Well, I'm back to reality. Had my first full week back from my four day vacation. I am now crazy busy at work and I forgot how much stuff I do at home on a daily basis--feeding cats, scooping cat litter, cleaning up cat puke, etc. etc. I know I make my life sound so charming -- ha ha. Netroots Nation was a good experience and I very much enjoyed going to the various discussion panels and learning interesting things from interesting people. I also enjoyed having no responsibilities other than getting up in the morning, showering and making it to the discussion panel I wanted to attend on time. Oh, and the king size bed was great too as was five days without having a cat climb my head in the middle of the night.  

The one consistent theme throughout the conference was that the right-wing can outspend us but we have more people. Maybe but some of the panels unnerved me, especially the ones detailing how the Koch Brothers and the looney far right have their tentacles into all of the state legislatures (or most of then, anyway). That's truly depressing. Voter ID laws, stand your ground laws, the attacks on education, it's all eording our country little by little. I wonder, are the stand your ground laws coupled with the National Rifle Association's obsession with gun ownership by anyone with a pulse designed to decimate the minority comunities -- they shoot each other and now "we" can shoot them too if we are threatened by them or perceive ourselves to be threatened by them ala Trayvon Martin? Just something to ponder.

These people behind these laws say or boast that they are "true patriots," but they are far from it. They are financially destroying the working and middle class, attacking unions, attacking the education system, women, minorities, all the "liberal" groups for the pursuit of power and a buck. So, I want to know, how do you fight against this tide? The voters here in America don't give me much hope. Drunk on Fox News and fear they consistently vote against their own best interests. If this shit was going on in Europe, they would be taking it to the streets to protest loud and long. Instead, we elect right-wing nut jobs to local and national government who promptly sell us out at every opportunity. All of us, me included, have been co-opted by material things and fear of the other. This started with Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan and continues to be the playbook of the right-wing republicans.

So, I don't know how those of us who can still think critically fight this. I guess there has to be a way and we all need to find it. I, for one, am going to try to find a good, left-wing, liberal, pinko group to voluteer for/with and start from there.     

Yesterday was my first official day at Netroots Nation. It's helpful to be surrounded by other progressive people. The sessions that I attended yesterday were pretty fantastic. After staffing "the gay booth" I went to the Pennsylvania caucus where I learned about the hot races coming up in Pennsylvania. The trainer, Michael Morrill, from Keystone Progress, said he thought President Obama would sweep Pennsylvania and that Romney's campain didn't have much of a presence in the state. I hope so, personally I think it would be a great disaster if Romney won the presidency.

The next session I attended was on the American Legislative Exchange Council where the very rich and powerful corporations sit down, behind closed doors in secet, and basically chose the legilsative agenda for states across the country, including Pennsylvania. ALEC is behind the voter registration laws, gun laws, "school choice," and other issues that impact we, the middle class. And have been front and center in Pennsylvania. It was very informative and a true example that knowledge is powerful. One of the speakers mentioned that ALEC was started during the Nixon administration because the right-wing in the Republican party thought Nixon wasn't supportive enough of big business. Nixon was too liberal!! This all goes back to the lessons I have been learning as I read the book Nixonland -- a lot of the right-wing extreme behavior began during Nixon's presidency.

The final session I attended was investigative reporting for bloggers. It was very helpful because the trainers listed all the various resources you can use/access to report on politicians, corporations, non-profits, etc. They used Donald Trump as their example. I took copious notes and learned a lot. Information can also be germane to my day job.

We had dinner and then attended the Planned Parenthood reception where we met a fellow lesbian and spoke to her about Wednesday's LGBT session. Then it was the keynote speakers. All of them were inspirational and especially Lily Eskelsen from the NEA who quite nicely tied up the right-wing, the Koch brothers, money and the right's relentless attack on the middle class. Hearing the speakers last night did fire me up somewhat but I still wonder -- given all the money and ALEC having our legislators in their back pockts, what can I do as an ordinary citizen beside vote which doesn't always seem to be enough. It seems as though the legislation that gets pushed that is very unhelpful to me as a citizen is almost a foregone conclusion. I have to think about this and what I want to do and can do. It just seems so hopeless sometimes. Well, time to get on with my day and the next sessions.   

 So I got the chance to come to Net Root nation in Providence Rhode Island. Sue and I got scholarships to attend on the condition that we blog about the experience. So here I am. It's very ironic because I am in the company of bloggers and activists and I am really neither anymore. Although I have been thinking about the fact that I don't blog. I mean, blogging should be up my alley. When I was a child I published my own newspaper and wrote books. I can't really explain why I don't blog, maybe its because I am on the computer all day or maybe I don't find I have much to say. Anyway, I do honor my obligations so here goes.

We caught the Megabus to come here. Several frineds have taken the bus to New York City and raved about the experience so we decided to try it. I figured it would beat me driving from Pittsburgh to Rhode Island. The bus from Pittsburgh came on time and got us to New York about a half an hour early. It was a double decker bus although we sat on the first floor. The bus was clean and the ride up was nice. One thing that did happen on the way up pissed me off. We stopped at a "rest stop" on interstate 80 and was I waiting in line for the next cashier when a gentlemen grabbed me by the shoulders and shoved me toward the cashier and made a comment about the line being open. The cashier was not even there. It upset me that he put his hands on me and felt that he had the right to do so. I wondered if it was because of my size -- would he have done that to a full size person? It was also ironic as I had just finished reading an article in Rolling Stone on the actor Peter Dinklage who is small at four foot six.  He said he received a lot of unwanted attention when he lived in New York City.

The trip from New York City was okay -- the bus wasn't as nice but we went through a great part of the city amd I saw a lot of sights I had never seen before including Yankee Stadium. We are staying at the Westin which is a great, swanky hotel. After getting a good night sleep we attended the LGBT pre-conference. It was great to be in a room with 100 plus queer people and the topics we discussed were interesting. One of the panels was on gay mariage and it was affirming to hear prominent gay people share my belief that gay marriage was not the issue that we should be pushing when there are other important rights such as employment discrimination. Tomorrow is the beginning of the official conference. Should be interesting as they are expecting over 2700 people.