No Child Left Behind--Shit rolls down hill.

I had a conversation this week with a really good math teacher, who is leaving the profession. He hates his job. Those of you who think that "those who can't, teach" ought to look at the White House. My view is "those who can't try to regulate teachers".

You know, I am the first to admit that there are some lazy-ass teachers in this world. And there are some burn-outs and there are some who carry prejudice into their classrooms and have lower expectations for some students than others, but you know, most of us are true professionals working under incredibly difficult circumstances. And from an administration that says that it doesn't believe in regulation, they have no problem regulating public school teachers. We are highly educated people who spend time day in and day out with our students, but we are not allowed to make judgment calls and teach what we think a group of students most needs if it doesn't directly correlate to a standardized test. Tests which test what some faceless person somewhere who has never met our kids decides is the most important thing for them to know in that particular year of their life.

It doesn't matter if the kid has been in our school system for ten years or ten days. It doesn't matter if the kid has spoken English since birth or for one year. It doesn't matter if the kid has been in six schools that year or whether they have been absent more than present. It matters that that kid is sitting in that school on the day of the test. Take away the fact that schools with homogeneous populations, which can implement more one-size fits all solutions are rated the same as schools with diverse populations. Schools with highly mobile populations are rated the same as schools with stable populations. God help the schools with diverse and mobile populations.

And while we, the teachers, are supposed to meet every kid's diverse needs and meet them with individualized lessons, we the teachers--good, bad, dedicated or lump-butts are all rated under the same system and all treated to the same mind-numbing, poorly constructed, under-funded, generic "professional development". The message is that we are not "professional" enough to figure out what we need. Basically, the school districts don't have the funding to give us money to go get what we need. Here in Texas, if we want a masters degree, we pay for it out of our own pockets and in most districts get almost no, if any, pay bump for that degree.

Just like the kids are evaluated, teachers are, too. Shit runs downhill in public schools and shit hits those at the bottom--which would be the classroom. Teachers and students. The evaluations are ridiculous. Besides the obvious problems with the actual tests, in order for the district to cover its butt, they put kids and teachers through a series of "benchmark tests". The rationale we have to listen to is that we can use the statistics to find what areas we really need to highlight in our classes (I guess we can't figure that out on our own), but basically in order for the district to get its stats in order, we need to benchmark every kid--no matter if we already know hands down that that kid is going to pass the test with flying colors. Rather than teach a lesson that will meet a high achieving student at their level and move them forward, we need to spend several days each year not only giving these kids the "real" test, but also testing the test and benchmarking. Is it all the district's fault?--No. They are trying to come up with something to satisfy the State that brought the Nation-- Leave No Child Behind.

Plus, while the public schools are constantly strapped for cash to run any number of meaningful programs--consider how much it must cost to run the TAKS tests (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills). Here is what is involved.

• The tests themselves need to be developed by private firms.
• The tests need to be printed.
• The tests need to be graded.
• "Monitors" are dispatched to schools to pop in and double check security of the tests as they are given--making sure that the teachers walk around the room, for example.
• The district pays people to audit the "security measures", including seat charts of where individual students sat during the test and logs of when the each of the two certified teachers who proctor each testing room have left to go to the bathroom.
• Reports are generated and uploaded to computer software showing which kids missed which questions.
• Generic study guides are printed and bound for general use by every and any student. (Most don't use them.)
  
• Specified study guides are generated, printed and bound for those juniors who did not pass the Exit-Level test the first time around. (Very few use them.)
• Tests are given endlessly until passed--by hook or by crook.

In the meantime, we don't have enough Spanish workbooks.

And the teacher evaluation systems are as inadequate and useless as the student evaluation systems. In our school's model for example, we can be marked down for not have a "specific, measurable objective" posted on our board at the start of class. It should demonstrate "higher learning objectives as demonstrated by Bloom's Taxonomy". Okay, I have one board in my classroom, where I teach three different classes--ESOL I, ESOL II and Spanish I and I, as a professional, feel I should be able to decide how to use my board space--like for teaching. I also teach ballet folklorico in the cafeteria--where there is no board. Now, I have never been called on this--and I try to write my objectives on the board and then erase them and put up new ones (not in folklorico), but whenever we try to get an answer as to why we need to do this, the answers are pretty insulting. Basically it is implied that if we don't write out an objective (and for some reason post it on the board) it indicates that we don't know what we are trying to teach, that we don't have any objectives for our kids, that our kids won't know what we expect of them and that we don't have a plan and that we don't have high expectations for our students.

My folklorico kids--who never see a written objective, perform more than twenty shows a year--both private and public. We just danced a quinceanera yesterday and the week before my competition kids danced a show with the University of Texas dancers without me even having to be there. These kids are pretty professional themselves. My officers read spread sheets and make purchasing decisions. They master not only dance and, choreography skills, but also leadership skills and financial skills that I would put up against those of any number of school administrators--or those of the current occupant of the White House for that matter. Some of these kids come from families where their parents didn't even go to high school. So much for writing objectives on the board or TAKS testing--folklorico--not a TAKS subject.

But the only way I get my folklorico kids to the heights I do is by putting in countless unpaid hours all year around. I put off having my own kids, too, because if I had a baby how could I work the way I do? And what keeps me from helping more kids? Underfunded health care, child care, and the lack of a living wage in this country. I know kids who would like to be in the folklorico program, but they can't rehearse after school, because they are the child care in their house hold for the younger brothers and sisters while their parents work extra jobs to put food on the table and pay for medications. Leave No Child Behind--Not on the cheap we don't. But it is cheaper to blame the teachers.

Parents who are working extra jobs and worrying about where the next meal is coming from or what will happen if they or their children become sick or injured are not likely to be checking homework and taking an active role in their child's school.

It falls on the teachers again and again and then our hands are tied behind our backs. We cannot be the social safety net for the entire Nation, so stop making us the scapegoat. We are not the problem. And neither are our poorest students. If this country wants an educated work force and wants to compete with the rest of the World, we need to get serious. We need to look at what other nations with educated workforces do.

Most of their teachers do NOT teach as many classes per day as our teachers do. Most other countries with educated work forces have universal health care. Most have more child care programs available to their citizens. They take some of these problems off their peoples' plates so they can actually focus on their educations.

Many teachers who come here from other industrialized countries are shocked at what is expected of teachers in this nation and what our workloads are like. Our school actually has a visiting teacher from China, who is amazed at what we have to do--from China. No wonder they are catching up.

Leave No Child Behind? Not on the cheap.

Why are people so fascinated by Obama?

I got an email this week from one of my former students and tennis players from Manor High School, where I taught and coached shortly after I arrived in Texas. She was more than my student, she was my right hand in running my tennis team that first season and continued to work with me for several summers as my "assistant commissioner of tennis" in our summer league. She was responding to the news that I had been elected a delegate to the Texas State Democratic Convention for Obama.

"Okay so I have to say this and don't get mad or anything but I don't get why people are so fascinated by Obama... I understand why republicans would want for him to win the democratic nomination but I don't see why democrats would waste their vote. He seriously is the ticket for Republicans to regain the presidency within 4 yrs.. He has no experience!!! But whatever, its your vote so have fun at the convention... I will stick with Hilary and pray she pulls it out!!!"

Well, good question from someone who I respect and care about. So here goes:

You do realize that traditional "experience" will only take you so far. I'm a gringa from Baltimore, but I direct a very successful ballet folklorico program, because I know how to organize and lead and I work with a gifted choreographer and dedicated student officers. President Lincoln, probably the best president we have ever had, except Washington, had one two-year term in the House of Representatives as far as "experience" in Washington went. Obama looks like a veteran in comparison.

Originally I ranked Clinton above Obama in my choices. If you will remember, I was an active campaigner and contributor to Biden's campaign. By the time Biden dropped out, however, Obama was the only choice for me--this after following the campaign day in and day out extremely closely and watching the reactions of the candidates in many situations.

Besides being a gifted orator and an inspiration to millions of new voters, he handles himself with ease and honesty AND he seems to surround himself not with loyalist hold-overs, but rather with people who are "experienced" in their area, who will speak truth to power, and then-- he actually listens to them and and considers their opinions. I suggest you read Doris Kearns Goodwin's A Team of Rivals about Lincoln's cabinet to see what I mean. People think Obama reminds them of Bobby Kennedy. I think Obama reminds me of Lincoln more than any other President.

Additionally, once the election is won (and Obama consistently does better than Clinton in polls against McCain), we have to govern. If we do not govern well, then the Republicans will be back in power for more than four more years. This is the Democratic moment. We need to seize it and we need to keep all these new Democrats inspired. Unfortunately for Mrs. Clinton, she is married to Bill and she has a shit load of baggage she's still carrying around and will carry right on up the White House steps. Republicans hate her guts. (I don't hate her guts, though I can tell you, as a loyal Democrat, I am still bitter about Bill Clinton waving that finger at me and the entire nation and lying to us after the Super Bowl, when he said he did not have sex with Monica Lewinsky. If he had not brought that into everyone's living room, he would be in a much higher standing with a lot of us.) It doesn't matter if the hate is rational or not. As long as Republicans hate her, then Republican members of the House and Senate are going to have a really hard time voting for her initiatives, because if they piss off their constituent bases at home for "siding" with the Clintons, they are going to be facing primary opponents in their home districts.

On the other side of things, with many independents and even some Republicans interested in Obama and with him bringing sooooo many new people into the process, and with his lack of "experience or baggage" or whatever you want to call it in Washington, it will be much easier politically for Republican legislators to cross lines for key votes.

That is why I am supporting Obama.

And that is before we get into Vietnam vets, like my father, who are supporting Obama, but will go McCain over Clinton in a heartbeat.

Think about it, Chica. But vote your conscience.

So, do that everyone. Vote. It is our right. We need to exercise our vote, because just like the muscles in your body and the connections in your brain, the less they are exercised, the more quickly rights start to slip away.

Whoa..it's getting a little heady. Adventures from the Williamson County, Texas Democratic Convention

Okay friends and neighbors, yesterday, at the Williamson County Democratic Convention, I was elected as my precinct's delegate to the Texas State Democratic Convention in June. I am still a bit in shock, but I am thrilled with the prospect of finding a voice and a way to represent both the Democrats of my historically heavily Republican area and indirectly--my students.

So how the hell did I get there???

Those of you who have followed my blog for a while know that in addition to teaching, I direct the ballet folklorico program at the high school where I work and that my kids, my dancers, are very close to my heart. Some come from families who have been in this country for generations. Some are first generation Americans. Some are immigrants themselves. Of those, some are here legally and some are illegal, undocumented or whatever the media is calling them these days. To me they are all my kids. Whether their parents went to college or never set foot in a high school they dance together. They work together to fund the program. They compete together. They not only in school, but they represent their school in performances and competitions in the community and beyond. I love them. And when they graduate, having completed everything asked of them by the school system and No Child Left Behind, prepared to further their educations, earned scholarship money and prayed for the college acceptance letters, some of them will be in complete and utter limbo, denied many types of financial aid that they truly need and deserve. They have been here for years. They have learned English. They have been educated in our school system. Their parents have kept our businesses running, our homes roofed, and our offices clean. They have paid a lot of taxes--sales, property--even social security. Their home, their friends, their education and their World is here. They don't have anything to "go back" to. And they believe in Barack Obama.
Forget the black-white divide. Forget the Latinos are all for Hillary. As a teacher, I can't "do politics" at school. If someone asks me who I support or why, I tell them, but I don't talk much politics in my building and with my kids we have business at hand on which to focus, but they knew I was going to my county convention. They knew, because yesterday they had a performance with UT's Folklorico and some other important groups at the MACC (Mexican American Cultural Center) in Austin. Obviously, I couldn't be in two places at once, so I had to tell them when we booked the gig, well if you want to do this, I can't go. So my "capitana" stepped up to take care of the logistics and a parent said she'd be there as an "adult presence" and my kids said, "Don't worry about us, Miss. Go to the Convention".
The night before the convention, I took my competition team to a workshop at UT (University of Texas). It went until 8:30 pm. Then most of us went for a cheap quick meal, and as we laughed and ate tacos and fries, one of the girls asked me exactly what I was going to be doing the next day and who I was supporting. So I told them. And each of them started talking about Barack--about who they knew who voted for him, about how one of the girls' boyfriends, who is not legal himself and so doesn't know if he will ever be able to vote in a U.S. election has a picture of Barack on the inside of the visor of his truck where the mirror should be. By the time I got all of them home and got home myself it was after 11 pm, but I was so fired up for the convention!

The Convention

Okay, now I live in Williamson County, Texas, ya'll. This has been a RED county for quite a long time--definitely for the 9-plus years that I have lived here. I mean, for many positions Republicans ran unopposed, so primary voting has been a pretty quick affair around here. But times, they are a changin'. When my neighbor, an alternate who was upgraded to delegate status, and I pulled up to Stony Point High School, the line of people waiting to register and be credentialed was stringing around the building. The parking lots were full and people were pulling up onto the grass and wedging their cars in any place they could.
We spent a good portion of our first 2 hours in lines. At one point, we were pulled out of the line and seated to hear a speech by the guest speaker, Jim Mattox, a heavy weight in the Texas Democrat Party. Then we were back in line.
There were all kinds of problems stemming from mistakes made at the precinct level by volunteers who had never dealt with caucusing before--because no one had ever shown up. Four of our Obama delegates from my precinct, 239, were not on a list, for example. Each case had to go before the credentials committee--one by one-- to be resolved. Eventually they were. Sometime in the mid-afternoon we were able to ratify our delegates, establish Quorum and get things underway, but not until we elected officers to the convention.
The next hurtle to jump over was that very few people, myself included, really had a grasp of the convention process and almost as few had ever heard of Robert's Rules of Order, so there was a lot of "You must address the chair" and "You are out of order, sir" for the next couple of hours. Some people started to get tired and then there was the handful of "I've got to find something to complain abouters" who had to be heard. But...
it was good. No, it was great, because here, in Williamson County, Texas, was an entire high school gymnasium filled--floor and both sides of bleachers--with Democrats. It was as though we had emerged from a dark night into a light-filled day and had seen for the first time that we were not alone. All the problems, which were resolved, all the confusion, all the delays stemmed from an unimaginable increase in Democratic involvement in the political process in our county. All these people were learning together. All these people now know what the convention is. They know how to make a motion and how to call the question. AND on top of all that, for the first time since I have been here, Texas was getting a real voice in deciding the Presidential nominee of our Democratic Party.
After a hot election for a permanent chair and a slightly cooler one for secretary of the convention, we got to the business of caucusing. Our precinct, 239 was grouped with 394 (no one showed up) and 395, which sent one Obama delegate. A number of us had applied for at-large spots at the State Convention and four of us declared our intention to run for the delegate space from our precincts. We decided each would speak. I was asked to go first and I spoke about my general political experience and then I spoke about my dancers and my desire to be their voice. Another delegate spoke of her attraction to Obama as harkening back to the affection she had held for Robert Kennedy. Another addressed his work as an architect and his concern about the zoning and growth issues facing our portion of Williamson County and finally, the brave Clinton delegate, who had chaired our precinct convention for the Hillary side back on March 4th, spoke of growing up in South Texas and learning to vote Democratic with her mom and of the Clinton's involvement in the economic development of that area of the state. After the vote, it actually came down to a coin toss between myself and the other female Obama delegate. She called it. I won. I will go to the State Convention as delegate and she will go as an alternate.
Back inside the gym, we learned that there was no Democratic Club in Southern Williamson County. We are in a unique situation--part of Austin, but not part of Travis County. In the Round Rock Independent School District, but not in Round Rock--unable to vote in either election, without access to a free library and unsure who can respond to our 911 calls. Several of us, including in a show of Party loyalty, the Clinton delegate and the architect who had just competed with me in the quest for the state delegate spot, decided we needed to get a club off the ground. We collected about 30 names and contact information from delegates in ours and surrounding precincts and have already contacted the County Party for help in our endeavor. Because the convention needs to be a start, and our local Dems need to win right along with the Democratic Presidential Nominee.
The happy insanity dragged on until after mid-night. Just before dinner time, it was announced that those not interested in the resolutions, could go and many did, including most of the our precinct's delegation. I hung in with the architect, who had acted as our precinct chair for the day, and another Obama delegate, who was hoping to be advanced in an at large spot. Not long after, however, questions began to arise as to whether or not quorum would need to be re-established to ratify all (or maybe some would say what little) we had managed to accomplish during the day. Out came the list we had compiled earlier and two of us went to work calling people back--Obama supporter or Clinton, we didn't care. We just called. We talked to a lot of voice mails, got in touch with a few and two or three came back. For naught. When the convention reconvened at 9:45, it had been determined, after checking with the State Party and consulting legal counsel, that once quorum had been established, it could not be broken. Since others had been calling their precinct delegates though, and got some of them back, we probably had quorum, had we counted.
On and on it went--committee reports, votes on challenge rulings, motions for the sake of motions and some thoughtful ones, too. Democracy at its inefficient, messy best.
Just past midnight, we dragged our weary selves out of the gym and into the night--no longer alone. We are Democrats in Williamson County, Texas. The GOP needs to watch out!

A little navel-gazing

Sometimes when I sit down to write my blog, I have a definite plan, a point of view, a specific topic to lay out there for the World. Other times, like today, especially like today, when I haven't had the time or the strength or the whatever to focus and put out something concrete and coherent for more than a month, I sit down at the computer and think to myself, you better just write something or you'll never get the groove back. So here I am --goovin'.

Since last I wrote, I took my competition team to, what else?, competition--the first of two long weekends away with kids and choreographer. I also voted for Obama, caucused for him and finally got myself elected a delegate to the Williamson County Democratic Convention to be held on March 29th. I have contemplated going to some other Democratic events before that, but haven't. I'm tired. I've been on Spring Break for a week now. I have exercised every day and as my body begins to feel again, I have been able to think again--not the frantic, manic, survival think that is my life when I am at school, but the flowers on the trees are beautiful and I'd like a new eyeshadow and which clothes will I give to Goodwill this spring and is my body tired, should I sleep kind of think. Oh, there you are--you still exist kind of think.

Some people find it possible to save the World and still take care of themselves. I start out like that, but then I get lost. In some ways it pays off for me. My folklorico kids gave me my first ever surprise party for my birthday--I turned 36th on March 5th. So at least, I am appreciated. It felt good to be appreciated, but part of me wanted to get out of there. Part of me wanted to disappear. Part of me wanted to just take a nap.

Even as I write this, I am beginning to feel guilty and anxious. There is so much work to be done to make the folklorico what it could be. To make the ESOL program what it should be. To get Obama elected. To save the environment. Do I really think I am going to work out every day? I want to.

Part of the problem is that despite all the rhetoric, nobody wants to really pay for public schools and even when a fair amount is paid it gets eaten up by administration and studies and what you really need is a well-educated, motivated adult for every few kids to give them both the relationship and the push they need to succeed--and it just isn't going to happen. So we have "Community Seminar"--glorified, over-programed advisories to try to meet the needs of every kid, while piling more work on the already over-worked teacher. The teachers and administrators who come up with this stuff are all well-meaning and dedicated, but rarely are they the coaches and sponsors of time-consuming programs, because we have practices and rehearsals during the meeting times. But we are the ones who do what they want done every day--already. Now they give us another group of kids to do it for. I might get pushed over the edge. I try to filter out all the "be more dedicated, gung-ho" stuff, but they make us attend all these "trainings"--no wonder I just want to go to sleep. I just feel more and more that I can't do the job the way I should. I can't run my program, prepare great lessons, mentor 18 kids, who aren't even in my regular classes, be a good wife, cook delicious dinners, work-out, be politically active, recycle, reuse and reduce, meditate, attend mass (don't tell the Pope, because I haven't been since Christmas), appreciate nature, drive dancers home after rehearsal, invest wisely, get my roots done (7:30 am Saturday hair appointment???!!!-yes), maintain friendships, grade chapter tests, prep kids for standardized tests, do laundry and iron, make the bed (sometimes), publish thoughtful blogs, read good literature and stay abreast of the news, while in a good mood and maintaining my once youthful figure (must work out. must work out.) No pressure.

Meanwhile, I hope and pray that Obama can clinch this thing. I am glad that Venezuela and Ecuador didn't go to war with Colombia and that Chavez looks to be running out of steam. I am thankful that while my investment portfolio is losing money--at least I am doing better than Bear Stearns.

The Case for Obama

Clinton or Obama? What are they--like 95% the same when it comes to policy relations? I am a Democrat. I am going to vote for the Democratic nominee, because we need to take back the White House and we need to get affordable health care for every American and we need to form a country that cares--really cares--as in puts our money where our mouths are kind of care--about every American.

Well, folks. Obama is the one who can do it. He is more electable, because all these Republicans who say they'll stay away if McCain is the nominee, will suddenly get religion (no pun intended) and get their butts to the polls rather than let a Clinton--either Clinton back into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

But it is more than that. Not only can he get elected, but he can govern. Yeah, I know Clinton knows the ins and outs of everything, but we don't have a huge majority in the Senate and nothing can get done there without real bi-partisanship. That's just the way it goes. It will not be seen as politically viable for republican senators to join in and support Clinton proposals. It just won't be. They have to go back and face their republican electorates and their republican electorates hate the Clintons. Even if they stay home and Clinton wins the race, the chance of her--and therefore the American people--winning meaningful health care reform or anything else will be slim to none.

Meanwhile, there are actual Republicans and once upon a time conservatives who are actually coming around to Obama. Don't take my word for it. Here is post from the Huffington Post written by Frank Schaeffer, a conservative author, whose father was one of the founders of the Religious Right movement.

Why I'm Pro-life and Pro-Obama

Posted February 7, 2008 | 10:46 PM (EST)

---

I am an Obama supporter. I am also pro-life. In fact, without my family's involvement the pro-life movement it would not exist as we know it. Evangelicals weren't politicized until after my late father and evangelical leader Francis Schaeffer, Dr. Koop (Reagan's soon-to-be Surgeon General) and I stirred them up over the issue of abortion in the mid-1970s. Our Whatever Happened to the Human Race? book, movie series and seminars brought the evangelicals into the pro-life movement.

(Dad's political influence persists. Last week one of my father's followers -- Mike Huckabee -- was interviewed by Katie Couric, along with all the other presidential candidates. Couric asked the candidates if they were to be sent to a desert island and could only take one book besides the Bible, what would that that book be? Huckabee answered that he'd take my father's book Whatever Happened To The Human Race?)

Fast forward...

In 2000, we elected a president who claimed he believed God created the earth and who, as president, put car manufacturers and oil company's interests ahead of caring for that creation. We elected a pro-life Republican Congress that did nothing to actually care for pregnant women and babies. And they took their sincere evangelical followers for granted, and played them for suckers.

The so-called evangelical leadership -- Dobson, Robertson et al. also played the pro-life community for suckers. While thousands of men and women in the crisis pregnancy movement gave of themselves to help women and babies, their evangelical "leaders" did little more than cash in on fundraising opportunities and represent themselves as power-brokers to the craven politicians willing to kowtow to them.

Fast forward...

Today when I listen to Obama speak (and to his remarkable wife, Michelle) what I hear is a world view that actually nurtures life. Obama is trying to lead this country to a place where the intrinsic worth of each individual is celebrated. A leader who believes in hope, the future, trying to save our planet and providing a just and good life for everyone is someone who is actually pro-life.

Conversely the "pro-life" ethic of George W. Bush manifested itself in a series of squandered opportunities to call us to our better natures. After 9/11, Bush told most Americans to go shopping while saddling the few who volunteered for military service with endless tours of duty (something I know a little about since my son was a Marine and deployed several times). The Bush doctrine of life was expressed by starting an unnecessary war in Iraq that has killed thousands of Americans and wounded tens of thousands more.

The society that Obama is calling us to sacrifice for is a place wherein life would be valued not just talked about. As he said in his speech delivered on February 6 in New Orleans, "Too often, we lose our sense of common destiny; that understanding that we are all tied together; that when a woman has less than nothing in this country, that makes us all poorer." Obama was talking about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but his words also apply to our overall view of ourselves.

Regardless of the official position of the Supreme Court on abortion, a country in which all Americans are offered some sort of dignity and hopeful future would be a place conducive to the kind of optimism each of us must hold in our hearts if we are to welcome children into this world. But if our highest aspiration is to be a consumer with no thought or care for our neighbor, we will remain a culture in which abortion is not only inevitable but logical.

What we need in America is a spiritual rebirth, a turning away from the false value of consumerism and utilitarianism that have trumped every aspect of human life. To implement this vision we need leaders that inspire but to do so they have to be what they say they are. It's not about policy it's about character.

Obama's rivals for the nomination -- the Clintons -- do not inspire. When the Clintons were in the White House they talked about humane values while Bill Clinton betrayed every single person who voted for him by carrying on an unseemly sexual dalliance in the Oval Office with a young woman barely out of her teens. Since that time the Clintons have enriched themselves through their connections to a point where they're able to make a $5 million personal loan to their campaign.

For someone who says she has spent "the last 35 years of my life as an advocate for children" and/or "fighting for healthcare" that's a lot of money to have collected through doing good works. Presidential Mother Teresa wannabes shouldn't be doing deals with uranium mining outfits in Kazakhstan while schmoozing with the likes of President Nursultan Nazarbayev and wealthy mining magnates, not if they want the moral authority to lead.

Similarly the Republicans have also been hypocrites while talking big, for instance about their pro-life ethic. But what have they achieved? First, through their puritanical war on sex education they've hindered our country from actually preventing unwanted pregnancy. Second, through the Republican Party's marriage to the greediest and most polluting earth-destroying corporations they've created a climate (both moral and physical) that has scorched the earth for-profit, with no regard to future generations whatsoever. The Republicans are to the pro-life movement what the Clintons are to selfless public service.

The real solution to abortion is to change the heart of America, not the law. We need to stop seeing ourselves as consumers. We need to stop seeing ourselves as me and begin to think of we. Our country needs someone to show us a better way, a president who is what he seems, someone with actual moral authority that our diverse population can believe in who has the qualities that make us want to follow him. Obama is that person.

Frank Schaeffer is a writer and author of "CRAZY FOR GOD-How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back"

I think what this post is saying is that people want to believe and be inspired again. Obama inspires people--lots of people. Not just raving liberals, like me. He is positive. I might have agreed with much of what Edwards was saying, but he seemed angry. He seemed to say it was time for one group to finally get theirs--at the expense of someone else. I might like Clintons' fight and her stance on the issues, but I can recognize her polarizing affect on the country--and the country has been polarized for far too long.

Come on, people. Get on the Obama train! Let's ride it into the future.