Why 12 Steps Make Me Cranky

There was an article today on cnn.com about a man who was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment today for a rape he committed in 1984. The rape occurred in Virginia which has no statute of limitations on felony prosecutions. The main piece of evidence against him? His letter he wrote in 2005 confessing/apologizing to the victim as step 9 of his alcohol treatment program. Apparently he wrote her a letter, which led to an email exchange in which he stated "I want to make clear that I'm not intentionally minimizing the fact of having raped you. I did." Step 9 involves making amends to those you have harmed, although not when doing so would cause further harm. And that, I guess is the rub, I am not sure as a group I think people recovering from an addiction are in a particularly good place to make that determination. This guy is a great example. He apparently thought that making contact out of nowhere with the woman he raped over twenty years ago would not be harmful to her. According to the article she has since forgiven him (although she did support the prosecution). But forgiving him and wanting the contact in the first place are not the same thing. I am glad that he is taking accountability for his actions and that from the account he has gone on to help others, but I guess I agree with the prosecutor that the letter was a selfish act, this was about his own need for absolution not about her or her feelings or needs. I am not sure what the right answer is for a rapist who sincerely wants to make amends but I don't think unsolicited contact with the person they victimized is the answer.

I am a Nerd...Total, Total Nerd

Not only did I ask Barack Obama to be my friend on myspace, I made him one of my top friends. NERD!!!! Seriously though I have totally drank the kool-aid, having read Dreams from My Father and Audacity of Hope over Christmas I am really excited about him. I am definitely more liberal than Obama but what totally won me over is that when he says things I don't agree I end up respecting him more...that never happens, seriously for the most part my knee jerk reaction tends to be: you disagree with me, well you're an idiot (one of my more quality attributes, I know). I think his ability to work with people on the issues without using strawmen or dehumanizing character attacks will serve to begin to mend the damage wrought by the US (both abroad and at home) in the past 6 years. I have no idea if he can win either in November or in the primaries but I do know that when and if I get my opportunity to vote for him, I will be doing just that - voting FOR him and not just against his competition which will be fan-frickin-tastic!

Today is the start of the DNC Winter Meeting and Barack got the chance along with Hillary, Dennis Kucinich, Chris Dodd and John Edwards to pitch his candidacy. Live news coverage got pre-empted by the Florida disaster coverage but from the clips he and John Edwards both sounded great! Hmmm, maybe John will be my friend too, just not one of my top friends ;)

-A. Monkey

as soon as I posted this I heard Tucker Carlson talk about how Rigoberta Menchu was a total fraud and undeserving of her Nobel Peace Prize unlike, wait for it... Rush Limbaugh. My immediate response was this guy oughta be shot - see my tendencies to evil knee jerk reactions. And just to be clear - NO ONE SHOULD SHOOT TUCKER CARLSON - we should just all agree he is a pompous ass ;)

Sooooo.... What to Do With this Blog???

I initially started writing this blog in an attempt to stay in touch with family and friends while traveling and also to have some kind of record of this crazy journey into saving the world. Lately it seems though that as saving the world has evolved into saving the world one meeting at a time - which is still important and satisfying but doesn't lend easily to blogging. Sooo do I let the blog stay in Eric's Moribund Blog category, do I start writing about my exciting travels from St. Paul to Minneapolis to (wait for it....) St. Paul, or do I do something different with it? (this is a rhetorical question, I am not sure I want to see how many people would vote for activist monkey going quietly into the dying of the light, probably signaled mostly by a deafening silence). I read blogs, a lot, too much, seriously I would have to work at home waaaay less if blogs didn't exist. The ones I read are primarily feminist or political or both and this is what I am probably the most likely to write about (I thought about a blog about motherhood but all I have is a plant and seriously if I exposed my plant cruelty and neglect to the WWW the botany police would be at my door before long). The problem is that there are a million zillion blogs by smart dedicated bloggers so I am not sure if there is a missing voice or if there is, that it is mine... but I guess the reality is that I love this stuff and I am reading about it and talking about it all the damn time anyway so why not. Besides, one positive side of being home more is being able to get more involved in what is going on here both through politics and through my community and with the '08 elections already totally exciting both nationally and specifically here in Minnesota so welcome to the home for my ramblings!

-A. Monkey