BLOGHER COMES OF AGE WITH ITS OWN INTERVIEW WITH BARACK OBAMA

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As you know, I am a very loyal supporter of BlogHer and a great admirer of its three founders, who have built a community of respect and honesty, humor and warmth that is a treasure to many of my sister bloggers and to me.  At last year’s BlogHer conference much was made of the absence of presidential candidates, even though they’d all been invited AND even though we were in Chicago, where Yearly Kos (now called Netroots Nation) was happening in literally one or two days, and all the Democrats came there.  It was if the "little ladies" were just not worth the trouble.

So it’s very exciting to see Barack Obama sit down with BlogHer’s Erin Kotecki Vest and answer questions submitted by the BlogHer community.  No headlines, but a broad survey of topics with sound, thoughtful and well-expressed responses.  This is a landmark moment and I’m so proud to be a BlogHer and a small part of its universe.  Watch it for yourself.

PHONE BOOTHS, MARRIAGE, DRESSING YOUR AGE AND TAXES: BLOGGING BOOMERS CARNIVAL #69

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From across the sea in the UK Ann Harrison has complied this week’s Blogging Boomers Carnival at Contemporary Retirement Strategies. It’s got everything from new tax laws to new fashion advice with plenty of other savvy ideas (including thoughts on marriage!) in between so stop by and see what’s going on!

BLOGGING BOOMERS BLOG CARNIVAL #67 – WHAT THE COOL BOOMERS ARE SAYIN’

Where_we_blogThis message is coming to you from Don’t Gel Too Soon blogging HQ (pictured to your left.)  I am fortunate to participate in a Blogging Boomers Carnival – and this week — week number 67, I’m the host(ess.)
You’ll find links and descriptions of posts by all my fellow Carnivalites; they’re a diverse, talented group, so knock yourself out.

Gloria Steinem used to say her greatest fear was ending up a bag lady.  For many of the rest of us, it’s ending up in a house full of old newspapers and unmatched socks.  Rhea Becker at The Boomer Chronicles has some interesting information on hoarding.

Is popular culture your thing?  I Remember JFK’s Ron Enderland has a nice piece about changes in TV as the 70s rolled around, and a show called Hee Haw (you had to be there.)  It’s a great slice of media history with a personal touch.

Those two glamor queens at Fabulous After 40, Deborah Boland and JoJami Tyler are all about great spring outfits (and shoes!)  Who says over 40 has to mean out of style?

On a more serious note, John Agno over at So Babyboomer, tell us that "Companies and government agencies have long anticipated the "retirement brain drain"—-the tidal wave of Baby Boomers starting to leave the workforce.  Will the
place whereyou work continue to thrive when Baby Boomers retire and take their
knowledge with them?

**For some reason, this post by the great Janet Wendy of GenPlus just arrived – even though she sent it last week!  So be sure and read it!  In honor of Earth Day/Month/Year, she focuses on how we can have a brighter planet by taking a cue from www.BrighterPlanet.com and their carbon offset visa card.  Their site is a must-visit and read for any responsible earthling.

And from Ann Harrison at Contemporary Retirement, tips on ways to thrive on a more personal level: How are your first aid skills?  Would you know what to do if
someone severed a finger?  How about a sprained ankle – would you apply heat or
a cold pack?  If you’re not sure, head over to Contemporary Retirement and
discover the top 10 first aid mistakes.

If you want to give some first aid to your relationships with others, stop at The Midlife Crisis Queen’s blog and learn How to be an Adult in Relationships.

Finally, from Wesley Hein, LifeTwo:  Things
you can do to start "Aging Backwards" that cost little or no money, according to
looking young expert Jackie Silver…

My own post, appearing just below this one, is about the Clinton-Obama race and its relationship to 1968.

Hope you’ve enjoyed all these great ideas as much as I have….


NOTE: This post was set in advance to automatically go up Sunday afternoon and was created well before the closing days of Passover.

WHO WANTS HILLARY? WHO WANTS BARACK? WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE? WHAT’S AT STAKE?

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You really need to read this guest post at Political Voices of Women, Catherine Morgan‘s remarkable combination of editorial and aggregator.  There are links there to more than 400 women who blog about politics  – and guest posts.  And (full disclosure) yes, sometimes that includes to my work.  But I digress.

On Wednesday, April 23, just after the Pennsylvania primary, Slim, whose blog is called No Fish, No Nuts, was Catherine’s guest blogger.  Slim’s post, which first appeared on her blog, wrote a loving but sad analysis of the Clinton supporters at her county convention where local Democrats elected their delegates.  Listen to this:

Obama’s voters are looking toward Obama as a standard
bearer, as a point man for the change they want to see in the country.
Hillary’s supporters, at least the older women among them, are voting for their
surrogate: because they want to see a woman in the Oval Office before they die,
and because they themselves were denied so many opportunities for advancement
in their own lives.

 

I do not doubt that they also desperately believe in
Hillary Clinton, but their investment in her goes much deeper than politics.
Hillary Clinton is proof that they had it in them all along, the fire, talent
and creativity, and they could have been leaders but for the glass ceiling that
seemed to rise only inches a decade.

Slim also wrote that she was reluctant to offer these observations but that given polls showing many Clinton supporters saying they will vote for McCain if Obama gets the nomination, and some the other way around, she felt that times were so desperate that she had to weigh in.  In her view, "We cannot afford another 4 years of war, debt and economic stagnation,
the prescription of a McCain presidency. So we Dems cannot allow
Clinton voters (
or for that matter, I add, Obama supporters if it goes the other way – though they report this feeling somewhat less frequently) to take their ball and go home come November."

To that I say "amen!"  I was a member of the "Children’s Crusade" that was the 1968 anti-war presidential campaign of Senator Eugene McCarthy.  We worked like demons through New Hampshire, did so well there that it was considered a win even though, technically, we lost, then saw Bobby Kennedy enter the race against us.  We persisted, as did his supporters, until his assassination in June of 1968.  After that, many of his supporters joined us, working still to try to elect a president who would stop the war.  And then.

The riots in Chicago.  The nomination of Hubert Humphrey, Lyndon Johnson’s vice president and for way too long a staunch supporter of the war.  And then.  Many, many of my colleagues and friends indeed picked up their footballs and went home.  To stay.  Not only did they not work for Humphrey – that would have been very hard after what had happened in Chicago.  They didn’t even vote for him.  Or vote at all.  And that, my friends, is how we got Richard Nixon.  Which is how we got Watergate.  Which is how we got Jimmy Carter– who made such a mess that we got Ronald Reagan.  Who took apart so much social safety net, environmental and regulatory and other federal function that we thought more was impossible.  Until we got George Bush.  Who decimated much of what was left, including much of our hope.  Until now, when we have two candidates who stand for so much.

Of course that’s simplistic, but what really really upsets me is that every time we educated activists, in our righteousness, take a walk because things aren’t perfect, we aren’t the ones who get hurt the most.  People who are poor, whose kids go to bad schools, whose unemployment insurance runs out too soon, who no longer can afford even in-state tuition or, for many, community college tuition, to say nothing of HEALTH INSURANCE (an issue which reaches up into the middle class) — and of course the war, where low-income people do most of the enlisting…these people are the ones who are hurt the most. 

We let our singular perception of what’s perfect become the enemy of the good – or at least better than bad – that we could help to bring into being.  It’s infantile.  It’s sad.  It’s shameful. And unless all of us in the blog universe who feel this way make a lot of noise and take lots of friends to lunch no matter WHO gets the nomination, it’s going to happen again. 

Thanks to Slim for her great post that inspired this rant.

ONE IN A MILLION – EVEN IN THIS GREAT NEW GENERATION: JEN LEMEN GOES TO RWANDA

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Stick with me on this — there’s a something of an introduction required.

I’ve met many remarkable women in my life.  Many.  I participated in and then covered the Women’s Movement of the 70’s and 80’s, known at least a little bit  Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem,  members of the Our Bodies, Ourselves co-op, women in the House and Senate and Civil Rights Movement and peace movement and McCarthy campaign. Early pioneers in broadcast journalism, the women who sued the New York Times for equal pay and work, the women who led Choice activities for decades, presidents of NOW and NARAL; heroines of Ms Magazine and the Women’s Media Center — and once, Patti Smith.  You get the idea.  Somehow, for many my age, those are THE leaders of women’s empowerment.  That’s all she wrote. 

Nope.

There’s an entire new tribe now, and they are remarkable.  Of course, the women of BlogHer lead the pack – their (our?) mutual respect, gifted voices and astonishing growth are a very exciting part of the 21st Century — and one member of this tribe is about to embark on a remarkable journey. 

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Her name is Jen Lemen.  She’s going to Rwanda.  I can’t begin to describe the project; read it here.  But since I’m going to ask you to take part, you should know about Jen.  If I can figure out how to tell you.  The first time I heard her name, at last year’s BlogHer, it was being evoked from the stage by one of the founders of BlogHers Act, Cooper Munroe, in a closing discussion of the new effort to support women’s health.  Jen had, in thanks and encouragement for Cooper’s (and her partner Emily’s) vision, presented her with a bracelet that said "Isn’t it amazing what one woman and her friends can do…"  It’s so typical of Jen that she would find the one gift to move this human dynamo so deeply.  And now, the words on that bracelet are true of Jen herself.

An artist, a doula, a poet and a gifted parent and friend, she helps people.  For her it’s like breathing.  And that’s why she’s going to Rwanda. One of her friends, who lived through more than any of us will even think about much less experience, comes from Rwanda.  She kept telling Jen she  wished she could see it.  But it’s expensive to do that.  Then, suddenly, from another friend, an invitation fell almost literally out of the sky.  Jen and her family decided she had to accept.  Since we’re talking about Jen Lemen and her equally determined friend Odette, the trip included a mission beyond tolerating an endless flight across most of the planet.  And what a mission it is!  A wonderful book, written by Odette and illustrated by Jen — a graphic way to help girls learn to read and believe in what we know they can do.  She’s also working with HopeRevo to deliver messages of hope along with the books.

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I know, I know.  Messages of hope?  Sounds too pre-modern for this post-post modern world.  But with Jen, you have to see it to believe it and once you do, you’re hooked.  By the way, that’s Odette with Jen’s daughter Madeline giving us a Girl Power salute — and if you look carefully in the background you will see the proud mommy and friend taking the photo.

If this sounds too corny for you – just take a deep breath and believe me.  Jen is going to see Odette’s kids.  She is going to deliver these books to help young girls learn to read.  She is going to spread messages of hope.  She is also probably going to do so much more than that that it defies even speculation here. 

Now, since she’s raised enough money and is definitely going, think of this:  with more money they can print more books.  It’s a pretty painless way to help the young girls of Africa who are so often neglected.  OH and every year of education of a girl in Africa raises the family standard of living exponentially;  when we help Jen help the girls, we’re also helping their families.  So — become a publisher – help underwrite the book and the trip and all that Jen will bring on behalf of and in honor of her friend Odette and her daughters and the girls who surround them.  It will just take a second.   Start right here!

WEAR IT TO A WEDDING; CARHOPS AT THE DRIVE IN; BLOGGING BOOMERS CARNIVAL #65

Lifetwo The Amazing Riveting Blogging Boomers Carnival hits #65 this week at LifeTwo with pieces on everything from Fifties Drive-Ins to looking great at a wedding this summer to conversion to Orthodox Judaism (that’s mine.)  The Carnival is free; bring your own cotton candy.

NEW FRIENDS ON MY OLD TURF: MOMMY BLOGGERS VISIT KATIE AT CBS NEWS

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What are the odds?  I spent what would have been my prime mommy-blogging years, before the Interweb was anyone’s darling, working at CBS News at 524 West 57th St.  Now, some of my sweet, funny mommy blogging friends went through the same door I used every day for 7 years to meet with Katie Couric.  Here’s what happened:

Pretty cool, huh?  My 9 years at TODAY never crossed with Katie and clearly my CBS years were the "Place to Be" years, well before hers but it sure was fun to see the girlfriends sashay on in and charm her to pieces.  But then, that’s what they do.

Blogger roll call for The Visit – drawn from original host SV(Silicon Valley) Moms:

BLOGHER WANTS TO KNOW STUFF. LET’S TELL THEM

Blogher_survey_graphicI love BlogHer.  It’s become a very important part of my life; its three remarkable founders women whose foresight and commitment guarantees every blogger a voice in its governance, tone and purpose.  Right now, they’re taking a reader survey.  It will help them grow if you take the survey.   So when they ask for survey responses, I say – let’s give them some!  It won’t take long – give it a try.  Thanks.