I just looked at the calendar and thought to myself - Where is October going??? It's almost gone! Oh no! (a la Seinfeld's "Milk"). It has been a pretty busy time since my last post. 2 days after my last post - my car was hit by a drunk driver (no injuries - except for the car)...so for about 5 weeks, I was paying for a car that I couldn't drive. Luckily, the Lawrence police found the guilty driver and so his insurance paid for the repairs which ended up being close to $7000...which basically means that my car was totaled - except it wasn't. Either way, it was pain and I had to drive a non-cruise control PT Cruiser for 4 weeks including a trip back to Chicago from Lawrence, a trip to-and-from Dayton, and then back to Lawrence...thankfully, I have my car back and life is somewhat normal.
Work has been fairly slow so far since this is our "down season". I'm doing a lot of strategic planning for the coming year as well as reflecting on how to make the Chicago institute in 2010 even better (or at least not worse!). This past week we had our official kick-off conference for all the institutes here in Chicago. We got to discuss this report during the beginning of the conference and while it was pretty incredible to read where the United States' educational achievement gap is in comparison to other countries...one person at the conference started discussing how education should be a "fundamental right of humans". This comment made me stop in my thoughts during the discussion because I couldn't get away from that phrase and where I had only heard it before - within the Right to Life movement...I wanted to stand up and say, "How can we grant education has a fundamental right when we can't even grant life as one?"...but I held back - for now. Anyway, the conference was long and there's a lot of work ahead again this year as another 600 corps members will be coming to Chicago next summer to be trained.
Amid the slow period of work - I've been able to take advantage of some vacation time and have been able to visit the Buschelmans and Lawrence in the past few weeks. I headed to Fairborn, OH earlier this month to hang out and enjoy fall with Liesel, Eric, Dom, and Will...it's always great to see them and see what new things are going on in the new house! I'm pretty sure the thing that Dom and Will (and Liesel for that matter) enjoyed the most about my visit was that I brought Dunkin' Donuts.
Then just last weekend, I drove back to Lawrence for Homecoming. It was a planned trip from the summer - to see the KU game with friends from college and be at the Oktoberfest...but I added on picking up my car from the collision repair shop to the list! It was an extremely quick weekend home, but it was great to be there for the Oktoberfest and Homecoming! Who knows - maybe this will become a tradition minus the 8 hour drive both ways.
-mitzi
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
see you in september...
I'm having a hard time understanding that September is really here already, but there's nothing you can do to stop time from continuing to plug along. I know that I've been able to visit with many of you - but I figured I could do some sort of post here to give you an update on my summer since my last post. I had planned on posting in a more frequent fashion, but as work consumed my existence this summer - this is the way that I'm going to have update on what was a 'ado about Mitzi' in the past 3 months.
I'll start from the very beginning...
My 5th nephew came into the world on May 29 - luckily, I was able to see him the day he was born - just as I was able to do with his 2 older sisters...before I had to head back to Chicago to gear up for institute.
The excitement prior to moving into institute was that I purchase my first pair of TOMS (well, actually I purchased 2 pairs). I knew that I would be walking (and running) across campus during institute - in some cases carrying boxes...so I wanted something that was light-weight and as convenient as a pair of flip-flops and TOMS were the answer - and they do good things too. Overall, I have been very happy with my TOMS and would recommend them to anyone looking for a close-toe flip-flop alternative.
June 8th - I moved into my apartment on the campus of the Illinois of Institute Technology. For some reason, I never took a picture of my apartment - but it would be my home for the next 7.5 weeks. June 8-June 14 is "Week -1" in TFA-institute-speak. Basically a TFA institute runs for 5 weeks - so the weeks prior to corps members arriving for training are called "Week -1 and Week 0". Only myself, the full-time team I work with throughout the year, and the leadership team of the summer staff we hired, trained, and would be managing moved lived on campus Week -1, then the rest of the summer staff moved in at the beginning of Week 0, and as you can assume Week 1 is when corps members move in for their 5 weeks of training.
I'm having a hard time trying to explain exactly all that happens before corps members arrive in those few short days - but the only thing that I can think of it as is what a campaign's advance team does before the candidate they are working for arrives. Only in TFA's case, we were planning for about 615 corps members to arrive while maintaining the support for the 150 staff members who just arrived in a new city for the summer. Needless to say - I was working about 120 hours/week the first 2 weeks on campus to set up this small city for our staff and corps members to function in.
One of our larger tasks was our supply delivery - since the Chicago institute was brand new - that means we didn't have anything...so in 2 semi-trucks were 700 boxes that we unloaded, sorted, and organized - at the end of institute we would collect everything, pack it up, and store it for next summer. This is a picture of the 180 crates we stacked and lined in one hallway.
Checking in with Taylor (school operations manager coordinator) during Week -1
I set up this "Reimbursement Station" for my staff to work at if they wanted to be reimbursed for their travel to institute. It was a HUGE success!!
My operations coordinators and I are working to sort the materials that were used to train our staff during Week 0.
Our staff...well most of it - and their ID pictures!
June 21 - The inaugural Chicago institute starts. 14 days after I moved to IIT - corps members arrived and institute life truly began. One of the staff members and I would joke about how each day was really about 4 days when you think about everything that would go on even before you had breakfast. Here's a day in the life of my life this summer for example:
"Day 1"
4:30am - Alarm clock goes off
4:39am - Snooze alarm goes off
4:48am - Snooz alarm goes off again and I finally get up
5:00am - Leave my apartment and head over to the main campus building for lunch pick-up
5:10am - Make sure all the operations staff are there for lunch pick-up, take my position to make sure corps members and staff are following the flow of traffic to get their lunch and head to breakfast
5:15am - Corps members and instructional staff start arriving to pick-up their lunch. The only words that I say for about the next two hours are "Good morning!","Have a great day at school!", "No, you can only have 1 drink with your lunch." "Please, go up these stairs so that we can keep traffic moving." "No, please go this way instead." "I understand that way looks quicker, but we are trying to move 700 people through this line right now, please go this way instead."
7:00am - Head out to the busline and check on the staff there, greet the bus drivers, and make sure the buses leave on time.
7:30am - Get breakfast with bus duty and lunch pick-up staff
Checking in on bus duty - you can see one of the 20+ buses on the left-hand side of the picture
"Day 2"
8:00am - Catch-up on any e-mails that came in over night
9:00am - Meet with staff to make sure they know what needs to happen that day
9:30am - Meet with Director of Institute Operations to plan meeting with operations director meeting.
10am - Operations Director meeting
11:15am - Check-in phone call with my school operations manager coordinator
12:00pm - Lunch
1:00pm - Shower
"Day 3"
2:00pm - Prepare for meeting with school directors, meet with operations coordinators
3:00pm - Individual meetings with operations directors about institute close-out
4:00pm - Greet corps members with the rest of the operations staff when they arrive back at campus.
4:30pm - Check-in with school operations manager coordinator
5:00pm - Dinner
"Day 4"
6:00pm - School Operations Manager meeting
7:00pm - School Director meeting
8:00pm - Check-in with operations across campus
9:00pm - Check e-mail from the afternoon and respond to staff needs
10:00pm - Check on copy center and resouce center
11:00pm - Final e-mail check
11:30pm - Bed
Granted, this was typical day - but throw in a case of the swine flu, departing corps members, a car accident, an unhappy staff member, a frustrated corps member, a 45 minute wait at the copy center, and my personal favorite - bacon on the vegetarian sandwiches - the day becomes much more than 'typical'.
But I survived...and so did our staff...and most importantly, so did our corps members - who are now beginning their first year of teaching in either Chicago, Milwaukee, Kansas City, South Dakota, Boston, Charlotte, or Eastern North Carolina.
So for about 7.5 weeks - institute was life. We did have fun though and TFA always knows how to celebrate. I made some great friends who I hope will return next summer! Also, probably the best part is that as a full-time institute staff member, I am required to take 3 weeks of comp time following institute...and tack on a week of vacation I've acculmulated - you get 4 weeks of work-free life. Now that my final days of vacation are approaching - I'm anxious about heading back to Chicago to beginning planning the 2010 Chicago institute...but also renewed and ready to do things even better this year.
The operations team!
The four operations coordinators I managed - they are completing college this year and all 4 plan to apply for the corps.
Taylor and I - the school operations power force!! We exceeded our goals for school operations - which is exactly why I decided to join full-time institute staff!
The operations team enjoyed the open-bar Happy Hour w/ Karaoke one Friday afternoon!!
The full-time Chicago institute management team - our last night in Chicago after 7.5 weeks together!
I'll start from the very beginning...
My 5th nephew came into the world on May 29 - luckily, I was able to see him the day he was born - just as I was able to do with his 2 older sisters...before I had to head back to Chicago to gear up for institute.
with Peter just a few hours after he was born
The excitement prior to moving into institute was that I purchase my first pair of TOMS (well, actually I purchased 2 pairs). I knew that I would be walking (and running) across campus during institute - in some cases carrying boxes...so I wanted something that was light-weight and as convenient as a pair of flip-flops and TOMS were the answer - and they do good things too. Overall, I have been very happy with my TOMS and would recommend them to anyone looking for a close-toe flip-flop alternative.
June 8th - I moved into my apartment on the campus of the Illinois of Institute Technology. For some reason, I never took a picture of my apartment - but it would be my home for the next 7.5 weeks. June 8-June 14 is "Week -1" in TFA-institute-speak. Basically a TFA institute runs for 5 weeks - so the weeks prior to corps members arriving for training are called "Week -1 and Week 0". Only myself, the full-time team I work with throughout the year, and the leadership team of the summer staff we hired, trained, and would be managing moved lived on campus Week -1, then the rest of the summer staff moved in at the beginning of Week 0, and as you can assume Week 1 is when corps members move in for their 5 weeks of training.
I'm having a hard time trying to explain exactly all that happens before corps members arrive in those few short days - but the only thing that I can think of it as is what a campaign's advance team does before the candidate they are working for arrives. Only in TFA's case, we were planning for about 615 corps members to arrive while maintaining the support for the 150 staff members who just arrived in a new city for the summer. Needless to say - I was working about 120 hours/week the first 2 weeks on campus to set up this small city for our staff and corps members to function in.
One of our larger tasks was our supply delivery - since the Chicago institute was brand new - that means we didn't have anything...so in 2 semi-trucks were 700 boxes that we unloaded, sorted, and organized - at the end of institute we would collect everything, pack it up, and store it for next summer. This is a picture of the 180 crates we stacked and lined in one hallway.
Checking in with Taylor (school operations manager coordinator) during Week -1
I set up this "Reimbursement Station" for my staff to work at if they wanted to be reimbursed for their travel to institute. It was a HUGE success!!
My operations coordinators and I are working to sort the materials that were used to train our staff during Week 0.
Our staff...well most of it - and their ID pictures!
June 21 - The inaugural Chicago institute starts. 14 days after I moved to IIT - corps members arrived and institute life truly began. One of the staff members and I would joke about how each day was really about 4 days when you think about everything that would go on even before you had breakfast. Here's a day in the life of my life this summer for example:
"Day 1"
4:30am - Alarm clock goes off
4:39am - Snooze alarm goes off
4:48am - Snooz alarm goes off again and I finally get up
5:00am - Leave my apartment and head over to the main campus building for lunch pick-up
5:10am - Make sure all the operations staff are there for lunch pick-up, take my position to make sure corps members and staff are following the flow of traffic to get their lunch and head to breakfast
5:15am - Corps members and instructional staff start arriving to pick-up their lunch. The only words that I say for about the next two hours are "Good morning!","Have a great day at school!", "No, you can only have 1 drink with your lunch." "Please, go up these stairs so that we can keep traffic moving." "No, please go this way instead." "I understand that way looks quicker, but we are trying to move 700 people through this line right now, please go this way instead."
7:00am - Head out to the busline and check on the staff there, greet the bus drivers, and make sure the buses leave on time.
7:30am - Get breakfast with bus duty and lunch pick-up staff
Checking in on bus duty - you can see one of the 20+ buses on the left-hand side of the picture8:00am - Catch-up on any e-mails that came in over night
9:00am - Meet with staff to make sure they know what needs to happen that day
9:30am - Meet with Director of Institute Operations to plan meeting with operations director meeting.
10am - Operations Director meeting
11:15am - Check-in phone call with my school operations manager coordinator
12:00pm - Lunch
1:00pm - Shower
"Day 3"
2:00pm - Prepare for meeting with school directors, meet with operations coordinators
3:00pm - Individual meetings with operations directors about institute close-out
4:00pm - Greet corps members with the rest of the operations staff when they arrive back at campus.
4:30pm - Check-in with school operations manager coordinator
5:00pm - Dinner
"Day 4"
6:00pm - School Operations Manager meeting
7:00pm - School Director meeting
8:00pm - Check-in with operations across campus
9:00pm - Check e-mail from the afternoon and respond to staff needs
10:00pm - Check on copy center and resouce center
11:00pm - Final e-mail check
11:30pm - Bed
Granted, this was typical day - but throw in a case of the swine flu, departing corps members, a car accident, an unhappy staff member, a frustrated corps member, a 45 minute wait at the copy center, and my personal favorite - bacon on the vegetarian sandwiches - the day becomes much more than 'typical'.
But I survived...and so did our staff...and most importantly, so did our corps members - who are now beginning their first year of teaching in either Chicago, Milwaukee, Kansas City, South Dakota, Boston, Charlotte, or Eastern North Carolina.
So for about 7.5 weeks - institute was life. We did have fun though and TFA always knows how to celebrate. I made some great friends who I hope will return next summer! Also, probably the best part is that as a full-time institute staff member, I am required to take 3 weeks of comp time following institute...and tack on a week of vacation I've acculmulated - you get 4 weeks of work-free life. Now that my final days of vacation are approaching - I'm anxious about heading back to Chicago to beginning planning the 2010 Chicago institute...but also renewed and ready to do things even better this year.
The operations team!
The four operations coordinators I managed - they are completing college this year and all 4 plan to apply for the corps.
Taylor and I - the school operations power force!! We exceeded our goals for school operations - which is exactly why I decided to join full-time institute staff!
The operations team enjoyed the open-bar Happy Hour w/ Karaoke one Friday afternoon!!
The full-time Chicago institute management team - our last night in Chicago after 7.5 weeks together!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
2 months later...
Considering that it has been almost 2 months since my last post, it's probably time to post at least something.
First up - this is currently my favorite song.
Secondly - since May 15 (last posting) it's been just a little bit busy in the Teach For America - Chicago Institute world. My team and I hosted "Leadership Conference 2" here in Chicago in March - I co-managed the logistics for this conference w/ the Phoenix MIS and her crew - so about 50 people to house/feed/guide. We were able to use the new TFA office and overall the conference was a success. I was able to present to the leadership team of the Chicago institute (school directors - SD) about how the school operations manager (SOM) functions in their lives. This has been one of the things driving me in my work this year - to make sure that SDs and SOMs have a good working relationship and that they understand their roles. The other exciting part of LC2 was that I acquired a membership here.
LC2 definitely wiped me out - but I was back at work the next day gearing up for the "Operations Director Conference" in Houston and the big-one: "All Staff Conference" in Chicago both of which happened in April. ODC was nice - just hanging w/ the ops folks of institute - my kind of people :)! And then - I got a vacation!!
And vacation was wonderful - just enjoying the life of the Reddigs and Holy Week. Some highlights of that trip: not working, Katie's Zumba class, Samba de Amigo, the annual Seder Meal - which the Beiers joined us for, discovering a new restaurant with a friend, a new scarf from the Easter Bunny, watching The Masters for the first time ever, and of course having Mary Ann update me on things coming up - i.e. "Mitzi, didn't you know that tomorrow is Easter?"
And then it was back to work...let's just say that coming back from vacation was a little rough, and the 2 weeks that I had to prepare for the All Staff Conference were just a little stressful - but it was all worth it. We had an incredible conference and with the survey results back now - it seems as though all 110 people that I logistically brought together were pretty happy about their time in Chicago. I had been working on this conference in particular since last August - so it was really great to see it all happen...and to meet everyone that I have been e-mailing since December. That's just one of the things that I truly enjoy about this job - I get to see the results of my planning and organization.
A week later - the Buschelmans came to visit me - first time since my move to the Ukrainian Village. It was a relaxing weekend of wandering around the city, the zoo, and the brewery. And we were able to get the kitchen curtains hung! It's incredible to see how Dom and Will are growing...and more incredible to realize how small my apartment can become with 4 extra bodies.
And now we are up to this past week - well, work picked up quite a bit with the announcement of a new region attending the Chicago institute. This means that not only will the corps members from Chicago, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Eastnern NC, Charlotte, and Boston be trained here in Chicago this summer - but now also the South Dakota corps members. It'll be quite an group of people (over 600) descending on Chicago and the public schools this summer - so now is the time to get ready for it all.
A future corps member (who has worked at institute before) wrote a letter - and well, this small excerpt gives me a little inspiration to continue to work hard:
First up - this is currently my favorite song.
Secondly - since May 15 (last posting) it's been just a little bit busy in the Teach For America - Chicago Institute world. My team and I hosted "Leadership Conference 2" here in Chicago in March - I co-managed the logistics for this conference w/ the Phoenix MIS and her crew - so about 50 people to house/feed/guide. We were able to use the new TFA office and overall the conference was a success. I was able to present to the leadership team of the Chicago institute (school directors - SD) about how the school operations manager (SOM) functions in their lives. This has been one of the things driving me in my work this year - to make sure that SDs and SOMs have a good working relationship and that they understand their roles. The other exciting part of LC2 was that I acquired a membership here.
LC2 definitely wiped me out - but I was back at work the next day gearing up for the "Operations Director Conference" in Houston and the big-one: "All Staff Conference" in Chicago both of which happened in April. ODC was nice - just hanging w/ the ops folks of institute - my kind of people :)! And then - I got a vacation!!
And vacation was wonderful - just enjoying the life of the Reddigs and Holy Week. Some highlights of that trip: not working, Katie's Zumba class, Samba de Amigo, the annual Seder Meal - which the Beiers joined us for, discovering a new restaurant with a friend, a new scarf from the Easter Bunny, watching The Masters for the first time ever, and of course having Mary Ann update me on things coming up - i.e. "Mitzi, didn't you know that tomorrow is Easter?"
And then it was back to work...let's just say that coming back from vacation was a little rough, and the 2 weeks that I had to prepare for the All Staff Conference were just a little stressful - but it was all worth it. We had an incredible conference and with the survey results back now - it seems as though all 110 people that I logistically brought together were pretty happy about their time in Chicago. I had been working on this conference in particular since last August - so it was really great to see it all happen...and to meet everyone that I have been e-mailing since December. That's just one of the things that I truly enjoy about this job - I get to see the results of my planning and organization.
A week later - the Buschelmans came to visit me - first time since my move to the Ukrainian Village. It was a relaxing weekend of wandering around the city, the zoo, and the brewery. And we were able to get the kitchen curtains hung! It's incredible to see how Dom and Will are growing...and more incredible to realize how small my apartment can become with 4 extra bodies.
And now we are up to this past week - well, work picked up quite a bit with the announcement of a new region attending the Chicago institute. This means that not only will the corps members from Chicago, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Eastnern NC, Charlotte, and Boston be trained here in Chicago this summer - but now also the South Dakota corps members. It'll be quite an group of people (over 600) descending on Chicago and the public schools this summer - so now is the time to get ready for it all.
A future corps member (who has worked at institute before) wrote a letter - and well, this small excerpt gives me a little inspiration to continue to work hard:
I am excited to return to institute, this time as a corps member, to know the other side of the experience, to earn my place in this cycle, and to prove myself worthy of the children I will teach – and worthy of the time you spend at conferences like this preparing to lead me and my fellow corps members. I look forward to having my own stories of the ways “my kids” changed my life – and hopefully, the ways I changed theirs – and I’m grateful for the role you have already begun to play in moving me there.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
genius...
I know I need to give an update here on what is much ado about me, but as a tease - I saw this quote tonight and thought it was pertinent to the "hard-times" that we are all going through...
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." -Thomas Edison
Saturday, February 14, 2009
valentine's day(s)...
For some reason - I can remember random events that happened on particular day for sometimes several years back...I think I got this from Liesel and Katie because I can remember one evening when we spent about an hour thinking back through the years of what happened on a particular day in June. All I can remember now from that was that we couldn't believe so many things had happened on that particular day.
So...as I sit here thinking about Valentine's day - I think about how I have spent my last few V-days:
2008: I flew to Philadelphia for work on Southwest Airlines. I remember the flight attendants handing out Valentine's day candy and the plane being decorated for the special day. Once arriving in Philly - my manager, Mike, and I took a walk around the city, saw the Liberty Bell and Constitutional Hall and we at an Irish pub.
2007: I was home in Lawrence recruiting for TFA w/ my manager, Casey - and we had dinner at Mom and Dad's - ahhh, the seafood pilaf!!
2006: I remember this one the most because the night before my car door broke and Mom and Dad had been watching "24" and didn't answer the phone when I called for help (no hard feelings!). On V-day...I sent out an e-mail to my siblings about the previous night's happenings and I remember Liesel calling me after one of my classes to tell me it was the funniest e-mail that she ever read. I know for dinner - Blair, Amy, and I went to Chipotle and I can specifically remember Blair telling me to apply for Teach For America's corps - and I actually started an application that night (the deadline was in 2 days)...but I got distracted because Liesel called me again to tell me she and Eric were expecting their first child.
2005: Can't remember...
2004: My roommates and I decided that we were going to spend Valentine's day alone and so we decided to round up our guy-friends from the schol-halls and go get dinner some place. We ended up going McDonald's and then came back to schol-hall land to watch 'Bend It Like Beckam'.
2003: I remember that I received a handmade Valentine from Katie this year...I wonder if I still have it in one of my boxes at home...it was so pretty!!
Hmmm...6 years back and only missing one isn't that bad. If anyone can remember what happened in 2005 - let me know.
Happy St. Valentine's Day!!
Love,
Mitzi
So...as I sit here thinking about Valentine's day - I think about how I have spent my last few V-days:
2008: I flew to Philadelphia for work on Southwest Airlines. I remember the flight attendants handing out Valentine's day candy and the plane being decorated for the special day. Once arriving in Philly - my manager, Mike, and I took a walk around the city, saw the Liberty Bell and Constitutional Hall and we at an Irish pub.
2007: I was home in Lawrence recruiting for TFA w/ my manager, Casey - and we had dinner at Mom and Dad's - ahhh, the seafood pilaf!!
2006: I remember this one the most because the night before my car door broke and Mom and Dad had been watching "24" and didn't answer the phone when I called for help (no hard feelings!). On V-day...I sent out an e-mail to my siblings about the previous night's happenings and I remember Liesel calling me after one of my classes to tell me it was the funniest e-mail that she ever read. I know for dinner - Blair, Amy, and I went to Chipotle and I can specifically remember Blair telling me to apply for Teach For America's corps - and I actually started an application that night (the deadline was in 2 days)...but I got distracted because Liesel called me again to tell me she and Eric were expecting their first child.
2005: Can't remember...
2004: My roommates and I decided that we were going to spend Valentine's day alone and so we decided to round up our guy-friends from the schol-halls and go get dinner some place. We ended up going McDonald's and then came back to schol-hall land to watch 'Bend It Like Beckam'.
2003: I remember that I received a handmade Valentine from Katie this year...I wonder if I still have it in one of my boxes at home...it was so pretty!!
Hmmm...6 years back and only missing one isn't that bad. If anyone can remember what happened in 2005 - let me know.
Happy St. Valentine's Day!!
Love,
Mitzi
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Chances?
"The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness."
-President Barack H. Obama
-President Barack H. Obama
I must ask, then, when is the exact moment that someone is given the chance to be equal - the chance to be free - and the chance to pursue their full measure of happiness?
I think conception would be a pretty sweet moment to have that chance be given...let's go with that, Mr. President.
Monday, January 19, 2009
obama cookies...
As I was grocery shopping in my local Dominick's my eyes caught a section of tables decorated in red, white, and blue at the front entrance of the store. There were cakes, cupcakes, cake-top decorations, confetti, party hats, and other party paraphernalia for tomorrow's inauguration. I guess people are still celebrating among these economic hard times. However, as I tried to ignore the display and keep my head held high - I noticed "Obama Cookies" - Obama's face had been imprinted on several sugar cookies. I guess that's a level of fame that I certainly do not want to reach.
In other news - today is Martin* Luther King Jr. Day (observed) and it made me think of one of his quotes that is often not associated with him on this day - but is still incredibly powerful.
Yesterday, I joined about 100 other Chicago pro-lifers on Michigan Avenue for a rally for life. While it was small it was nice to have that feeling of camaraderie here in Chicago even though many were strangers. Fox News - Chicago covered it here.
Tomorrow will be about change...I just hope that change includes some warmer weather here in the Windy City.
-mitzi
*Thank you to my editor...
In other news - today is Martin* Luther King Jr. Day (observed) and it made me think of one of his quotes that is often not associated with him on this day - but is still incredibly powerful.
"Many people fear nothing more terribly than to take a position which stands out sharply and clearly from the prevailing opinion. The tendency of most is to adopt a view that it is so ambiguous that it will include every thing, and so popular that it will include everybody. Not a few men who cherish lofty and noble ideals hide them under a bushel for fear of being called different."Now, there are many ways that I have read this quote and considering what tomorrow will be for our country - I truly hope and pray that our new president - who campaigned on bringing change to this nation...will not fear of being called different. That he will not fear of being the first democrat to look to his opposing side and see the good that it stands for and the good that it can bring to our country. I wonder what our world would be like if we could take the good parts from each side of the aisle and work to make those things happen instead of debating them.
Yesterday, I joined about 100 other Chicago pro-lifers on Michigan Avenue for a rally for life. While it was small it was nice to have that feeling of camaraderie here in Chicago even though many were strangers. Fox News - Chicago covered it here.
Tomorrow will be about change...I just hope that change includes some warmer weather here in the Windy City.
-mitzi
*Thank you to my editor...
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