We Win One, and I Need a Break

Every time I type this, it disappears. This is the third time, and then I give up.

I'm about to leave for Green Gulch Zen Center for a few days of meditation for Jewish social justice activists, and I really need the break.

Saturday morning, before I was out of my pjs, came a call from the director of the San Francisco Organizing Project asking if I wanted to be interviewed on TV as a supporter of the federal health care legislation. I expressed willingness, and the reporter called me and showed up almost immediately with her cameraman, and away we went. Time elapsed between the first phone call and the end of the interview - one hour. It went well enough, I thought, and I set my DVR to record it at 5 pm, which is when the reporter said that it would air.

Then I went off to Emeryville to meet Jan and see Alice in Wonderland in Imax and 3D, followed by dinner with new acquaintances. Only one sentence of mine made it into the television piece, but they spelled my name correctly. The main thrust of the piece was that voters in Pleasanton were mostly unhappy that their Representative to Congress had just decided to vote for the health reform bill. The piece continued:

But those backing the bill say McNerney is not alone. They will support the congressman even if many of his constituents do not. "I hope the people will come to realize how courageous and valuable a vote that was, and will rally behind him and will support his re-election," said Dana Vinicoff with the San Francisco Organizing Project.

Sunday, Jan and I got my car washed and bought piles of staples at Costco, had lunch, watched some of the health care debate on CSPAN, then went to synagogue for me to conduct the evening service and us to attend a benefit for Rawandan women in the form of a discussion between authors Ayelet Waldman and Michael Chabon. These authors, it turns out, had been married at this synagogue when it lived on Danvers Street. They were enlightening, intelligent, and very funny, but the best line of the evening was when their designated Congress-watcher broke in to announce "It Passed!" We all applauded and cheered, and the evening nearly broke up then and there.