ACT FOR CHANGE ACTIVISM ... From A November 19th Update

IN THIS BULLETIN:

FEATURED ACTION: President Bush, Honor Fallen Soldiers and Attend a Funeral or Memorial

While American casualties in Iraq increase daily, President Bush is turning a cold shoulder to the grieving families of slain American servicemen and women.

As of November 17th, 422 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq, over 2,200 have been wounded and there are an average of 35 attacks on Americans every day, yet President Bush has not attended a funeral or memorial of a single American killed in action.

Click here to take action!

http://act.actforchange.com/cgi-bin7/DM/y/eWPu0FFlNw0JPz0hkC0Ao

Regardless of one's feelings about the war in Iraq, American servicemen and women who follow orders and pay the ultimate price deserve our respect. This is especially true for President Bush, their Commander-in-Chief, who sent them into the face of danger in Iraq. President Bush's predecessors -- Clinton, Bush Sr., Reagan and Carter -- all attended memorials or funerals for soldiers killed in action.

Call on President Bush to show his respect for our fallen soldiers by addressing the rising casualties in Iraq and attending at least one funeral or memorial for soldiers killed in Iraq.

Click here to take action!

http://act.actforchange.com/cgi-bin7/DM/y/eWPu0FFlNw0JPz0hkC0Ao

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This past weekend I enjoyed a nice, long visit down in the DC/VA area and stayed with high school friend Nancie. Took the Friday off from work as a personal day. Unfortunately the weather and Amtrak wasn’t cooperating that Friday morning … causing delays from 10 to 40 minutes. Train was supposed to depart Penn Station at 9:35am and we finally left NYC at 10:15am. The ride down was for the most part uneventful. The woman sitting next to me either slept or read. As for myself, I listened to my CD Walkman or read THE NATION periodical. Finally arrived into Union Station just before 2pm and Nancie was waiting for me at gate. We decided not to visit Mt Vernon that afternoon, due to lateness of Amtrak. Hung out at her house [hubby Tim was visiting their daughter in upstate NY], ate fruit, talked, then went shopping for groceries and ended up at Tyson’s Corner Mall. Before doing some Xmas shopping at the Mall we had a tasty dinner at Rainforest Café. [We discussed, in detail, plans for our 30th high school reunion in 2007.] Later on at the house we utilized the Jacuzzi / hot tub in backyard. Love it!

Next day had a leisurely breakfast before heading into FairOaks and Nancies office. She had paperwork to do and one of her co-workers gave me a full body massage. Damn that felt good! Kim, the masseuse, told me about this wonderful Xmas Shop near the office that Nancie and I should check out, which we did afterwards. The day was wearing on, plus we were getting hungry for lunch, so headed south towards Mt Vernon. Kim told us the restaurant there serves a yummy peanut soup. We first headed into Alexandria [beautiful town], promptly got lost, inquired at Visitors Center and finally arrived to Mt Vernon around 2pm. Of course the next bit I’ve already documented a few days ago [see 11/17/03]. After a quick bite to eat we drove over to Woodlawn Estate and Plantation, which is across ridge from George Washington’s Mt Vernon. It’s a smaller estate, but has lots of charm and isn’t as crowded as Georgie’s place. This suited us just fine and we spent several hours. The tour of the mansion was delightful and so informative. The property nicely landscaped with the aroma of boxwood in the air. Heavenly! Back in Nancie’s van we headed north to do some holiday shopping at FairOaks Mall, then had a delicious dinner at a Thai restaurant. Back at the house I made calls to Mom and Katherine relating the “Tracey encounter”. Then its off to the hot tub / Jacuzzi to relax the muscles. Throughout most of the day Nancie was ill with a nasty cough and she was slowly losing her voice. On Sunday she was reduced to whispering, poor thing.

We went to IHOP for pumpkin pancake breakfast, my treat. After partaking of a yummy meal at IHOP we drove to Fairfax High School to check out the huge excellent art/craft show. We spent over two hours at the show, sometimes going separately to cover more turf. Thru Nancie I was able to meet several friends of hers who were selling their items, two of the chaps are from the alternate rock band THE FURS. They'll be playing some gigs up in NYC in the new year and we exchanged email addresses. It was all very enjoyable and I had some terrific conversations with several artisans. Nancie showed me their previous house, which they’d been renting out since 1997 and have now sold it. Its in a nice, working class neighborhood … one level with garage and sitting on ¼ acre of land. We also checked out a place that sells British goodies and has a tea room. Next year we’ll go to the tea room, as this time it was booked solid. So we ended up in Fairfax eating a late lunch at a Chinese Buffet. Lots of good food, especially the stringbeans, for a reasonable price. We rounded off the afternoon by heading back into DC. I decided to take the 5:20pm Amtrak instead of the 6:20pm, so we hung out at the station in a cafe. The ride back to NYC was uneventful and I slept half the time.