Category: POLITICS
At Your Service: Following the MLK Day Tradition on Inauguration Eve (and Yes, The Lorax)
We're coming up on Martin Luther King Day, the eve of the Obama Inauguration, and the President-Elect is asking us all, as is traditional on this day, to find ways to volunteer. As usual, Beth Kanter, whose Beth's Blog is a motherlode of social media strategy, especially for non-profits, suggests an easy to start. Take part in Share Our Strength's Text for Food campaign. It's not hard. Here's what they suggest:
Ways that you can help:
- Text "SHARE" to 20222 to donate $5 to Share Our Strength.
When you do, AT&T will match your donation up to $100,000. 100% of
this donation will go to supporting Share Our Strength's efforts to end
childhood hunger in America.- Hold a protein-rich food drive.
Food Drive efforts are essential sources of food for community food
banks. They rely heavily on food donations to distribute much needed
food to struggling people.- Make a Donation. If you want to make a donation but can't make one through your cell phone, please consider making a donation online.
A random survey suggest that many of us have found great ways to offer support on Monday, and our fellow bloggers have made it easy to find them. Start with Blog Her's Britt Bravo post that covers everything: a myraid of volunteer match-up sites, ways to spread the word, reading material and more. Lisa Sabater's Culture Kitchen lists Democrats at Work resources in several states including Florida, Virginia and Washington, and links some in Washington DC, too. Montgomery County? Try A Parent in Silver Spring's list. If you haven't found a place near you, this USA Service site will hook you up. All you need is a zip code.
Hilltown Families, a group in Western Massachusetts, my old stomping grounds, links to local activities and even has a video to get you going. Moving from Granola gulch to the establishment, Citi has urged its 100,000+ employees to take part, and offers opportunities in many of its location cities. Also nationally, Black Politics on the Web reports that nine major African American sororities (the divine nine) have joined together to answer the call.
As I suspect is happening in many cities, Sioux Falls is holding a major food drive. Springfield, MO is running a multi-park cleanup. Native American and Olympic Gold Medalist Billy Mills urges " As American Indians, we should join Americans from across the country in this call to service." and goes on to mention several youth activities in "Indian country" where help is needed.
If you're a loner, or just want to do something personal, Seth Godin (no surprise) provides a list of things you can do, from my own favorite: "Read a copy of the Lorax to a child that's never heard it" to lots of great ways to share technical knowledge. One example: "Find a tool that non-profits need online, and then organize some brilliant people to build it as an opensource utility."
Lisa Catherine Harper, of Generation X Raising Generation O has a nice meditation on how to figure out what sort of service will have the most impact on younger children. So does The Green Parent. Progressive News from the Big Apple links to a directory of many NYC opportunities, some of which begin before the 19th.
As I said, this is a random survey. I'm sure there are local events for every age in every city. It's going to be quite a day.
An Obama Moment at the Smithsonian Presidents Exhibit (Mom Has a Camera)
Tuesday Tour #2
This Tuesday Tour is actually doing some random wandering. You know, we do it so you don't have to. First of all, Women's Rights at Change.org features two great posts in a row: One on equal pay laws and the risk they may pose. It's very provocative, and crammed with both information and exciting ideas. The second is an intriguing meditation on the emergence (or not) of the Fourth Wave of feminism. They'll keep you busy thinking long after you've read them.
In case you missed this one, the inimitable Leslie Bradshaw describes a whole new way to look at online advertising. Whether you have online real estate or not, this concept of "nanotargeting" is intriguing, and a little unsettling. For comfort, go see the most amazing pair of shoes ever. Really.
Educators take note: Jason Fall's Social Media Explorer not only offers a list of the top election blogs but also, in a great lesson in Internet research, explains how he found them. The always-wise Charlene Li has altered her year-end predictions; which deals, appropriately this close to the Inauguration, with "the Obama-maniacs." BlogHer's Erin Kotecki Vest previews BlogHer Inauguration coverage plans. And we end with another inauguration story – but it's more fun if you don't know what it is until you get there. See you tomorrow.
Oh Sarah! (Palin) But Could She Be (A Little Bit) Right?
Just when we thought it was safe to go back in the water…. there she is again! This time, though, some of what she says is creepily unsettling. This loads slowly but is worth the wait – we can talk about it after you watch it.
Here’s the thing: Do you really think people, especially journalists, would have been so cruel to an “unwed mother” whose parents were progressive politicians? Or to a Rockefeller or even a Bush? Throughout the interview, Palin raises the issue of class, and of the attacks on her kids; we’ll touch on that in a minute.
During the campaign, I wrote about Palin and the class issue, and the sad parallels to Paula Jones. The fact is that Sarah Palin isn’t sophisticated, that she’ be a popular Girl Scout leader or Women’s Club president in the life that existed when I was a kid – around the Mad Men era. Maybe that would have been OK if she’d known more, or been less cruel and incendiary in her speeches. Her inherent lack of sophistication and experience, what William Galston has called “a celebration of ignorance” enabled much of the class snobbery the followed. But follow it did; not in the “she’s not our kind” sort of way – it was far more subtle than that. More in the collective realization of the “cool people” that she was a WalMart, polyester lady thrust into a J Crew sort of world.
Now. Let’s think about the kids. The family itself was kind of a throwback I guess. And their omnipresence – thrust onto the stage – was weird. But when Elizabeth Edwards was criticized for taking the kids on the road during the campaign, feminists and others leapt to her defense. When Al Gore Jr. was arrested in a DUI it was a “private family matter,” not a continuing object of ridicule. Somehow though, the way this pregnancy and relationship has been portrayed has been cruel and tawdry without casting much light on Palin, her tenure or her philosophy.* And remember the whole “mommy wars” thing – did Palin put her career ahead of her kids? One person who wrote consistently well about this is PunditMom. Take a look.
None of what I’m saying here justifies what Palin stood for or did as a candidate. She was, and is, a scary person hiding behind “adorableness.” But we need to think about the mainstream coverage of her campaign and how much of it derided matters of class and family, not policy and ideology. There was certainly enough of that substantial stuff to keep any reporter busy.
What do you think?
*I am not talking about conversations concerning issues of choice, sex education or contraception but of the less substantial, more visible harumphing.
Introducing Tuesday Tours: Random Worthy Blog Posts
Welcome to Tuesday Tours. There's so much good stuff out in the Blog Universe; we all have our blog readers filled with those we love. It's tough to keep up though, so until further notice, I'll be offering Tuesday tours of some of my own frequent favorites.
One of my favorite bloggers, Pundit Mom, offers posts at two ends of the spectrum as the week begins. Both are worth reading. The first: advice to the Obamas about the neighborhood around Sidwell Friends School. It's just fun. The second is a serious post with a serious question: When is it right to tell an airline official that a passenger is making you nervous
?
Concerned about what's going on in Israel? Check back daily at Writes Like She Talks, where Jill Zimon has her finger on what's up all over the Web. Here's a sample.
The wise Maria Niles is looking to figure out all those generation labels like X and Boomer and Millennial — and what they mean (and what the heck her own is.)
Also "generationally speaking," you know that all last year I wrote comparing 1968 and 2008. Well, Time Goes By columnist Saul Friedman has done me one (actually two) better, writing of lessons from his own iconic president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Obama's point of reference, Abraham Lincoln.
Beth Kanter is a legend. Rightfully so. So when she offers 52 ways for Non-profits to use social media efficiently as a New Year's gift to her readers, I'm figuring that at least some of them can help the rest of us too.
Two of my favorite moms have something special too: I'm late on this one, but Her Bad Mother's description of a willful three-year-old (it's long so wait until you have time) is priceless. Some kids are just strong strong little people.
Also, Woulda Coulda Shoulda's Mir Kamin celebrated her son's last single-digit birthday with a wonderful hymn to a newly-nine-year-old. She never misses, that one.
Finally, this one – because the happy family in the photo is mine.
Visit This Jewish Blog Carnival – It’s Interesting
This carnival is fascinating – many sides of issues relating to Judaism, observant or secular Jewish life and, of course, Israel. It's pretty diverse, take a look and see what you think. Full disclosure: a post of mine is included.
Doubt – More than a Movie — Also a Time Capsule
This film, Doubt, is exceptional. Smart, funny, moving, intricate and remarkably well-acted, it is, without exception, a remarkable accomplishment. I grew up in Pittsburgh and nuns like Meryl Streep’s Sister Aloysius Beauvier were a staple in my life, not in Catholic school, but every weekend, at speech tournaments at Greensburg Catholic or Central Catholic or other parochial schools that so often hosted the competitions.
God help you if one of your judges was one of these sisters. They were the toughest and the scariest. Even in the cafeteria between Round 2 and Round 3, they wandered with the same “eyes in the backs of their heads” that Sister Aloysius demonstrates to her young protege. The teams they coached were the amazing. Practiced, smart, disciplined and resourceful, they did the sisters proud.
As I watched Meryl Streep as the principal of a Catholic elementary school where accusation and suspicion take over, all the memories of those scary Saturday mornings at the front of a classroom, giving speeches on labor unions or disarmament or the dangers of the Soviet Union came tumbling back. The nerves were unavoidable; when the sisters were among your judges, you had to be prepared, organized, well-spoken and committed. Or else.
Probably the familiarity of those nuns (weird for a nice Jewish girl to have access to, I suppose) and the memory of all the Sundays I went to Mass with friends after a sleep-over added to the film’s impact. I know I had a very personal reaction. But whether you grew up in Idaho, Arizona or the Bronx, the film is irresistible and won’t leave you alone just because it’s not on the screen any longer. I’m not going to talk about the plot because that will diminish the pleasure of watching it unfold, but if you respect great writing, great acting and excellence in film-making, you don’t want to miss this one.
Farewell to A True Anti-Apartheid (and Jewish) Hero(ine) of South Africa: Helen Suzman
Nobody ate lobster tail at our house, or bought anything else that came from South Africa, even way back in the 50’s, . Well before Randall Robinson’s TransAfrica or Steve Van Zandt’s Sun City (see below**), my mother was actively boycotting the apartheid regime. Despite her generally moderate liberal perspective, she was fierce about this and created my own boycott habit, something that drove my kids crazy all the years that they drank Ovaltine while their friends got Nestle Quick. (That’s another story though.)
Of course anyone back then who knew about South Africa or read Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country understood the horror of it, but barely anyone talked about it, or demanded action from their own countries. So why was this the issue that set fire to my mom?
Helen Suzman*, who died on New Year’s Day at the age of 91, was the reason. For years she stood as the only anti-apartheid voice in the entire South African Parliament – for six of those years as the only woman as well.The Jewish wife of a well-to-do physician, she entered politics, visited Mandela in prison, stood and spoke, often alone, for the end of apartheid and all that it stood for. Because she was brave, and because, like so many early white activists there, she was Jewish, her often solitary and always dangerous crusade was a matter of particular pride to many Jewish women, my mother among them. Her powerful example was a foreshadowing of much that came later. By the time I was in college, friends were lying in at the doors of Chemical Bank to demand divestiture – removal of American funds from South African investments. By the 80’s daily demonstrations, and arrests, outside the DC South African embassy kept a drumbeat of attention on the issue. It took until February of 1990 for Mandela to be released from prison, granting great credit to Ms. Suzman, who later stood at his side as he signed the new constitution.
How interesting that one of the earliest moral political lessons I learned came from the courage of a woman half way around the world, not only because of her courage and effectiveness but also because of her faith. We speak so casually of “role models” these days, but when there is a true model of how to live, the impact is enormous. I’ve known that for a long time, and as I watched Barack Obama tell city kids he visited on Thanksgiving eve that ” You guys might end being the president some day” I thought it again.
Ms. Suzman’s example multiplied her power: not only did she stand alone for change when such a stand was desperately needed, she also taught all those who watched her that they could stand too, that just as her stands gave birth to theirs, their own actions multiplied the impact of hers. As we enter this new year, with so much ahead of us, it’s something we would do well to remember – and live by.
*Here’s an interview with Ms. Suzman
**Here’s the 1985 video from “Miami Steve” and artists from Herbie Hancock to Pat Benetar and Bonnie Raitt to Lou Reed and The Boss himself.
Report from London: Barack Obama, Man of the Year and Best-Sellwe
First-ever Times of London Man of the Year. This is pretty amazing if you’ve followed the disdain with which the U.S., and particularly George Bush, have been viewed here in Europe. The UK may in many ways be more angry than most, because they were sucked into the Iraq war too.
But my son, the one who works in London and has been going back and forth for five years or more,reported that the day after the election it felt better to be American in Europe than it had in a long time. Add that to what happened when Obama went to Berlin: the amazing reception arising, I believe, because he stands for the America that the rest of the world wants to know. The America of promise and compassion and justice and hope.
Now the Times of London, one of the great London newspapers, has, in its first Timers Person of the Year – worldwide – chosen President-Elect Barack Obama. In their editorial, they say:
What, then, made Barack Obama’s rise to the presidency so remarkable, such a landmark event, is not the fact of his improbability or of his extraordinary background. What made it landmark is the nature of those things. For unlike his predecessors, Mr Obama’s improbability, Mr Obama's extraordinary background, is not just important to him and to the story of his personal triumph. It caps a period of incredible change in America and makes possible incredible change in the world. And it is this – and the way he won the presidency – that made him the obvious choice as The Times Person of 2008.
Of course the next four years are pretty scary, and it's probably impossible for him to live up to all we hope for him, but at least, for now, we are once again members in good, or at least better, standing, in the world community.
There's more evidence. These are the best-sellers in Waterston's bookstore in Chiswick. Number one and number four. This will be a president the world wants to know. So while it's scary, it's also exciting: to have selected a leader who makes us proud, through a process that made us proud, to have elected an African American president for our country, which, with all its troubles, once again makes us proud too. The Bush years broke more hearts than our own, and the world reaction to Obama, from the Berlin speech to the London Times to front pages and African murals and Sunday commentary from one end of the world to the other proves it.
We don't know what will come next; we don't know how we will respond to that which is asked of us – and much will be. But we do know, I think, that we have chosen, as our leader, someone whose place in the world enhances that of our country, and of us, and begins to build the faith, and determination, that will take us where we need to go.