On the Road... Route 66

I've been on the road a lot lately and have many more miles to drive before the summer ends. I've been listening to CDs of the Stephanie Miller Show that I burned over the past several months as I drove across the middle of the country on a trip to Jamestown, Indiana from Tulsa, Oklahoma in order to help my parents celebrate their 50th Wedding Anniversary. I went back and we had a loverly and simple reception at my Dad's Meeting House (my father attends Quaker Meeting as a member of the Society of Friends). It was worth driving back on a Thursday and right back on the next Monday just to see my parents stand together and greet their friends and family and watch them cut the cake and mark 50 years together through tough times and better times.

I realize that it has been over a week since my last post and all I can say is if you are out there and eagerly awaiting a new post, I'm sorry to keep you waiting, and I can't promise that this post will satisfy you or reward your patience. I feel like I must post something as I made a commitment when I started this blog that I would add at least two new posts each week and as there has been over a week without a post, I feel I must at least explain why my posts have trailed off, and in the process I will also likely reveal the lackluster attitude that has come over me in the last couple weeks.

I control many aspects of my environment - including to a large degree what I listen to every day - which is hours and hours of the Stephanie Miller Show with an occasional foray into Thom Hartmann with the evening viewing of Keith Olbermann, a prison show, and Jon Stewart capped off by Letterman if I last that long. From Thursday evening until Monday morning I didn't listen to Steph and the mooks at all, and I didn't think about my blog, I deleted virtually every e-mail message that I received going online to do so via my father's dial-up connection maybe twice a day (for somebody who usually spends hours every evening online that is a significant change). Anyway, I'm back for just three days - I'm heading out to Joshua Tree National Park on Friday. Even though Joshua Tree is not my final destination, it has become the focus of this trip to California - the ultimate end of my trip is Morongo Band of Mission Indians Casino, Resort & Spa, but I have always wanted to visit Joshua Tree, so that is where I am heading on Saturday morning, driving out of Albuquerque, New Mexico, after leaving Tulsa, OK the day before.

The initial inspiration for this post was a rather brief letter to the editor that appeared in the Concord Monitor. It was entitled In League with the John Birch Society. It is a simple letter that reminded me of the first time I was ever aware of the John Birch Society. It was a roadside billboard or series of billboards along an American interstate. It's message boiled down to the strong suggestion that the United States should shun the United Nations, or that the New World Order was something to be feared. I remember, knowing instinctively, without having to ask my parents, that it was a fringe group (anybody looking at the billboards could tell that they were amateurs). But that only made their message all the more intriguing to a young girl sitting in the back seat of the family station wagon, seeing the world fly by around 65mph. Perhaps that's the same part of me that enjoys watching prison shows...

Who knows???

I promise more frequent and enthusiastic posts from INDN's List Campaign Camp and Prez on the Rez where I'll be next week helping to train and support Progresssive Native candidates who are preparing to run for local, state, and national political offices. More later...