XiaolinMama

Since when is an ear infection a pre-existing condition?

I had the opportunity to meet the amazing Valerie Jarrett, Advisor to President Obama, while at BlogHer earlier this month.  The 10 bloggers, including my lovely MOMocrats or so in the private session were all verklempt listening to stories about health care nightmares (I was crying like baby) and gave input on what needed to be done to take the message to back to our home towns and blogs.  I left inspired to do more, but wasn't quite sure until I chatted with the fine folks at People Acting in Community Together. 

Yesterday my kids and I had the opportunity to give testimony on health insurance reform at a rally outside Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren's office.  About 175 clergy and community leaders gathered to add our stories to the health care insurance reform debate.   Representative Lofgren spoke briefly and complimented the group on the peaceful demonstration.  She relayed that the night before she had attended a meeting expecting 40 people.  Instead she was greeted by more than 300 rowdy protesters, and most were not ready to debate civilly. Oy vey! 

This afternoon's gathering was hosted by a Rabbi, blessing shared by a Baptist minister and the crowd sang, "This little light of mine".  It was a far cry from the events seen all over the news featuring town halls shut down by angry protestors.  I was proud to be amongst this group of smart and compassionate people. 

When my friends asked me to speak last week, I did not hesitate to volunteer.  But as I watched the news and read online accounts of what was happening at rallies around the country, I began to wonder what I had gotten myself into.  Moreover, when the head organizer mentioned that agitators were seen at other rallies around the country and that a large group off Teabaggers assembled at an event the night before I began to worry about what I had gotten my kids involved with.   But as I stood in a circle surrounded by preachers, community activists and friends, I knew there was no other place I would rather have been.

Valerie Jarrett challenged us to take to streets and get our stories told. I did just that and so have many others. Now it is up to us all to make sure our elected officials stand up too and roll up their sleeves to get it done.  We need access to affordable health are. My kids can't wait.

Get up and Dance: New Will.I.Am video

No, I am NOT pregnant - just sick of wanting Change so badly!

I have felt ill all week - nauseous, anxious and tired. I have felt this pit in my stomach and have had no idea what the deal was- but I am a mom and we go on.  So I have - I have worked at my more that full-time business, sat at soccer practice/games, volunteered at school and read bed time stories. Like many of you , I have volunteered to phone bank, talked to my republican neighbors about the election and have done what I can with limited time.

To be honest, I was beginning to think that I was pregnant and that has scared the shit out of me.  What kind of world would I be bringing a new baby into?  Geez, we barely have health care and I am our family's main bread winner right now.

But now that I have a few moments, I am realizing that this illness must be due to this election. (Mom, I am NOT pregnant - really!) My anxiety is visceral.  I just can't imagine raising my children in a world where the all the positive energy of the entire Obama campaign nationally and locally meant nothing. When I think about what is at stake, it gives me chills.  This week I have been brought to tears several times.

It makes no sense to me - I have never been this "caught up", but this time it just doesn't seem like there could be anything more important than saying NO to policies that do more harm than good, are fundamentally racist, classist and sexist and ignore the poorest among us.

Other MOMocrats are more eloquent than I, and have been able to articulate better than I just why we all need to give it  our all today and tomorrow. I just know that I want to know that I put it all on the line and that Obama's win is truly a win for ALL of us.

Go out my friends, vote. Take your elderly neighbors to vote. Check with your parents and siblings and make sure they cast their votes.   Bring the kids - they need to see us do it. They need to know why we have all been anxious - why we have been so angry and why we believe that this country can be so much more than the it is today.

Cross posted to Momocrats.

Another Sarah Palin Song

HILLARIOUS - worth checking out I promise:)

McCain gets Barack Rolled

MOMocrats Help a Mama Blog-O-Rama

The MOMocrats are doing a raffle to earn money to go to the Democratic National Convention. 

Take your chances by looking at our fantastic gift bags over at the Help A Mama Swag-o-Rama Site.  Just choose the prize packages you want to bid on, put them in your shopping cart using the paypal widget, and check out when you're done.  We'll notify the winners on Saturday, August 9.  Proceeds go toward helping the MOMocrats pay travel expenses to get to and from the DNC.

I promise I'll stop the begging for the MOMocrats as soon as we get back from the Democratic National Convention.  If you want to forgo the raffle and just make a donation, then please donate using our chip in widget on my sidebar.  THANKS SO MUCH!!

If you have a blog and want to help us advertise the raffle, just put this code on your sidebar:

You are invited to the Obama Pizza Party

Often people tell me that they are just "not into the elections" because it doesn't seem real or that "normal" people don't talk politics in polite company.  I wholeheartedly disagree.  Normal people and talking politics is what makes this country great and is what makes it real - right?

In true mom fashion, I witnessed history last night - Obama's winning enough delegates to be the Democrat's nomination - at Round Table Pizza!  Yes, with 20 screaming boys waiting to receive their end of the year soccer trophies, me and their parents switched off ESPN and instead watched the big screen as Hillary chose "not to make any decisions tonight" and we gobbled down pizza and beer as Barack inspired a nation by saying "This is our moment.  This is our time." 

Every politician talks about change, so much so that most of us don't and can't believe it.  But as I looked around the room at our multicultural kids hopped up on root beer and the parents who chose to watch the results instead of the basketball playoffs  - well, I was bowled over.  I was even engaged in an intelligent conversation about who Obama would choose as his running mate, which was interrupted by pizza being flung on the wall and a heated discussion of whether pineapple belonged on pizza in the first place.   Hmm...a metaphor for politics perhaps?  Who woulda thunk we'd have these conversations at the neighborhood pizza joint?  I guess they say all things political are local, so why not over a combo pizza with extra cheese?

This Momocrat could feel the change happening and could see that this election cycle was going to be different.  Bring it on!  I want more of these conversations and I am buying the PIZZA! 

SheilaBD also chats about all things politics and mommy at MOMocrats.

MOMocrats - Barack Obama answered OUR questions!

There are times in your life when you KNOW unequivocably that you are part of something amazing -something that will change the course of your life, something that will change your world.  As of late for me that amazing experience has been being part of the illustrious women of the MOMocrats.   We are a group of 22 women who are committed to getting a Democrat in the White House in 2008. 

Politics has always intrigued me.  I've volunteered for phone banks, done precinct walks, gone door to door for candidates and have helped create outreach strategies on the local level, but I have never ever been part of such a powerful group of do-ers.  You know the type of women, who just make things happen.  The kind of women who squeeze keeping candidates honest in between carpool, before/after work, ballet class, in between client meetings, making dinner and baseball games.  These women are serious. Together we know a lot about the issues and together we have pieced together a network that would astound most.

I admit, there are moments that I feel I don't have anything brilliant to add to the conversation.  I soak it all in, learning as much as I can from my new friends and mentors about foreign policy, the war in Iraq and alleged power mongers. They have given me the gift of a real political education - one where we teach each other the value of our individual opinions, can agree to disagree and we leverage our "Big girl voices" to make our opinions known.  I am more confident and even more clear, that any democratic candidate has got to work for my vote. I am voting for the one who will assure me that that he/she has some real solutions and will be sincere in making the table bigger.

This past week has been a whirlwind. Last month, we collected the questions from Momocrat readers and contributors that we wished ABC would have asked at the debate.  We sent them to the Obama campaign and voila Barack responded to five of our questions!  Yes, BARACK OBAMA responded directly to our questions - and they were not, "What is your favorite ice cream flavor or Please give us your best parenting tip."  They were real policy questions about real issues - the ones we wished our country were focused on.  Go to the Momocrats site to check it all out. You'll be impressed, I assure you!  Read his answers, ask more questions. Be part of a movement of mothers/parents who are asking our candidates (and all us) to DO more and BE more.   

CA Democratic Convention: Asian Pacific Americans impacting the politcal landscape

As you probably have read, Stefania, Donna, Glennia and I hit the CA Democratic State Convention this weekend.  Stefania and I hit the Asian Pacific Islander caucus on Friday.  As a local political junkie, it was gratifying to see a room full of API political leaders from across the state.  One elder Assemblymember mused about when he started out the API caucus had about 20 people and there was no one in the room that was an elected official.  They spent much of their time trying to figure out how to get someone of Asian descent elected locally and how to engage more APIs to vote.  Today the room had at least a two dozen elected officials and many others in campaigns or readying themselves to run in the future.   Some local people present were Hon. Buu Thai (Franklin McKinley School District), Hon. Paul Fong (Foothill DeAnza Community College Board) and Mayor Otto Lee (City of Sunnyvale).

Having never been to a a caucus, it was an eye opening experience (albeit chaotic).  Some random hings I walked away with:

• 10 of 120 state legistators are of API decent.
• Dynamos that kick butt include Arlie Ricasa from San Diego who is running for Assembly and Betty Yee, Vice Chair of the State Board of Equalization.  Arlie is running to be the first Pinay in the state legislature.  Betty will address the entire convention tomorrow.
• You can be a delegate to the state convention if you get your large family to come out and vote for you - so be nice to your momma, she'll bring her friends.
• The API caucus doesn't mess around when it comes to their 2 minute time limit. One dollar per minute that or purchasing a membership - now how is that for a fundraising plan:) ?!
  
• Assemblymember Fiona Ma and the State CPA Association hosted a Karaoke SmackDown. I am sure that was quite the event. I went to bed:(  hmmm....
  

Race & the Elections: Standing on the Shoulders of our Predecessors

I am college educated, live in a good neighborhood and yes, send my children to private schools.  I also come from two parents who immigrated to the US, both had two jobs to make ends meet and yet somehow managed to raise a family and keep their marriage together.  I stand on their shoulders.  I try not to forget the history of where I came from - of why my family immigrated ( the lack of jobs and opportunity) and why they have succeeded (working real hard and taking any job that paid the bills, e.g working in a factory and shoveling concrete.)

Today Barack Obama's speech on racism and our country's history was exactly what our country needed to hear from someone who gets it and has lived it.  Barack thoughtfully layed out how the both public policies have impacted both the black and white communities and that it all has combined to create this chasm we have today.

He said quite a few things that resonated with me this morning, but what stood out for me was the clarity of Barack's conviction, his values and his integrity.  He simply did not put his pastor out to hang for his comments, but stood by him for the man that Barack knew well, for his pastor's accomplishments and contributions.  Barack layed out the greater context within which these comments were made and could make sense.  I respect that. 

He said eloquently in his speech:

"And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me.  He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children.  Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect.  He contains within him the contradictions – the good and the bad – of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community.  I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me.  And they are a part of America, this country that I love."

I, for one, appreciate that Barack's beliefs are steeped in an understanding of where our country has come and where it can go.  He is not so naive to think that we should just sweep this and other issues under the rug, but he is willing to take it head on.  It is steeped in the belief that we ALL have a role in making this better.  This gives me real hope and inspires me to come to the table and participate in the discussion in ways I wouldn't have before.

My husband and I volunteer at our children's school and church, ran a non profit, donate when we can and speak out when we see injustices.  We are not perfect.  Our children will stand on our shoulders.  I am clear that they will also be standing on Barack Obama's shoulders and the legacy we all leave behind if we as a nation choose to address these complex issues ( e.g. education, employment, healthcare) head on.

For me, Barack said it all - now let's roll up our sleeves and get to work.

-orignally posted at Momocrats.