Saturday, May 19, 2012

Isn't she lovely?

Bianca Jagger in the 1970s was the epitome of all that was fantastic about the era. 
See for yourself. 






She got married in a Catholic church, braless, pregnant, wearing a white suit. 
Yes, that is on my to-do list. 

People can sense authenticity...


 I feel there is something inherently lovely about David Bowie. 
 Perhaps it's the fact that he could give a crap if anyone really liked what he was doing, because he had a vision and he stuck to it. Bowie is a case study in being 100% yourself. I think the reason I idolize Bowie is due to his amazing ability to change his mind about himself without regret
 I realized a few years ago Bowie is actually where my love of too-skinny rockstars was born. Every mistake has had a skinny man with longish hair involved. Sigh...
Oh, and a good test of possible friendship with people is if they have ever seen The Labyrinth. If you have not, do not try and speak to me at a party until you have.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Fire in the Blood...

     When I heard, as a native New Yorker, that Romney would be taking a trip to downtown New York with fmr. Mayor Guiliani, bringing pizzas to firemen on watch, part of me was fascinated to see how this would go. If anyone wouldn't hesitate to tell the honest truth and not gloss-over anything, New York firemen can handle themselves. My father was a firemen, my grandfather, two of my great-grandfathers and two great-uncles were all firemen, several of them became Chief of their department. My (real) last name is pretty well known in several areas of New York (at least, on the walls of fire departments) so I was touched at the idea of Romney putting politics aside and going to offer the men who put everything on the line for their neighbors, a free lunch or dinner.
      Instead, what happened was a political candidate took advantage of the honest nature of a bunch of New York heroes. Romney went on to tell supporters at his next rally that a fireman had told him that he lived in a one-bedroom apartment and his wife was pregnant and they couldn't afford a second bedroom. Yes, that sucks, but if you are a native New Yorker or, I don't know, a living human being with a pulse, you know how difficult it is to afford real estate in New York City on a wealthy budget, never mind those who deal with (lets face it) badly paying jobs. Then, he asked how many of the men have to work second jobs to make ends meet, and I can tell you that any man who wasn't in the assistant Chief or Chief role definitely raised his hand. These men cannot make ends meet and they put their marriages on the line, in my experience they have higher rates of addiction and could be maimed or killed on a fire any day or time.
       So, as Romney began berating President Obama for this shameful state of our firemen, I had to take a moment to say; Romney, you could speak to them for hours and still have no idea what these men deal with. Being a paid fireman is a government job. You hate big government. Do you really think you would step up as needed and give these men more money as well as the social programs that they desperately need at their disposal? No. You wouldn't. Because what would pay for these things without the taxpayers as a whole feeling it, is if YOU as a millionaire, would pay YOUR FAIR SHARE OF TAXES as a citizen. Being an American means paying your taxes. I don't have a problem paying my taxes because guess what, I care about each one of my fellow countrymen, including you Mr. Romney. There is nothing wrong with taxes, you get one vote in this country and you have to pay your taxes. Sir, if you paid your taxes, which YOU WOULD NOT FEEL at all, as you live on far more than enough to be comfortable for the rest of your life. Your grandchildren will never know what it is to have a real job, you are so wealthy. Why don't you stop pretending like you're better than the rest of us and pay your fair share so that these men can afford a second bedroom to fit their growing family? Or so a fireman's pension can take care of his widow and his children (comfortably) for a time after he dies trying to save YOUR BUTT???

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Today is a very important day...

        Today, I hope to do well in an interview that is very important to me. I have to be honest, I really hope that I do well because I would rather be doing what I'm about to interview for than my current day-job. Its unpaid, loads of driving, and will probably be very frustrating at times. But, I don't care. I want that post.
        So, I will be needing good vibes when it comes to this interview this morning. I hope you have a great day filled with lovely logic and peaceful moments.
        P.S. I listened to an NPR story on this woman named Teresa MacBain, who was an active Methodist pastor when she came out at the American Atheist's Convention. She gave a speech, not yet having come "OUT" back home. And she seemed nervous as she spoke, talking about her unbelief. Yet, the strangest thing happened, after her first statement in the speech, "I am an atheist", the entire crowd (who did not know her) proceeded to break out into applause and give her a minute-long standing ovation. There were tears and shouts of support from the audience throughout the speech in which you could see she was nervous, but relieved. This shows that it doesn't have to be the "religious" who are lovely people. You don't need religion to be a moral, centered person. There is nothing wrong with the atheist among us.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

"Painting With Two Verticals 4."

       My advisor spoke about color. She put a piece by Bridget Riley on one of our handouts. Much to her chagrin, it printed in black and white.
       "Look at the colors online. You must see the colors." I admit, this statement hit a wall within me. I have been sartorially-challenged lately. Everything, from picking the right color for my blog background to my hair is a soulless and frustrating experience for me. This horrible, self-halting has led me to make weak decisions that I obsess over or no decision at all.
      I know this is a lingering issue from my depression and my indecisiveness, fear of failure and bizarre color-blindness are all connected.
      This pains me because I love art. I have a huge affinity for Andy Warhol and I can't help but feel the risk and reward Warhol had in his artistic career might be the thing I'm really craving. Time to begin being a bit more artistic with my life...<3
"Painting With Two Verticals 4." by Bridget Riley

Ch-Ch-Changes....

I must be honest in saying that my mood hasn't been right lately. Hoping that I haven't snapped at others, but aware I might have. Friday I returned from my writer's residency at school. Since then, I have had trouble dealing with the minute problems of life with any sort of joy. 
My school is amazing. It is an uber-loving and supportive environment in which those of us (mostly activists, artists and writers) feel safe enough to talk about our work and get the guidance and the audience that we need to make it better. This was my second time at the residency (you go once for a week per semester) and each time I return back with similar feelings. I wish I had attended more workshops, I wish I had spoken to more people, had more amazing conversations, and I really wish I had stolen some food on my way out (the food is awesome). But we're only there for a week, and then we all have to get back to our busy lives. We all have jobs, families, home lives that take up too much time for us to spend any time going to classes every day. 
That is the transition I am having such difficulty with this time, as the noise and grind of my normal life has lost is lovely flavor, and I really wish I was back in residency. However, I've noticed my drive and feeling has stuck with me this semester better than it did in the last (I can't help feeling my work last semester was sub-par) so I think I could very much have a successful semester's worth of work to report back to my advisor (a published poet--I know, strangely amazing). 
So, this blog will not only be a reflection of social issues that affect me, a woman living below the poverty line and trying to receive and education, it will also begin to reflect my progress this semester. It will take a slightly different flavor, but I really think thats a good thing. 
Cue David Bowie's 'Changes'...

I loves me some Bowie.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

The Abortion Conundrum.


      I've come to notice people don't like abortions. 
I know, I'm so slow to the party. But it seems that people really don't like abortions. But they also don't seem to like women being on contraception (not only do they not want to pay for it, but some have considered the pill just like the morning-after pill. And the morning-after pill, naturally, to be just like an abortion...).
However, it seems very strange that people who are against abortion to also be against contraception. You see, I've been told (by doctors and other official-looking people in white coats) that the pill STOPS unwanted pregnancies. Therefore, and this takes every inch of my female-brain power, women don't seek as many abortions. 
But math doesn't seem to be the strong suit of many conservative men either, because they want to hold hostage a poor women's ability to get contraception. Then, they want her to be ashamed to go and seek her right (as put forth by the supreme court) to get a safe termination of her pregnancy due to the fact that she doesn't have the ability to bring the child to term safely or can't raise the child. It is not an easy decision to make, it is agonizing.
    What frustrates me is that we're told that 'well, the problem there is the woman didn't have to have sex' as if implying that this woman is irresponsible and must deal with the consequences. That a woman doesn't need to have sex, therefore, we don't have to be taking the pill in the first place. The problem with that is....WE CAN DO WHAT WE WANT. A woman's body doesn't have to be regulated. The pill is women's healthcare. Our bodies just happen to hold the reproductive system, and that seems to infuriate many men, who want to reach out and control it.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

The GOP's view of women...Rant.

         The same people who are saying that the President's Healthcare bill, or "ObamaCare" (which is a fun turn of phrase) is unconstitutional and ‘women don’t want the government making the healthcare decisions when they make 80% of the healthcare decisions for themselves and their families’. They why on earth are they also pushing to take away more rights for women over their own healthcare? Abortion, I hate to point out, is a WOMAN’s decision as put forth by the Supreme Court in Roe vs. Wade. There are no rights for the cells that have yet to form a fetus, and according to law and the Catholic church, life doesn’t start at conception (despite the GOP’s best efforts). I cannot help but feel that soon they will push forth that life begins at ‘last call’. I don’t mean to be glib about this, but I need to highlight the insanity. 
And despite the Right’s idea that the left are confused ("you don’t want us to have any say about what you do in your bedrooms but we have to PAY for your birth control?") I must answer this...why do we live in a world where insurance companies cover VIAGRA and not birth control? What “health reasons” are viagra covering exactly? Its only acceptable for women to be on birth control if it is regulating a health condition, but why on earth does it have to be? 
Birth control gives women, usually women living in lower socio-economic brackets, control over their family planning. They should be allowed to live in committed relationships without the idea that a white old man from the GOP gets a right to judge them for not following a certain religious idea that pre-marital sex is wrong. I am from a roman and irish catholic background. I know how certain people feel very seriously about their religion. And I respect that. What I do not respect is when people impose that (either directly or indirectly) on others who might be a different religion (or not religious at all). There is no reason why you cannot be tolerant of all people, even those who don’t believe in a God or religion. It might be difficult for you to understand, but people without religion aren’t without morals. If religion=morals then there wouldn’t be so many priests and pastors who resign in shame.  
    And don't misunderstand, as a taxpayer, I don't have ANY problems with my money going towards a man's DESPERATELY NEEDED FOR HEALTH REASONS Viagra, as long as someone will pay for my birth control. IT IS the same thing. You just don't want it to be...

Monday, March 19, 2012

Gloria Steinem and Kony 2012

So much, so much, so much is wrong with the world.
BUT, I will mostly say that one of them is not people trying to help those in other parts of the world. Loads of issue has been heaped upon the Kony 2012 viral sensation and the fact that only a few days ago the leader was "detained" (the polite way of saying arrested and then brought to a hospital) in California. If anything, it is just a huge example of how, in this culture, we pay far too much attention to the drama and upheaval of a situation other than the fact that warlords still exist in the world.
By the way, if you didn't know about it, the International Criminal Court (The Hague) the same place that has Joseph Kony on top of their list (according to the viral video) convicted on the 16th of this month Congolese Warlord Thomas Lubanga for recruiting and training children for combat, a situation very similar to Kony's.
Kony will be found. Of that, I do have faith in the Hague's power. And our military influence is wasteful and out of line.

That being said ON TO OTHER BUSINESS...

           The New York Times yesterday put two articles forward about Gloria Steinem (If you don't know who she is, use wikipedia for the love of God!). One of which was about how there has been no successor to Steinem to step up in this fourth-wave of feminism. I believe that's true. In this world of blogging where there are a million voices, everyone wanting to be heard, no one is heard clearly. Not many people could become as much of a visionary or a leader as Steinem.
           However, The New York Times on the same day posted an article about Shelby Knox, a young feminist leader from Texas, the subject of a documentary The Education of Shelby Knox. The article spoke about how Shelby actually crashed at Steinem's place in New York for a while as she tried to make her way as a feminist.

           Knox shrugged off any idea that she is the next Steinem, and I have to agree with her only on the basis that the climate isn't what it was during the 70's. We won't have one or two solid leaders in the coming years, we will have many, and they will each be different and some may fail, but I do not believe feminism is dead, it is just taking a different path.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Dental Crisis in America?


This Saturday, March 10th, Senator Bernie Sanders is leading a Town Meeting in Montpelier, Vermont based off of something that has recently been a strong cause for him, the "dental crisis" in America. Now before you judge that this is just another alarmist cause by a Senator who looks a little bit like a mad scientist, please don't discredit him. I firmly agree with him that there is a dental crisis in America, and it might be a bit easier to see in rural states like here in Vermont, but it is effecting each state in the United States.
Just in my personal experience, I am a poor college student who has no dental insurance, yet hyper-vigilant about taking care of my teeth. I had to pay 1200 dollars out of my own pocket (reasonable) for a basic wisdom teeth surgery just a month ago, and then on a trip to a very well known affordable dental chain here in the Northeast which quoted me over 6,000 dollars for two root canals.
There is definitely a dental crisis in America. And a question I have is; Is dental part of the Obama Healthcare plan that is supposed to begin being implemented in 2013?
Dental is one of the things about health that we can SEE with other people and strangers. If your teeth aren't taken care of, how are you supposed to compete with other people for jobs or even respect in our society? It is another thing that is keeping the lower and middle classes from being able to bring themselves "up by their bootstraps."
If you are interested in attending Senator Sanders town meeting, please go to his website, all of the information is there. I believe this should be a pillar of the healthcare debate that is on everyone's radar.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Foreign Policy is Complicated

As well it should be, and I know there are two sides to every issue. I recently posted about the misdeeds of Joseph Kony (and I stand by it). But there are reports that the charity Invisible Children might not be giving enough of the money it makes in donations directly to helping the children it represents. If that makes you uncomfortable, then please, don't give to the organization.
However, we can always stand in support of the children who have been victimized by such a ruthless man and hope that those in power will try again to find this man to bring him to justice. Hopefully we don't need to enter the conflict further and the few troops we have sent in an assistance and organization capacity will be able to help bring the conflict to a peaceful resolution.
I am a pacifist and I do not want to send in our troops in order to wage any sort of conflict. That is not in the best interest of anyone.
I merely hope that this ends quickly.

Make 2012 The Year to FIND JOSEPH KONY!

Make child war-monger and murderer Joseph Kony famous so that the international community will do what they need to do to find him. Make sure President Obama knows that we need to keep our commitment to help the Ugandan forces find this monster. 
To find everything you need to know go to invisiblechildren.com or google KONY 2012. Watch the 27 minute video. It will change your perspective. And just remember, if these were American children, this man would have been stopped and torn apart immediately. 
We do this for Jacob. 

Women's Health Experts

You know what? I don't know why I'm so concerned. They all look so official. They must know what I need better than I do!

Just a lovely bit of wisdom,

Sandra Fluke

I am enclosing the link to a great blog I've discovered, Left Leaning Liberal Lady.

In it she has posted the entirety of Sandra Fluke's testimony. Take a moment and read it, it can never hurt to be more informed!

http://leftleaningliberallady.blogspot.com/2012/03/complete-transcript-of-sandra-flukes.html

Lets Just Relax People...

My issues with Rush Limbaugh are not news to anyone I come into regular contact with. So, when I learned last week of the newest incident with RUSHY, I wasn't shocked. I've had a long-standing, completely solitary feud with this bloated gasbag for years now.
So I watched the long form video in which RUSHY makes a case against a woman, Sandra Fluke. Who represents everything he must fear in the world, a strong young woman not motivated by money or religion, just her own autonomy over her body. So, as a young woman after her own autonomy, she nearly wants to get what men are already getting (viagra is paid for under some insurance), pay over a medical expense, WHICH IS WHAT THE PILL IS. I think some of the confusion that entered RUSHY's bloated brainpan is that everyone kept saying BIRTH CONTROL, which perhaps made him (and later Patricia Heaton) believe that this woman was asking the government to buy her condoms. Only someone interested in war and not facts would have taken that assumption and ran with it all the way home. Not only did my beloved RUSHY-bear call this woman a slut and prostitute for "wanting to be paid to have sex" he then asked this woman young enough to be his daughter to videotape her having sex because he "paid for it anyway." When Patricia Heaton joined Rush in this campaign to further shame Sandra Fluke over twitter, It was made clear that ignorance is contagious. It was clear that she did not read Fuke's original testimony either.
LETS FACE THE FACTS PEOPLE; birth control includes the Pill. The Pill doesn't only help ensure a woman doesn't get pregnant when she doesn't choose to, it also regulates countless medical issues like a heavy period, but also, according to Fluke's testimony, a cervical cyst. 
Perhaps RUSHY-bear should just admit he has no idea what a women's reproductive system really does, and he doesn't care. All he knows is, he makes a lot of money and he wants to be buried with it. Good lord, how big is this man's casket going to be???
Disclaimer: My grandfather has been a Rush Limbaugh fan since I was probably 14 years old and I have had to stop myself from constantly asking him why he listens to the man, and why he watches Fox News. But whenever I call now, I try to turn the topics to something else. My grandfather is quite simply of a different generation. We do not agree on many principals, but my grandfather is a good man. Rush Limbaugh, however, I have my doubts right now.

Super Tuesday Hangover...

I stayed up most of the night to see incoming election results, like most of us election-oholics do, while alternating watching episodes of The West Wing. I was rudely woken up this morning with a 10 minute warning on an appointment that was half an hour's drive away. After dressing quickly, I jumped in the car while balancing my coffee, cell phone and messenger bag and in slow motion I knocked into my coffee cup (sans-lid) and the contents therein spilled all down the front of me, ruining a brand new white, Michael Kors scarf. But don't fret dear readers, it wasn't hot. It was cold. VERY COLD.
I knew it was cosmic-retribution. The Gods had taken vengeance on my hubris!  It was punishment for me buying and wearing such a ridiculously expensive item and for being so bad with time management that I overslept. So my punishment was to be THAT woman who is half asleep, sitting in her car in her driveway, crying over ruining something expensive while being very late.
I was THAT person for a moment and I am slightly disgusted with myself. And the fictional President Jed Bartlett  (of who I bow down to 'cause Martin Sheen is the man) would be very ashamed of me in that moment, and I would have never been given a job on his speechwriting staff.
So upon returning home, I washed the scarf in the sink and hoped that I can save it, but god knows I'm never wasting my money like that again!

BREAKING NEWS?

I love how grandiose titles can get on the screens of any of the 24 hour news channels. The War on Religion. The War on Women. The Year of the Woman. It's used to attract people to listen in on the debates, used to draw in people like me who keep CNN or NBC on in the background, on mute, glancing at it once and awhile. I'm often looking for the BREAKING NEWS banner at the bottom, a symptom of being a child in New York during 9/11, no doubt. But I believe thats what these banners are trying to attract, those of us alarmists who are drawn in from an enticing title. I also have an issue with how often they use the BREAKING NEWS banner, often for things that are not breaking news. Back in the day, pre-9/11, I'm pretty sure such alarmist language was used at least a bit more sparingly. Come on, give my poor heart a break.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Freedom of Speech

One of Norman Rockwell's famous 'Four Freedom' paintings, Freedom of Speech. Painted during his years living in Vermont, anyone who has seen one knows, that this is a town meeting.

The Significance of the Nearly Insignificant

     There is a specific time here in the Northeast that slinks in while most of the ski resorts are still in full swing, not yet ready to give up on the tourists that we welcome to imbibe on the intoxication that is our freshly fallen snow and our adorable tourist destinations. It is invisible to the outsider. However, you may notice some markers of it. It is usually the season that predates mud season and sugaring season, yes, real seasons here in Vermont.
     You may notice small signs with names posted on them, as serious as if someone were running for Mayor, but instead, they are running for posts like Town Auditor, or Selectman, or Lister. Or, my favorite and the electable post that very much seems as if our entire state is the town of Mayberry, the position of Town Constable.
      It is town meeting day season in Vermont. The tourists who hear of it consider the tradition just another part of our adorable culture, no different than maple syrup and how everyone sounds like the guy from those old Pepperidge Farm commercials, but town meetings are pretty sacrosanct to locals. Upon my fist visit to a Vermont town meeting in 2006, I went to the town meeting in Leicester, a town of roughly 1,000 people.
      Leicester is a very small town in Addison County that has one general store, one school and no town center, the town meeting hall was filled to the brim with a few hundred people. If not everyone in town, at least 300 people had shown up to give their opinions and personally vote by a show of hands on the town's budgets for things like town industrial issues, but also paving portions of a road and the school's budget. Several things were contested and I was shocked that people were debating minor portions of a pothole/paving budget for a good 20 minutes, being fair but impassioned about what they were saying. In the meeting, things were changed, voted on, people had coffee and donuts and spoke with their friends and neighbors, and then went home, knowing they would come back next year.
      It was a jarring sight to me, as I had just relocated from the Tampa area of Florida, bruised from the last national elections and still aching from the voting scandals that Florida had dealt with in 2000, I had adopted a general malaise about my ability to affect politics and my very relation to it. But town meeting day is the very opposite of that. Not satisfied with just having a say about local issues, in 1974 the town of Thetford, Vermont voted 160 to 130 to impeach President Richard Nixon, gaining national attention. Similar votes in town meetings to charge W. Bush with war crimes floated around in the last years of his Presidency.
      This year I am looking forward to seeing what the outcomes in several Vermont towns are in amendments to be voted on regarding stances against Citizens United, the controversial Supreme Court ruling that allows unlimited funds to be used in elections, and ruled that corporations are people. I believe we'll probably be drowned out of the national news, like always, because our voting day is on, well, Super Tuesday, and everyone on television must talk about national politics 24/7* (note sarcasm). But no matter if our beloved institution of Town Meetings are considered laughable on the national stage, we're still proud of them, because they are the bedrock of our crazy, Vermont democracy.