Oh Happy Day !!

Michelle's dress...

and more on the First Family fashion and the 2 First Daughters who are not dressed like miniature prostitutes..

First ladies fashion....


The Mrs O blog...

A slideshow of Mrs O....

About spring color...

THE Poster...



From now on we'll have rainbows everyday, and a Unicorn in everyone's backyard...

SOTA...Art, Fun & Music

Saturday the 15th........So we went to the SOTA Theater to see Our Town by Thornton Wilder
.....acted by some preternaturally talented young folks.....superb!
It's a little play with all the big subjects in it.
-- Thornton Wilder in a letter to Gertrude Stein, 1937

It was also John's birthday (14 !!!) so we went.......... since , you know me, I love the arts!
I've vowed to see more live plays......to hell with the budget......

I'm doing my part to A) Pump the Economy.....and B) Support the Arts.......

And now, it's your turn.

So much to do in Tacoma now. It used to be: bowling, homework, and a bath on Saturday. Not no more!!
I really wanted to go to The Helm show.....but alas.
And music and booze was at The Tempest.
And I'd like to just point out that neither SOTA, The Helm, The Tempest.....were here for 23 years after I moved here........How did I survive? How did my children grow up and not become crackheads?

So for John's birthday, we did more sedate activites......ate Sushi.......he got a brand new VINTAGE Polaroid camera........

...... children are a drag.....what with birthdays and Washington State Liquor laws being what they are......
I grew up in my mom's bar....surrounded by drunks, drinking, bar food eating, and bad words and it didn't do me a bit of harm.
Made me Salty tho.
It's just asinine to keep kids away from venues where music is played.....and booze is drunk......if the kids are with the parents.........
Hells Bells.....that happens right here in Tacoma, at home, in front of the children everyday.
And in Spanaway too........A little Metallica....A little Red bull/Vodka/Schmidt Ice.
Now that Obama is our president (almost..) maybe we can become more cosmopolitan.......more in love with life.......celebrate more......hate less..........

A new day. With vintage clothes and vintage values

It's a new day........

Let's buy something ! It's American you know.....
How?

Because buying vintage is good, very very good.....


for you .....for the planet.....saves resources......

Makes you feel almost as good as thinkin' about Bush Leaving....

The White House

Funkoma Vintage....712 Broadway

daily -- noon to 7(ish)

What's at the shop?
Oh a lot....
….and more more more……..

NEW auctions on ebay!!!

on ebay here's a sample

click skelli to take you to ebay

vintage rolling stones t

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40s 50s rayon dress M L

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70s woodlands trees mini

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80s purple party dress

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80s black bubble party dress

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50s XL fall dress

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these things below are

at my etsy shop...click me

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2 hours in line for Democracy......

I am most happy to see Obama win because I know that my children and grandchildren will live in a progressive and more fair America since Obama will likely get to choose 4 or 5 new Supreme Court Justices.
Since Obama/Biden are highly intelligent lawyers, they understand law and biases in the thinking of the interpretation of law, and their original intent by the lawmakers, and the integrity of The Constitution.


At Immanuel Presbyterian we had to stand in line for 2+ hours......I was rather shocked to hear so many MIDDLE AGED people say (in the North End!!) they had NEVER voted!! WTH??!!
This is exactly what the rich and powerful want....to so demoralize you so much that you just entertain and gorge yourself and check out of Democracy......
The fact that the old, the young, the black, the brown, the yellow, the green, the poor GOT OUT AND VOTED made the difference.
Why is the Supreme Court the most important issue ? Because, pass all the progressive laws you want in Congress and in state legislatures, but if it gets challenged, and gets in front of a conservative unintellectual Supreme Court, we will stay in The Dark Ages for ever!


Will McCain supporters line up behind Obama.....I think so because McCain isn't exactly like Bush....Mc's no Maverick, and there are fundamental differences. Bush is aligned with Neo-Cons, though his political life is really all about using America to make rich people richer.........and Mc is more old-school Republican. You betcha!

So.....let's recap the Bush Administration.................Lying, war-mongering, war profiteering, and unconstitutional behavior wasn't supported by "the left". We didn't support the neo-cons and Bush/Cheney because they are criminals and race-baters, not to mention, shredding the constitution. Appointing "black" people to high-profile window-dressing positions, only to use them to further a horrifically damaging foreign policy/disaster economics, is not a Win situation for "black" people. It damages "their" credibility since folks will see them used as pawns in an administration that has hurt America for decades to come.
A patriot supports the country and legal actions....a person who only wants their way, flaunting laws, and bankrupting the country while channeling the wealth of the GDP to the top 1% isn't acting in America's best interest, I mean, ALL of America's best interest...
Colin Powell succinctly defined history and the future of America when he repudiated in clear language the legacy of Bush/Cheney and the neo-cons that used his credibility to set this country and the world on a dangerous course for no more good reason than to set up a few friends in a multi-billion dollar money making scheme..(Blackwater, Halliburton, Mobil-Exxon, just to name a few who are happy to see the like of Bush/Cheney in power).....and uh,

How will history see this time of America.........
The truth is that the current administration is not the most disastrous in our history. George W. Bush's record on running up debt to burden our children is only the worst since Ronald Reagan. His record on government surveillance of citizens is only the worst since Richard Nixon. His record on foreign-military policy has gotten us into only our worst foreign mess since Lyndon Johnson sank us into Vietnam. His economic record on job creation is only the worst since Herbert Hoover. His record of tax favoritism for the rich is only the worst since Calvin Coolidge. His record of trampling on civil liberties is only the worst since Woodrow Wilson or perhaps John Adams.
Here's why Bush's presidency has been a disaster, although not quite the worst in our history. This president has:

* Taken, in the wake of the terrorist attacks three years ago, the greatest worldwide outpouring of goodwill the United States has enjoyed at least since World War II and squandered it by insisting on pursuing a foolish go-it-almost-alone invasion of Iraq, thereby transforming almost universal support for the United States into worldwide condemnation.
* Promoted the extraordinarily dangerous doctrine of preemptive war.
* Presided over the loss of more than a million American jobs, the worst record since Herbert Hoover.
* Misled the American public about weapons of mass destruction and alleged ties to Al-Qaida in Iraq and so led us into a war that has plainly and predictably made us less secure, caused a boom in the recruitment of terrorists, is killing American military personnel needlessly and is threatening to suck up all our available military forces and be a bottomless pit for the money of American taxpayers for years to come.
* Failed to follow through in Afghanistan, where the Taliban and Al-Qaida are regrouping, once more increasing the threat to our people.
* Insulted and ridiculed other nations and international organizations and then found it necessary to go, hat in hand, to those nations and organizations begging for their assistance.
* Inherited an annual federal budget surplus of $230 billion and transformed it into a $400-plus billion deficit in less than three years. This negative turnaround of nearly three-quarters of a trillion dollars is without precedent in our history.
* Perhaps worst of all, wrapped himself in the flag and used the horrors of 9/11 to divert the voters' attention from the disasters that his policies have produced.

It must be admitted, though, that in terms of what it sought to do, the Bush presidency has been successful. His presidency has been remarkably successful, as one historian declared, in its pursuit of disastrous policies. Viewed from this perspective, President Bush's own description in a Time interview (Sept. 6 issue) of his war in Iraq is the best assessment of his presidency as a whole: a catastrophic success. It has been all-too-successful in producing catastrophe.
That article was written 9-20-04...So there is a lot left out of the whole truth of the Bush/Cheney administration.....And I didn't even get to Katrina, homelessness, health care......

Back to Historians......

Historians are in a better position than others to make judgments about how a current president’s policies and actions compare with those of his predecessors. Those judgments are always subject to change in light of future developments. But that is no reason not to make them now.

The comments that many of the respondents included with their evaluations provide a clear sense of the reasons behind the overwhelming consensus that George W. Bush’s presidency is among the worst in American history.

“No individual president can compare to the second Bush,” wrote one. “Glib, contemptuous, ignorant, incurious, a dupe of anyone who humors his deluded belief in his heroic self, he has bankrupted the country with his disastrous war and his tax breaks for the rich, trampled on the Bill of Rights, appointed foxes in every henhouse, compounded the terrorist threat, turned a blind eye to torture and corruption and a looming ecological disaster, and squandered the rest of the world’s goodwill. In short, no other president’s faults have had so deleterious an effect on not only the country but the world at large.”

“With his unprovoked and disastrous war of aggression in Iraq and his monstrous deficits, Bush has set this country on a course that will take decades to correct,” said another historian. “When future historians look back to identify the moment at which the United States began to lose its position of world leadership, they will point—rightly—to the Bush presidency. Thanks to his policies, it is now easy to see America losing out to its competitors in any number of area: China is rapidly becoming the manufacturing powerhouse of the next century, India the high tech and services leader, and Europe the region with the best quality of life.”

One historian indicated that his reason for rating Bush as worst is that the current president combines traits of some of his failed predecessors: “the paranoia of Nixon, the ethics of Harding and the good sense of Herbert Hoover. . . . . God willing, this will go down as the nadir of American politics.” Another classified Bush as “an ideologue who got the nation into a totally unnecessary war, and has broken the Constitution more often than even Nixon. He is not a conservative, nor a Christian, just an immoral man . . . .” Still another remarked that Bush’s “denial of any personal responsibility can only be described as silly.”

“It would be difficult to identify a President who, facing major international and domestic crises, has failed in both as clearly as President Bush,” concluded one respondent. “His domestic policies,” another noted, “have had the cumulative effect of shoring up a semi-permanent aristocracy of capital that dwarfs the aristocracy of land against which the founding fathers rebelled; of encouraging a mindless retreat from science and rationalism; and of crippling the nation’s economic base.”

“George Bush has combined mediocrity with malevolent policies and has thus seriously damaged the welfare and standing of the United States,” wrote one of the historians, echoing the assessments of many of his professional colleagues. “Bush does only two things well,” said one of the most distinguished historians. “He knows how to make the very rich very much richer, and he has an amazing talent for f**king up everything else he even approaches. His administration has been the most reckless, dangerous, irresponsible, mendacious, arrogant, self-righteous, incompetent, and deeply corrupt one in all of American history.”

Four years ago I rated George W. Bush’s presidency as the second worst, a bit above that of James Buchanan. Now, however, like so many other professional historians, I see the administration of the second Bush as clearly the worst in our history. My reasons are similar to those cited by other historians: In the wake of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the United States enjoyed enormous support around the world. President Bush squandered that goodwill by taking the country into an unnecessary war of choice and misleading the American people to gain support for that war. And he failed utterly to have a plan to deal with Iraq after the invasion. He further undermined the international reputation of the United States....

Studs Terkel RIP......

I love Chicago....it reminded me of a big big Tacoma....I started calling Tacoma "The City of Medium Sized Shoulders".......in honor of the moniker Chicago has......"The City of Big Shoulders"........
I went there in 2004 with my galfriends, Kelly and Ann.....I convinced them to go to The Goth Convergence 10......it was so much fun.....and they made it a wonderful time!
We had to change planes in SLC and who should be there on his way to Chicago..But Piss Pants Ray....that's right....Ray Corpuz....

Wednesday, July 2, 2003

Tacoma's Corpuz is fired
Divided council's decision on city manager follows Brame case fallout

By JEFFREY M. BARKER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

TACOMA -- Trying to get past the murder-suicide of police Chief David Brame and his wife, a divided City Council voted yesterday to fire City Manager Ray Corpuz Jr., who promoted Brame to chief despite warning signs that he wasn't fit for the job.

Corpuz, on paid leave for nearly two months, had been criticized since the April shootings that shocked Tacoma and spurred investigations into the inner workings of the police department and City Hall.

So when I read that Studs Terkel died, who was a graduate of University of Chicago Law School, in 1934, I thought of this song. I think of the working class all the time...them's my people. I think of how Tacoma used to have a law school, which is one of the reasons why Tacoma was a great city. You can't be a great city without a law school.....it's unAmerican.
So, all Tacoma has left is condos and the waterfront.
And Chicago has lost Terkel, but still has Obama, who taught Constitutional Law in that same University.
And I think I'd rather have a president who teaches Constitutional Law, as opposed to a president that shits on it for corporate profits and thereby shitting on the working class.......and you.....who are working class, whether in a blue collar or white collar job.....if you ain't Independently wealthy you are working class, sister.
And that's how I get from Studs to Working ...........Ray Corpuz to Obama and another reason to vote Obama on Tuesday.
Choose carefully the people who run your life.....Ray Corpuz was a disaster for Crystal Brame and her children, a disaster for Tacoma's police (Unionized !!), and Corpuz is cut from the same cloth as Sarah Palin. Power mixed with stupid is a powder keg. Don't touch that match!

You Can't Go Home Again.....

Napa Valley was built on and fortunes made from, the sweat and labor of illegal immigration for decades....that fine wine you drink was made possible by Mexicans coming up and picking the grapes.....How do I know this? I was raised in the Napa Valley...Yountville specifically....where my parents were homeowners, landlords, business owners and politicians. We have ICE right here baby....we have illegals right here baby...


The Napa Valley Register, a fine fish wrap newspaper that I read during my formative years, has just endorsed McCain.
You know McCain ...the Secure Borders/Make Illegals Pay For the Sin of Being Exploited by Agri-business.
MC wants a bio-metric ID card/documents for workers...opening the door to a National ID card....wants the illegals to pay all the back taxes and a fine,etc....How are they gonna do that? Sounds scary, unworkable and mean-spirited.
Obama's plan does much of the same thing without forcing the poor to pay more of what they don't have...and moves the process along so we can have Guest Workers to pick our food/wine products so we can enjoy a nice American life without guilt and shame. Oh, NO bio-metric ID Card required....
This is from MC's website:
Comprehensive Immigration Initiatives for a Secure Nation. Once the borders are secure, John McCain will:

Prosecute “Bad-Actor” Employers. John McCain will implement a secure, accurate, and reliable electronic employment verification system to ensure that individuals are screened for work eligibility in a real-time fashion. John McCain will use this new system in conjunction with other Department of Homeland Security resources to identify and aggressively prosecute employers that continue to hire illegal immigrants. The Electronic Employment Verification System will:

* Establish a user-friendly system employing a limited set of secure documents that contain biometric data and are electronically verifiable to check a worker’s identity.
* Institute targeted auditing by Department of Labor in order to weed out employers abusing the system.

Can you spell Irony? The Napa Valley gets rich on the backs of the desperate poor, and no one notices the work force is illegal (much of it) and the major newspaper of the Valley endorses the presidential candidate that wants to hold Employers responsible for breaking the law.....and punish the illegals too, and start a bio-metric ID card/documents....you know Big Brother...

Currently employers have to check documents to insure no illegals are being hired....checking for valid Social Security numbers...most of this is online!! Funny how so many aren't doing that......

Yes the party of Limited Government Except in Cases of Major Financial FuckUp Due To Unregulated Credit Swap Schemes Based on Fraudulent SubPrime Mortgages That Have Nearly Destroyed The Economy Of The Planet Earth....
wants to
a) Make criminals of rich agri-business (Napa Valley's reason for existence)
b) Make scapegoats/indentured servants of poor workers (Napa Valley's exploitation of the working class-McCain's insistence illegals pay and pay and pay)
c) Establish a mandatory worker bio-metric ID card/documents (Do I have to explain that one also?)

and just for more info/diversion....please click my Spychip link over there --->
Also on this page of MC's.....I don't want to fail again to achieve comprehensive immigration reform.
Oh no! Shades of The Big Lebowski......
and the Little Urban Achievers.....and those who fail to achieve....

About the illegals here now.....MC says: lets make em pay back taxes and a fine!! Fuzzy proposal on a fair worker system for temporary work status, and deny them a green card for years....which will effectively shut down our food/wine development system, so MC further states:
* Low-skilled agricultural workers:

o Reform the H-2A visa program to provide a non-bureaucratic, adaptable, useable program that is reflective of market needs and protects both the immigrant and US workers.

Address the Undocumented. John McCain will address the fact that we have a large number undocumented individuals living in the United States and working in our economy.

Assure that the remaining undocumented immigrants learn English, pay back taxes and fines, and pass a citizenship course as part of a path to legal status.

---------Still with me? --------
Obama offers a clear path with details......Obama says:

Voted YES on establishing a Guest Worker program.

Voting YES establishes a guest worker program with a path to citizenship for illegal aliens who have worked in the US for 5 years. The bill:
• Increases border security and enforcement
• Makes it unlawful to knowingly hire, recruit, or refer for a fee an unauthorized alien.
• Establishes a temporary guest worker program (H-2C visa) with a three-year admission and one additional three-year extension; and issuance of H-4 nonimmigrant visas for accompanying or following spouse and children;
• Provides permanent resident status adjustment for a qualifying illegal alien, and family, for aliens who have been in the US and employed for five years.

-----------------------

In a nutshell, pay a fine, learn English/citizenship, get to the back of the line to get a green card, work with Mexico, establish a Guest Worker program, make employers follow the law and pay legal wages.
I'm not (believe it or not.) comfortable with making employers Of all sizes and crimes..uh, Criminals over this matter. I'd prefer a HUGE fine and other disincentives coupled with sensible humane guest worker programs.
With Obama, I don't see anything about a Bio-Metric required ID Card/Documents...that would be the Republican position. You know...papers..can I see your papers??

I Want me a Deadhead for Obama sticker.....

So I'll be stopping in at TacomaObama headquarters.....to get me some stickers and sign up for some ObamaWork...
Meanwhile, I want this:


But I did find this:

and I really like this:

edit---sept 14....the above sticker is available thru CafePress......and uh, word up John+Sarah....an election campaign IS Community Organizing...It is exactly what the Founding Fathers/Mothers of these United States did (to the indigenous but that's another post)...so...end edit........
Why would anyone denigrate Community Organizing? Are they against Democracy?
I can't believe anyone with a brain would vote for McCain/Palin. Have you completely lost your mind?

im in ur base....

Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes

I'm not even sure you realize how much important fundamental change is needed in the direction this country is going.....but chew on dat Chew On Dat......
But 75% of the income made during this Bush Admin......went to the top 1% of Americans...
that means.........You middle class workers......just got royally screwed by the Reagan Revolution of tax cuts for the wealthy and massive deregulation......
did ya enjoy it? That was Class Warfare.....and you didn't see it coming.....
they now treat you like they've always treated the poor....disposable....
Welcome to the Hyper-Inflation 3rd World.....no need to travel to Mexico.....the Banana Republic is Here .........
Your mortgage is in default, your credit cards are maxed out, and you haven't had a raise in a decade, and you have no health care.
That's a Republican for ya !!!!!

Europe is already 20 years ahead of us in energy conservation and fiscal responsibility, need I mention Health Care, while we spend a billion a month (might as well be if you add the interest on the national debt) to fight a "war" solely for the benefit of the Oil Companies......2 Oil Men in the top jobs in the White House...what did you think was gonna happen????

Julian Bond. My Hero. Obama. The Flag Bearer.

When I was about to graduate from The Evergreen State College in 2003, I pulled my app to graduate mainly for one reason. Amy Goodman and the lily-livered student body that did not vote for Julian Bond to come and speak at MY graduation.
Therefore, I chose to wait another year and we got Derrick Jensen as our speaker in 2005.
Also Joe Carr and many other smart folks were in the 2004 graduating class
Going to college was a hard road for me. It wasn't easy for me at all. It was easy for you. You had support. I didn't. I built that path, by myself, stone by stone.
And since Julian Bond is one the worlds greatest treasures and I was soooo disappointed in the white myopic bubble-dwellers that make up the majority of the Evergreeners, I refused to graduate until 2005, and there were other reasons, but this is all you get. Today.

So Julian Bond was there from the beginning. He is a nearly flawless person. And since I have said since Day One.......and Obama is walking in the path of the Great Ones....that moves the American culture forward against their will........
NO NO NO Hillary......Her Hates Are Too High..........she's a classic backroom politician.
I am an Obama Girl for the same reason I was a Kennedy Girl (all of 'em).
Are you old enough to have really marched in the Vietnam era anti-war protests? Did you politic to get the correct people elected? I did. Sadly I don't control the world!
The fathers of all my kids are Vietnam Vets. I am old enough to have been there.

From my lofty perspective, as an elder, I had a very disturbing deja vu !
I grew up in Cali and I knew what Reagan would do to the country, .......the same as what he did to Cali. Bad.
And George Bush. (All of them)
Saw. It. Coming.
This is why I write. Because I am not In the Mix, or In the Middle, I see things from a diff perspective. I'm not middle class and I don't want to be. I'm not as white as you think I am. And aint that a Good Thing !!!
*****************
And I have a great Bullshit Detector. This is why I am always in trouble. Oh well.
Yes, I'll go see OBAMA Friday in Tacoma. Yes, I will close the shop. Hooray. OBAMA !

OBAMA ! OBAMA ! OBAMA ! OBAMA !
****************
Julian Bond

In 1960, Bond was a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and served as communications director from 1961 to 1966. From 1960 to 1963, he led student protests against segregation in public facilities in Georgia.

Bond left Morehouse in 1961, returning to complete his degree, a BA in English, in 1971. He helped found the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a public interest law firm based in Montgomery, Alabama, along with Morris Dees. He was that organization's president from 1971 to 1979. Bond remains a member of the board of directors of the SPLC.

In 1965, Bond was one of 8 African Americans elected to the Georgia House of Representatives. On January 10, 1966, however, the Georgia state representatives voted 184-12 not to seat him because he publicly endorsed the SNCC's statement of opposition to U.S. policy in the Vietnam War and his sympathy for persons who were "unwilling to respond to a military draft," ^[1]. A U.S. District Court panel ruled 2-1 that the Georgia House had not violated any federal rights. In 1966, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 9-0, in the case of Bond v. Floyd (385 U.S. 116), that the Georgia House of Representatives had denied Bond his freedom of speech and that it was required to seat him.

From 1965 to 1975, he served as a Democratic member in the Georgia House for four terms. He went on to serve six terms in the Georgia Senate from 1975-1986.

During the 1968 Presidential election, Bond led a challenge delegation from Georgia to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Here, unexpectedly and contrary to his intention, he became the first African-American to be proposed as a major-party candidate for Vice President of the United States. While expressing gratitude for the honor, the 28-year-old Bond quickly declined, citing the constitutional requirement that one must be at least 35 years of age to serve in that office.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Bond is at present Chairman of the NAACP while continuing to write and lecture about the history of the civil rights movement and the condition of African Americans and the poor. He is President Emeritus of the Southern Poverty Law Center. He hosted America's Black Forum from 1980 until 1997. He remains a commentator for the Forum, for radio's Byline, and for NBC's The Today Show. He authored the nationally-syndicated newspaper column Viewpoint. He narrated the critically-acclaimed PBS series Eyes on the Prize in 1987 and 1990.

He has published A Time To Speak, A Time To Act, a collection of his essays, as well as Black Candidates Southern Campaign Experiences. His poems and articles have appeared in a Who’s Who list of magazines and newspapers.

Bond is a supporter of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered rights and marriage equality.

from wikipedia.

************************

Civil rights activist and politician Julian Bond was born on January 14, 1940, in Nashville, Tennessee. He and his family moved to Pennsylvania, where his father, Horace Mann Bond, was appointed president of Lincoln University.

In 1960, Bond was one of several hundred students who helped form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In 1965, Bond was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives. He was barred from taking his seat due to his outspoken statements against the Vietnam War. In December 1966, the Supreme Court ruled in his favor and he served four terms as a state representative and six terms in the Georgia State Senate. During the 1968 presidential election, he was the first African American to be nominated for vice president of the United States. He withdrew his name from the ballot, however, because he was too young to serve. Later, Bond hosted America's Black Forum.

Bond continues his tradition of activism as chairman of the NAACP. He also serves as president emeritus of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Bond is a distinguished scholar in residence at American University in Washington, D.C., and a faculty member in the History Department at the University of Virginia.

Bond was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on April 21, 2000.