I received this email today and I thought it worth sharing with you. If you live in North Carolina, please click on the link below and show your support for our teachers. In my daughter’s high school alone, they lost two great teachers last year due to budget cuts.

The petition is very close to its goal of 5,000 signatures. Help them get there by signing the 1% for Kids petition online.

Dear North Carolina MoveOn member,

The loss of thousands of North Carolina teachers is hurting our kids and our economy.

That’s why I created a petition to the North Carolina House and Senate and Governor Beverly Perdue on SignOn.org,which says:

We the undersigned support a 1% surtax on individuals earning more than $250,000 per year, with the proceeds going exclusively to hire back the thousands of North Carolina teachers who have been fired due to state budget cuts. Our kids are our economic future, and a high-quality education system is essential to ensuring that our state will continue to be a good place to live and do business.

Will you sign the petition? Click here to add your name, and then pass it along to your friends:

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=269225&id=34635-9928674-Nmx1pix&t=2

Thanks!

–Jeff Callahan

Tags: budget cuts, North Carolina, teachers

Can you guess which candidates this sign is referring to? Who do you thing they’re going to vote for?

I’m not normally a very politically active person, but presidential elections are an exception. They generate so much hype and excitement. This year’s presidential election is even more exciting than any of the previous ones I’m aware of.

This year is also the first year, that I’m aware of, where early voting is open to everyone. Early voting means that you can start voting now and make sure your vote is in and counted before November 4. Early voting here in Durham, NC started last October 16 and will be going on until November 1st. Voting places have been set up in various locations like malls, shopping centers, schools and other locations to make it more convenient for voters.

In the past we’ve gone to vote as a family on November 4th. The kids go to the Kids Vote area and we go to our side. They love participating in the voting process and get a kick when they ‘guess’ the right winner. My ten year old daughter, The Clone, has even been watching the debates, believe it or not and is even more opinionated than her dad. lol!

The mother of one of her friends knocked on our door last Sunday morning, surprising us. She is among the many volunteers who are going door to door urging and reminding everyone to go out and vote. The campaign to get people out to vote has been tremendous. It is no surprise then to find out that we’re going through a record breaking election.

In Durham County, a record-breaking 6,264 ballots were cast. The previous one-day high of 4,476 voters was set on Oct. 29, 2004, during the last presidential election, the Durham County Board of Elections reported. With 16 more days to go before early voting ends , Durham elections board director Michael Ashe said in a news release that he expects Thursday’s record to be broken.
Source: News & Observer – Early Voting Records Set in State Thursday

UPDATE: as of November 20, over 24,000 people have voted. Click here to get daily updates of the numbers from the Durham County Government Board of Elections: Early Voter Turnout statistics.

North Carolina has traditionally been a red (republican) state. However, I’ve been hearing that if all the registered democrats go out and vote, we can turn this state blue! Actually, I also heard that if ALL Durham democrats go out and vote, we can turn the whole state around! Pretty awesome, isn’t it?

This Thursday, all five of us are going out to vote early. We won’t be voting for the Geezer and the Dingbat.

photo credit: I Love Durham
Saturday was dreary and cold. Then it started to rain. And I was happy. I was happy even though it was dark, cold and wet because, well, we needed to get wet! We need to get drenched!Durham and most of North Carolina has been in drought conditions for at least a couple of months now, and we, Durham especially, are running out of water. See the photo above? I borrowed that from the I Love Durham website since I didn’t have my camera with me when we went by another major lake last week.  There is very little difference in how they look though. Most of our lakes look like this lately. The photo is of Jordan Lake south of where we are, it was also a major body of water before the drought. Now it looks like a mere brook slicing the river bed and grass has actually started growing on the banks. This ‘lake’ should be full of water all the way to the line of trees in the background. Pretty scary thought for a pretty picture, isn’t it?

It’s even scarier when you realize the magnitude of the drought problem. WaterTechCrunch looks at the water problems that many states in Southeastern United States are facing. We are not alone. This is a huge problem! And yet, it seems like many people here in Durham are quite complacent about it or just don’t realize that it is a problem. I’m not sure if it’s ignorance or apathy? But it just seems like it’s not a big deal to most people around here.

I guess I have been moaning too much here and there about our dwindling water supply. What can I say, I love water! Scary, but we have just a little over a month’s worth of ‘premium water’ according to the City’s website.  So a friend sent me the following inspiration to give us hope:  It must be God

God help us!

When my daughter said that her class is going on a field trip to Hanging Rock, I wondered to myself whey they are going so late. The fall foliage will be on their way out by then, I thought. I was wrong though, thanks to rising carbon levels that is apparently causing the late appearance of autumn colors. Yeah, global warming is not at fault for this phenomena this time, it’s them darn carbon levels this time!

Well, what ever caused the trees to turn colors so late, yesterday was a great time to go to the mountains. The colors were spectacular!

The teachers should have anticipated that the kids will want to preserve the beautiful scenery. Next time we go to something like this, I’ll have to remember to stop at the dollar store for some disposable cameras. I can’t believe some of the kids actually spent $6 of their pocket money for a disposable camera! Some of them who didn’t bring any money were so disappointed that they couldn’t take photos. So I promised them I will print out photos for them from my camera.
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