America, your mom called ...

America,

hey sweetie, i saw i missed your call. i know you have been going through a rough time. your job situation is horrible, which is totally effin’ up your finances. I know you are super worried both about your kids and all of your parents (its complicated because you have 4 instead of 2 like the generations before you). i know it bigger than just the money and stuff, but sweetheart you have got to pay attention to the fact that these types of financial problems are STEEEE-RESS-FULLLLL!!! i don't need anything from you, so please don't worry about me or any of us, we are all just rooting for you to win!

i’ve been doing so much thinking and praying for you lately. i keep thinking back to when i went through a similar transition period. i’ve decided to write to you about how i see you, so you can remember these things in yourself as you go through all of this. you really are the sweetest, most compassionate, observant, truthful, and sensitive of all my kids.

first of all little one, i know you are tired, but it is so important that you keep doing all the good you are doing at home and around the world! most people don’t know that you are funding the LARGEST public health effort the world has ever known. its so annoying to me, because i know how the people in Africa love you and the prostitutes in Thailand, how grateful they are for condoms and protections etc . . . i’m sorry the others aren’t paying attention. i want you to know my dear sweet do-gooder America, i know that you are saving the crack whores; the orphans; the lepers; widowed; mamed; naked; hungry; sad; etc. i know your heart, and i see all the good that you do. so many are ignoring it. and you don’t brag. you need to brag more sweetie. people don’t know that just by one little thing you are able to help millions of people, you should let them know that. i know it is uncomfortable to talk about yourself, but you share all the embarrassing things, why not the good things too?

America, don’t forget to express how you feel. When you express yourself you will find that others will listen and bend. It is a way of helping others see just how willing to compromise you are if you just listen. you know how sometimes when we fight we are just kinda yelling at each other and neither has any idea what the other is saying? lets stop doing that … i’m afraid my failing you as a child might impede you nbow, so lets end that silliness right now!

on the day you were born, i felt you blessed with power and a forcefull expression of human will. i have no dount that you can make it thorgh any trial if you are focused on what you want most. and you have to remember what you want most? what are you all about? life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. we spelled it out for you when you consived you. and don’t forget that you were an pain in the ass to consive? we were almost buying harnesses to figure out how to get sperm and egg together and then voila … you arrived. (i googled fertility harnesses and came up with this ...)the whole reason we fought so hard for you is that we knew that you would fight for life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness: and we meant it! don’t forget to do that!!! please, it was a really crazy time in my life and i'd really love at least one person to appreciate it!!!!

you have got to remember too not to arouse antagonism. seriously, sometimes you just kinda rub people the wrong way and it really puts people off. i seriously think if you’d just let go of some of the absolutles you use in your language: always, never, most of the time, often, hardly ever, etc . . . that crap really pushes people away.

you are a dreamer my dear, keep plans as practical and down to earth as possible!

i know you have this interest in the darker aspects of life, i feel you my sweet darling. you are not alone. not only is it part of being human it is an important part of being part of this family. that is why there are so many therapists, artist, revolutionaries, drug addicts, schitzophrenics, and politicians in our family! use that interest for good.

i promise you this little one, playing with the dark side, just to feel dark is terrifying. the only good reason to look at it is to figure out how to keep one hand in and one hand over just enough to pull the loved one out from that darkness. please please please don't participate in their dark behaviour!

that said, in order to ever move someone from the darkness to light, you are going to have to understand the darkness … which is kinda a shitty truth about life.

lets hatch the hatch act!

i'm having one of those weekends of organizing, pondering, spiritual stuff, yoga, scriptures etc. as many of you know i'm trying to dig myself out of an illness that laid me flat for the last few months. as i was reviewing all of what's gone down, i wondered how i'd communicate what i've learned and its vast:

• problems and solutions to health care
• ending poverty in a generation
• lots of book ideas
• new ways to view yoga and movement and the body
• time and our/my relationship to it and how it impacts my relationship with others
• essential oils, herbs, teas, chinese medicine, physical therapy, medicine, acupuncture, etc

i realized much of it has political implications. i like politics and policy, so seems like a perfect fit. readers of might get sick of political rants, but other than that no harm no fowl right ... plus no one is really reading this anyway so who cares?

The Hatch Act cares.

The Hatch Act prohibits me from using my official authority or influence to interfere with or affect the result of an election. I honestly think this is the point of the act, which frankly makes good since. I just think they went bonkers executing. Classic government overreach, instead of keeping me from intimidating people they are keeping me from having to set my own personal boundaries within them. its like the honor code at BYU. (i mean not even step foot out of the living room???? over the top!)

They are trying to keep me from using the Federal Government to keep a certain party in power. Thank you. that would be a disaster if once a president took power he could order all the Federal workforce (all 6 million of us) to volunteer just 4 days a month doing political events for him. That would be bad. But if Federal employees wanted to do that, shouldn’t they be able to? If I want to take off of work with my firefighter dad and go picket in Wisconsin (our motherland tho i live here and he lives in AZ), shouldn’t that be ok? Walking a thin like & the line gets thinner. I can’t:

• use my official titles or positions while engaged in political activity.
• totally legit, should remain law
• invite subordinate employees to political events or otherwise suggest to subordinates that they attend political events or undertake any partisan political activity.
• this seems a bit over the top. i can’t tell give one of my interns a ticket to a dinner with the President because it’s a fundraiser? now i totally get if you are saying you must donate or you loose your job or even you must attend or loose your job. but so long as there is no coersion and there is no harm in inviting right? how is that any different than inviting someone to church? or for a happy hour? if you are a Mormon the happy hour is awkward but you feel like you have to be there or you are going to miss out on schmooze time. but when your boss goes to McClean Bible, then you better go there too? aren’t me making too much out of things? sometimes happy hour is happy hour. sometimes a political fundraiser is a political fundraiser. seems like it is up to the professional to draw their own boundary. is this government trying to manage peoples interpersonal relationships?
• solicit, accept or receive a donation or contribution for a partisan political party, candidate for partisan political office, or partisan political group. I can’t: host a political fundraiser; invite others to a political fundraiser; collect contributions or sell tickets to political fundraising functions,* or be candidates for public office in partisan political elections.

That’s right. Somehow in this nonchalant piece of legislations set up to protect the people from a tyrannical president, Congress has taken the right of over 2 million people to run for office or really participate in our democracy?

No surprise really, Orrin and the rest of the GOP don’t really want Americans to learn how smart our government is or how much good we do. They have tied our hands and made it impossible for us to have voice. So we write under aliases and hide our identities because we can’t associate our names with anything political or we stand to loose our jobs. No joke. You just get fired straightaway. They aren’t playing . . . you talk like all the other Americans you work for, and you loose your job … how in the world is this fair? democratic? honest? transparent?

if such a law existed in Iraq, would we reinvade?

* Soliciting, accepting, or receiving such donations or contributions may be done so long as the person being solicited is: 1) a member of the same federal labor organization as defined under section 7103(4) of this title or a federal employee organization which as of the date of enactment of the Hatch Act Reform Amendments of 1993 had a multicandidate political committee (as defined under section 315(a)(4) of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 441a(a)(4))); 2) not a subordinate employee; and 3) the solicitation is for a contribution to the multicandidate political committee (as defined under section 315(a)(4)of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 441a(a)(4))) of such federal labor organization as defined under section 7103(4) of this title or a federal employee organization which as of the date of the enactment of the Hatch Act Reform Amendments of 1993 had a multicandidate political committee (as defined under section 315(a)(4)of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (2) U.S.C. 441a(a)(4)))