Category: POLITICS

Fem 2.0 Panel Video – At A Crossroads: Organizing the Next Generation of Feminists Online and Off


Thanks to the amazing Nerdette, who managed to participate brilliantly and shoot the panel at the same time, you can watch at least a portion of our Fem 2.0 panel. TanyaTarr, Jen Nedeau
and I were honored by a smart, challenging and provocative audience and
learned at least as much as we talked. As Tanya put it, "I just gained
300 more sisters. There's no other way to say it."

I also promised an updated set of links if many more posts appeared.  Here are a few:

Loryn C. Wilson's take on Womanism and the conference
Nerdette's post on Not My Gal, including this video, which she shot and edited
Our third panelist (and expert moderator), Jen Nedau's review
Veronica I. Arreola at Viva La Feminista describes her very interesting plenary appearance with Eleanor Smeal, Kim Gandy, Elisa Camahort Page and others.
Laurie White at Laurie Writes continues her phenomenal series of live session posts
more measured response from
Jill Miller Zimon at Writes Like She Talks has a second post with links to more than a dozen reviews of the Linkfluence presentation 
On TechPresident, Sairy Granger offers a different take on the Linkfluence map of feminist bloggers, presented at the conference.
There are also posts by Emily Kronenberger at New Wave Grrrl, FlashFree, DJ Nelson at All Diva Media  and, I'm sure, many more to come.

As you can see, it was an experience everyone wanted to share.

Artists for Obama: A Few of the Many

Obama Graphic hope
I’ve been kind of out of it all week.  Post-Inaugural ennui, worries, lots of appointments… whatever it was, it really sort of shut me up.  But when I saw the Obama video I’ve posted just below here, I started thinking about all the creativity that the campaign, and this presidency, seem to have engendered.

Then a friend sent me this.  I admit I’m a sucker for this kind of music, but it really is a combination of politics and joy that only such a campaign could have inspired.

We all remember Wil.i.am’s Yes We Can.  And Ron Howard as Opie. And Sarah Silverman.  And even Paris Hilton. 

And this, one of my favorites, just for the discipline.


I guess Les Miz must really resonate, because here’s another one.

Obama-mosaic
Of course these are only examples; there are dozens, probably hundreds more – and if you count the images, posters and paintings, many many more. If this kind of creativity goes toward solving our problems, we’re in good hands. Either way, it’s exciting (at least to me) to realize how many vocabularies came together to speak for this new president in the long journey that got him here.

Inaugural Reflections and Other Stuff at Blogging Boomers 102

Vaboomer
 Great minds definitely think in sync, at least some of them.  Although this week's Blogging Boomers Carnival isn't "all inauguration, all the time" there's plenty of The Big Day top choose from, although the perspectives differ enormously.  Beyond that there's everything from fashion to comic books to retirement in a bad economy.  Stop on by.

Why Are All Those Guys Being Mean to the President?

Obama oath
I haven't written much about the Inauguration or the first week of the Obama Administration.  Partly it just hasn't sunk in, I think.  Partly, like many people, we never got into our ticketed section.  That wasn't so bad; we were there and that was what mattered. 

After the swearing in though, we had a tough time getting off the Mall: lots of pushing and shoving and none of the spirit of earlier in the day.  We were cold and exhausted like everyone else and felt really sad and beat up.  I just didn't want to talk about it.  Still don't.

 But now, as I get used to hearing "President Obama," watch the Robert Gibbs briefings and listen to various cabinet members as they emerge, as I struggle to believe that George Bush is really gone (my husband refused to leave the TV at the reception on the Hill where we watched the actual swearing in  until we saw the chopper take off) and that we have a smart, classy, competent and deeply pragmatic president, I want at least to weigh in.

It was a beautiful day.  I don't know anyone, either personally, among the crowd or just around town, who isn't proud.  Those I know who live abroad report the international excitement you've seen reported.  We've done something wonderful.  But you know that big cliche "now the hard part begins."  Well, it's true.  Just like it's easier and more fun to work on a startup than a big, established company, it's easier to campaign than to govern.  Instead of one goal – getting elected, there are countless tasks and crises and they all happen at the same time.  No news bulletin in this.

I wonder though if people are scared enough about our problems to give him time to make his way.  From the first day there were people on the Hill blocking nominations and it felt to me that it was just because they could.  I know that Americans don't want that to be happening but all three of the major roadblock Senators were men up for re-election so I guess they think it will benefit them at home.  Reporters call it "red meat" and it's what's been troubling Americans for the past eight years; I can't imagine what these men think they're accomplishing, particularly with Eric Holder, the Attorney General nominee and widely praised including by his former Republican colleagues. Yet his confirmation was put off a week – and he, Tim Geithner (Treasury Secretary) and Hillary Clinton were all kept from early briefings where security was involved and from being an official part of the Inaugural because these guys decided to make trouble.  Petty, huh?

So let's hope they come to their senses and that all of us are strong enough to hang on until the planned economic and diplomatic initiatives have time to move into place.  It will all happen faster if we wait to fight until there's really something to fight over.

Inaugural Thoughts from Around the Web

Obama oath
So much has been written about this Inauguration that I thought I'd take you on a little tour; there's not much I want to say beyond what's been said and said and said again, so I'm sharing the thoughts of others instead.

Tina Brown calls yesterday 9/11 in reverse.  It's pretty interesting.

If you go to the Huffington Post today, the 21st, you'll see Inaugural magazine covers and front pages from around the globe.

Over at Talking Points Memo, Matt Cooper considers the "hawkish" nature of the Inaugural address, and its meaning.  Politico's John Harris offers a more complete analysis of both style and substance.

Michael Tomasky at The Guardian thinks the speech was "prose, not poetry" for a reason. And American Prospect's Ezra Klein has a nice little set of observations from his seat in "the second row."

Atlantic columnist Marc Ambinder has noticed, as the day went on, that "even motorcades have changed" in the new administration.  And BlogHer's Erin Kotecki Vest describes the logistical disasters that, huge as they were, failed to ruin the day.

Women's Voices for Change ran a live blog for contributors and members all day.  It's posted in three parts.

If you know Mocha Momma you know that she mixes the irreverent and the sublime.  Yesterday was no different. 

The Women's Rights blog at Change.org features a moved, and moving, post from editor Jen Nedeau.  and a French friend of mine described using my Inauguration post to teach her students.  It's interesting.

So.  This is a random survey.  I'll be back tomorrow with some thoughts of my own.

Inauguration Day: Dateline D.C.

Capital
By the time you read this, we'll be either on the Metro or already downtown.  We don't have any fancy tickets; I've had those plenty of times when I haven't cared nearly as much as I do this time, but credential or not, we're going.  As I told my friend Mom-101, who's so sad not to be here, I think there's an almost biological need to be part of this.

I hope it's a wonderful day.  I hope that all the families and friends who have come here are safe, warm and inspired.  If I can get through I'll tweet all day; you can follow me on http://twitter.com/csamuels  Otherwise, watch this space.  Until then, maybe you want to read about my trip to the Kennedy Inauguration and its relationship to this one.  I'll be back as soon as I can.   

Pete, Bruce, Beyonce and Obama: the Changing of the Guard

Brucespringsteen_l

There they are: two of the cultural icons of my political life.  Pete Seeger, close to 90, peer and colleague of Woody Guthrie, creator of We Shall Overcome and Turn Turn Turn, of Abiyoyo and Sam the Whaler, leader of The Almanac Singers and the Weavers.  If there was a civil rights rally or a labor rally or an anti-war rally, he was there. 

Beside him, Bruce Springsteen, a modern troubadour whose songs speak for many Americans whose opinions are never sought, whose voices are seldom heard.

As they stood together at the Lincoln Memorial in celebration of the Inauguration of Barack Obama, they represented, to me, all that I had believed and tried to help bring into being.  To many, though, they were “the ultimate in subtly old-left populism.”  Speaking about the concert early Sunday before it began, I kept talking about Bruce.  A younger friend gently suggested that he was probably not the day’s headliner.  That would be Beyonce Knowles, she said.  I’m sure she’s right. 

As one who was present the last time “the torch was passed to a new generation;” as a strongly defined Baby Boomer, it’s painful to hear anchormen celebrate the fact that “there will never be another Baby Boom President.”  It’ s not that I mind the fact of that; it’s just painful that it seems to be something to celebrate.  So many of us have tried so to be productive agents of change, have spent our lives working either full or part of the time to see that our country offers more to the least powerful, demands quality education, justice and maybe, even peace.  So to hear Joe Scarborough revel in the fact that “16 horrible years of baby boomer presidents is over” really hurts.  All my adult life we’ve been tarred by the brush of the least attractive of us while the work of the rest of us went unnoticed.  For most campaigns, as I’ve written before, we were the secret weapon of the right.

So as exciting as all this is, especially for one who has supported Obama for so long, it’s also bittersweet because I feel the shadow of the disdain in which so many of us are held.  I really don’t know how to respond.  If I were to try, it might be by offering some of the words to Si Kahn‘s They All Sang Bread and Roses.  It’s better with the music, but it does the job.

They All Sang “Bread and Roses (Si Kahn, 1989,
1991)

The more I
study history,

The more I
seem to find

That in
every generation

There are
times just like that time

When folks
like you and me who thought

That they
were all alone

Within this
honored movement

Found a
home.

 

And ‘though
each generation fears

That it
will be the last,

Our
presence here is witness

To the
power of the past.

And just as
we have drawn our strength

From those
who now are gone,

Younger
hands will take our work

And carry
on.

This Is NOT (exactly) about Barack Obama – the Last Time for a While – It’s About Slumdog Millionaire (Hint: Not the Greatest Movie Ever Made)

Slumdog1
Fair warning.  I'm about to be contrarian, so if you're fond of Slumdog Millionaire, stop reading now.  I've just come from the theater, disappointed and even angry.  Granted, I don't read reviews before I see films; they give away so much that they spoil the impact of brilliant scenes and great dialogue.  So it's my own fault that I didn't know about the torture scene and the one where the kid is blinded when molten lead is poured into his eyes.  Just what you need in a fairy tale, right?  I was with someone I'd leaned on to come, someone who is squeamish and subject to nightmares, and there we were, experiencing vivid and disturbing imagery in considerable detail.

I want some more
Beyond that, even though, as far as I can tell, there aren't many who agree with me, there's much that seriously detracts from the enjoyment of this film.  I'm going to risk my emotional and artistic credibility and describe some of it.

First, it's highly derivative, a mix of The Usual Suspects police station flashbacks and Oliver Twist. Especially Oliver Twist, complete with Fagin, street urchins in great numbers, mischief and loss.  Beyond that, much of its emotional power leaches from political correctness.  We always root for the underdog; that's fair, and anyone who knows me will tell you that I'm a sucker for a fairy tale.  But there was something manipulative about this story: an unimaginably poor, dark-skinned street urchin in one of the roughest cities in India, facing down the establishment.

Despite the rhapsodic descriptions of handheld camera work that brought the slums of Mumbai live into the theater, they did not feel real.  I know much of the film was shot in the city, and some of the scenes were OK.  But I've been in neighborhoods like these in other countries and no matter how colorful and alive, they are sadder and more dangerous than these.  Oh, and everyone had very good teeth.  Not possible.

So why, on the eve of the most momentous Inauguration in the history of this country, am I complaining about a movie a couple of months old that will probably win many awards?  I'm not sure.  Like everyone else, I'm full of wonder at what is coming on Tuesday.  It will dominate this space for some time.  Today though, as we await the climax of this real story of triumph and ideals, the not-so-credible tale that is this film was a poor substitute.