It's a Beautiful Day!
Hey! We forgot to wish ourselves a
Happy Birthday last week. This particular regime of the new
"Public Notice" world order came into power five years ago on that year's Halloween mask cover (Nathan Jensen's Memnoch the Devil, 1995) So, here's a hearty toast and a tip of the brim; we hope it's been as silly a ride from your side as it has been from ours.
Writing a column like this has its good days and its less-than-good days. We are torn about the community we cover. On one hand we adore Austin's eager and able response to this cause or that. We get all choked up just thinking about it. On the other mitt, we get sick to our stomach covering the exact same events year after year -- not out of boredom or dismissiveness, mind you, but because the problems still exist that make the events an annual necessity. Sometimes we wonder if the energy spent wouldn't be better focused directly on the problem instead of at fundraising and public awareness campaigns.
We wish we had time to get out more to all the events we list and to gain insight. Would getting into the thick of it all politicize us more? Invigorate us less? Make burnout happen that much sooner? We wish we had a better sense that this beat was making a damn bit of difference. We wish we better understood the reasons behind the problems behind the causes. We wish there were clearer more holistic approaches to solving society's ills -- you know, the ol' "Band-aid vs. getting to the root of it" dilemma.
Who doesn't wanna change the world and fix everything? We admire the people who actually go out and try to do something about it.
Here's to Austin's volunteers. Thank you for giving us something to write about.
Vogueing for a Cure
The always fabulous, dishy, and never to be missed Club DeVille Fall Fashion Extravaganza happens at the end of this week, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 8pm, and you know that you need to make that in-on-in scene. Tickets are $10, VIP $30. All proceeds from the event will benefit -- guess who? -- the American Cancer Society's Breast Cancer Research. 474-4070.
The 2000 Komen Concert for the Cure, featuring an all-star reunion of Marcia Ball, Angela Strehli, and Lou Ann Barton, plus special guest Donna Hightower at the Ben Hur Shrine Temple, happens on Friday, Nov. 3, 7:30pm (see "Tit for a Tat," p.46). The 2000 Komen 5K Race for the Cure, takes off from the GSD&M building at Sixth & Lamar, Sunday, Nov. 5, 8am. Both events will benefit the Austin affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Foundation. www.concert4thecure.org or 292-9130 and www.austinraceforthecure.org or 427-4833.
The American Cancer Society encourages you to Tell a Friend about breast cancer and the desperate need for early detection. Encourage women in the 40-plus age groups to get regular mammograms. If you don't know why these things are important, check out: www.cancer. org or 800/ACS-2345 or 919-1800.
Oh, and if you find yourself on the Web, go to health.yahoo.com and click on the pink ribbon and the enthusiastic e-engine will automatically donate $1 to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
The Horses Are on the Track
This Tuesday, Nov. 7, is Election Day, as if you didn't know. The two big doofs running for King of the Modern World are getting all the ink and little scrutiny. Prince Albert or the Shrubster? Who do you love? Well, there's more going on than just one race. So, if the national spotlight is making you see spots, don't let that deter you from doing that thing that makes us uniquely shiny, happy Americans. Please do Vote.
The League of Women Voters has placed copies of their popular nonpartisan Voters Guide at all local public libraries, in the Perry Castañeda library at UT, and libraries on the St. Ed's and Concordia campuses. 451-6710.
This Third Party deal is causing quite a ruckus. Trouble is, the Bush-folk are peeing themselves silly that Green Party candidate Ralph Nader might queer the election, giving Shrub the swing states. This is making the mods and Gore folks understandably crazy. So is the fact that voters, tired of settling for the "lesser of two evils," think that's what a vote for Gore amounts to. To Gore's advantage, a lot of us are rightfully horrified at the idea of Bush packing the Supreme Court -- not to mention that Nader's attitudes about certain domestic issues -- legal abortion and gay civil rights, specifically -- are dubious. What to do? Trade votes? The idea is to connect via the Web with an equally befuddled voter in a state different from yours -- for example, if you are in a Bush-locked state, like Texas, you exchange with a person in a swing state like Washington or Oregon. You, the Texan votes for Nader and the swinger votes for Gore. According to an article by Jamin Raskin in Slate online, "If just 100,000 Gore supporters and 100,000 Nader supporters in the key states registered and kept their words, both a Gore victory and federal funding for the Greens could be accomplished." We're not necessarily condoning this sort of political expression; nor are we condemning it. We are intrigued. The indictment here is on the Electoral College, which makes elections and campaigns in the modern U.S. a confusing and strategic mess. How will this horse race pan out? Will technology, in its ever unpredictable benevolence, shake things up in ways nobody ever imagined? www.nadertrader.org or www.voteexchange.org