Well, one thing that has changed in my life as a result of Barack Obama’s presidency has been a return to the anti-nuclear activism of my youth. I’ve been opposed to nuclear power since my high school days. However, over the last 20 years nuclear power has been on a slow, natural decline as old plants broke down and the horrible economics and fantastic liabilities of nuclear power prevented new plants from being built. So, something of an uneasy truce has been in place while anti-nuclear activists have waited for nuclear to die a “natural” death. Obama changed all that with one speech, promising billions in “loan guarantees” to nuclear power. However, he withheld the information that the taxpayers are also making the loans through the federal finance bank. This is typical of the half-truths and deceptions of the nuclear industry. So, I mustered up a pretty good “Obama” impersonation and made a youtube video, something I never would have dreamed of doing before Obama’s presidency. Check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5E5dlriYr3g
Well, I just returned from a wonderful visit to Savannah. Ujjvala and I had a very productive time. We also made some important decisions about our next steps with the company, and had time to visit the Savannah Book Fair. It’s heartening to note that even in this “e-world” that we all live in now, face to face interactions are still irreplaceable.
In our discussions, we realized that a book that focused solely on Barack Obama’s Inauguration is too limited to be successful. Now that he has actually been in power for a year, people’s impressions of that day are being reshaped by their continuing experiences with Obama. The Inauguration was about hope. Obama’s actual presidency is turning out to be much more complicated. Some people are seeing their hopes come to life. Others, however, see Obama’s presidency as the realization of their worst fears.
We realized that our book needs to chronicle both the hopes and fears of America. We will have a chapter dealing with the joy of the Inauguration, but we will also take submissions from anyone who feels that their lives have been changed by Obama’s presidency since then. We want real, personal stories, not a list of talking points. We feel that those are the stories people will want to read about today and in the years to come.
So, here we are, a year after Barack Obama’s Inauguration. That event inspired the world, gave hope to a nation, and promised fundamental change at all levels of our society. My own experiences at the Inauguration prompted me to write the account that is posted here in an earlier blog. It also inspired Ujjvala and me to start this publishing company.
Since Obama took office, we liberals who worked the longest and the hardest to get him elected watched with worry as he filled his cabinet with Wall Street insiders, conservative Democrats and even some key Republicans. Then there was irritation as he put off the repeal of Clinton’s “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” policy. There was also some anger as the Democrats and Obama passed a credit “reform” bill which: didn’t cap interest rates; didn’t restore the bankruptcy laws that used to let you keep your primary residence and one car; didn’t stop predatory lending practices or adjustable rate mortgages; and accelerated the impoverishment of Americans at the hands of the credit card companies. Now there is outrage at a health care bill which will force us to pay huge corporations hundreds of billions of dollars for expensive, inadequate, health insurance while still leaving tens of millions uninsured. This is not the universal and affordable health care candidate Obama promised. On the horizon is an energy bill which offers unlimited federal loan guarantees to build new nuclear power plants. This would cost the nation trillions and burden our descendants with radioactive waste that will cause cancer and birth defects for the next 20,000 years without helping the climate crisis.
At this point, it is important to remember that, as Obama himself said, the campaign victory was never really about him. It was about us. The extraordinary effort that millions of Americans put into the campaign, and the coming together we did as a Nation when he was inaugurated—those were real. The qualities and abilities we credited Barack Obama with may prove to be illusory, but the mass movement that brought him to power was not. America is ready for fundamental change, but in the last year we have learned, again, that change does not come from the top. So, Obama does not have the intention or ability to make the positive changes he promised. That doesn’t let us off the hook. We can’t give up. It’s time to buckle down and work even harder for the kind of change we want. It’s important that we don’t let the feelings and empowerment that we felt on January 20, 2009 disappear. Because we really are powerful. We can and will change the world. What we have learned in the past year is that Barack Obama and the Democrats currently in Congress will not simply change it for us.
Mason-Dixon Publishing’s first year has also been disappointing in some ways. We received a grand total of three paid entries for our “Were you there? Stories from Barack Obama’s Inauguration” contest. Needless to say, everyone who entered won! As it stands now, however, we have spent thousands of dollars and do not have anywhere near enough material to publish a book. I have to admit, that I was very discouraged and almost ready to give up. Ujjvala is the one who gave me renewed hope. She is insisting that we push ahead and publish our book. We have learned many valuable lessons. We now have experience with advertising and some idea of what works and what doesn’t. We have a fully functional website that is professionally maintained, and we know that our basic business model can function, with some adjustments. Based on feedback we’ve gotten, we’re going to open the contest to a much broader range of people, charge less for the entry fee, and offer more in prize money. I’m going to make the trip down to Savannah in February so we can talk over the details in person.
So, one year later, we learn that our personal relationships are really the key to success in life. We have to give each other hope and the courage to carry on and keep fighting because those essential emotions won’t be given to us in a real and lasting way by any politician or celebrity.
If you’re preparing a contest submission and need some help or encouragement, please feel free to use us as a resource. All of the staff here at Mason-Dixon Publishing have at least a Master’s level education. We are happy to help you rework an awkward phrase or choose between adjectives.
Simply send your question to us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). We’ll get back to you promptly.
Let’s face it, for some of us there’s nothing quite as effective as deadline pressure to get the creative juices flowing. Most writers have had to pull an all-nighter
at some point in their lives in order to meet a due date for an assignment.
I know that when I was a professional grant writer, some of my most effective and successful narratives were written in the wee hours of the morning a day or
two before the deadline. As useful as that adrenaline rush is, relying on it can sometimes result in missed deadlines and failure. In all my years as a grant writer,
I only missed one deadline. It was during a week when there were three major grants due in a four day span. What happened was that, under the extreme pressure,
my subconcious simply moved one of the deadlines back a day from Thursday to Friday. So, Friday morning I put the finishing touches on the proposal, made my
copies and looked at the grant guidelines to get the mailing address. Then I saw the actual deadline date and nearly passed out.
After that, I instituted a mental trick to make sure I never missed another deadline. I simply set my own personal deadlines about a week before the “real” deadline.
On my planning calendar, the official deadline never appeared. I only wrote in my deadline in big black marker with red circles around it. I also took the time to
mentally convince myself of the earlier date. I’d repeat to myself over and over “The VATEA deadline is the 15th!” so that if anyone asked, that would be the
answer I gave.
This method resulted in a late night or two, but I never missed another deadline. Interestingly, I also never had to pull another all nighter. Usually the grant was
finished a day or two before my imaginary deadline.
So, if you’re working on a submission for the contest. Don’t wait until the last minute. The earlier you submit, the sooner you’ll have the benefit of our readers’
comments to help you if you want to rewrite your submission. But you can harness the creative energy that the stress of a deadline can unleash if you create
your own deadline and treat it seriously.
—-Joe
Submit your contest entry here.
Read about our contest rules, available prizes, deadlines, and more.
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