I wasn't going to get political here. But this morning I picked up a paper to see this:
and it's a quote
"I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities."
Sarah Palin
How dare she? As someone who has almost 20 years into community-based organizing/social justice work, being paid little or nothing or funding out of my own pocket, I KNOW what it takes to be a good community-based organizer. It's why I am for Barack Obama.
How dare Sarah Palin belittle all of us who work to make a difference in people's lives to make herself bigger?
How dare she say her family is not up for discussion when she wants to take away the rights of other families to make their own decisions around the same discussions Sarah is having with her daughter? How dare she propose that taking my rights to birth control away (make no mistake, when you define birth control pills and other effective means of birth control as abortificiants, based on your own personal religious beliefs – beliefs that she and McCain would legislate on, then as soon as abortion is outlawed, so is your right to make choices about your own family size and responsibilities)? How dare she? And she wants to say that she is just like me? Bah on her!
and that's my post and thought for the day!
8 Comments
I'm an Aussie but, I'm sure, like other people in countries around the world, I am interested in what happens in the U.S. Presidential elections. It effects us in one way or another too. It scares me to think that anyone would vote for McCain/Palin. I have been astounded and shocked at some of the things I have read about Palin. America will be in a sorry state if these two get in.
Obama ROCKS!!!
again I ask how (how) can anyone be undecided? the only reason she jumped on the "women's platform" is to try to grab the hillary voters. so obvious. now I am pulling on my face yet again!
When she made that "community service" remark, I wanted to wipe that smirk off her face!
I like the Omabama campaign comeback line: "Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch politicians and their failed policies."
I have been resisting blogging about politics on my blog aside from my daily comment on why I choose Obama,
Glad I found your link in cyberspace. Not only do I share your political views, I like your creative expressions!
Take care.
~Sharon
http://e14studio.blogspot.com
I absolutely agree. I think Gloria Steinem said it best: (it's long, but worth the read)
"Here's the good news: Women have become so politically powerful that even the anti-feminist right wing — the folks with a headlock on the Republican Party — are trying to appease the gender gap with a first-ever female vice president. We owe this to women — and to many men too — who have picketed, gone on hunger strikes or confronted violence at the polls so women can vote. We owe it to Shirley Chisholm, who first took the "white-male-only" sign off the White House, and to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who hung in there through ridicule and misogyny to win 18 million votes.
But here is even better news: It won't work. This isn't the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need. Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It's about making life more fair for women everywhere. It's not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It's about baking a new pie.
Selecting Sarah Palin, who was touted all summer by Rush Limbaugh, is no way to attract most women, including die-hard Clinton supporters. Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Clinton. Her down-home, divisive and deceptive speech did nothing to cosmeticize a Republican convention that has more than twice as many male delegates as female, a presidential candidate who is owned and operated by the right wing and a platform that opposes pretty much everything Clinton's candidacy stood for — and that Barack Obama's still does. To vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, "Somebody stole my shoes, so I'll amputate my legs."….
So let's be clear: The culprit is John McCain. He may have chosen Palin out of change-envy, or a belief that women can't tell the difference between form and content, but the main motive was to please right-wing ideologues; the same ones who nixed anyone who is now or ever has been a supporter of reproductive freedom. If that were not the case, McCain could have chosen a woman who knows what a vice president does and who has thought about Iraq; someone like Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison or Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine. McCain could have taken a baby step away from right-wing patriarchs who determine his actions, right down to opposing the Violence Against Women Act.
Palin's value to those patriarchs is clear: She opposes just about every issue that women support by a majority or plurality. She believes that creationism should be taught in public schools but disbelieves global warming; she opposes gun control but supports government control of women's wombs; she opposes stem cell research but approves "abstinence-only" programs, which increase unwanted births, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions; she tried to use taxpayers' millions for a state program to shoot wolves from the air but didn't spend enough money to fix a state school system with the lowest high-school graduation rate in the nation; she runs with a candidate who opposes the Fair Pay Act but supports $500 million in subsidies for a natural gas pipeline across Alaska; she supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, though even McCain has opted for the lesser evil of offshore drilling. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.
Amen! I am in absolute agreement with you and the other women who have responded to your post! Why, when there is finally a woman in such a position, does it have to be one who is determined to cause such division among women?! It's ever so much more understanding, educational, caring, and respectful to practice inclusiveness rather than exclusiveness! I can't grasp especially a woman doing this to other women! I'm glad I don't have such women in my life! I've known a few but they don't become my friends! Thanks for speaking up about the validity of the work that many, many people do with no or little pay but is so important and actually does have real responsibilities! I work for a non-profit and have for years and along with that have done much community work on a volunteer basis. Also, our non-profit couldn't make it without all the people who volunteer their skills, time, energy, and abilities! I certainly hope some journalists or someone with similar means will voice what you have said in the media so she can realize what a stupid thing she said and how many, many people she insulted! Didn't take her long!
Shauna
You said it perfectly! I'm definitely with you on this issue.
Tammy, I love your rants, and 100 percent agree with you, this woman is one of those hypocrites who claim certain free decisions for themselves which they would like to take away from others.
Weird lady. I hope this is good for something, I mean get her negative votes!
love
Andrea
I'm glad to be back with my friends here:)
Well said Tammy! You took the words right out of my mouth. How dare she? On SOO many counts!