Dawn Xiana Moon: Intelligent folk pop with influences from jazz and traditional Chinese music. From Chicago.

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Saturday, October 16, 2004

Election Issues, Part I

I hate feeling like I'm trying to discern which candidate is the lesser of two evils in the upcoming election. From my conversations with others over the last few months, I'm apparently not alone in this. I have yet to meet anyone who claims to be a huge fan of John Kerry--not that they don't exist, but I honestly haven't met one--his supporters' primary reason for voting is to remove George W. Bush from office. Similarly, most Bush supporters seem to like the president primarily because he's pro-life and a Christian. I'm not yet certain who I'm voting for come November, and even evaluating both men from a biblical perspective leaves ambiguity.

Human Rights and Peace-making
If we believe that every life is valuable, then our president needs to reflect that. On the one hand, it's easy to denounce the instances like Abu Gharib prisioner abuse scandal as t

he actions of a renegade few, but when the president says, "I have the authority under the Constitution to suspend Geneva as between the United States and Afghanistan, but I decline to exercise that authority at this time" (Text of order signed by President Bush on Feb. 7, 2002), he begins to erode policies and the respect for human life that prevent brutalities of the variety in Germany circa World War II. And disregarding international laws and treaties does more than paint a portrait of America as an arrogant nation, bent on its own will; it scares other countries, who are then afraid to trust and cooperate with us.

Abortion
This is the issue that weighs the most in Bush's favor. With only one Supreme Court justice (Clarence Thomas) under the age of 65, it's entirely possible that the next president could appoint as many as three judges (on a court of nine), which might be enough to shift the current balance of power and overturn Roe v. Wade were they to be pro-life. Of course, that's assuming that 1. Bush gets to appoint justices in the first place, 2. he appoints only pro-lifers 3. he appoints enough justices to shift the current balance and 4. a case will come before the Court concerning abortion. From his voting history in Congress, Kerry would certainly choose pro-choice justices (and probably ones with liberal interpretations of the law in general) should the opportunity arise, but this could amount to voting for Bush more or less for the sake of one issue, which is dangerous.

(Addendum: I should add that too often Christians try to protect the lives of the unborn who cannot speak for themselves and forget to speak for the living who likewise have no voice: the poor, the oppressed, etc. Life does not begin at conception and end at birth; we must be concerned with the entirety of it. And we speak of freedom but only expect a certain outcome when we give it, forgetting that freedom involves choice, and with choice comes with ability to choose wrong.)

The Environment
God has entrusted humanity with caring for the earth, with stewarding this planet and its inhabitants--or even to look at it from a purely selfish perspective, who doesn't want to live in a place with clean air and water? Yet Eric Schaeffer, the head of the enforcement wing of the Environmental Protection Agency, resigned in 2002 to protest the White House's policies, which prompted a Senate investigation into Bush's environmental record. "Sadly, the Bush administration decided to promote the interests of its polluting campaign contributors from the energy, mining and timber industries over the interests of common citizens," said Russell Train, a lifelong Republican and head of the EPA during the Nixon and Ford administrations. Kerry, on the other hand, was the lead sponsor of a bill that financed marine research and another bill that protects marine mammals from commercial fishermen. The current administration has undermined laws that Congress--and by proxy, we as Americans--have put into place, and in this area it's clear that the executive branch, made to enforce those laws, is not doing its job.

I'll cover more issues in my next post. Until then, head over to Sojourners and sign the petition to remind people of faith in this country that God is not a Republican. Or a Democrat.

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Friday, October 15, 2004

Newness

So I've spent the last couple of days revamping the site with a much more aesthetically pleasing design, and though not everything is online yet, most of the essentials are up. With any luck, we'll be fully operational within the next month.

In other exciting news, check out Gigs for details on the CD Release Party next weekend, and if you head over to Listen you can order a hot-off-the-presses copy of First Verse online.

Alrighty kids, that's it for now--there are a number of blog ideas running around in my head, but for now they'll have to wait.

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Saturday, October 02, 2004

Meet Me in St. Louis

So in a last-minute decision, I did make it to the St. Louis Lindy Blues Exchange last week after all. And what a great decision it was, although I'm now on a self-imposed hiatus from exchanges for the next few months; I've spent about half of the last five weeks out of town for music, dancing, and work.

St. Louis is a far more interesting city than I ever gave it credit for being. Natives there seem to have a fondness for strange signs--they'll be posted in their own section on Fun Stuff eventually--like "We accept the following forms of payment: Cash, Cash, or CASH" (in a bubble tea shop), "No firearms allowed" (in a restaurant), "Please leave me alone. LIDS, STRAWS, NAPKINS, & UTENSILS to your RIGHT!" (in a pizza joint), and "Please DO NOT Throw Away Our Dishes!! (Example: Plates, Silverware, Bowls, Trays...) Thank you, Bubble Tea."

The exchange organizers certainly delivered wonderful venues as well. We danced in the Vault Room of the City Museum, a childrens museum full of hidden passages, caves, slides, and generally crazy stuff to explore (most of the dancers spent half the night playing instead of dancing), and underneath a replica of Charles Lindbergh's plane at the Missouri History Museum.

Funny Moments: #1. Matt set his drink by the antenna on top of Jeremy's Mustang, our transportation for the weekend, and didn't realize that it was outside of the car until we drove from the KFC parking lot and it fell. #2. Less than five minutes later, Jeremy nearly drove into the freeway exit sign. #3. On Friday night, or Saturday morning, as the case may be, Matt was so tired (around 6:00am) that he couldn't figure out how to turn off the light so he could go to bed. #4. While crawling through a passageway in the City Museum, I slipped and fell backward; Melanie was behind me and instinctively tried to break my fall--since she was only a couple of steps behind, she ended up with her hands on my butt, one on each cheek. #5. Again crawling, this time through caves, Melanie's leg got stuck in a crevice as she tried to navigate holes designed for small children. Most Random Moment: Picture a late-night diner full of lindy hoppers gathered around a laptop computer, forming an impromptu poetry reading... of poems about swing dancing.

Fun Quotes: "She can reformat my hard drive any day" (Matt talking about my cute, she-geek roommate that he has yet to meet). "I guess all spider monkeys are very good at Latin" (Jeremy on Erin). "I’m going to blues the hell out of some people" (Matt getting excited about the exchange). "The snow looks all nice and fluffy, but underneath it has special powers" (Robert, our host's son, on snowboarding and skiing injuries). "Jamie can be a guy’s name or a girl’s name and so can Loren, but my name--oh no, this is headed in the same direction as my milkshake" (Melanie realizing that she's not making sense). And in Chicago on the way home, from my jazz musician friend who keeps learning different ethnic musical styles, like klezmer: "You go swing dancing, I decide to become Jewish" (Bryan on pastimes).

Some days I love my life.

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