as mama orders

my father is fine. they released him from the hospital today and he didn't even have to have surgery. diet, exercise, blah blah blah ... the point is, he's not in danger. thank god.

so my mom's on her way to ohio. ben just departed for there. amazingly, the flyers they'll be handing out, as they protect the rights of inner city voters everywhere, were designed by my oldest friend liz. it's like a reunion!, only, duh, minus me. i'll be here in new york, praying hard, and citing the example of sodom.

this was my basis for telling claire that i was relatively sure everything would be okay. if god wants bush to win, it's because he's ready for the world to end; and by his own mandate, he won't end the world if there are 10 good people to be found. the source for this is the famous story of sodom. god wanted to destroy sodom, a town known for its wickedness. abraham pleaded with god to save the city for the sake of its well-meaning inhabitants.

how many are there?, asked god.
50?, replied abraham.
nope, said god.
er, 40?
nope, said god.
25?
abraham worked god down to ten. when it was established that fewer than 10 good people lived in the town, abraham stopped fighting and let god wipe it out. so 10 is clearly the ceiling! and there MUST be 10 good people in the whole world. at least 5 good friends of mine should qualify.

by the way, the handful of "good people" who did live in sodom got a warning to leave before Hurricane Char-ley hit. one of these people offered his 2 virgin daughters to an angry mob, one of them got mired in regret and was turned into a pillar of salt, and two of them conspired to trick and sleep with their father. makes you wonder what the wicked were like.

best of luck to all of you out doing noble work tomorrow, trying to keep the world from crashing in on our heads. let's hope we get a better result than we got 4 years ago.