Name Change. Name Reveal. Move.

I'm finally out of that corner. Thank you for your patience while I was working out my changes, and thank you for checking in now and then to crunchthis, my first venture into blogging. I have decided to move this blog to WordPress, give it a name change, and lose the pseudonym. This is the last post at crunchthis, and my last post as cw crunch. I'll be writing from here on out at my new blog, zen crunch. Please join me, one and all, at cristinawhite.wordpress.com.

Quiet Corner

Okay, a full seven days is not so soon. And I'm actually, technically, still in that quiet corner crunching on change. In case you're checking in, thought I'd let you know that what I'm thinking about is moving this blog. Of course, life and all its demands continues on as I try to figure out what's next for crunchthis. It is all taking much longer than anticipated. Wasn't it one of the characters in Mad About You who stated that everything takes four times longer than you think it will? It's true.

While I'm in blog retreat, thought you'd like to look at a photograph instead of running into the same text over and over again.

And on an entirely different note, wasn't our President phenomenal tonight? Ah, yes, that's the guy I voted for.

Ch-Ch-Change...

It's a new month, and I'm considering changes to this blog. Wanted you to know why you haven't heard anything from me these past few days. I'm off in a quiet corner, crunching on change.



Back soon.

Twilight

A long walk today at twilight, to reflect on the death of Edward Kennedy. While I walked, mourners in Boston waited many hours to pay their respects and say farewell, passing by his coffin in silence. All day yesterday and today, there are those who are writing and speaking about his life and his work, remembering his indelible presence in the political arena and his enormous contribution to our country. Inevitably, in speaking of Ted Kennedy, we remember his brothers. I came of age when John F. Kennedy was running for President. For the first time, with Jack Kennedy on the scene, I found myself really interested in politics, seriously rooting for a candidate. I was too young to vote, but in my mind, my heart, I voted for JFK. I was proud and elated when he was elected on my birthday in 1960. And when he was murdered three years later, I became, like millions of Americans, one of the walking wounded, dazed and stunned by the loss of a beloved President.

By the time Robert Kennedy ran for President, I was certainly old enough to vote, and I most certainly would have voted for him. But it was a season of assassins. They gunned down Martin Luther King, Jr., and then Bobby Kennedy. Only Edward remained, and I believe, for many of us, there was a collective sigh of relief that his run for the Presidency failed. We could not endure the possibility of another madman cutting down Ted Kennedy. He went back to the Senate, and there he remained, to lead the way and craft legislation that would make life better for so many of us, in so many areas.

Just as much as the family and friends who loved him so dearly, I wish he could have been with us even longer. I wish he had been here to see his life's cherished work of universal health care become the law of the land. But I am grateful that he had a long life, and grateful that I was alive in this era of the Kennedy family. Whenever Edward Kennedy spoke, I remembered John and Robert. The Kennedy brothers made me proud to be an American, a Democrat, a liberal. In their courage and compassion, their intelligence and humor, their grace and humanity, they set the standard for what I seek and want in a Congressman, a Senator, a President. These three are gone; the light they cast into the darkness will remain.

Sunday Mind Rest

What If....

....John McCain had won the 2008 election? This speculation was prompted by the fact that at a recent Phoenix Presidential event, nearly 30 people showed up wearing loaded guns, including one man sporting an automatic rifle. Yesterday a caller to the Thom Hartmann show asked this question: "What if I, a black man, had shown up wearing a loaded gun to an event with President McCain? How long do you think it would be before I was tackled and shackled?" Thom's answer -- about 30 seconds.

Do you remember when it was President Bush in the White House, and certain people showed up to Presidential events wearing t-shirts that proclaimed they were anti-Bush? They were banned from those events. Led away. But that was different, of course. That was a white conservative Republican President. And we all know how dangerous political proclamation t-shirts are. Just look at the stats. All the people killed by t-shirts. It's scary.

Rachel Maddow: Ordering Pizza with Republicans

I tried, more than once, to post a video here from today's Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC. Computer could-not-compute. If you didn't catch it live or on one of the many repeats during the evening, get thee to http://www.rachel.msnbc.com/ and take a look at the segment called "Parable of the pizza order and health care reform." It's Rachel's Metaphor Theatre in high gear, as she tries to order pizza with Kent, and he keeps saying no to every single topping she suggests. Pepperoni, olives, ham, green pepper -- no, no, no, no. Just cheese, then. No cheese. Just sauce then. No sauce. No, no, no, no. Remind you of anyone? Bingo! It's the Republicans on health care reform, claiming they want reform, just not any kind of reform President Obama and the Democrats want. So let us do as Rachel proposes. Forget the Republicans. Let us get our pizza exactly the way we want it. Tasty. And who knew pizza could be so good for our national health?

We did.