Politics, Stories
Sarah Holland
Campaign Update: March

"How's the campaign going?"

It's the question I get most often. It's also the question I'm never quite sure how to answer.

Good? ... Great! ... Your guess is as good as mine. ... We'll see May 17th!

The truth - I suppose - all depends on what you're measuring. 

Campaign Update: March
Celebrations
Sarah Holland
Felix's Winter ONE-derland

This weekend we hosted a Winter ONE-derland party in honor of Felix's first birthday. Considering this child was born during a snow, it seemed like an appropriate theme. Well, the weather had other plans and it was 70 and sunny! I could have hosted the dang party outside! 

Felix's Winter ONE-derland
Stories
Sarah Holland
Ruby

For my 30th birthday, I created a list of 30 things I wanted to do. One was to write a historical fiction short story. This is the story and as Ruby keeps calling to me here lately. I thought I'd share it here. 

Ruby
Food
Sarah Holland
Nicholas's Freezer to Crockpot Meals

One of Nicholas's New Year's resolutions was to try freezer meals. He'd prepped meals for the week on and off through 2015 and wanted to see how it would work to prepare an entire month's worth. Then, we could just pull a meal from the deep freeze, throw it in the crockpot, and on a busy day dinner would be waiting for us.

Nicholas's Freezer to Crockpot Meals
What I Learned
Sarah Holland
5 things I learned in January

Dear 2016, Slow. Up. I just picked my word for the year and finished off my New Year's Eve champagne like five minutes ago and now it's two days until February!

Whew.

5 things I learned in January

Politics

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Government Shutdown: What's the REAL problem?

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The government shutdown is over. Two weeks and 20 billion dollars later, there are several stories coming out of this debacle. Americans are angry at Congress. The Republican party is divided. Obamacare still exists. 

However, buried within each article I’ve read is what I consider the real cause of this debacle and the current political cold war.

Here it is in New York Times article today entitled Losing a Lot to Get Little:

The worry among many Republicans is that the Tea Party flank will not get the message, mainly because their gerrymandered districts are so conservative they do not have to listen.

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Another Mother's Perspective on Syria

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I hope that as I write these words, a true diplomatic solution is in progress for Syria.   In the meantime, I think about how conflict in the Middle East has been a given for generations, and I wonder if my two-year-old daughter will ever see an end.  As I think about her, and about how much more efficient and complex and deadly the weapons of the future will be, I hope that we will seize this moment in time to start focusing on the only weapon that I believe can bring true, lasting peace to the Middle East: knowledge.  

For the past few weeks, I have watched countless Facebook friends posting photos: “I’m against war in Syria.”  Undoubtedly, most of them mean “I’m against American military intervention in Syria.”  (And, undoubtedly, a few mean, “What did President Obama say? I’m against that.”).  But, here’s the thing: it sounds like we, as Americans, don’t know that there is already a war in Syria.  That there has been a war in Syria since 2011, and that there were many heinous atrocities and conflicts before 2011.  That the use of chemical weapons might be new, but the slaughtering of innocent people is not.  That this is another chapter in a long, tortured history.  

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A mother's thoughts on Syria

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Congress returns to debate military action in Syria this week. I don’t envy them this task. Like many Americans, I have also been thinking about where I stand on this issue. At first, I was hesitant to share my thoughts. I’m no foreign policy expert. I have no advanced degree in Middle East studies. I have never even travelled to that part of the world. 

And yet - maybe just maybe - there is room for my voice in the cacophony of sound coming from politicians and experts and talking heads. Maybe it is important for all of us to take a moment from our ordinary lives and think about extraordinary situations that seem so far removed from us.

Not so that we can find the “right” answer but so that we give the question the time it deserves.

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Flashback Friday: Youthful Politics

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Welcome to Flashback Friday, where I delve deep into the piles of my childhood memorabilia so that we can reminisce, laugh at the bad perms, and finally prove that merely throwing away your NKOTB door hanging does not diminish your love for Jordan Knight.

Listen, people. This is not all fun and games and Lisa Frank. It’s time for me to share some darker aspects of my past. I wasn’t always the super-gorgeous, super-smart, super-liberal (and super-humble!) redhead you see now before you.

In fact, the entirety of my childhood and adolescent years I was a Bible-beating, super-judgmental, conservative.

I want to run for office.

Since high school, running for higher office has been one of my long-term goals. However, no matter where I am in my life, actually taking the leap into elected office always seems like something I should do in the future - far into the future. When I move home to Kentucky or when I'm more established in my career or when I figure what career I actually want to do or when I have kids or when my kids get older ...

You get the idea.

Watching Kiley Lane Parker's documentary Raising Ms. President made me realize for the first time that maybe I haven't been delaying my dreams because of realistic personal limitations but because of the subtle societal influences that hold women back. 

I'm over on herKentucky today talking about that and a whole lot more with Kiley Lane Parker. I hope you'll check it out. 

I'd love to hear from men and women. Have you ever considered running for political office? If so, what seems to be standing in your way?

 

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