My friend, Amber Jean Thompson, made a very poor decision that cost her her life... Sunday, March 22, 2009... She was rushed to Rush Copley hospital in Aurora, IL... 11:00 AM on March 22, she was pronounced dead, the cause of death was a heroin overdose... March 23, 2009, I found this information out... My first reaction was tears. The next thing I did, was contact her ex-boyfriend, and one of my closest friends, Tig. I had not spoken to this man in more than a year, and the first thing I had to say to him was "Amber died of a heroin overdose yesterday morning..." The past week has been an emotional rollercoaster, and it will continue to be for quite a while.

I went to her Wake yesterday... It's still chilling for me to say that, but going gave me a bit of closure... I say a bit, because I still can't understand what has happened, and I really don't think I want to understand it, either. The last time I saw her, was this week last year... I had actually wondered what she and the rest of the old group from OHS had been up to since the last time I saw them, and I had this thought just last week... We lost someone special, there's no doubt about it.
For those who couldn't attend, this is the little prayer card that her family had, exactly as it appears on the physical card:

In memory of

Amber Jean Thompson

Born into life
November 15,1990

Born into eternal life
March 22, 2009

Funeral Service
Friday, March 27, 2009

"We knew little that morning,
God was going to call your name,
In life we loved you dearly, In
death we do the same, It broke our
hearts to lose you, You did not go alone.

For part of us went with you, the day God
called you home.
You left us beautiful
memories, your love is still our guide, and
though we cannot see you, You are always by
our side.
Our family chain is broken, and
nothing seems the same, but as God calls us
one by one, the chain will link again.
"

I'm going to miss Amber... I will always remember her as a fairly shy, somewhat insecure, always fun, intelligent, beautiful girl... And I am going to walk away from this with a valuable lesson that I had wished to learn differently... Hold onto the ones we love, and remind them at every opportunity how important they are to us, because we just don't know what direction life is going to take next. I think that in keeping this lesson close to my heart, she'll always be remembered. Amber, goodnight, and may God shelter you from here on out... To everyone else; listen, learn, laugh, love, and live.

Fuck the quitting smoking... It was never worth my time

So here's the situation: I quit smoking. I made it almost four weeks, and that was quitting two packs a day cold turkey. Then I started again. Now I'm quitting again, and I need to know I got support, so give me some encouragement friends!

Just to start out, I posted something on September 10, 2008, completely BASHING McCain and Palin. Here's a shocking new development: I voted for John McCain and Sarah Palin. I am now a self-identified Republican, although still registered as a Democrat. So what happened? I looked past Barack Obama's charisma, and looked at his record. Or rather, his lack of a record. Obama's tax policy scared me; too reminiscent of socialism. That was coupled with his "share the wealth," comment, and I seriously had doubts about Obama. The nail in the coffin came when I read his record on firearms.

I have to preface this with my beliefs on guns: We should have the right to carry a handgun for our own protection, weapons classified as "assault rifles" are NOT actual assault weapons (they are semi-automatic ONLY, and cannot be modified to fire full auto), the capacity of magazines should be unrestricted, and in all honesty, the only firearms I beliTouns, and shotguns used for hunting, target shooting, and home defense, as assault weapons. He is one of those sorts that believes only police, military, and of course, his body guards should have firearms. What he neglects to mention is that law abiding citizens do not commit gun-crimes, and disarming citizens eaves the police and criminals as the only armed individuals.

Now, off of my pro-McCain, pro-Republican points, this is another issue that came out of the election: Proposition 8. Gay marriage is banned in California. So what happened here? People thought that voting for Barack Obama, a black man, would surely support gay marriage. Well, Here is the problem... I will undoubtedly be called a racist for this, but here goes: Black voters in California are a large reason for the failure of prop 8. Yes, an oppressed minority have become oppressors themselves. Don't believe me? Here are the statistics: 70% African Americans supported prop 8, 53% of Latino voters supported it, and 49% white and Asian Americans supported prop 8 [[link]
Now, here is the reality: throw out all of the African American and Latino votes (Asian Americans voted the same as whites, so their votes do not change the overall percentages), prop 8 would have failed. For Latinos, the reason behind supporting prop 8 was clear: the majority of Latinos are Catholic, which is strongly opposed to homosexuality in general. So why did black voters, an oppressed minority, cast more oppression towards another minority, the homosexuals? Former Santa Clara Superior Court justice LaDoris Cordell, both a lesbian and African American, had this to say: "[T]he roots of {African American] discomfort, I think, go deeper. Sadly, some African-Americans believe that it is only we who should benefit from the gains achieved by the civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s. They fear that to allow the gay community to enter the doors of opportunity opened by our struggle, to permit gays and lesbians to share in the fruits of that movement, will diminish those benefits for the black community. Truth is, there is more than enough to go around." [[link]
The shocking thing is, African Americans tend to vote IN FAVOR of civil liberties for all people, not in opposition.

Here is the problem I see: I was raised in white society, believing that racism is dead wrong. The problem is, homophobia is seemingly praised amongst all of society. We have a black president now, and that is great. But it doesn't mean the struggle for the rights of every American is over, not by a long-shot. Until every American enjoys the same opportunities, until the mental image of impoverished Americans is not that of a black person, until Gay Americans can marry, we are not done.

September 22- McCain/Palin rally
September 23- Exploring Chicago's parks/Vintage Rock
Sep 24- Contact a campaign
Sep 25- Hopefully start campaign work
Sep 26-30: TBA

Oct 2: Benjamin Kenon concert
Oct 6-10: Jury duty
Oct 11-31: TBA

November 4: Judge of elections, Oswego 18/9