I am so proud of our contributor lawyerlylisa, who appeared on Momocrats (thanks to Jaelithe) this week:
Lisa led a huge team of Planned Parenthood visibility volunteers and delivered an open letter with 70,000 signatures to Sarah Palin. You can read the letter in this post from last week.
Also in that post, I mentioned that more than $800,000 had been donated to Planned Parenthood in Governor Palin’s name. I learned via the Women in Politics & Technology listserv today that “they raised 1 million dollars in Sarah Palin’s honor. They are sending 32,000 thank you cards to her campaign.”
While I’m still (forever?) entrenched in the battle between Feminism v. Femininity, I’d be doing half the population a disservice not to acknowledge what these torch-bearers actually said (in spite of the decor). In short: I. was. so. into. these. women.
The players:
California Senator Barbara Boxer, Political Commentator Donna Brazile, CEO of Girl Scouts Kathy Cloninger, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Congresswoman Hilda Solis (D-CA), and Former Governor Jane Swift (R-MA)
I sat in on two conversations: “On the Campaign Trail,” and “So, You’re in Office … Now What?” I was elated that individuals (who happen to have vaginas) exist who not only represent my interests, but who also fight my fight with me and for me in the political sphere on a daily basis. Dudettes, listen up, feminism is not becoming an anachron-ism.
A viral email urging people to donate to Planned Parenthood “in honor of Sarah Palin” generated more than 31,313 donations totaling more than three-quarters of a million dollars ($802,678) as of September 27.
Meanwhile, the stars at Planned Parenthood have been circulating an email of their own, urging folks to sign an open letter to Sarah Palin before the debate this Thursday.
Predictably (if you know my friends), I have now received the Eve Ensler “Drill, Drill, Drill” piece in four different emails, and the following several times as well:
Dear Friends,
We may have thought we wanted a woman on a national political ticket, but the joke has really been on us, hasn’t it? Are you as sick in your stomach as I am at the thought of Sarah Palin as Vice President of the United States?
Since Palin gave her speech accepting the Republican nomination for the Vice Presidency, Barack Obama’s campaign has raised over $10 million dollars. Some of you may already be supporting the Obama campaign financially; others of you may still be a little honked off over the primaries. None of you, however, can be happy with Palin’s selection, especially on her positions on women’s issues. So, if you feel you can’t support the Obama campaign financially, may I suggest the following fiendishly brilliant alternative?
Let’s turn our attention back to Barack, shall we? And maybe have some honest conversation about where he—not to mention the man behind the lipstick curtain—stand on the issues?
Jill Miller Zimon from Writes Like She Talks is posting a reason to vote for Obama and Biden every single day between now and the election.
What are your favorite other recent sources of news and commentary on the ISSUES and the CANDIDATES?
I have to admit that I stopped paying full attention to this presidential race weeks ago. My vote is decided, has been since Kucinich faded out really. This is the part of the campaign where candidates start reaching out for new votes and singing new tunes. I worry that the more I listen, the less I will be able to like Barack. So I stopped following the speeches and stops, barely batted an eye through the Biden nomination. It’s cool, whatevs. Just stay pro-choice and healthy, Barack. You’ll have me wrapped around your finger.
The event that startled me from my apolitical dream-state was the Republican VP pick. There is so much talk about Sarah Palin going on right now, I don’t think what I have to say is very original. But it is personal. I am a woman who jumps into conversations about gender, who considers working toward equal opportunity for all people an important daily activity, who entertains gossip for camp value but pays attentions to issues of social justice whenever they surface. But suddenly, the Palin announcement made me care about who impregnated who when and then tried to hide it. I even looked at family pictures and pondered belly bumps! I can’t believe that I engaged in the pettiness and the woman blaming. In a few short days, the dirtiness of politics corrupted my feminism, and I resent that.
Happy Monday! A few links to accompany your morning coffee:
Community Organizers are Very Responsible People, by Nate at Until We Disappear [You can decide who to vote for, but I hope you take into consideration that community organizers and nonprofits are not just people who seek to "do good" or create a place where they can go to work. They seek to change what government does not always have the ability to, and often it is the government that comes to nonprofits for assistance in offering services and a better life for her citizens.]
defending community organizing, by Sally Kohn at Center for Community Change [How's about instead of debating the relative merits of community organizing, the candidates take a cue from community organizers and start talking about the real problems Americans are facing and the real solutions we need?]
And here’s a lil YouTube tribute called Thank you Sarah Palin, by nerdette7. (I’m on a listserv with this vlogger and I know she could use supportive comments if you feel moved to leave one!):
