Feminists for Obama

Feminist Majority, the group founded by Eleanor Smeal and supporters in Los Angeles, has teamed up with You Tube to provide three videos dramatizing reasons why women should not vote for McCain and Palin.

To see it, go to http://feministsforobama.org/Videos.htm

Thanks to my daughter Marie, co-chair of the Feminist Coalition at Pitzer College, for forwarding this to me.

Chloe Loves Olivia

"We want to celebrate with ______ and _______, who were married this past week," said the pastor at Brentwood Presbyterian Church today during the sharing time.

I didn't hear the names too clearly but turned to look at the couple and realized they were both women.

That's a first, I thought. Interesting.

In about February of this year a blessing of a same-sex couple had been celebrated at our church. It was a service of an hour or more with both women in tuxedos, enough hymns and prayers and blessings to tie a knot for sure--but it was not officially a marriage.

Neither the state of California nor Presbyterian church law would allow a marriage.

But on June 17, 2008, the California Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have the same right to marry as heterosexual couples.

About 11,000 same-sex couples have married in California in the last three months, according to the LA Times ("Same-sex marriage total at least 11,000," Oct. 7, 2008).

The couple at our church was part of that number, probably not actually married in the sanctuary but in a civil ceremony that may be blessed in church later.

For the earlier blessing ceremony, our church came under attack from a more conservative neighbor, Bel Air Presbyterian Church, which appealed to church authorities to prevent the blessing ceremony. The tactic was not successful.

I found the couple after the service to tell them, "Congratulations! May God bless you."

I walked out thinking of Virginia Woolf, who wrote in 1929 in A Room of One's Own, "Chloe liked Olivia perhaps for the first time in literature."

The grand dame would have been pleased to learn of this year's advances. Chloe not only liked Olivia; she proposed to her and married her.

Hillary Up Close

When Karen Berns emailed me a few days ago about a reception for Hillary Clinton in LA's Hancock Park neighborhood I tried to resist.

After suffering through the VP debate Thursday night, however, I needed a lift. This morning I decided, "You deserve to go."

For a mere $150, an opportunity to shake Hillary's hand and thank her for working so hard to give us the first female president in US history? Yes!

I arrived at a mansion owned by Bruce Raben at 3:45 pm and walked into the back yard, where Karen and her friend Pam Powell waved at me from the front line of a crowd of about 300 people waiting behind a black rope. Pam had driven up from San Diego; she and Karen had arrived an hour earlier to get their premium spot in the crowd. I squeezed in next to them, wearing my button, "Hillary for President '08", wishing it could still happen.

Everyone had cameras handy as well as Hillary's autobiography to be signed.

Talking with strangers around us, we wished Hillary were still in the race.

One woman next to me was talking about "the trailer trash." When I asked what she meant by that, she said, "You know, McBush and the trailer trash." Yes, it was a partisan crowd.

However, it included Republican women who had crossed the aisle in hope of getting a woman president and now weren't too happy with Palin, as well as Democrats who (after Obama pulled ahead for the nomination) had hoped Hillary would be the VP nominee.

From the looks of the crowd, much of Hillary's demographic was my age--sixtyish; there were many men as well as women. We were there both to meet this icon and to help her pay for the cost of her historic drive for the nomination. The big spenders ($1000 or more) were inside the house at a special reception while we waited outside.

Among the notable women present was Ellen Carol DuBois, UCLA feminist historian, author of Through Women's Eyes: An American History with Documents, as well as having written or edited other books including the letters of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She was there to hand Hillary a copy of Through Women's Eyes.

When Hillary came out to speak to the crowd, it was great having her just ten feet away. She spoke and then walked along the black rope to greet us at the front line. Karen and Pam shook her hand; I fumbled between getting an autograph and taking photos, completely forgetting to thank Hillary for blazing the trail for women presidential candidates.

In the second photo above, you see Hillary between the backs of Karen's and Pam's heads, Karen on the left. Both have been leaders in EEWC, my favorite Christian feminist group, starting in 1978 or 1980. (See www.eewc.com.)

Here are some excerpts from Hillary's speech:

"We must continue to make sure Democrats win... I've been to more than forty of these events since the convention. It matters who our president is.... The problems he faces are going to be among the worst any president has inherited."

"The financial crisis is unfortunate, but it has focused attention on the choice we face... We're going to have hard work to do, and we need to elect 60 democratic senators to have a filibuster-proof majority."

"Looking at all the work of the campaign, people often ask me, 'Would I do it again?' In a New York minute, I tell them."

A woman's voice rang out: "Will you do it again?"

"Let's not go there," Hillary laughed. "Ask me in eight years. It will take at least that long to clean up the mess we've got there."

"We need a mandate to govern," she continued. "We want an election that's not a squeaker, and then I promise you, we can turn this country around. Right now in the Senate we have 49 Democrats, 49 Republicans, and 2 independents. It's so difficult to push through legislation."

"Your state and mine are blue, California and New York--"

A voice called out, "I love blue!" Laughter.

"And we're pretty sure about Virginia and New Mexico. We may get Colorado and Alabama, maybe Minnesota and Mississippi. We're closing the gap in Kentucky. We have a good chance in Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas...." She urged us to work phone banks calling voters in another state, such as Texas.

"There's so much going on. This can be a great election year. So many people have had a chance to participate and express their deep desire for a better country."

"But I take nothing for granted. I've been in ten elections as an adult, and seven of them we lost, so I don't get carried away."

"The process is more open now. Remember, in 1992 there was no internet (except for 50,000 scientists talking to each other), no cell phones smaller than a brick, no Fox News--"

The crowd groaned.

"The rapid changes of the last 16 years have been both a blessing and a curse. Now campaigns continue 24/7, which is tough, but millions of people can be involved who never thought they could before."

"We must win, and after that the task will be overwhelming. We have only one president at a time, so we have to get behind our next president and work hard."

Then she vanished to be at her next scheduled event. The nostalgia and wishful thinking were over--the political battle continues for thirty days.

Palin Parodies and Posts

Sharon B reports a hilarious parody of Palinspeak by columnist George Saunders in the New Yorker, Sept. 22 issue:

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2008/09/22/080922sh_shouts_saunders

And a sidesplitting "Sarah Palin Debate Flow Chart" by Aden Nak that graphically presents Palin's plan of attack during the debate:

www.adennak.com

Sharon also recommends "The XX Factor" as a blog on Slate with a great section on the VP debate:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/xxfactor/archive/tags/VP+debate/default.aspx

And she reports an entire blog on the Palin wink:

http://palinwink.com

See also the New Yorker's cover for Oct. 6: Palin peering through binoculars at the distant hills of Alaska and Russia.

Confused in California

The red, white, and blue bumper sticker on my car this fall is neither for McCain nor for Obama.

"Mark Twain for President," it says, along with a cynical quote from him: "It's better to be popular than right."

That stance turned out to be one thing Joe Biden and Sarah Palin agreed on last night in their televised debate.

I sat down to watch it fiercely, pen and notepad in hand, as I had done with last week's debate between John McCain and Barak Obama.

But this time, attentive as I was, I kept getting confused.

I'd listen to Gwen Ifill's question, ready to compare the candidates' answers, but start to feel confused, then realize that Palin (often) and Biden (occasionally) had deliberately sidestepped the question and turned to some other point.

The other confusing factor was the two candidates saying "These are the facts" while referring to "facts" that were diametrically opposed. Biden called on facts repeatedly, while Palin said of one of his answers, "That's not straight talk. You supported the war then; now you're against it."

* McCain voted with Obama on some ballot, clamed Biden, but Palin claimed they voted differently.

* Obama voted against money for "our troops in Iraq" said Palin, but Biden argued that McCain voted against funding too when the bill contained a specific date for withdrawing troops. I started to feel that I couldn't trust the facts of either of them.

* Both Palin and Biden accused the other side of planning to raise taxes for the average person and of favoring deregulation of Wall Street. On those issues, I felt pretty sure of which debater was stretching way beyond the truth.

The problem was that these debaters were not trying to clarify; they just wanted to look good and get the advantage in the debate.

As Mark Twain would say, they each wanted to be popular. Facts were as malleable as silly putty in their hands.

Thank God for fact checkers getting to work afterward--the average listener would have no way of untangling that mess of counter claims.

Another factor in my confusion was those two little lines--one green and one orange--going up and down at the bottom of the CNN screen to record the moment-by-moment favorability ratings of a group of Ohio undecided voters, half male, half female.

I was distracted from monitoring my own reaction because of this constant information about how these other voters were feeling.

After a while even the moving Tinkerbell-like drop of light tracing the letters CNN at the bottom left of the screen became a distraction.

The final factor in my confusion was fear. I hung on each word of Sarah Palin, afraid that she would say something so extremely ignorant that I would blush for all womankind.

About halfway through the debate I realized, "Thank God, she's doing okay!" Then I relaxed a bit and my mind cleared a little.

I had to smile at Palin's "barometer of change" that also "trumpets," making barometers something like trombones.

Her words about the environment being (or was it not being?) "the be-all and end-all of our planet" had a kind of Art-Linkletter-Kids-Say-the-Darndest-Things quality.

There was also her great line about "raping the intercontinental shelf." Geology 101: continents have shelves around the edges but don't extend them out to each other.

And what did Biden mean by saying (I think) "McCain is opposed to extending the arms control regime in the world"? Huh?

At least he knew what an Achilles heel was. I got confused when Palin answered that one by talking about her strengths.

Her colloquialisms--"work with yuh...gettin' ...goin' ...gotcha"--didn't sound that genuine to me. Would anyone speak that way on a stage without a deliberate choice to stay folksy? If she becomes VP, we have four more years of George W.'s affected tone--ranch hand at the helm of the country.

Overall, I felt relief at the end of this debate. The effort to make sense of nonsense was over, and the female candidate didn't fall on her face.

At least I had a stake in the debate. At least all four candidates are not men.

Change Happens

I went to the classroom today and taught as if everything in the world were normal.

I did ask for and present news on women & religion before lecturing, but I didn't mention the nation's financial crisis or the bumps in the McCain/Palin campaign--conservative voices increasingly speaking against her as the VP candidate, even saying McCain should drop her and get another running partner. We've spent enough classroom time on issues of women & religion in the Palin nomination.

I did introduce both classes to a new vocabulary word--usury--and pointed out that the Hebrew scriptures forbid taking interest on loans, that usury (in its original meaning of charging interest) was controversial for centuries, and that greed related to earning high interest rates on loans is related to the current financial crisis.

Driving home, however, I learned that the House of Representatives had voted against the proposed economic bailout and that the Dow Jones industrial average had dropped by 777 points.

Furthermore, the House has adjourned for Rosh Hashanah for two days. When I explained this holiday to my classes this morning, I didn't think it would be playing into the financial crisis, but on television tonight I heard people questioning whether the US in this crisis should take two days off for a Jewish holiday.

I can't continue to walk in and out of the classroom as if everything were normal. I'll have to take a few minutes to note the upheaval in our economy and let the students comment or ask questions, and I hope their other professors also offer some leadership in this area.

During the last eight years of my mother's life, my central prayer request for her was that she would "get through each day." It was really a prayer that the status quo would continue without any crises requiring my intervention.

Now the economy, which I prefer to ignore, is not just muddling along but requiring all of us to sit up and take notice.

And even the Palin campaign, which I had planned to enjoy, has taken a bad turn.

Last night CNN repeatedly played excerpts of Katie Couric's interview of Palin two days ago. I missed the interview, but it looks as if I'll have to go online and watch it.

To questions about the proposed economic bailout, Palin's answers showed she didn't understand what the bailout is--her answer included something about health care.

Dismayed, a conservative female columnist cited "the cringe factor" and asked that Palin be dropped from the ticket.

I don't want Palin to fall flat on her face--what an embarrassment to women everywhere. I expected her to campaign well enough, either lose or win, and become a footnote to history.

Instead, she seems to be destabilizing the presidential race, which itself is a threat to the ability of Washington and Wall Street to get our economic house in order.

So this is the shape of the 21st century: it began with a defiant attack on US imperial power, followed by an arrogant US solution to problems in the Middle East, but now US arrogance and economic power are shrinking as we struggle to get our own house in order.

We're like the wife of the alcoholic, who has been investing all her energy into solving his problems as her own health deteriorates. Suddenly we're being forced to focus on our own health.

Blurry and Slurry

I feel irritated after listening to the first presidential debate.

I'm supposed to feel grateful that it even took place. Thanks for showing up, John McCain.

For the first 40 minutes, both candidates evaded specifics on Jim Lehrer's questions about the financial recovery plan.

"Yes or no to the recovery plan?" Lehrer asked twice. Then, "Are there fundamental differences between you?" Then, "What would you cut out?" Then finally, "Can you admit that the financial crisis will affect how you govern?"

Both kept telling what they would not cut out. Finally Obama said he would cut $15 billion in subsidies to private insurers.

McCain threw out words like "liberal spending" and "invasion of Normandy" instead of getting specific. They fenced with the word "earmarks."

I was irritated by McCain's repeated misrepresentation of Obama's words.

When Obama said he'd cut taxes for 95% of Americans, but not the top 5%, McCain kept telling us, "I would cut taxes" and suggesting Obama would raise them.

"For the wealthy, not for the middle class," Obama interjected.

Finally McCain clarified that he meant the US business tax, which he blamed for US businesses going abroad.

Then we were treated to an hour of each candidate trying to be more willing to wage foreign wars than the other.

Lehrer tossed out the bait: Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, another 911?

McCain sneered at Obama repeatedly: "Obama doesn't understand the difference between a tactic and a strategy" ..."He's naive; he doesn't understand..."

Obama repeated that going into Iraq was wrong in the first place; we should have kept our focus on Al Quaeda and Afghanistan.

McCain kept raising the spectre of "If we suffer defeat in Iraq..." We'll have wider war, he predicted, quoting a mother, "Make sure my son's death was not in vain."

Wow, he's still in the years 1969, '71, '72, I thought.

"No soldier ever dies in vain carrying out" US policy, Obama declared.

Being "solely focused on Iraq... weakened our capacity to protect our country," he pointed out. Bin Laden is still at large and our spending $10 billion/mo on Iraq has weakened our economy "so we can't provide health care... fund veterans. We must start recognizing that the next president needs a broader strategic vision."

They both agreed that the US should stop torturing prisoners, but no one mentioned holding prisoners of war for years without filing charges or holding a trial.

McCain used frequent emotional appeals: "The veterans... I love them; they know I will take care of them." "When I came home from prison..." "She said, 'Senator McCain, please wear my son's bracelet.""

That bereaved mother was the only woman mentioned in the entire hour and forty minutes--oh, except for Miss Congeniality, whom McCain called on twice.

With Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin out of sight, women voters were also out of mind, as if our interests coincided exactly with the macho one-upsmanship being exhibited.

Only male faces appeared on the screen for that entire time. We didn't even have the relief of a woman showing up in an advertisement.

As a glimpse of our future in 2009 and the years thereafter, it was positively depressing.

If McCain wins, we get four years of military posturing and a VP who falls in line behind him.

If Obama wins, we maybe get a little diplomacy in between chasing down Osama bin Laden, but the Bush bash on the economy will probably prevent any real progress toward universal health care or improved child care or investment in education from preschool through college.

Sheesh--maybe they shouldn't have held this debate after all. I feel verbally waterboarded.

At least the differences between the candidates were visible, along with their huge areas of agreement.

If US voters put McCain in office, we deserve what we get.

I sure hope I don't have four more years of Republican mistakes to live through.

South Dakota: Choice's Last Stand?

I'm still getting zillions of anti-Palin emails, but in the fuss over her and Alaska, we are forgetting about South Dakota and the attempt to ban abortion there in the upcoming election.

Sharon Billings emails me today about Planned Parenthood's new campaign to donate to PPFA "in honor of Sarah Palin" and have a note sent to McCain headquarters announcing your action in favor of full reproductive choice. www.plannedparenthood.org

My daughter Marie sends a similar plea by email today: "mom and dad, maybe you could donate to this fund?" The fund turns out to be Feminist Majority's work to defeat Measure 11 in South Dakota. See www.feminist.org or www/feministmajority.org or to donate against Measure 11, https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1400/t/900/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=3982.

FM has 24 paid student organizers and scores of volunteers working to register young voters on South Dakota college campuses in order to defeat the proposed ban.

A similar ban in South Dakota was defeated in 2006, narrowly, but anti-abortion forces are like barking dogs. They don't shut up when they are locked out.

I chose to bypass PPFA and FM, both worthy organizations, in order to send money directly to South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families at www.sdhealthyfamilies.org.

I had first called my friend Marjorie Signer, Director of Communications and Policy at the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice in Washington, DC, to ask whether RCRC is mounting a major campaign in South Dakota this year.

RCRC was a key part of the coalition that defeated the 2006 attempt to ban abortion there, but she said that SD RCRC folks are working through the SD Campaign for Healthy Families this time, so I donated there for maximum impact.

Because RCRC monitors Congress and informs senators and representatives about the many religious groups and leaders who support women's full access to reproductive options, it's a good idea to donate there as well: www.rcrc.org

Anyway, the point is to fight for our rights, not send emails about Palin to online polls or further clog up your friends' email inboxes.

South Dakota is the frontline (again) this year for keeping abortion legal.

Like General Custer and his 225 men killed by Lakota Indians in 1876 near the Montana/South Dakota border, the pro-choice forces may be defeated in South Dakota this November by anti-choice organizations.

In 1876, Custer's friends came back to crush the Lakota and confine them on reservations.

But pro-choice side will be at a disadvantage for a long time if we lose South Dakota. The issue of whether individual states can ban abortion would go to the Supreme Court--and we all know that Roe v. Wade is imperiled there.

Toast Reconsidered

Seeing the documentary Our Disappeared shook my sense of being able to survive anything our government can dish out.

In Argentina in the years 1976 through 1983, secret military squads rounded up troublemakers of all kinds, tortured them, and killed perhaps 30,000 people. Yes, some of them were staging violent acts against the military junta, but others were working to change their government peacefully.

Could such a thing happen in the USA?

Our military is already rounding up anyone suspicious in Afghanistan and Iraq, torturing them, and holding them without trial in Afghanistan, Guantanamo, and elsewhere.

We aren't that far from what happened in Argentina.

In the film I learned that when Juan Peron was trying to return to Argentina and take power, many on the left supported him. He persuaded both socialist and fascist organizations that he would support their goals.

Only after he gained power did his true colors show. Fascist elements in his government took control and systematically killed those who opposed them.

After the extreme anti-liberal, anti-community-organizer rhetoric of the Republican Convention, it's eerie to see McCain now asking for bipartisan support, trying to get the votes of independents and middle-of-the-road Democrats, especially women.

Like Peron, he could use the middle and then turn to the right.

I could live on if my side lost political power and if I lost my comfortable economic status.

But if I were unable to have political views and work for justice without endangering my life... yes, I would be toast.

"Nuestros Desaparecidos" /"Our Disappeared"

Yes, the disappeared of Argentina, 1975-83.

This new documentary, appearing in the LA Latino International Film Festival, brings you face to face with parents, children, and friends of a few of those who were kidnapped by secret military squads, tortured, and killed.

In any theater you sit down willing to have your mind and emotions taken on whatever rollercoaster the director of the film has in mind, but this film was a wrenching experience to watch.

Get more information at www.ourdisappeared.com. It will appear on PBS in spring of 2009, perhaps May. To be sure not to miss it, go to www.pbs.com and sign up for emails of upcoming shows. See also a review in the LA Times, "A dark chapter in Argentina's history" (9/2/2008).

If you're young or depressed, this is not the film for you, but if you identify as a world citizen responsible to know recent history and work for human rights, this film will help you to understand Argentina.

You will encounter the evil that humans and their goverments have done and are still doing. Director Juan Mandelbaum provides both human stories and political background on Peronismo, the military junta, los Montoneros, etc.

By hearing these people tell their stories, watching footage shot thirty years ago, and seeing the Escuela Mechanica de la Armada where much of the torture took place, I felt myself slipping into the feeling of terror that permeated Buenos Aires at that time.

One of the worst moments, however, was hearing Henry Kissinger say for the camera something like "We support the Argentine government's efforts to get their terrorism under control."

I was relieved to learn that when Jimmy Carter became president, US policy changed. The US Embassy in Buenos Aires began taking reports of disappeared persons and challenging Argentina's ruling junta.

Afterward the director and a young woman interviewed in the film spoke with the audience. Her parents had been killed shortly after her birth; in order to save her daughter's life, her mother had left the baby girl on grass at the Buenos Aires zoo when she saw military officers coming to arrest her.

I was too shaken up to linger and talk with these people. It was surreal to emerge from the theater into the noise of a live band and walk out on the red carpet in front of lights and cameras waiting for celebrities.

I was button-holed, however, as I stumbled out by a man who had also watched the film. He had noticed my bright blue Madres de Plaza de Mayo t-shirt proclaiming "30 anos de vida venciendo a la muerte" and struck up a conversation.

As we got acquainted, I learned that Juan Vicente Risuleo had himself left Argentina in about 1978; he too had been interrogated by police.

Now the owner of a couture bridal and evening salon in Beverly Hills, he was then a student of art history who worked in fashion design.

He described a moment thirty years ago when he had stopped briefly in a small news and snack shop one day. Looking at a fashion magazine, he felt a sudden tap on his shoulder from behind.

"Why are you looking at that magazine? Are you gay?" the apparent government agent asked.

Though he quickly talked his away out of being hauled off, it was a close call.

Today in Los Angeles he's an avid newspaper reader, alert to government deception and "inconvenient" news stories tucked into the back pages.

He recalls his professor of social history, Jose Luis Romero, saying "You need to clean the news like you clean a fish--eat it all away until you see the skeleton underneath."

More cherished advice from this professor: "Preserve your mind like it's a sacred space. Don't let anyone throw trash into your mind."

All in all, a mind-stretching night.

And then off into the chaos of tourist scene at the corner of Hollywood and Highland: two Marilyn Monroes dressed in white standing above air-blowers from under the sidewalk; a bronzed, nearly nude snake handler; noisy street music performers and their audiences.

Dazed, I tried to find my parking garage.