PERSONAL NEWS #28 
As I was saying in my last “personal news” update … on July 3rd went to a BBQ at my Aunt Nan’s home. [She lives with her second hubby Nick.] It’s a log cabin that my father helped build [ie: supervise the building] back in 2002/2003 and its rather charming. As is usually the case the men sat out on the back porch talking “guy stuff” and we gals sat indoors discussing several topics. One of which was the Iraq occupation or as several of my relatives say it’s a war with us battling evil Arabs. [Hey, what can I say, their conservative Republicans who watch MSNBC, Fox News & CNN. You already know my views on it.] So I tried to interject with the truth [ie: gleaned from WBAI, The Nation & other reliable sources], plus a few progressive views, and they basically pooh-poohed me. This is typical of certain relatives, so after awhile I quietly sat back and listened to their blather. You may recall me mentioning that my cousin is in the Reserves and may be called up to serve. [He was in the first Gulf War.] Hopefully more news on that in a few weeks. I mostly ate salad & baked beans at BBQ, since I’m a semi vegetarian and haven’t touched meat in 11 years. Then we capped off the evening with cake to celebrate a few b-days et al. Overall an interesting evening.

On Sunday, July 4th, Mom and I went out to lunch in Saratoga Springs. Then some shopping before going to see “Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban”, which we both enjoyed very much. Though seeing “fake” dead ferrets being fed to the Hippogriff upset me abit. The third Harry Potter film has a faster pace than the first two, which I believe is due to a different director [ie: Alfonso Cuaron]. The visuals/details were really good and the acting is always brilliant. [Especially by many character actors. And the young teens in the film have grown up quite abit.] I miss seeing the late Richard Harris play Dumbledore, but Michael Gambon does a decent job of it. I was very much impressed with Gary Oldman [ie: Sirius Black] and David Thewlis [ie: Professor Lupin]. I also noticed that the portrait of the “fat lady” [leading into Gryffindor dormitory] is being performed by a different, more amusing actress [ie: Dawn French]. Overall I do recommend folk go see this film, whether you’ve read the books or not.

Both July 6th & 7th were very busy days at the office. Last minute prep work for the TAS seminar on 7th. Plus actually helping out at the all-day seminar and raking in some paid overtime. Got a call from Rob Jereski on 8th, saying the upcoming weekend was the final stretch in obtaining signatures for the ballot petitions. So on Friday evening, July 9th, I joined Janice [another volunteer with campaign] outside the 86th Street cinema to get signatures. Weather was pretty decent, which always helps. We chatted with people as they waited on line for tickets to see “Fahrenheit 911” or as they were coming out of the cinema. Janice got over 3 pages of petitions signed. She’s really good at working the ticket line. As for myself, I got 1 ½ pages, but I tend to be more sociable with folk and enjoy engaging in political conversations. At about 11pmish Janice and I parted after petitioning for 2 ¾ hours. While heading back to the subway I stopped by street vendor selling paperback books. I noticed he had mystery novels by one of my fav authors … Anne Perry. Got to chatting with the vendor [who’s name is Angel] about many book topics, plus purchased a few Anne Perry Victorian genre murder mysteries. By the time I got home it was about 12:30am. Overall a very good evening.

The following evening, July 10th, was a lot of fun, interesting, different & entertaining. An acquaintance of mine [Thomas G] from “NYC Friends of Kucinich” invited me to a “Barefoot Boogie Dance” down near Houston Street. Thomas was DJing the first half of the event and its held at a dance studio. [To learn more about “Barefoot Boogie Dance”, check out there website at: http://www.barefootboogie.org. A totally smoke, alcohol and drug FREE environment.] I honestly had no clue what to expect, as Thomas said he’d be playing some RAVE music during his set. Got there around 8:30pm wearing my weekend garb and we were informed that NO shoes were allowed inside the studio. I’m okay with that. Some folk were barefoot, while others had socks on. Over the course of the evening I not only danced to my own groove, as did others, plus engaged in fascinating conversations with a number of individuals [ie: James, Nancy, Rebecca, etc]. I also got to chat with Thomas. Around 10:30pm the new DJ came on, but before that everyone gathered around in a circle [on the floor] and upcoming events were announced. Afterwards we joined hands and danced around the room, as well as wishing peace to all. I hung out for abit longer, but was feeling quite hungry, so after saying “farewell” to a few people [ie: especially dear Thomas] I left the building. Outside Nancy and Rebecca were engaged in a lively political discussion. Which they happily let me join in and we touched on a number of topics. By this time it was going on midnight and I’m still very hungry. Rebecca and I parted from Nancy then stroll over to a damn good pizza joint on West 3rd Street near 6th Avenue. After a lively discussion on activism et al we parted company and took our respective subways home. Two late nights in a row, but it was so worth it.

Was over to Rob Jereski’s place late Sunday afternoon to finalize the petitions I had gotten signed over the course of a month. All of us Jereski campaign volunteers should be proud of ourselves and obtained well over the required amount of signatures. Rob is definitely on the ballot! WooHoo! Other news … the “NYC Friends of Kucinch” meeting was rescheduled and the volunteer work I was to do for E&Y [ie: Central Park] was cancelled do to horrendous weather. I also heard from my personal trainer [Jamie], as he was out of the country for a few weeks tending to family matters. We had our first training session in three weeks yesterday and my muscles are sore today. Mon dieu!

A MESSAGE FROM FELLOW KUCITIZEN - JESSICA FLAGG IS RUNNING FOR CONGRESS

[Jessica Flagg on left, along with Mary G & Mike L at the Global Day Rally in NYC on March 22nd.  We are all big Kucinich supporters, but I think that is obvious from the signs et al.]

Hello All! I am running for Congress in the 17th Congressional District in a three way Democratic Party primary against Eliot Engel (incumbent), and Kevin McAdams (former Republican). My fabulous team helped me get more than 3,000 signatures to get me on the ballot, and we filed them Tuesday. We came in close to 1,900 over the mark! This is more than double what we did in our district for Dennis Kucinich, but of course, we learned our skills and honed our techniques together working for him.... Thank you Dennis!

This campaign is about getting government back into the hands of the people, and my goal will be to reinvigorate the political process face to face with my constituents. My goal will be to educate on the issues, advocate for change, and motivate informed voters to becoming activists themselves. We are living through a crisis of apathy, detachment, alienation, and what I call structural disenfranchisement, that is the deliberate marginalization of the poor, of labor, and the most fragile of our society our children and the aged. It is up to us to make change happen. As I say to the people I am meeting, "...if you aren't willing to work for change and to vote for change, change won't happen. If you think that government is doing a good job right now don't even think about voting for me.... but if you're not happy with what's going on, then please think about what I stand for and work with me to help turn our government back to being "...of the people, by the people and for the people..."

I support Kerry and Edwards, but unles we elect strong voices in Congress to advocate for the changes we need, we won't get them. We need clean air, clean water, healthy food, affordable housing, universal health care, and a ton of money to be spent on public education. If I thought the Democratic Party was doing a good job, I wouldn't be running for office. We should have been calling for the impeachment of this administration from the beginning. We are dealing with a criminal regime. They have done nothing but lie to us from the moment they took office.

It is wrong that lobbyists for industry write our laws in language that ordinary people can't understand, and they do it because they are hiding sneaky loopholes that cheat us, that allow corporations to pollute, that make us vulnerable to corporate excess without recourse. It is wrong that ordinary workers are carrying the bulk of the tax burden while the wealthy pay taxes in ever smaller percentages of their annual income. It is wrong that our food chain is poisioned with agricultural chemicals, and heavy metals like mercury, and when you buy milk unless you buy organic you are getting bovine growth hormone and it isn't labeled. So our children are getting fattened by cow hormones and we're told not to eat Salmon and Tuna more than once a month. And in the light of what we now know about the pharmeceutical industry manipulating the reporting of the test results of the clinical trials of its drugs, just how certain are we that genetically modified food is 'safe and healthy"? What is our government doing? This is madness!

(I have a very long list of all that is offensive including the weaponization of the world, the lies and deception that led us into this war, the war profiteering, the Patriot Act, the abandonment of the soul of the Democratic Party, the American worker when we signed NAFTA and the WTO, our energy policy which is basically criminal as it ensures destruction of the planet and sets us on a path of confrontation as we need to "secure" our oil sources, the manipulation of public sentiment by an obedient media eager to help dumb down the public and to keep us fearful and feeling helpless to ensure it gets its "perks", to mention a few... but I hardly ever need to get into all of this in one conversation... I pick and choose according to my audience.) SO? Enough! I have had it up to here (hand high above my head). I have so-o-o had it, that I'm running for Congress!

Get me into Congress and I promise you that I will work tirelessly for Universal Health Care, for affordable housing, for huge increases in education funding, and for changes in the way we allow corporations to do business. I will work tirelesly for Peace, to promote global citizenship, for compassion and respect, and for the restoration of our Democracy and for the Light of Truth to once again be seen in the open and just society we must strive to be. Join me in this joyous work to be real Americans. If you would like to help me with a financial contribution, please send it payable to: "Jessica Flagg For Congress" to 2727 Palisade Ave, Riverdale, NY 10463 [tel: 718-549-4422] Thank you for your interest.