Older flyers

Posting a bunch of old flyers here.

From 2004:

Pictures

Taken at just the right angle.

Mingle² - Online Dating

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:

death (4x)
queer (3x)
bitch (2x)
fucking (1x)

Out of the Closet and Out of Iraq!



I marched behind this banner at yesterday's Gay Pride Parade. It was a lot of fun and we got great support from the huge crowds. It was hot for Minneapolis: 95 degrees F, and I was bright red and exhausted by the end of the march. Also got hit by a big gust of whatever the heck it is that I'm allergic to. It gets into my eyes and I start tearing up like Niagara Falls and can't open my eyes. I spent the last few blocks of the march holding on to the side of the truck with my eyes closed since I couldn't see a damn thing. What a spectacle!

Our favorite chant: "Take it in the font, or take it in the back; whatever you do, get out of Iraq!" The crowd gets this "they can't really be saying that, can they?" look, then they laugh and join in.

Fun Stuff

Food Art

The Northern Lights as viewed from space.

Mr. Lee Cat travels about his neighborhood with a camera on his neck taking random shots. Owner mystified.

Nice Guy(TM) thinking explained

Little Light has a post up discussing an entry at Craig's List (since removed, but you can read the post at Little Light's place) by a creep who helped out a woman in trouble and then was pissed off that she didn't respond to him in the way he believed he had earned. Which led to another discussion of Nice Guy Syndrome. And this wonderful description from Dw3t-Hthr:

It's the "you're not entitled to anything" that has always, in my experience, been the sticking point for the Nice Guy.

The ones I've actually talked with (generally whining on the internet about how they can't get a girlfriend) seem to have this notion of Woman As Vending Machine / Arcade Game. If they just figure out which buttons to push, then Woman will Put Out. And they're pushing the buttons that they're supposed to, but Woman is not lighting up the right little "Score!" buttons. That asshole over there is pushing buttons and lighting the whole system up! Damnit, this Woman is broken! They tried up-down-up-down-left-right-left-right-B-A-stat, too, did someone give them the wrong cheat code? The last woman said that she liked this, why doesn't this woman respond to it?

None of the Nice Guys I've ever tried to talk to seem capable of believing that women aren't issued with a standard cheat code that will open them up to whoever gets the button sequence right. And the cheat code is Their Right, Damnit. The woman is incidental.

Beautifully explained!

Coverage of our vigil for the 3,500 U.S. combat death

The Downtown Journal had a reporter and a photographer at our protest.

They also posted an interesting multi-media piece with voices from the protest and a slide show that you can watch here
Here is the article:

All they are saying...

By Michael Marchio

Protesters lined the southwest corner of Loring Park along Hennepin Avenue June 8 to voice their opposition to the war in Iraq.

The event was called together by the Iraq Peace Action Coalition to mark the 3,500th U.S. military death in Iraq.

“The Iraq Peace Action Coalition has been trying to mark the quantity of lives that have been wasted in this conflict in Iraq,” said Meredith Aby, one of the group’s organizers. “We’ve had demonstrations at 2,000, 2,500, 3,000 and now 3,500 in terms of marking how many soldiers have died.”

Aby noted the recent increase in violence in Iraq as one reason for the event.

“The surge that Bush is orchestrating is having an incredible consequence on human lives for both Americans and Iraqis, and we wanted to encourage people to organize against this war because we’re going to be marking 4,000 dead pretty soon,” she said.

Emotions and frustrations ran hot in the afternoon sun, with many protesters, which numbered from 50 to 100 during the event, voicing their displeasure with the president and his policies in no uncertain terms.

“I’m out here because George W. Bush considers the Constitution a damn piece of paper,” Daniel Fearn, a nine-year United States Marine Corps veteran, said.

As rush-hour traffic hummed along, the protesters’ chants and speeches were peppered by honks of support, an indication of the intensifying unpopularity of the war, according to many in attendance.

“There’s very little against us; that’s changed in the four years we’ve been out trying to convince people this is the worst thing our country’s ever done,” said Rick Hanson, from the antiwar group Military Families Speak Out.

Hanson, whose son, Eric, 21, is a marine on his second deployment to the Anbar province of Iraq, took issue with the medical treatment troops receive when they return from their tour of duty. “I think it’s horribly unpatriotic the way our soldiers are treated when they get back,” he saidAnother demonstrator, Patricia Keefe, 64, also noted the change in attitude.

“A lot more people are honking now,” she said. “People are realizing that [the war] was a terrible mistake.”

One of the featured speakers at the event, Julie Larson of Blaine, spoke about her son, a member of the Navy who is being redeployed to Iraq, and called for more public involvement in the antiwar movement.

“I ask you to write to your representative and keep the pressure on. Let’s see all of these kids as ours — they belong to us, not somebody else,” Larson told the crowd.

In an interview with the Downtown Journal, she said America’s young service members are fighting a war that is, in the words of her son, “about oil.”

“It’s so easy for the rest of the country not to see these people; they’re just invisible, they go off and do the war. Until you have someone really close to you [involved in the war], it doesn’t affect you, and I don’t think that it’s affecting, still, a lot of people,” she said.

Her belief was echoed by August Nimtz, a professor of political science at the University of Minnesota and a participant in the rally.

“Only with a mass movement will [the war] end, because neither political party — Democrats or Republicans — are interested in peace,” he said. “We need to do what history has taught us; the only way which you end wars is when working people take power and organize in massive, massive numbers.”

Gone to that great catnip cloud

I am a long-time cat owner. Last weekend, one of our two cats, Mocha, stopped eating and became extremely lethargic. I took her to the vet yesterday and they pushed fluids. She came home last night feeling better.

I took her back to the vet today for more treatment, and she began to fail. She is 16 years old and has never been sick before. The vet called to tell me she was not doing well and they thought she might have a tumor. I told him to keep her comfortable until I could get there after work. Around 2 pm she had a heart attack and died.

Let me tell you about Mocha. We had two cats when we adopted our daughters. Squeak was obviously Ravenhub's cat and Fruitbat shunned everyone but me. So we took the kids to the local shelter and they each picked out a kitten.

Mocha was a black short-haired cat with touches of white. She had a plaintive voice that we immediately translated as "Oh, me or my!"

Her favorite thing was to climb to the top of the cat tower and call us over to play. We would throw a cat toy up to her. A catnip mouse or a plastic ball with a bell inside. She would allow the toy to land next to her. Then she would take it in her paw and fling it back at us. Whereupon we would toss it straight back to her. She taught us to fetch.

My daughters grew up and moved away, but left the cats with us. Squeak died at 17 years old and my dear Fruitbat died at the ripe old age of 21. For the last few years, it's been the two younger cats keeping us old fogies company and making demands.

Mocha would plop herself down next to me on the couch and demand I pet her. She loved to have her head and ears roughed up. She would bury her face in my hand to force me to rub her ears. During the last five or six years she divided her time between hiding under furniture and sitting beside me demanding to be petted.

We called her Mocha the May cat and she lived a good life. I hope her spirit is rolling in catnip heaven.

Pieces of Eight

I've been tagged by Veronica at Nine Pearls to participate in the Pieces of Eight meme.

Rules: Each person posts the rules before their list, then they list 8 things about themselves. At the end of the post, that person tags and links to 8 other people; then visits those people’s sites and comments, letting them know that they have been tagged, and to come read the post, so they know what they have to do.

1. I'm left handed. A lefty lefty.

2. I survived a coma when I was six. Which is why I don't gamble or buy lottery tickets; I figure I've had my quota of good luck.

3. On August 1, we'll celebrate 20 years of marriage.

4. I used to be a professional sportswriter.

5. I was a high school cheerleader.

6. I've dropped out of three colleges (so far).

7. I do two crosswords and one Soduku every day. I finish most of them.

8. I'm a member of a women's reading group that has been meeting every month for 22 years.

I tag Octogalore, Belledame, Mighty Quare Dewd, Donna, Black Amazon,

Author visit at Mayday Books

My latest flyer for the bookstore.

Another horrible milestone

The local antiwar coalition will be demonstrating once the death toll for American soldiers hits 3,500. It's at 3,495 as I write this. I made a bunch of signs for the event. Feel free to download and print these out if you are also having events.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

I watched the HBO movie based on the book by Dee Brown.

This book, plus the rise of the American Indian Movement had a direct effect on my life when I was in junior high in Mankato, Minnesota.

Think about the stories you hear about young Germans in the 1960s not being educated about the camps. It was the same for us. We were surrounded by this horrible history, and yet nobody talked about it. Mankato is the site of the largest mass execution in U.S. history shown below in an etching:



The settlers originally planned to hang 330, but Pres. Lincoln said it was too many and narrowed it down to 38. This event was celebrated in Mankato with this incredible monoment which greeted ever visitor as they entered town:



AIM and other activists threw red paint and/or blood on the monument to express their displeasure:



Many years later, through the combined efforts of concerned whites and Native activists, the monument is gone and is replaced by a beautiful white buffalo statue in a placed called "Reconciliation Park":



There is a great website put together by local students where you can read more about the events in 1862.

Feminist Links

Feminist Philosophers blog could be interesting.

let them eat pro-sm feminist safe spaces is a joint blog from my blogging buddies belledame222, Trinity and antiprincess plus verte, who I don't know yet.

Not hiding, just busy

Lots of stuff to do lately that don't involve blogging.

I got called to fill in at one of the local used bookstores I used to work at more often. Had to go in first last Wednesday to get trained in on the cash register as well as how to close up, including counting the till, etc. The owner is referring to me as "Super Nanny" -- she only calls me when one of her regular workers needs time off. I used to accept $6 an hour, but now I'm taking my pay in books: which equals $11 an hour. With every book half price, that adds up wonderfully.

On Thursday night, my youngest daughter went to her college gradution ceremony. It was huge with hundreds of students. I spent much of the night outside trying to catch up on my reading, but miraculously I went back in just in time to see her pick up her diploma. She looked great and she certainly deserves her reward after all her work.

On Friday night, I attended a going away party for one of my Iraqi friends who is heading back home for a few months. It was a lot of fun and some great Middle Eastern food.

On Saturday, I met with my book group: 5 wonderful friends who've been meeting together for nearly 15 years. From 5 to 10 p.m. I worked my shift at the bookstore and managed to sell a number of good books.

On Sunday, I went in to work to continue creating maps and graphics for a book I'm creating that my Mom wrote. It's been keeping me busy since August. I'm nearly done, so every little bit is a step closer to the end.

Then in the afternoon we heard from my brother in law. He was in the hospital! Turns out he went with a bunch of friends to walk the beautiful paths along the Mississippi River and he went over a cliff. He had to be rescued by firemen repelling down the cliff face and then being lowered onto a rescue boat. He scraped everything and was unconscious for a short time. He broke no bones, thank the goddess. We spent the rest of Sunday getting him out of the hospital and recovering his car, his keys, his cell phone and making sure he wasn't showing signs of a concussion. He's doing amazingly well while aching over every bit of his body.

Meanwhile, I'm busy this week. On Wednesday, I'm driving an out-of-town writer around. I'm halfway through his book and I must say I'm hugely disappointed. The question is will I be honest with him when I meet him, or just be a mute little service worker meeting his needs in an unknonwn city. We'll see.

Amidst all this, I've also picked up Jessica Valenti's "Full Frontal Feminism". I'm about halfway through and will comment when I'm done. I am following the blog debates about the book and I'm fascinated that people who I respect have strikingly different responses.

So much for the catching up. Hopefully I'll be back to useful blogging sometime soon.

Antiwar for Mothers Day

Here's a sign I made for today's antiwar march in Minneapolis. We wanted to focus on both Iran and Iraq and this seemed to convey the issue rather nicely. Feel free to copy and use yourself!

Michael Albert

Here's a flyer I made for Michael Albert's talk in Minneapolis.

Mayday Parade 2007

One of the great cultural traditions in Minneapolis is the Mayday Parade sponsored by In the Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater every year since 1975. The event has two parts: a parade down Bloomington Ave. to Powderhorn Park where there is a celebration to say goodbye to winter and welcome spring. The parade also has two parts: the first part has a theme and the second part is the "free speech zone" where politicians and activists march. This year it was wonderful weather and great fun.

This year's theme was "Somos Aqua" (We are Water)



MayDay Poster Design by Sandy Spieler



From the ITHOTB website: Before memory, there was water. The water that covered the earth in primordial times is the very same water that feeds the planet and its inhabitants today. We begin the Parade with an homage to the wisdom of Water as the original source of creation.



Two ancient snapping turtles, witnesses of time, lead the way.* These ancestors carry the histories of humankind on their strong shells, and support the Earth entirely, according to many cultures' creation stories.



Powerful serpents represent the entwining ebb and flow of tidal currents. Within them thrive fish, snails and denizens of the deep. The spirit of water is embodied in jellyfish, living beings that are but a few cells thick, which pulse with the heartbeat of the sea.



Our Father of Waters, with his singing flotilla, is inspired by the rhythmic, musical quality of water. The boats play with the idea that we are all carried by or supported by water,while the image of Old Man River runs through many traditional songs.

Our Mother of Waters is inspired by various water goddess traditions, including Chalchiuhtlicue, the Aztec
goddess of running water and springs, and protectoress of all new-borns.











LIKE A GIANT UMBILICAL CORD, our public waterworks connects us to Water -- and to each other --through a vast network of pipes. In Minneapolis, our water pipes connect us directly to the Mississippi River.... Our clowns celebrate the many ways we use water everyday. But, like us, they also use water na•vely and mindlessly. Their silly antics affect even the parade's huge, imposing pipes.





ARE YOU THIRSTY? TIENES SED? THE FIRST HALF OF THIS PARADE SECTION depicts an ad campaign for a fictional water bottle company called H2NO -- complete with cheerleaders, marching band, and a plastic water bottle goddess -- to promote the "need" for water sold in plastic bottles.

Greensburg, Kansas

An amazing series of photos by Jaime Oppenheimer of the The Wichita Eagle showing the devastation of the entire town of Greensburg by a tornado last Friday.

Lovely short story

Four Short Crushes from the New Yorker Shouts and Murmurs column. Enjoy!

May 1 March in Minneapolis















Coverage in the Minneapolis StarTribune was pretty good for the Immigrants Rights March yesterday in Minneapolis.

Immigrants on the move for change


Photo by Jeff Wheeler , Star Tribune

Hoisting banners and flags, immigrants and their advocates march down Lake Street Tuesday afternoon.
Demonstrators marched for immigrant rights, but the kind of wide-scale work stoppages seen a year ago weren't in evidence.

By Jean Hopfensperger, Star Tribune
Last update: May 02, 2007 – 12:09 AM

Stretching for three city blocks, immigrants and their advocates took to the streets in south Minneapolis on Tuesday as part of a nationwide day of demonstrations to support immigration reform and worker rights.

Hoisting banners and flags, participants marched down Lake Street at 4 p.m., eliciting friendly honks along the way.

Many Latino businesses closed their doors at that hour so their workers could attend events in Minneapolis. And several hundred high school and college students left their classes to attend an afternoon rally at the State Capitol in St. Paul or other events.

But local businesses weren't reporting wide-scale worker stoppages or boycotts, as some did last year. In part because of a public backlash to those actions, the focus Tuesday was on worker rights and immigration reform.

"Last year it was different because it was the first year," said Victoria Gonzales, a co-owner of Manny's Tortas in Minneapolis, which closed its three shops a year ago. "But in reality, we don't want to boycott this country. It's our country, too. We just want to show our support for immigration reform that would help [illegal] immigrants fix their status."

Buoyed by bright blue skies and warm weather, demonstrators marched from Lake Street and Nicollet Avenue S. to Powderhorn Park. The group, about half Latino, included a large group of high school and college students, as well as many families and workers.

"I'm here because I want Congress to change immigration laws," said Francisco Romero, a construction worker who took the day off from work, with permission from his boss. "And we want them [immigration agents] to stop the raids."

Romero and others acknowledged that many people were staying away from the demonstration this year because of stepped-up enforcement by immigration agents, including recent raids in Minnesota.

Those raids were criticized at a rally after the march, as was the fact that Congress has not passed changes that would create a pathway to legal residency for illegal workers.

Cell phones put to use

Elsewhere in Minneapolis, about 100 people, most carrying wooden crosses representing people deported during immigration raids, gathered on the steps of the Basilica of St. Mary Tuesday afternoon. From there they embarked on a several-block procession to Westminster Presbyterian Church.

Outside Westminster, many participants took out cell phones and called the offices of Minnesota congressional members, asking them to approve immigration reforms.

While the demonstrations were similar in nature to last year's, the day's impact on business was considerably less. For example, Sean McHugh, a spokesman for Swift & Co., reported "no effect" on the workforce this year.

"In contrast to last year, when we didn't operate the Worthington plant on May 1, this year all plants are up and running," said McHugh.

Still, the May Day rally was on everyone's mind in the Latino business district on E. Lake. Street. Store owner Santos Jimenez said he'd sold 300 U.S. and Mexican flags this week, in part to use at the rally.

At the bustling Mercado Central, workers and customers were planning to leave at 4 p.m. so they could attend the demonstration. The complex of 40 businesses shut down, too.

"We decided to treat it as a holiday," said Mercado Central manager Becky George. "The idea for today is to foster immigrant business. But if we close, customers go someplace else."

At the International Bazaar down the street, home to a cluster of businesses, a pink note was posted on the door saying, "We will be closed May 1 To Support a Just Legalization for Everyone."

The St. Paul School District reported that about 70 high school students skipped classes Tuesday in connection with the rallies. In Minneapolis, about 90 students left Southwest High School at noon, said officials in that district. They said they didn't have numbers for other schools in the district.

Staff writer Tom Ford contributed to this report.

Jean Hopfensperger • 612-673-4511 • hopfen@startribune.com

-------------------------------

WCCO TV, a CBS affiliate, had this to say:

Immigrant Marchers Trying To Get Back Momentum

(AP) Minneapolis Marchers took to Lake Street on Tuesday for the second national immigrant workers boycott, hoping to pump new life into proposals that would give many illegal immigrants the chance to become citizens.

It's been a year since perhaps 1 million Hispanic immigrants joined rallies across the country on a day intended to show their value to the nation's economy. But little progress on congressional reform, mixed with hundreds of arrests in Minnesota this year, have dampened some immigrants' enthusiasm for speaking up.

"It's been stuck. They can't seem to agree on something," union representative Jose Garcia said of plans that would allow some illegal immigrants to gain citizenship. "Maybe there could be a guest worker program first, and then citizenship later. It doesn't all have to happen at once."

Waving flags and homemade signs, a throng of mostly Hispanic immigrants clogged the street on the near south side of Minneapolis as they made their way toward Powderhorn Park. Organizers estimated that more than 1,000 people took part in the march, about half as many for a similar march and rally as last year. Police didn't provide a crowd estimate.

"We want some things changed so people will have the opportunity to be happy and live in peace," said Nora Barrera, who works as an immigrant liaison for the Minneapolis public school system.

Barrera and her husband, Juan, who are legal residents, said they were frustrated with the slow pace of reform and said many people were living unnecessarily stressful lives because of concerns about being arrested.

"It's like cat-and-mice, the way some people have to live," Nora Barrera said. "People are living with fear and stress."

Billed more as a protest than a worker boycott, the day took on a lower profile in Minnesota as organizers planned two events for late in the afternoon -- after the work day was over for many immigrant workers and business owners.

Besides the march along Lake Street, religious leaders re-created the Stations of the Cross in a walk from the Basilica of St. Mary to Loring Park. Also, about 70 people marched in the southern Minnesota city of Austin, where many immigrants work in meatpacking.

Meanwhile, few of the several hundred Hispanic-owned shops along Lake Street -- many of which closed their doors for last year's boycott -- appeared to have shuttered for the day. College students hoped to use the day for a renewed push for Dream Act legislation -- which would provide some illegal immigrants with in-state tuition -- though few organized student walkouts were reported.

As Latin music blared, Alberto Cortez marched down Lake Street ahead of signs that read "Legalization For All Now" and "Pilgrims Didn't Need Green Cards."

Cortez received permission from his boss to take the day off from his construction job in suburban Burnsville. He said he turned out for the march because he was angry about the arrests this year of hundreds of illegal immigrants in Willmar and Worthington, many of whom were deported.

"We want them to stop the raids. Too many children have been separated from their families," said Cortez, who has been living in the U.S. illegally for 16 years, including seven in Minnesota.

Coalition for Palestinian Rights

Yesterday I went to the first part of a Coalition for Palestinian Rights (CPR) conference at the U. I had the privilege of hearing Farrid Esack give the opening speech. Esack is a veteran of the anti-aparatheid struggle in South Africa and spoke about the similarities and differences between the South Africa under apartheid and Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. I'll write more later when I have my notes handy. You can hear a similar speech at Electronic Intifada here.


Later on in the day I went to a Madyday, the worker's day! celebration at Mayday Books where I heard wonderful rants from representatives of various groups in the Twin Cities. Much fine wine was absorbed and a good time was had by all.

This time in Spanish!



And in English, but bigger art:

Take Back the Blog



Crablaw is hosting a "Take Back the Blog" blogstorm on April 28, 2007.

The goal is both to provide a convenient compilation of (undoubtedly excellent) content for readers' benefit and to make a show of strength and of organization within the blogosphere from bloggers with different perspectives towards common concerns.

If the term "blogswarm" does not appeal to you, that's ok! You can call it a "virtual march" or, if you contribute, anything you like!

NEW: HOW TO SUBMIT POSTS to the Take Back the Blog! Blogswarm. I have set up a new email address at:

TBTB2007@crablaw.com

solely to receive links for TBTB. If you don't have a blog, but want to contribute, email me and we will work something out. The "cut-off" time will be 7 PM on Saturday, April 28. Submitting early is GREAT - whenever you find it convenient,

Join in!

Privilege

There's been some great posts about racism among white feminists lately. Click just about any of the blogs on my favorites list and you'll encounter one or more of them.

Privilege is like a powerful drug that some of us get to indulge in while the rest of the world looks at us in disbelief. I'm sure there are people who have written wonderfully about this and I should probably have a handy list of links to help us recognize the behaviors we engage in when we either deny or fail to recognize our own privilege. That's for another post.

This is personal, so no links, footnotes or asterisks will be harmed in the creation of this post.

I have a mixed up background. I grew up in the city and in the country. I grew up with a wealthy parent and a poor parent. I had a loving parent and a sociopathic parent. Privilege and the lack thereof surrounded me, but in mixed up ways.

For instance, I spent large parts of my life on my grandparent's dairy farm in Michigan. This was a huge house -- nine bedrooms -- surrounded by 160 acres of fertile land. We had plenty of food and clothing.

However, only one room was heated with an oil-powered stove. This is Michigan. It's a northern state. It gets fricking cold there. The strange thing is, nobody had central heat back then. I'd never been in a house that had central heat. We lived in apartments whenever my parents got work in other cities. So until I was 8 or 9, I believed central heat was possible only in apartment buildings and nowhere else.

The farm had a shallow well, we had little running water during the summer and none (the pipes froze) in the winter. That meant chamberpots. It meant an outhouse or the shovel and walk in the orchard. It meant collecting rainwater and melting snow for morning coffee.

There was a lot of work on the farm. More work, dirtier and harder work, than I've ever had to engage in as an adult. There was also a whole lot of love there from my Mom and my Grandmother, the neighbors and my other relatives.

I also spent large parts of my childhood visiting my father. He was a college administrator with beautiful showcase houses, trophy wives (at least five of them that we know of), a private airplane, etc. He was a scam artist and a charmer. He was that jerk at work who never does anything or, worse, seals your ideas and takes full credit for them.

He was also a sociopath who hated women. He hated me with a passion. As far as I can tell, my birth is the trigger that sent him over the edge. He saw the creation of a female child as a horrible and personal betrayal. For me, every visit to this life of privilege also included a vicious expression of this hatred.

My two older brothers, on the other hand, were spared this side of the man. Dad's crap was always hidden from them as well as from the authorities. I kept the secrets, too. I never told my brothers what happened until I was 20 years old. Guess what? They didn't believe it. Later they did -- when Dad escaped from prison and moved in with them, then stole and sold their belongings for the money he heeded.

At the same time, my mother was a college professor with intelligence and respect. But she was making less than the janitors at her college. That was the way things were for a woman in the 1960s and 70s. Our community was full of upper middle class academics, while my Mom was barely making ends meet, bringing up three children alone with no support coming from Dad. He simply refused to pay it.

So my eyes were open early to the unfairness of privilege and its misapplication. Somehow, I got it. I saw through a lot of the lies and bullshit. I saw that privilege was handed out in unfair ways. I saw that you couldn't trust the "good guys" to be good and you couldn't believe the downtrodden were there as a result of laziness or lack of effort.

I also learned very early to never trust the authorities. In every case that the cops were called or a social worker made an attempt to intervene, my father was believed and my mother and the other wives were considered hysterical whiners.

I wouldn't wish my childhood on anyone else, but I am grateful for what it taught me. Even though I hated my father and I'm glad he's dead and I am safe from his cruelty, I also love him and admire some of the marvelous grifts he managed to pull off.

My life now is wonderful and full of friends and good people who care and do good in the world. And maybe that's because I learned early when to recognize unfair privilege. Maybe having a mixed up childhood has benefits that other folks miss out on.

One of my brothers is still pretty messed up because of his relationship with Dad. I am glad that he was there at Dad's funeral, because he saw the corpse and confirmed the death. The chances were 50/50 it was just another elaborate scam of his to get out of something he didn't want to do. I'm pretty sure my brother still doesn't really believe what happened to me and thinks the man was just grossly misunderstood.

The last time I talked to Dad, before I cut off all relations with him and moved away to avoid contact, was when he was on trial for assaulting his fourth wife. I was 21 or so. He called and begged me to testify for him at his trial. I told him there wasn't anything I could say. He said, "Don't worry: I've got your testimony all typed up for you. I can send it to you and you can memorize it on the plane." Seriously, this is the kind of shit he'd pull and he usually got away with it.

He begged me to come. He told me he'd kill himself if I didn't come and it would be my fault. He could play me and I actually worried about that. I called the psychiatric hospital where he'd been committed and spoke to his doctor. The doctor could reveal nothing, of course, but he tipped me off in not so subtle ways that, first, my father was too damn selfish to kill himself, and that second, I needed to be worried about myself and not my father. He was one of many strangers who have helped me when I needed it.

In my life, then, privilege wasn't something inherent: it was pretty arbitrary and based on a whole lot of myths. It's not difficult to see when I benefit from unfair privileges. I recognize it and I'm loathe to benefit from it because it is so reminiscent of my Dad's scams. He benefitted unfairly because too many people were unwilling to believe a privileged, white, intelligent man could do the things he did. It was just way too easy for him and it's way to easy for us white women, too.

I want to continue to feel uncomfortable when I notice my privilege. I want to continue to remember what I knew so early in life from the contrast between my mother's life and my father's life. I learned a lot way too early and, at the very least, I want to honor that brave little girl I was by keeping the lessons she learned close to heart and in my mind as I make my way through life.

Mayday

Another flyer, this time for the local infoshop:

Mother's Day antiwar protest

I'm not feeling very creative today. Too lazy! First draft of a flyer for the Mother's Day protest:

Nikki Giovanni on the killings at Virginia Tech

We are Virginia Tech.

We are sad today and we will be sad for quite awhile. WE are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning.

We are Virginia Tech.

We are strong enough to know when to cry and sad enough to know we must laugh again.

We are Virginia Tech.

We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did not deserve it but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, but neither do the invisible children walking the night to avoid being captured by a rogue army. Neither does the baby elephant watching his community be devastated for ivory; neither does the Appalachian infant in the killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy.

We are Virginia Tech.

The Hokier Nation embraces our own with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong and brave and innocent and unafraid. We are better than we think, not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imagination and the possibility we will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears, through all this sadness.

We are the Hokies.

We will prevail, we will prevail.

We are Virginia Tech.

Easy Anti-Racist Activism

Do you ever wonder what a white person can do to put an end to everyday racism? I've got what you need right here:

Wander over to the That Good Ol’ Everyday Racism post at Spotted Elephant's blog and feast your eyes on the tacky little product that manages to combine racism with sexism. You can write a letter or send an e-mail to the company to let them know what you think about their idea. If you check in the comments, you can see what others have written and appropriate some of their language in your own letter.

Go on, it'll be fun!

Visual DNA

Found via anti-princess

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Rutgers smashes Imus

Heather Zurich's remarks Following is a transcript of remarks made this morning by Heather Zurich, a member of the Rutgers women’s basketball team, at a news conference in Piscataway, N.J., as recorded by The New York Times:

I’m Heather Zurich, a sophomore and proud member of the Rutgers women’s basketball team. This week and last, we should have been celebrating our accomplishments this past season.

Many of the media here may not realize my team started out the season with a record of 2-4. We were at the lowest of lows. Coach Stringer called us her worst defensive team ever. But we — the 10 of us here — prevailed. We fought, we persevered and most of all we believed in ourselves. We won 22 of 25 games to finish the season before falling to Tennessee in the national championship game. We won the Big East championship along the way, the first ever, and advanced to the N.C.A.A. tournament. We shocked a lot of people and arrived in Cleveland at the Final Four.

But this team did not settle for just showing up. We reached what many would only dream of, the N.C.A.A. title game. But all of our accomplishments were lost, our moment was taken away, our moment to celebrate our success, our moment to realize how far we had come both on and off the court as young women. We were stripped of this moment by the degrading comments made by Mr. Imus last Wednesday.

What hurts the most about this situation is that Mr. Imus knows not one of us personally. He doesn’t know that Matee is the funniest person you will ever meet, Kia is the big sister you never had but always wanted, and Pipf would make an unbelievable lawyer one day. These are my teammates, my family. And we were insulted, and yes we were angry. Worst of all, my team and I did nothing to deserve neither Mr. Imus’ nor Mr. McGuirk’s deplorable comments. Our families are upset and with good reason. Instead of enjoying our first day off in a month to celebrate Easter with our families, this was the topic of conversation.

The 10 of us up here attend the eighth-oldest institution of higher education in the country, and not to mention one of the most difficult academically. We are 10, simply put, student athletes. But this morning, instead of attending study hall and class, I stand here to address you about something that never should have happened.

I’m extremely proud of my teammates. I’m proud when we walk through an airport on the way to or from a road trip, dressed alike in Rutgers gear with pressed pants and nice shoes. I believe we present ourselves well, both on and off the court, even though Mr. Imus seemed to think differently.

But then again, he knows not one of us.

Team captain Essence Carson "At first we thought to let it slide, but when we read the transcript, we decided it was unacceptable." Carson added, "He's a broadcaster that gets his show across to so many people. Can you imagine how many people thought, 'Maybe there is some truth to this'?"

Coach C Vivian Stringer "In my mind, this is a time for change because it’s not about just these young women. I ask you, no matter who you are, who could have heard these comments and not been personally offended? It’s not about the Rutgers women’s basketball team, it’s about women. Are women hos? Think about that. Would you want your daughter called a ho? It’s not about us as black people or as nappy-headed. It’s about us as people—black, white, purple or green. And as much as I speak about that, it’s not even black and white—the color is green. How could anyone not have been personally hurt when there is no equality for all or when equality is denied? These young ladies have done nothing wrong. Some of you might point to the fact that he (Don Imus) makes comments about other political figures or other professionals. But these ladies are not professionals or political figures. They are 18, 19, 20 year-old women who came here to get an education and reach their gifts for all to see. These are young women little girls look up to and we as adults, at what point do not call upon people to stop? There is a bigger issue here, more than the basketball team. It’s all women athletes, it’s all women. Have we lost a sense of our own moral fiber? Has society decayed to such a point where we forgive and forget because it was just a slip of the tongue? I’m going to suggest that people give thought before they speak."

Imus Protest! Unruly-Haired Hater at WIMN’s Voices: A Group Blog on Women, Media, AND…

Your Standard Sucks (The White Lens IV) at The Unapologetic Mexican

Imus Updates and Commentary at The Primary Contradiction

Asshat Imus at Zuky

Memo to White Folks and the Mass Media
at Zuky

Transcript of the press conference

An awesome roundup of links on the issue:
Resources for Oustin Imus – A Round-up at The Antiessentialist Conundrum

Hah!



Found at techeblog

IF A GREAT MUSICIAN PLAYS GREAT MUSIC BUT NO ONE HEARS . . . WAS HE REALLY ANY GOOD?

Gene Weingarten at the Washington Post magazine pulled a stunt and nobody got the message.

On that Friday in January, those private questions would be answered in an unusually public way. No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a bare wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made. His performance was arranged by The Washington Post as an experiment in context, perception and priorities -- as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?

Well, you guessed it, almost nobody stopped to listen. Which is a useful way to make the argument that most Americans have poor taste. But how about thinking about a society that has people in such a hurry that they can't even consider the beautiful things in live? Isn't this a story about pressure, not poor taste?

Apparently not. The story and video clips are available at the link above.

A follow-up article talks about the responses from readers.

Stuff

Recently I've been commenting on blogs about some of the main disagreements within the feminist community.

And I have to admit something. To a large extent, my experiences are far removed from the lives of the feminists I read.

For many women, the pressure to confirm to a female ideal is extreme. Decisions about what to wear and how to present oneself are difficult, frustrating and infuriating for many women.

For me, this isn't an issue. Part of that is privilege: I can get away without wearing makeup or fashionable clothing because our society can accept plainness in older white women.

Part of this is trade privilege: if you have a valuable skill that affects the bottom line, you're odd habits are acceptable. Think of all those cartoons showing scruffy tech support people who are treated like Goddesses.

For a lot of women, pornography is a big issue. For me, not so much. I have a wide variety of friends and acquaintances, almost none of whom are interested or participate in pornography. I find it difficult to identify with women who think all men enjoy pornography and all women suffer from its effects.

The vast majority of people I know have no interest in or are repelled by most pornography. It's difficult to explain this, but I'll try.

For me, pornography is performance. It is individuals using tools: their bodies and their technologies to perform an idea of sexuality. We both enter into the transaction realizing its unreality, but appreciating its ability to represent something compelling.

It's the difference between watching a shoot-out in a TV drama and watching news coverage of a battle in Iraq.One is fake, one is real.

For me and my friends, real trumps fake every time. Some anti-porn feminists don't seem to understand this. They tell me that fake (pornography) leads directly to reality (abuse).

I disagree.

But.... this discussion has brought up an important memory for me.

I've spoken before about living with my father, a sociopath who hated women. One of the effects of that upbringing has been insomnia. From a very young age (8 or 9), I discovered that a surefire treatment for insomina was to imagine myself being tortured.

Pretty weird, right? But, you do what you need to do.

Over the years I developed an elaborate fantasy that involved being strapped down on an assembly line and being transported through several levels of abuse. This was genuinely comforting for me. After a half hour of fantasized pain, I could put aside my worries and fall into a deep sleep.

I could look at that and be appalled or disgusted. Or I could look at that and see a child adapting tools to handle difficult circumstances.

I guess I'll stop here.

Billionaires Suck!

Via Woods Lot there is an article by James Petras called Global Ruling Class: Billionaires and How They "Made It". Some excerpts:

The total wealth of this global ruling class grew 35 per cent year to year topping $3.5 trillion, while income levels for the lower 55 per cent of the world's 6-billion-strong population declined or stagnated. Put another way, one hundred millionth of the world's population (1/100,000,000) owns more than over 3 billion people.

...

What is most amusing about the famous Forbes magazine's background biographical notes on the Russian oligarchs is the constant reference to their source of wealth as 'self-made' as if stealing state property created by and defended for over 70 years by the sweat and blood of the Russian people was the result of the entrepreneurial skills of thugs in their twenties. Of the top eight Russian billionaire oligarchs, all got their start from strong-arming their rivals, setting up 'paper banks' and taking over aluminum, oil, gas, nickel and steel production and the export of bauxite, iron and other minerals.

...

Given the enormous class and income disparities in Russia, Latin America and China (20 Chinese billionaires have a net worth of $29.4 billion in less than ten years), it is more accurate to describe these countries as 'surging billionaires' rather than 'emerging markets' because it is not the 'free market' but the political power of the billionaires that dictates policy.

Go. Read. Learn.

We've put off paying a couple of bills long enough to be getting those annoying automated phone calls. One of them works like this:

Phone: ring! ring! ring!

Me (picking up phone): Hello?

Automated male voice: Hello! We have a very important call for you!

Ravenhub had a great response: "What is that, an interpretation service for the phone? Am I supposed to think, 'Oh! That's what that ringing was all about. Thank you for explaining!'"

He makes me smile. :)

Inspired

Yolanda Carrington at great post about there being no immunity from racism. It inspired me to create this handy flyer:



Go on over and give the woman props for her great thoughts!