BLOG.GERISPIELER.COM

Guns: A Civil Conversation?

Geri's Blog — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 19:20:14 GMT

Gun Guys: A Road Trip

by Dan Baum

Reviewed by Geri Spieler | Released: February 28, 2013
Publisher: Knopf (336 pages)

“Gun Guys is smart and informative—an education for anyone the slightest bit curious about why gun owners are so passionate about their guns.”

In the wake of the massacre in December 2012 of 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut by a man with an assault rifle, it would seem impossible to have a civil conversation about guns and gun ownership.

Surprisingly, Dan Baum’s Gun Guys: A Road Trip, takes the discussion of guns to unexpected amiable territory. He writes about guns from a personal perspective, taking the stance that they are a sporting item and require a certain amount of expertise much like those who like to shoot a bow and arrow.

Mr. Baum begins his tale of gun fascination from when he was elementary school age in 1961 and attended Sunapee summer camp in New Hampshire. He said he was a “pudgy, over mothered cherub amid a tribe of lean savages.” Learning how to shoot guns at camp made him special. He was a good shot, and this expertise won him a bronze Pro-Marksman medal from the National Rifle Association. He got a patch his first year at camp and every year after that.

He was hooked.

But had no mentors among his friends or family members who shared his interest in guns. As someone outside the world of avid, pro-gun-rights gun owners, Mr. Baum decided to take to the back roads of the U.S., visiting many gun stores, rifle ranges, and gun shows to find what lies behind the powerful allure of guns for others.

Not fitting the stereotype, Mr. Baum knew he’d butt up against some barriers. He describes himself as a New Jersey Democrat now living Boulder, Colorado, a bastion of liberal pacifists. “I’m a stoop-shouldered, bald-headed, middle-aged Jew in pleated pants and glasses.” He used his NRA baseball cap and NRA lapel pin as camouflage to try to fit in more.

He started his research by going out in public wearing an “open carry” gun strapped to his hip for everyone to see. He was looking for reaction from ordinary folks.

His first stop was a Home Depot. He made every effort to be obvious, but he got no reaction—positive nor negative.

Next stop was the local Apple Store. Surely, he wrote, that would cause a response from the technology folks. Again, no reaction. Finally Mr. Baum steeled himself to enter Whole Foods. Clearly the clientele from such a store would have something to say.

Nope.

Mr. Baum said he felt like a ghost. Or was there some sort of weird psychological tic preventing the Whole Foods customers from seeing the gun because it was too outrageous to be true, e.g. “This is Boulder; that can’t be a gun.”

His next move was taking the course to get a permit for carrying a concealed, loaded weapon. His instructor stressed the importance of assessing certain “Conditions” for people wearing loaded guns.

Condition White stood for total security: home with the dog at your feet and your home alarm on.

Condition Yellow stood for being aware of one's surroundings, such as walking around town.

Condition Orange was awareness of a possible threat.

Condition Red was responding to a real threat.

Mr. Baum wrote, “I found that I wasn't so much in Condition Yellow as Condition Day-Glo Yellow. Everything around me appeared brilliantly sharp.” Mr. Baum's hyper awareness spilled over into his reaction for those walking around him. He described the feeling of pity he felt for passersby who did not know he was capable of wreaking havoc at any moment.

“And there I was, striding among them, uniquely capable of resisting whatever violence might be their portion. It surprised me that it made me feel rather noble.”

Dan Baum made a rule not to let himself not get drawn into political discussions, and he kept his promise when he wrote the book months before the events of Sandy Hook and its initial publication. He said his mission was finding out who else besides himself was a self-styled “gun guy” which he did well.

However, he did venture in to the world of politics in a postscript he wrote after the events of Sandy Hook.

In the same reasonable style as in Gun Guys, Mr. Baum points out that things have to change in the way we manage, or mismanage, gun sales in this country. He wants to see more control on how guns make their way into the world of criminals and criminal behavior.

He closes his postscript with “. . . it's not good enough to say, 'That's just the way we are.'"

The appeal of this book is Mr. Baum’s approach to gun ownership. The skeptical reader will be surprised. He does not preach the second amendment nor argue for or against the value of gun ownership. He leaves that up to his audience.

Gun Guys is smart and informative—an education for anyone the slightest bit curious about why gun owners are so passionate about their guns. Dan Baum’s stories are alive, engaging, and earnest.

This review appeared first in the New York Journal of Books www.nyjournalofbooks.com

Reviewer Geri Spieler is the award-winning author of Taking Aim at the President: The Remarkable Story of the Woman Who Shot at Gerald Ford (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). She is also a member of the National Books Critics Circle.

Guest Blog on Where Writers Win: Beyond Google, 25 Fact Finding Sites for Writers

Geri's Blog — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 02:06:23 GMT

Our thanks to author and internet research guru Geri Spieler for this informative guest post. Whether researching info for a book or an upcoming blog post, here are some helpful hints and sites!

Conducting Internet research is a challenge. It’s time consuming, often confusing and who ever thought too much information could be a problem? The Internet has opened up the world of information gathering to the extent that it can be overwhelming and therefore problematic. Standard Google searches can be conflicting, redundant and often incomplete.

Common complaints for online research include:

Validating the information for reliability
Relevance of the results.
Multiple points of view and the inability to source the information
Time intensive

There is help. There are hundreds of research techniques that will smooth out the bumpy road to Internet information. Effective research tools can cut research time significantly as well as reduce the amount of irrelevant information and improve the reliability of the results.

Follow these research secrets to streamline your process and give you the skills and tools you need to conduct fast, effective investigations.

Research Tips

Understand the different between Data and Information. DATA is a single piece of information, as a fact, statistic, code or an item. It may be a fact assumed a matter of direct observation. INFORMATION is the knowledge received concerning a particular fact or circumstance.
Know how to remove ambiguity in your search. Many words have different meanings such as the word “Capital” for example: Seat of government, money, letter or crime.
Use standard “Search Strings” to narrow your search and improve results. For example: The hyphen search string, The wildcard search, The date range search, The exact search using quotation marks, Blog keyword search: inurl, The file type search such as a PDF, the link search: a URL. There is “Find” search using “either or” and the definition search putting in define:writing, and the Boolean search: And, Or, Not, +:
Use the “Deep Web” which is 500 times bigger than the standard searchable Web. To find “Deep Web” search engines just ask for it. If you don’t already know the name of a Deep Web site, you can “ask” for it by typing in ”Deep Web” plus the topic in your search box.
Use a Web credibility formula to evaluate information and pre-screen Web sites for credibility. A good program is the CARS check list: Credibility, Accuracy, Reasonableness and Support.
Avoid unintentional plagiarism. Everything on the Internet is protected by copyright. Always cite anything taken from a website and use the URL with a date to note the quotation or information.

The difference in these “virtual books” of info ranges from marginal to quite significant in what is available on any topic.

Search engines, such as Google, rate the information based on mathematical algorithms. Basically, it is a popularity contest. The Web sites that get the most hits get the highest rating. In addition, the companies that pay the most money also get great placement. Below is a short list of search engines:

Google
AOL
Yahoo
Bing
Alta Vista
Excite
Galaxy
Alexa

Directories are compiled by real people. Directory panels evaluate a website and then categorize it based on content only.

AboutUs.org – a wiki-based Web directory.
Ansearch – Web search and directories focusing on the United States, UK, Australia and New Zealand.
Best of the Web Directory – Lists content-rich, well-designed Websites categorized both by topic and by region. This is a paid for service.
JoeAnt – A community of editors from the now-defunct Go.com volunteer-edited directory.
Open Directory Project (a.k.a. ODP or dmoz) – The largest directory of the Web. Its open content is mirrored at many sites, including the Google Directory until July 20, 2011.
Starting Point Directory – A human-edited general directory organizing sites by category.
World Wide Web Virtual Library (VLI) The oldest directory of the Web.
Yahoo! Directory – The first service that Yahoo! offered.

Metasearch engines are search engine sites that may include from 10 to 90 search engines on one site.

Try an experiment. Pick a simple topic, such as “publishing” and look it up in several of these various “books.” You will be surprised at the wider amount of information you retrieve from each.

Happy hunting.
Geri Spieler teaches Internet research classes in person and online at www.gerispieler.com. She is the author of Taking Aim at the President: The Remarkable Story of the Woman Who Shot at Gerald Ford.

Editor’s Note: Make a point to also search each of these sites for your own author website and if it’s not listed, follow that site’s instructions to add it to the directory!

Al Jazeera English: Too Uncomfortable For U.S. Audiences

Geri's Blog — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 20:49:56 GMT

Are we uncomfortable with news that has not been sanitized by our own American-based, networks? Is that the reason there is so much pushback to Al Jazeera English on U. S. network TV?

I think so.

It seems we don't want to see anything that doesn't show the U.S. in the best light. We don’t want to see what really happens in the field. We don't want the visions of war in our faces.

We only on want to hear of casualties, not see them. We only want to hear how the good guys (us) win and the bad guys (them) are being defeated.

American media sanitizes war. None of the violence or carnage is ever seen on American television. This selectivity blinds us to real world events. We sit safe in our homes only to hear about numbers of people killed, but never seeing the death and destruction.

We find excuses for our behavior and ridicule anyone who doesn't agree with our point of view.

When prisoners were interrogated at Abu Ghraib, we called it “enhanced interrogation" instead of what it really was: torture.

For a broader world perspective, we turn to the British Broadcasting Network (BBC) heard through our own U.S. National Public Radio (NPR).

If we are going to understand what we are dealing with in the Mideast, it seems to me we can learn a lot from a truly different perspective. The jury is still out that their English version will not be biased in favor of the Arab world. It will, however, offer an alternative view from our own of the Arab world.

A former CBS and NBC reporter, David Marash, went to work for Al Jazeera English as their Washington correspondent in 2006. He quit in 2008 over editorial differences. However he still believes the network is very important to the U.S. audience.

“The logic of it is just too obvious,” Marash, says. “The product is too good, too significant, to not have a market in the U.S., given the complete abdication of American networks and cable channels from actually covering international news."

He says the current situation is “tragic,” in his view. “It plays into the ignorance of American viewers, most of whom are clueless as to what the world thinks and why. It’s very harmful to America’s effectiveness and stature in the world.”

Another culprit of hypocrisy is American movie industry. In an obvious turn of box office gain, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) will approve posters of graphic slasher movies such as, "Hostel," which advertised the blood, gore and decapitation of teens or the film "Hard Candy," about Internet predators, which showed a small child framed by a bear trap.

Yet, it would not show a photo of a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay hanging by his handcuffed wrists, with a burlap sack over his head and a blindfold tied around the hood.

The picture was an advertisement for a documentary film, "The Road to Guantanamo," with some reenacted scenes.

Howard Cohen, co-president of Roadside Attractions, that distributed the film in North America, said, "This is a film with a serious purpose, and this is the subject of the film itself, and the marketing materials were appropriate to the subject."

During the Lebanon War, diplomatic editor Julian Borger of The Guardian, a British based newspaper, wrote in a 2006 article:

"It's like watching two different wars: The US and British media's wildly divergent takes on the Middle East's latest crisis serve to further deepen entrenched points of view."

Our opinions are shaped by what we don't see. It isn't comfortable to see the results of gruesome, heartrending imagery.

Maybe seeing the reality of war would make us less ready to send troupes into harm's way.

By hiding from the truth, we don't truly understand major events around the world. Moreover, probably, we don't want to know. It makes us uncomfortable to see the United States not always the good guys.

Geri Spieler is author of Taking Aim At The President: The Remarkable Story Of The Woman Who Shot At Gerald Ford.

A Trip Through The Google Gateway

Geri's Blog — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 03:39:01 GMT

Would you use one book to do all your research on a subject? Probably not.

That is what you do when you use Google as your only source.

Google, as wonderful as it is, is not the only search engine in town. It is huge, yes, but still limited. However, it is a great gateway to many other search options on the Web.

To demonstrate this process, I used "Gun Control" as my topic. I looked up "Gun Control" in nine different search sites. Some results were similar to each site and many others wildly different .

To begin I've listed the first seven items from Google. Following are the different results from the other sites I searched. The sites are a mix of search engines, databases, and directories or Meta Search engines.

Google results for the search on "Gun Control"

Ø News for gun control

Ø History of gun control is cautionary tale for those seeking regulations after Conn. Shooting

Ø Gun control? It's a tough sell in Virginia

Ø Gun Control-just facts

Ø Gun control - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ø Gun Control News and Video - Fox News Topics - FOXNews.com

Ø Gun Control Laws in America -ABC News

Yahoo.com

Ø Gun Control News Results

Ø Gun Control - Just facts

Ø Gun Control Newsbatch

Ø Gun Control Wikipedia

Ø Gun Control Video Results

Bing.com

Ø Republicans Aren't the Only Gun-Control Obstacle

Ø Gun Control Laws may tighten in California

Ø Gun Control California: Stockton School Shooting

Ask.com

Ø Regulate Arms _ no More Arms for Atrocities

Ø Second Amendment News

Ø Defending Family

Ø Today's Gun News

Open Directory Project

Kerry, Gun Control and Hunting

Ø The Truth About Gun Control and the Second Amendment

Ø US News and World Report-Gun Control and Gun Rights

Ø Guardian. Co.uk - US Gun Control

Ø GunCite-Presentation and analysis of firearm statistics, research policies and gun control laws

Dogpile.com

Ø Response to the NRA Billmoyers.com

Ø California Gun Laws-FindLaw.com

Ø Today's Gun News - Keep AndBearArms.com

Ø Five myths about gun control

Excite.com

Ø Defending Your Family - Liberty Mutual.com

ZULLA.com

Ø NFA Lawyer

Ø Watch Gun online

Ø Gun Control?

oaister.com (Libraries worldwide)

Ø Gun control legislation in Canada

Ø Gun Court

Ø Gun Permits

Ø Report to the President on issues raised by the Virginia Tech Tragedy

Ø Gun trafficking task force

Ø Firearms

Geri Spieler teaches Internet Search classes in person and online. www.gerispieler.com

Newspaper Greats: A humbling experience for serious jounrlaists

Geri's Blog — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 17:47:42 GMT

Deadline Artists: Scandals, Tragedies and Triumphs—More of America’s Greatest Newspaper Columns

by John Avlon Jesse Angelo Errol Louis

Reviewed by Geri Spieler | Released: November 21, 2012
Publisher: Overlook Hardcover (400 pages)

“. . . an excellent book for those interested in the journalism greats, both past and reasonably contemporary. It should be required reading for journalism majors.”

In a world of perishable correspondence, I fear we will lose precious writings to the Internet.

Some would argue that the electronic world allows us to save writing in perpetuity unlike in the physical world. I hope so. Then we can accumulate such writings as we have in this journalistic candy store of Deadline Artists: Scandals, Tragedies and Triumphs—More of America’s Greatest Newspaper Columns.

The book is written in the form of an anthology with contributors that include H. L. Mencken, Will Rogers, Jimmy Breslin, Art Buchwald, William F. Buckley Jr., Molly Ivins, Ernest Hemingway, Maureen Dowd, Nora Ephron, Carl Hiaasen, Walter Lippmann, George Will, Mike Ryoko, Dorothy Thompson, Richard Wright, Damon Runyon, Peggy Noonan, Mike Barnicle, and more.

All are icons of the great world of newspaper columnists that brought a rich reflection on the sign of the times.

The editors of the book—John Avlon, Jesse Angelo, and Errol Louis—all bring years of journalistic experience and talent to the table.

The chapters are divided in the sections: Scandals, Tragedies, and Triumphs— although it was difficult to discern the decisions of which piece should categorize Triumphs.

Samples of each are indeed compelling. The articles span the years as early as Jack London’s account of the San Francisco earthquake in 1906, “The Story of an Eyewitness,” for Collier’s to the 2011 Bret Stephens eulogy on his father in “A Lesson Before Dying” for the Wall Street Journal in December 2011.

There are heartbreaking scandal pieces such as Henry G. Wales’ account of when Mata Hari faced her firing squad, “Mata Hari Falls Before Firing Squad, International News Service.” Wales described in detail Mata Hari’s bravery in rejecting the blindfold and bounds.

“She stood gazing steadfastly at her executions, when the priest, the nuns, and her lawyer stepped away from her.”

There are tragedies as horrific in “There Is No News from Auschwitz” by A. M. Rosenthal for the New York Times in 1958:

Brzezinka, Poland—

“And so there is no news to report about Auschwitz. There is merely the compulsion to write something about it, a compulsion that grows out of a restless feeling that to have visited Auschwitz and then turned away without having said or written anything would somehow be a most grievous act of discourtesy to those who died here.”

There are uplifting articles that bear witness to triumph over diversity. Mike Royko wrote about the first time Jackie Robinson stepped onto Wrigley in “Jackie’s Debut” for the Chicago Sun-Times in 1972. Royko wrote this reminiscence on the day of Jackie Robinson’s death. He remembered discussion back then that a black baseball player would ruin baseball forever.

“When Robinson stepped into the batter’s box, it was as if someone had flicked a switch. The place went silent.

“He swung at the first pitch and they erupted as if he had knocked it over the wall. But it was only a high foul that dropped into the box seats. I remember thinking it was strange that a foul make that many people happy.”

Where would journalism be without the cutting edge, literary knife-wielding humor of Molly Ivins. Ivins had a way of tapping out laser sharp awareness with clarity unlike any other writer’s.

When funding for AIDS was brought to the ballot box in Texas, the opposition became obstreperous. Ivins had her say in her inimitable style in “Ignorance Epidemic During AIDS Crisis” for the Forth Worth Star-Telegram in 1992:

“What is this? Dog days of August? Full Moon? Stars in strange alignment? We all know there are still slope-browed, egg-sucking ridge runners out in the hills who believe that only homosexuals get AIDS and it serves them right.”

Deadline Artists is an excellent book for those interested in the journalism greats, both past and reasonably contemporary. It should be required reading for journalism majors.

This reviewed appeared first in the New York Journal of Books. www.nyjournalofbooks.com

Reviewer Geri Spieler is the award-winning author of Taking Aim at the President: The Remarkable Story of the Woman Who Shot at Gerald Ford (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). She is also a member of the National Books Critics Circle.

Why Students Plagiarize

Geri's Blog — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 22:32:03 GMT

Candy (not her real name) needed to get an "A" on her final research paper. An "A" would ensure that her grades for her junior year in high school would help maintain the Grade Point Average (GPA) she was desperate for to qualify for the college of her choice.

Candy plagiarized most of the work. In her desperation for the perfect paper, she took whole paragraphs from various Web sites she found online.

Unfortunately, plagiarism is not uncommon among high school and college students. . A study by The Center for Academic Integrity found that almost 80% of college students admit to cheating at least once.

When it comes to the Internet, students know how to use social media like a Ninja knows martial arts skills. However, their skills to use the Internet to conduct in depth academic research is seriously lacking so they take the easy way out and use other publish materials. So much so, that plagiarism has become a serious problem among many high school and college students.

Because these students lack competent research skills they use sources that lack credibility and accuracy such as Wikipedia and unfounded opinion blogs that compound this problem. They don't know how to evaluate the credibility of the site.

Many don't go beyond the first page of Google. This is the same as using one book for entire research paper.

To be fair, many students don't see using previously published materials as wrong. They don't know understand the difference between attribution (ascribing of a work), citation (directly quoting), collaboration (working together) and copyright (legal right granted to an author).

In Candy's case, her teacher used one of the many online programs to check the originality of her work. Unfortunately, it didn't pass the test and she failed the class. Samples of these sites are:

· Turnitin, https://turnitin.com/login_page.asp,

· Grammarly http://www.grammarly.com/?q=plagiarism&gclid=COHCqbqYyLMCFStgMgod2z8Agw, and

· Scan my Essay http://www.scanmyessay.com/turnitin.php.

How to Avoid Plagiarizing Internet Works

Copyrighted works on the Net include news stories, software, novels, screenplays, graphics, pictures, Usenet messages and even email. In fact, the frightening reality is that copyright law protects almost everything on the Net. This can pose problems for the hapless surfer.

What is protected on the Internet

v links

v original text

v Graphics

v audio

v video

v html, vrml, other unique markup language sequences

v List of Web sites compiled by an individual or organization

In addition, all other unique elements those make up the original nature of the material.

Instructions on how to legally and safely use material on the Web

Step 1: Copy the entire source into a word processing document

Step 2: Read the entire source.

Step 3: Look for potential quotes and paraphrases in the source

Step 4: Highlight any passage that you think would be a good quote for your essay.

Step 5: Paste all of the potential quotes from the source into a new document.

Step 6: Copy all the passages you may want to paraphrase into a new document

Step 7: Insert the quotes and paraphrases at appropriate places in your essay

Step 8: Copy the URL into the appropriate “Note” format

Following these simple steps will prevent students to avoid Candy's fate.

Geri Spieler teaches Internet Research Classes in person and online. www.gerispieler.com

Canvassing South Philly: Silicon Valley Goes East

Geri's Blog — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 03:54:18 GMT

The back-story about what propelled me from Silicon Valley to the back streets of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to work for Pres. Obama, is that I learned to value the right to vote at my mother’s knee.

The immediate impetus was my outrage over voter suppression. When Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Mike Turzai announced that the strict voter ID law his House had just passed would suppress minority votes, it made my teeth hurt.

I had to do something to fight it. With encouragement and support from family and friends, I flew east.

I was assigned to the South Philly Obama office, on East Passyunk Ave., in the middle of one of the oldest communities in Philadelphia, with a total population of about 169,000.

I stayed with locals in the Spring Garden neighborhood, near Drexel and the University of Pennsylvania, and walked six blocks each day to the subway to get to my campaign office. .

My section of South Philly was a neighborhood crowded behind streets busy with ethnic grocery shops, cafes, restaurants and bakeries, many with an Italian influence.

My first assignment was seeking to register voters on the main streets before the October 9 deadline. Clipboard in hand, I patrolled the markets and churches, barking like a Carney for voter registration.

Many said they were already registered and too many said they didn't know if they would vote, they didn't care or ignored me altogether.

I wasn't surprised that many were unaware the requirement had been lifted, as ads requiring special ID were still running.

Some people were already resigned, however, and decided not to bother to register.

Standing in front of a popular supermarket a young woman ignored me as she entered the store. A few minutes later she ran back to, grabbed by clipboard out of my hands saying, "If I register now can I vote for Obama?"

After voter registration closed Oct. 9, I was assigned to canvas our corner of South Philly to confirm support for Obama or turn undecided is to our side. Our community was a mix of mostly Irish, Italian, African American and Hispanic.

I paced through blocks of shoulder-to-shoulder brick row houses built during the 19th century. The neighborhood reflected some attempts at gentrification. Homes with peeling paint, crumbled cement stoops and cracked sidewalks contrasted with neatly decorated handrails and flower boxes. Most of the homes are stacks of two or three apartments, accessed by steep, narrow stairways. The streets are barely wide enough for one and half cars, having been built for horse and carriage.

The responses to my canvassing were not predictable. Despite some assumptions, I found that people in South Philly were not solidly Democratic and pro Obama as some assumed. I met a range of opinions.

Many were frustrated with the economy, lack of jobs and felt left out of any promise of improvement. Some said they were worn out with politics felt voting was a waste of time. It wouldn't change anything, they said.

An elderly man, white, lectured me on the degradation of our political system and predicted a revolution after this election.

A woman heard why I was there and yelled at me to get off her stoop.

I met Miss Hattie, a 96-year-old African American who was sitting on her stoop and visiting with the Deacon of her church, who was making his regular rounds of visits to his elderly parishioners. Miss Hattie told me she had lived in the same home for 70 years. Said she would vote for Obama, but she didn’t like gay marriage.

A college student was against the use of drones, and still undecided about how he’d vote.

One woman answered her door in a whisper. I apologized that I may be disturbing someone sleeping inside. “Oh no," she said. "I’m voting for Obama, but I don’t want my husband to hear me because he’s voting for Romney."

As I approached one home, a woman two doors down on the other side of the street came out onto her stoop and said, "Can I help you? They are not home." South Philly is a neighborhood where people have lived side by side for years, some for several generations. They look out for each other.

A few slammed doors in my face; others thanked me for volunteering. Others eagerly advised me which neighbors to visit and those to avoid .

South Philly is rich with color and history unlike any place I have ever lived. It got under my skin in a way I never expected.

If Obama Losses The Election It Will Be My Fault

Geri's Blog — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 03:30:19 GMT

I hadn't planned to volunteer for the Obama campaign. I know I will vote for him, so I decided that was enough.

I'm very busy trying to make a living as a freelance writer. I'm one of the 8.1 percent unemployed that has given up looking for a real job.

The competition is fierce in my profession as a journalist. Ever since newspapers downsized you can see rabid roaming bands of ex-journalists fighting each other for the rare, paying story assignment.

In my desperation to survive, I feel I'm justified in ignoring the E-mails and phone calls asking me to donate money and volunteer at my local Obama campaign office.

I've written back to these folks telling them that I've given as much money as I can afford to and I'm busy trying to make a living, but they still come.

Being the news junkie that I am, I watch and listen to everything on the airwaves. I subject myself to the right wing radio because I want to know what those talk show hosts are telling their faithful, yet ill-informed, audience.

I take it all in with a large amount of outrage. However, none of the trash talk got to me as much as when I heard Mike Turzai, the Pennsylvania GOP House majority leader, gloat that forcing special voter ID requirements will help Republicans and Mitt Romney win in Pennsylvania.

This news was so appalling it brought me to my knees, figuratively. I don't pray.

I am suddenly frightened. What if the Republicans win? Could they win? Am I being too overly self confident that more people think as I do?

This piece of constitutional insult got me off my chair. I left my home computer and walked into my local Obama campaign headquarters. I joined with the ordinary folk sitting at makeshift Goodwill tables making phone calls. The office is not a glamorous place. It's located in an empty storefront next to a car rental dealer.

It doesn't resemble anything on television such as "Battleground" or a campaign episode on the "West Wing."

My job is to call people in the battleground or swing states. A state where no political party has a majority and the race is extremely close between the Republicans and Democrats.

I know these calls are important. I get it. Nevertheless, it takes some chutzpah to do this. I hate it but I do it.

I had to drink two cups of strong coffee and eat a big chocolate bar to gear up for the task.

I dialed the first number on my list. A woman answered who said she really didn't care. She's registered, but not sure if she'll vote this time.

Call number two voted for Obama and is still a strong supporter. Yeah.

Two down and thirty to go.

Call number three is a committed Romneyite. He voted for Obama in 2008, but not this time he said. He is disappointed in Obama's record of not closing Guantanamo, that he extended the Patriot Act and that he didn't get the troops out of Afghanistan fast enough.

I wanted to engage this man in a discussion, but we are told not to. We have a list of talking points to follow if the person we call is truly undecided. But if the call is a die-hard Republican or gets the least bit excited, cut the call short and politely say goodbye.

Winning over battleground states are important, I know. We have to try to move these "purple" states to stronger shades of blue.

As I continued to make my calls to registered voters it occurred to me I need to do something more. What about the people who will be prevented from voting? People not on my call list who would vote for Obama but will be stopped from doing so. Those are the people I need to reach.

I read about the impact the voter suppression law will have in Pennsylvania. It will disenfranchise 758,939 people or 9.2 percent of registered voters, a large percentage of them Democrats.

I know where my chutzpah will do the most good. I booked a flight from San Francisco to Philadelphia to fight Mike Turzai head on.

I can do this. Now, when Obama wins, I can take the credit.

Nostalgia for the Silly Season: Memories of A Radical Mother

Geri's Blog — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 23:33:39 GMT

Nostalgia for the Silly Season: Memories of A Radical Mother

Ah for the years of presidential campaigns gone by.

Political pundit's call the run-up to presidential elections the Silly Season. The time when campaign rhetoric jumps to conclusions about what is going to happen, based on small pieces of information. As Congress is in recess until September Silly Season usually begins around August and lasts until Congress is back in session in September.

Now is when we see smear campaigns, outrageous name-calling, and baseless accusations. Every news story is exaggerated to the fullest with pointless matters of little substance.

For me, Silly Season brings back memories of my mother. She was a strong believer in policies that would support the middle class.

A particular memory of mine was during Richard Nixon campaigned for the White House in 1969. I can still see Mom stomp around our living room hollering back at the television. She was outraged at Nixon's talk of returning federal money and power to the states. She was sure this move would take away any safety net people would need to survive. She did not trust the states to take care of its citizens.

Today people might throw rocks at their flat screen TV's. Back then, outraged voters would throw their boxy television sets out the window.

Mom was a vocal constituent. A child of an Eastern European immigrant mother, Mom was hyperactively aware of how politics could change her life.

She always kept a stack of pre-stamped post cards at the ready to fire off her outrage to government. This action peaked during the presidential campaigns.

My mother would be heard.

I am not old enough to be a Red Diaper Baby, someone who was raised in a Communist family or whose parents followed the political ideals of the Communist Party of the United States of America.

However, my mother was a strong believer the ultra-left wing philosophies of politics. She settled for the Democratic Party as a compromise.

Her beliefs in being a Democrat were as strong as her beliefs in being Jewish. She was so upset when she found out my brother voted for Ronald Reagan I thought she was going to "Sit Shiva," the Jewish act of mourning for someone who has died.

During the 1950s, my mother volunteered to be a "registrar of voters" and was assigned to visit each home in our local precinct to register as many people as possible. She had me tag along as a learning experience.

It turned about to be a learning experience in fraud. Mom would not register Republicans. When she asked the residents which party they belonged to and they said Republican, she'd apologize and said she was only allowed to register Democrats. Someone would be along to later register the Republicans.

If Mom were alive today, I know she would be in Pennsylvania right now to thwart the baseless accusation of voter election fraud in an attempt to elect Mitt Romney as president.

I can see Mom going door to door once again registering Democrats and telling Republicans someone will come along later.

Geri Spieler is an author, journalist and teachers advanced Internet research skills. www.gerispieler.com