This is a ROTC student drill. Yep, even here in San Francisco, we send many loyal soldiers into military service. We are ever bit as loyally patriotic as any of you in the middle of America, perhaps even more so.
We are not so full of ourselves out here in San Francisco. We know we are on the very edge of the continent, that a major fault runs under our feet that could, and in fact certainly will, destroy much of what we have here someday soon.
Living in San Francisco demands accepting your mortality. In other places, I suppose people can fantasize that they will be here for a long time still, no matter what their age.
We do not feel that way here. We know we can, and perhaps will, be killed in an instant of shaking, which could happen at any moment, since according to the experts, it is now badly overdue.
Yesterday, driving around town with my little soccer stars, 75 miles or so, the girls (Marisol and JuJu) decided to count the political signs hanging in the windows of our city. Their final count: Obama 75, McCain 0.
How do you explain to a child that this little slice of space is not the whole of our country; that there are places where these percentages would be reversed?
The kids worked very hard last night and today, under their mother's direction, baking sweets that they sold at the Festival on the Hill, the annual Bernal Heights street fair. All of the proceeds will go to Barack Obama's campaign. By the end of the day, they had raised $1,000 in support of the next President of the United States!
This photo was shot by JuJu. We have a small herd of bison in Golden Gate Park, something she didn't realize until yesterday.
At todays's festival, a variety of bands played for the crowd.
Amazingly, Senator Obama himself turned up at the kids' bake sale today. He seemed a bit flat, but lots of folks wanted to get their photo taken with him.
The brand "Newman's Own" has graced our refrigerators for years now. My little one created her own brand and gave it to me.
P.S. Gen. Colin Powell today committed the most loyal act any American could when he endorsed Sen. Barack Obama. This heartened me. The Republican administration exploited this hero's reputation to sell the Iraq War. They fed him lies disguised as intelligence. They reduced his standing so much that a college President I know well refused to allow Powell to give a graduation speech on the grounds that he was a "war criminal."
Today, Powell redeemed himself. He endorsed the next President of the United States, Barack Obama. He called him a "transformational" figure, and by doing so, he nailed it.
John McCain is a military hero, but he is not a credible candidate for President. His choice for a running mate, Sarah Palin, is a good candidate for celebrity or comedy status, but utterly unqualified to lead this troubled nation. She's utterly clueless.
Obama will win this election, as I predicted a year ago. It is now time for anyone who is a true patriot to get behind this great man and help him achieve the mandate he needs to transform our damaged nation into the global leader we all wish it to be.
For America's sake, I call on all Americans to vote for Obama, the right candidate at the right moment when our nation faces ruin, recession, and perhaps even worse if we continue on the failed path of George W. Bush or his surrogate, John McCain.
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