Day 18, Way 18Let me begin with a Ways/Days update: LJer
turmarion, who evidently is more au courant with the American Buddhist scene than I am, commented to let me know that Jetsumno Akhon Lamo, who runs one of the organizations I posted about yesterday (Buddhistrelief.org), has acquired a reputation as
"a flake, and a rather contoversial one at that". A
Washington Post reporter named Martha Sherrill has written a book about her called
The Buddha From Brooklyn, which from the review appears to fall into the category of "expose." Now, on the one hand, the
Washington Post no longer has the reputation it once possessed for, you know, telling the truth and shit; but on the other hand, I must admit that when I discovered that JAL's organization had a base in Sedona, I had my doubts. (We go out to Sedona every chance we get. Beautiful red rocks and hiking paths and whatnot. The town itself is absolutely chock-full of New Age concerns, all of them doing a brisk business and raking in money hand over fist. You gotta figure in a town like that, you're gonna find a few charlatans. But I digress.) Anyway, you have been warned; you can Google her and draw your own conclusions. It's not like there are that many Jetsumno Akhon Lamos out there.
But, for today, we're not dealing with matters of spiritual import. No, today is about something more secular yet, in today's fallen modern world, damn near as elusive as enlightenment: the franchise.
My partner forwarded me an email from the
Working Families E-Activist Network about the upcoming primary elections in Louisiana. The elections are on April 22, and the good people at WFEAN want you all to help get the word out to displaced Louisiana residents now living in other states:
you are still eligible to vote in Louisiana if you have not re-registered in your new state, and you can request an absentee ballot as late as April 18. So FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!!!! OK, maybe not, but if you know people who are still registered in Louisiana but have moved out of state, make sure they know that they can still get absentee ballots and that they can head on over to the Louisiana secretary of state's
website for more displaced voter information. For voters who are afraid the mail won't get there by the deadlines, it is interesting to note that you can now vote absentee by fax.
People For the American Way is also launching a campaign to help make sure displaced Katrina survivors can exercise their right to vote. In addition to circulating an online petition to get the elections postponed--yes, that's what this country needs, another online petition that nobody in Washington will pay a goddamn bit of attention to because they no longer give a flying fuck about public opinion because we're not really a democracy any more all right now Plaidder calm, deep breaths--the are also doing some
very sensible things to try to make it easier for displaced voters to get themselves or their ballots to the polls in time, and if you want to help, you can send them money.
I know what you're thinking, O lurking right-wing trolls who have nothing better to do with your lives than read my boring posts about Katrina relief. You're thinking, this is all just partisan maneuvering. These displaced voters are of course going to be mostly Democratic voters, and this is all just a big ol' stinking pile of self-interest masquerading as charity.
No, my children.
This is a big ol' stinking pile of self-interest masquerading as charity:
"Former first lady Barbara Bush donated an undisclosed amount of money to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund with specific instructions that the money be spent with an educational software company owned by her son Neil. Since then, the Ignite Learning program has been given to eight area schools that took in substantial numbers of Hurricane Katrina evacuees."You know, Barbara, why go through the Bush-Clinton fund? Why not just give the money directly to your son? Oh, that's right, you wouldn't get the tax deduction otherwise.
Oh, how can I be so mean? I should be ashamed of myself. Of course, it was nothing like that--Barbara Bush just honestly feels that this was the best possible use of her money:
"'Mrs. Bush wanted to do something specifically for education and specifically for the thousands of students flooding into the Houston schools,' said Jean Becker, former President Bush's chief of staff. 'She knew that HISD was using this software program, and she's very excited about this program, so she wanted to make it possible for them to expand the use of this program.'I suppose it wouldn't have occurred to anyone to suggest that Neil donate the software, and Barbara's dough could have maybe gone for something like, I don't know, textbooks. But fie! Once again, remorse over my own cynicism tinges my cheeks with the scarlet blush of shame. For we know that Barbara Bush is intensely and sincerely concerned about making those Houston evacuees feel at home. Why, it was only days after Katrina blasted through the Gulf Coast that she gave an interview to APR's Marketplace in which she extended her
compassionate welcome to all the displaced Katrina survivors who had come to Houston:
In a segment at the top of the show on the surge of evacuees to the Texas city, Barbara Bush said: "Almost everyone I’ve talked to says we're going to move to Houston."
Then she added: "What I’m hearing which is sort of scary is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality.
"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she
chuckles slightly) is working very well for them."Yes, Hurricane Katrina--the best thing that ever happened to the poor of New Orleans.
I have my good days, I have my bad days. But at least I'll never have to try to explain having said
that.C ya,
The Plaid Adder
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