SEATTLE POST INTELLIGENCER
by Gene Stout
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/pop/192493_pearljam25ww.html
PERSONAL NEWS #37
Now that I've regaled you all with my little adventures in "Oh Canada" ...its time to relate what I've been involved in this month. The road ahead, for me, is taking on some interesting turns. For the last 1 1/2 to 2 years I've been experiencing an incredible learning curve. No one has shoved this in my face. I've been reaching out, exploring, discovering new things and meeting terrific people through the process. Don't worry, I'll try not to get all preachy or sink my readers into boredom. So, without any further ado. . . . . .
Wednesday, Sept 8th, was my first day back at work and also the Dept of Peace Meetup that evening. Silly me, I misread the address on the email and I ended up at the wrong Starbucks location. Didn't realize that there are two Starbucks on the same upper Westside street, only 2 blocks apart. By the time I got to the other location ... no one was there. Sigh! Next month I'll make damn sure that doesn't happen.
The following evening, Sept 9th, I met up with Ellen [fellow Kucitizen] at the "Empower The UN With The Voice Of The People" event at UN Plaza. [This event ran abit late, which meant that I missed participating in the "Candlelight Vigil" down at Union Square.] There were several speakers that evenings and when I arrived Sue Zipp was talking about “The Earth Charter”. [http://www.earthcharter.org] Topics she touched on were … “competition to cooperation” and “ethical behavior/humanism are essential”. A strong need for a Peoples Assembly but we need to reform the UN. Then Joseph Kule from Ghana spoke about the Pan Africa Parliament. Rob Wheeler spoke on Global Democracy. The last speaker of the evening, whom Ellen and I were mostly there for, was Tad Daley from CA and a good friend of Kucinich. He spoke about a “new” global Peoples Assembly, as well as a future without nuclear weapons. None! A website to check out is:
http://www.empowertheun.org
On Sunday, Sept 12th, I met up with Ellen and Eric for the "Dept of Peace - The Pursuit of Peace" event out at the Chelsea Piers.
http://www.DoPcampaign.org
[Also featuring a great op ed by Walter Cronkite under “media section”.] It was a sunny, gorgeous day as we sat out on a tent covered pier overlooking the Hudson River. [Later on that day I also briefly checked out the Art Show up to Lincoln Center.] I arrived shortly after 11am while Marianne Williamson was giving an inspiring speech. This was followed by an award given to Congressman Nadler, who’s a progressive Democrat. [We need more like him in Congress these days & less of those insane, conservative Republicans.] Also featured at the 4 hour event were some folk singers. Good vibes. The last speaker was Lynn Mullin and her words were also very inspiring. I became a member of the NYC DOP some weeks before this event. Dennis Kucinich is one of the great forces behind “Dept of Peace”. Need I say more on why I’m involved with it? Nope, didn’t think so. [Photo Below Of Dept Of Peace Event]
The NYC Primaries were on Tuesday, Sept 14th, and I went to the polls in my neighborhood.
Took Wednesday, Sept 15th, off as a vacation day from work. Went up to CT to visit my good friend Katherine, whom I hadn't seen in several months and renew my driver’s license at DMV. Katherine and her hubby Maurice recently purchased a new home in the Shelton area, so took Metro North up to that station. It’s about a 2 hour ride. After showing me around her new home; which I liked a lot and has potential, plus character; I took her out for a nice leisurely lunch. Unfortunately trains in and out of Shelton are not that frequent, so I had to take an earlier train back to NYC.
On Saturday, Sept 18th, for the first time in about 3 ½ to 4 months I was able to go up to Yonkers Ferret Shelter. During the months of July and August there raged a Distemper epidemic. Joanne said it must have come in on the wind thru an open window or on a persons clothing. However it happened and even though all the ferrets have their shots regularly, sometimes bad things happen. Sadly, the shelter lost about seven furkids and five of them were my fav regulars. [ie: Sweetpea, Emily, Big Willy, Chocolate & Vanilla] Three of my fav regulars did survive … Oliver, Fuzzbutt & Tubby. To get rid of the Distemper, one has to quarantine all the animals, thoroughly clean everything in the shelter with a strong disinfectant or bleach and keep a watchful eye. Since early September, Joanne has gotten in some new furkids and the day I was there some young adults stopped by to adopt a sweet little female. It felt good to see and socialize with the ferrets again. I missed them so much. Caught up on news/gossip with Joanne and showed her my photos from Canadian vacation.
The next day, Sept 19th, I met up with Ellen/Eric/Kenny to discuss taking the flagging "NYC Friends of Kucinich" group in a new and more exciting direction. [Apparently Mike & Stephanie are no longer interested. Which is sad, as I so enjoyed working with them over the past year.] We also checked out the EcoWorld Fair going on while hanging out at Lincoln Center. [Sampled some vegetarian and vegan foods.] From there we walked up Central Park West to an “open house” party at the home Sara Lee and her husband Norm Siegel. [Very nice, large apartment and yummy food/wine.] And yes, it was politics related and regarding this upcoming election. Fortunately, we missed running into Carolyn Maloney, who’d been there earlier. Those of you who are regular readers of my Blog will understand my feelings regarding that unsavory individual. Overall a fascinating visit and I enjoyed brief discussions with a few folk.
On Monday, Sept 20th, I met up with fellow Kucitizen BC to have drinks and catch up on news/gossip. We checked out this bar/grill at Macy’s “The Cellar” and had martini’s plus nibblers. Oh, by the way, bartenders are cute, young fellas. Also, work has been motoring along very nicely and my buddy Chaz is up from the Maryland office working a long project. We've been staying in touch via phone and email this past year. Haven't seen each other since E&Y closed the downtown office in July 2003. [Yeah, I miss the dude.] About a week or so ago we got our reviews and raises. It wasn't a great raise, but its better than no raise at all. Seems many of us admins didn't get high raises, even tho we did great on our reviews.
The next evening, Sept 21st, I attended a terrific event at the Avalon on West 20th Street. The Avalon used to be the Limelight Club back in the 1980s. I remember checking it out a couple of times with Wendy [ex-friend]. The event was called "Our Voices, Our World - UN International Day of Peace" and a list of brilliant speakers [plus musicians] included Marianne Williamson, Clarence Jones, Tad Daley and Jane Goodall. Enjoyed the whole scene with fellow Kucitizens Ellen, Paul, Linda and Arly. The latter two ladies I hadn’t seen for quite some time. During a brief break in the event, we noshed on falafel wraps by PUMP ENERGY FOOD [http://www.ThePumpEnergyFood.com] and also talked with Tad Daley. Great guy! All I have to say is it was another great, inspiring evening and a pleasure to hangout with good people.
And then the following evening [9/22/04] a last minute conference call with others at the "NYC Dept of Peace" group. Those on call that evening were Coco, Dawn, Liz, Karen and Carol. These conference calls will be happening every two weeks and last about an hour. Since the election is coming up in November, one of the gals mentioned the following website:
http://www.vote-smart.org
And finally wrapping up this long discourse … yesterday evening [Sept 25th] I attended [as co-chair] the new "NYC Friends of Kucinich" meeting at Paul's home in Brooklyn. Ellen and Kenny also showed up and we all brought vegetarian/vegan goodies to partake in at dinner. It was a fun, fascinating, productive evening and Paul has a very nice place. What a terrific view of NYC and parts of Brooklyn from his kitchen window. WOW! At this time I’d rather not divulge any info on the group, as we’re still in process of revamping. Will discuss in more detail at a later date, in the meantime, its looking promising.
It took awhile to relate all my latest news … but there you have it. My next “personal news” update will have movie reviews et al. So stay tuned………
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