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Posts Tagged ‘Politics’

Evergreen Stories

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , on March 25, 2012| Leave a Comment »


Some tales just beg for retelling. Anita and I attended a Book Festival forum titled “Fiction: Retelling the Tales” which included Margot Livesey (The Flight of Gemma Hardy), Sharyn McCrumb (The Ballad of Tom Dooley; Ghost Riders), and Hillary Jordan (When She Woke). In some Jane Eyre was the starting point, but in “When She Woke” we are reminded of Hawthorne and The Scarlet Letter. Politics and women’s bodies collide as they seem to do over centuries, and I bought the book about a woman named Hannah (like Hester) whose skin was dyed red because she had an abortion.

Then I woke this morning to a discussion about the new Tennessee ruling that will allow a science curriculum to include discussion of different theories on climate change and evolution. You got it. Evolution may be challenged by Tenn students who may want to talk about ‘creationism’ oh and maybe tell their teachers that the stork delivered them as Richard Dawkins so wryly put it. There is no room for real science in Tenn, the state that brought us the 1925 Monkey Trial; it’s a brazen retelling of the teacher, John Scopes, who was accused of violating the Butler Act. Yet again, teaching evolution in a public school is a dangerous business. And remember, they too want to brand publicize doctors’ names and women who seek abortion.

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/03/22/tenn-senate-oks-bill-to-allow-anti-evolution-talk-in-classrooms/

Anita and I left the Jefferson Library in 83 degree heat and saw a young woman sitting outside the frozen yogurt store. Her head was completely wrapped up in a fashionable plaid scarf so that only her eyes were visible. I thought about Sister Mary Claire who smacked me on the knees for chewing gum in mass, one of my oldest memories. At least I could see her mouth as she humiliated me. Then, believe it or not, I saw 3 very happy looking male monks, wrapped in white robes, holding pickets about the Affordable Care Act and Freedom of Religion! Maybe we do need to question our politicians more about religion. Hey Rick, do you really think you are drinking the blood of your saviour at mass? And Mitt, how do you feel about baptizing dead Holocaust victims?
http://www2.dailyprogress.com/news/2012/mar/23/scores-protest-federal-contraception-mandate-charl-ar-1790006/

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Bowling Alone

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , on February 23, 2012| 1 Comment »

It would seem that what happened in the Lone Star State without much of a whimper, is going to blow up in the Old Dominion. I first started writing about this repugnant piece of legislation called the “ultrasound bill” awhile ago, highlighting a woman delegate’s idea for a man to submit to a rectal exam should he seek medical care. Then Jon Stewart did a brilliant skit and VA became a national laughingstock. Now Gov Bob McDonnell is backing down. I guess his greater ambitions got the best of him. All it took was thousands of women standing mute outside the Capitol this week, and millions of signatures on petitions; and probably more lucid members of his own party. Today is a Day of Outrage for women and the men who love them in VA – if you would like to write to the Gov, please feel free, just ask him to “Please veto mandatory ultrasound and two-trip requirements for women seeking abortion care in Virginia.”
http://www.governor.virginia.gov/AboutTheGovernor/contactGovernor.cfm
I did and his site was so busy it took a full 10 minutes for the email to sail off.

It got me thinking of Greta Garbo, the Flapper’s favorite actress. “I vant to be alone.” Then Bob looked up Justice Brandeis’ 1928 quote on his iPad. Speaking in Olmstead vs US about wiretapping, he said that one of a citizen’s most important rights is “The right to be left alone.” Now here was a man ahead of his time, he even envisioned a future where papers may not have to be taken from a drawer, but ‘by another means’ produced in court. Technology wasn’t a word yet, so he imagined a ‘psychic method.’ Imagine that before the Great Depression, he could envision computer hacking! Which led me to think about a landmark book, Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam. This gifted Harvard Public Policy Prof has often said that with great social changes comes great controversy. Once we bowled in leagues after work, and now our social capital is diminishing – we bowl alone, we sit in cubicles in front of computers alone while ostensibly connecting with others. Here are some of his ideas for becoming more invested in a democracy:http://www.bettertogether.org/150ways. Hey Bob, check out #119…

Thank you women of VA, for telling the Gov we are watching, we want government to leave us alone! This religious attack on contraception and women’s health is unconscionable, outdated and immoral. Our bodies, our choice, our doctors! We knit together, and we vote – red, blue and purple.

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Big Girls Don’t Cry

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , on February 11, 2012| Leave a Comment »

The mountains have been shrouded by early morning fog. It was another wacky weather week highlighted by an invitation to audition for the role of Grandmother. Good friends and colleagues of the Bride’s have two amazing children, a little girl almost 2 and an almost 4 year old boy. They are the smartest and most adorable twosome ever! It was a pleasure to represent my generation at their pre-school “Bring Your Grandparent (or other special person) to School Day.”

It got me thinking about bringing the Bride to pre-school in the Berkshires. I was told, very kindly, that it might be best if I said my goodbyes out in the car, instead of subjecting all those other poor children to the inevitable breakdown of both Mother and Child in the classroom. So we ended up with a family rule, maybe you’ve got a similar one in your family? “Big girls don’t cry in public.” This proved to be an invaluable lesson when she encountered her first bully on the Kindergarten bus. Warning – turn away if you are afraid of strong girls.

Riding a school bus will most likely be the first time your small child will be unsupervised by an adult. My sweet little, five year old, curly haired daughter got off the bus that day in a pickle. I asked what happened, insisted she tell me. An older boy had grabbed her jacket, which she was carrying since of course it was hotter coming home from school than it had been in the morning, and she didn’t let go. They proceeded to have a tug-of-war in the aisle of the school bus. What was that movie where the girl learns that the boy must like her if he’s pulling her pigtails? Well, my girl broke down and told me about the jacket-pulling-incident, bravely carrying her prized jacket into the house.

Did I tell her that he must like her and and that love hurts? NO NO NO!! Her lesson that day was that I was so proud of her for not crying on the bus and defending herself. This family rule must have been learned at the Flapper’s knee. But it’s tough being a strong, non-crying, intelligent woman, even in 2012. You run the risk of appearing too strident, dare I use the “B” word, or as Rebecca Traister wrote in her book about the 2008 election, Big Girls Don’t Cry – The Election that Changed Everything for American Women, “It means that Hillary as a mold-breaking, ball-busting, aggressive, relentless female candidate encountered a level of resistance…” Yes, she examines the intersection of race and gender in that groundbreaking election; the anti-Hillary Clinton cankle spouting spew vs the stupid, mean girl anti-Sarah Palin rhetoric and the slightly veiled, articulate language lobbed at Barack Obama.

Because after the groundbreaking New Hampshire primary win, the first time an American woman has ever won a primary in 220 years of presidential politics, what does the media focus on? The NYTimes talks about Hillary crying. Crying, cut to the violins!! I admit it, I voted for her in the primary, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. At least I never liked John Edwards.

My Big Girl is laughing today since her residency program just won the video challenge run by Emergency Medicine Physicians as a recruiting tool. “We Vandy” celebrates one of the most esteemed EM programs in the country – look for that tug-of-war champ behind the guy in the dark sweater on the left. I wouldn’t mess with her if I were you.

http://www.emp.com/emergency-medicine-video-challenge-2011

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News Mad Libs

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , on January 17, 2012| Leave a Comment »

This week in local news, the jury has been picked and a date of Feb 6th was set for the murder trial of a certain UVA ________ player.

With Republicans in charge of the state Capitol, VA is deliberating about changing the gun laws. Specifically, doing away with __________ checks and repealing a ban on its citizen’s ability to purchase more than one gun per _____. You can already carry a gun on your hip in VA, you may no longer need a permit to conceal it!

Moving up to the US Presidential campaign, it seems that one GOP candidate, who carries his dog around in an ________ carrier on the roof of his car, is being maligned for speaking ______. While another who rides with a ____ in the backseat is sparring with someone named Newt… Someone needs to do a “What They Carried” expose on anyone seeking the highest office of the land.

What does the rest of the planet think of Mitt? http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/01/16/what_the_world_makes_of_mitt

And almost finally in world news. The _________ industry has been named the latest to employ child laborers on the Ivory Coast. Honestly, first it’s diamonds, and now we are supposed to boycott Almond Joy? Next to coffee, how can we as a people survive without __________, a Pennsylvania company? Oh, and it seems in Italy, the concept of _____ and ________ first in maritime law has expired off the coast of Tuscany.

Finally, finish this sentence for me please. “The US is___________”

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Lust, Lies and…

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , on November 8, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Did you hear the joke about when life begins? Considering Initiative 26 on the ballot today in Mississippi, it would play well to revisit this comic sketch. Number 26 in MS is an extreme anti-choice scheme that would call a fertilized egg a “person” and would therefore ban abortion in the state, certain forms of birth control, oh and if you happen to have been raped, tough luck! Back to the joke. Three religious men walk into a bar (notice they are men). The bartender asks, “When does life begin?”

The Catholic priest says, “At conception of course.”  “No, no,” the Protestant minister says. “Life begins at quickening, when the mother feels the first kick.” The Rabbi sits silently for awhile, until the question is asked again. “Well in our tradition,” the Rabbi says thoughtfully, “life begins when the children leave home and the dog dies!” Isn’t it strange that the very same extremely religious right wing of this country are so pro-Israel? I wonder if they’ve heard the joke?

http://www.votenoon26.org/

If we were to draw a Ven diagram, with A being the Tea Party, and B being the 99 Percenters, I believe that C might just grow big enough to encompass yet another party in this country. It is that place where Libertarians congregate – people who say “No” to big government, shady revolving door lobbying and Wall Street kingpins. People who vote “No” in MS. 50% of polls tell us there is a bipartisan angst out there, people are fed up with a system they see as increasingly rigged; extreme income disparity is dividing the super rich from a dwindling middle class.  And all our legislators can agree on is, “In God we Trust?”

It’s sex that makes the media run. Herman Cain is circling the drain due to groping without permission. Our holiest of games, college football, has been tarnished by allegations of child sexual abuse by an underling coach, Jerry Sandusky, at Penn State. In our town, a UVA athlete who banged his ex-girlfriend’s head against a wall till she died, is hoping to prove it was something else that killed her. And now for Sexual Reproduction 101, we are being asked to start the debate, all over again, about “Personhood.” It’s not trusting in God that worries me. I think it’s time to donate to Emily’s List: http://emilyslist.org/splash/signup/splash01/ or:

Off the Sidelines http://www.offthesidelines.org/home!

“…women, we need you to be advocates, to be heard on the issues you care about, to be voting, to be running for office, to be part of decision making.” Senator Kirsten Gillbrand.

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