this woman’s work

Did you cry during his acceptance speech? 

I think about how our international standing has just improved and I feel so hopeful.

The popular vote was still pretty close; we have a lot of work to do to bring this country together. (So Brett said no gloating around McCain supporters; he said we have to be good winners.)

Madison loves to see Obama with his little girls. She likes to see when he holds their hands and picks them up. I told her that because the president of the United States is a little bit like our king as elected by us, this means his little girls are now like the princesses of the United States. “And they are beautiful brown-skinned girls just like you.” 

She may not get the historical import yet but she gets the princess comparison. She’s pretty happy about it.

Pennie tried to call when he took Ohio but didn’t think to call our cell (I was at Abby’s with Kristen and Lynne) then we called her when CNN officially announced it. 

Pennie and I bonded about politics four years ago. It’s hard to remember but at the beginning we were excessively careful with each other and we didn’t talk politics. But then when Kerry was running she called me up and asked if I was voting “for Frankenstein or the chimp” and I said, “Frankenstein all the way.” And happily it turns out that we share our liberal politics. She was happy that the kids have been such a part of this election process and liked hearing that Madison helped hang flyers on doors the other day. 

I’m glad and grateful that Madison got to talk to her first mom on that historic night. I’m glad that we both thought to call each other. 

Abby had a great evening planned. The kids had an electoral map to fill out and Kristen and Lynne brought apple pie (raw and cooked respectively). I brought sparkling juice so the kids could toast the winner, which meant that Madison came up every ten minutes to see if we could do some toasting yet. 

I haven’t looked at any of the ballot measures yet so I’m going to make the kids pancakes (we slept way in) and then spend some time trolling the internet. Then it’s off to skating, home to work and later tonight I get to hook up with Andrew to talk politics (probably) and writing (definitely).

I want to dance at my child’s wedding knowing their rights will be fully respected no matter who they love.

This post is one of hundreds written for Write to Marry Day, a blog carnival to support same-sex marriage and rally opposition to California’s Proposition 8, organized by Mike Rogers of PageOneQ and Dana Rudolph of Mombian. Thanks to Susan for the heads up!

LIE: “They live half a mile from William Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist” and “Just a half a mile from those homes is Louis Farrakhan.”(Hannity’s America, October 5, 2008, “Obama and His Friends: History of Radicalism”)
TRUTH: It’s true, of course, that Obama lives in this same neighborhood, as do tens of thousands of other people who presumably are also guilty by geographical association. The logic of this argument would be, if you live half a mile from a sex offender, then you agree with child molesters.

LIE: Obama and Ayers “appeared together at various public engagements…it would seem that they are more than just a little bit friendly.”(Sean Hannity, Hannity’s America, October 5, 2008, “Obama and His Friends: History of Radicalism”)
TRUTH: Appearing on a speaking panel is not a sign of friendship. There is no evidence that Obama had any role in ever inviting Ayers to speak.

from Thirty Lies Refuted About Ayers and Obama

Can you imagine? That’s like saying because you read my blog you agree with me about EVERYTHING. “So-and-So running for office has this woman’s work bookmarked. Cleary So-and-So is a pro-choice homeschool zealot who wants to open all adoption records and force kids to listen to showtunes!”

(Ok, the open all adoption records and showtune-listening, it’s true we should do more of that but I’ll leave the rest to your own opinions.)

In other words, you better stop reading me now unless you agree with every little last thing I say so that no one gets the wrong idea about you!

Now I’m off to scour my own bookmarks and eliminate every single person who ever made one comment, blog entry, messageboard post or email that in some way goes against any opinion I have ever held to secure my potential future career in politics. I want to head off trouble before it starts!

You know the whole pro-life even in cases of rape and incest thing? I get that. I do. Because if you truly believe every embryo at conception is a person like I am a person sitting here typing, you can’t quibble. You can’t say it’s ok here but not there. (And I have to add here that I’m bothered by this assumption that every pro-choice woman would handle an unexpected pregnancy the same way; that one has to be politically pro-life to carry a child to term who was conceived by rape. That’s simply not true. Pro-choicers believe that it’s a personal CHOICE, which doesn’t mean that we would all make the same choice whatever the circumstances. I know politically pro-choice women who have given birth to children conceived by rape. It’s about CHOICE; not mandates.)

So that — while I philosophically disagree with it — I get.

But I don’t get her willingness to trudge forward even though she is so obviously unprepared to be president. And I don’t get why people are still voting because they “like” her. Listen, I like my mom a whole lot. I love her politics and she’s a helluva lot more informed than Ms. Palin but I sure wouldn’t vote for her to be vice president. It’s not a learn as you go job.

I’m intrigued that she calls herself a feminist. In my mind, CHOICE is central to feminist belief. Not just (and not necessarily) reproductive choice. Although I find that absolutely unequivocally at the heart of my feminism, I understand that if you truly think an embryo ought to have the same human rights as a child that you just can’t go there. (It bothers me that you want to stop anyone else from going there either but I get it.) But other choices matter, too. I don’t know how she feels about supporting programs that give women choices because she wouldn’t talk to Moms Rising about it. That her office wouldn’t even let them drop off a stack of paper doesn’t reassure me.

Note — she says she wants to make adoption easier. Easier how? And for whom? Adoptive parents who adopt newborns from private agencies (you know, adoptions that are held up as the great alternative to abortion) already get huge tax breaks. So now are you going to eliminate homestudies so we don’t have to clean our houses and answer all those pesky questions? Maybe she means easier by creating a plethora of infants available for our hungry little homes.

Or does she mean she’ll make it easier for women to place? How’s she going to do that? It’s already pretty easy to find someone who’s willing to get your baby adopted away from you — especially if you’re white and healthy. Boy howdy is it easy! Just set up a myspace mentioning that you’re young and pregnant and out come the wolves! (That link goes to Jenna’s blog — if you haven’t read that post yet, you should. It will make you insane.)

Yeah, I’m not getting that whole “easier to adopt” thing. (She said this during the interview where they talked about evolution, charging for rape kits, and whether or not she’s a feminist.)

Oh one more thing. I HATE how often she uses passive sentences. Yikes. She’s never doing stuff — stuff is getting done. “Adoptions to be made easier” not “make adoptions easier” or “make it easier to adopt.” MS Word’s grammar check would have a field day with her!

Instead of electing McCain and then praying for his death so their gal Friday can get into office, shouldn’t they just elect Obama (seeing as how they think he’s the anti-christ*) and rush the rapture? Kinda like some extreme evangelicals are pro-Israel because they want to hurry along the end times?

I mean if God decreed it, why not just go with the flow? If they’re so sure he’s the anti-christ, why fight it? Don’t they want it all to come to its inevitable climax?

Like I said, I don’t get it.

These are weird times to be alive though. No doubt about it. (Then again, is there ever un-weird times? I’ve read my history; I think likely it’s all pretty wacky for the folks there for it.)

*A note here about this link. I chose to link to a TIME magazine article about a McCain ad instead of any of the numerous crazy web sites that spout this ideas ‘cuz I’d rather not up their google page rank.

From Shanamadele:

The Democratic Party also strongly supports a woman’s decision to have a child by ensuring access to and availability of programs for pre- and post-natal health care, parenting skills, income support and caring adoption programs.

from Bloomberg.com: News

So do adoption groups ever endorse politicians? I’m curious if they look to anyone — like Evan B. Donaldson or (ahem) the NCFA — to get behind this stuff. Because I want to know what a caring adoption program might look like.

I hate the democratic backpedaling on abortion. Hate it. But I’m not the boss of everybody. Grr.

I’m so frustrated by the nasty bipartisan feud going on. When I’m rocking Madison, I scan through the talk radio channels and listen in on chunks here and there. My default station is NPR/BBC but sometimes the show is just too boring or frustrating and then I hit the “tune” button. I listen in on the conservative station (unless it’s Rush because I really can’t stand him), the Christian station, the African American oriented station (often a Christian program as well), and Air America.

There are times when I really need to hear Air America just because I get depressed and worried but too often I find it as angry and hateful as the right-wing station. I don’t like to listen to poisoned rhetoric even if it’s my rhetoric. (As an aside, I generally like Al Franken’s show.)

I was talking about this with a (liberal) friend of mine and she said that one of the left’s problems is that we’ve played nice for too long and haven’t stood up to the far-right’s accusations and lies. True, but I hate to see us getting so invested in our defense that we’ve become offensive.

I don’t know. I don’t know what to think. But I don’t like liberal commentators sitting there calling Bush stupid (although I personally think he’s none too bright) and saying that’s political criticism. So for example, instead of listening to someone on Air America discuss the dangerous way that Bush uses his faith to inform his policy, I listened to someone talk about how “immature” Bush’s Christianity is. (That the person speaking was, I believe, a Christian doesn’t make this comment anymore informative or helpful to the public discussion.)

(Speaking of Christian values in politics, there’s a man, Don Eckhart, running for the Ohio state senate who has my blood boiling. He has all of these signs up and down the roads here with little Jesus fish and the “T” in his name turned into a cross. This is not ok, folks!)

I hope that the pendulum swings the other way and we go back to politics without all of the dirt-mongering. It could happen. It’s happened before and it could happen again. Hopefully by the time Noah’s voting in his first election. That gives us about a decade but I think we can do it by then.

From the Drudge Report:

SOURCES: ARNOLD PREPARES ACCEPTANCE SPEECH…
SOURCES: NETWORKS TO CALL RACE AT 8:01 PM PACIFIC TIME, AS VOTING OFFICIALLY ENDS…
EXIT POLLS SHOW LANDSLIDE: RECALL, SCHWARZENEGGER POISED FOR EASY WIN LATEST EXIT POLLS SHOW 59% VOTE ‘YES’ FOR RECALL, TOP CAMPAIGN AND MEDIA SOURCES TELL DRUDGE REPORT, 51% FOR SCHWARZENEGGER, 30% FOR BUSTAMANTE, 13% MCCLINTOCK… DEVELOPING…

What is wrong with people?????