March 31, 2003

I started this weblog for lots of reasons, most of which have to do with my needs, as a writer, to have readers, and my needs, as a thinker, to prefer to formulate my thoughts outside my head. I started this weblog as a way to reflect on the world in general and on my world in particular. These days both of these worlds have collided in the virtual and the real spaces of war. It’s hard for me to think about anything else, since I believe that this war is going to change THE world and MY world, my country, my planet, my family, and my future in ways against which I have always fought.

And so I blog mostly about the war.

I don’t go looking for pro-war blogs to annoy with my contrary comments. I don’t go looking for arguments. I simply use my weblog to add my stand against this war to all of the others sharing that stand.

I watch the mainstream media coverage of the war, and I understand the purposes of propaganda. After all, I remember how it was used during WW II. I have non-blogger friends who email me information and news about the problems with this war and I often post these on my weblog – yes, because they support my positions against the national and international policies of this administration, against the notion that America has the right to wage this war without UN support, and against the assertion that America has some god-given right to use its military might to impose its will on other cultures.

I believe that our American government would best serve the interests of the world if it cleaned up its own act and set itself up as a true model of an effective democracy. Democracy, fairness, egalitarianism, justice, morality, and ethics begin at home. If other nations saw it working well here, they would more likely be more open to move in that direction themselves. Instead, what they see is what we have become. Enron Nation. Who in their right minds would want to emulate that?

And so I write what I feel in response to what I see and read and hear and think, and the self-styled pro-war patriots don’t like it. They don't like it that I believe enough in my country's Constitution to expect my government to live up to its tenets; they don't like it that I am a Patriot for Peace.

Maybe the pen used to be mightier than the sword. These days, it seems that it's not mightier than Cruise missiles and Smart Bombs. But, as always its strength lies not in its power to kill large numbers of people, but rather in its power to transform open minds. All writers know that.

And so many of us keep writing and blogging about the immorality of this war -- thinking and caring out loud.

Every living thing wants to keep living.

I admit it. I would kill if it were the only way to defend myself or anyone else around me who was in danger of being killed by an attacker. And I would carry the awful memory of that kill for the rest of my life. I would lie in bed at night and see the dying face of the person I killed, imagine reaching out and asking for forgiveness for choosing to commit the most immoral of all acts. If I had to kill, doing so would diminish me irreversibly. And it should.

If I had to hunt and kill my food, I would keep the thought of that prey in my heart, offer silent words honoring its life and the life’s energy it will share with me. I would try to look into its eyes and thank it for giving up its life for mine. If I had to kill to eat, I would do it with reverence and gratitude.

Every living thing dies.

And, in the meanwhile, it seems to me that both living and dying should be done with heart and conscience and an awareness that whatever life I choose to take stays connected with me for the rest of mine, whether I want it to or not. Denying that fact denies my humanity.

Here's what happened to some who did.

Jesus Christ!

This via Tom Tomorrow:

From ABC News:

They may be the ones facing danger on the battlefield, but US soldiers in Iraq are being asked to pray for President George W Bush.

Sunday's is "Pray that the President and his advisers will seek God and his wisdom daily and not rely on their own understanding".

Yes, what, indeed would Jesus do? War? Kill? Lie? Relieve tax burdens for the rich? Cut education and social services? I think not.

Go there. Check it out. Found this flash animation linked from there.

People who say they can’t find evidence of a peaceblogging movement should probably try harder.

Chris Hedges was a war correspondent for 15 years, initially as a free-lancer and eventually for The New York Times. A truthful online interview with him includes these honest remarks:

There is no just war. There is inevitable war, but it's never just. War always taints, perverts, corrupts - not only those who bear the brunt of it, but those who carry it out. War is a poison. [Sometimes in history] you have to ingest that poison, as a cancer patient does to fight off disease. But if you don't understand what that poison is, it can kill you just as surely as the disease.

It's hard for us to confront not only war, but ourselves. Those of us who have spent a lot of time in war have to confront our own capacity for evil, our own capacity to commit atrocities, the fact that human beings find a perverse thrill in the destruction not only of things but of other human beings....

The lie of war is almost always the lie of omission: the blunders by our own generals, the mistreatment of civilians, the mistreatment of prisoners, the horrors of wounds - all of that is rarely seen by those who are not in combat....

...the broadcast media, with the exception of PBS, has been completely corrupted. It has ceased to employ reporters. It is actors and actresses pretending to be reporters. They're standing on rooftops as their producers frantically rewrite Reuters copy. They don't report! They're playing parts in that myth that boosts ratings. It's that mythic narrative that keeps CNN and Fox and MSNBC laughing all the way to the bank.

If you have been puzzled as to why the Bush regime has been so fiercely opposed to the new International Criminal Tribunal, the permanent forum for applying the Nuremberg Principles, you should no longer be.

"We must make clear to the Germans that the wrong for which their fallen leaders are on trial is not that they lost the war, but that they started it. And we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into a trial of the causes of the war, for our position is that no grievances or policies will justify resort to an aggressive war. It is utterly renounced and condemned as an instrument of policy". -- Supreme Court Justice Robert L. Jackson

PRINCIPLES OF INTERNATIONAL LAW RECOGNIZED IN THE CHARTER OF THE NUREMBERG TRIBUNAL AND IN THE JUDGMENT OF THE TRIBUNAL

PRINCIPLE VII
Complicity in the commission of a crime against peace, a war crime, or a crime against humanity as set forth in Principle VI is a crime under international law.

Myrln, who sometimes leaves comments on my posts, is a long-time friend in the real world. He’s not a blogger, but he certainly “gets” the importance of using the Internet for citizen empowerment. And he sends great emails to keep poking at the butts of those trying to manipulate us into believing what Dumbya wants us to believe. Here are his latest two. You might want to do the same.

Sent To: cnn@cnn.com
Subject: Balanced Reporting?
Date Sent: 31 Mar 2003 09:04 AM

So, the lesson to be learned from your firing of Peter Arnett is this: so long as you shovel out government propaganda, you can work for us. Have an opinion to the contrary, and you're history. I wasn't sure before, but I am now: you are indeed a propaganda and public relations arm of the current administration with no interest in factual, objective reporting no matter where it leads. All day, every day, I hear OPINIONS that favor the U.S. point of view, and no one gets fired for that. You are hacks, nbc and msnbc, a disgrace to the world of journalism. Thankfully, we have bloggers out there who give us the whole and real story. They make you look like the flaks you are.

He alse sent me this link to www.newyorker.com, commenting that it is an
Article by Seymour Hersh re Rumsfeld's micromanaging...which of course the latter denies doing.

Myrln emails. I blog it. Works for me.

March 30, 2003

If you're for this war, you're probably not reading this weblog. But, just in case, please be sure to follow this link and read the whole story. It's a true report. It's the truth about how Americans fight a war that all those so-called pro-war patriots don't want to believe.

Here's a teaser:
Across the square, genuine civilians were running for their lives. Many, including some children, were gunned down in the crossfire.

Amid the wreckage I counted 12 dead civilians, lying in the road or in nearby ditches. All had been trying to leave this southern town overnight, probably for fear of being killed by US helicopter attacks and heavy artillery. Their mistake had been to flee over a bridge that is crucial to the coalition's supply lines and to run into a group of shell-shocked young American marines with orders to shoot anything that moved. One man's body was still in flames. It gave out a hissing sound. Tucked away in his breast pocket, thick wads of banknotes were turning to ashes. His savings, perhaps.

Just imagine if all this were being done here, in America, to us. Yet, there are our "boys," doing it, doing it to other innocents -- becoming the evil that we so despise. War. What the hell did you think it would be like!

There's something about the perspective of age that's beginning to make sense to me. There's a younger memory in me that wants to argue with the statements make in this article. And then there's me, today, watching the results of America-hating, allowing myself a longer, global view.

These are just some points Baltimore free-lance writer Paul Valentine makes in his opinion column today:

A major outcome of the culture wars of the last 50 years can be summarized in a single phrase: the juvenilization of America.

But somewhere along the way, the nation's sense of proportionality and scale began to wobble and then to collapse. Pushed by the new hucksters, freedom became license; artistry became performance; self-interest became narcissism; excess became necessity. The perfect juvenile.

All of that feeds into why there exist non-Americans today who have little respect for the evidence of how we live the American way. Heh. There are even plenty of us Americans who feel the same way.

Back in the seventies, I saw 'Wild in the Streets,' a movie in which older people were rounded up and placed in containment camps so that the next younger generation could take over running society. Of course, "older" becomes relative, and by the end of the movie, it wasn't "don't trust anyone over 30." It was "don't trust anyone over 13."

As I Googled for a link to the movie, I got on one web site that forced me to click off FIFTEEN pop-up advertising screens. I'm beginning to think it really IS all a part of a thoughtless conspiracy of juvenile American minds.

March 29, 2003

If I lost my computer and kalilily.net disappeared, the loss to the blogging community would be barely noticeable. If my computer crashed and I couldn’t take the free-lance writing job for which I’ve contracted with Arizona’s Library, Archives, and Public Records, I wouldn’t hurt for rent money,

But we’re talking about Jeneane Sessum here. Allied.Blogspot.Com – the mother of all weblogs and virtual mother to countless webloggers. If Jeneane disappeared from the Blog, who would hold us together, keep the spirit of honest conversation going; who would kick our asses when we needed it; who would remind us how to dream together, how to create new visions for our shared cyber-futures?

Jeneane is not just another weblogger. She’s a catalyst, an instigator, an inspiration, and a gifted writer who sets many of the standards for intelligently creative blogging that so many of us strive to reach.

And she’s going to lose her Dell Latitude to her (downsized) former employer because (they say) it’s a lease. There’s gotta be a way for her to keep that laptop while she generates enough clients on her own to be able to afford to replace it.

Frank Paynter offers some logical suggestions, and the one I like best is this:

Have Michael Dell buy out the lease for her in return for a "powered by Dell" credit on Allied which must get well over a hundred thousand hits a year from tens of thousands of laptop buyers.

She’s written a great letter to Dell. I hope someone there has a heart (and the smarts to make Jeneane a win/win offer).

A truly frightening article in the NY Times includes this:

They said Iraqi fighters had often mixed in with civilians from nearby villages, jumping out of houses and cars to shoot at them, and then often running away. The marines said they had little trouble dispatching their foes, most of whom they characterized as ill trained and cowardly.

"We had a great day," Sergeant Schrumpf said. "We killed a lot of people."

and

But more than once, Sergeant Schrumpf said, he faced a different choice: one Iraqi soldier standing among two or three civilians. He recalled one such incident, in which he and other men in his unit opened fire. He recalled watching one of the women standing near the Iraqi soldier go down.

"I'm sorry," the sergeant said. "But the chick was in the way."

Yes, b!X, I agree with you:

And I'm sorry, but this is the psychological retardation of military
training on display here, and it presents a pretty fair demonstration
of why I don't participate in any "oppose the war but support our
troops" bullshit.

... even though I have relatives over there. I hope they, indeed, behave with more moral conscience, that they do not get killed or maimed; and I feel badly for all of them -- that they have allowed themselves to be duped by this government and brainwashed by soul-less military minds.

Meanwhile, while Dumbya spoke to veterans at the White House yesterday, House Republicans were looking to cut veterans benefits by about 30-40 billion dollars. Well, why not, those wars are over; those vets should get over it. Right???????????????????? What happened to "support our troops?" Hypocrites!

March 28, 2003

In a recent interview on Dateline, SBS TV Australia, Gore Vidal admits that he's become a pamphleteer, an essayist -- and for good reason. That's sort of what some weblogs have become as well -- and for good reason.

The transcript of Gore's interview is worth a read. He says, [heh]:
We've never had a kind of reckless one who may believe --and there's a whole theory now that he's inspired by love of Our Lord --that he is an apocalyptic Christian who'll be going to Heaven while the rest of us go to blazes. I hope that isn't the case. I hope that's exaggeration.

And he reminds us of our long history as aggressors, including:
So we have been at war steadily since 1950. I did a...one of my little pamphlets was 'A Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace' --how that worked. I mean, we've gone everywhere --we have the Enemy of the Month Club. One month, it's Noriega --king of drugs. Another one, it's Gaddafi. We hated his eyeliner or something and killed his daughter. We moved from one enemy to another and the press, the media, has never been more disgusting. I don't know why, but there are very few voices that are speaking out publicly. The censorship here is so tight in all of the newspapers and particularly in network television. So nobody's getting the facts.........I spoke to 100,000 people two weeks ago in Hollywood Boulevard, down the hill from where I'm speaking to you now. There were 100,000, lots of police, many helicopters overhead which, as the speaker got up, would lower themselves to try and drown your voice out. The press did not record that there were 100,000 people. They said, "Oh, 30,000 perhaps. That might be an exaggeration," they said.

And then about pamphleteering [and, I believe, weblogging]:
There are ways of getting around official media and there are ways of getting around a government which is given to lying about everything, and the people eventually pick up on it, but things are moving so swiftly now.

And he ends with this [which are my sentiments exactly]:
We've never had a period like this and it was --to somebody like me, who is really hooked into constitutional America --this is incredible. We cannot trust the Supreme Court after their mysterious decisions on the election of 2000. We have no political parties. We've never had much of them --I mean the Democrats, the Republicans. We have one party --we have the party of essentially corporate America. It has two right wings, one called Democratic, one called Republican. So in the absence of politics, with a media that is easy to manipulate and, in the hands of very few people with interests in wars and oil and so on, I don't see how you get the word out, but one tries because there is nothing else to be done.

There's lots more good stuff in the interview. Go read it.

It's important to let life's absurdities keep you smiling. This guy is documenting some of the wacky protest signs. The text on his site doesn't render well in IE, but the photos are great.

That’s what an embedded reporter reported – not “we captured” but we “apprehended.” Ah. If only we would make the effort to really “apprehend” them (in the sense of “comprehend.”)

Yesterday, I heard Free Speech Radio News report how the news media is increasingly using military jargon to describe what’s going on in the war zone. The words they use vastly diminish "apprehension" of the horrible realities of what's going on. This is, indeed, a propaganda war being waged by our government leaders, with the embedded reporters doing the spinning for them.

March 27, 2003

As a concerned-citizen-weblogger/non-mainstream-sharer-of-political-information, b!X has been trying to understand and work with and within his local government system so that he can have access to the kinds of information he wants to share with his fellow citizens. Part of this effort requires that he try to attend local government press conferences and open meetings.

The local government official who told b!X last week that he could attend a press conference being held today left instructions at the last minute to bar him from the event. He’s trying to find out why, but I suspect that someone from the Portland Business Alliance that b!X has been criticizing (or some other politically influential persons) got to that government official and convinced her that b!X is not supportive of whatever it is they support. And he’s not a part of the official mainstream media establishment either, which maybe gives them the rationale for excluding him. And, maybe, weblogging is proving to be a potent non-mainstream-media force, and b!X’s posts are getting more attention than those he opposes like.

Is this an example of an emerging Fear of Webloggers because concerned citizen webloggers are counteracting government’s efforts to restrict access to information, discussion, and dissent?

Meanwhile, b!X describes a great idea for an alternative way to publicly express dissent.

Imagine, if you will, hundreds of protestors fanning out into downtown Portland, each taking up a solitary position at some intersection, or some relevant building. No groups. No marches. Just single individuals each stationed alone at their own respective points.

No mass. No crowd. But nevertheless omnipresent. As people go about their daily routines in downtown Portland, they would not be able to turn a corner without running into yet another solitary dissenter, standing watch, bearing witness, and ready to talk.

I'm sure he will post about it here when he finds out why he was kept out of the press conference.

From here via Karen Hansen posting on Blog Sisters.

The freedom women experience in any particular Arab nation seems to derive from local tradition rather than from the Koran.

By abandoning the assumption of superiority, Western feminists can say to the Arab-Muslim woman, "we don't disparage your religion or your ethnic origins. We only want you to have choice."

March 26, 2003

Periodically I go searching blogs for "older/wiser" bloggers. The Ageless Project is one place I look. This time I found an interesting one (of course I think he's wiser; I agree with his politics!).

Bill of Timepage links to this NY Times piece, which makes this important point:

... Recent experience does not suggest that the United States has developed a talent for bringing freedom and democracy to subject peoples. Reconstruction in Afghanistan still has a long way to go, and has run into familiar difficulties.

The same may be true of Iraq. Whatever the initial reception, it is inevitable that foreign rule will be resented, especially a postcolonial world. Proclamations of democracy and freedom may satisfy the public at home but will be meaningless unless made to work in Iraq.

Bill of Timepage sums it up well:
...the impositioning of western style Democracy, free trade and freedom of thought (including politics, lifestyle and religion) onto a conquered (OK, liberated) people, are very, very complicated goals. The only way these ideas work is for multiple generations to have been raised with them and for almost everyone to be comfortable with them. This is because, taken together, they sometimes are very unintuitive, even inconsistent (not to mention probably fundamentally inconsistent with the cultural beliefs that they are replacing). Some say we haven't yet fully worked out the implications of these concepts ourselves. I think our experience in Afghanistan is telling. We have not changed the culture of those people and it doesn't look like it will be happening for a long time, if at all. I am not even sure I believe that we should. Even if we could convert them by pouring money in to solve all of their physical requirements there simply isn't enough money to do the job. Now we will have to finance two nation buildings.

And my search for older/wiser bloggers continues.

A comment on this post of mine prompted me to search out this article, which reports:

Prime Minister John Howard says the United States should take a leadership role in Iraq for an interim period after the military conflict.

Mr Howard says Iraq should be run by the US immediately after the war.

Oh yeah. Let's clone today's America. Spread the dis-ease.

When my Dad was young and more Republican (he got more liberal as he got older), I used to tell him that, when the revolution came, he knows what side I'm going to be on. Maybe that revolution will come yet.

Knee-jerk flag-waving, especially when combined with a disdain or outright hatred for dissent isn't patriotism, it's nationalism. And it's dangerous.

Why aren't more patriotic pacifists arguing this distinction?

March 25, 2003

I thought the following was worth repeating. Got it from here:

Dear President Bush,

At this time of national crisis, I would like to offer my assistance to you.

As a practicing psychologist for more than thirty years, it has become clear to me that your mental health has been seriously neglected. In the interest of our nation, I would like to offer my services as a psychologist to you on a "pro bono" basis. It would, after all, be for the good of the country.

Of course, it would be presumptuous of me to attempt to diagnose your emotional difficulties without meeting you face to face. However, I believe that I have had sufficient opportunity to observe you to put forth a few hypotheses of "trouble" areas with which you seem to need assistance.

First, and of great concern, is evidence of delusional thinking - a symptom of psychosis. The delusion that seems most evident is that bombing a people into submission is a strong foundation for democracy, and for generating good will in a nation. There is also the delusion that Saddam Hussein poses an imminent threat to the USA. (Or was that just a lie, suggesting psychopathic deviance?)

Another symptom that many people have noted is disorganized and incoherent speech, which, unfortunately, can be another symptom of psychosis. Confused thinking is also a problem for you, as demonstrated by the idea that our reason for going to war is Iraq's defiance of the UN, yet you are defying the UN by going to war. This suggests rather muddled cognitive functioning.

These symptoms suggest that I would feel that a referral to a psychiatrist for medication might be indicated. However, your history of multiple substance abuse should lead to caution in the use of certain psychotropic medications.

While there are some indicators of psychosis, there are also many signs of
Narcissistic Personality Disorder, which include arrogance and grandiosity, as well as a need for unlimited power. There is also a lack of empathy for others, and, in your case, no regard for them at all if they speak another language. You suffer from an excessive need for admiration and a sense of entitlement. Evidence for that includes your refusal to speak before the European Union unless you could be guaranteed a standing ovation. Your actions regarding attacking Iraq in spite of negative world reaction reveal your arrogance in a clear and obvious way.

Emotional immaturity has been in evidence as well. The tendency toward black and white thinking is one sign of emotional immaturity. Statements that divide the world into good and evil, and "you're with us or against us" reflect thinking typical of a young child. Emotional growth and development is known to be stunted by substance abuse. Could that be what happened with you?

Problems with the truth are also in evidence, as in such statements as "I am a man of peace", "I am a uniter (sic) not a divider" and "I'm hopeful that we can avoid a war." None of these statements enjoy the support of your behavior. While a certain amount of lying is expected from politicians, yours seems to be well in excess of the norm.

Although I have a busy schedule, I am confident that my current patients, in the service of their country, would be willing to change their schedules to accommodate you.

I also need to warn you that I cannot guarantee relief from all the above symptoms, as personality disorders are notoriously difficult to treat. Therefore, in order to pursue your recovery, it might be wise to consider resigning from the stresses of your current position to devote your time to your psychological well being.

Sincerely,

Diana DeVito
Clinical Psychologist

March 24, 2003

I’M NOT POSTING ABOUT THE WAR. MICHAEL MOORE SAID IT ALL.

I didn’t watch the Academy Awards. Neither did I watch the news for the past two days. I was attending my uncle’s funeral. He was 89 years old.

Sixty-five years ago, my family and extended family was its own tribe. A photo on my mother’s wall shows almost 60 people lined up in four tiers to document a going-back-to-Poland party for my great “Uncle the Priest” (or “Wójek the Priest,” which is how my mother still identifies him).

Some forty years or so ago, when my other uncle died (of stomach cancer when he was in his forties), there were hundreds of cars in his funeral procession. My father (who was the funeral director) had to ask for a police escort to avoid serious traffic problems as the long line of motorized mourners inched their way through the dense city streets.

Yesterday, my uncle also had a police escort, but he only had seven cars. (This time, there were police escorts only because my Polish female cousins keep marrying Irish police officers. My uncle’s son-in-law is one of them.)

The tribe has dwindled to my mother, a few other extended-family aunts and uncles, and the handful of cousins and spouses who have not yet moved too far away to return for funerals.

I left the tribe when I was 17 to go to college, and I never went back. In general, I have little in common these days with most of my cousins – they tend to be more politically conservative and like to take off for weekends in Atlantic City or Las Vegas. They have less formal education and more money than I do; are all married or re-married (except for one who’s a widow); and they don’t read the same books that I do. They all live within a radius of 50 miles from where they were born (forsaking the deteriorating inner city where we all grew up for the more comfortable and affluent suburbs). We see each other at weddings and funerals. These days, it’s mostly funerals. Our conversations usually end after we’ve caught each other up on where our kids are and what they’re doing. Those who are so inclined take the opportunity to brag about their world travels or their profitable investments. I tell them that I still write but haven’t been doing much ballroom dancing lately. And, of course, this time I show them my grandson’s photos.

As we sit together at my uncle’s wake, very aware of how few of us all are left, we begin remembering details of our shared childhoods growing up in our four square-block tribal ghetto -- their fathers going off to war (not mine; as an undertaker and oldest son, we was deferred); the summers with our mothers at the ocean cottage (the fathers came out on weekends). What I have forgotten, someone else remembers and vice versa. We start using Polish words that we didn't even knew we remembered. (We all grew up bi-lingual). Our laughter is ignored by the remaining tribal elders, who are engaged in their own hearing-impaired reminiscences.

Later than night, as my mother, brother, and I sit with the cousins at whose house we are staying and watch a DVD that my brother has made from old 16mm home movies from the 40s, I feel, again, the pull of family, of our shared history, our shared blood. We are kindergarteners again, skipping along in our Easter hats and Mary Janes's, holding each other's hands as our young mothers trot protectively behind us. And then it is the blizzard of 1947, and we are piled onto my Flexible Flyer and sliding down the middle of Riverview Street. And then it's Christmas, and our birthdays, and Christmas again, and each time there's another aunt or another cousin added to our ranks.

And then there I am with the one aunt I never got to know well enough because she and my uncle (the Merchant Marine captain) didn't stay with the tribe very long after they were married. She was an artist, with long black hair and dramatic eyes who painted her kitchen ceiling black, began to teach me how to draw faces, and sewed me a red lace-trimmed house coat for Christmas that was my favorite piece of clothing for years after. I think that I subconsciously made her my role model; she was so unlike everyone else I knew. She and my uncle had a slew of kids, I'm told, but they are cousins whom I've never met. They are not in these home movies. And she is only there for a few seconds. And then it's another birthday, and all of the other cousins are pinning tails everywhere but on the donkey.

to be continued...

March 22, 2003

Unless you live and care in Portland, Oregon, you probably don’t read b!X’s weblogs these days. However, you might want to take a look at both as examples of how weblogging can be a potent community force for bringing change agents together.

His recent Portland Communique pieces have been related to keeping the community informed the anti-war demonstrations – before, during and after, using cell phone technology in coordination with blogging. Unemployed and financially constrained, he makes smart use of these inexpensive technologies to keep information flowing. He also posted an excellent piece of his own in response to local newspaper editorial on dissent.

As an aside, a comment left by “Aaron” on another of biX’s posts sends you to his link to an intelligent statement of patriotism. Aaron also cites and links to info about the new book, Why Do People Hate America?

B!X's other weblog, which he maintains to support this work as leader of the Portand Bill of Rights Defense Committee, is a rich source of information both for the Portland effort as well as anyone who cares about the current steady erosion of our Constitutional rights.

I work with words. B!X puts his words to work toward a better world.

Think globally. Act locally. And harness the power of the blog.

March 21, 2003

I guess I posted too soon about Kevin Sites new weblog from Iraq. His final post says that he's been asked to stop blogging for a while. Want to take a guess about who did the asking?

I went for a walk to get away from the sight of Baghdad in flames.

The sun is out here, the sky is a mildly cloudy blue, and the road opens to one pitfall after another. Half a flock of geese cruised overhead -- seven of them, one in the lead and the other six making up only one arm of the usual V. Is the glass half full or half empty?

I got home to two messages from cousins informing me that my Uncle Ted had passed away today. He's 89 and has been in the hospital for almost a month with various infections and Alzheimer's. The glass is half full and half empty.

The radio newsman says that the nasty Hussein regime is in disarray, its leadership disorganized and confused. An historic city is in shambles. Most assuredly innocent people have died. The glass is half-full of blood.

We leave on Sunday for the funeral. We have to cross the extensive Tappan Zee bridge over the Hudson River. I usually don't think twice about that. But this is wartime, isn't it?

(some satire from myrln, in the spirit of a Yippie heart)

George Dubya's War Prayer

Dear Lord, thank you for he'ping protect the oil fields and get them in the hands of those who rightly should have them, meaning me 'n' Dickie.
And Lord, now I ask your he'p in making my subjects...hee-hee-hee...I mean, my people...you know, the electoralites...understand why I had to send their sons and daughters to get killed to secure that oil (and thank you for letting me keep my two little girls safe at home where they oughta be sometimes, I know how partial you are to them, being blonde and all -- them, I mean, not you).

And Lord, I hope you understand how I simply had to lie my ass off about Saddam's nucular weapons and such in order to get folks whipped up in a froth so's we could get this war on. I mean, it's not like I really broke any Commandment since Saddam's not a neighbor of mine (like Mr. Rogers was) and since he ain't Christian anyway but one of them heathen towelheads we got to deal with cuz you stuck the oil over in that desert 'steada here in the good ole US of A where it rightly belonged. Not that I'm criticizing or nothing. I know you got a soft spot for that Middle East, what with you sending your own Son there and all and getting him killed the way you done. (But not for oil, heh-heh.)

And Lord, I thank you for giving me this war. It sure beats the shit (oops, sorry) outta anything Jeb's got or ever will have ('cepting his Florida thing hanging down at the bottom of the country).

So I guess that's it for now, Lord. This is George Dubya Bush, your Commander in Chief in common with you, sending along a salute and my best wishes for all you undertake on my behalf (and Dickie's) now and in the future which I'm sure will suit me 'n' mine just fine. Talk to you again soon.

By the end of the 60s, I was married with two little kids and living in the rural town where my husband was teaching. I protested in what meager ways I could, but my heart was with the Yippies. Who were the Yippies? They're somewhat documented here, and what follows is excerpted from that piece.

The Yippies, who came up with the name first and the acronym "Youth International Party" later, pulled their first famous act at the New York Stock Exchange. They floated down dollar bills and then laughed hysterically as millionaire stockbrokers scrambled madly after the money. They wanted to celebrate the "death of money" and expose the greediness of American society. From then on, the Yippies would put soot bombs at Con Edison Headquarters to warn about pollution, plaster SEE CANADA NOW signs on Army Recruiting Booths and mail 3,000 marijuana joints to random strangers from the phone book. Abbie's antics made him a media celebrity along with the Yippies' other leader, Jerry Rubin, best known for dressing in a Revolutionary War outfit and blowing bubbles at a House Un-American Committee hearing. Many groups in the sixties were so earnest and self-righteous that the Yippies provided some of the only examples of radicals with a sense of humor.

At the protest, the Yippies had declared their intention to "levitate" the Pentagon, and to exorcise it of all the evil spirits that were killing Americans and Vietnamese women and children thousands of miles away. Roz put on the footage of the levitation and I could hear through the phone the chanting of "Ommmmmm." US marshals surrounding the Pentagon moved in and started arresting demonstrators. One famous photo shows a protester putting a daisy into the gun of a policeman. The March was only the prologue to what would become increasingly more violent confrontations with the police.

I think perhaps that, as much as we enjoyed the efforts of the early Yippies to draw attention to important issues through humor and satire, it became pretty apparent that those tactics were not going to result in real change happening. Frustration led to more confrontational behavior, as is also happening today.

As I sit here watching Baghdad being violently destroyed , live, before of the eyes of the whole world of television, I can't help see that the confrontation in which the anti-war protestors are engaging to make their points heard is nothing compared to the violence that we are inflicting upon the innocents of Iraq. As an American, I am ashamed of what my country's leaders are doing in my name. Shock but no awe.

We're doing it. Right now we're bombing the hell out of Baghdad. The whole world is watching as we rear our ugly American head.

March 20, 2003

Thanks to b!X to the link to this image of the police attack on today's anti-war demonstrators in SF:

Last-Minute Message for a Time Capsule
By Philip Appleman

I have to tell you this, whoever you are:
that on one summer morning here, the ocean
pounded in on tumbledown breakers,
a south wind, bustling along the shore,
whipped the froth into little rainbows,
and a reckless gull swept down the beach
as if to fly were everything it needed.
I thought of your hovering saucers,
looking for clues, and I wanted to write this down,
so it wouldn't be lost forever --
that once upon a time we had
meadows here, and astonishing things,
swans and frogs and luna moths
and blue skies that could stagger your heart.
We could have had them still,
and welcomed you to earth, but
we also had the righteous ones
who worshipped the True Faith, and Holy War.
When you go home to your shining galaxy,
say that what you learned
from this dead and barren place is
to beware the righteous ones.

from New and Selected Poems,1956-1996
University of Arkansas Press, 1996

March 19, 2003

Live from Baghdad -- Where is Raed is a Blogger-powered weblog straight from the heart of the matter. MSNBC.com spotlights Raed in its section on Blogspotting.

The power of the blog was given its due on the NBC-tv news tonight as well, as a segment featured Eli Pariser , the force behind moveon.org, who orchestrated so many of the planet wide-war protests from his laptop, and internet culture chronicler Harold Rheingold, who spoke to the power that blogging brings to empowering citizens to organzize efficiently and effectively. In three days, moveon.org managed to organize a level of organized protests that it took three years for protest organizers to do for the Viet Nam war.

Now, that's "power to the people!"

Welcome to Kevin Sites's new weblog from Iraq. Sites is a CNN correspondent, but his weblog is his personal journal. Check out his recent photos.

On Monday, he posted his feelings about blogging:

It's good to be in the blogosphere.
Xeni and John, I hope you two are incredibly proud of yourselves. Look at all of the people responding, because you put this blog out there. This experience has really made me rethink my rather orthodox views of reaching folks via mass media. Blogging is an incredible tool, with amazing potential. The feedback readers are posting motivates me to provide as much as I can for all of these folks hungry for first-hand info. Will probably have another full story today -- plus, will try to send some photos from Halabja taken yesterday, horrible Internet connections permitting. You guys are my heroes.

First-hand bloginfo from Iraq. Wow!

March 18, 2003

This, in response to jfcates' request:

1. Where do I stand on the eve of this war?
See here and here and here......

2. Has my position caused arguments with friends or family?
Not a one. Just take a look at my son's weblog here.

3. Is there some other issue making me grind my teeth?
Figuring out how to psyche myself up to move myself and my 87 year old mother to a less expensive housing arrangement.

So, there you are.

We Americans are the Greeks of our day, and as we now go to war, we should appreciate not only the beauty of the tale, but also the warnings within it.

So ends "Cassandra Speaks" by Nicholas Kristof (NY Times).

Some statements from the article:
-- Troy offers us three lessons about war.
-- Agamemnon was the Donald Rumsfeld of his day, needlessly angering his key allies.
--Troy's fundamental failing was not a military one.
--So, by Zeus, that third lesson from Troy is the paramount need to listen to skeptical voices.

But Bush listens to his own personal god, not to the millions of Cassandras who circle the planet in candlelight.

March 16, 2003

I took these photos at a candlelight peace vigil in which I participated tonight. It took place at the busiest intersection in the Albany area, less than 3 miles from where I live, and it was too close for me to be comfortable if I didn’t go over there. I sent the four photos I took that came out OK to moveon.org. The vigil make the 6 pm news on the local NBC tv station. I don't think I was in any of it; I think I look too ordinary. I'll watch the 11 pm news and find out.

I stood between an elderly Quaker woman whose spiritual beliefs bring her to every peace rally in the area and a woman about my age who is a member of the Women For Peace effort. Next to her stood a distinguished sexagenarian in his old military uniform waving a large flag with the image of planet Earth from space. We lined up along the raised curb -- toddlers, students, dedicated activists, people like me who talk the talk and reached that point of discomfort where we felt we had to do more.

We were all handed a flyer:

War looms too close for comfort.

March 15, 2003

I’m not a “morning” person, so waking up at 6:30 a.m. when my grandson starts his day meant that when I got home yesterday, I wasn’t up to downloading and posting about my meet-up with Blog Sister Betsy Devine. We got the waitress to document the event for us as we finished up our lunch at a Thai restaurant outside of Boston.

I arrived just about ready for an afternoon nap. Betsy arrived bearing gifts – two books: The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency and a copy of her last book, Absolute Gravity, a collection of jokes anecdotes limericks, and riddles revealing the funny side of physics, biology, mathematics, and other branches of science. (i.e. Sex is inherited. New studies prove that if your parents never had sex, then neither will you.) Betsy is as energetic in person as her weblog suggests she must be, and our face-to-face conversation covered everything from blogging to babies to Bush.

Of course, I loved playing Grammy – even if the little squirt has four teeth coming through and hates to have to go to sleep. The Elmo pillow got happy squirmy squeals out of him; it’s just amazing how much babies are attracted to that fuzzy, red, pop-eyed creature. I also loved spending time with my daughter (pictured below) and son-in-law. I need to do more of that.

I also need to check in more often with Jim Culleny’s No Utopia journal. I'm glad that I didn't miss his post that ends with:

Who knows why George Bush is doing what he's doing? But for those of you who are tagging along behind the president because he expresses profound faith, there's a cautionary tale here. Is Iraq his Elizabeth Smart?

He also confronts the latest stupid-American craze of French bashing, quoting b!X and linking to Molly Ivins’ excellent commentary on the subject that ends with:

The French are really stuck on history. (Some might claim this is because the French are better educated than we are. I won't go there.)

Does it not occur to anyone that these are very old friends of ours, trying to tell us what they think they know about being hated by weak enemies in the Third World?

Being an American these days is such an embarrasment. I wonder how long it's going to take for us to be able to feel any kind of national pride again.

March 11, 2003

…before I leave for Boston to visit my grandson, that is.

Thanks to all my connected friends and family for their birthday wishes, sent through blogs, email, and e-cards. Next year, I’ll remember that Tom Shugart’s birthday is the day after mine. Happy Birthday back to you, Tom.

As I was going through my birthday greetings, I found myself not humming the birthday song, but rather hearing the old Kingston Trio’s "Merry Minuet" echoing in the background of my brain:

They're rioting in Africa,
They're starving in Spain.
There's hurricanes in Florida,
And Texas needs rain
The whole world is festering
With unhappy souls.
The French hate the Germans,
The Germans hate the Poles;
Italians hate Yugoslavs,
South Africans hate the Dutch,
And I don't like anybody very much!

They're rioting in Africa,
There's strife in Iran.
What nature doesn't do to us
Will be done by our fellow man!

It’s the same old song, isn’t it?

I noticed that Nicholas B. Kristof reprises the essence of the Kingston Trio’s lyrics in his NY Times Op-Ed piece, which he ends with:

Tensions are growing, with Iranian-armed fighters entering Kurdistan and threatening to fight not just Saddam but also the Turks. Our allies could be too busy disemboweling each other to take on Saddam's troops. And the U.S., as one American living in Turkey puts it, "has no clue of the hatreds it's walking into."

When the White House looks at Iraq, all it sees is hidden weaponry. It never notices the seething complexities in which we are about to embed our young men and women.

He also reminds us that:
The unfolding mess in northern Iraq is a reminder that if we invade Iraq, we are stepping into an immensely complex region of guns, clans and hostilities that we only dimly understand. The White House thinks it can choreograph the warfare, but if we can't control effete gavel-wielding diplomats on the familiar turf of the United Nations, how will we manage feuding troops with mortars in the mountains of northern Iraq?

Oh? Teach the Kurds peace at gunpoint? Some Turks seem to have the same problem as some Americans — they have been so traumatized by terrorism (whether by Kurds or by Al Qaeda), they are determined to go abroad with guns blazing, without recognizing that artillery may not always help, and without acknowledging that the rest of the world does not accept the nobility of their intentions.

We had the war to end all wars. I hope that his isn’t the war to end all worlds.

Over in another world, Doc and Dave are writing about the World of Ends:
To connect to the Internet is to agree to grow value on its edges. And then something really interesting happens. We are all connected equally. Distance doesn’t matter. The obstacles fall away and for the first time the human need to connect can be realized without artificial barriers.

Yes, connecting from the edge. That’s why I blog.

D&D refer to the stupidness of the Net and link to a post by Michael O’Connor Clarke, who says:
The inherent stupidness of the Net works to the benefit of humankind, in the same way Chance the Gardener’s “stupidness” works to the benefit of those around him. Sellers' character in Being There achieves extraordinary prominence, influence, and is even capable of miracles – quite simply because he “doesn’t know any better”. Same with the Net. Napster, Google, the human genome project – none of these innovations would be possible without the quintessential stupidness of the Internet.

I think it’s not so much “stupidness” as “innocence.” We do not value innocence enough; we are so used to manipulating, marketing, and maneuvering -- looking for angles as we sell our wares, our wars.

Was there ever a time of innocence?

Time it was and what a time it was it was,
A time of innocence a time of confidences.
Long ago it must be, I have a photograph.
Preserve your memories, they're all that's left you.

(“Bookends” Theme by Simon and Garfunkel)

March 09, 2003

My birthday is Tuesday. I’ll be 63.

I can still imagine what it was like to be 23 and 33 and 43 and 53. But, at none of those ages was I able to imagine what it was going to be like to be 63.

At every age I always felt as though I still had a lifetime ahead of me. I was never much for planning for that “ahead” time, and so each decade brought new and previously unimagined adventures. New jobs, new relationships, new hobbies, new talents, new friends – I loved the process of discovery, the beginnings of things. I’m also good at endings. It’s the middles I always seem have trouble with – those times of non-eventful stasis, the limbo that life sometimes becomes between beginnings and endings.

I want to feel that 63 is still another beginning, but being a caregiver is about as deep into life’s limbo as one can get.

So, what do I want for my birthday? I want to go and visit my daughter and son-in-law and 7 month old grandson, so that’s exactly what I’m going to do this week. My brother has agreed to come and stay with our mother so that I can drive out to Boston for a couple of nights’ stay in an environment where every day brings new beginnings. I want to get on the floor and giggle with my grandson, be there as every moment is a new adventure for him. I want to sit on the couch and giggle with my daughter – reminisce, fantasize, look into the future.

I’m bringing funky outfits and toys for the baby (including the one-of-a-kind “Hug Me Elmo” that I made for him), Portuguese Sweet Bread for my daughter, and a big pot of home made chicken vegetable soup so that they can freeze the leftovers. I’m bringing the butter-soft black leather bomber jacket that I bought on Carnaby Street in London to give to my daughter because I know that I’ll never be a size 10 again. And I’m bringing a depleted self that needs to be with those I love who are on the other side of 63 from the people who surround me every day.

By the time I get back from Boston, we might well be at war and all of the lifetime we have ahead of us might have changed completely. But, in the meanwhile, I will escape all of those things that weigh so heavy in my heart – I will arrive, and I will leave, and the time in between will be sweet.

+++++++

I had brunch today with the five women with whom I’ve been friends for more than a decade. While we get together once a month, usually at someone’s house, in March we always go out to eat to celebrate all of our birthdays – all of which fall between the end of February and the beginning of April. We are not alike in many ways, but there’s something that holds us together as a group. Each March we wonder if there is something significant about the fact that our birthdays fall so close together.

One of the women is retiring in a few weeks. A survivor of breast cancer, last week she was told that there are some nodules in one of her lungs, and, while the doctor doesn’t think they’re anything to worry about and plans to keep tabs on them, their presence was very upsetting to my friend. She is looking forward to retirement so that she can travel, and play golf, and make new friends, and have some adventures. She’s five years younger than I am and is free to live any way and where she chooses.

On Tuesday I’ll be 63.

I wonder what and where I'll be at 73.

I hope somewhere either beginning or ending an adventure.

March 06, 2003

My grandson loves Elmo. He’s also decided that he doesn’t like sleeping at night.

So, I decided to make him an Elmo pillow. And, while I was at it, I figured I’d add some long arms for big hugs.

And this is the Elmo pillow I designed and constructed, holding a 5X7 photo of my grandson.

I’m hoping to drive out to visit him (my grandson, not Elmo) in another week or so and bring him lots of Grandma goodies, including “Hug Me Elmo.”

So, hey, Dubya! Hold off on the war for a few more weeks so I can leave my mother for a couple of days without her freaking out worrying that Saddam is going to bomb her building. (She heard on CNN that terrorists would probably aim for buildings with lots of people. There are 250 apartments in the building, so, to her it’s a target. Old people sure do get narcissistic!)

March 05, 2003

This is Blogsister Anita Roddick -- socially responsible corporate entrepreneur/founder of The Body Shop, author of several books on those subjects; internationally known advocate for human rights, fair trade, the environment, peace, and any number of issues that specifically affect women; and current Woodrow Wilson Fellow at Russell Sage College in Troy -- and me in my Blogsisters T-shirt.

I scooted over to the college to have a chance to meet her in person, since I do buy her products and have great respect for the business models she maintains and inspires.

Her current project is organzing a March 10 Virtual Anti-war March in London.

What a woman. If she were an American citizen, we should draft her to run for American President.

What we have here is the classic maneuver of the authoritarian, in which they try to make the focus of liberty "freedom from" rather than "freedom to" -- it's infuriating.

Liberty is not about being free from fear, or free from attack. It's about being free to speak, and write, and assemble, and worship, and all those others things we all have the inherent right to do without any governmental interference.

Authoritarian-minded people perform this trick constantly. By reframing liberty as "freedom from" rather than "freedom to" they make liberty a passive rather than an active feature of American society. Worse, they essentially replace discussions of liberty with discussions of security at all costs. Security is about "freedom from" and liberty is about "freedom to" -- don't let them make you forget this, or confuse the two.

The above is from a well-worth-reading- post on 'Freedom From' Versus 'Freedom To' posted here by theonetruebix. He links to Ashcroft's infuriating speech about 'civil liberties.'

I heard this on the local news last night and I'm glad that CNN.com picked it up.

From that story:

A lawyer was arrested late Monday and charged with trespassing at a public mall in the state of New York after refusing to take off a T-shirt advocating peace that he had just purchased at the mall.

According to the criminal complaint filed Monday, Stephen Downs was wearing a T-shirt bearing the words "Give Peace A Chance" that he had just purchased from a vendor inside the Crossgates Mall in Guilderland, New York, near Albany.

I remember a very similar thing happening during the first Bush war. Crossgates Mall is one of the mega-malls that I never go to unless my mother insists on being taken to Lord and Taylors.

As area resident myrln emailed:
A complaint by the shopkeeper was sufficient to mark them as creating a disturbance and when asked to leave by mall security, they refused and were arrested for trespassing. Creating a disturbance at the mall is apparently a crime. Welcome to America, the Land of the Free, Stupid, and Arrogant. Kiss My Country 'Tis of Thee a fond farewell; we are hard down the road to fascism, and meanwhile, the Congress is silent...covering their political asses. Every incumbent needs to be defeated next election...tho' they'll only be replaced by clones. Feh...this is far worse than the Vietnam era ever was.

I want to wear my Peace t-shirt that I made after 9/11, but I'm afraid if I wear it in public, I'll get arrested. And then who'll take care of my mother?

Feh.

March 04, 2003

Once, there was a bogus fwd-the-email petition going around that purported to be aimed at the United Nations. It was fake, false nonsense. Now, thanks to MoveOn.org, here's the real thing.

The emergency petition's going to be delivered to the 15 member states of the Security Council on THURSDAY, MARCH 6.

If hundreds of thousands of us sign, it could be an enormously important and powerful message -- people from all over the world joining in a single call for a peaceful solution. But we really need everyone who agrees to sign up today. You can do so easily and quickly at:

http://www.moveon.org/emergency/

The stakes couldn't really be much higher. A war with Iraq could kill tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians and inflame the Middle East. According to current plans, it would require an American occupation of the country for years to come. And it could escalate in ways that are horrifying to imagine.

We can stop this tragedy from unfolding. But we need to speak together, and we need to do so now. Let's show the Security Council what world citizens think. Sign the emergency petition to the U.N.

March 03, 2003

I like sitting down with a cup of Earl Grey tea and reading the local Sunday newspaper. As usual, yesterday’s newspaper included the words of others that I think deserve repeating. They say it better than I ever could.

In the “Perspectives” section Jay Bookman, of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, writes:

What we have really been debating as we talk about Iraq is who we are going to be as a nation, how we're going to conduct ourselves, what values and goals we will embrace in our new role….

It is also the approach embraced by the Bush administration in its National Security Strategy released in September. It is the approach advocated by certain neoconservatives for a decade or more. And it's the approach that today has committed us to an invasion of Iraq with potentially enormous consequences....

In another opinion column, Diane Cameron (a local write whom I greatly admire) says “Enough High-Tech Already.”

...So how much new equipment, cool technology and scientific change is enough? And what is the cost? Have you noticed how we keep moving the bar?

Reverie, silence and awe disappear….

And, finally, I find out that Blog Sister and internationally renowned “socially responsible” entrepreneur/activist Anita Roddick (founder of The Body Shop) is in my area this week at Russell Sage College in Troy as this year's Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow. I wonder if I show up in my Blog Sisters t-shirt, maybe I can get a personal intro.

March 02, 2003

Great conversation going on at Full Bleed: Confessions of a Zine Girl: Here We Go Again that began with her annoyance at a newspaper article about blogging that barely included women and moved into Dru’s asking two significant questions:
1-Who is hurt by cultural bias and gender bias?
2-Whose "Job" is it to "do the legwork? [i.e. work to change the way things are]

I'm not going to try to recount the whole conversation, which deserves to be read and added to (so go there and do it).

But I will repeat here my own two comments.(Why not, it's my weblog, isn't it?)

1. First of all, I'm feeling like Suzanne. Having struggled for equity on lots of fronts since the 60s (when I was in my twenties and married with children), I'm tired. And, like Suzanne, I thank you, Dru, for not giving up.

It's interesting to read comments that mention political weblogs so often. It's also interesting to me to realize that the weblogs I read most are more like personal essays -- sometimes on politics, sometimes on relationships, sometimes on the weather etc. etc. And they are weblogs that offer a comment feature. And they are often by women, who seem to be drawn to richness of the entire gestalt, who use their weblogs to share reflections on all sides of life.

The real beauty of weblogging, as far as I'm concerned, is the enabling of conversations with people I'd never have a chance to get to know and interact with any other way. (I find that most "journals" don't have a comment feature.)

But back to the lack of recognition of the excellent women bloggers out there: blogging is an extension of a larger world, and most men in the larger world still don't demonstrate the same acknowledgment of women's worth/interests/abilities/perspectives as they do of their own gender. And, let's face it: the world's power is in the hands of men. It is not surprising that it is each other whom they listen to, read, and acknowlege.

I applaud the men of our younger generations who have moved beyond the restrictions of gender inequity. (I wonder how many of them were raised by feminist mothers.)

When the larger world moves beyond a male-dominated paradigm (and into a more balanced mode), then, so will blogging, reporting...

In the meanwhile, Dru, it's up to your generation to fight the good fight. Women like me are still here to back you up, but many of us really are worn out by the struggle.

2. Back to your questions:
Who is hurt by gender and cultural bias? Of course those of us against whom the bias works [are hurt and] would like to think that the human race benefits [from a more equitable system of human interaction]. Don't you think that the truth is that those who are now benefitting by the bias have no reason to want things to be different? Well, OK, maybe some of them understand that it would be a better world in general if everyone believed and acted as though everyone were "equal." But don't you think that most people who have any kind of power are afraid to give any of it up -- even for a better world in general? Because their worlds, in particular, would be ones in which they would lose something they want.

Whose job is it to do the leg work? The ones who REALLY want things to be different, of course. Don't you think that even men who think they want things to be more equitable really are afraid that they'd have to give up some things that they want to keep?

So, guess who has to do keep doing the leg work -- and most of that means raising sons with more egalalitarian values and daughters who expect those values of the men with whom they partner.

Revolution didn't work. Now we need to help evolution along.