He has been one of my heroes for awhile now. He is able to gather a huge crowd whenever he's at an event. People line up and camp out for days just to spend five seconds of their time in his presence. He moves people and governments with his inspirational speeches and common-sense wisdom. I appreciate that he is able to be goofy and crack jokes that are actually funny instead of being serious all the time. He was able to set the country towards better a direction after a long period where people lost faith in our government. Much of what he says ring true to me:

"The new rage is to say that the government is the cause of all our problems, and if only we had no government, we'd have no problems. I can tell you that contradicts evidence, history, and common sense."
"Politics is not religion and we should govern on the basis of evidence, not theology."
"Sometimes when people are under stress, they hate to think, and it's the time when they most need to think."
"Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of, but stigma and bias shame us all."
"We need not just a new generation of leadership, but a new gender of leadership."
"It's one thing to have good intentions; it's another thing entirely to change people's lives."
"Sometimes I feel like a fire hydrant looking at a pack of dogs."

Before I write a post about our engagement weekend, I thought this is much more important to share right now: Gay marriages have just been legalized in the state of California today!! The California Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that domestic partnerships are not a good substitution for marriage and "...our state now recognizes that an individual's capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual's sexual orientation." Well said. Congratulations to all the couples and potential couples for this awesome achievement towards equality. Hats off also to all their supporters and those that struggled with them to get this law passed. I can not describe the joy I'm feeling now but I will say one thing: I my state!

...is upon us. Tomorrow I will be voting in one of the most significant presidential primaries this nation has ever seen. For the first time since 1928, there will be no incumbent president or vice president on the ballot. Also for the first time, either an an African American man or a White woman will be nearly guaranteed the Democratic bid. My generation is predicted to swing the vote for the Democratic nominee and perhaps even the entire election this year. I have friends that are actually excited to vote. It is a momentous occasion for the process that many of us take for granted in our adult years thus far.

This was a topic of discussion at a recent event and I would like to share it because it's been on my mind ever since I took my citizenship class:
I have recently come to the conclusion that our society has become way too harsh on our civil servants. What it boils down to is witch-hunt on a massive scale. I think that this results in fear from harsh public judgement, which is what is driving people away from being involved in politics in the first place. I would hate to always wonder if the decisions I made ten years ago are going to come back and bite me in the ass someday, but to have the entire nation know about it would make it infinitely worse.

We judge politicians so severely as if they were not humans beings but gods. I can tell you right now from all my knowledge of government and the way it works, that someone who has both pure intentions and is using only pure means of getting there won't get much good done. They'd get booed out of office before their term is even up. I am not asserting that politicians should not be held accountable to a higher standard than us mere mortals who are free to make mistakes and have weaknesses, but it should not be so high that it's nearly impossible to accomplish.

Chapin came to visit me this weekend from San Diego. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to dedicate the entire weekend to her due to my midterm today but we had a blast nonetheless. I studied and cleaned my apartment all day Friday. I met Chapin on campus on Saturday and we got to catch up over lunch. I had my Panda Express and she had Rubios. The Empower Change summit was happening on campus that day and that's why we were there. Unfortunately. we both weren't able to make it to any of the workshops but we were able to attend the keynote speech at Royce Hall given by none other than Bill Clinton.

" My wife has tons of credit cards. She has so many magnetic strips in her wallet, her purse points north." -Peter Sasso, Comedian (Reader's Digest, Sept. '07)

This is an interesting article on credit cards. I wish I had read it sooner.

Today Rob and I did some packing and then headed to Berkeley to see the documentary No End In Sight by Charles Ferguson, the founder of the company that made Frontpage. The movie is about the United States occupation in Iraq and had a variety of views from people who were part of the process to try to rebuild the country after Saddam fell from power. Rob showed me the trailer and we had the urge to see it but it's only playing in select cities right now. The 4:30 showing in Berkeley had a Q&A session with the filmmaker himself after the show so we went to that one. The movie helped us connect the dots to what we already knew to be facts. It's chock full of interviews with high ranking officials who knew that the U.S. policy with Iraq was going down the wrong path but were powerless to stop disastrous decisions from being made. Those decisions eventually led to the insurgency and now there's no easy way to fix the mistakes and no morally right way to leave. It's nothing like a Michael Moore movie. I don't consider it to be partisan or nastily poking fun at the Bush administration. I highly recommend it to anyone who want to understand the decisions that were made during the war and consequences of them. Rob and I managed to shake Ferguson's hand before he left and thank him for stepping up and making such a great documentary.