Be Kind

The easiest thing in the world is to be sarcastic. You can point out other people's flaws. You can show all the inconsistencies in your fellow human beings.

But take a moment and ask yourself why you would want to take that path rather than the path of love.

Anger is easy. Compassion is hard. Make your choices and live with them.

That is all.

So how's your Lakota?

I finally got to use that line this week when a co-worker was blithering on about how people should assimilate. It worked like a charm. He actually got it. Amazing.

Linking is awesome

I wish I were a creative genius and could come up with the blog icon that is so richly deserved by Renegade Evolution, who has given up the side bar of her blog to list all the posts, from many different viewpoints that explain what a complete asshole Kyle Payne is.

Linking isn't difficult, but it is a political issue in the blogsophere. Because I cannot spend loads of time reading internet posts, I appreciate beyond measure when somebody collects blog posts on important. So three and more cheers for Renegade Evolution.

Kyle Payne is an ass

Kyle Payne, a blogger and advocate against sexism and pornography, has been convicted of sexual assult. Renegade Evolution explains and follows up with a list of links to other bloggers who are following the story. Way to go, Ren!

Go. Read. Learn. When you're done, let me disgust you some more.

Belledame's post on the matter beings with an interesting post about the weenie character in politics and blogland (that last link stolen from belle's post-thanks).

The Self-Righteously Indignant!

I've spent a lot of years as an activist and these types tend to come around regularly. They totally creep me out. Their sarcasm is passive-aggressive in the extreme. They reek of self-righteous indignation. They are a parody of the true activist, imnsho.

pause for unimportant anecdote

I had a good friend who used to watch old Dr. Welby episodes that began at 10 o'clock at night. She used to wait for the doc's self righteous indignation speech to get ready for bed. She claimed it happened at 40 minutes after the hour like clock work on every single episode.

back to rambling post

So here is a sample of this creepiness, taken from another great post by belledame about this creep.



Dennis Leary did a fun take-down of the type:



I much prefer sarcasm with a bite. Just found this lovely bit about the TV show My Sweet Sixteen. Now that's sarcasm! Special props for the typeface snob comment midway through!



Edited to add:

Purtek

Purtek at A Secret Chord has this Awesome Post. The following is brilliant:

... discussions of the horrific experiences of others (be they sex workers, or rape victims, or women of colour, or women as a whole, or people with disabilities) that re-centre the conversation on how you feel, what you’ve done, the deep emotional impact and the journey of self-discovery that you are on…they’re on the same continuum, and they’re not alliance. They’re appropriation, and they violate boundaries, and they come from a mental place that doesn’t quite recognize the full humanity of whomever you’re talking about, as distinct from you’re own. They’re narcissistic.

Emily

Emily at A Partial Muse has this Awesome Post.

In other words, Kyle's feminism is not about feminism, so far as I can tell from his writing. It's about his show of self-flagellation, about his public displays of emotion, about his desire to get in front of crowds and speak (or blog). Although annoying, all of this would be fine, I suppose, except that it means that Kyle's feminism is not about women, but it's about men, specifically a man -- himself. I honestly and truly welcome male input into the feminist movement, I really do, but a feminist movement that centers on male concerns -- well, it kind of defeats the purpose of feminism.

Raven Black by Ann Cleeves

I just finished reading this mystery novel set in the Shetland islands. Frankly, I'm ambivalent.

There are things about this book that piss me off. Two girls are murdered and the immediate suspect is a man with mental illness. When he is arrested, the community heaves a huge sigh of relief. There! We don't have to worry. Only *damaged* people need be feared.

Of course, we readers know this solution is too easy. Of course the old man is not the culprit.

And yet, the resolution, while shocking, is fundamentally disappointing. The writer has tricked us by letting us into the head of the murderer without letting us know the whole story. This is the same technique Agatha Christie used in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Christie was much better at this.

The skills of workers

A couple of nights ago, I couldn't sleep. For some reason, I thought back to my days of working in the corn canning factory for Green Giant in Le Sueur, Minnesota.

The work was all-consuming. We worked 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. We had the option of taking one day off, but the prospect of overtime pay made that choice unlikely.

For about one month, my entire life was consumed by factory work. All of which is lost, over and dead. I spent a few moments looking for images of husking machines, kernel stripping machines, etc. The knowledge is gone. The reality that consumed me for a brief period of time is lost in the ether.

This happens all the time. The everyday life of workers: the machines with which we interact, the quotas which guide our actions from moment to moment. They are all gone. Lost in the wind. Overpassed by progress. New machines. New technology.

Skills that marked us as valuable workers have died again and again, as technology makes us obsolete.

I wish I could do what Gene Gable accomplished in his article Waxing nostalgic over paste-up. He talks about the skills that I mastered nearly 20 years ago that made it possible for me to live a productive life and earn a decent, union wage. These skills have all become obsolete now. The lives of printers and typesetters have metamorphosed into unrecognizable cockroaches of progress.

What do we, as workers, do when our skills become obsolete? What choices do we have? How do we honor our learning and skills once they are no longer needed?

Anti-RNC flyer update #3

This is close to the last version, I believe. Endorsers were added, the phone number and website went up in size, added Monday to the date, moved stuff around quite a bit. Print!

How to be Productive

Food not Bombs has an organizing manual that can be very useful for activists. Here is their section on behavior.

How to be Constructive, Productive and
Generally Nice at a Meeting

We are often aware of these behaviors in others, but not often enough are we conscious of how we ourselves are acting. Confronting the behavior of others before it gets out of control is key, as is checking ourselves and listening to honest critiques of our own behavior.

Creating an atmosphere of trust and comfort is essential for overcoming disruptive behaviors. If someone consistently dominates conversation and it’s disruptive to the group, try talking one-on-one with him/her to see what’s up. Don’t accuse; just observe.

Dominant behaviors

• Hogging the show: talking, too much, too long, or too loud.
  
• Problem solver: continually giving answers before others have had much chance to contribute.
  
• Speaking in Capital Letters: give one’s own solution or opinion as the final word on a subject, often aggravated by tone of voice or body posture.
  
• Defensiveness: Responding to every contrary opinion as if it were a personal attack, “People obviously didn’t understand what I was saying. What I meant was…”
  
• Nitpicking: Pointing out minor flaws in others’ statements and stating the exception to every generality.
  
• Restating: Stating in another way what someone else has just said perfectly clearly. In other words, repeating someone else’s point as if it were your own, as if you weren’t listening or as if it didn’t have meaning when said by someone else, especially someone you don’t feel is as important as yourself. Or, like saying the same thing over again unnecessarily, etc.
  
• Attention-seeking: using all sorts of dramatics to get the spotlight (as above).
  
• Put-downs and One-upmanship: “I used to believe that, but now” or “How can you possibly think that?!”
  
• Negativism: Finding something wrong or problematic in everything.
  
• Focus Transfer: Transferring the focus of the discussion to one’s own pet subject to give one’s own pet rap.
  
• Self-Listening: Formulating a response after the first few sentences, not listening to anything from that point on, and leaping in at the first pause.
  
• Inflexibility: Taking a last stand for one’s position even on minor items.
  
• Avoiding Feelings: Intellectualizing, withdrawing into passivity, or making jokes when it is time to share personal feelings.
  
• Condescension and paternalism: “Now, do any students or younger people have anything to add?”
  
• Being On the Make: Using sexuality to manipulate others; not to be mistaken with just flirting, being on the make is about power.
  
• Running the Show: Continually taking charge of tasks before others have a chance to volunteer.
  
• Graduate Studentitis: Protectively storing key group information for one’s own use and benefit.
  
• Speaking for others: “A lot of us think we should...” or “What so and so really meant was...”

Submissive Behaviors

• Ending a statement with a question mark: “I really disagree with that?”
  
• Self-Sabotage: “This is really stupid, but...” or “I think that maybe I kind of feel strongly about this issue.”
  
• Stargazing: Idolizing more experienced or charismatic activists and downgrading oneself in comparison.
  
• Walking on eggshells: Tailoring one’s comments to calm down or soothe a volatile member of the group, holding back words for fear that they will upset someone.
  
• Deferring to others: “Go ahead...” or “You were first...” or “l think he is more qualified...”
  
• Pushover: Abandoning an idea or opinion at the first sign of disagreement.
  
• Feeling Expendable: Assuming your opinions are irrelevant or naive; imagining oneself as a faceless observer.

Allied Media Conference

I met Steven Mansour the first night I arrived in Detroit as we were wandering about looking for the dorms. Steve has a wonderful slide show that does a great job of providing a snapshot of the atmosphere in Detroit that weekend. Way to go, Steve!

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

by David Wroblewski is getting a lot of good press. I think I first read about it in this USA Today review. This part:

Wroblewski, whose parents ran a kennel in Wisconsin, lets the dogs in his novel share in the narration, to a small degree. Sounds hokey, but it works remarkably well.

grabbed my attention. A dog as narrator? Cool! The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski is indeed a great read.

I saw a copy in the Barnes & Noble store at Wayne State University when I visited Detroit. Decided against spending money at a chain store. So I jumped at the chance to buy the only copy available at Rainbow Bookstore Cooperative in Madison, WI on our way back from Cleveland. I spent this weekend reading it much too quickly. I needed to now what would happen. The language and location are fascinating, but the plot drove me to read as fast as possible. Which means not savoring and enjoying it as much as I like.

There are allusions to Hamlet in this story of a young man whose father dies and whose mother takes up with his uncle. So I guess we have to hate Trudy (Gertude) for her stupidity/vulnerability. Which is a shame because the mother was a fascinating character until she got forced into the plotline (at least in my opinion) of Hamlet. I don't buy her being so stupid. The uncle, Claude (Claudius), is a smooth-talking manipulator who is very, very good at getting other people to believe the lies he tells. So I'll give the author a pass, I guess, although grudgingly!

To read this book, you need to be willing to engage in fantasy. Ghosts provide some of the most important information. Dogs are conveyors of wisdom and provide training. Storms arise to answer questions. A crazy old witch predicts the future.

What comes through in this telling of the Hamlet story, is how much burden is placed on the young boy, who is, in this re-telling, barely a teenager. He is burdened with too much knowledge and too little practice in using it. In fact, he is overburdened in every way. He can hear but cannot speak and his disability is the cause of some of the most wrenching events told in the story.

In the world today, we do not expect children to be able to solve the problems of adults as well as all the flora and fauna of their environment. Edgar does not have the luxury and I'm not sure the author cuts him enough slack for his failures.

And still, it's an awesome read. And I will read it again. I think you should too.

Back from the National Assembly

Last weekend, Detroit. This weekend, Cleveland. I sure can pick the vacation spots!

We just got back from the National Assembly, an anti-war conference held in Cleveland. Around 400 people participated. This in a time when Iraq is barely in the news, the country is distracted by electoral politics and impending economic crises. It's pretty damn impressive, if you ask me.

I cannot begin to describe the difference between the two conferences I attended in the last two weeks. Cleveland was a majority of old timers with a strong base in the unions. Robert's Rules of Order applied. Very, very different.

We decided to drive a take our own sweet time about it. Stopped in Michigan City, Indiana to see trains. Stopped in Kenosha, WI to ride a cable car and look at the lake. Stopped outside of Milwaukee to rest and relax. Stopped in Madison, WI, to visit awesome independent bookstores.

Really good time and fun to share with Ravenhub.

Allied Media Conference

I arrived home Monday night and have been working like a maniac ever since. No rest for the wicked.

I accomplished many things by attending AMC. I met awesome women. You know them from the internets. They are also awesome in person. I'll write more about that later.

I managed to raise the average age 20 years or so every time I walked into a room. Which is perfectly OK. Being around young activists is a real treat. Only sour point came when I signed into the dorm and someone behind the desk asked me if I was there as a chaperone. Not a big deal, since there were, in fact, events for high school age kids at which chaperones are required. But I was with two 30 something (I think) videographers and it felt like an insult to them. What? These folks need chaperones?

The dorms were ascetic to the extreme. And empty of everything useful. First, call me old for not realizing that dorm rooms have private baths and showers these days. Also call me clueless for not realizing I'd need soap. In the U.S., of course, it is impossible to buy one bar of soap. So I was forced to walk to a CVS and purchase way more soap and shampoo than I needed.

Call me an old fogie for having nothing at all to entertain myself in the ascetic dorm room. No laptop. No MP3 player. Just a Walkman. So I listened to some awesome jazz stations as I fell asleep.

What's different about AMC from other conferences I've travelled to? People are all about caring and learning. No old axes to re-grind. No old battles to re-fight. Just new ideas and new attempts at making a difference.

Grace Lee Boggs in her closing speech talked about the anger of the sixties that motivated a lot of us. Activists today seem to be motivated by something else: caring and loving and forgiving and continuing. If I were a poet (Little Light could do this!), I could describe this sense of both acceptance for our faults and hope for our futures.

I also got to experience my first pay-as-you-go cell phone. The rest of you awesome nerds know all about this, but I have been postponing my acquaintance with modern technology. I can't tell you how much wasted time I spent trying to figure out how to use and program this tiny piece of technology.

I keep reminding myself of my mother's experience. She's a very intelligent woman. She read the instructions about loading websites. The instructions tell you to type a url address into the text box and you will be transported to the website you desire. Nowhere in the instructions does it mention you have to hit return or enter in order for the website to be accessed. So she spent far too much time typing addresses in and waiting for something to happen. Same experience, different tool for me and the cell phone. What an amazing waste of time!

Much more to talk about, of course. I am psyched and inspired.

Tomorrow, I head off to continue my tour of the rust belt cities. I'm attending the National Anti-War Conference in Cleveland this weekend. About which, more later.

Hugs to all the fabulous people I spent time with this weekend. You make the world a better place!

Going to AMC

Why is it that I have to work three hours of overtime in order to get ready a few days off? Yikes!

Anyway, I'm headed off to Detroit for the Allied Media Conference this weekend. I've never been before and I have no idea what to expect, except that I look forward to meeting some folks I've been reading on the internets. Brownfemipower, Black Amazon, Little Light, Miss Crip Chick Lex, Mamita Mala, tigera consciente will all be there. An embarrassment of riches if you ask me.

I'm going to do my best to sit, listen, learn, absorb, and try to comprehend. One thing about an old gal like me is how hard it is to sit and listen for hours on end. I know I did this when I was in school for many years. But I've lost the talent. I need to rest and let stuff settle in or it will just bounce right off my hard shell of a brain.

Going to Detroit is almost like going home. I spent much time on my Grandmother's farm growing up on 37 Mile Road north.

I hope to give a decent report when I return. Wish me luck!

Second draft

First Draft

Sticker idea

The Republicans are coming this fall, and this idea has been kicking through my head. Tell me what you think. Make suggestions to change it. Use it if you want it!

Local man busted for trying to have his wife killed

You can read the article from the St. Paul Pioneer Press. An interesting twist is the guy has some writing up on an MRA website:

A man listed by the Web site (I'm not gonna link) as "Terrence DeChaney" of Coon Rapids describes in a posted entry as being frustrated with the court system and living "in a county that does and will not believe in joint custody." The Web site promotes custody rights issues.

The posting details how the man's wife went to a women's shelter, where she was instructed on how to kick him out of their home by claiming domestic abuse. She now lives in the house that he built "by hand." And he pays her more than $3,100 in child support (or 60 percent of his income) each month. The posting continues by voicing concern about his limited visitation and custody rights, claiming, "This is basically legal theft and legal child abuse."

He ended the nine-paragraph diatribe by noting, "Father's [sic] going through this lopsided process snap."

Lovely little tidbit from his posting:

... the women's shelter instructed my ex to say she was afraid of me and to kick me out of the house with a DV charge, even though she had just told her that I had never threatened her or and she was not afraid of me. I have this recorded from my personal telephone, but can not use it because I was not part of the conversation.

Notice that? He was bugging his wife's phone conversations!

On the internets, everyone knows your an asshole.

Flickr Meme



1. Yukon Raven, 2. coffee and chocolate mousse cake, 3. Assignment: Seasons, 4. End of the day, 5. Kyra Sedgwick, 6. You Sexy Thang, 7. Up north in God's Country, 8. Chocolate Mousse Decadence!, 9. What Is Truly Indecent?, 10. Croak, croak, 11. War Sucks, 12. *raVen*



via Uncool

The concept:
1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
2. Using only the first page of results, and pick one image.
3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Big Huge Lab’s Mosaic Maker to create a mosaic of the picture answers.

The questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food? right now?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. What is your favorite drink?
7. What is your dream vacation?
8. What is your favorite dessert?
9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. What is one word that describes you?
12. What is your flickr name?

This is my friend



From the StarTribune, an article about my friend getting arrested for exercising his free speech rights in St. Paul:

St. Paul police to apologize for detaining antiwar activist

By PAT PHEIFER and RANDY FURST, Star Tribune
Last update: June 5, 2008 - 11:54 PM

St. Paul police said Thursday that they will apologize to an antiwar organizer who was detained Tuesday outside the Obama campaign rally at the Xcel Energy Center for handing out leaflets promoting a Sept. 1 march on the Republican National Convention.

The executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota said the arrest of Mick Kelly, 50, of Minneapolis, does not augur well for the way authorities will treat protesters during the convention.

"We're concerned the police so quickly violated Mick Kelly's First Amendment rights," Charles Samuelson said.

Mayor Chris Coleman said Thursday that he did not think the arrest presages anything about how convention protests will go. "It just says we need to educate our officers," he said. "The First Amendment is a core value of me as mayor and [John] Harrington as [police] chief.

Coleman praised police for moving quickly "to correct what was a mistake." He added, "We are going to move quickly to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Tom Walsh, a St. Paul police spokesman, said police initially believed that Kelly's leaflet distribution was in violation of an ordinance that prohibits peddling within a certain distance of the Xcel Center.

"But it's not," he said. "It's a free speech issue. He wasn't selling or vending, so in this case he was within his rights."

The citation will be dismissed, Walsh said, and the event commander, Cmdr. Joe Neuberger, will apologize to Kelly. Walsh said free speech issues will be part of the training officers receive for the convention. That training has begun but has not been completed, he said.

Walsh said there were no other arrests at the event. Peddlers (who had been selling campaign souvenirs) who were within the radius of the ordinance were asked to move and did, he said.

"It was an impromptu event," Walsh said. "A limited amount of resources were available. ... The safety and security of people attending the event was our priority."

-----

Pioneer Press article

Protester wrongly cited by police
City to apologize to man leafleting at Obama rally

By Tad Vezner
tvezner@pioneerpress.com
Article Last Updated: 06/06/2008 01:20:57 AM CDT

St. Paul police plan to apologize to a protester who was given a citation and placed in a squad car outside the Xcel Energy Center for handing out fliers promoting an anti-war rally during the upcoming Republican National Convention.

Mick Kelly, of Minneapolis, was detained Tuesday just before Sen. Barack Obama gave his speech claiming the Democratic nomination for president, according to Charles Samuelson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.

Kelly was cited with scalping, Samuelson said; police records indicate he was cited for "soliciting and peddling."

"There weren't any tickets (being scalped). That's interesting, in and of itself," Samuelson said.

Kelly is a spokesman for the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War and was handing out fliers for a protest scheduled for Sept. 1, Labor Day. He has also been active in trying to lay out what he considers an acceptable, more prominent protest route during the Republican convention, which will be held Sept. 1-4 at the Xcel arena.

"Mick gets arrested for handing out clearly protected information in a clearly protected area. That concerns us: How many people are going to get arrested on Labor Day? For what? Being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Who knows?" Samuelson said.

Teresa Nelson, legal counsel for the ACLU, happened to be standing beside Kelly when he was detained.

"Sort of ugly luck for the cops," Samuelson said. He said Kelly was placed in a squad car but later released.

As of Thursday evening, the citation was dismissed and the event commander, Joe Neuberger, had contacted the ACLU to try to get Kelly's phone number to apologize, Samuelson said.

Samuelson added that he had yet to reach Kelly on Thursday evening.

Mayor Chris Coleman also expressed his apologies Thursday.

"It's pretty clear that we made a mistake, that he should not have been given a citation. We do apologize and are taking steps to make sure it doesn't happen again," Coleman said.

"I, as mayor, and the (Police) Chief (John Harrington) take the First Amendment very seriously. It's something we both believe in very strongly."

Coleman said he had assurances from Harrington that the citation against Kelly was dropped and that an apology would be made.

Tom Walsh, the police spokesman handling RNC issues, could not be reached for comment Thursday evening. Another police spokesman said Thursday evening that he knew only of the initial citation, but nothing related to the subsequent fallout.

Coleman said police will receive "a lot more training" on First Amendment issues and "more clarity about what the ordinance allows."

The city ordinance in question was Ordinance 345.08, which in part prohibits peddling "within one hundred (100) feet of an entrance to an entertainment venue within three (3) hours of an event scheduled at that entertainment venue," and also "within the State Capitol complex buildings and grounds and the Saint Paul River Centre complex buildings, grounds and surrounding sidewalks."

"(The incident) was a bad thing to do, especially when you've been telling everybody for 14 months how in support of the First Amendment you are," Samuelson said.

Tad Vezner can be reached at 651-228-5461.

Blessings be to the volunteer librarians among us

Malcolm at Malcolmgin has a metapost collecting blog posts that talk about What Rachel Moss Did after attending Wiscon, a popular feminist science fiction conference. I love it when a blogger takes time to put together all relevant links to an issue. It's a common practice and I've done it once or twice. Always volunteer. Always appreciated.

As to the issue of Rachel Moss' inability to appreciate women who look different from herself, I feel something between pity and disgust. Pity that she is so shackled by mainstream ideas about who is worth listening to and disgust that she lacks any creativity at all in her choice of victims.

OTOH, I am amazed by some of the awesome writing I've discovered because of this issue. Via, The F-Word I find the link to Charlotte Cooper's posts on headless fatties. Admit it, you've seen dozens if not more images of fat people in the news with their heads cropped out of the picture. I have and I never noticed how common it is before Charlotte pointed it out to me.

Dismissing somebody for their looks? Too damn easy and too popular in this world.

Choose to be a better person. Choose to have a decent reason for disagreeing with somebody. Stand above the common crowd that follows the lead of the mainstream media by pissing on anyone who doesn't follow their dictates on size, dress, make-up, etc. Distinguish yourself as someone who thinks for herself and decides for herself the worth of others based on something more than superficiality.