DO WE COUNT IN OUR DEMOCRACY? AND WHO GETS TO ANSWER THAT QUESTION?

Edward and Edwin Mutanguha

"You have something others envy ~ your freedom" is what Edward Mutanguha said to us on a Saturday afternoon in late October in Providence, Rhode Island on the State Capitol grounds. And with that comes responsibility to use that freedom. We gathered to make a statement that we were standing up to end the now 5 year old genocide in Darfur. Edward and his twin brother, Edwin, had first hand experience. They are Rwandans that necessarily lived in exile due to the genocide in their homeland of Rwanda. I believe firmly that we must become knowledgeable and engaged in the political process or we will lose our freedoms.

I sent a letter to my Senators Reed, Whitehouse and Representative Patrick Kennedy asking for their endorsements for Barack Obama for President. Here is the one I sent to Senator Sheldon Whitehouse:

Subject: Health of our Country and Darfur

Dear Senator Whitehouse,

I am writing to you on behalf of my heart and genuine love for our people and the people around the world. I am a grass roots Darfur ~ Stop and Prevent Genocide ~ activist with the Save Darfur Coalition. I organized the Rhode Island state Torch Relay in regards to China and Darfur. I am sure you know about China's role in the genocide of the Darfur people. Omar al-Bashir has been jerking "our" chain and plays games with us especially about getting the UN Peacekeepers in place as agreed upon July 31, 2007.

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Our Rhode Island Dream for Darfur Torch Relay in Providence, October 27, 2007

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I have lobbied you in person regarding Darfur in your Providence office on May 29, 2007 with constituents, including several high school students and the past executive director of STAND, as well as Frank Caprio, RI General Treasurer.

A separate reason for writing is that I am a proud and strong supporter of Barack Obama for President. I volunteer for his campaign, including a week in New Hampshire, running up to their Primary. I have never in my 59 years done anything like this before. I can tell you that the 18 and 22 year olds that were organizing all of our canvassing were committed, hard workers and made me extremely proud and humble. I will never vote for Hillary, which leaves me somewhat afraid.

Would you please consider endorsing, very publicly, Barack Obama? This would be in my humble opinion a very genuine and good message to our nation and the world, that We Do Want to Be Unified and NOT the divided United States of America. Time is of the essence.

Thank you for your kind consideration.

I admire you for what you have done in the past regarding Darfur, however we need to get the helicopters in Darfur immediately for the UN Peacekeepers. What has been going on recently in Darfur is extremely troubling and going on under the media radar.

Thank you for your continued support regarding Darfur and our humanity.

LINKS ABOUT CURRENT DARFUR NEWS:
http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnMCD640425.html
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/01/23/darfur.hijackings.ap/
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/opinion/27sun2.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=
http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN734520.html

Sandra Hammel
Rhode Island
Female
White
Grew up in a Republican, Bible-belt family in Indiana
Turns out I am a Democrat
B.S. and M.M.
Retired Teacher and Human Rights Activist

GENOCIDE STOPS WITH US - LET'S MAKE IT PAST HISTORY

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CHINA PLEASE: Bring the Olympic Dream to Darfur. The 2008 Olympic theme is ONE WORLD, ONE DREAM. www.dreamfordarfur.org
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead

www.savedarfur.org
I post all of my Darfur events on this website. Click on "Darfur Events Center" on right hand side of Home Page, Type in zip code 02840.
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This is a reminder of how to behave. This is Barack Obama's speech after he conceded to Hillary Clinton who got 2% more of the votes from New Hampshire. However, know that Hillary and Barack received equal number of delegates. I was there this night. I am so glad that I was.

Hillary didn't even meet together with her volunteers in South Carolina after she conceded to Barack on the telephone. Volunteers work very, very hard on the candidates' behalf. Volunteers go door-to-door and meet with all variations of welcome or unwelcome. And it is good manners for the candidate to meet with the volunteers at the end of the time in the state after the primary or caucus.

Please, notice how Barack handled this very same situation in the Youtube above, leading by example.
Barack Obama's New Hampshire YES WE CAN speech.

"There has never been anything false about hope.
...When we're told that we're not ready....that we shouldn't try or that we can't....Yes. We. Can. ...a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation, Yes, we can......Yes, we can to justice and equality....Yes, we can to opportunity and prosperity, Yes we can heal this nation, Yes, We can repair this world...Yes, We Can...We will remember that something is happening in America, that we are not as divided as our politics suggest, that we are one people, we are one
nation and together we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words, from coast to coast, from sea to shining sea. Yes. We. Can." Barack Obama, January 8, 2008 in Nashua High School gym, New Hampshire

HER QUESTION GAVE HILLARY A PLATFORM TO CRY ~ THEN VOTED FOR OBAMA

Marianne Young of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, asked Hillary Clinton the question, which the answer was repeated ad nauseam. As I volunteered in New Hampshire for six days, I have been out of touch with the media coverage pretty much.

You know ~ too busy going door-to-door to know what the media was up to. Here’s the thing, I am quite fanatical about MSNBC and especially, Chris Matthews’ Hardball and Keith Olbermann’s Countdown, including being highly impressed with Richard_Wolffe as seen on Olbermann’s Monday through Friday fare. And tonight had to catch up … Olbermann’s number 1 story was Marianne Young (who doesn’t look much different in age than Hillary Clinton) voted for Barack Obama and probably helped Hillary win. Well, anyway that is what I gathered from the pundits tonight. And Hillary, said she felt touched by and "connected" with this woman who voted for Barack. The question was "How do you do it?" and "Who does your hair?"

I sat where Barack and Michelle entered for the Primary Party in Nashua, New Hampshire, January 8, 2008.
This is a Reuter's picture

This is a Reuter's picture

This is a Reuter's picture

This is a Reuter's picture

This is a Reuter's picture

At our "Staging Area" where we met every dayThis is taken on the one day I had someone to go door-to-door with ~ she is now a citizen, but from Australia and thinks we have such a grand opportunity here, where we GET to be involved in the election. The young woman on the right is on Senator Obama's staff.

I was going to cut me out of this picture, as it is not flattering of me. But pride aside, here is Richard Wolffe and me in Salem High School. I saw him in the second "overflow" room of Barack Obama's speech, January 6, 2008. He was very gracious and offered to have a friend take our picture together. How sweet is that.

And I for one, believe America is having a test about voting for a black candidate. (Imagine if it was a black woman this time.) Look, racism is not over in the USA. I met an Italian family (born and raised in Italy and still have a house there, etc), who vote here in New Hampshire. They obviously lean toward the Democrats. And the one adult son, gave me a very passionate monologue why this country is not willing to consider voting in a black president. Of course, I am totally voting for Barack Obama ~ that black man that is who he means. Nevermind that Barack had a white mother and a black father. But his real argument with me, who in no way was arguing about anything, was that only 2% of Americans vote by using the right criteria, policy, records and character of integrity. I sucked the wind right out of his sails when I let him ramble on, then restated for clarity that I understood his stands and then told him I agreed with him only that I wholeheartedly support this man Barack Obama. By the end, he said if Barack Obama wins, then God bless him. As he drove off, he gave me a thumbs up.

This business of Hillary Clinton is now at a place that I will stop being so neutral. Hillary has redefined herself in days that are too close together for anyone who pays real attention to accept her as genuine. She clobbers Barack with unwarranted criticisms then acts like she doesn’t know why people don’t think she is soft enough or let’s call it human. And by “people” maybe I should say media people ~ those that follow her. They see her in a more comprehensive way than the rest of us. And even they have been saying that Hillary is nicer in a one-on-one than in these public settings. As for me, I will count on my own radar about Hillary ~ I don’t like her anymore. I used to. Just not anymore. She let too many staff dirt balls fly and it is simply too unbelievable that someone who is so controlling wouldn’t be fully knowledgeable about this tactical politicking. Hillary has her talents but being true to herself isn’t something that Hillary has mastered. She is a politician that puts politicians in a category of not being straight with us. She is not strong in ways that Barack is, so she attacks those strengths in Barack.

Her poo-pooing of Barack by attacking some of his strengths of energizing our best assests as people of a democracy is stupid. May I say that? Yes.

Barack is a natural. By that I mean, he is comfortable with who he is and one of his best things about who he is ~ is that he is “natural” and not stiff. Hillary couldn’t match up in this category if her life depended upon it. Barack if allowed would lead this country in ways that Hillary couldn’t dream of. And I mean in a good way.

I think that most people who vote don’t pay more than surface attention to the one they vote for. I was in New Hampshire when this happened and I not only went door-to-door, but I stayed with a Republican family who officially are Independents. My opinion: Most people don’t vote and those who do, vote after watching a debate or two and not knowing issues or much about them. I found that people vote on one issue or another and especially about abortion or gay rights. And the other issues are non-binding to them, such as the trillion-dollar war, fair voting, lobbyists, truth in government, jobs, our debt and taking out our loans to run our country from China and Japan, the environment, nuclear war, terrorism, torture, stomping all over our Constitution, open government. ABORTION AND GAY RIGHTS ~ their most important issues that they select a candidate for the free world on. I find this incredible. When watching the debate in New Hampshire, a comment was made that the subject of paid lobbyists was a worthless subject ~ “what are they talking about this for?” I couldn’t disagree more. I think our democracy is in danger, unless we address paid lobbyists who “buy” off our elected representatives.


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"Yes We Can"
Barack Obama's speech New Hampshire Primary Night January 8, 2008

I was there

"Barack Obama supporter Sandra Hammel (C), reacts to televised results at Obama's New Hampshire primary night rally in Nashua, New Hampshire, January 8, 2008.

REUTERS/Jason Reed (UNITED STATES)" I found this online with the caption last night.

Nevada

South Carolina

Super_Tuesday

"Slideshow New Hampshire Primary" link (on the left of the page):
News Pictures

New Hampshire voters on Hillary and Barack before the Primary