OnLine With Zoe

Information for Non-believers

Just in case you need something to show those people in your life who think we are just complaining for no good reason -

Zion Ranch Community

Shortly after the bombing of Baghdad I heard the author, Amy Tan, speak about her home burning to the ground.  She drew corollaries between the decimation of her belongings, her house, her historical markers and the looting of the main museum in Baghdad.    She explained that there was conscious culpability in allowing all of the precious artifacts in the Baghdad museum to be stolen, destroyed and irreparably scattered in all directions.  Such dissolution of continuity permanently dissolves the footing of the inhabitants represented in the collection, maintenance and artifacts themselves.   Maybe all we saw was some hoodlum running down the street with an ancient ceramic pot, but it was actually the thread of a culture unraveling.  It was intentional and served a very specific purpose; erasing a nation’s ethos forever.

As Donald Rumsfeld told the world, this would be swift, effective and complete.  He used the terrible phrase, “shock and  awe.” 

Shock and awe, technically known as rapid dominance, is a military doctrine based on the use of overwhelming power, dominant battlefield awareness, dominant maneuvers, and spectacular displays of force to paralyze an adversary's perception of the battlefield and destroy its will to fight. (WIKI)

What is it that we believe, and behave as if, destruction can build?  Heal?  Solve?  It seems insane at its core.  But no matter the obvious insanity when examined, we continue to pollute, smash, break, disassemble, as if it results in claiming ownership.  And lets not forget to consider if the original booty is so defiled, no one wants it, including the marauders. 

It may seem like a leap but bear with me for a moment when I propose that this paradigm applies to a home, a neighborhood, a museum, a country AND a family.  The Texas DA simply dispatched authorities to go in and disassemble the FLDS family.  This had no resemblance to protection, healing, informing, saving or rescuing.  If the people who grew up in the FLDS community were ever afraid of the outside world, this confirmed all of their suspicions ~ that the public rips mothers from children, has no respect for community ethos and, in some insane drive for rapid dominance, dissolves everything in their path.

It would have been so much better, effective, long-lasting to be the absolute opposite ~ to come in with kindness, inquiry, inclusion, education, openness.  To be attractive not repulsive.  To enter with books and information and movies and patience and, through these unexpected gifts and services, build a wider world vision, not destroy the community the FLDS members love beyond common understanding but present the possibility of expansion beyond Zion Ranch walls.    

Jessop did what many faith leaders do, they fall in love with their own reflection in the eyes of their followers.  He was removed.  His community had lost their anchor.  It was the best time, the correct time to offer a wider world view; to be examined and adopted at a pace that did not cause greater harm but safety; did not destroy but build bridges to the people on the other side of the fence; did not shame but showed that many people have faith in many ways and many of which lead to love and loving families. 

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They are Women, not Angels, and They are Us.

Right now Iron Jawed Angels is on TV.  I am watching it again, though it makes my blood boil.  Patrick Dempsey hitting on Hillary Swank (music goes to I Won't Fear Anymore) glamorizes and trivializes women seeking citizenship, equality under the law and full representation.  To watch Doris Stevens, author of Jailed for Freedom putting on her lipstick to flirt and Lucy Burns sparring with Alice Paul over a hat doesn't seem right.  At the end, Alice Paul standing in front of the National Women's Party Building as if "everyone lived happily ever after," is too much.  To me it seems a bit more like Enchanted than the fight for the Nineteenth Amendment and gender equality. 

When I speak at college and university classes, I tend to rant about the movie.  I am met with disapproval.  They think I am carrying on for no reason; they tell me at least its a movie about women's rights with Angelica Houston, Hillary Swank and Patrick Dempsey on HBO.  But the intoxicating elixir of this movie and this movement is the false notion that equality is trite (I saw my brother pee in the snow), one hundred years old and Mission Accomplished. 

Proving my point that the movement is still on this year is that the Supreme Court upheld Goodyear v. Ledbetter, the Senate not passing the Fair Pay Act, the national apathy to the sexism all over the Democratic presidential race (hold on one second, Sweetie) and the outrageous awarding of an honorary degree in Humane Letters by Washington University on the leader of the anti-women, pro capital punishment, end marital rape laws; Mrs. Phyllis Schlafly herself.   

But one scene in the movie I can tell you knocks me out every time is watching Alice Paul listen to the whispers radiating from the desk of Susan B. Anthony.  Lucy Burns asks what does she hear?  "Just do it!" she says.  These women are not just characters in a movie.  We know these women.  They march next to us today.  They are working for our rights, our protection, our advancement today.  We are still running this movie.  We are the stars of this movie.  Lets not drink the kool aid that we have all the rights we need and just go shopping as President Bush advised.  President Wilson said that he believed that women should be patient and that, if allowed, they would not vote anyway.  We need to wake up!  that was 1918 and there is still a lot to do.

Toe-to-Toe ~ She's a Contender

In 1982 I was on a dais with several of the first ladies who were in Springfield, Illinois to support the ERA.  I was 34.  I was thrilled beyond beyond.  At that time I don't recall any conversation about women running for president and actually winning.  The women who ran then were breaking the barriers by piercing the atmosphere.  In the 1964 primaries Republican Margaret Chase Smith got over 83,000 votes and Democrat Shirley Chisholm got over 400,000 votes.  A few more women ran before 1982; Charlene Mitchell, Ellen McCormack and Barbara Jordan. 

Twenty six years later and a woman has won enough state primaries to get 300 electoral votes in November and be the next president of the United States.  Seems like that would be the finish line for a woman to be Commander in Chief.  How could it not be the natural outcome?  But who could have imagined her inter-party opponent would be the first man of color to get this close too?  And once again minorities are splintering, claiming victimhood victories, comparing wait times and boasting self-worthiness.  None of these activities even hint of unity, strength, compassion or defeating the opponent.  Sojourner Truth would not be the least bit surprised, "The rich rob the poor and the poor rob one another." 

One of the contenders has won enough big states to get the required 300 electoral votes in November and the other has more delegates as of May 15.  If it was two white guys, they would be "duking" it out all the way to the convention hall.  It might be an extension of our national passion for kumite.  Oddly (or is it predictably and I was just not paying attention?) the media and some high profile politicians are calling for the lady to bow out.  Maybe they don't want to see her kick some ass - maybe it offends their sensibilities - maybe they just can't see their projection of a woman in the fight with anyone, on any score, in any competition.  (We love you Billie Jean!) 

Every time you hear someone ask the woman to drop out - I hope you will consider the nature of the request.  It is an extension of wanting women to refrain from the sport, the competition, the ring.  Taking that request seriously is tantamount to never really standing toe-to-toe with the competitor.

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All Mothers Day

I really know nothing about being a mother.  I have lots of opinions of what is right and wrong about it which is my foolproof compass for being certain I know nothing about it.  But I am obsessing about the hatched tiny birds in the eaves under the front gutter.  Two couples are grazing the backyard (very tasty) and feeding their noisy newbies; all on view from my library window.  These couples escort Spring and announce tomato planting time every year, as they nest in my very trendy condos.

I know holding babies is more fun than expected and letting go (from the point of view of the escapee) is very painful.  Today thousands of people stood in line to order eggs Benedict with mimosas and florists are losing their profits on gas for their delivery trucks.  Its Mother’s Day and Hallmark, chocolatiers and jewelers will be sad to see it go.  This morning TCM played Mildred Pierce and tonight housewives will be desperate. 

The only mothering I really have any claim to is giving my all to the American Women’s Movement.  Admittedly it is a shared pregnancy and we don’t know yet when the birth will be complete ~ we do know it’s a girl!  Stanton knew all about mothering and Anthony had her insights about the demands of children.  Do you think they would have ever guessed that in 2008 we would still be preggers, maybe on oxygen; some days it feeling like we need life support? 

Today there are hundreds of thousands of women in America who get it; that until a woman in the leader of the country, Commander in Chief, the job will not be done.  They are making phone calls, walking districts, holding fundraisers, driving voters to the polls: Mothers, Everyone.  Chances are strong that their daughters may not really understand the urgency, the importance, the relevance in their lives.  If they have not yet come to feel the impact of the failure of the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in the Senate, had an unwanted pregnancy, been a single mother with a couple of kids; they may think all this ranting and raving by their moms seems, at best nostalgic and at worst artifice.  Chances are most are not disturbed that “The Cult of True Womanhood,” is alive and well, demonstrated  this week by Washington University awarding an Honorary Degree on Mrs. Phyllis Schlafly.   

The contractions of this birth of American Women as full citizens are exhausting and require hope.  I think Hillary Clinton gets it.  I am deeply worried that Barack Obama doesn’t.  He tells us about his grandmother, mother, wife and daughters but publically gives Hillary Clinton the finger.  That offends me.  He is not a vocal champion of equality for women.  I have never heard him speak about economic or reproductive justice for women.  Women of Color make 69 cents on the dollar compared to men.  They need fair pay, equal rights under the law, representation in government and the courts most.

Who are these people who are telling Senator Clinton to concede?  They do not understand the tenacity of mothers-to-be.  We see the possibilities and know that, even if this current contraction is not the last in breaking the marble ceiling, it will not end the pregnancy.  I do not want to scrape the Clinton 2008 sticker off my car because it is for all women : Women of Color and White.  Pay all women 100% and all families will benefit.   Now there’s a Mother’s Day present.

Nellie McKay at the 2008 CA NOW Conference

My Imagination Dances with Joy

I had the oddest experience this week in regards to the national campaign.  I was watching Senator and Michelle Obama talking with Meredith Viera on the Today show; repeated many times on cable.  It was a compact little trio; Michelle, with her legs pulled up on the chair and her head down, as if to transmit,, “This is his interview, not mine.”  She did not have her face up and lit which stopped a question gracefully being addressed to her.  Meredith’s head facing them and, it appeared, they were sitting very, very close as we took the point of view from the back of her head. 
 
Senator Obama has on a pastel shirt and shiny tie.  He was talking low and quiet as I had never seen which was the outcome of not being in an arena, ball field, debate, deli, etc.  Curiously, Kathleen Hall Jamieson on the Bill Moyer’s Journal Friday, said this interview was the equivalent of Reagan’s TV commercial about his being, “just plain folks.”  Little Ronnie growing up and being one of us.  It was a conciliatory ad hoping to make scary warrior Ron Reagan seem like the kid in the next desk in fourth grade, the kid hitting a double at the game, a union guy; just a guy.

The interview drew me in as if I was pulling up a chair.  My 32” flat screen TV let me make the triangle a quartet.  My thoughts became like ones I have when in a conversation as opposed to watching TV.  And unexpectedly, I thought, “he is just a man in a tie.” 

I launched into an interesting interior conversation ~
        He is not just a guy, he is the first African American who may be president! 
        But you did not see a Black man you saw a man. 
        Of course I saw a Black man, it would be disrespectful to not see his race. 
        No, you spent decades longing for equality, not seeing race first is the point! 
        A Black man in the Whitehouse would make that even more possible for everyone. 
        How irresistible.    

I am glad I had this epiphany, a thought new and unexpected.  Does it hold truth?  It must be tested.  So I lived with it for a day and my love affair with electing Hillary Clinton has deepened even more.  Can you imagine?  But it is true.  Could you have a female president and just think it is natural?  Can we listen to a woman speak and not see a sex object to be dissected, rated, packaged? Not judge as mother, daughter, wife ~ or any value defined by association ~ standing on her own?  Not fall to religious stereotypes.  Not titter over shallow jokes or vicious pejoratives whose cutting edges have been diminished with usage. 

I swoon over the magic of a woman leader whose gender is seen as fine, refined, balanced and natural.  I was having a blast thinking of my brother sitting in front of his TV, listening to a female president and finding his mind lapsing (maybe for only a moment) that the president is a woman.   The cascading effects make me dance inside and out.