Lucas Camilo

Ever notice how we always talk about Lucas on this blog?  You’d think it were dedicated to him or something!  But seriously, let’s just say we’ve made a snide comment or two in the past about those parents who become so obsessed with their babies that all it seems they do anymore is send out cute pictures and gushing emails about how wonderful it is to be a parent.  We’d never be like that, right?

The point is, we still do actually have other things going on in our lives, and as important as working through Lucas’s challenges are for us, we also want to remain engaged in other issues and supportive of friends and organizing efforts.  After a long, hard day dealing with Lucas and working through some of the tough things about being home, we figured we’d save THAT post for later and reflect on a few other goings on.

Like the fact that Krista’s cousin Erica got married yesterday. We couldn’t be there at the wedding in Portland but over the weekend we were thinking about all of Krista’s extended family and friends and how nice it is to bring people together for celebrations.  Congratulations Erica and Luke!

In other news, we somewhat reluctantly posted a link to an article in the Washington Post a little while back that featured our family (especially Burke).  Well, the good news is that the Post published a fiery rebuke penned by Burke in the front section of their Saturday edition (It’s titled “Class Privilege in an Unequal Society”).  He decided to focus on defending the organization, Resource Generation, that was misrepresented in the article.  We’re proud that the response made it in the newspaper and hope that it helps to get people talking around class, wealth and inequality in ways they usually shy away from.

Another big thing happening today is the election in Honduras.  We’ve been following the situation there closely since the legitimate, democratically elected president was removed in a military coup back in June.  Having spent a lot of time in Central America and knowing the violent history of coups and dictatorships it’s been very troubling to see the road Honduras has been on since the coup, including crackdowns against protesters, grassroots organizers and independent media.  It’s especially disappointing to see the Obama administration wavering in its support of democracy in Latin America.  The elections today – with 30,000 troops in the streets – are at best a joke and at worst a dangerous deviation from real democracy, and yet the US stands to be one of the only countries in the region that actually recognizes the results.

In better news, we’re pleased to report that our good friend Sha and his honey, Matt, just moved in up the street – it’s going to be great to have ’em so close by!  And speaking of cool neighbors we just figured out that Ian MacKaye, founder of the seminal DC punk band Fugazi, lives about five houses up on the same block as us.  We knew he was in the area because of his involvement in local Mt. Pleasant politics, but it was only as Burke rolled by on his bike and saw him sweeping his front porch that we realized he was so close.  Sadly, Burke got nervous about talking one of his musical heroes and therefore failed to introduce himself.  One of these days…

And finally, tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of the amazing protests in Seattle against the World Trade Organization.  Some friends in Seattle have organized various events for the anniversary including a big town hall meeting tonight.  It’s hard to get too nostalgic given the breakdowns in the so-called Global Justice movement since then, but Seattle most certainly did represent a major victory for grassroots forces intent on turning around the forces of corporate globalization.   (oh yeah, and on a related note, congrats to the 700 protesters who sued the Washington DC police for beating on them at a similar protest in 2000, just 5 months after Seattle… and won! The struggle continues…)