Category: LIFE

G-L-O-R-I-A! Happy Birthday Gloria Steinem

Gloria Bunny
I have known Gloria Steinem for a very long time.   March 25th was her birthday and she is an amazing seventy-five years old!   I've admired her since my teens.  There used to be a magazine called SHOW, kind of a cross between Vanity Fair and New York Magazine.  In 1963, when I was a senior in high school, Gloria published a piece there called "I Was a Playboy Bunny."  Describing her three weeks as an "undercover" Bunny, the piece launched her career.  I remember saying something half derogatory about it — remember I was 17 — and my mother saying to me "You're just jealous."  She was right.  What a great job, what an elegant woman, offers from magazines, everything I was determined to have for myself – she'd done it.  If she could get out of Toledo, I could get out of Pittsburgh.  (I did.)

I've had my eye on her ever since and as she helped to lead all of us out of the wilderness I felt a special ownership since we  both attended Smith College.  In those years, as I became more involved in what would be called the Second Wave of Feminism, Gloria was a spearhead for most of it.  In fact, I once told a colleague of hers, a well-respected writer herself, how much I admired her.  Her response "The way you feel about me?  That's how I feel about Gloria."  

On the tenth anniversary of Ms. Magazine, which Gloria had helped to found, I produced a series for  The Today Show .  For one segment, a camera crew and I followed her on a day-long trip to Philadelphia to make a speech.  That was when I realized that her role was larger, and more personal, than I had understood. 

Here's what happened:  We got on the Metroliner in Penn Station and a woman came up to us to tell Gloria how she had changed her life.    We arrived in Philadelphia and, right in the station, another women did the same.  So it was all through the day.  At the evening event, she could barely make her way through the room as an endless stream of women approached to thank her, express admiration, just talk to her.  Through all of it, woman after woman after woman, she was unfailingly courteous and engaged.  Each was the only one she was talking to.  None was made to feel out of place or inappropriate.  I don't know about you, but that's tough for a public person to do; Gloria has done it for years.  In other words, she wasn't leading Feminism, she was being Feminism.

It's been like that ever since.  In the public eye or out, hugely famous or less famous, she's always been there to keep the focus where it belongs and carry us further toward equality, and it's always been about all of us, not her.  It's been an honor to know her, even a little bit, and to see personally that she's not just a fine leader, she's a fine person.  Happy Birthday Gloria (a little bit late). We're lucky to have you.

UPS Pulls Its Ads from O’Reilly: He Deserves It But. . .

Oreilly
I'm torn.  Really.  Nobody hates Bill O'Reilly and all he stands for more than I do.  And when he went after my former colleague Amanda Terkel by sending a producer to prey on her on her vacation, a camera alongside, I was troubled.  It's not the news gathering I was trained to do.

On one hand, it was totally unethical to follow a writer around and harass her for comments made about an anchorman.  It's bizarre and a ridiculous waste of editorial resources, especially when the world of journalism is in such economic chaos.  Chasing her down the street, peppering her with questions, when no one ever asked her for an interview she probably would have granted – it's all disgusting.

Ups_email2
On the other hand, when we push advertisers to withdraw their ads from a show, we are doing something we ourselves opposed during the time of great TV from Norman Lear to Stephen Bochco to Diane English, among others.  All in the Family, Hill Street Blues, Murphy Brown – they were among many fine, pioneering programs with a progressive bent that faced threats from major evangelical and other religious and political organizations like the Family Research Council.  Their weapon every time was a threat to advertisers to remove their ads from these and other programs, or face boycotts.  Of course there were no blogs in those days so it was tougher to organize but these people were scary and sometimes effective.  We always defended free speech.  Those shows deserved protection because they aired on licensed public airways.  O'Reilly airs on cable – people pay to watch it so maybe that makes it a bit different.

On the other hand, (I know, this is the third hand) the Amanda gambit was totally unethical behavior, designed, I suspect, as chilling effect on its own.  It raises the price for honest advocacy, exploiting the protection of the First Amendment to do so.

I guess what I'm saying is that what O'Reilly and his goons do is reprehensible; in my mind it's somewhat worse when the "victim" is a tiny woman, anything but threatening, who is on vacation.  But using the weapons that I saw as so dangerous when they were aimed at "us"  — I'm not so sure.  What do you think?

Walking in the Woods, Spring, Bruce and The Daily Show: Even Jon Stewart Couldn’t Resist

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart M – Th 11p / 10c
Bruce Springsteen – Interview
comedycentral.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

You probably saw this.  Bruce Springsteen on The Daily Show; Jon Stewart interviewing him about his music and his life with the E Street Band.  I wasn't going to write about it.  But today, as I made my way through Rock Creek Park, Sherry Darlin' booming on my iPod, I thought about what Springsteen, over all these years, has meant to me.  About giving away all our Bruce tapes when we were in Prague in 1985 and met a "behind the Iron Curtain" tour guide who told us that each sold for almost a month's pay in his part of the world, of a six-year-old in his dad's tee shirt.  As I knotted the bottom (very 80s) so it would at least not drag on the ground, he asked "Do you think Bruce wears his this way?"  Now he and his brother meet up to go to concerts together when the band tours.  He's part of our family history.

So I understand, I really do.  The music travels in our hearts, lifts us up.  And in Stewart's case, lifted him right out of New Jersey, into Manhattan… and you know the rest.  I was a little shocked to hear him talk about it on the air; (it's at the end of this video) it was the antithesis of the coolness dude he offers us most of the time.  He couldn't resist…had to say it out loud.  To offer his gratitude.  It was surprising;  moving and endearing. 

Buttercups tight cropped
 Green is comingAnyway, the other part of today, as I move toward Shabbat, is the beauty of the spring.  The park is great; walking along the creek, over the bridges and paths was a real treat.  Here's a little bit for you – some buttercups and the beginnings of green.   Shabbat Shalom.

World Water Problems, YouTube and a Great Organizing Tool

Experts tell us water will be the “new oil.”  Las Vegas, running out of water, is already paying residents to replant their lawns with desert plants to save water.  It’s getting really scary here; it’s been scary in many other countries for a long time.  In some of those countries, the situation is desperate.  Killer dysentery is rampant; babies die, children die, parents die.  And it’s not so hard to help.

Today I received an email from Ramya Raghavan, from “CitizenTube“, announcing some new tools to help deliver video messages for nonprofits.  Here’s the example she sent along – it raised $10,000 in one day.  “That’s enough to build two brand-new wells in the Central African Republic and give over 150 people clean drinking water for 20 years!” 

Ramya urges others to take a look; you can make it work for your nonprofit too.  Here’s the link.  Some days I really love the Internet.  This is one.

Obama Staffing Issues: Where IS Everybody?

Uncle Sam
How many times have you received an email with a signature including "Be the change you want to see in the world"?  Gandhi said it and it's a treasured thought to many including my friend and sister blogger Catherine Morgan, who write a blog she calls "Be the Change You Want to See in Yourself."  That's the feeling, the sense of purpose, that created so many committed Obama supporters, who surrendered their work, their time and their futures to make sure he was elected.

Today I read the following in the Washington Post: 

This, about HHS:

After
Daschle's departure, other top prospects, such as neurosurgeon and television
reporter  Sanjay Gupta, lost enthusiasm. That also may have been the case
withDonald Berwick, president of the Institute for Healthcare
Improvement, who had been talked about as a strong contender for the
Medicare-Medicaid job.

And
this, about finding a U.S. Ambassador to Mexico:

They've been trying: Clinton
administration transportation secretary and early Obama backer Federico Peña
turned down an offer, we hear, as did Clinton White House deputy chief of staff
Maria Echaveste. Given the Senate's upcoming two-week recess, there's
little chance an ambassador will be in Mexico City to greet Air Force One.


It's happening in the Treasury Department too, where is sounds like, in addition to the enormous challenges Secretary Geithner,  he's also working without much substantial staff support.  Between tax and other issues, several potential deputy and assistant secretary people have reportedly either dropped out or been eliminated.

Call me crazy but it seems to me that people should be knocking down doors, walls and White House fences to help.  Those with great gifts should be volunteering the way GIs did in World War II.  Yet at least from what's been reported, the opposite is true.  People are pulling back, especially near the top.

I understand that much of this gap is not refusal to serve but instead the intense vetting process that makes it tough to get anything done.  And that the Republicans in Congress are being so tough that often people wonder if it's worth it.

But this is an emergency.  The Treasury Secretary is "making do" with a skeleton staff and, I''ll bet, some uncompensated patriots who are helping him until they can unscramble the nomination mess.  And I'm a big girl.  I understand that more than patriotism motivates many who choose to serve — or not to.  But I keep thinking about my mom's funeral.  I said to one of her friends, "You guys really were the Greatest Generation.  You went through so much and were so brave."

His response:  "We just did what we had to do.  You will too."  I hope he was right.

Blogging Boomers #108: the Economy Hits Home

SO BABY BOOMER header
The very wise John Agno of So Baby Boomer suggested at all the Carnivalistas write about the economy this week and so we have.  For a Boomer perspective that, of course, mirrors what everyone is feeling, this is the place to go.  It turns out we're a pretty wise bunch, writing about everything from the "alternative economy" to keeping things less stressful at home to dealing with the market.  John ha a good idea and Carnival posts rose to the occasion.  

Education, National Security, Charlie Rose and Arne Duncan

Dunca Obama kidsThe man sitting next to President Obama is our new Education Secretary Arne Duncan. Wednesday night he spent an hour with Charlie Rose. I've inserted some excerpts below; you can watch the whole hour here.  Chuck Todd has summarized the interview as well, here.   If you have time though, I recommend that you watch one or the other; this is not a usual man.

Maybe this position is one that allows for more exceptionally unambiguous appointments by Democrats; Secretary Richard Riley, who served President Clinton, was also extraordinary.  Named by TIME Magazine as one of the ten top cabinet members of all time, he presided, along with the unstoppable Linda Roberts, over the Internet wiring of all our schools.  He also worked to build up early childhood education, community colleges, parent engagement,higher standards and much more.  So I admit from the get-go that I have a soft spot for this kind of education leader.  Even among such excellence though I suspect this man is going to raise the bar even higher. Watch this.

See what I mean? What impresses me is not only the exceptional story of growing up in the home of a mother who ran an inner-city tutoring program; of seeing for himself what a decent education, which he calls a matter of social justice, can enable. Not only listening to him describe the educated friends from the program who "made it" and those who didn't learn – and "died." Literally. 

It's his vision of serious ways to meet the obligation we have to our kids – and our economy.  His belief in the school as a potential center of the community, as a resource, run, perhaps, by the school during school hours and the Y or Boys and Girls Clubs afterward, remaining open late into the evening, six or seven days a week.  Recession, depression or apocalypse, we aren't going to have a very attractive 21st Century if we don't return our schools to their role as engines in the production of innovative Americans who keep us economically and creatively at the vanguard. So even if we can look away from the substandard schools, the ridiculously high drop-out rates and the lousy physical plants as someone else's kid's problem, the loss of those kids hurts us all. It's a national security issue. 

The Flowers That Bloom in the Spring, Tra La


These aren't super-gorgeous spring photos, but they're from my walk today and the first bloomish things I've seen.  The top one is of flowers popping up in the grass patch between the sidewalk and the street; the second is the first little guys blooming on a shrub of ours that I thought was dead.  Welcome to the heady days of spring.  It's time.
Spring2
 
Spring1
 

Another Landmark in Jewish Life, Another Lesson Learned

Getting Siddur2
When I first got involved in observant Judaism, I was appalled at a lot of what I saw.  Without any background or knowledge I was ready to condemn rules from keeping kosher to circumcision to the bedecken in a marriage ceremony to Jewish education.

I’ve changed my mind about many things (though not all) but more important than any single issue is the larger lesson of this lengthy and complicated transition: you can’t judge anything until you really understand it.  It’s so easy to laugh off a traditional life, modest clothing, 613 commandments (and I still struggle with many of them and remain, I know, ignorant of many others.)  But as each rule and ritual is placed into context, its importance emerges, if you let it.  Not for everything, certainly, but for more of this somewhat exotic existence than I ever expected.

Last night I went with friends to celebrate their son’s receipt of his first siddur – prayerbook.  It is a remarkable event.  In advance, parents come to school and decorate the books’ cover; the kids wear crowns with prayers on top, there’s a long performance full of the child’s version of many of the traditions and they dance and sing and tell us what they will contribute to the future.  Parents and siblings and sleeping infants and grandparents are gathered to watch, in a balloon-decorated room with cupcakes and apple juice waiting in the back.

Of course, all this is a kind of indoctrination.  But what I’ve realized is that I think any child rearing of merit imparts values as this ceremony does.  In this case, the gift of prayer is celebrated, and being old enough to become, at least a bit, master of one’s own prayers is pretty cosmic.  Most Orthodox ceremonies I’ve been part of celebrate this gift and the journey of our emerging relationships with God, each in our own way.

But as I remember taking my kids to marches, and boycotting Nestle, and raising them on Pete Seeger and the Weavers and politics all the time, well – that was a form of indoctrination too.  And we were determined that they would receive the values that we thought most important, and be raised with a keen sense of right and wrong in political as well as personal terms.  Now, of course, they’ve modified all that to suit themselves, as they should.  But they had a set of values to push up against, as their father used to say.  Instead of prayers, the signs in their school said “Each one, teach one” and every kid had a task to contribute to the community.  Not so different, just not Godly.

I know that we are a secular nation, and that many American Jews live highly secular lives.  I did too.  But somehow, we found our way here.  Tonight I’ll light Sabbath Candles and feel the quiet peace that comes with them.  And I’ll be grateful not only for that but for the grace and love of the parents who invited me to share in their son’s celebration, and who have so often provoked me to think harder and struggle more to understand this life I’ve chosen.  And have taught both of us so much.  Believe me, I’m at least as surprised as you are by my reactions, but as long as that continues, I know I’m keeping faith with the name of this blog, along with the larger faith I seek.

Shabbat Shalom.