a tale of two cities

This week, I attended two meetings with my congressman, David Wu. The second was a small group (about 10 of us) from the Progressive Voter Network, and our topic was totally dedicated to environmental and energy issues. He listened patiently, and our 20 minutes flew by.

The first, however, was what I want to talk about. It was at a local church, attended by over 100 folks, mostly with Impeachment on their minds. Other topics, came up, too, but many spoke on Impeachment, urging Wu to add his voice to the rising tide. He astonished the crowd by stating his position, which was he is yet to be convinced that actual crimes had been committed. The crowd groaned in frustration. But that's not what I want to talk about.

Toward the end, a gray-haired lady stood up, and made an eloquent speech. She said that History would judge us poorly if we do NOT take a stand NOW, and not simply let Bush/Cheney run out the clock. It is our duty to say 'NO' to what they have done to our country - our duty to our own history and to what this country is supposed to mean, to the rest of the world.

And the crowd went wild.

This morning, on NPR, they talked about Fred Thompson's appearance at an Iowa fair. He told them, "I'm Pro-Life, Pro-2nd-Ammendment, and I'm sick of people who are putting down the United States."

And the crowd went wild.

Living in Portland: priceless.

Along similar lines, Bill Moyers had a segment last night on Katrina and what it means, both as a symbol of governmental incompetence and as a reflection of our denial about climate change. Both guests were amazing, but one of them made a great analogy. Both guests were amazing - worth watching if you missed it.