All the noise about Prop 8

It seems like a lot of Christians have been weighing in on one particular political issue this election season: Prop 8, the marriage clause.  There was some pretty amazing organization on the part of faith-based orgs. to get petitions signed to get this on the ballot.  It seems like the main argument for keeping marriage between a man and a woman is: because the Bible says so/that’s what God intended.  I have also been told that Christians should vote yes on this prop (to make the law say marriage is between man and woman) because the Bible is the authority.  There has also been quite a bit of frenzy around schools in Massachusets supposedly  teaching about gay marriage/homosexuality in schools.  I have a couple thoughts on this prop and these arguments, which if you care to read, you will find below.

1) The first thing that strikes me about the Christian response to this prop is the call for unity and action on this issue, and the general assumption that if you’re a Christian, you will automatically vote yes (unless you’re a Methodist, that is).  Why is this the issue that Christians mobilize around and get really vocal on?  Why aren’t we collectively angry that there is still an unjust war going on in which innocent people are getting killed everyday, while our future unborn children are getting saddled with debt?  Why aren’t we collectively angry that our nation seems completely unconcerned that our education system is in shambles, that our children grow up learning how to take tests instead of think critically and write well.  Why is it always the gay issue that the church rallies around as the moral threat to our nation?

2)  Marriage is not now what God once intended it to be.  This is evident in the fact that Christians have the same divorce rate as secular society, by domestic violence rates both in Christian and non-Christian households, by the whole notion of pre-nuptial agreements.  Anyone can get married; there is no pre-license interview in which you must pledge to fight for your marriage, avoiding divorce at all costs; there is no agreement you must sign that says “I will not cheat on my spouse or beat them or emotionally abuse them or withhold sex;” you can be of any religion, and you don’t even have to believe in God.  Christians are so hypocritical on this issue when it comes to divorce.  Many churches have divorce support groups; there is just no question that we’re perfectly fine with divorce.  It’s not what God wanted, but it happens is the church’s attitude.  I have never heard of divorce or remarried people being turned away from a church or denied leadership positions, but it happens all the time for gay people.  You want to gay people to have rights, just not be able to get married; you want to call it “civil unions?”  Fine, but then all “unions” should be called such, because clearly not all marriages are what God intended.

3) In this country, we have separation of church and state.  The Bible is no the constitution, the constitution is the constitution.  Do we really want to live in a theocracy?  The Arab world lives in theocracies, is that what we want in this country?  But the Bible doesn’t call for jihads and oppression of women, you say.  Some people think it does, and some people who thought it did did some very bad things because of it.  There are all manner of interpretations of ANY spiritual document, and ours is no exception.   We have separation of church and state for a very good reason, so that no one may impose and/or oppress others with their religious beliefs.  Many awful things have been justified through a belief in the Christian faith; our Constitution at one time said that black people were only part human, and slavery was upheld and justified by citing scripture.  The Bible’s words have been twisted to suit all manner of oppression, when truthfully, the bottom line was always monetary.  Sometimes the courts make law because something is wrong and society is unwilling to change it.  Example: many civil rights laws.  Many, many people did not think segregation was wrong, and many many people today would like segregation to return.  Do we put this to a popular vote? No, because it is wrong.  We cannot oppress people because some people think it’s o.k. The court ruled on this issue and granted gay people the right to get married.  Many gay people did.  Now we’re proposing to legally say “PSYCH!,” just kidding!  You don’t give someone something and then take it away.  Especially civil rights.

4)  Exactly what is it about gay relationships that so incenses Christians?  If we say we’re not homophobic (and many Christians do say this), then why do we want to keep gay people from getting married?  I know several gay/lesbian people in long-term relationships (longer than most straight couples I’ve known).  I should look them in the eye and say “my relationship is better/more meaningful/more committed/more valid than yours because I’m straight?”  Can anyone honestly do that?  I know Christians that make exceptions in their general beliefs on this matter because of personal relationships; gay family members, co-workers, friends.  Why do we do that?  Why do we say, oh, well, you’re o.k. because I know you, but it’s not o.k. for everyone else.  Wrong. It is in general, not o.k. to hate on anyone just because we don’t agree with what they’re doing.  As for gay marriage being taught in school and children are going to be corrupted/consider being gay because they heard it in school.  This is the most ludicrous bunch of malarchy I’ve ever heard.  If you don’t want your kids to know that gay people exist, you’re setting them up to be a really ignorant member of society.  Just because they hear it at school doesn’t mean they will do it/be it.  This is where parents come in, teaching their kids about right and wrong, etc.  We teach our kids a lot of things at school that are scary, wrong, and shameful; many of them having to do with some things our country has done.  Hopefully our kids will not be racist because they learn that our country enslaved people for a very long time, threw Japanese people in internment camps for no good reason, and is currently suspending the civil rights of ANYONE you and I might consider a terrorist/unpartiotic (the Patriot Act, anyone?).

My thoughts are not to condemn anyone who is in favor of Prop 8, only to explain why I am against it, and why I think people should think a bit more critically before deciding.  I voted NO on prop 8 (Iabsentee ballot), and believe Jesus is good with that.  I don’t think I recall any time when he said it was cool to actively oppress other/deny others rights based on our belief in him.  I am prepared to have people tell me I’m not really a Christian, that I’m going against God/the Bible, and all that kind of thing, but I don’t care.  I will listen and have listened to all the arguments in favor, and I don’t spit in people’s faces just because I don’t agree with them.  I know this is a tough issue, and it is especially tough use your voting power (because it IS power) when you think you might be going against God.  I don’t think people who vote in favor of Prop 8 are bad people, just as I hope they wouldn’t think that of me.

 

When I Can’t See Past the Moment

Exhaustion is Nothing

Exhaustion is

exhausting

Like a barking dog, I’m afraid

but I don’t know of what

Something out there

I don’t know what it is

So—

do I keep barking?

Panting, breathing, wondering, needing

to know what’s going on

What’s out there/what’s in here

with Me?

I’m afraid of what I can’t see

If I just

Feel

my way to the light

Moth-like, quick

fluttering bursts of flight

Slowly, quavering up and down, up and down

I can sense that yes, there is something there

Instead of what/nothing, there is something

I do not know what, but

At least

There is something

Two weeks ago on my way to school, I looked up to find I was driving.  Hurtling down the freeway, cars on all sides.  What was I doing, I asked myself.  Propelling down a familiar trajectory I felt . . . nothing.  Can you be aware enough to travel a well-worn path while simultaneously being unaware enough to notice nothing at all?  I learned in that moment that the answer was yes.  As a social work student, I love the  idea of self-awareness; all problems and questions in life can usually be made simpler and more manageable via the process of self-examination.  As an idealist, I also love self-awareness because it helps in living life to the fullest–maximizing the opportunities that life offers you.  My exhaustion on this particular day was so great that I felt as I was driving aimlessly; not just in my car, but in life.  I was so tired that I could not “see” beyond the moment I was in.  A dotted white line, the pac-man maze of cars, and me.  It was one of those moments in which you can either slap yourself in the face and snap out of it or slip downward into a comfortable and familiar spiral of despair and apathy for the day (blah, blah, nothing matters, I’m in a bad mood and I’m going to stay that way).  What did I do?  I slapped myself enough to move over three lanes and make my exit, parked my car, got on my bike, rode to my weekly counseling appointment and safely broke down into a soft pile of tears and self-consciousness.

Thank God for therapy.

 

I Would Read a Banned Book if I Had Time…

So this week is banned books week, and since I have read many banned books, I would like to celebrate them.  However, since I don’t have time to actually read any banned books, I am going to direct you to someone who is reading and posting about a different banned book every day.  My dear friend and bestest book blogger Jen brightened my week last week by giving me an award:

And now she is having an AWESOME contest to celebrate her 100th review (that means she’s read 100 books since February….CRAZY!).  You can win a grab-bag of books, but you better hurry; she just posted the contest today, and already there are over 50 entries!! Anyway, I was quite flattered by the “I love your blog award” because she has so many crazy-dedicated book blogging friends who do an amazing job, and my humble little blog (with its seriously humble little statistics!) barely gets updated because I am too busy… I wish I was more connected to reading and the reading world, that was one of the best part of summer break–getting to pick what I wanted to read and just let my brain absorb all the beautiful words.  Now I’m mostly reading words like “ethics,” “practice,” “theory,” “systems,” “critical,” and all sorts of like serious but not so delightful words.

Some of my favorite banned books are:

 

A Taste of Community Organizing: hitting the streets in Stockton

The Magnolia neighborhood in Stockton, CA was designed as a “live/work/play” neighborhood, meaning people were encouraged/allowed to run businesses in their homes, without the going through normal licensing procedures most business owners must go through.  Hence, when I walked into a corner-lot, art-deco style, white with blue trim structure, I was greeted by a slew of elderly black women getting their hair done by men.  An incognito hair salon!  Fun!  The neighborhood is full of beautiful, old Victorians, the majority of which have been turned into 4-unit residences, with heavily locked gates and/or doors.  Because these residences are owned by absentee-landlords, they are for the most part dilapidated, and many have been abandoned, landlords leaving the houses to rot rather than bring them up to code as mandated by the city.  There are also a variety of residential social services located in the neighborhood: substance abuse programs; re-entry programs for offenders; mental health; women’s shelters; and more.  Small 5-15 unit apartment buildings are also interspliced throughout.  Many residents are newly arrived from the east bay, driven out of the same type of housing due to regentrification.  This process of regentrification is slowly getting started in Magnolia, which means that the people from the east bay will be forced to pack it up again and go….where?

Anyway, my purpose in the Magnolia neighborhood was to encourage people to come to the community meeting coming up next week.  The community meeting is basically a forum for community members to share their questions and concerns with their city council representative.  The neighborhood covers about 40 blocks, we walked it for almost 5 hours and didn’t cover everything.  Walking a neighborhood, and knocking on every door you can, is different than just taking a walk.  When you are done, you are exhausted.  Your energy is sapped by the sun, you are filthy from dirt and sweat, legs hurt from walking up and down lots of stairs.  When we tell people that the meeting is a place to discuss their concerns about what’s going on in their neighborhood, they are quick to tell you their concerns.  My favorite was a group of about 5 men who were hanging out on the corner at 1:30 p.m., having a smoke, one of whom tells me “Yah, you know what I’m tired of?!  I am tired of all these people just hanging out all day, doing nothing.  I mean, they ain’t got no job, just standing around, what are they doing?  Nothing, they just causing trouble”… It was really hard not to start laughing.  People demanded more police presence, and then the person next door would complain that the police were cramping their style. At some point, I had to call my dad and ask him how to say “meeting” and “concerns” in Spanish, because I could’nt remember, and kept trying to explain the meeting as an appointment with the rest of your community…yikes.  Anyway, I got it together after that, but then realized that it really didn’t help to be able to tell monolingual Spanish-speakers everything about the meeting if I was going to hand them a flyer in English.  Also, if they do come to the meeting, who will translate for them?!  I posed this question to my supervisor (the councilmember), who said “well, you!”  Oh Lord, we’re in trouble.  In an effort to surround myself with more Spanish, I changed my facebook page to Spanish.

So I guess my first experience walking Magnolia (we’ll have to do it once a month) made me really resent Rudy Guiliani’s snide remark about community organizing.  God forbid a politician have skill and expertise in actually assessing the needs of and then representing the PEOPLE.  To me the comment just illustrates that our society’s values are totally out-of-whack, i.e. the tiny salaries of teachers and social workers vs. the giant incomes of engineers and CEOs.

 

My New Hero

Your Whiteness is Showing:
An Open Letter to Certain White Women
Who are Threatening to Withhold Support From Barack Obama in November

By Tim Wise

June 5, 2008

This is an open letter to those white women who, despite their proclamations of progressivism, and supposedly because of their commitment to feminism, are threatening to withhold support from Barack Obama in November. You know who you are.

I know that it’s probably a bad time for this. Your disappointment at the electoral defeat of Senator Hillary Clinton is fresh, the sting is new, and the anger that animates many of you–who rightly point out that the media was often sexist in its treatment of the Senator–is raw, pure and justified.

That said, and despite the awkward timing, I need to ask you a few questions, and I hope you will take them in the spirit of solidarity with which they are genuinely intended. But before the questions, a statement if you don’t mind, or indeed, even if (as I suspect), you will mind it quite a bit.

First, for those of you threatening to actually vote for John McCain and to oppose Senator Obama, or to stay home in November and thereby increase the likelihood of McCain winning and Obama losing (despite the fact that the latter’s policy platform is virtually identical to Clinton’s while the former’s clearly is not), all the while claiming to be standing up for women…

For those threatening to vote for John McCain or to stay home and increase the odds of his winning (despite the fact that he once called his wife the c-word in public and is a staunch opponent of reproductive freedom and gender equity initiatives, such as comparable worth legislation), all the while claiming to be standing up for women…

For those threatening to vote for John McCain or to stay home and help ensure Barack Obama’s defeat, as a way to protest what you call Obama’s sexism (examples of which you seem to have difficulty coming up with), all the while claiming to be standing up for women…

Your whiteness is showing.

When I say your whiteness is showing this is what I mean: You claim that your opposition to Obama is an act of gender solidarity, in that women (and their male allies) need to stand up for women in the face of the sexist mistreatment of Clinton by the press. On this latter point–the one about the importance of standing up to the media for its often venal misogyny–you couldn’t be more correct. As the father of two young girls who will have to contend with the poison of patriarchy all their lives, or at least until such time as that system of oppression is eradicated, I will be the first to join the boycott of, or demonstration on, whatever media outlet you choose to make that point. But on the first part of the above equation–the part where you insist voting against Obama is about gender solidarity–you are, for lack of a better way to put it, completely full of crap. And what’s worse is that at some level I suspect you know it. Voting against Senator Obama is not about gender solidarity. It is an act of white racial bonding, and it is grotesque.

If it were gender solidarity you sought, you would by definition join with your black and brown sisters come November, and do what you know good and well they are going to do, in overwhelming numbers, which is vote for Barack Obama. But no. You are threatening to vote not like other women–you know, the ones who aren’t white like you and most of your friends–but rather, like white men! Needless to say it is high irony, bordering on the outright farcical, to believe that electorally bonding with white men, so as to elect McCain, is a rational strategy for promoting feminism and challenging patriarchy. You are not thinking and acting as women, but as white people. So here’s the first question: What the hell is that about?

And you wonder why women of color have, for so long, thought (by and large) that white so-called feminists were phony as hell? Sister please…

Your threats are not about standing up for women. They are only about standing up for the feelings of white women, and more to the point, the aspirations of one white woman. So don’t kid yourself. If you wanted to make a statement about the importance of supporting a woman, you wouldn’t need to vote for John McCain, or stay home, thereby producing the same likely result–a defeat for Obama. You could always have said you were going to go out and vote for Cynthia McKinney. After all, she is a woman, running with the Green Party, and she’s progressive, and she’s a feminist. But that isn’t your threat is it? No. You’re not threatening to vote for the woman, or even the feminist woman. Rather, you are threatening to vote for the white man, and to reject not only the black man who you feel stole Clinton’s birthright, but even the black woman in the race. And I wonder why? Could it be…?

See, I told you your whiteness was showing.

And now for a third question, and this is the biggie, so please take your time with it: How is it that you have managed to hold your nose all these years, just like a lot of us on the left, and vote for Democrats who we knew were horribly inadequate–Kerry, Gore, Clinton, Dukakis, right on down the uninspiring line–and yet, apparently can’t bring yourself to vote for Barack Obama? A man who, for all of his shortcomings (and there are several, as with all candidates put up by either of the two major corporate parties) is surely more progressive than any of those just mentioned. And how are we to understand that refusal–this sudden line in the proverbial sand–other than as a racist slap at a black man? You will vote for white men year after year after year–and are threatening to vote for another one just to make a point–but can’t bring yourself to vote for a black man, whose political views come much closer to your own, in all likelihood, than do the views of any of the white men you’ve supported before. How, other than as an act of racism, or perhaps as evidence of political insanity, is one to interpret such a thing?

See, black folks would have sucked it up, like they’ve had to do forever, and voted for Clinton had it come down to that. Indeed, they were on board the Hillary train early on, convinced that Obama had no chance to win and hoping for change, any change, from the reactionary agenda that has been so prevalent for so long in this culture. They would have supported the white woman–hell, for many black folks, before Obama showed his mettle they were downright excited to do so–but you won’t support the black man. And yet you have the audacity to insist that it is you who are the most loyal constituency of the Democratic Party, and the one before whom Party leaders should bow down, and whose feet must be kissed?

Your whiteness is showing.

Look, I couldn’t care less about the Party personally. I left the Democrats twenty years ago when they told me that my activism in the Central America solidarity and South African anti-apartheid movements made me a security risk, and that I wouldn’t be able to get clearance to be in some parade with Governor Dukakis. Yeah, seriously. But for you to act as though you are the indispensible voters, the most important, the ones whose views should be pandered to, whose every whim should be the basis for Party policy, is not only absurd, it is also racist in that it, a) ignores and treats as irrelevant the much more loyal constituency of black folks, without whom no Democrat would have won anything in the past twenty years (and indeed the racial gap favoring the Democrats among blacks is about six times larger than the gender gap favoring them among white women, relative to white men); and b) demonstrates the mentality of entitlement and superiority that has been long ingrained in us as white folks–so that we believe we have the right to dictate the terms of political engagement, and to determine the outcome, and to get our way, simply because for so long we have done just that.

But that day is done, whether you like it or not, and you are now left with two, and only two choices, so consider them carefully: the first is to stand now in solidarity with your black brothers and sisters and welcome the new day, and help to push it in a truly progressive and feminist and antiracist direction, while the second is to team up with white men to try and block the new day from dawning. Feel free to choose the latter. But if you do, please don’t insult your own intelligence, or ours, by insisting that you’ve done so as a radical political act.

http://www.timwise.org/

 

Collapse (I’m not talking about the book)

Being faithful to the byline of this blog, I am escaping the thesis process via writing this entry.  I have not posted anything new since the Tangential Professor, and for that I apologize because that post really wasn’t very funny or interesting or entertaining, and those are all of the elements I strive for in the maintenance of this blog.

There is a term in the social work field that we use for the unfortunate overload that many in the profession experience at one time or another, and can often lead to leaving the field.  We call it “burnout.”  Have you heard this term?  Now, I suppose I am not technically a full-fledged member of “the field” just yet, as I am still a master’s student and only work in “the field” three days a week, but on top of 24 hrs./week of internship, there is also 6 hours of class on Thursday, and writing this beastial whore of a document we call “thesis” in the mix.  To save time and money on driving (and to hopefully force myself to get work done via an absence of husband/bunny/kitty/TV/friends distractions), I rent a room in a lovely family’s home for Monday and Tuesday in Stockton, where my internship is (which is an hour away from home).  Oh, I also try to have a life thrown in there somewhere, so I guess what I’m trying to say is HOLY CRAP I’m tired.  Have you ever collapsed?  I mean really collapsed.  I’m talking: 1) walk in door; 2) dump all crap you’re carrying on floor; 3) locate couch; 4) COLLAPSE onto couch,  by which I mean, FALL onto it in such a manner as to make an indentation in the couch, so that you become a PART of the couch.

All my life I thought I knew what collapsing was, but I was merely plopping.  There is a difference, my friend, a big difference.  Plopping is saying “I feel lazy, I feel like sitting around a bit cause I’m bored so what the hey?,” collapsing involves no thought process of any kind, it is the result of some kind of internal homing device that gets activated when so exhausted that one can no longer think rational, active-related thoughts.

So, getting back to first idea of burnout, I guess I am seeing what it would take for one to feel burned out.  I’m only two weeks into internship, and already the extreme tiredness.  I totally love the internship though, so that negates all the missing home tiredness.  So, this time just some thoughts and a brief update.  If I run across anything interesting, I’ll try to post it.

 

The Tangential Professor

My grant writing class meets once a month on a Sunday (I think it’s the third Sunday) from 8-5.  We have a twenty minute break around 10 am, an hour for lunch from 12-1, and then a 10 minute bathroom break in the afternoon, so we can get out about an hour early.  It being our first class, we got out a three yesterday. However, we could have been done at least an hour and a half earlier because that’s the minimum estimate on how long our professor spent on tangential “discussions.”  Which had nothing to do with grant writing.  First she spent an inordinate amount of time talking about how much she loves her four-year-old and all the cute things her four-year-old does . . . yes, we know every parent thinks their kid is the most fascinating child ever begotten, but really?

Tangent # 1: We’re talking about how you must include local data in your grant proposal, and she’s showing us examples of where to get this data; she opens up the California State report card on-line, starts exclaiming over how terrible all our “grades” are.  She stops at the obesity grade.  She starts talking about how hard it is for children to get exercise in the winter.  In California. She talks about how difficult it is for children to play outside in the snow and rain.  In California. I politely remind her that it doesn’t really snow in California, at least not in Sacramento, where we are, or in Berkeley, where she lives.  I also politely query: “Didn’t we have a drought this summer? So…it doesn’t really rain that much in California either, right?” (My point being, listen lady, it’s not really about outside exercise so much as parent’s willingness to let kids stuff Burger King in their mouths whilst they sit on their tuffet playing video games for four hour stretches). This reminds her of an article she read in the Wall Street Journal about a poll that was conducted around the topic of Obama’s physical fitness.  Because Obama exercises a lot (sometimes up to three times a day), some Americans think is not “an average American,” he’s too thin, too in shape.  Thus ensues a 40 minute discussion about how ridiculous this is, that our nation has essentially made obesity an American value, something we’re proud of, yadda, yadda, yadda.  I agree, but I also think: “This has nothing to do with grant writing!”  It was fun, however, when one lady admitted she was a McCain supporter (a Republican social worker?!) and everyone pounced on her (yes, I couldn’t resist).  McCain lady said that in her opinion, Obama as a public figure must obsessed with his image/appearance, just like, for example, Hollywood movie stars, and by the way, she’s noticed that McCain doesn’t seem too worried about his portly figure . . . to which I responded, “Oh, so perhaps that’s why he’s comparing Obama to Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan in his ads?  Because if you care about your health you must be a celebrity, right?”  To which she said “Uh…um…uh…”

Tangent #2: After writing about the first tangent, I can’t remember what the second tangent was about, although I think it had something to do with her very elderly uncle who has skin cancer because he was so healthy and outdoorsy, and see what cancer does, it always gets the good people!

So, that was my Sunday.  Back to thesis writing, I’ve got a meeting with my adviser on Thursday and I have to have this section done!

 

Another Awesome Book Contest

DevourerofBooks is having another awesome contest, this time to win a signed copy of Joshua Henkin’s novel Matrimony. You can read her review of the book here, but the reason I want to read this book is because it kind of sounds a lot like my life, which I think is pretty cool. As a young married person who married their college sweetheart at (GASP) age 22, I’ve gotten a fair amount of skepticism and flak thrown my way, and while I get it, I don’t always appreciate it. Marriages are hard, no matter what age you get hitched. Yes, I think in general, older=wiser=better, but not always. I’ve ripped this bit out of Jen’s review:

“anyone who married their college sweetheart, or anyone who thinks that they married too young but it turned out okay”

Hello, is that not me?! Well, for those who don’t know me, it is! I still find these contests ironic: in order to win, you must tell lots of people about the contest so they can enter….I don’t want competition, I want to win the book! Oh well, it’s fun playing.

 

Waiting for Tonight

Did you see last night’s Democratic National Convention coverage? The female Iraq war veteran who spoke about our abysmal treatment of vets in this country made me cry. Because she is right: whatever your opinion of the war (I think it’s a terrifying mistake that’s going to haunt our nation for a long time), of soldiers (I think most of them are too young and unprepared), of recruiting methods (let’s not even go there), these men deserve the best care after they put their bodies, minds, and spirits in the line of extreme violence. Use ‘em up, and throw ‘em out seems to be our administration’s policy.

What is really infuriating to me, though? The die-hard Hillary supporters (mostly women) who are so bitter they’re going to vote for McCain. This reminds me of when a child demands a toy/sweet/whatever, mom says after dinner/shopping/whatever, but because they’re not getting what they want right this second, they blow the whole thing by throwing a tantrum and never get the toy/sweet/whatever. I understand how deeply personal Hillary as a candidate was to a lot of people, to a lot of women, I think she would have been a great president. Those who are throwing a tantrum and voting for McCain, explaining their behavior by saying “Obama doesn’t have enough experience, he’s an elitist, he’s too much of a politician,” are making EXCUSES. What a farcical bunch of nonsense. Obama doesn’t have as much experience as Hillary, but Biden does, and so will his cabinet. The elitist remark is just laughable; do the people who pull this excuse out know ANYTHING about the way these two came up and currently live? Bunk. They’re both politicians, they both make too many promises they can’t possibly keep, they both have speech writers, image people, PR people, campaign managers. This is a contest; in order for someone to be elected, someone has to WIN. I understand Hillary represented something amazing and historical: the first woman president. I get that that was deeply personal and powerful to many people. However, I think that Barack represents essentially the same shift of a historical power balance that Hillary did. And let’s not play that game, of who has been more historically oppressed than who, women or black people; who “deserves” it more. Ranking oppressions is counterproductive and divisive. That’s why our administration loves to see all the minority/ women/ gay&lesbian/ mixed-race/ disability groups fighting over who deserves it more….everyone does, we should all fight for each other and against the real power. And whether Hillary in the White House or Barack, the real power will have shifted. Those who are going to throw a tantrum and vote for McCain were clearly “in it” just for Hillary. If they really cared about the state of this country and the “issues,” then they would rather move to Canada than face another four years of the same and worse. This administration has proven that unless you are like them, they don’t care about you; i.e. unless you are white, rich, and mostly male, you are undeserving of their time and effort.

I can’t wait to see/hear what Barack has to say tonight.

 

Tag, I’m It!

I’ve been tagged by DevourerofBooks (aka Jen, aka the Nen!), who was tagged by The Book Lady, to do the classic Inside the Actor’s Studio dialog (incidentally, dialog is a word I ALWAYS spell wrong…I always type “dialogue,” and I NEVER learn, no matter how many times spell check corrects me, and I don’t know why! It frustrates me, friends, it frustrates me!) James Lipton does with his guests, where he asks them a bunch of questions they know he’s going to ask, but act like they’re totally coming up with clever answers on the spot.

What is your favorite word?

Anyone who knows me knows I exclaim a lot. And when I do, it’s almost always an emphatic “WHAT?!” I have several variations of the what; there is a “dude no way” whaaaaaaaat?, a high pitched oh-no-you-didn’t-just-say-that what, and several other whats that I don’t have the time or the phonetic writing ability to try to put down here. I also like annoying my husband by pretending not to hear him, I like to see how many times I can say “what?!” before he catches on and goes “AARGH!!”

What is your least favorite word?

I must echo Jen on the stupid genitalia words, but the ones I really hate are the euphemisms for breasts. Boobies, titties, and tatties are the ones that irk me the most.

What turns you on (creatively, spiritually or emotionally)?

Intelligent, courageous, and outspoken opposition against injustice, think Obama speeches, Cornel West writings, feminist lit. Food and drink. Give me a plate of carnitas, rice and beans and a beer, and I am magically transported to the most emotionally and spiritually happy place. Humor, especially wit, especially at the expense of snobby people, and also silliness. Perfect combo=early episodes of Frasier.

What turns you off (creatively, spiritually or emotionally)?

Hateful speech, actions, attitudes. Ignorance. Closed minded people. Unwillingness to enter into relationship with people that are different from you. George Bush and the like.

What sound or noise do you love?

The cat purr is a new favorite. I also like hearing my bunny play with his rattle toys, the ocean, the mail man when I’m expecting something awesome, and my husband say “HELLO!!” when he comes home (he has a really happy and booming voice).

What sound or noise do you hate?

Upstairs neighbors walking/running/moving stuff/slamming cabinet doors/taking baths between 12-5 am. This happens a lot.

What is your favorite curse word?

Bitch. But never to/about a woman from a man–those men get socked.

What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

Rock star, artist, farm owner/operator, chef.

What profession would you not like to do?

Septic tank repair person, or anything having to do with poo. Exterminator.

If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?

Would you like to meet your brother?

I’m tagging:

Peggy at Sex and the Country

Tom at Tdavies’s Weblog

Mark at Forever The Llama