More of this please

After reading articles like this, it can be easy to get discouraged about the state of feminism and gender equality attitudes among our young people. So, I was so excited to discover this web site, Teen Voices Online, an e-zine written by teens for teens , taking on violence against girls and women in their March issue.  It’s an excellent, well-researched article written by Ansheera Ace Hilliard, 17, and Alex Pates, 15.

The latest Hollywood gossip is all about Rihanna and Chris Brown. A lot of people–from celebrity bloggers to your friends–have a lot of opinions,. Two teen girls, Alex Pates and Ace Hilliard, are taking it one step further: they’ve done their research, and they have something important to say about what happened, and what it means for you–and for all girls and women. Alex and Ace are teen activists with Females United For Action (FUFA), a Chicago organization that works to stop violence against girls and women. You may remember that Alex was our 2007 Activist of the Month…now she’s back with Ace to tell you the facts about domestic violence and how the media can affect you, even with what seems like silly gossip.

Go Read!

Bravo! 

About Teen Voices

Why do we keep calling them leaders if they won’t lead?

I agree whole-heartedly with Glenn Greenwald’s assessment, not only of our political leaders, but also of us, the American voters. (My emphasis in red.)

When politicians take bad positions, ones that are opposed by large numbers of their supporters, it is not only the politicians, but also huge numbers of their supporters, who step forward to offer excuses and justifications: well, they have to take that position because it’s too politically risky not to; they have no choice and it’s the smart thing to do. That’s the excuse one heard for years as Democrats meekly acquiesced to or actively supported virtually every extremist Bush policy from the attack on Iraq to torture and warrantless eavesdropping; it’s the excuse which even progressives offer for why their political leaders won’t advocate for marriage equality or defense spending cuts; and it’s the same excuse one hears now to justify virtually every Obama “disappointment.”

[...]

Political leaders have the ability to change public opinion by engaging in leadership and persuasive advocacy. Any cowardly politician can take only those positions that reside safely within the majoritiarian consensus. Actual leaders, by definition, confront majoritarian views when they are misguided and seek to change them, and politicians have far more ability to affect and change public opinion than they want the public to believe they have.

[...]

We’ve been trained how we talk about our political leaders primarily by a media that worships political cynicism and can only understand the world through political game-playing.  Thus, so many Americans have been taught to believe not only that politicians shouldn’t have the obligation of leadership imposed on them — i.e., to persuade the public of what is right – but that it’s actually smart and wise of them to avoid positions they believe in when doing so is politically risky.  

I often became frustrated during some campaigns  for candidates of my former party, especially when I personally knew the candidate, to see the candidate either shy away from, or dance around, issues that they felt passionately about merely because they believed that that they would get hammered otherwise. Rather than honing their message and making their case, the person asking for my vote more often than not would duck the issue, or worse, adopt a position I knew was not in keeping with what they truly believed. And I would stand in the back of the room and die a little inside each time it happened. If was able to bring it up with my candidate or staff, I was told, in not so many words, well, we’d like to be able to do it differently, but we won’t stand a chance if we do.

Greenwald continues:

Due to the prism of gamesmanship through which political pundits understand and discuss politics, many citizens have learned to talk about their political leaders as though they’re political strategists advising their clients as to the politically shrewd steps that should be taken (“this law is awful and unjust and he was being craven by voting for it, but he was absolutely right to vote for it because the public wouldn’t understand if he opposed it”), rather than as citizens demanding that their public servants do the right thing (“this law is awful and unjust and, for that reason alone, he should oppose it and show leadership by making the case to the public as to why it’s awful and unjust”). 

Our “leaders” also have the power to set the public agenda. If we have learned nothing else from the neo-con assault of the last thirty years, this should be it. Talk about something long enough, frame it properly, and you will At Least get people engaged and discussing it.  In the movie, The American President, Michael J. Fox’s character, Lewis, says:

People want leadership, Mr. President, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they’ll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They’re so thirsty for it they’ll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there’s no water, they’ll drink the sand.

To which President Shepherd (Michael Douglas) responds:

Lewis, we’ve had presidents who were beloved, who couldn’t find a coherent sentence with two hands and a flashlight. People don’t drink the sand because they’re thirsty. They drink the sand because they don’t know the difference.

They were both right.

Letting sleeping dogs lie

Well, that’s what’s happening in our living room right now. Sweetie and I spent last night in Reno at the Silver Legacy. Since we live so far out of town, when we do Dinner and a Show, it’s always easier to book a room as well.

After making sure the dogs had plenty of food and water, we left them in the backyard and headed for Reno, arriving at the hotel around 4ish. We dropped the car off at Valet Parking, checked in, and then headed over to Roxy’s for a pre-dinner cocktail. They’ve got a piano bar there and the fella tickling the ivories was a 60-something gray-haired dude whose every song sounded exactly the same. I wondered out loud if he knew Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” and Sweetie got up, popped a fiver in the guy’s jar and requested it. What a hoot. I cannot even begin to describe how he talk-sang the song in true lounge lizard fashion, and his La-Dee-Dah-Dee-Dee-Dah-Ah was beyond hopeless. Thankfully, Sweetie and I were sitting below him at the actual bar and he did not see my convulsions or hear my stifled laughter.  Then, just to assure us that “Piano Man” wasn’t the only Billy Joel song in his repetoire (not that we’d asked), he started in with his rendition of “New York State of Mind,” and while no one could have mistaken him for Billy Joel, the song actually suited his style much better and wasn’t too bad.  We chatted up two ladies sitting to the right of us at the bar and found out they were there to see Wanda Sykes like we were. One of them told us that earlier she’d been playing Blackjack at the same table with Wanda Sykes, but was too timid to say anything to her.

After drinking our cocktails (7 & 7 for me, Glen Moray for Sweetie), we dashed upstairs to change for dinner at La Strada, and dinner was all I’d hoped for. I had La Strada’s famous Porcini Mushroom Ravioli (melt in your mouth delicious, delicate seasoning), while Sweetie had to settle for the Cod (being as the Ono he’d immediately spied on the menu was not being served that evening).  The young couple seated next to us were from the Bay Area (Marin), and were there to see Wanda too. We finished off a bottle of chardonnay and headed for the Grande Exposition Hall and Wanda!  After three tries, we finally asked for help to find our seats and settled in. I was pleasantly surprised to discover a co-worker of mine and her partner sitting right behind us.

Wanda’s warm-up act was a funny guy named Keith Robinson. His stuff on parenting was hysterical, especially his bit about turning into his cliche-spouting father.  And I especially liked at the end when he spoke out against violence against women.

Wanda rocked. That is all I can say. Great show, great night. We got an after show drink and sitting in DrinX gave me an opportunity to people watch, both the people sitting around us and the stream of people walking to and fro outside.  We humans are such an interesting lot.

This morning we hit the Silver Legacy buffet though we probably shouldn’t have bothered…it wasn’t that pricey, but it just wasn’t that great, and neither Sweetie nor I can do much damage at those sorts of things.  I think we would have like Stirling’s Champagne Brunch better, but live and learn.

We headed home to our three dogs who’d spent the night in the backyard, rather than our bedroom, and they were mighty happy to see us walk through the gate. I’m sure they didn’t sleep well, because now they are passed out. Nina won’t let me get five feet from her, even though I’m sure she’d rather just sleep. But every time I get up to process the laundry, she stumbles after me.

Life is good. I’m feeling very loved today…all the way around.

Town Hall Meeting & Legislative Forum – Dayton – April 7th

From my inbox:

Meet your legislators, hear the current status of the budget process, ask your questions and give them your input.

Who:  Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley & members of the Democratic Caucus
When:  April 7 at 7:00 P.M.
Where: Dayton High School on 335 Old Dayton Valley Road

I’ll be attending.