At the Grand Opening of the Obama campaign office in Buffalo NY, a volunteer planted the seed for a biker run. (Motorcycle, not bicycle) It's still in the making, and more announcements of the plan will come as we make them, but you should start to announce to friends with Bikes that something is brewin' and they need to put their ear to the ground.
The run will likely be Buffalo to Pittsburgh and back, so anybody on the way can get in on the run. Their is some plan to help the PA campaign with their efforts. Might be an overnight stay in PA. Everything is still tentative. Got good ideas, or experience in making a bikers run successful? Let's hear them.
A fun side effect is that it draws fire from both people that disagree with you and people that like to “bust your onions.” The onion-busters are quick to move on when they see they can’t get you mad. They are a waste of time to argue with anyway because they are probably on your side but they like to start trouble. The other ones are worth your time. They will pull out every thing in their head trying to win an argument against you, and all you have to do is take your time and mindfully answer all their fears with facts.
Last night I had a doosey! Funny that he got put on me by an onion-buster. This fellow was a Conservative, pious Republican, who has qualms about Democrats voting the party line. His first statement to me was, “what is wrong with voting against a person because of his color? I wouldn’t do it, but I know a lot of people that would.” I smiled and looked at the ground for a second or two and said, “I don’t have anything against that, voting is a personal decision.” I paused momentarily as I watched some of the red leave his face then went on to say, “but I believe that bigotry is morally reprehensible, and it disgusts me personally.” Wow that felt good! Out of the corners of my eyes I could see stealthy eavesdroppers gathering around trying to get close enough to hear the debate but staying far enough away to not get involved. I thought I should speak louder for the rest of the conversation. I then went on to say that I had never paid attention to politics before this year, and that I literally went to Obama’s site to find reasons to make fun of him, but couldn’t and was so impressed by his policies that I joined his team.
He brought “Hussein” into a sentence and tried to make a Muslim connection and I headed back to it later. I said, “you know people named Jeff right?, but you don’t treat them any different because Jeffery Dahlmer was a mass murderer do you? So why do you want to bag on a guy with a funny name?” He thought for a moment then tried his Muslim connection argument. I said, “I’m a Catholic, but you wouldn’t try to connect me to the Ku Klux Klan would you? So why would you try to connect his fathers religion which was the normal religion of that area to him, and to terrorists?” I had him a bit speechless there and I could see his face wanting to change the argument to something he could win.
The next thing he went on to say was, “none of that matters to me anyway, I only vote on one issue, right to life.” Again I allowed him to speak his mind fully. Although it was dark outside I could see that his red face color was coming down to an ordinary complexion white skin. I don’t think he felt too comfortable after he aired his view because he took a new position near me where his back was now up against a giant hedge. He went on to call the appointing of specific Supreme Court Judges that enact his extreme views as the greatest accomplishment of the Republican Party. I told him that I don’t think it’s so easy to define laws because these issues about life are no simple standardizeable matter. Then he started to talk really crazy about nuclear bombs going off killing everybody in some specific city in our state. I said, “now how can you be pro life and talk like that?!” He became immediately embarrassed and began to swerve it back away from crazy passion to his crazy belief that the end times are near. (if I die and go to heaven, I’m going to kick the shit out of the guy that wrote Revelations) As a changeup I pulled one from the Bible; I don’t know the chapter and verse, but I know I read it in the Bible. I said to him, “scriptures have a story that says if you are lost and starving and you come upon a bird and her eggs, to take the eggs and leave the bird alone. I think the reason that is in the Bible is because God can work with a mother to make new eggs, but God can’t work with the eggs without the mother.” Then I went to women’s health issues and how my grandmother nearly died from giving birth to her last daughter that was an obvious health risk because of how the pregnancy developed low in the womb. If God is all powerful, then the soul of my Aunt would have been put in the next conception. I told him that I think both sides are wrong and it is never a simple matter and writing laws that force everybody to live under one groups opinion is not right or doable.
He talked about how Hitler could have possibly fooled all those people into following him, and I said I used to be a Republican and after meeting so many Democrats I believe these people are the least likely to have that happen, but Republicans grab slogans, don’t investigate and fall in line with their leaders. We left that topic quickly.
I began to steer the conversation to economics, and after things calmed down, he thanked me for taking the time to talk to him. I wouldn’t be so bold to think I have converted him to our side, but I may have at least put out the “angry mob torch” he was carrying. He may be more open minded. He may doubt some of the political things that he accepted as a matter of faith. All in all I believe it was time well spent.
Go and get one of these for yourself. I’ll be glad to read your post.
I was born and raised as a Republican, though I was not registered to vote till after Reagan got in office, and after my contract in the Marines was completed. I listened to talk radio and Rush Limbaugh from about 1987 to about 1997. So what changed and made me a Democrat and nearly a Delegate at this year’s convention?
Towards the end of the 1980's my wife and I had a produce store, a hobby farm and 2 full time jobs. As an adult with so many responsibilities I was learning fast, and I was developing great reasoning skills. I started to find things wrong in what was being said on talk radio. I found that if you want to get on a talk radio show, you have to fit one of two requirements; agree with them with out seeming psychotic, or disagree with them in a lame way that makes their opposition look bad. They will not air a solid argument against themselves because truth has nothing to do with their message. I found that level of deceit deplorable, but never detected it before I grew an open mind and listened to both sides. I was capable of good thinking, but was never in a position to try it.
In the late 1990's I went back to school and studied many things but loaded heavily in Economics coursework. During the first campaign of Lil' Bush, I was phoned by a GOTV Republican party volunteer. I said I wasn't voting for them because it was too much Texas Oil power in one area and that if they won something would happen that would raise the prices of fuel such that Texan's would be able to profit again on their local oil production. I may be a little off, but it was kind of prophetic if not just openly cynical. That volunteer treated me so badly on the phone that I wondered what I was doing in the same party.
I felt like the Democrats had little to offer me at that time. This is because of the persistence of propaganda in the human mind. Old thoughts in the human mind that were learned well remain intact until overwhelming new evidence proves them wrong. Thus I had only heard all of what's wrong with Democrats. That is not an easy hurdle for an ordinary person to get over, and mental assaults don't work; if you meet a person like I was, try calm discussion with the proper rules of debate. If the discussion becomes heated, our brains get into defensive positions and loose the ability to think rationally.
I went to the Denver convention and found that everything I ever heard about Democrats was a lie. I watched the Republican convention and now I am embarrassed that I was ever associated with them; I know good Republicans, but those people are not in any position of power. I'd really like an opportunity to punch a lot of those jack-asses in the face that control the Republican Party.
As a mathematician of sorts, I advise you to whenever you get to discuss anything with potential opponents or undecided voters, get their definitions of what they say they are. As I said in the beginning, I was raised a Republican, but hearing Senator Wexler of Florida go on about fire breathing Liberals, I heard the definition of a Liberal for the first time and realized I have always thought like a Liberal, and I was only against them because I held a mistaken definition of Liberal in my head. Find out what the person you are talking to really wants to happen and you may find out they are on your side, but they don't know it yet.
Good luck to you all, and remember change a mind = change a vote, and that one changed vote = a gain of 2 votes at the booth. The worst you can hope for is an opponent looses their enthusiasm when you shed the light of truth and they stay home on voting day.
Hello Bloggers,
John McCain states, "I would rather lose an election than lose a war." I believe he is truthful about that, and I will leave alone the argument about winning unjust wars for now (e.g. Opium and Boxer). During the Republican Convention, McCain wove into his speech the ides of war against Russia, and Iran. This kind of demonizing of another country right before an election brought the thought to mind below that I believe is his completed campaign slogan.
Hello to all potential Obama Event attenders, I have been thinking about this idea of enhanced security for some time and talking about it on rare occasions. Now seems like a great time to SPAM the thoughts to lots of people. Professional agents like the Secret Service can prevent nearly any possibility of harm to those they protect. The media and the blog world has been talking about the one possibility that they can't stop; the "Lone Wolf." This type of threat is hard for a professional to detect because their thoughts and plans are likely to be completely personal, thus undetectable. The pro's can do amazing things with geometry and physics to detect any potential long range attack, or stealthy approach. Mapping communication links allows them to guess who is connected to organized threats, and track the movement of the known players of insurgency. I don't believe they can effectively play the "Where is Waldo" game by scanning our massive crowds to find a potential Lone Wolf who looks just like the rest of us. That's where we the normal people come in. Early in the primaries when we began to discuss this idea, I suggested attendees of events perform acts of confrontation and heroism should a perpetrator brandish a weapon. Recently I thought security against the potential Lone Wolf doesn't need to be so dramatic. Any potential Lone Wolf would be playing the part of a hunter and their camouflage would be pretending to be at the event like we are, but unlike us they would be in total focus on one goal just like a hunter. It would be a terrible problem for them if they were constantly distracted. Since all the attendees that show up for honorable reasons will be friends in spirit or otherwise, their should be nothing wrong with talking to everybody near you even though you never met before. Who could possibly be against a friendly & light conversation at an event? A Lone Wolf would be against light conversation; it would be totally distracting and ruin their hunt. So if you attend a event where the Pros are already on duty, you should be looking around for people that look disconnected, alone, or just out of place and engaging them with a smile and a friendly comment. The upside of this security through noise and connectivity is you have the potential to prevent a wrongdoing without even knowing it. The downside to this is you may meet somebody that you really don't agree with and isn't fun to talk to. Think of how happy the Pros would be to have between 20,000 and 75,000 motivated and unpaid volunteers helping with security. I think this would also inadvertently fit with the Obama plan for strengthening communities; talking to strangers improves a community (don't tell children I said that). If you think this is a good idea, feel free to send it to those you think should read it but haven't gotten it yet.
Sincerely,Michael Ruppaka:WNYmathGuy
So I rarely post pictures with my blogs, but this time it seemed appropriate. Back story: Sad but endearing story of a Marine escorting a fallen Marine's remains back home. People on plane moved by the moment decide to wear red every Friday till the troops are brought home. e.g. we quit the dumb war. I do get symbolic at times, and not at others. This is one of the things I am glad to get behind. Lots of people at work asked about "Red Friday" at work today and you can see why. Some I merely told it's a support the troops thing but not a wrist band. Others I told that it's because the News forgot that their was a war, and I refuse to forget, and I want people to know that I didn't forget. I am a former Marine, but never saw combat, and was in Electronics Repair, but it doesn't mean I'm not personally and emotionally connected to them, and I am justified in my position to desire a withdrawal of troops regardless of what "face" the Republican's may think we will have in the world. I know that our guys are honorable and respectable, but their should have been other ways to accomplish what we thought they were supposed to do. No more lives lost in Iraq for this administrations profiteering expedition is my policy. Red is commonly used in the Military to denote lives lost, like the red "blood stripe" on the Marines dress blues. Red is a great choice to bring to the front of our minds that over 4,000 are dead now. On my shirt ($8.00 at Old Navy and $30.00 at the air-brush kiosk) I purposefully had the "i" in Friday made to look like a bullet hole oozing blood. I chose red paint on a red shirt to be a little on the soft-sell side of things. In case the picture is hard to read, the back says, "Red Friday, this is how I cry, for those who die, Semper Fi." (lil' callout to my homies at the end) I wrote that two liner there, so feel free to copy me without a infringement lawsuit on your hands. Please wear red on Fridays to make a noticeable statement. When the media notices seas of red clothes on Friday's, maybe they will start to cover the story again, and then our elected people will legislate them home as they should have been doing for years now.
I hardly blog anymore on BarackObama.com
A long time ago I noticed people in general don't read the blog pages, they just read emails from the listserves. I just happened to see a post on "Marines for Obama" that looked like it should have gotten more attention, but I never saw in my email box.
For a while I was posting to blog pages and listserve emails but now I only do litserves.
![[Red Friday front thumbnail]](http://wnymathguy.com/REDfridayFrontCropped.JPG)
![[Red Friday back thumbnail]](http://wnymathguy.com/REDfridayBackCropped.JPG)
