Monday Meanderings...

Well, technically its after midnight and that makes this Tuesday but its Mondays blog anyway. It seems an eternity ago that the alarm jerked me out of my dream of snow melting and flooding the city and back to the reality it was time to go to work…

This morning was staff meeting which I always enjoy as a time to get to know the other IRF officers better. Lots of talk about the inaugural address and how it affects IRF. Some argue that its great words but Secretary Rice won’t back it up, other argue the opposite. Regardless, everyone’s happy that the official policy of the executive branch of the government backs up the office’s mission…particularly important since its so disliked by other State Dept offices who see it as a Christian movement.

I spent much of the day working on a memo package for Secretary Rice. I’m figuring out all the formatting and drafting so we can present her with specific decisions regarding sanctions on the nations with severe religious persecution. It’s an interesting project though its requiring a lot of legislative research which is new to me. Kinda cool protocol says it all has to have my name on it…any grammar mistakes Dr. Rice catches reflect directly on me =)

At noon the Ambassador asked me to join him to go participate in the rally kicking off the national march for life today. It was my first, obviously, at the national rally and the size was overwhelmingly huge. It was so cold today that everyone was miserable so the turnout was even more remarkable. Several senators and congressmen spoke and then Amb. Hanford talked to them afterwards since the allies of the pro-life movement are generally the same allies of the IRF movement. Amb Hanford is a former senator so he knows many of them that way too. I found out my fave Senator went from evangelical to catholic this year (Brownback of Kansas) so that’s a little strange and something I want to look into.

It was so cold out there I thought my toes would be gone by the time we returned to heat. The president spoke via live phone for a few minutes (he’s at camp david w/dr. rice) and it was interesting to be in such a pro-Bush crowd for once. Oc, the large majority of the crowd was from out-of-state. Saw Randall Terry talking to everyone—blast from the past. Amb. Hanford is from N.C. so he knew him from protest days in Charlotte. Funny what a small world… Alan Keyes and various other senators spoke as well before the actual march kicked off and we headed back to get stuff done at the office.

About mid-afternoon I looked out the window and was shocked to see it snowing AGAIN. It just keeps coming. The closed schools early because of the cold. Ironic to me, since classrooms are heated and in Arequipa I have often taught classes while bundled up and shivering cold without heat so it seems sad they have so little resistance to cold here!

I was happy to get my assignment back today and get an A. I’m still confused as to the professor’s preferences since he give me good grades but edits some of my writing to make it more secular. Perhaps he tries to be moderate on some issues where I am strongly conservative. Hard to read into little comments he makes but he does think I’m skeptical because I refused to embrace any utopian ideas of bettering the world. Perhaps I am, but if so, it is only because I fear the destructive power of utopian lies.

Tomorrow I start at the Heritage Foundation. Should be a new and interesting addition to my life. One more way to keep busy.

Miss you,
Marc/marco/Martha/#2/me