OnLine With Zoe

He Loves Those Beauty Queens!

If one more person writes or calls me with excitement about Sarah Palin, I am going to lose my lunch.  Do they know who they are calling?  Do they know who this woman is?  Do they think that a pro-life, pro-gun, human being would possibly make me happy as VP and, most likely, President? 

Let us get this really CLEAR.  Mrs. Governor Palin actually believes that she owns the womb of a woman who has been raped, a woman who is an incest victim, a woman who could die in childbirth.  She actually believes that no pregnancy, at anytime or for any reason,  should be terminated.   This is the most fundamental plank in the feminist platform.  It is non-negotiable.  The gender of the person who holds this belief has no influence on them being or not being a feminist.  SHE IS NOT.

Here is the good news.  This has removed, once and for all, any slams at Senator Obama being inexperienced.   She, admittedly, knows nothing about foreign policy.  My highest hope is that as she studies and discovers that her son may be killed for no reason in Iraq, she may come to a sane position of the Democrats and want to leave Iraq.   

She does not think that global warming is made by humans.  That is some kinda bad news for Alaska.  It is really bad news for polar bears which she thinks should be taken off the endangered list.  Maybe she wants to eat them too.   And she believes in creationism, maybe she can explain that to the science Nobels.  Frankly I would rather be a daughter of the chimpanzees than her. 

So here is a gross observation; McCain has some kind of trip for beauty queens.  Carol McCain, Cindy McCain and Sarah Palin all competed in the world of beauty.  McCain is such a Loser!

For anyone who wants the short reliable answer, A FEMINIST IS A PERSON WHO BELIEVES AND BEHAVES AS IF WOMEN AND MEN ARE EQUAL.  That means if you are a feminist, you voluntarily pay women the same as men; you support a Christian woman find a way to give up a baby for adoption and a woman find a clinic that provides abortion services.  It means you believe that equality of rights cannot be denied or abridged on account of sex.   

My Valuable Vote

I turned 60 today.  It has been the most astonishing day, filled with presents, cards, calls, flowers and a few insights.  Tonight I saw Chorus Line from the front row and all I could do was think again and again how fortunate I am. 

I turned fifteen the day Dr. King delivered the I Have a Dream Speech.   You can take in a lot when you are fifteen.  I loved him and the Kennedy brothers.  When all of them were killed, I came to the conclusion that people working for social justice are beacons of light which threaten people who prefer darkness.  Frankly as a young girl, color was not the determining factor; I thought all activists were in grave danger.  Gandhi, my primary lifelong inspiration, was killed exactly seven months before I was born and from him I learned that advancement and liberty shakes up those who want static power.

Who hasn’t watched the Democratic Convention all week?  The best place was C-SPAN as there were no blathering heads spinning and posturing as if they had some kind of inside line.  I would prefer to listen completely, reflect responsibly and make my own informed conclusions.   This year has called into question my deepest intelligence and spiritual reflection.  Am I a feminist?  Am I a racist?  Could I be both? 

I have really examined my loyalties to Hillary Clinton.  Her presidency became my dream.  I knew that if she was president, I would not have to think twice about all the issues that I have been pushing along on a very slow road for a very long time.  ERA, CEDAW, Roe v Wade, pay equity would all be on the horizon of possibility.  And in the realization of that dream, I would be able move forward and concoct a brand new fresh agenda to define my daily attention. 

Yes, Hillary Clinton became more than one woman.  To me she became an outcome that I have spent a lifetime working to create ~ a woman in the White House, women’s health and safety considered obvious, the courts upholding equality as unequivocal and evident.   So this last week, I had to take responsibility for my dream, accept that I put too much on this one woman and face the fact that there is so much more work to be done. 

So here is what I need to go forward.  I need a Blue White House.  I need 60 Democrats in the Senate.  I need a majority of Democrats in the House.  I need pro-choice, pro-equality, pro-justice people on the Supreme Court.   All of that means that I will support President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.  I see the hope.  I see the possibilities.  I see the fireworks and promise.

Today I realized how precious a vote is.  I am grateful that I value my vote.  This year I will give it to Obama & Biden.   

August 26, Our Day

I have been writing a blog for over 5 years now.  Every year on August 26 I write about celebrating.  This year seems so entirely different.  Tonight Hillary is speaking at the National Democratic Convention but, more importantly, feminists will be speaking all over America.

You can count on a few old feminists brought out to speak in March, Women's History Month.  Women all over the world speak on March 8th, International Women's Day (and my friend Gloria's birthday).  But somehow Women's Equality Day just seem to be an oddity today as the media, most of my friends and 17 million Democrats are asking Hillary and me to just get with the program, support the nominee, stand and deliver THE SPEECH that will unify.

Senator Obama had the chance of a lifetime to unify.  It doesn't take a second grade math class to know that to glue together two parts; you have to get 1)glue, 2) part one and 3) part two OR all you end up with is part one and some glue.  Today all of the blathering heads are insisting that #2 of the split parts do all the gluing. 

I will admit that a blue White House and a blue Legislation will be better for everyone; not just women but everyone.  I will admit the Senator Clinton was my choice and I am very crestfallen over her not being the Presidential Candidate, declared on August 26, 2008, BUT asking her to be accountable for unity is just too fucking much.  Let the "winner" do the gluing for the party. 

GLUE:

1. guarantee reproductive autonomy for all human beings
2. stand strong marriage equality for all Americans
3. Commit to universal health care
4. State firm commitment to the ERA & CEDAW
5. Commit to a gender quota in the Executive Branch

that's just the start.

Maybe then, and only then, will I vote blue without singing the blues. 

Biden - oh

I sit here with the TV to my left.  They are speaking in Springfield.  I have a lot of feelings about Springfield. It is the capital of the largest industrialized state that votes repeatedly to not pass the Equal Rights Amendment.  This is the body where Obama served for many years.  This is my Normandy. 

I realized Friday evening that this will be the last time in many years I could hope for a Democratic woman to be head of the US Senate and on the Presidential ticket.  Such thoughts made me happy.  Actually, I was surprised how much I grew to want it for President and, then, settling for Vice President.  It felt like a blue sky in a storm and fresh air after years of suffocating smog.

So now we sit watching MSNBC and CNN with just a bunch of guys in ties covering a bunch of guys in ties.  Yes, Chris Matthews and Wolf Blitzer - you can cover men ~ you prefer that.  Those bitchy shrill women (code for educated and intelligent) will not be setting landmines for you to make visible your pitiful sexism.  And Andrea Mitchell you must be delirious, your overt hatred of Hillary Clinton most likely contributed to her loss. 

And we will be offered the back seat with cute little pieces about the wives.  Can't wait to follow their clothes, hair-dos and how they are at mothering.  Imagine the wives are educated and make money and DO IT ALL.  gee whiz.  I wonder what they will wear to the inauguration and if they will choose new china for the White house.  What wonderful role models giving up everything for their husbands.  How do you feel about watching Cindy McCain, multi-millionaire business woman, sitting behind John with her eyes downcast and faintly smiling.  That is as much sarcasm as I can handle this early. 

Yes, I know what Biden has done for women.  He has been the champion of the Violence Against Women Act.  I am not diminishing that it any way.  But a woman in leadership, a woman who is voted for and thus  elevated to national office would have revolutionized life for American girls.  They will have to wait till all the shrinking dicks get over themselves.   

I am not mad, I am grieving.  Mad will be next ~ so be careful when you ask.

ADENDUM Did Biden just say his wife is drop-dead gorgeous and that it is a problem that she has a doctorate - a problem for whom??  Clearly a problem for me - and all the women in the US.   

Good News, at last

When I am asked to speak, the number one thing that is repeated over and over is the disbelief that women are not in the US Constitution.  I talk to unions, women's professional groups and students; most have no idea; even most recently at the National Conference for Federally Employed Women.  Do you wonder how can that be?  And then, just two nights ago, while looking for material, I found this on the Library of Congress website;

Paul was an ingenious strategist and inspiring leader who gave a public face to the NWP. After 1920 she turned her efforts to the Equal Rights Amendment, which she first proposed at a NWP convention in 1923. She lived to see the ERA passed by Congress in 1972.

So somewhere between the Iron Jawed Angels misportrayal and this listing on the Library of Congress website, we are told "mission accomplished. 

John McCain has a very skewed point of view on women - his wife is so wealthy, she won't let him see her tax return and loans John her private jet.  Let us not wonder why John McCain has no idea the work-burden of the single mother, the young woman who was denied birth control and now finds herself pregnant or the senior woman who is thrown into poverty after a lifetime of hard work as there is no cost of living increase in her fixed income but prices are not fixed.  I am not suggesting we have compassion for John's inability to get it - I am saying bluntly he has no idea what is going on for most Americans and therefore will never be a servant-leader.  He can only be king. (a very bad king)

Here's the good news.  We need good news.  We deserve good news.  The 2008 National Democrat Party Platform includes the ERA & CEDAW.  Rejoice and know that it is because a small handful of women who know the US has not endorsed CEDAW and has not included women in the Constitution.  They wrote emails and letters, made phone calls and are relentless.  If you are one of them - then we bless you, we thank you, we love you.

We are committed to ensuring full equality for women: We reaffirm our support for the Equal Rights Amendment, recommit to enforcing Title IX, and will urge passage of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. We will pursue a unified foreign and domestic policy that promotes civil rights and human rights, for women and minorities, at home and abroad.  (see page 46)

Something We Can Do!

One of the best things about being me, is that occasionally people ask me what can they do for American women.  It is a long list and I seldom resist the temptation to answer without being asked; like now ~

While it is only my opinion, I truly believe that women will always be politically discriminated against as long as they are not explicitly included in the US Constitution.  Of course, being included doesn’t mean that all discrimination will instantly disappear but it does mean that instead of fixing things one by one, here and there, higgly-piggly; gender equality will be unequivocal and courts would be required to uphold it.  Certainly it was obvious this last Thursday, as we watched 178 men AND WOMEN vote against the Fair Pay Act.  And we still don’t know if the Senate is going to pass it and, god help us, if W will sign it.  We have all had enough about this. 

So here it is ~ something YOU can do to put women in the US Constitution.  The DNC is meeting to discuss the 2008 Democratic Platform Sunday and Wednesday.    You can email these two addresses and ask them to be sure to “Remember the Women.”  Include the Equal Rights Amendment in the party platform.  (They dropped it in 2004) 

Platform@dnc.org
kombluhk@dnc.org (she is in Obama’s office and is working on the platform)

Send them an email and tell them that it is time to put women in the US Constitution by passing the Equal Rights Amendment.    PUT IT IN THE PLATFORM! 

Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. 

Seriously!  We are still asking for that?  They should include it just to shut us up!