82 Days: Obama Fires His First Gay Arabic Linguist

Excellent article by Aaron Belkin in the Huffington Post. Read it.

Dan Choi, an exceptional military man, West Point graduate, fluent and very adept as an Arabic translator, came out as gay on television.  He was kicked out of the military this week.  In Belkin’s article, he lays out several options that President Obama has (yes, has), to protect and accept gays in the military.  Now.  Without congressional action.

Watch Rachel Maddow’s interview with Lt Choi:

Major world democracies have gays in the military.  Israel has gays in the military.  “Don’t ask, don’t tell” asks people to lie by default, by their silence.  How is lying an honorable action?  For anyone?  Especially for our military.

I am hoping, hoping, hoping that Obama will do something immediately to end this horrible policy.  More than 12,000 veterans have lost their careers in the last 15 years under this disgusting policy.

192 Days: Inauguration thoughts from Israel

As I watch the TV:

So many live presidents.  How many are there now?  Carter, Bush 1, Clinton, Bush 2, and Obama.  Cool.  I just saw Walter Mondale, too.  Nice guy from Minnesota.

It’s 27 degrees Fahrenheit.  Amazing.  Which makes it around -10 C.  They say the windchill factor makes it 14 degrees F or so.  Which is what?  Like -30 C?  Most of the world would plotz over these temperatures with millions of people standing outside waiting for this amazing event.

Barack Obama looks incredibly sober.  Serious.  Humble.  Solemn.  He isn’t smiling.  A very lonely moment.  So calm.  I cannot imagine how he must be feeling.  The jitters.  The heart pounding.  The nerves.  Perhaps the most important moment in recent American history.

It’s happening now.  It’s happening now!  I am alive to see an African-American president.  A multi-racial president.  A worldy president.  An incredibly intelligent, thoughtful, moral president.  It’s a dream come true.

Trumpets heralding his entrance.  Barack H. Obama.  Yes! yes!  yes!  What a moment.  What a time to be alive!  Please let this go smoothly.  And here it comes.  Here it comes. Here it comes.  Silence.

Diane Feinstein.  Good woman.

Rich Warren.  Prayer.  Wisdom to lead us with humility.  Strength to lead us with integrity.  Compassion to lead us with generosity.  To seek the common good of all.  A more just, healthy, prosperous nation, and a peaceful planet.  Amen and amen.  Was a controversy having him because of his stance on homosexuality.  Other than that, he is actually quite a revolutionary minister.  Open minded.  Fairly liberal.  And has done amazing things to bring different peoples together.  I saw him on PBS once, Charlie Rose, I think, and I was very impressed.

Aretha Franklin, My Country Tis of Thee.  So strange.  Not her.  But the song.  most Americans don’t know that this song is actually God Save The Queen.    But a nice rendition, all the same.  She’s so lovely.

Robert Bennet.  Introducing Justice Stevens who will swear in Joe Biden.  Yay!!!! Go Biden.

Joseph Biden is our Vice President!  Kisses all around! Such a beautiful oath.

Itzhak Perlman, Anthony McGill, Yo-Yo Ma, Gabriela Montero.  Wow.  A new composition by John Williams.  Violin, Clarinet, Cello, and Piano.  Oh wow.  Variations on a Shaker Melody.  Tis a gift to be simple…  Charming and ghostly.  Modern.

It’s happening now.  They just said that Obama became president 4 minutes ago, even though he hasn’t taken the oath.

Barack Obama is President of the United States of America!  Dear God almighty.

I clapped here at home so hard that my hands are stinging.  My cats are frightened.   And I just want to scream!  I feel like a lone liberal in Israel.

Ooh, speech time!

Beautiful.  Strong worded.  Amazing.

Proud to be American today.

192 Days: Expat Inauguration Blues

It is just another day here in Israel.  And I cannot find an inauguration party.  Sure, I didn’t look too hard, either.  But there you go.  It’s just another day.

Despite the cease fire, Hamas is still firing, a big fat violation.  Financial meltdown.  Global and local crises galore.

And yet.  Hope.

Obama’s speech is rumored to be about an “era of responsibility.”  I dig it.  It’s the only way to move forward.  For everyone, from the street sweeper, to the checkout girl, to the bus driver, to the teacher, secretary, data entry guy, micromanager, lawyer, doctor, scientist, political leader — everyone — to stop passing the buck.  On everything.  I’m ready.  I hope all Americans are.  I hope the world is.

It’s bleak. Today, I feel the blues.  Melancholy setting in.  But.  But.  I feel that hope.  I do.  Because 2009 has been good to me so far.  I’m accomplishing things, if slowly.  Or, maybe not so slowly.  My book is progressing.  It has a future.  I am working hard.  My cooking has been good.  My first catering gig went great.  I merely have to keep on plugging away at the book, redesign the website, figure out the taxes, and go.  I’m even in a relationship, albeit a young and new thing, that may have something to it.  I’m good.  In the blackness, we keep living.

And I’m watching the inaugural coverage alone.  In my shabby living room.  As I did the election night.  MSNBC has a live feed.  So many of these networks don’t allow foreign countries to see their videos.  Thank goodness for MSNBC.  And Woodward and Bernstein (my goodness) are providing me with banter as I type this.  The Obamas emerged from church.  The pundits commented on Michelle’s dress.  Goodness.  It’s real, it’s live, it’s historic, and it’s so down to earth.  Amazing.

I’ll sign off now.  I’m going to DC in my mind, leaving my blues behind me in Tel Aviv…as I nosh on hamentashen…palpitating over our new president.  Welcome to the world, Mr. Obama.  Good luck and godspeed.

269 Days: “A New Birth of Freedom”

These immortal words of Abraham Lincoln from the Gettysburg Address will be the theme of Barack Obama’s inauguration.  The decision was made by the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugral Ceremonies, and was announced by its chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).  The theme celebrates the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln.

In June, 2005, Barack Obama wrote a beautiful essay entitled, “What I See in Lincoln’s Eyes, ” published in Time Magazine.  I highly recommend reading it.  An excerpt below:

“In Lincoln’s rise from poverty, his ultimate mastery of language and law, his capacity to overcome personal loss and remain determined in the face of repeated defeat–in all this, he reminded me not just of my own struggles. He also reminded me of a larger, fundamental element of American life–the enduring belief that we can constantly remake ourselves to fit our larger dreams.”

My god.  The enduring belief that we can constantly remake ourselves to fit our larger dreams.  This is exactly what I so admire about Obama.  He, like Kennedy before him, has reminded us that we will have to work.  Work hard.  But that having dreams, having big fat dreams, is not only possible, but necessary.  Would we have gone to the moon had it not been for Kennedy declaring that we would in under a decade?  Could we as a nation have elected Obama at all?

I am really inspired.  I have always believed in dreams.  That with hard work, anything is possible.  Many think me naive, still.  To this day I often think back to that quotation of Eleanor Roosevelt’s: “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” And here we are.

The similarities between Obama and Lincoln struck me a few weeks ago in the throws of the last months of the campaign.  Not just the historic, idealistic similarities.  I mean, the physical similarities.  It’s weird.  Obama is an African American.  But he is tall and slim.  And he has a bony sort of face, not that it isn’t a handsome one.  Nah, I don’t know what I’m talking about…maybe it was just the ears…but here are some pictures anyway.

Abraham Lincoln, 1860

Barack Obama

Lincoln-Obama Fusion by Ron English

Obama has been compared to both John F and Bobby Kennedy, to FDR, and to Lincoln.  And he himself has appeared pretty cocky, arrogant, aloof.  But I don’t care.  He deserves this praise, if anyone has ever been so deserving.  Not even the conservatives are capable of raining on this parade.  Getting back to normal is going to be tough.  But not so tough as the work in front of all of us.  I finally feel like I have a mission.

270 Days: Campaign Secrets

President Obama

Newsweek‘s done it.  I haven’t slept in two days because of the time difference, staying up all night watching the results, and then immediately heading off to work trembling on a high of adrenaline and a triple espresso.  But I couldn’t stop reading this article.  It’s 11 pm, I should mention.  Honestly, no sleep being had here.

Intimate details about all the campaigns, how they formed, the inner bickerings, squabbles.  The Kennedy connection.  The vision.  Obama’s X-factor.  The real genius of Obama.  Also his distance, his cool demeanor — such a contrast from the Clintons.  And the chaos of Hillary’s campaign.  Goodness.  It’s only part one of a seven chapter book, (part one entitled, “How He Did It“).

It’s not a short read by any means…but this ridiculously tired soul made it through.  I am so excited for our future.  For a summary of the series (and lots of juicy tidbits about the McCain-Palin rift), click here.

Thanks to the Huffington Post, a really contemporary, sometimes visionary, addictive way to get the news.  Great Newsweek read.

270 Days: Rahm Emanuel to be Chief of Staff?

Representative Rahm Emanuel, Illinois' 5th

It’s a great day for America, for Chicago, and here in Israel, there is a collective sigh of relief.  Rahm Emanuel is a great person, an intellectual Clintonite, a Chicagoan, a Jew whose dad is Israeli, grew up with Hebrew spoken, and volunteered for the Israeli Defense Force during the Gulf War.

Check it out:

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/11/obama-offers-ra.html

270 Days: Victory – and it’s reported that pigs have learned how to fly

Victory. I am so proud. So proud.

I have spent the past eight years becoming more and more ashamed of my American passport. I spend a lot of time in international arenas. I have lived abroad on more than one occasion. I have attended international schools and international degree programs. I am used to being a minority, and as such, as many Americans abroad find, I have spent my fair share of time defending my country (or, as I’ve tried, sometimes successfully, and sometimes unsuccessfully, distancing myself from it). And I am sick of it. How many, “you’re the first nice/reasonable/intelligent/non-annoying American I’ve ever met,” comments can one take in this lifetime?

I feel such a surge of energy today. We, as a nation, came together and did something sensible, something smart, something hopeful. We made a good choice. I find myself really believing that I can achieve my personal goals and ambitions (get the book published, have a career I not only tolerate but love, have a decent non-depressed daily existence, find a partner, go to India…). My goals are quite attainable. Really believing that they are, taking real steps, is the difficult part.

But Obama did something unbelievable.

Pigs are flying today. Hell froze over today.

There is a question left, however. A question of my own shame. Am I a fair weather friend? When the going gets tough, I get lost? Of the last eight years, I have spent almost four of them out of the country (as I vowed on that fateful November day back in 2000). It is difficult to be proud of a country, love a country, defend a country, when you don’t approve (and in fact despise) the actions of its leaders. It’s an issue. How to keep believing. Am I lucky to have dual citizenship? Or do I use it to hide? I am an “international” person, a proud expat. Or am I? Am I coward?

What does it mean to be a citizen? A good citizen. Is it enough to pay taxes? To breathe in and out? To merely exist? Does voting make you a good citizen? Or is there such a thing as a good citizen at all? Are there just citizens and traitors?

271 Days: Jitters, jittery jittery jitters

Jewish Americans for Obama

Caffein?  Work woes?  My drug rollercoaster?  Being away, being away, being away from America for the first time in my life (!) for a presidential election?  I’m in a cafe, just finished chowing down on a very satisfying shakshuka I’d been craving, and I’m almost shaking, almost crying.  I want this day to be over, and I want this day to last forever.  I feel so strongly about this election, about Obama, about him being so right, so right, so right on, right now.  I feel like I know him, his family, his politics, his education, his background.  And I used to care so much.  Before the 2000 debaucle.  And I’ve been so complacent, so depressed, so self-loathing about being American these last 8 years.  I just want the day to pass smoothly.  I wish I had done more.  Always.  But in the most fundamental way – my vote, my personal relationships, my talking about Obama to strangers in Israel, I may have made a small difference.

I’ll be going to Mike’s Place tonight.  It will undoubtedly be mobbed.  I wonder if I should call for a reservation (a reservation!, geez, what am I thinking, it’s a dive expat bar!).

Good luck getting through the day, all.  Get out the vote.  Much love.

271 Days: GO VOTE! GO OBAMA!

It’s here!  It’s finally here!  Let’s make it a good one, America!

I’m so excited, and today I really feel homesick.  Nobody really gets it here.  Or else, I don’t have too many American friends.  And some Americans I know here are Republicans.

I have nowhere to go tonight yet.  I don’t know where (a bar, a club?) will have good coverage.  I don’t know which place will have a nice crowd of folks like me.  I really want to be out among friends tonight, and it’s really hitting me how few strong, interesting, intelligent, very liberal, American people I know around here.  Oh pooh, at times like this, I just miss Chicago.  The 2000 election.   I miss Jimmy’s Woodlawn Tap, and renting a giant donkey costume, and going to the Gore rally, and feeling optimism and hope–old style, like Clinton could never lose, and who on earth didn’t just love him, and the Reynolds Club on election night, the entire student body screaming at the TV, and running back and forth between the theater lounge where we had internet and the cafe where the TVs were set up.  I miss paad thai and The West Wing and confidence and beautiful possible future.  Before the ground caved in beneath us.

So, if anyone knows where there’s a good place to hang out in Tel Aviv tonight, please let me know.

And all youse guys in America – GO VOTE!  NOW!  Because who knows how long you’ll have to wait in line!  And remember to not leave until you’ve voted!  No matter what they say.  And as we say in Chicago, “Vote early, vote often.”

Go get ‘em, tigers.  We’ve got an election to win.

275 Days: History in the Making

I am the millionth blogger out there praising the man, but I don’t care.  Barack Obama is a visionary leader and an exceptionally good person.  It’s extraordinary to think we are living in a time of such substantial political, economic, ecological, and military crises.  It’s saddening and worrying that it has come to this.  But we have Obama to look forward to.  Here are some videos that moved me to tears, if you haven’t seen them yet.  Please go vote.