Mood:  cool

A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.

I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live. 

A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.  

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent.

History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.    

*quotes from around the internet, including BrainyQuote.com 

Mood:  hug me

“How do you nurture a positive attitude when all the statistics say you’re a dead man?” he told The New York Times last October. “You go to work.”

Patrick Swayze apparently died today of pancreatic cancer. Though I didn't always like his movies, what I respected about him was his attention to detail in his work, as well as his dedication to his wife, a childhood sweetheart from his native Houston that he stayed married to for almost 34 years.

Mood:  amorous

I LOVED the way Obama held his composure, calmly explaining his take on health care reform last week while the righties screamed bloody murder, annoying most everyone, including one another. As a former attorney, our President knows that the way to win is to draw out his opponents, and rather than fight, blab, and spin himself out of control unnecessarily, he remains cool while the Limbaughs, Becks, and other assorted yahoos scream threats and slogans, carry their guns to town hall meetings (seriously, I'm pro-gun ownership, but wtf is wrong with you people?), and generally declare their opposition to helping their fellow Americans in a time of need just because one of their own hand-picked guys isn't in charge of how to make it happen.

My main problem with Obama is that it seems as if he's capitulating at times when he might not really be, but perhaps that's just another part of the strategy. I hope so, anyway.

Keep workin' hard, man!

Mood:  a-ok

Richard Boyle is a man who went to Vietnam as an artillery forward and was wounded more than once. After Vietnam, he became a combat photographer and traveled to Cambodia and later to El Salvador. During his time in these countries, he bore witness to torture, executions, and the deaths of men, women and children at the hands of their own governments.

Boyle, along with his wife, is an educator and advocate for equality, children's safety, and for political justice. Having seen the worst of what humanity has to offer, he then built upon his best instincts for the future.

Here he is in his own words:

I responded. "Dear Patrick: Frankly I do not care who endorses me because with all the corruption, 88 percent of the people are fed up with both parties. The only endorsement I care about is the people's on Nov. 4. Nobody should tell anybody how to vote. As in a person's relationship with God, when you go into the ballot booth it's your private conscience that matters, not how some political party tells you how to vote. That sir, is the no brainer."

Mood:  a-ok

Ok, so he was controversial in his treatment of writers and other creative members of his community, but for all of that, Gene Roddenberry was still light-years ahead of most other producers at the time in both his commitment to his show and to his vision of the future. A devoted humanist, feminist and lover of science, Roddenberry's original vision for Star Trek included a woman as The Enterprise's first-mate/Number One to then Captain Pike. Of course, he ended up caving to studio brass, who felt the female Number One was too forward-thinking for the American population to watch or relate to, but the seed was planted, and Star Trek ended up inspiring generations of people of all colors and sexes.

The Star Trek Universe is a magical and logical one; unlike Disney, which sues daycare centers for painting unsanctioned Disney characters on the walls, Star Trek's creators and owners realized the huge impact their creation had, and they let fans run with it, resulting in thousands -- if not millions -- of clubs, spin-offs, conventioneers, and ideas.

[photo credit]

Mood:  a-ok

Clay's article is here.

He sounds like a cool kid who's finding some frustration with dating. The people at the site have been pretty grounded and helpful, but if you have anything constructive to add, I'm sure they'd love to read your words.

Mood:  celebratory

In March of this year, I talked about some of the women that legendary chef Gordon Ramsey has trained, and with it, brought some of his personal history into the mix. Though he is known to have once decried women working in professional kitchens, he has since gone on to train several who have successfully challenged this attitude and who have won their fight to work as professional chefs, often with accolades.

There are as many palates as there are opinions about Gordon Ramsey, but I wanted to highlight him briefly and tell him THANK YOU! for doing your best to promote the work of female chefs.

Several good articles about Gordon's training of the women he's worked with, and I highlighted them in March here.

[photo credit]

Mood:  a-ok

Jack Freiberger is a whiter-than-white Indiana guy who is a 5th grade teacher in South Central Los Angeles. The first time I ever heard of his one-man play based on his teaching experiences, They Call Me Mr. Fry, I feared the kind of unconscious racism that sometimes peppers these kinds of stories; you know, the "look at ME, I'M So Helpful To These Poor, Poor Kids" stuff that's more at home in an after-school special than in real life.

Jack Freiberger exorcises all of the stereotypes of children growing up in poverty, and he delivers a sincere, human view of his time as a teacher in South Central. Starting with his beginnings in the district in 1990 and following up with his look at the No Child Left Behind act, They Call Me Mr. Fry is funny, heartbreaking and incredibly current.

For more information on Jack, his life and his play, take a look at his blog.

[photo credit]