Breaching The Web

Last night I said to my husband that I’m hurt and angry and upset that so many of my fellow citizens think I’m not an adult. They think I can’t make decisions about by OWN body, my OWN health, and my OWN medications by my OWN self — I reached the age of majority quite some time ago, but apparently, some people think I can’t be trusted with the responsibility of living my own damn life without a lot of big brother interference.

And then to see the Democratic party betray me yesterday — to not only not try to fight the Alito cloture vote, but for a bunch of them to vote for it, to essentially make my big brother even bigger and to give him a big stick to wallop me with is just baffling and heartbreaking and horrifying.

My husband thinks I’m taking this a bit personally. But the old slogan goes both ways — sometimes the political is personal. I don’t know where I’m going with this, other than to reiterate what I wrote a few days ago: I’ve been a Green before. I’d rather be part of a doomed cause than no cause at all.

I’m so tired of being told that “elections have consequences” and so the Democrats have no right to filibuster the cloture vote on Alito’s nomination.

Elections do indeed have consquences. In the U.S, the party that loses an election becomes the minority party. And minority parties have the responsibility of fighting against the tyrrany of the majority.

But are Democrats doing that? No. Well ok then. If they won’t fight for me, I see no reason to fight for them. I’m not going to forget this betrayal.

I’m not at all sure what I’ll do with my anger about this decision, but I’ve voted Green before, and they at least have some fight in them. Maybe I’ll do that again.

La Raza is the largest organization in the U.S. fighting for the civil rights of Hispanic Americans. It organizes protests, assists union organizers, fights various court cases, supports political candidates and (in some areas of the country) fields candidates of its own for various local offices. It’s an important organization, and it stands with the NAACP and the ACLU as defenders of civil rights (although it is smaller than the others and often disagrees with those others, their work is of a kind).

In Orange County, California, La Raza is facing systematic intimidation and pressure from local police, apparently with the support of local politicians. It’s a small but chilling example of what’s happening to local activists all over the U.S. — the net is tightening, and if we aren’t careful, anyone who doesn’t ferverently support the ruling class will be labeled a terrorist.

These are not good times.

George W. Bush, January 16, 2005:

“Today we celebrate the life of an American who called Americans to account when we didn’t live up to our ideals.”

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., April 4, 1967:

” If we do not stop our war against the people of Vietnam immediately, the world will be left with no other alternative than to see this as some horrible, clumsy, and deadly game we have decided to play. The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. It demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people. The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways. In order to atone for our sins and errors in Vietnam, we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war.”

“…We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. As Arnold Toynbee says: ‘Love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life and good against the damning choice of death and evil. Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word.’ ”

Here’s the one thing that has been bothering me the most lately — and this has been bothering me even more than Bush’s blatent circumvention of Congress and the Constitution, so this is BIG: listening to otherwise sensitive, intelligent people broadly insult Christians and Christianity. This isn’t some knee-jerk, O’Reilly “war on Christianity” thing — my complaint is firmly reality based.

More and more often these days, I hear many of my better-informed friends say things about how “the Christians” elected Bush or how “the Christians” are pushing anti-woman social policies down our throats or how “the Christians” are pursuing the war on terror. I take this personally. I am a Christian — although I don’t really have the specifics of what I believe worked out and I increasingly suspect I never will — and I didn’t vote for Bush, I don’t support anti-woman social policies, and I’ve been against the war on terror since day 1. I’m pro-science, pro-gay marriage, pro-choice, pro-birth control, pro-child, pro-family and firmly, vehemently, passionately anti-Bush.

What makes this more hurtful is that the people who blame Christians for our current misguided government are very respectful of other religious traditions. They would never say that all Muslims are terrorists or that Jews are money-grubbing. But for some reason, they feel ok making broad, bigoted statements about “Christians” as if we were all of a type.

We aren’t, so stop it.

I drink a lot of tea, and I drink it with the passion of a convert. I’ve tried lots of vendors, teas and tea-making tools, so I put together a page of my favorites here: Teasources. I anticipate that this will be an occassionally updated list of what I like. I don’t intend to review every tea I drink, or to list teas I don’t like. It’s greatest hits only.

“Failure is Impossible!” That famous quote epitomizes Susan B. Anthony’s philosophy on life, and her approach to gaining the right to vote for women. Anthony was hard working, honest, enthusiastic, optimistic, and tireless. She is one of a handful of heroes who’s work inspires and drives me.

Anthony, like most of us, was not a single issue advocate. She was passionately against slavery and worked very hard as an abolitionist. She organized rallies, marches, letter writing campaigns, and more, in favor of ending slavery and giving blacks the right to vote.

When the Civil War started, Anthony and her colleagues tabled their efforts to get the vote for women. They were persuaded by their own consciences and colleagues in the abolitionist movement that they should support the War first, and then get back to women’s suffrage later.

The trouble is, after the War, their abolitionist colleagues evaporated, and there was no more interest in women’s suffrage than there had been before. In fact, in many ways women’s votes were less important than before, since they were no longer needed as allies in the fight against slavery.

So, why the history lesson? Activist, lefty women need to be very, very careful before they give up their own interests to a more general progressive cause. It’s easy to be persuaded that there is some other good that’s more important than say, defending abortion or access to birth control. There’s a seductive logic to “help us win back the White House/Senate/House/Whatever, and then we’ll be in a position to help you.”

Resist that logic, and remind yourself — when women work together, failure is impossible. This is a fight that matters.

Today, I got up at 5am, put on my workout clothes, and went to the gym. I didn’t have a particularly good workout, but I listened to music, people watched, and did my best in spite of the asthma attack I could feel building (on the left side of my chest, just below my collarbone — if I ever have a heart attack, I will unfortunately probably think it’s asthma and ignore it). I even sweated.

I have since had the best morning I’ve had in weeks. I’m in a good mood, I’m alert, I was ready to leave the house 20 minutes before my usual time, I had time to do a bit of crocheting, have a good breakfast, savor my tea and pet my cat, and I’ve knocked 3 annoying items off my to do list already at work.

I’m just noting this here to remind myself that the effort is worth it.

Remember what I said about the guacamole paint color in my bathroom? Well, it turns out that that color is “ascendant” for 2006. It’s one of several colors paint companies selected as trendy. The color in our bathroom is close to what they call “peaceful pines” — at least on my monitor. Yay me!

Ok, ok, ok, ok, ok. I know what I said about Craft Corner Deathmatch, and I really, really meant it, but now I have to say that Rollergirls is the most awesomest TV show ever, and if you aren’t watching it you’re lame. Seriously.

Developed by A&E, Rollergirls is a “non-scripted” series about one season in the Texas Roller Derby League, which has 4 teams. The series is less about the derby than about the players themselves — why they love the derby, how they approach bouts, and how they build a stage presence for themselves and their team. It’s fascinating. And yes, it’s titilating too — the girls are scantily dressed and vamp hard for the crowd.

All in all, it’s just too cool for words, and you must watch it. The first episode, “Rookie”, is in heavy rotation on A&E this week, so make an effort to catch it. You won’t be disappointed.