME
A PLACE FOR DREAMS
WHERE DRAGONS ROOST;
CLIMBING, SLIDING, FLYING
IN THE AIR.

TREE
A BREATH OF AIR
TO QUENCH THE WIND.
SWAYING, GROWING, TREMBLING
OVER US ALL.

HOME
A PLACE FOR ALL
WHERE THE HEART RESTS.
LAUGHING, PLAYING, CRYING
FOR OUR PEACE.

TREE
A WAY ON UP
TO THE HEAVENS ABOVE.
LIVING, WATCHING, BLINKING
WITH A VIEW.

HOME TREE
A VIEW ABOVE ALL
WHERE HEARTS LAY DOWN
SLEEPING, LEARNING, BEATING
OF LIFE'S SONG.

HOME TREE FALLS
A LONG WAY DOWN
THAT BREAKS MY HEART
TEARING, CRUSHING, RAINING
THE LEAFY STORM.

Despite my Happy Lie (a poem) Sunday Sept. 2nd 2011

2011-09-05T15:06:00.003-04:00

Despite my happy lie
I'm moving forward.
I laugh, and I smile, and I cry
I'm moving forward.

I'm wanted. I'm needed.
Going somewhere, doing something.
I'm wanted. I'm needed.
Maybe I will trust again.

Sorting this out - my life.
Not worth going on.
Just trying not to catch that train...
Not worth going on.

I'm pensieve. I'm reserved.
My happy lie continues
It's a problem to be dealt with.
My happy lie continues...
'til I catch my train.

Sidebar. (a poem) Sunday 7:03am

2011-08-22T13:16:00.002-04:00

A QUICK NOTE
FOR YOU TO
READ THEN MOVE
ON.

WE IN THE
SIDEBAR LIKE TO
THINK OF YOU
OFTEN.

YOU SHOULD KNOW
THAT ON OCCASION
WE DREAM WE'RE
USED.

JUST WANTED TO
LEAVE YOU THIS
NOTE IN THE
SIDEBAR.

Chance (a poem) Sunday 6:57am

2011-08-22T13:14:00.002-04:00

SPIN THE TOP
AROUND IT GOES
WHERE IT STOPS
NOONE KNOWS

BUT GIVE IT TIME
YOU SEE? IT SLOWS
AND THEN
YOU AND ME
WILL KNOW...

TIME IS UP
IT STOPPED
WE'RE HOME.

My Case (a poem) Sunday 6:53am

2011-08-22T13:10:00.002-04:00

ALL MY DUCKS ARE LINED UP
READY IN A
ROW.
THIS TIME I'M ALL BUT RHYMED UP
TWISTED IN A
BOW.

FOR DESTINY
HAS TAKEN ME
FOR QUITE THE LITTLE
SPIN.
THE REST OF ME
IS FAKING ME
DROWNING IN THIS
DIN.

PLANS WELL-LAID...
THIS TIME I'VE STRAYED
AND TWO DECADES
SEEM
LESS THIN.

Breakfast (a poem) Sunday 21st August 2011 6:43am

2011-08-22T13:06:00.002-04:00

SPAGHETTI O'S
AND BUTTERED BREAD
CHEERIO'S
WITH MILK INSTEAD.
ONE OF THESE IS
BREAKFAST TYPE
BUT BOTH THESE O'S
FILL UP THE HYPE
DELICIOUS.
NUTRITIOUS.
ALL YOU'LL EVER NEED!

TAKE OFF YOUR THINKIN' CAP
GRAB SOME BUTTER, JAM...
HOPE THE SYRUP'S ON A TAP
AND MOMMA'S ON THE LAM...
'CAUSE SUGAR, HONEY
IT AIN'T THAT FUNNY
WHEN BELCHIN' SKIPS YOUR BEAT.

GONE. AWAY. GOODBYE. GOOD DAY!
YOUR BREAKFAST
DID YOU EAT.

Dialogue (a poem) Sunday August 20th 2011 10:27am

2011-08-22T13:01:00.002-04:00

"BOTH.
WHY?
I WON'T ANYMORE.
... BURDEN.

DON'T LIE.
FUCK HIM.
MADE ME REALIZE...
END ALL TIES.

A TOAST FOR YOU.
I LOVE YOU...
BETTER WITHOUT ME."

"HOW AM I TO HELP YOU?
YOU'RE MAKING MY LIFE DIFFICULT.
I LOVE YOU.

YOU LIGHT UP MY DAY.

I DRANK WINE... NOT STRONG.
I AGREE.

GOODBYE?
I WON'T FORGIVE.
YOU'RE WRONG.
GOODNIGHT.
CONVENIENT."

Pinstripes & Roses Sat. 20th August 2011 10:05am

2011-08-22T12:57:00.003-04:00

Pinstripes and Roses

EVERY ROSE HAS ITS
THORN.
EVERY HEART CAN BE
TORN.

BUT WAITING FOR A ROSE
TO BLOOM
OR DREADING THAT YOU'RE HEART
IS DOOMED
CAN ONLY HURT.

THERE'S A PLACE
BETWEEN THE LINES
AN EMPTY SPACE
HARD TO DEFINE.

BUT SOMETIMES
THAT'S WHERE THE ROSES
CHOOSE TO BLOOM.

Rx. (a poem) Sat. 20th August 2011 9:56am

2011-08-22T12:50:00.002-04:00

Rx.

A PRESCRIPTION
FOR THE LIFE
I LEAD.
A DESCRIPTION
OF THE TIME
I NEED.

GIVE ME A NEW
ONE TO SWALLOW.
GIVE ME SOME MORE
PILLS TO FOLLOW.

TABLETS AND
CAPLETS,
LIQUIDS AND
PILLS.
THESE ARE MY POISONS,
JUST GIVE ME REFILLS.

TIME? I'VE GOT PLENTY,
SO LONG AS THERE'S MANY
FOR ME TO KEEP TAKING.
MY TIME'S WORTH A PENNY,
BUT LIFE'S ALWAYS WORTH FAKING.

WITH A PRESCRIPTION.

Pills (a poem) 20th August 2011 9:43am

2011-08-22T12:45:00.004-04:00

NUMB THE PAIN
AWAY.
DROWN THE FEAR
TODAY.
KEEP THE GHOSTS
AT BAY.
PILLS
TO NUMB,
DROWN, AND
SWALLOW
TO KEEP
THE PAIN,
THE FEAR,
THE GHOSTS
AWAY TODAY.

Kendrick Meek, Doug's Pick, for Senate

2010-07-19T18:38:00.005-04:00

My Candidate: Who is Kendrick Meek?

Congressman Kendrick Meek has worked his way up from humble beginnings. He lives and breathes what it means to have a work ethic - to work hard & work your way up.

He grew up in a tough area of Miami - Liberty City. His Mom, Carrie, was a teacher, mentor & basketball coach at the local middle school before she was elected as the first black Congresswoman in the South since the post-Civil War era of Reconstruction.

Now Kendrick is doing his darndest to forge his own path - fighting for the middle class laborers & families that make up the rock of our community.

He is running for Senate against a whole array of Republican opponents.

The Opponents: Republicans All

Billionaire Pretender - Jeff Greene

Jeff Greene, billionaire & long-time Republican, launched himself into the Democratic primary for the Senate nomination by simply paying the fee for registration on the very last afternoon you could file. Since - we have all seen him on TV being promoted as a supposed Democrat who will shake things up in Wasington . . .

There is nothing new or good about a rich guy trying to buy his way into politics. Jeff Greene is distorting his own record & trying to smear Kendrick's history as a public servant so that the Democrats of Florida will let him buy his way onto the ticket.

Republican Governor - Charlie Crist

Charlie Crist - our Governor - decided to flee the Republican primary because he couldn't beat the extremists & Tea Party activists backing Marco Rubio. So, he is running as an Independent. Charlie has proven through his record countless times that he can not be trusted to make the hard choices - take the tough positions - to stand up to his "Grand Old Party" - and stand with the people of Florida.

Charlie Crist ran for Governor on cutting taxes for Florida's middle class. The subsequent cuts - which only saved average families a tiny bit on their property taxes - resulted in Florida having to lay off countless police officers, firemen, nurses & doctors and started the very budget crunch that has been exacerbated by this Recession.

On Education, Charlie Crist has flip-flopped on Senate Bill 6 - first supporting it & then vetoing it 2 days before it would have automatically became law. Since that day, the Republican Party's new extremists kicked him out & Charlie has been doing his best to appeal to independents & Democrats. The media has recently begun touting him as the frontrunner.

Where was Charlie Crist when the students, parents & teachers of this State needed more money for our schools? Where was he when offshore drilling was debated in the halls of Tallahassee? He was Governor. Making the easy decisions to just go with whatever his Republican friends in the Legislature wanted him to do.

He was not an Independent then. He is not an Independent now.

Tea Party Extremist - Marco Rubio

Marco Rubio has long been a power player in Republican-dominated Tallahassee. He was the responsible for serving his constituents in Miami-Dade, but instead spent his time promoting Republican principles & policies just as he is promoting himself now as the Republican nominee in this Senate race.

Marco has a lot of support in the latino community of Miami-Dade. He speaks Spanish & that has given him the ability to speak more clearly to his community. That's great. But in the meantime, he allies himself with people like Mitt Romney, Dick Cheney, & Sarah Palin - advocates of things like the Arizona "Paper's Please?" law that would have police officers do the job that the Federal government is responsible for.

Marco & his Tea Party associates need to stand down & let responsible moderates take up the work of governance here in Florida. "Cambio" & "Si, se puede!" are the banners President Obama was elected on. Marco would have us go back to more of the same Bush-era Cheney-style politics that hurt this country for 8 long years.

So Remember . . .

Don't believe your eyes when monied billionaires try to buy your trust. Don't trust a man to work for you in the Senate when he works for his Party as Governor. Don't vote for extremism & its flag-bearers.

Vote the alternative.

Believe in hard work, in a man that has stood up for you even when that hasn't been easy. Believe that the hope for renewal of the American Dream that millions of us had in 2008 hasn't died . . . Believe that with Faith & hard work when we are asked the question, "Can we win this November?"

We respond with a resounding "Yes We Can!"

Believe in Kendrick Meek.

www.KendrickMeek.com

Decision to Blog

2010-06-21T22:27:00.001-04:00

My decision to blog was not made lightly. There is a certain pride in knowing that people care to hear what you have to say about life. I care what nearly everyone has to say. Hence, I read a lot. Still, I am always suprised that so many people subscribe to my www.twitter.com/DouglasRHall3 feed or friend me at www.facebook.com/DouglasRHall3 - it shows they have at least a slight interest in seeing what my life is like.

That is a compliment. I have had an exciting life and I plan on living an even more excitng one in the years ahead.

So, I've decided to blog with the hope that people will want to know what my life is like and what I think about the news and such. Glimpses into other people's lives are always helpful when putting your own life into perspective. With any luck, mine will do the same to some of you.