I'm sorry I've been away so long. But as I get Facebook and Twitter messages and personal email from my Open Salon friends, I have to check in to say I'm thankful for all of you, and the writing and thinking and joking and kvetching and helping and loving you all do, every day.
I started my Open Salon blog thinking I'd blog every day. That was silly, because I started my Salon blog thinking the same thing, and it's been the rare week (rare as unicorns?) that I've succeeded. But I read and rate and comment here every day. I watch frustrated and/or ambitious Salon letter writers turn into Open Salon bloggers (I'm not defending the things that frustrate Salon letter writers except...sometimes people realize they need more room, and Open provides a lot of room, and then some!) And I love it.
I'm sure some of you read my post on Ye Olde Salon, expressing my gratitude I'm not President Obama, given all he's up against, plus the lack of sticktoitiveness of so many Obama early supporters. I value Open Salon for the combination of integrity, snap judgment on inequity as well as the long, long view so many members correctly have about what it will take to change Washington -- and the media. And I value Open for people who take the short view, too, because change will require both.
But mostly I value Open Salon because of the people who take chances here, sharing their thinking and feeling and vexations in this time of peril, when we need new ideas about how to solve our problems. The number of people who open themselves and their ideas up to our readership continues to amaze me, and make me confident there are a lot of us who know that it will take a lot of conversation -- a lot of all kinds of work -- to get us out of this mess. Thanks for all of your conversation, and happy Thanksgiving!
DakiniDancer
Niece of Dakini
Sheldon The Wonderhorse
Susan Walsh
Big Uncle Jack
jimmymac1025
Salon.com
Comments
Happy Thanksgiving Joan.
I've been out of the U.S. too long....
Happy Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving Joan, to you and all you care about!
I joined Open Salon because `You know why?
ask GoodCelery! and contrary fool bebop-o?
Ya don't gotta donate a quart of daily blood!
Last night on a foggy ride home outta DC there was a gracious interview with Margaret Viser (sp?). She wrote:`The Gift of Gratitude. She's a Canadian living in Paris, France. She soke of Indo-Ango-Euro, Greek, Hebrew - root word derivatives/meanings. She was fascinating. Margaret Viser sorta took you off into the vast cosmos,
-
full of wonder,
and brought listeners back to the beautiful mundane. There is beuty and good too.
Transcend
Be grateful
here are mean
base lowly folks
fellowship with
gracious creatures
gratus, and helious
kindness, and praise,
and` so be it, thanks.
some reads are violin concerto.
I ramble on and on. Oh, Thanks
I'm thankful for Open too. Any place that would have me as a member has to be...never mind!!! :)
Happy Thanksgiving to you and the rest of the crew of Open and Salon General.
Just be thankful you didn't try to post this at 4amesh EST, stupid Database errors would have made you cry!! :)
I did read your Salon blog on Obama and was going to comment but I saw how many comments were already there, so let me just say over here that I agreed with every word of it! I've also been observing how it's those who thought Obama was The Answer who are the most disappointed. My own feelings were like yours -- I was supporting Hillary and then was won over by Obama once he was the pick, but always with some reservations about his experience and mettle. But now I find myself defending him to people who liked him more, on the grounds that he's doing an enormously difficult job under dire circumstances! Strange. Anyway, thanks for articulately so clearly what some of us are feeling. And hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving.
I am deeply grateful to have found OS and have gratitude for all the amazing writers I continue to discover.
Thank you for helping me find the courage to commit thoughts to written words...opening up a brighter world....
Miss you here of course, but we can all find your fine work in other places! oxoox
As for not blogging regularly, your regular presence on MSNBC must draw some attention to the site, and for that we should be thankful. Any one person can only do so much.
(Did you mean to write about dogs? It's a tag on this post but I saw no reference to dogs in your post itself... did I miss it?)
You don't need an invite to the state dinner, just bring a camera crew with you and dress up, the Secret Service will let you in, it is just that easy!
My concern on Obama is that the "left" will start to defect as he makes more and more essentially centrist and moderate choices. It wasn't anything that wasn't totally apparent in his campaign, but the polemicists are starting to pick up the volumn--to the peril of those who never want another Bush--at least during their lifetime!
It is going to be pathetic if a coalition of racists, fundamentalists, old line Republicans, and manipulative fake liberals bring him down. Won't they ever learn? And who is there to teach them?
Watching you on television is always a pleasure, and your voice is better than a blog. Thank you!
I do, however, strongly disagree with you and Ben Sen about critics of Obama.
You said: you are unhappy about "the lack of sticktoitiveness of so many Obama early supporters." While I supported Cynthia McKinney, continuing to support Obama uncritically is beyond my ken (and my barbie, too).
I am displeased with "the lack of sticktoitiveness" in Obama, something that started before the election: His reversal on the Telecom Immunity and Fourth Amendment Destruction Act. He has done nothing to act on his alleged "fierce" advocacy of LGBT folks. And he not only is not sticking to "openness and transparency," he has made George W his model of secretive and illegal behavior.
He has, however, stuck to his promise to increase the killing in Afghanistan and has extended the murder further into Pakistan.
Ben Sen said: "My concern on Obama is that the 'left' will start to defect as he makes more and more essentially centrist and moderate choices."
Ben, war crimes are not moderate. Giving away the treasury without control to the banksters who destroyed our economy is not centrist.
You claim that his politics were "totally apparent in his campaign," but, as I noted above, that is not true.
You seem to equate critics with "polemicists" and worry that they will cause the return of "another Bush."
But look at what Obama is doing: a multi-tier "justice" system that will try people only where the government will win and never release people if they don't want to. This is moderate? This is centrist? Bush hasn't gone away!
"[A] coalition of racists, fundamentalists, old line Republicans, and manipulative fake liberals [will] bring him down. Won't they ever learn? And who is there to teach them?"
I can tell you one thing, Ben. It won't be you.
Heck yeah it does, so I am inviting you to jump into my blog and comment please. We are so close to the holidays peak and I don't know where to begin. I have a 7 yr old and well, it's Christmas and we should really just all be Happy!
Third Wife
Marty Wolf
http://open.salon.com/blog/from_barren_rocks/2010/03/03/a_man_with_no_name_an_os_story
If it was not for chance takers our advancement as people would be something unimaginable. We owe a lot to those that were and are willing to take on board new ideas and possibly even improve them.
I can't help but think about the civil rights movement in this regard. There were chance and risk takers on both sides to whom we owe a considerable debt. It couldn't have been easy for many white supporters of the civil rights movement to be open about their colored contacts. They did not however shirk and we all now can benefit. Let's hope that President Obama is given the room to make sustained progress on all fronts.
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