Webster's New World Dictionary - Third College Edition:

whore   n. 1  PROSTITUTE

prostitute   n. 2  to sell (oneself, one's artistic or moral integrity, etc.) for low and unworthy purposes

The September Irag update (as brought to you by the White House and polished up with a dash of legitimacy from Gen. Petraeus who will trot it over to Congress) is in some ways a turning point.  Not for us, not for the White House, but for Gen. Petraeus himself.  He will have to decide if he, too, will become a White House whore.

This diary is a product of several diaries posted this last week, coupled with a few random comments that I and others have written.  But somehow today with Dr. SteveB's diary (which, if you haven't yet participated, please do), many of my thoughts about being a Christian, and being a Democrat, coalesced in my mind.

The statement "I am a Democrat because I Am Christian" was made by Rev. Jim Nelson before the Georgia State Democratic Convention in October last year.  For me, this statement is both an intensely personal faith journey and an active political principle of how to be in the world.

When I was young I learned to ride at a local stable.  This stable was very clear about its rules.  Everyone, no exceptions, had to muck out the stalls, clean tack, groom the horses and generally keep the stable fresh and clean.   If you thought this was not for you, you didn't get to ride - period.  When you finished riding, you did not toss the reins to some waiting stableboy, you worked.  No amount of money would buy you any privilege.

This memory stays firmly in my mind as I view the job we are demanding of the newly elected 2006 Congress and as I watch the 2008 Democratic presidential candidates leap from the starting gate.

As I commented this morning in Cheers and Jeers, Bill has given us the go-ahead to put together a "cocktail" book from our C & J corner of the community.  I would like to have this done and ready for YearlyKos 2008.  Bill said he would provide some of the commentary.  

I'm looking for some committed volunteers to help put this together.  You can start by e-mailing me with what you would like to contribute.  I really need those who are good with art/photo work and lay-out/editing.

Below the fold are some of my ideas which I fully expect to totally revamp when I hear yours!  

Over thirty-five years ago in my college dorm, an extraordinarily beautiful 19 year-old woman lay down on her bed to die in a black cocktail dress and pearls .  An empty bottle of sleeping pills was found by her body and a brief suicide note.  Her last words - I know I will never be more beautiful than this.

Election night bedtime story -

In loving deference to Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd who blessed all of us with Goodnight Moon
(please feel free to illustrate with your "favorites" and repost on Wednesday)

On October 5, 1930, the newly built Riverside Church in NYC was dedicated.  The church had been built by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. for Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick.

Few people of this generation have heard of Dr. Fosdick except for perhaps noting he had written a few hymns they may have sung in church.  But during Dr. Fosdick's lifetime he was known as the principal leader of the liberal, progressive Christian movement.  It was his sermon entitled "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?" on May 12, 1922 that caused him to be removed from the pulpit of the First Presbyterian Church in New York and caused Rockefeller to offer to build him a church.  This sermon has stood the test of eighty-four years and is excerpted below.  If only Dr. Fosdick were here today delivering it as he did that May.

For those of you that haven't read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Savannah really is a quirky place.  She's a flirt, a party-girl, who loves to be a little naughty (or sometimes more)with a flip of her skirt. And once the sun goes down, she can steam up your glasses.  My husband and I have only lived here full-time now for five years, but we never tire of the beauty of this town.  For those of us who live downtown it's an endless show with a mix of the desperately rich, desperately poor, some in the middle, left-over aging hippies, thousands of art students, active gay community, Old Savannah Jewish community, Greater British Empire ex-pats, and young and old who were just passing through and found they couldn't leave.