I envied Sue’s faith. No, no: she didn’t think PBO was Jesus (!), but his election strengthened her belief that the world could be a very, very wonderful place.
Back to normal tomorrow, as Sue would have demanded. Just wanted to celebrate her memory tonight.
Hi everyone,
I’m so sorry to bring such heartbreaking – and very belated – news about one of our best friends from here, Sue in Minnesota.
It was only today, so many months later, that I was able to find out that Sue died on April 17.
Lots of you had been asking about her the last few months and I had been trying, with the help of Chi, who never stopped thinking about Sue, to trace her because we knew she had been unwell, and hadn’t commented at the blog since February.
It’s just impossible to express how painful this is, those of you who got to know Sue at the blog could only love her – she was kind, warm, inspirational, endlessly encouraging and full of passion, and in her later days she never let her ill health overcome her spirit. Her support and work for President Obama was immense, he meant everything to her and she talked often of feeling blessed to be alive in his time.
I read back through Sue’s comments today, she was here since almost the beginning, in 2009, and she never failed to make me smile. Especially her fiery determination to learn how to use Twitter – so many of you were helping her figure it out, VC her tutor-in-chief.
The name she chose at Twitter was simply perfect: @fairwarrioress
She hadn’t got around to mastering Twitter, but I smiled again when I saw that one of the 12 people she was following was Ambassador Susan Rice. I think I know who Sue would want to be the next Secretary of State. Although, I’d guess she was a John Kerry admirer too.
I can’t even begin to describe her kindness to me, her generous, supportive, beautiful emails, right from the early days, ones that made your day. A word from Sue was a blessing, she spread sunshine, she was a very, very lovely human being.
Yet, that’s the strangeness of all our blog friendships, we simply do not know what to do when contact is lost, we’re just left wondering and worrying. And so many of us feared the worst about Sue.
But, after she left us, her beloved Minnesota did her proud:
And that would have made her beam broadly.
****
The search function on the blog is useless, but I think this was the last post Sue commented on.
It included photos of Jodi Fisher, the 44-year-old woman who was diagnosed with an inoperable form of cancer and who created a bucket list of things she wanted to do before she died. One of them was to meet President Obama, which she did at San Francisco International Airport on February 16 (you can read more about Jodi here).
Sue wrote:
“Strength and God’s blessings to Jodi and those with her on her journey, she seems so full of light.”
Jodi died on March 17, Sue died exactly a month later.
Love you always, Fair Warrioress.
Like Jodi, you were so full of light.
As a message under Sue’s obituary in her local paper read:
“You touched our lives and will live in our hearts forever.”
Our thoughts go to Sue’s family for their immeasurable loss.
For all those who worried about Sue’s absence recently, she came back today after suffering ill health recently. I’ve reposted her message in the comments in this thread, in case you missed it earlier.
Thrilled to have you back Sue, you were missed so much – look after yourself, and get back to full health very soon.
WSJ: President Barack Obama named Brenda S. “Sue” Fulton, an Army veteran who campaigned to end the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, to the Board of Visitors of the United States Military Academy on Tuesday, putting the first openly gay or lesbian person onto the board that advises him on West Point.
Ms. Fulton, 52 years old, is the executive director and co-founder of Knights Out, an organization of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered West Point graduates and allies….
Ms. Fulton says she became politically active for the first time in years after Mr. Obama took office, as she campaigned for an end to the military policy that has banned openly gay and lesbian people from serving in the military. She said in an interview Tuesday that she hopes her appointment will send a message to young people who are considering military service.
“I would hope it would symbolize to all people gay and straight that anti-gay bias in the military is a thing of the past. I would hope it would tell them that if you’re willing to serve your country and you’re qualified, other factors don’t matter,” she said. “I see my role as in some sense helping West point send that message – that we respect all people equally. That’s part of our values, that’s part of our code.”
….She said she foresees no problem implementing the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” at West Point, where she said she has many informal allies. “I believe they are proceeding in good faith to implement repeal, and I foresee very few if any problems with repeal in West Point.”
More here
Thank you Loriah
President Obama with Rep Dennis Kucinich, March 23, 2010
Salon: Dennis Kucinich is suing the Longworth House Office Building cafeteria because of a sandwich.…The Cleveland congressman filed suit against a number of companies that supply and run the congressional eatery, because in 2008 he bit into a “sandwich wrap” of some kind and hurt his teeth on an olive pit.
According to the suit: “Said sandwich wrap was unwholesome and unfit for human consumption, in that it was represented to contain pitted olives, yet unknown to plaintiff contained an unpitted olive or olives which plaintiff did not reasonably expect to be present in the food prepared for him, and could not visually detect prior to consumption.”
Kucinich claims he suffered “serious and permanent dental and oral injuries” and has sustained “other damages as well,” including “suffering and loss of enjoyment.” He is seeking $150,000 in damages. Gawker found video of Kucinich talking on the floor of the house five days after Olivegate, and he seems fine…
The Justice Department sued BP, Transocean and three other companies involved in the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, charging that they broke environmental laws.
The Obama administration is suing the companies “for the impact this spill has had on our environment and the livelihoods of those who depend on the Gulf’s ecosystem,” Lisa Jackson, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, said at a press conference.
The Justice Department’s civil and criminal investigations into the oil leak are continuing, said Attorney General Eric Holder. “We intend to hold them fully accountable for their violations of the law,” he said of the companies in the suit.
President Barack Obama visits Peggy Sue’s Cafe in Monroe City, Missouri, Wednesday, April 28, 2010.
some thoughts….
Tags: Barack, comment, in, minnesota, Obama, President, sue
by Sue in Minnesota
One party under the leadership of our President is conducting themselves with seriousness, purpose and deliberative civility. And the other, has abandoned their responsibilities to do the same in favor of political gamesmanship in their quest for control. The frustration and the scorn should be directed at the Republicans…..they should be held fully accountable for their ulterior agenda.
That is up to the American people, who frankly are not adequately engaged or informed, or are reacting emotionally to the issues at hand, and the games being played. Allowing the MSM and the Republicans to take advantage of their weaknesses.
Those who accuse President Obama of being weak, IMO are foolishly underestimating him, and at the same time condeding to the “rules” by which the Republicans want to play the game. The Republicans are more than happy to scapegoat President Obama at every opportunity, Democrats should be wise enough not to jump on their bandwagon.
We have gone through this before, with every serious piece of legislation that has been enacted during the current administration. Blathering, dithering, hand wringing, name calling and yet in the end the President has achieved great success. Few want to dwell on the successes, and when they acknowledge them they tend to find ways to diminish or minimize them. There seems to be a general trend to be more comfortable with drama, conflict, and victimization, rather than healthier and more mature attitudes of patience, engagement, deliberation, resolution and ultimately progress. Americans are expecting too much of one person, and not enough of themselves and their civic responsibilities, or the responsibilities of those they elected to represent them. We are after all a participatory Democracy.
These are very broad brush strokes, generalizations that I have formed from my own observations and frustrations and not reflective of the members of this community. We need to be able to engage in serious discourse which means we will certainly disagree, but unlike the “leftbaggers”, and their flame wars, discussions fueled by emotion and projection succeed mostly in fanning the flames. And generally fail at putting out the fire.
(Taken from this thread)