Meditating on Thanksgivings Past
Although I am a deeply religious person, I am also a product of our American culture. As such, Thanksgiving has never primarily been a religious holiday for me. Nor has its historic aspects...
View ArticleMy insurance company made me throw up today... literally.
I've turned into little more than a lurker on DailyKos over the past six months. As those of you who know me are aware, I have been coping with a chronic illness of my own for some time, and since my...
View ArticleRoom at the Inn
My seasonal routines differ from those of most Americans. I do my best to avoid the aisles of tinsel, lights and other holiday bric-a-brac which begin popping up earlier each year. I am thankful that...
View ArticleOccupy Rural America: Movement comes to tiny Mosier, Oregon
The Occupy movement ain't just for city folk any more. Until this week, the nearest encampment to my hometown at the eastern edge of the Columbia River Gorge has been Occupy Portland ninety miles to...
View ArticleA Hometown BofA Protest in The Dalles, Oregon
It may be in a west coast state with a progressive history, but I can testify unreservedly that growing up in The Dalles, Oregon, during the 50's and 60's was the epitome of hometown Americana of that...
View ArticleKosAbility: Return of the Prodigal Padre' (Open Thread)
Hi. I'm Father John-Mark Gilhousen, one of the early KosAbility bloggers, and one-time moderator of the Wednesday Night editions of the group. I've been away from blogging for awhile, my time...
View ArticleKosAbility: Their work isn't done
Rosa Parks. Harvey Milk. Cesar Chavez. These are names that stand out in the struggle to realize the promise of America, full equality for all its citizens. I would venture to say that there are...
View ArticleBrothers and Sisters: A Presidential Call Edition
I sat down at my keyboard this morning to do a final edit on my first piece for Brothers and Sisters. I had been a fairly regular lurker here for years, and over a month ago signed up for this Sunday....
View ArticleKosAbility: Caregiving while Disabled (Part I)
An important part of learning to live with a disability is determining for oneself what limitations one's condition imposes, and how to adapt to those changed circumstances. Occupational Therapy can...
View ArticleKosAbility: Caregiving while Disabled (Part II)
I had not planned to move from my cozy little cottage to my mother's home to care for her on a live-in basis. A fall had resulted in her sustaining a particularly nasty fracture necessitating a...
View ArticleKosAbility: Could 10 million more voters make a difference? Well, duh!
Anyone who reads these orange trimmed pages with any regularity has to be aware of the frontal assault on democracy for partisan purposes well underway by the GOP in the form of voter suppression in...
View ArticleCommunity Fundraiser: Let's Finish what we Started (Scottie Thomaston Goes to...
DailyKos. This place is freaking amazing. Kossacks just plain get it. "Yes we can" isn't just a slogan from the last election cycle. We can and do walk and chew gum. We work on campaigns, keep...
View ArticleKosAbility: The ADA - Milestone not Destination
Twenty-two years ago, historic and liberating legislation, comprehensive in scope, was enacted as the culmination of decades of work by activists, politicians, and professionals. Clearly a bipartisan...
View ArticleKosAbility: Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's Off to Work...
Our culture puts immense value on individual independence and work. And, I think this is more than just a significant vestige of the puritan work ethic.One of the first questions I was asked when...
View ArticleNN13 Registration: At Auction! (Update: Sold! Thanks to all!)
I did the early registration thing, and was really excited about joining y'all for my first Netroots Nation next month in San Jose. Ain't gonna happen. Since registering, I got assigned to direct a...
View ArticleExxonMobil Sticks with LGBT Discrimination (+ some alternatives)
For the fifteenth time in as many years, shareholders of Exxon Mobil Corporation voted down a proposed resolution which would have added "sexual orientation" to their non-discrimination policy....
View ArticleI remember Anita Bryant's "Save Our Children Campaign" too well.
I'd like to think that HLN's Nancy "I've Never Met a Defendant I didn't Loathe" Grace as the epitome of irrelevancy. I never watched her much, and not at all since the days when her current network...
View ArticleWe Can't Keep Silent
The United Nations General Assembly is poised to elect tomorrow, Wednesday, as its President the Ugandan Foreign Minister, Sam Kutesa, an outspoken defender of his country's draconian anti-gay laws....
View ArticleSorry, Gov. Perry, Deflection Ain't Gonna Get that Stink Off
Poor, poor, Rick Perry. He admits he "stepped in it" when he compared members of the LGBT community to alcoholics the same week his state's Party adopted an odious anti-gay plank endorsing "reparative...
View ArticleMy Mother: A Slightly Premature Eulogy
Perhaps the only relationship in my life more complicated than the one with my mother was that which my father and I enjoyed endured. For years, and until my father's death, I was completely estranged...
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