"Dear Mr. President"

This is a song, lyrics below. I don't make this shit up, I'm not that good.

PINK LYRICS

"Dear Mr. President"

(feat. Indigo Girls)

Dear Mr. President,

Come take a walk with me.

Let's pretend we're just two people and

You're not better than me.

I'd like to ask you some questions if we can speak honestly.

What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street?

Who do you pray for at night before you go to sleep?

What do you feel when you look in the mirror?

Are you proud?

How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?

How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?

How do you walk with your head held high?

Can you even look me in the eye

And tell me why?

Dear Mr. President,

Were you a lonely boy?

Are you a lonely boy? Are you a lonely boy?

How can you say

No child is left behind?

We're not dumb and we're not blind.

They're all sitting in your cells

While you pave the road to hell.

What kind of father would take his own daughter's rights away?

And what kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay?

I can only imagine what the first lady has to say

You've come a long way from whiskey and cocaine.

How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?

How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?

How do you walk with your head held high?

Can you even look me in the eye?

Let me tell you 'bout hard work

Minimum wage with a baby on the way

Let me tell you 'bout hard work

Rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away

Let me tell you 'bout hard work

Building a bed out of a cardboard box

Let me tell you 'bout hard work

Hard work

Hard work

You don't know nothing 'bout hard work

Hard work

Hard work

Oh How do you sleep at night?

How do you walk with your head held high?

Dear Mr. President,

You'd never take a walk with me.Would you?

Someone out there appreciated my last post....

From a good friend from back in uni days in WA replying to my last post via email:

R,
I just want to thank you for spreading a message of peace when there
are these racist fascists spreading hate, lies, and unsubstantiated infinite
fear. I fucking hate these kinds of emails, and you wrote the perfect response.
In fact none of the pictures came through, but all I needed to read was that you
put the fractional population of radical islamists on the same plane as our
handful of radical capitalist war mongering US administration officials.

Gah! I have been growing more and more angry still with
neo-Bushies instead of further submissive like the american media. The
media is swarming with "green" and "environmental" blah blah blah. Well, I say
Good! Now that they all know we have fucked the planet they can help
us ignore genocide and resource wars for the uber-rich.

At least someone takes the time to look past surfaces and seeks truth. Love ya girl!!!

Because you're curious

the website to my job, this is the part of the biz I manage:

www.americaninternshipcenter.com

Islamaphobia

Friends,

I was asked this question "How does this compare with your experience in London?", forwarded in the attached email by my mother. After living in London for 1 year and now living in Istanbul for a year, I am not saying that I am an expert on this by any means...but I do realise I have a store of experience that many of you may not have.

As for my experience itself in London, I have never seen such a thing as these pictures depict. When I lived in London I regularly shopped in an area of East London with a high Arab/Muslim population, which was the first time I had ever seen a woman in the full black dress. I never felt a threat by Arabs. NEVER.

When any country is at WAR, the population migrates, causing an inflow of immigrants. Yeah they get downright angry with anyone who destroys their home, country, family, friends neighborhoods, and ways of life. Which is always followed by RACISM. There is a huge difference between a Muslim and Radical Islam. HUGE. The term you hear, "radical" also applies to the current US Administration, "radical".

Europe is feeling an undeniable backlash from the actions of the USA in Iraq, Palestine, etc., and for a good reason: they share the same continent of Eurasia. But what you may not know is that Muslims have been in Europe since before the 1400s and has helped to shape even the Western world as we know it today.

If you have any comments or questions about Muslims, I can attempt to answer them.
I am told my grandfather used to say, "Don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see."

Think about that, its taken me 20 years to finally understand what it means.

Go in Peace, and remember, we all play a part in shaping our world through every thought, action and word that passes through our consciousness.

Be the change you wish to see in the world.

Back on the ground

I got into IST last night. Whew! I'm tired! What a week!!!!! I left San Fran at 3:55 pm Sat. and returned to IST at 4:55 pm Sunday. I have so much to write about but haven't got the time at the moment, I'm stalling getting into the office.

Yesterday were the elections in Turkey, the AK Party won the Presidential seat. Its the buzz of everywhere here. Lots of people aren't happy about it, but that's politics. Who's ever happy with politics?

I'll write more later.

ANOTHER Trip (on someone else's dime this time)

I'll be traveling to the US this Saturday for 1 week.

I took a new job offer this week and the training is in San Francisco next week. My boss offered to let me have a few days in Chicago first, and of course I said YES!

So yeah, the job came out of the wild blue yonder this week. Its a small Turkish company that places Turkish people in internships and work training programs in the US. The position is for a Program Manager with a healthy base salary + commission for placements. I also don't need to speak Turkish, a MAJOR BONUS! The office is small and friendly, and my boss is the owner and founder of the company.

He's also throwing in a RT ticket to Chicago for Xmas!!! He really made it hard for me to say no... This kind of recruiting is a new and blossoming market here, so the growth and opportunities are exponential.

So that's the news of the week.

Mom says my life is anything but boring, always something happening. Well some of us just require that kind of life to keep us going!

I'm here and posting!!!

I see its been nearly 3 weeks since I posted, so much has been happening!

For starters, I had an American friend who lives in the UK come for a visit for a week. That was really nice. She's a professional belly dancer and came here for dance lessons.

During that time, it was also hotter than hell here ringing in at 50 degrees C - or around 120 degrees F! I was miserable, I don't handle that kind of heat well. At all.

Then I went to London for 5 days. It was so NICE to be in an English speaking country!!!! Yes, I was there during the almost terrorist car explosion. No, I was nowhere near the area. I was at a friend's eating pizza and watching tv. While I was in LON, the weather was downright COLD. Like October weather! Wearing jeans, long sleeves and a leather jacket still left me chilled. I loved it. Just what I wanted! While there, I stayed with a few friends and we went to clubs and bars. Not terribly exciting, but an outlet after being here so long.

I also went to Oxford to stay with a friend, it was a first. She's doing her 2nd masters there and got her BA from there too. She showed me around a bit and its absolutely magickal. She studies Medieval Literature and she showed me her college. In the lawn next to the library for her college is an old graveyard!!! The stones are so old they're halfway underground and the names and dates are no longer visible. Really trippy.

Totally Harry Potter, but better cuz its real. As she gave me a tour I was feeling dizzy, like being on some strange drug, it was so surreal. Well now I'm in love with that school and want to go there! Maybe just for a summer program though...

So it was a good trip. I had mixed feelings about coming back to Turkey. My job isn't going great and I'm getting restless. So I'm in a period of indecision, once again.

Yesterday we explored one of the four islands off of Istanbul. It wasn't particularly exciting, but it was nice to do something different. On the ferry on the way there, I ran into a guy I taught with at Berlitz and his girlfriend, so the 4 of us went together for the day. It was really nice to socialize.

I've been applying to jobs in Istanbul via websites and have an interview today at 5:00. So we'll see what happens, I'm mostly interested in the money.