21 May 2008
Just look at that. Isn't that weird in a very cool-weird kind of way? This is from The Fretting Zoo, which you should be checking every day, and if you're not--why not?
This is the kind of creativity that could produce great novels, great flights of fantasy of the kind I can't even imagine. A hatch back full of lentils? The square root of pudding is milk? The Salvador Dali allusions? Who thinks up these things?
This is the kind of thing that would never come from my brain and definitely not onto any screen. The limits of my creativity stop at sites like this:
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My own personal satisfaction is when I've written a well-crafted sentence or paragraph. I just ended my review of Streetcar Named Desire like this:
In "A Streetcar Named Desire" Tennessee Williams gave the world a gumbo filled with failure, vulnerability, depravity and the helpless fragility of the human mind. Director Venables has mixed it with the expertise of a master chef and served it with panache.
Now that tickles me. That is something I am capable of doing and when I hit it squarely on the mark, I'm very happy with it.
This evening I attended a meeting of the Davis Community Network board and found myself volunteering to be a "tech specialist" (or some such thing) for one of the city's non-profit groups about to learn all the tools available to them through DCN. Not sure I'm up to the job, but one thing is for certain: I will learn a lot trying to stay ahead of the people I'm supposed to be the "expert" for!
On the way home, I had KGO, San Francisco's talk radio station, on in the car and heard the tail end of a conversation with a woman who stated, several times that she was going to be pissed if Hillary didn't get the nomination. Her reason was that she herself had been in a male-dominated profession all of her life and had been subjected to sexual discrimination all of her life and if Hillary doesn't win it will be because the nomination would have been stolen from her by men who didn't want a woman in the White House. She had nothing to say about Hillary's policies, her campaign promises or anything except that she was a woman and, dammit, it was time for a woman in the White House.
While I certainly agree that it is way past time for this country to have a female president and that Hillary is well qualified for the position, to vote for someone only because they are female and because you yourself and countless other women have been subject to sexual discrimination makes about as much sense as voting for Obama because he's black and it's time for a black man to be president.
Another reason for voting for Hillary that I have heard from at least one person whose opinion I normally value is that if Hillary wins, it means Bill will be back in the White House and if a crisis comes up and Hillary has problems, Bill will be there to help her.
That, to me, is a more sexist reason to vote for Hillary than just because it's time for women to rise up out of repression. It says to me "I'm not convinced that Hillary can do the job, but she'll have a strong man to back her up so it will be OK."
Vote for a candidate because he or she inspires you or meets your own vision of what direction the country should go in, or because he or she is the best person you feel can get us out of this quagmire that we are in, but to vote for someone based on your own sexual repression, or because of the color of their skin or because it will get Bill back in the White House again is just a dumb reason to support a candidate.
In my humble opinion.
2 comments:
There has been some good material written on this subject.
From Ellen Goodman of the Boston Globe"
http://www.postwritersgroup.com/archives/good080110.htm
From Marie Cocco:
http://www.postwritersgroup.com/archives/cocc080513.htm
And finally, an excerpt from something I wrote a lo-o-ng time ago:
Women will have to demonstrate that they can lead a nationwide campaign despite the hostility they will encounter -- even from other women. And then, heaven help them, they will have to display grace and accountability when they lose, as they will have to do before we actually see a woman in the White House.
Indeed, I would like to see a woman president. I'm not sure Hillary is the one I'd like to see there. But I do think she has the courage and expertise to pave the road for the eventual one.
Hi! Visiting after following your post on That's My Answer (Where are you going Wednesday?)
I, too, get annoyed when people insist that Hillary should win because she's a woman. Surely she has stronger credentials than her gender? Can't we talk about her actual skills and abilities when we want to convince people to vote for her?
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