Berry Ives

My "activism" has been limited to submissions to a few blogs and writing many letters to congressmen, etc, a few demonstrations, political discussions with friends, and several small contributions to causes and candidates. I went from Kucinich to Edwards to Obama. It seems that I usually back losers, so it's a good thing that the candidate clearly promoting the best ideas, Kucinich, did not win, for he would surely have lost the election.

Though born in a suburb of Cleveland, I was a WW2 post-war baby raised on the "oil patch" (Permian Basin), mostly in SE New Mexico. I spent 2 years overseas working in several countries as part of a university co-op work program. Other than that, I have spent my life in NM, mostly Albuquerque.

I totally agree with Lewis's attitude that America is a most contradictory and depressing place. Though he died just after I was born, things haven't changed that much in terms of the disparities and callous individualism which makes the U.S. the most backward of the industrialized countries in a social sense.

I discovered that I was a Yankee when I was 8, living in a small west Texas town. Unbelievably, because I had only lived in Ohio for 3 months, I was discriminated against. I identified with an older black girl in my 3rd grade class because she looked back to face me at my desk behind her (she was towards the back of the class, and I came in after the term had begun, so was behind her) with something that I now know to be empathy. The German-named teacher made things much worse, and humiliated me in front of the class. Because of this experience, I have always felt some empathy with the less fortunate, though I can't say I've done much for them other than support what I think are the right causes and the least offensive politics. In this regard, given that K. is out, I do think that Obama is by far the best candidate, and that he could do much to lead us into a mindset of mending the damage done by America's far right wing, both domestically and internationally. The best VP would likely be my governor, Bill Richardson, but Americans probably wouldn't stand for a double minority ticket, as it would quickly be labeled and emphasized by our fascist press. Both are of mixed international heritage, and I think would do wonders towards bringing America into a new age, especially internationally. I never thought that the U.S. would come to a time that we would have somebody like GW leading our country 40 years after 1968, and I have found it extremely disheartening that the Democratic leadership has not pursued impeachment of the president and the tier just below him no matter what they might think would be the final outcome in the Senate trial to follow. The level of high crimes, the deceit and propaganda, the arrogance and massive suffering they have caused, it is in my mind an ethical obligation to do what is right and not to be staging for the next election. The Democratic leadership have shown what little backbone they have.

Well, not what you'd call a "Full Bio."