1. i believe that life is good and the world is beautiful and always always worth saving, and i declare that among my personal heroes on this earth are PRINCE rogers nelson, janet jackson, DEMETRIUS, whitney elizabeth houston, and president franklin and mrs. eleanor roosevelt roosevelt
2. as i have gotten older, i have tried to be less rude to be people i find irritating, but i have always relied on sarcasm when i choose to be nasty
3. i believe in one GOD, the creator and giver of life, and jesus christ, the only son of GOD, but, all too frequently, have been appalled by the official positions of most christian churches with regard to some issues
4. i believe we are well-equipped to endure great tragedy, and give enormous amounts of attention to bad acts at, sometimes, the expense of being hopeful
5. rude and unhelpful ticketing agents at airports can sometimes cause me to resort to rather ungracious language choices - although most of the time, people really do try to do their jobs and provide reasonably good customer service
5. i find that charismatic individuals can cause other people to perform unimaginably hateful acts
6. i can remember, specifically, the first time i held each of my nieces and nephews in my arms - and am stunned by the amount of conversations that i have that have to do with time-outs, bath times, potty schedules, and toys i think are ridiculous...
7. reality shows that celebrate abusive and horrendous behavior are not funny
8. i prefer for people to obey
9. no one is a better judge of a person's true nature, capacity to love, and giving spirit than an untainted, unjaded small child
10. i was once advised by caring girlfriends that i should try to act "straight" in morocco (for my own safety) - however, i positively fooled no arab man or woman & still managed to enjoy my visit immensely, which is a testament to how peaceful and accepting arab people really are
11. although i did not have the right word for it as a child, belief in feminist principles has been a cornerstone of my life (as such, some of my most revered and longstanding personal feminist idols are first lady Michelle Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Gayle King, Barbra Streisand, slain Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto (Pakistan), Lisa Marie Presley, Priscilla Beaulieu Presley, Judy Garland, Lorna Luft, Lizi Minnelli, Lucille Ball Morton, former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, former first lady Laura W. Bush, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth I, Her Majesty Queen Mary I, former Governor Sarah Palin, Joan Crawford Steele, Katherine Hepburn, Queen Victoria, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Helen Hayes, Lillian Gish, Meryl Streep, Jessica Tandy, Audrey Hepburn, Queen Margrethe II (Denmark), Jodie Foster, Rosie O'Donnell, Hattie McDaniel, Jayne Mansfield, Marilyn Monroe, former first lady Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, former first lady Barbara Bush, former first lady Nancy Reagan, former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister Golda Meir (Israel), Israeli Opposition Leader Tzipi Livni, Mrs. Leah Rabin, Nefertiti, the Great Royal Wife of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, Sophie, Countess of Wessex, the Honourable Frances Shand-Kydd, Dame Elizabeth Taylor, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Diana, Princess of Wales, Lourdes Maria Ciccone Leon, Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson, Angelina Jolie, Stefani Germanotta (Lady Gaga), HRH Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Chancellor Angela Merkel (Germany), HRH Princess Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, HRH Princess Michael of Kent, Sarah, Duchess of York, HRH Anne, the Princess Royal, Whoopi Goldberg, Elizabeth Hasselbeck, Joy Behar, Star Jones, Meredith Vieira, Barbara Walters, Gloria Steinem, Dr. Jill Biden, and my mom, Dr. Margaret Greenhalgh Massey)
12. some of my best tools of negotiation come from six-year olds
13. i use all lower-case letters in my INFORMAL writing as an affectation of sorts, but, evidently, the entire english language is dying a slow death
14. noun/verb agreement is a lost art
15. if i hear one more politician misuse a reflexive pronoun, i will scream
16. if we spent less time judging people on the basis of traits and characteristics they possess that come from GOD, then the entire world might be on track for sustained peace
17. i am old enough to appreciate "fraggle rock"
18. as a small boy, my idol was wonder womYn and my mom and grannies (nellie, katz, mary jane, katherine)
19. matthew shepard, pope john paul ii, her majesty queen elizabeth ii (eiir), prime minister yitzhak rabin (israel), prime minister bibi netanyahu (israel), president shimon peres (israel), president anwar sadat (egypt), president ali zardari (pakistan), president pervez musharraf (pakistan), prime minister menachim begin (israel), president richard m. nixon, president and mrs. jimmy carter, president william jefferson clinton, president ronald reagan, president gerald ford, president george hw bush, president george w bush, president and mrs. abraham lincoln, president nelson mandela (south africa), mrs. winnie madikizela-mandela (member of south african parliament), president barack obama, and vice-president joseph biden are equivalent in their devotion and sainthood - they understand true devotion to the ultimate cause of world peace - PERIOD
20. i have cast a vote for a republican only one time in my life, proudly supporting GW Bush in 2004 - but have otherwise been true the democratic party - i do, however, believe in fiscal policy that does everything possible to promote a pro-business environment, while, at the same time, protecting the rights of workers - and i permanently retract all unnecessary statements and innuendos made regarding sen. kerry and mrs. heinz during the race - i believe the senior senator from the commonwealth of massachusetts was painted in an unfair light and i furthermore believe his reputation was unfairly impugned when "swiftboat" advertisements stripped an honorable man of the respect due him as an honorable, devoted, and courageous member of the American military
21. i believe that one day the united states of america will join the civilized community of developed nations that does not put people to death as the ultimate punishment available in its justice system
22. the first album ever i owned in my life was MADONNA: like a virgin - i have absolutely loved and worshiped MADONNA, the truest of all trailblazers, all of my life, and i always will - additionally, from the moment i laid eyes on MICHAEL JACKSON, i was positively in love and enthralled - i miss him with all of my heart and always will - he is the TRUE KING of POP, ROCK, and SOUL forever and ever and ever and ever
23. there is enough food to feed the ENTIRE world and all its people RIGHT NOW - we must therefore act to stabilize faltering economies and enforce international policy that will speed up the economic development of the world's least developed nations
24. that every man and womYn on this earth should subsist on more than 1 USD per day is a NO-BRAINER (so are, to that extent, all of the millenium development goals - these worthy goals include the following items: eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and female empowerment, reduce child mortality rates, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability, and developing a global partnership for international development that includes a fair, non-discriminatory financial trading system)
25. i have never been to a part of this earth that did not have some type of beauty to relish - finding the positive in everything, i am learning as i get older, is a good good strategy...
