Daily Archives: 11/10/2008

(Community Matters) Wonderful to hear that President-elect Obama’s transition team has adopted a policy of nondiscrimination which includes sexual orientation and gender identity.

(Community Matters) JT makes good points discussing yesterday’s NYT piece on the demographics of Tuesday voters and their votes

What jumps out most obviously is the sheer number of cells–27–won by Obama. And of McCain’s 13, five were never thought to be in play for Obama (church goers, evangelicals, white protestants, conservatives, Republicans). It would be tempting to conclude that the breadth of Obama’s suppport points to a significant political re-alignment. And it may.

. . . . this was a transformational election in a hundered ways, but not in terms of durable shifts among voters. The coalition Obama built relied most critically on people who thought he was the guy to get them out of a financial mess, and the Democrats are likely to keep these voters only if he proves up to the rather intimidating task.

(Community Matters) In three meetings between Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson and Barack Obama, from the London Times

Barack Obama sought out controversial gay bishop Gene Robinson not just once but three times during his campaign to become President of the United States, The Times can reveal.

‘Well you’re certainly causing a lot of trouble’, My response to him was: ‘Well that makes two of us’.

They spent more time discussing international issues than lesbians and gays. “He certainly indicated his broad and deep support for the full civil rights for gay and lesbian … I pressed him on the Millennium Development Goals. I wanted to know whether he thought more about them than just they were a good idea but whether he had any intention of pushing for their full funding and so on.”

Bishop Robinson said that Mr Obama had not hesitated to talk about his faith.I find that remarkable, not only in a politician but also in a Democrat. For years it’s only been Republicans who wanted to talk about religion. All the Democratic candidates felt disposed to do so this year.”

(Community Matters) Dinner last night with Rachel Fagan and Rob Rosenblatt. Super neat meeting Lexi who’s almost 12 months. Haven’t seen Ella for at least a year too – she’s almost three. Rachel’s doing cool stuff at Green Mountain Energy, working closely with our good friends at Enviro Media.

Rob is a former CIS social worker, now a counselor at LBJ School. I learned a lot talking with him about both organizations. First, he’s extraordinarily committed to helping those who most need help (this I knew). And, he’s a strong supporter of CIS, which sounds like extraordinarily valuable outsource capacity for him as a full time, AISD school counselor. And, while I’ve been worrying about the proliferation of organizations on campuses, it sounds as if the other organizations are important outsource capacities for CIS (not to mention specific competencies). I’m thinking we need to bring a counselor onto the Education Funders Forum.

(Community Matters) Wow, feels like the end of an important time. Juan & Teresa joined us for church yesterday. Steven had a search committee meeting, so couldn’t make lunch (Nico could though), so Hoover’s it was. Then, they moved out. Juan’s been here since the Texas convention. Teresa not enough but every couple of weeks or so for a few days. It’s been great hosting them, alas, that’s done. We’ll miss them both.

MM and I knocked out our Still Fountain sponsor letters and posters, even Motorblade. Thanks MM for helping make this happen.