I was thinking about not doing a "Looking Back..." blog this year, but then I talked to my friend David (in Taiwan). I hadn't talked to David (on the phone) for nearly a year, so we talked for around 3 hours about pretty much everything. He told me I should do a "year end" blog. By his logic, everyone does a year-end blog, so why shouldn't I? I told him that a year end blog is basically just a re-cap of everything I've already talked about over the last year, so why repeat myself? So...I'll try to do one with as little repetition as possible.
Both 2008 and 2009 were years of big changes for Christy and I. We left Taiwan in 2008, and we bought a house in 2009. So what happens next? Where do we go from here? Do we just fall into a routine, normal life for the next 20 years? Do we just settle down and raise the kids until they're ready to move out?
I started reading up on the city of Manor recently. Since this is the place I'm going to be living for awhile, I wanted to know what I'm getting myself into. Manor is a city that is trying to be more modern and hip, but it will take a lot of work. The city has a website (http://www.manorlabs.org/) that welcomes suggestions from residents. My biggest suggestion right now is trying to lure a major grocery store to open there. As of now, I have to drive about 10 miles to get to the nearest HEB. Manor has a nice golf course....but...how about a freakin' grocery store! Well, at least with the website, it shows they're trying. The population of the city is up to 5800 now, so getting a decent grocery store shouldn't be that hard.
In 2010, I'd like to become a little more actively involved in the community I live in. I really don't want to be writing about how much Manor sucks over the next year.
I've surprised myself that I've kept this blog going for so long. I wrote my first blog entry in March of 2008. Nearly 2 years of blogging! Can I keep it up for another year? I don't know. Maybe. As long as I have something to talk about. If I find myself blogging about the next door neighbors dog barking too much, it's time to throw in the towel.
Both 2008 and 2009 were years of big changes for Christy and I. We left Taiwan in 2008, and we bought a house in 2009. So what happens next? Where do we go from here? Do we just fall into a routine, normal life for the next 20 years? Do we just settle down and raise the kids until they're ready to move out?
I started reading up on the city of Manor recently. Since this is the place I'm going to be living for awhile, I wanted to know what I'm getting myself into. Manor is a city that is trying to be more modern and hip, but it will take a lot of work. The city has a website (http://www.manorlabs.org/) that welcomes suggestions from residents. My biggest suggestion right now is trying to lure a major grocery store to open there. As of now, I have to drive about 10 miles to get to the nearest HEB. Manor has a nice golf course....but...how about a freakin' grocery store! Well, at least with the website, it shows they're trying. The population of the city is up to 5800 now, so getting a decent grocery store shouldn't be that hard.
In 2010, I'd like to become a little more actively involved in the community I live in. I really don't want to be writing about how much Manor sucks over the next year.
I've surprised myself that I've kept this blog going for so long. I wrote my first blog entry in March of 2008. Nearly 2 years of blogging! Can I keep it up for another year? I don't know. Maybe. As long as I have something to talk about. If I find myself blogging about the next door neighbors dog barking too much, it's time to throw in the towel.
Ken --
ReplyDeleteLooking back at 2009, it turns out you were right.
Early this year, millions of you chose to keep working together and create Organizing for America, to build on the momentum of the Obama campaign, take on the defenders of the status quo, and make change happen.
Special interests thought they could steamroll you with hundreds of millions of dollars in lobbying and attack ads. Meanwhile, you built a massive organization, driven by local leadership, that reached out to millions of fellow Americans and made your voices heard to Congress in record numbers.
In the coming year, our opponents will make a final stand to block health reform and seek to defeat many of the President's other crucial initiatives. And they're already targeting those in Congress who are championing change.
So I wanted to take a moment at year's end to reflect on everything you've built, and to ask for your help one last time this year to hit the ground running in 2010. Please donate $5 to keep our organizing strong in all 50 states.
This has been a remarkable year for the movement you've built from the ground up.
Beth Kimbriel, a mother of four from Richmond, Virginia, has no formal political experience. But every week, as an OFA "Community Organizer," she trains and manages other volunteer leaders to organize effectively around the President's agenda. Hundreds of her fellow OFA Community Organizers around the country have already volunteered more than 200,000 hours doing similar work. Thousands more have taken on other leadership positions in every single state. And we're still growing -- nearly a million people who had never volunteered for the presidential campaign have signed up with OFA this year.
Supporters spread the word throughout our communities, with more than a million conversations with neighbors on the phone and at the doorstep, and 250,000 letters to the editor about how President Obama's policies would help ordinary Americans.
And when Congress was making crucial decisions, you spoke out more powerfully than the special interests ever could. In the last few months, you've made more than 1 million calls to Congress -- including more than 300,000 on one amazing day in October that created huge momentum for health reform. Thousands of supporters attended town halls to counter the shouting mobs and speak out in person. And you even held 37,107 events in every congressional district -- bus tour rallies, phonebanks and forums to inform your neighbors.
These incredible efforts have powered victories on a wide range of issues. OFA volunteers provided a huge boost to help pass the Recovery Act, President Obama's historic budget, an expansion of children's health care, credit card and student loan reform. Your voices helped pass a historic green jobs and energy bill in the House, and the confirmation of the nation's first Latina Supreme Court justice, Sonia Sotomayor, in the Senate. And of course, you were instrumental in passing comprehensive health reform through both houses of Congress for the first time in American history.
With every phone call to a member of Congress, every door knocked on a rainy day, every event held in a town center, you've helped to push this country forward.
But with the special interests and their allies in Congress fighting us for every inch, we need your help again to keep our organizing strong in 2010. Can you chip in $5?
https://donate.barackobama.com/give
Thanks for making it all possible,
Mitch
Mitch Stewart
Director
Organizing for America