By virtue of his many labor group endorsements, Eric was Grand Marshal of the 2006 Rochester Labor Day Parade. This report comes by way of my daughter Rachel who participated, along with my two grandsons Davis and Ethan who, at ages 6 and 4, were the youngest Massa supporters marching.

(Please keep in mind that Rachel and her husband and sons don't live in Eric's district, but "next door" in Louise Slaughter's district. However, Rachel is so impressed with Eric that she's working for him anyway.)

Rachel said the Massa contingent, which she counted at close to 100 strong (and loud), was by far the largest group in the parade. By comparison, Louise Slaughter had about 10 supporters marching. Eric's opponent, Republican Randy Kuhl, apparently had no supporters present and was not there himself. Other politicians/candidates for local offices marched alone.

Gave a houseparty last evening for Eric Massa. Gorgeous western NY summer weather, so we were creekside on my wooded acre. Eric enjoyed the punctuation given his comments by the timely quacks of his mallard audience--the ducks were obviously intrigued by Eric since about thirty of them perched on the creek bank throughout his talk and seemed remarkably attentive (I say remarkably, because in my experience ducks don't have a very long attention span).

Eric, as I've posted before, is a dynamic speaker. Those attending (those invited, that is, not the party-crashing ducks) said they were truly impressed by him. I was especially glad that I invited some young folks, who were hearing their first political speech. My 15 yr.old grandson Christopher's response was "WOW! I thought everybody in politics was supposed to be boring." And he, Christopher, has now volunteered to help me hand out Massa literature at the Public Market this fall. (Start 'em young, I say.)

General Clark and Eric Massa arrived at Mario's Via Abruzzi only a few minutes late, after having had a press conference at the Rochester Veteran's Outreach. There were about 200 of us waiting for the stars, while we munched on $100 buffet salads and exchanged Bush insults (read: slurs and profanities). As soon as they came in, Wes started to work the room until Eric called him to stand "in a reception line" (of two). For those of you who haven't met Eric in person, he has an extremely strong--one might even say "commanding" personality. On their way to a corner to form the two-man reception line, Eric, passing by, spotted me and said "Miriam, get on over here." I was startled that he remembered my name after one meeting, but then recalled that I'd given him one of my books. And I wasn't so startled that I didn't "get on over" very fast, while everyone else was sort of milling around. Thus, friends, I finally met the General.

While others were still clueing into what was happening we had a chat about books! It's an odd thing, but I've seen so many clips and live TV appearances of Clark, that I felt rather as if I were meeting/talking with an old friend. He looked tired--which no doubt he was--but the eyes were ultra-alert. And I suppose you all want to know that he was wearing a light gray suit (in 90+ degree outdoor heat.)  I think he had on a blue tie but won't swear to it--to tell the truth, I wasn't very interested in his tie . I won't give you a word-for-word account of what he said (spoke over half an hour) because CarolNYC did that so well in her blogged NJ Paul Aronsohn account and Clark's talk today was very similar.  And much of what he said we are all familiar with.  His audience was responsive and enthusiastic and I could see the moment his fatigue fell away and he went off on a roll.  It was right after the cheering he got when he called the administration "strategic dunces!" (And keep in mind that Rochesterians aren't ordinarily very a "cheering" sort of people.) Much more unsettling was when he used the word "danger" three times regarding America: i.e. "America is in danger."  "It is a dangerous time for America."   He retold the Paul Wolfowitz 1991 plan for the Middle East horror story related in Carol's blog.  I think most people there, or certainly the ones near me, were pretty well shocked.  And angry. Eric was his high-energy, passionate, straightforward self, his short talk delivered in that attractive baritone voice of his.  Really had the audience enthused and...I guess the only word for it is "relieved" that they had a really good candidate there.  Afterward, the majority of people flocked around him, asking what they could do to help his campaign, etc.  General Clark was standing at a window with a few around him requesting pictures. When he gestured for me to come over, I told him my Paul Wolfowitz story.

Late 19th century sociologist W.I. Thomas wrote: "If men perceive situations as real, they are real in their consequences."  

This is a richly profound statement, and one that I think the Democrats need to seriously consider.  Volumes have been spoken and written regarding the perception that George Bush is "strong" when it comes to combating terrorism.  His ratings consistently show that the majority--or near majority--of Americans view him as such--as also view him as stronger than any Democrat.  And it appears that this category outweighs any other for Americans who support this administration, despite its obvious failures on all other fronts.  I think this perception of Bush "strength" goes far to explain his continuing support which mindboggles so many of us.  We see him as weak, inept, and dishonest, but if he is perceived as strong, then the consequences of this perception are as real as Thomas suggests.  Most important, how  have the Democrats addressed this?  They haven't.

After checking my "saved sent email", I find that last year I wrote 67 letters to CNN and MSNBC protesting either inaccuracies, unmistakable and/or egregious bias, or lop-sided representation of guests/panels  (meaning something like 5 Republicans to 1 Democrat).  A mere twenty-one days into 2006, I've sent 9. 

I don't think this emailing is working--but neither are actual letters of which I last year sent 11 and received one answer (from Randy Kuhl of all people, and only because I'm in his 29th NY district).  We MUST do something regarding the cable "news" (I use the term loosely) or we might as well fold our tents, creep silently away, and hand our country over to the neo-con totalitarians.  And we must do it now before the 2006 election campaigning begins in earnest.  Here's an immodest proposal (with apologies to J. Swift):

6 December 05

Dear General Clark;

Today, with apprehension, I read your NY Times Op-Ed  "The Next Irag Offensive." 

Apprehension because, halfway through it, I knew that I faced a decision.  Could I support you in this?  Let me first say that I was part of the original '04 Draft Clark movement.  I have enthusiastically and fully supported you since that time.  Let me also say that my ancestors fought for America at Lexington and Concord, for the Union at Gettysburg, and for the United States in every war since then, including Viet Nam.  Finally, my own most recent published novels were a Civil War trilogy (but with an admittedly anti-war undertone).