Saturday, September 5, 2009

"Now he belongs to the ages"~Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton on Lincoln's Death

Hey there! It has been another super busy day, with the World Convention beginning, as well as a tour of some more of D.C.'s historic sites. Our convention was opened by Mr. Paul Molloy himself, which was really exciting to see the genius behind the foundation that is now in 43 states and a couple territories. Then Dr. Westley Clark was the keynote speaker, he is the Director of the Center on Substance Abuse Treatment. He had a lot of interesting statistic's and data on what helps sustain recovery in addicts/alcoholic's which was cool tolearn. A lot of what he had to say I had already learned myself from the treatment center's I have attended. This was the 9th time he spoke at the Convention.After the opening session, 12 of us hopped in a tour van to go check out the city some more. We started at The Lincoln/Vietnam/Korean memorial's (Which are all in the same HUGE park area) and even though we had been there already (minus the Vietnam memorial) it was an amazing sight again, this time in the daylight. Might I add-- the weather has been perfect here too-- low-mid 80's and very low humidity.Our next stop was the Washington monument--finally the landmark that i've been seeing from far away all over the city was right at my feet. Better yet--our tour included tickets to go to the top. It was the best view of the city from above, by far. There were glass lookouts on each side and below the windows were picture's of what the view looked like in the 1800's, around 60 years ago and map's of what we could see in the present. It's crazy that this mammoth city made of brick, marble and stone used to be vast swampland.Following the Monument we rolled on in to the Obama Family's driveway. We obviously weren't allowed on the other side of the gate. Like the Capitol Building, it is heavily guarded by police and I am sure special service. I knew ahead of time that we couldn't get as close as the lawn, but of course with my picture obsession here, I definitely wanted to get closer.Just down the pavement from the White House there were several tents with very calm citizen's sitting the shade. In front of them was a banner stating that they were all on a hunger strike-- and they were on day 38. I was shocked--I thought I learned in like grade school that the longest you could go without food was somewhere around 2 weeks. They were protesting a raid by Iraqi forces on an Iranian refugee camp that was supposed to be protected under the Geneva Act. Many people were killed, hundred's wounded and 36 abducted.
I signed their petition to the president and chatted with one of the protester's for a little bit. He seemed very exhausted and in general just had a calm nature, and he was very concerned about the mistreatment of the victim's involved. These people sure made me
understand the lengths to which you can speak out for something you believe.We then jetted on to the Ford Theater which was where Abraham Lincoln was assasinated. There was a little museum in the basement and after we checked out some of the facts and exhibit's about his life and his presidency, we went into the theater where the shot was fired. I took picture's of the presidential suite he was in, and it was quite an eerie feeling trying to imagine being in the exact same place in 1865. One of my favorite people is and has always been Mr. Lincoln. I don't think there has been anyone as virtuous, brave and wisdom-filled as him since way before his time. Can you imagine where our country would be had he not stood up for the cause of humanifying our economy and social system. To stand firm-when what you are fighting for-is causing the country that you are supposed to take care of to divide and kill-- is really something else. Of course abolition of slavery was the right thing to do and the best thing for his country, but to be the leader of war where your friend's, families and dependents are either mourning or dieing (and he had friend's and family that were in the confederacy) must have left some kind of guilt in his heart, but still he forged on.Across the street was the actual house where, after he was shot, he was brought into and later died in. It was a very quick walk through-- a very small house. And in the back room we got to take a picture of the room he passed on in. I took a picture of the bed on display-- which is exactly where he ended, but a sign said the actual bed was at a museum in Chicago. I once again got an eerie feeling standing in this room, but I felt lucky to be able to reflect right at the scene of the crime.The tour finally ended and we came back to the convention. Our next speaker was Dr. A. Thomas McLellan the Deputy Director of ONDCP. He is also known as America's Drug Czar. The new administration set up this department in an effort to end the "War on Drugs" and begin paving a new road which will be more focused on supporting treatment and sustaining recovery. He presented to us some of his background in research of the field which then supported his reasoning for what he plans on doing to better recovery and treatment programs in the Country. He said that we were the first group to which he was speaking since he has been appointed, and the only person who had received the information and his agenda for the U.S. was our Vice President, his boss, Joe Biden. Oxford House, Inc. is something he strongly believes in as a superior way to assist in recovery, especially in the early stage.

The business portion of the day closed with an Awards ceremony for all the Oxford Houses who donated $50 dollars or more to Oxford World Services every month of the year. Washington State leads the nation in the amount of houses we have-- a growing 208 total. And almost all of the chapter's in the state require the world donation (which it was clear at the ceremony that the same is not true in all of the other states) On top of that, Washington State has by far the most people here. So at the end of the ceremony it was explained that since
Washington has so outstanding in the area of World Service's, we will get our award tomorrow in the morning general session, where more people will be attending. GO WASHINGTON STATE :) I also go my picture taken with Paul Molloy, which was an honor for me!
And finally, our evening commenced with a dinner cruised on the Potomac River. It was a high energy cruise on a 4 floor yacht which held at least 500 of us. The dinner was delicious, but even cooler was the entertainment. The worker's on the boat were singing and dancing and involving the audience. The sun was setting and that view,and the view of the city were unbelievable!! I couldn't stop snapping picture's as the sky changed from orange to pink to
red to maroon and then black. The moon was huge and bright and could've passed for the sun, had it not been setting. Then Thea and I joined the dance floor (one of the 2 dance floors) and "Got Jiggy With It". It was such a blast and we didn't stop until the heat was suffocating us and had to go outside for fresh air. All in all, once again this day has given me some wonderful memories and plenty of reason to be grateful and in love with my life. I hope this post finds you in good health and heaps of happiness. Internet is still a tricky/spendy situation, but somehow I am living through it.:) XOXO

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