Battling Hate Email

"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Election day is almost here, and as a result I'm getting more and more desperate spam mail attacks on Obama. I received one today entitled "Please read...for your country's sake" and the large headline in the email was this "Can Muslims be Good Americans?" Then it went on to list all the reasons why they can not be good Americans, the email is full of lies and half truths. And of course ends with Obama is a Muslim, and he has sworn himself in on the Koran, etc. etc.

Here is a copy of my response (names have been changesd):
Susan,

This email is completely false. 100% untrue. Obama is NOT a muslim. He is a Christian, and always has been. You can look up similar accusations here http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslimfaith.asp

But the bigger issue here is that this email and others like it promote fear and hate of someone of a different race or religion. Look at how crazy this email is, would you even read it if it said, "Can Polish be good Americans?" This is the kind of stuff the Nazis used to build hatred for the Jews.

Attack Obama because of his policies, because of the issues, but please do not make baseless, false, hateful attacks. I love and respect you, but this email is racist, and only spreads hate and fear. If you think you and your family is exempt it's not, people can be racist against whites, too, and look at little Michelle. If she hasn't experienced racism yet just from the color of her skin, she soon will. And emails like this continue the cycle of hate and fear. What if people in the neighborhood started saying she was a Muslim, a Hindu. or whatever? What if they said that Kareem was? It's just not rational, there has been a lot of these emails going around that build a culture of fear and they are mainly tolerated because some people actually believe it's plausible, that well Obama is black and his father is from Kenya, so maybe it's true. But the exact same accusations can be said of Michelle, or of me for that matter. And they would be just as false.

I'm ashamed of my country when we resort to fear tactics like these, no one of either party should ever stoop this low.

With respect,
AJC

Vote Barack

Super-Obama graffiti

Chalupa's halloween costume

This is Chalupa's halloween costume. She only tolerates it for a little while, and her patience wears thin once she sees the camera.

99 miles to Philly

In honor of the Phillies, we had philly cheese steaks last night, well mine was chicken but you get the point. We ordered from 99 Miles to Philly as they recently opened a new location just down the street from us. It was a cold rainy night yesterday, much like the one that made them call the ball game the day before, and we ordered and they delivered promptly. The only argument was whether my onion rings were better then John's waffle fries. They were very crispy and stacked in small paper bags, so that they were kept nice an crispy while enroute (but really they are only an avenue away from us). Like I said, I got the chicken, and choose Provolone and with grilled onions. It was delicious, and big. Like a footlong sub, I saved the other half for lunch today. John got the steak with his choice of cheese (cheddar, american or provolone) and "wit or witout" onions. And we were both happy, and not too pricey either.

Bowlingo

Had a great dinner and tons o' fun playing Bowlingo with A and J (another couple with the initials A and J--so we're bound to get along) over the weekend. Amster made a beautiful dinner and then we had delicious Chocolate Room cupcakes. These cupcakes were so soft and moist and the frosting was smooth, not too sweet, and beautifully spilling over the edges.
Gave us plenty of energy for the Bowlingo at Brownstone Billiards, I'm talking a pseudo plastic mini bowling lane, with real duck pin size bowling balls, and (get ready for this) strings! Strings attached to the pins, it was wacky enough to bowl in two little game lines (we had to feed dollars in to start the game) the rest of the place was filled with pool tables, and then one line of pingpong, and 3 tables of air hockey. Which I have to admit I have a special place in my heart for air hockey--one of the games we played as kids in the forbidden (to girls at least) arcade, that, and I kick ass at it. :) But don't take my word for it, check out the photos, sorry, I couldn't get a great photo of the marionette bowling pins...that's something you'll have to experience for yourself.