I saw the president!

Well, at least I saw his motorcade! I was coming out of the UN tour, and the street was blocked as if for a parade. Hundreds of NY police were everywhere for blocks. I overheard a cop telling people that the president was coming through, and minutes later he did. I hope you can view this video. It's just a bunch of official looking vehicles (about 50!) turning the corner from the midtown tunnel onto First Avenue, but I was pretty excited.

Tour the United Nations for sense of hope.

Yesterday I took a 45-minute guided tour of the United Nations. I highly recommend doing this if you're in NYC.

If you are EVER feeling despair about the world's problems and wondering if anything good is going on, just learn a few facts about this great organization where thousands of programs help make the world a better place.

I spent two hours this morning reading over their website. I actually signed up to donate monthly to their free rice project. Take a look at this interactive site that lets you compete on trivia games with others all over the world. As you progress, you also feed the hungry. I'm not sure how in the world that works, but I'm guessing it is funded privately. Anyway, there's no cost to you, and you can learn and have fun doing it: www.freerice.com.

Here's one of the pictures I took outside the UN. It says it all.