Another contribution by way of my daughter.

My daughter posted this on Facebook today and I thought it was really something worth sharing.

I feel this every day of my life. That TODAY is a wonderful time to be alive. And that tomorrow will be even better.

It is as if our ability to learn and make progress is gaining momentum every time the sun rises. And I find that exhilarating.

However I am also very aware that there are millions of people terrified to let go of their beliefs who are frantically stomping on the brakes as the rest of us are pressing down on the accelerator.

Personally I would rather be hurtling toward an uncertain tomorrow, than cowering in a corner pining for the comfort of a yesterday.

But hey, that's just me.

Broadway stars turn song from "Les Miserables" into Obama campaign song. Okay this is awesome!

Wow! That was amazing!

Here is the open letter from their website: 

DO YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE SING? 

To nearly everyone an RPM's a rev-per-minute. To me it's a Rosa Parks Moment. 

Her decision to remain seated in December '55 moved me to stand up in 2012. Like so many over the intervening years, I've taken inspiration from an unflinching American icon who said, "Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others." For me that seminal Moment occurred when Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke was viciously and repeatedly attacked on the air by a podium-pounding predator whose venomous remarks disgusted pretty much everyone within the sound of his voice. (I don't know Ms. Fluke or her assailant.) 

More to the point – that predator's driving the Republican bus and arguably no less menacing than the one Ms. Parks encountered 57 years ago. 

You'll recall her busman summoned Montgomery police and had her arrested for refusing to give up what had been designated a "Colored Section" seat. (The bus was full; a white man wanted to sit down; the driver reflexively moved the Section sign from in front of Ms. Parks to behind her.) 

Under the circumstances she hadn't actually violated the law but was – as well we know – arrested anyway; and convicted. 

Her tenacity ignited the modern civil rights movement. Fittingly, history was preserved as that Cleveland Avenue bus now famously resides in the Henry Ford Museum, an enduring testament to character and courage, to those who dared to dream a dream and undeniably to the audacity of hope. 

While the GOP's resident rabble-rouser routinely defames those with whom he disagrees, their party's presumptive nominee hasn't the character or courage to condemn such abusive behavior. Indeed, fomenting incivility and intolerance is grist for their ground game – and they're doubling down. 

If you're not a moneyed Republican plutocrat with a name commonly mistaken for a mattress, soft drink or sundae, don't own a ball club in Chicago or casino in Macao or have an extra hundred-mil lying around, what do you do to make a difference? You stand up the only way you know how. 

I'm not an activist, lobbyist, PAC, 527 or 501(c)-anything, just a private citizen (and sometime parodist) asking "who will be strong and stand with me." 

One Term More is a transformative political parody rendered under fair use. The accompanying illustration conveys the transcendent nature of a remarkable man. Sketches based on a recently reported, well-sourced, deeply disturbing event depict an uncommonly cruel act of aggression. 

No ad time will be purchased nor will it be sold. It's intended as social commentary, criticism & personal expression, displayed only online and freely available to all. Its purpose and character is informational, non-commercial & not-for-profit. The parodied lyrics are mine; the music's from "Les Mis." 

Jefferson wrote, "The greatest good we can do our country is to heal its party divisions and make them one people." The Founding Fathers wouldn't have tolerated 21st century Tea Party polemics. No matter the nation's crushing ills or deep political divide, the framers chose to govern, not obstruct. 

Having brought forth a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, you've got to wonder: 

Are there any levelheaded Republicans left to remind untethered Tea Party apostles – notably those washed up on the shores of the Potomac – that incendiary rhetoric, hysterical white populism and a reckless disregard for the unalienable rights of others is not a government of, by or for the people? 

Misogynistic, homophobic, radically regressive and ideologically unhinged with little apparent interest in governing and no appetite for compromise or common ground, that Grand Old Party's out-of-order, a consequence of preposterous partisan pandering, legislative belligerence…and all that tea. 

To the extent any nominal independent expenditure can underscore the titanic distinctions between candidates, parties and platforms – from ALEC-influenced legislatures codifying colossally misguided stand-your-ground laws to muddleheaded McCarthy-mimicking Members of the House calling colleagues Communists – ours will, we hope, attract the attention of an inquisitive electorate and contribute to a more reasoned electoral outcome. 

At the end of the day will unruly Republicans simply be too tone-deaf to hear the people sing? We'll know when tomorrow comes. 

Don DeMesquita

Well that was just as powerful as this amazing song! You know I don't know what it is about President Obama but he ALWAYS gets the best songs written for  him, and attracts the most gifted of supporters.

Do you all remember this one?

Well with this kind of talent supporting the President how can he lose?

(H/T to The New Civil Rights Movement.)

Some things I cannot do.

I always dread this day.

It is the day that I have to keep my television turned off, and avoid my favorite internet news sites.

It is the day that it seems EVERYBODY wants to talk about what I don't ever want to talk about again.

And why should I? Even ten years later I remember every single thing about that day.

The phone call from my daughter telling me to turn on the television. "Daddy they are attacking New York!"

The day spent watching something happen which my mind refused to accept was even possible.

The next days spent watching the disaster over, and over, and over again. Until I could close my eyes and see every detail play out like I was watching it happen right in front of me.

Weeks spent wondering why, who, and how.

And just when the images had faded into the darkness of my psyche it was the one year anniversary, the two year anniversary, the three year anniversary, and here they came again, playing in a loop on every station, on every television, every year. The attacks only happened once, but through the power of the recorded image they continue to attack us again, and again, and again.

The news stations say they do it so that we won't forget. Who could forget?

Like all Americans alive at that time, I will NEVER forget.

So today I thought I would pay my respects to those who lost their lives on that fateful day, by living mine.

I went up to my favorite place and spent the afternoon appreciating the vastness of the world around me.

Absorbing the beauty that surrounded me.

Listening to the music that nature played for me.

And marveling at the images which inspired me.

After I finished my hike I felt revitalized, and renewed, and not a drop of sadness remained.

Perhaps some will decide I am not a "good" American for not sharing in our national grief. But I have already shed so many tears, and feared so many faceless enemies, and yet it changed nothing.

So today I decided it was not just something that I cannot do, I decided it was something that I should not do. And I do not believe I could have made a better choice.

If every year on 9-11 our nation succumbs to an overwhelming sense of loss, and spends the day re-watching the handiwork of those who wanted to terrify us, who wins then?

Well today, for THIS American, the bad guys lost.