Whyroots.org

Well, some of you knew about this, and some of you didn't, but for the past two months I've been working pretty hard at getting a dream idea of mine to come together as a reality. Whyroots.org is the culmination of those efforts, and I can't wait to see where the project will go.

You can read about the project here. Further info on my idea for it is here. And I hope you'll visit often, and when the inspiration strikes, perhaps you'll submit.

I don't know if the birth of Whyroots marks the death of Citytropic, but we'll see yet.

We did it—now the transition begins

We got fired up, ready to go, and we did it—

* * *

Last night, I allowed myself to get caught up in the joy of a major (and once improbable) accomplishment: We've put Barack Obama in the White House. We rejected the divisive politics that the last eight years have foisted upon us. We once again value power that is handed from the bottom up, instead of power that is concentrated in the highest echelons of Washington and only occasionally seeps down to the rest of us.

Yesterday night, when I watched Obama give his victory speech, I wanted to believe in everything his campaign has meant to me since February 2007. This is a campaign I worked for, gave money to, and advocated for non-stop. I want to believe that withdrawal from Iraq, universal health care, comprehensive immigration reform, and solutions to the financial crisis that help everyone—not just Wall Street—are all possible. Today, I want to believe this, too.

There are a lot of signs that worry me already about the soon-to-be-appointed Obama Administration. But if only for these first 24 hours, I will hold off on voicing those doubts and revel, instead, in what we have already accomplished, even if I am entirely aware of how this is just the beginning of a very long, difficult road. The transition begins.

P.S. Words cannot express how sad I am about the success of Prop 8. More later.

I voted! Here's why

I woke up early this morning, went to my local polling place and cast my vote in such an important election. Here are two votes I felt particularly strongly about: A vote for Obama-Biden, and a vote to cast down Proposition 8, which seeks to ban same-sex marriage in California—




I am not naïve enough to believe in presidential fundamentalism, and to believe that an Obama White House will be perfect, or that my vote in an artificially narrowed election—thanks to the electoral college and binary partisan systems we ascribe to in the United States—will make every difference, but I'm also not a cynic with a capital "C."

Voting is the most minimal commitment to participatory democracy a citizen can make. You read that voting is a right; you read that it's a choice. It's both. But I strongly believe that while it's a legal choice and right, it's a moral responsibility.

Happy Sunday!

Matthew and I have been humming this song for a week now: Fujiya & Miyagi, "Collarbone"—



In other news, best Halloween weekend in quite a while. Slightly upset that we've hit Daylight Savings Time but the temperate winter we have ahead of us is pretty consoling.