"Why is the path unclear when we know home is near? Understand we'll go hand in hand but we'll walk alone in fear. Tell me where do we go from here?"

I have 55 days left in Abingdon. The english language doesn't have words to describe the fear coursing throught my psyche. I keep telling myself to enjoy it. "This is what you wanted" I say to myself. It is scary but thrilling as well. Change is coming. The biggest mystery is what will I do?

Recently I have been giving grad school more and more thought. I miss being a student. I miss learning. I have a great amount of practical knowledge of theatrical production but I feel like I need to improve my Theatre History / Literature base. The prospect of studying for an M.A. in Theatre History truly thrills me. I know at some point in my future I want to teach at the college level. To do that I have to have a Master's degree. The thought of getting a Master's thrills me but the thought of going into debt for the rest of my life for a three year degree is kind of terrifying as well. I also have to consider that I will miss Stage Managing. If I do go to grad school there is always the possiblity that I could gig in the summer but I think I would really miss working in the real theate.

I don't want to go to a a cult grad school. One of those schools that rather than concentrate on the individual student they concentrate on the student as the brand name. I wouldn't last a week in a school like that. There are several programs that I am looking at, they all look promising but it is so hard to decide about school on paper without visiting and talking to the students and professors.

Life is so bloody complicated . . .

My Country 'tis Of Thee . . .

A recent Al Gore speech . . . If only he had spoken this way before the election. This speech is amazing.

"The news divisions - which used to be seen as serving a public interest and were subsidized by the rest of the network - are now seen as profit centers designed to generate revenue and, more importantly, to advance the larger agenda of the corporation of which they are a small part. They have fewer reporters, fewer stories, smaller budgets, less travel, fewer bureaus, less independent judgment, more vulnerability to influence by management, and more dependence on government sources and canned public relations hand-outs. This tragedy is compounded by the ironic fact that this generation of journalists is the best trained and most highly skilled in the history of their profession. But they are usually not allowed to do the job they have been trained to do."

Al's Speech

I wonder if he will try for the nomination in 2008. I have been thinking about 2008 contest a lot lately. Wondering who will run. I think the Republican contest will basically be between George Allen and John McCain. The Democratic contest will be more interesting. Everyone assumes that Hillary will run. The conservatives are *praying* for that, thinking that she will be easy to defeat. Which maybe she will. Who can say, but I think she would make a damn fine president. I also think Russ Feingold would also make a damn fine president.

The thing that is great about Senator Feingold is that he isn't afraid to be seen as a progressive. The Democratic party seems terrified of the words liberal and progressive. It makes me quite sad.

The other political topic that has really been bugging me lately is gay rights. What the gay rights movement needs is a national leader. Someone in the national spotlight to lead the charge. The president of the HRC should be that person but for some reason isn't. They seem too interrupted by internal politics to take charge of a national movement. Hopefully before the the republicans lock all us up in gay ghettos the folks at HRC will get their heads out of their asses and lead the movement. Anyway read the Al Gore speech it's amazing.