The Room Where It Happens (Original Hamilton Cast Reunion - VOTE!)

[thanks to MegHS (again) for always keeping me apprised of The Mallard Family in Boston Public Garden... 💗]

From Team Biden-Harris:

"Former Vice President Joe Biden [ran] for president (and won!) to restore the soul of the nation. He believes it's time to remember who we are. We're Americans: tough and resilient. We choose hope over fear. Science over fiction. Truth over lies. And unity over division. We are the United States of America. And together, there is not a single thing we can't do."

Also, as we now know, Georgia, with 16 electoral votes and 99% reporting (Biden:  49.5%, 2,465,500 and Trump:  49.3%, 2,455,305) will be going to a recount.  We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Stacey Abrams, who has worked tirelessly for years to further the cause of the Democratic Party in this fair state.  Get out those thank you cards now and drop one in her direction!

Abrams also spoke of the two Senate run-off races which are happening on January 5 (thanks to Nance for the link!).  We should do everything in our power to ensure that votes goes Blue, and I (and many people I know) will be contributing to the campaigns of Ossoff and Warnock.  Both wins would get the Senate to 50/50, with Vice President Kamala Harris being the tie-breaker.  Oh, what a lovely thought... 💖

"We dream of a brand new start, but we dream in the dark for the most part" indeed.  Click-boom!

SONG:  The Room Where It Happens (Original Hamilton Cast Reunion - VOTE!)

BOOK:  Biden: The Obama Years and the Battle for the Soul of America by David Lienemann, Jill Biden (Foreword)

POEM:  November by Heather Altfeld

It’s strange, here, waiting for the last of them to be counted,

surreal to think of them shoveled into piles like old snow,

cast out into the world over land and sea to seek, as it were,

their fortunes. I imagine them in the late terrible light

of those rooms, lingering in the stink of yesterday’s lunch

and the air tepid with breath held back by masks,

talking amongst themselves about the ludicrous folly

of humans, who should be tallying the tadpoles

who grew into frogs this year and the number who died

of fungi blotched on the nose, how we ought to jam

the phone lines demanding a raise in the minimum age

for kindness, a cut in the statutory limitations on human cruelty,

a referendum to mortar our cities

from the endless migration of sadness and despair.

Where is the measure in favor of clouds

not yet dreamed or stolen by the sun?

Who will root for the tulips we’ve planted so dumbly

in the dry crud of the earth?

Call it now, for the rivers and the trees and the rocks,

Call it now for the rain, who knows far better than we

How to become one fierce or gentle thing.

[Heather Altfeld: “I think this poem is a collision of two kinds of waiting—both are temporally communal, which makes them particularly interesting to me–the counting of the vote, and here in California, the rain, which we are all desperate for. Both portend our immediate and distant future. And despite the critics of personification, there is something about the convergence of such energies that each ballot carries, beyond its bubbled-in dots—each arrives (hopefully) from the homes of smokers or drinkers, chewed by dogs or babies, spat on by rain or dissent, and in this way, they seem to harbor a strange sort of essence of their own.”]

QUOTE(S):  Joe Biden's acceptance speech for President / Kamala Harris' acceptance speech for Vice-President

Talkin' Bout a Revolution (Tracy Chapman)

[thanks to Judi for this amazing graphic!]

Today is Tuesday, November 3:  Election Day!  I was awakened this morning at 7 a.m. by a series of enthusiastic dings from a political text thread my daughter created, so I just got out of bed, poured a cup of coffee, and joined in the fun... 😍

I managed not to post at all last week... mostly due to stress and anxiety about today's results.  I've not been able to watch much news during this Trump administration.  Just hearing his voice and/or his lies throw me into an emotional tailspin.  Tuned into MSNBC for ten minutes the other night, Steve Kornacki was walking through a What If of what it would take for Trump to get to 270, and my stomach began roiling, and hasn't stopped since.  I am trying so hard to visualize an election where the people have spoken resoundingly on the side of Justice and Equality.  Optimism is my default mechanism.

Even if we win the election (and I firmly believe we will!), there will be repercussions and the potential for violence.  When even Walmart stops selling guns and ammunition for a few weeks, you know there is a problem.  And the incident with the Biden-Harris tour bus in Texas is horrifying.  These people (and you know how I mean that) will stop at nothing over the next few months to continue their agenda of hate and deception, which will lead to more deaths, coronavirus and otherwise.  I ask myself:  "why aren't they looking out for their own children's and grandchildren's futures?".  I love that Obama is out there stumping for Biden; I truly think it will help, but it does make me melancholy for what we had and what we lost.  

Things You Never Thought You'd See in Your Own Country for $500 please, Alex.  So many improprieties (bots and hacking and gerrymandering) in 2016, and we acceded and regrouped and tried to move forward, and it's only gotten worse.  I believe in Fairness, and I have been consistently proven wrong these last four years.  Hey, I know it can't be Camelot, but I am weary of Hadestown.

Hitting Publish, going out walking, attending my weekly Tuesday 11 a.m. Zoom call with Nancy and Judi, then headed to vote (actually here in my own condo complex).  As the old protest song goes:  "one and one and fifty make a million".  There *will* be cause for celebration tonight.  May it be so.  Ooooommmm... ॐ

Penzeys Spices does it again... 

What if Today's the Day You Admitted to Yourself You're No Longer a Republican

 

It’s been four years now. You know this is not going to get any better. Last election you could still believe the Republican Party was your father’s Republican Party. A party of financial responsibility, small government, defending democracy, supporting our troops, respecting others, family values and even telling the truth. You now know these values are long gone. Up until now there’s been nothing you could do about it. Today that changes.

It’s been said elections have their consequences. A big part of this is who gets elected, but with each vote we also define who we are and what we stand for. Are you a serial liar? Are you a cheat? Do you really want gay friends and family members to fear for their marriages? Are you a racist? I’m pretty sure you want the answer to all of these to be a resounding no, but when your votes inflict all those things on your fellow Americans your actions speak louder than your denials. Why not have your actions match your actual values?

And it’s not just the president, it’s the party. Seriously, who's worse, the out of control leader or those elective legislators who took an oath to the Constitution and then broke it out of fear, corruption, or possibly both? At least Utah has Mitt Romney they can re-elect without shame, the rest not so much.

What to do? If you are in a spot where you feel safe to do it, I hear from customers, making the leap and telling the world the Republican Party is no longer for you can be quite exhilarating. But for those of you living more complex lives, I can see where that might be hard. If need be, maybe borrowing a page from the gay rural teen handbook and living a double life for a while is your best bet. In many ways this election is about your soul. Today who you vote for is far more important than who people think you voted for.

As of today we’ve needlessly lost over two hundred thousand Americans to the failed Republican handling of the Coronavirus. Without a change in leadership in both the White House and the Senate that number will be more than a million by this time next year. Today your vote can actually save lives. Please use it wisely.

Once we get past today’s vote, going forward your spirit is needed every bit as much as your vote. America and the world have serious issues to deal with and for many of these issues time is of the essence. You being among kindred spirits where you no longer have to hide your empathy and compassion just to fit in could lead to real difference. Come join in. Being on the good guys' side is a whole lot more fun.

NR:  The Wonder by Emma Donoghue

SONG:  Talkin' Bout a Revolution by Tracy Chapman

BOOK:  Resistencia: Poems of Protest and Revolution by Mark Eisner and Tina Escaja (Editors), Julia Alvarez (Introduction)

POEM:  Kindness by Nikita Gill

And maybe this is how we learn the value of kindness.

When the whole world is like a small child with a fever,

trying her very best to make herself feel better.

Maybe we find our unity in the near-losing of everything.

Where we have no choice but to depend upon each other.

This is what it takes to realize we are in this together.

A man helps someone he dislikes because they are in danger.

A neighbor delivers groceries to everyone ill on her street.

Old friends forgive each other, stop acting like they are strangers.

Maybe this time, the revolution arrives dressed as kindness.

People helping each other despite their differences.

Understanding truly, that without the aid of others,

we would be all alone in this.

QUOTE:  “The best way to describe how I’m feeling right now — it’s somewhere between Christmas Eve and the night before a liver transplant.” ~ Jimmy Kimmel

We Americans (The Avett Brothers)

And the crazy continues! (what else is new, right?!?).  From today's New York Times Daily Briefing (you really should subscribe if you don't already!):

President Trump breaks so many of the normal rules of politics that it can sometimes be hard to know when his tweets and comments are truly newsworthy. Even by his standards, though, the past several days have stood out. Consider:

Trump said on Monday that a plane “almost completely loaded with thugs” wearing “dark uniforms” had been headed to the Republican National Convention to do “big damage.” The claim is similar to a baseless conspiracy theory that spread online over the summer, well before the convention.

He has declined to condemn the killings of two protesters in Kenosha, Wis. He instead defended the 17-year-old charged in the shootings — a Trump supporter named Kyle Rittenhouse — saying he was acting in self-defense. Trump also promoted a Twitter post that called Rittenhouse “a good example of why I decided to vote for Trump.”

He defended violence committed by his supporters in Portland, Ore., who fired paintballs and pepper spray at Black Lives Matter protesters.

He compared the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha to missing “a three-foot putt” in a golf tournament.

He claimed that “people that you’ve never heard of” and “people that are in the dark shadows” are controlling Joe Biden.

He claimed Democrats were trying to “destroy” suburbs with “low-income housing, and with that comes a lot of other problems, including crime.” He added that Cory Booker — one of the highest-profile Black Democrats — would be “in charge of it.”

He predicted that the stock market would crash if Biden won.

He said that Biden, at the Democratic National Convention, “didn’t even discuss law enforcement, the police. Those words weren’t mentioned.” In fact, Biden held a discussion at the convention on policing, with a police chief.

Trump claimed that he “took control of” the situation in Kenosha by sending in the National Guard. In fact, Wisconsin’s governor, not the president, sent the National Guard.

He retweeted messages asserting that the pandemic’s death toll was overstated. Evidence indicates the opposite is true.

He said that protests against police brutality were actually a secret “coup attempt” by anarchists “trying to take down the President.”

Biden has taken a very different approach to the unrest in Kenosha, Portland and elsewhere. He has told no apparent untruths, and he has criticized violence from both the political left and right — even though many liberals, whose votes Biden needs, are uncomfortable with any criticism of people on their side of the debate.

G.O.P. reaction. The Times tried to reach about a dozen leading congressional Republicans and ask for their reaction to Trump’s claims. “None cared to comment,” Mark Leibovich writes. Senator Mitt Romney offered one of the few public responses, calling the president’s comments “simply jaw-dropping.”


VOTE!  VOTE!  VOTE!  VOTE!

P.S.  I just ordered this mask (above) for myself as well as my husband and three adult children.  Oh, did I say VOTE?... 😏


SONG:  We Americans by The Avett Brothers

BOOK:  A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America by Philip Rucker, Carol Leonnig

POEM:  Third Time's a Charm by David Kirby

Don’t you wish the president would just shut up?
I mean, why comment on everything all the time.
Let’s hear it for silence. Yes, the helicopter of the world
is always circling overhead, but only rarely and usually
never does it suddenly fix its spotlight on the genius
that is you. What does he expect, a chattering dolphin
to rear up in front of his every tweet/answer to
a journalist/remark to a staffer who’s not supposed
to leak it but does and go chee-chee-chee-chee?
Mozart ends The Magic Flute with the words
“Triumphant strength has rewarded beauty and wisdom
with an eternal crown,” but he was Mozart.
Even ordinary jibber-jabber can go too far, as when
you give someone a present and they say
“You didn’t have to do that” and you think, “I know
I didn’t have to, but I wanted to, though I’m having
second thoughts now,” or someone brings a casserole
to your potluck, and you say, “Oh, how lovely,”
and they say, “Yeah, but it’s way salty, plus I left it
in the oven too long,” and you think, “My, doesn’t
that sound delicious!” Actually it was Mozart’s
librettist Emanuel Schikaneder who wrote the end
of The Magic Flute as well as the rest of it, but still.
Doesn’t the president have speech writers?
The divorce firm of Thyden Gross and Callahan
works out of Friendship Village, Maryland (I’m not
making this up) and recently represented a wealthy
Islamic gentleman who invoked the ancient law
of talaq by saying “I divorce thee” three times
to his wife and bestowing the sum of $2,500
on her while retaining the bulk of their two million
dollar estate for himself. The Maryland Court
of Appeals said no, however, stipulating that
the talaq did not afford the same protections
of due process, prenuptial agreements,
and division of property that Maryland law did,
a ruling in which the court is joined by
those Islamic scholars who say it isn’t right to
invoke the talaq in one sitting and that there
should at least be a period of time between
the “three strikes” as well as other learned
devotees of that venerable faith who say
the talaq is reprehensible and shouldn’t be
used at all. Every time the president goes
yada-yada-yada, I wish Mitch McConnell would say,
“I impeach thee, I impeach thee, I impeach thee”
and he’d disappear like the witch in The Wizard
of Oz, and here I’m just referring to the president’s
banal and mendacious utterances and not
the ugly ones like grabbing somebody by their
you-know-what. In this respect he could at least
take lessons in subtlety from 18th century German
writer Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, who said
of the prostitutes he encountered in London
that “they attach themselves to you like limpets”
and “they seize hold of you after a fashion
of which I can give you the best notion by the fact
that I say nothing about it.” Now you’re talking.

[David Kirby, 10/13/19 : “I have misgivings about the current move to impeach. That process is usually used to convince the people that the president is a bad person, but we already know that. Too, I bet this president would be delighted; it’ll just give him another chance to feel sorry for himself. No, I’d prefer that he just go away. That’s called magical thinking, as is this poem’s call for Mitch McConnell to do the deed.”]

QUOTE:  "When you blame others, you give up your power to change." ~ Robert Anthony

Giants (Matt Maeson)

[The Wildlife Exhibit at Flamingo Gardens... :-) ]

What?  It's Thursday?  Where did Wednesday go?!?  From having a totally-decimated social calendar, my life seems to have gotten super-busy again, lots of little things that have then added up to full days.  Chiropractor appointments three times a week.  Walking with Rob three times a week.  Various online concerts, most recently Eliza Gilkyson (her 70th birthday celebration!), Friction Farm, Tracy Grammer, Grant Peeples.  Weekly Zoom calls with friends and, most recently, helping clear out Reba's apartment, as she has decided to give up her snowbird status (not ready to face this one emotionally yet).  Family park meet-ups.  Helping with Colin transportation.  

Speaking of Colin, Sarah invited me to join them at Flamingo Gardens a few Sundays ago, and we had a blast.  Sarah was able to keep him in the stroller for the first 10 minutes, and then she let him out to run around.  Who ran around?  We did!  Wish I could get an energy transfusion from that little guy.  We saw turtles/tortoises, otters (my other spirit animal, in addition to the dragonfly), butterflies, flamingos (of course!), various other birds, so many peacocks, as well as flowering plants, fruit trees, etc... plus there was an exhibit of Lego sculptures throughout the park (there until September 13).  We also went on a tram ride which was about five minutes too long for a toddler.  It was hot, so we ended the day with watermelon icees to lower our body temperatures.  We're thinking of getting season passes next year, as he'll enjoy it more the older it gets.

I am a positive person, and always try to be "for" rather than "against" policies/procedures/philosophies.  I said in a previous blog post that I was choosing not to watch even a minute of the Republican National Convention, exactly for the reason(s) Stephen Colbert states below (full monologue here).  With all this talk of the next four years, we also need to remember the years and decades after that... for our children, and our grandchildren.  Vote for your own needs and wishes for this country, but cast your ballot for the next generation.  As Michelle Obama spoke last week during the DNC:  ""If you take one thing from my words tonight, it is this: If you think things cannot possibly get worse, trust me, they can, and they will if we don't make a change in this election.  If we have any hope of ending this chaos, we have got to vote for Joe Biden like our lives depend on it."

Because they do!


SONG:  Giants by Matt Maeson (thanks to Sarah for the heads-up to this wonderful singer-songwriter who was new to me until recently.  Now I'm obsessed!).

BOOK:  Vote for Our Future! by Margaret McNamara, Micah Player (Illustrator)

POEM:  One Vote by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

After reading a letter from his mother, Harry T. Burn cast the deciding vote to ratify the 19th amendment of the U.S. Constitution

My parents are from countries
where mangoes grow wild and bold
and eagles cry the sky in arcs and dips.
America loved this bird too and made

it clutch olives and arrows. Some think
if an eaglet falls, the mother will swoop
down to catch it. It won’t. The eagle must fly
on its own accord by first testing the air-slide

over each pinfeather. Even in a letter of wind,
a mother holds so much power. After the pipping
of the egg, after the branching—an eagle is on
its own. Must make the choice on its own

no matter what its been taught. Some forget
that pound for pound, eagle feathers are stronger
than an airplane wing. And even one letter, one
vote can make the difference for every bright thing.

QUOTE:  “Now, I know by not watching the R.N.C., I didn’t do my job tonight. I just want to say, I feel great about it. Why should we pay attention to what they’re saying if none of what they’re saying tonight is about what’s happening in America right now? Why should we watch their reality show if it doesn’t reflect our reality? Why subject ourselves to their lies that stick to your soul like hot tar? Lies like ‘Donald Trump cares whether you live or die.’” ~ Stephen Colbert

Kamala! (a Randy Rainbow song parody)/Sweet Kamala (Friction Farm)

Kamala Harris crop art turns up in Kansas field (hat tip to CT for both images!)



It has been no secret with my friends and family (or anyone who would listen, actually) that Joe Biden was not my first choice for the Democratic presidential nominee, nor was Bernie Sanders.  As much as I appreciated their experience and their policies, I kept spouting that I was tired of "old white men" running the show.  I wanted Elizabeth Warren, d*mmit, and she appeared to be the front-runner for a while, but then...

However, Kamala Harris was indeed my first choice for Vice President, and I was delighted when Joe Biden picked her as his running mate.  All this to say, I've been heavily immersed in the Democratic National Convention the previous four nights, and am now convinced of Biden's assets (of course I was always going to vote for him!).  He has proven himself not only to be wise, and on the right (meaning correct!) side of justice, but also genuine.  He has turned his personal grief into political passion, and his record cannot be ignored.  He seems to truly possess a moral compass.

The convention was exactly what I needed to re-calibrate my mindset, and each night I signed off feeling even more hopeful and energized at such smart and caring representation.  The myriad of faces felt like *my* America... a diversity of age, gender, ethnicity, sexual preference.  I cried multiple times during each evening... my litmus test of what feels honest and equitable and kind.

I realize what I'm saying next will sound closed-minded, but I'm saying it anyway:  I will not watch one minute of the Republican National Convention, and subject myself to the venomous spouting of their hatred and division. Nope, not gonna do it.

Since it is indeed Feel Good Friday below are, in my opinion, five highlights of the DNC (although there were so many more to choose from).  As one of the Roll Call delegates said, "It's Joe Time!".

~ ‘It is what it is’: How Michelle Obama’s ‘epic shade’ won the DNC’s opening night:  Halfway through her closing speech at the Democratic National Convention on Monday night, Michelle Obama shifted to address what she called the “cold, hard truth.”

~ Democratic National Convention’s Roll Call Showcases Voices from Across America:  Over a span of about 30 minutes, viewers traveled to 57 states and territories and heard from teachers, small business owners, essential workers and elected Democrats.

~ The Democratic National Convention used John Prine's last recording for a COVID-19 memorial video:  In one of the night's more somber moments, the Democrats broadcast an in memoriam video for the 170,500 people who have died from COVID-19 in the U.S.  One of those Amerians who died from complications COVID-19 was the great singer-songwriter John Prine, and his final recording, "I Remember Everything," was the soundtrack to the memorial.

~ Obama issues a dire warning about American democracy in stunning rebuke of Trump:  From the Philadelphia ground where the American experiment was born, one former president -- in a stunning prime-time address to the nation he once led -- warned that his successor was on the cusp of destroying democracy itself.

~ Joe Biden takes on Trump-era traumas in career-defining speech:  If Joe Biden becomes the 46th American President, his speech accepting the Democratic presidential nomination on Thursday night will be seen as the moment when the destiny of a man and his nation converged.

Also, "Before Hillary Clinton spoke from her home in Westchester County, the convention featured a video montage of women voting, protesting and testifying before Congress over the years.  It included black-and-white images from 1920 and images from 2017, after President Trump had taken office and women marched in protest wearing vivid pink knitted caps.  In clips stitched into the montage, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg spoke before members of the United States Senate; Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington reclaimed her speaking time from Attorney General William P. Barr at a hearing; Mrs. Clinton herself, eight years before she became the first woman nominated for president by a major party, spoke of failing to shatter “that highest, hardest glass ceiling” but putting “about 18 million cracks in it.”  I was ridiculously impressed with the video, and wanted to include it here, but I cannot seem to find it anywhere!  Anyone who has better luck than I, *please* send me the link in a Reply (which I will then include in my blog post) and I will bake and mail you vegan cookies (or hand-deliver, if you're local... 😄 )

P.S.  As soon as I hit Publish, I am going to donate money to Joe Biden, and will do so again in September and October.  In November, I will put my mouth/VOTE where my money was!

NR:  The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai


SONG(S):  Kamala!, a Randy Rainbow song parody (thanks to JudiS for the heads-up!)/Sweet Kamala by Friction Farm

BOOK(S):  The Truths We Hold: by Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris: Rooted in Justice by Nikki Grimes, Laura Freeman  (Illustrator)

POEM:  Kamala Harris: U.S. Senator by Alejandro Escudé

My divorce mitigator
had an office across the street
from a Bed Bath & Beyond;
it was a huge store, and I thought of going there
the way one thinks of going
somewhere one happens to pass by
and never does because I needed to park
underneath a twenty story building
to meet my ex wife and this other woman
who we hired to file the divorce paperwork
and to suggest how we might split
amicably—and I remember, quite distinctly,
the way one remembers something
that was part curiosity and part pain,
my ex-wife pointing out the sign on the office
next door to the mitigator: Kamala Harris,
US Senator. It was such a plain
looking door, brown, as the floor was brown,
brown my feeling as my ex-wife noticed this.
I remember thinking how interesting
it was that she pointed it out, both of us
starstruck by a stupid brown door
with a name on it, the name of the woman
who had just faced down Joe Biden,
a woman who rented an office
on the seventh floor of this nondescript building
on Olympic Boulevard in Los Angeles
where I was meeting with a mitigator
and the woman I was married to
for seventeen years, who I had
two kids with, and who was now divorcing me
while simultaneously pointing out
the name on a door: Kamala Harris,
and the electric blue Tarantino sky
behind it all, and the bathroom
that was across the same hallway
for which you needed to ask for the key
and how I asked once and went in
and felt a tightness in my chest,
I thought I was having a heart attack
though I wasn’t, it was more an existential thing,
as in where am I and what is happening?
I needed to take a break from negotiating
the way politicians negotiate,
the way they bicker on bright stages
that are just stages and nothing more.

[Alejandro Escudé: “Life is surreal. There are these moments of divine yet absolutely useless premonition. Harris showed up in the tapestry of my life the way the poem describes. I’m cynical, so I think it means nothing. Will she become Vice President? I don’t know. But I do know that this incident occurred, and I remembered it when Biden chose Harris as his running mate.”]

QUOTE(S):  "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Give light and people will find the way." ~ Ella Baker

"History says
Don’t hope on this side of the grave
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.’” ~ Seamus Heaney

Sister Suffragette (from Mary Poppins)

Yesterday (August 18) marked the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment:  “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”

Grant Peeples did a wonderful Clay Tablets livestream last night, with special guest Eliza Gilkyson, on the topic.  Here's a link to Episode 6, now archived.

The New York Times presented a comprehensive online overview yesterday, Suffrage at 100:  A Visual History, which I hope you can access.

Below is my "book report" for our March bUUkies (UU book club) meeting to discuss The Woman's Hour (see link below), which I chose to skip because it was scheduled for March 18, when the proverbial sh*t was hitting the proverbial fan, COVID-wise.  (NOTE:  we have only gathered online since then... 😢 )

As a long-time feminist and activist, I was aware of the historical outcome, but nowhere near informed on the specifics that got us there. Much information to digest, such that I continue to be "entertained and ephiphanated" (my new favorite phrase by Brian Doyle). It reads like an unfolding mystery novel, as the 36th star of ratification finally appears on the banner. 

As I was reading, I couldn't help but channel my 10-year-old self, watching Mary Poppins and having to ask what a suffragette was*** (and I still know all the words to the song). 

***["The battle for woman’s suffrage was in full force in both Britain and the United States in the early 1900s. Reporters took sides, and in 1906, a British reporter used the word “suffragette” to mock those fighting for women’s right to vote. The suffix “-ette” is used to refer to something small or diminutive, and the reporter used it to minimize the work of British suffragists. 

Some women in Britain embraced the term suffragette, a way of reclaiming it from its original derogatory use. In the United States, however, the term suffragette was seen as an offensive term and not embraced by the suffrage movement. Instead, it was wielded by anti-suffragists in their fight to deny women in America the right to vote."] 

And, if we were still bringing snacks tonight (and I of course understand why we aren't), I was going to use this plate (photo attached), given to me by my dear friend/college roommate, Linda... 💗 

And I would have worn white...  :-)

SONG:  Sister Suffragette from Mary Poppins

BOOK:  The Woman's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote by Elaine Weiss

POEM:  19th Amendment Ragtime Parade by Marilyn Chin

Birthday, birthday, hurray, hurray
The 19th Amendment was ratified today

Drum rolls, piano rolls, trumpets bray
The 19th Amendment was ratified today

Left hand bounces, right hand strays
Maestro Joplin is leading the parade

Syncopated hashtags, polyrhythmic goose-steps
Ladies march to Pennsylvania Avenue!

Celebrate, ululate, caterwaul, praise
Women’s suffrage is all the rage

Sisters! Mothers! Throw off your bustles
Pedal your pushers to the voting booth

Pram it, waltz it, Studebaker roadster it
Drive your horseless carriage into the fray

Prime your cymbals, flute your skirts
One-step, two-step, kick-ball-change

Castlewalk, Turkey Trot, Grizzly Bear waltz
Argentine Tango, flirty and hot

Mommies, grannies, young and old biddies
Temperance ladies sip bathtub gin

Unmuzzle your girl dogs, Iowa your demi-hogs
Battle-axe polymaths, gangster moms

Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Lucy Burns and Carrie Chapman Catt

Alice Paul, come one, come all! 
Sign the declaration at Seneca Falls!                                                                
Dada-faced spinsters, war-bond Prufrocks
Lillian Gish, make a silent wish

Debussy Cakewalk, Rachmaninoff rap
Preternatural hair bobs, hamster wheels     

Crescendos, diminuendos, maniacal pianos
Syncopation mad, cut a rug with dad!

Oompa, tuba, majorette girl power
Baton over Spamalot!

Tiny babies, wearing onesies
Raise your bottles, tater-tots!

Accordion nannies, wash-board symphonies
Timpani glissando!
             The Great War is over!

Victory, freedom, justice, reason
Pikachu, sunflowers, pussy hats

Toss up your skull caps, wide brim feathers
Throwing shade on the seraphim

Hide your cell phones, raise your megaphones!
Speak truth to power
                          and vote, vote vote!

WARNING: 

Nitwit legislators, gerrymandering fools
Dimwit commissioners, judicial tools
Toxic senators, unholy congressmen
Halitosis ombudsmen, mayoral tricks
Doom calf demagogues, racketeering mules
Whack-a-mole sheriffs, on the take

Fornicator governators, rakehell collaborators
Tweeter impersonators, racist prigs
Postbellum agitators, hooligan aldermen
Profiteering warmongers, Reconstruction dregs

Better run, rascals     better pray
We’ll vote you out      on judgement day!

Better run, rascals     better pray
We’ll vote you out      on election day!

QUOTE:  “If your voice held no power, they wouldn’t try to silence you.” - unknown

86 45 11-3-20 (Friction Farm)

My sweet and smart daughter Sarah sent me the following yesterday.  I know it's a meme, and there are probably flaws but, on the eve of our Florida primary (August 18), with the Post Office in crisis and blue mailboxes and mail-sorting machines being removed at an alarmingly rapid rate, we need to remind ourselves, and each other, what our true priorities are.  You know you can drop your mail-in ballots in person at your voting precinct, right?  Do the Next Right Thing (TM Glennon).  VOTE tomorrow, but especially on November 3, 2020!

P.S.  Kudos to Christine and Aidan for this spot-on parody.  Music begins at about the two-minute mark, but please listen to/watch the entire thing.  Thanks and love to Melanie for the heads-up... :-)

P.P.S.  NR:  Call Them By Their True Names:  Crises and Essays by Rebecca Solnit



If the Democratic candidate turns out to be your least favorite — as disappointed as you may be — please remember: 

1. You're not just voting for President. 

2. You're voting for who replaces Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court. 

3. You're voting for the next Secretary of Education and getting rid of the horrible Betsy Devos. 

4. You're voting for federal judges. 

5. You're voting for the rule of law. 

6. You're voting for saving national parks. 

7. You're voting for letting kids out of cages. 

8. You're voting for clean air and clean water. 

9. You're voting for scientists to be allowed to speak about climate change and for rebuilding the CDC. 

10. You're voting for what a President says and does on Twitter. 

11. You're voting for housing rights. 

12. You're voting for LGBTQ people to be treated with dignity. 

13. You're voting for non-Christians to be able to adopt and to feel like full citizens. 

14. You're voting for Dreamers. 

15. You're voting so that there will be Social Security and Medicare when you retire. 

16. You're voting for veterans to get the care they deserve. 

17. You're voting for rural hospitals. 

18. You're voting so that someone else can have health insurance. 

19. You're voting for the preservation of PBS. 

20. You're voting to have a President who doesn't embarrass this country every time she or he attends an international meeting. 

21. And you're voting against allowing the USA to become yet another authoritarian regime. 

22. You're voting for sensible gun laws. 

23. You are voting to save our postal service. 

No Democrat is perfect. Your first AND second choices may have dropped out. Your third might. But the nominee, no matter who she or he is (and now we know it's Joe Biden with Kamala Harris!), won't be perfect. They won't pass your purity test. And yet every single one of them will be better than four more years of Trump!!! Please be reasonable.


SONG:  86 45 11-3-20 by Friction Farm

BOOK:  True Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Investigation of Donald Trump by Jeffrey Toobin

POEM:  Booker T. and W.E.B. by Dudley Randall 

“It seems to me,” said Booker T.,
“It shows a mighty lot of cheek
To study chemistry and Greek
When Mister Charlie needs a hand
To hoe the cotton on his land,
And when Miss Ann looks for a cook,
Why stick your nose inside a book?”

“I don’t agree,” said W.E.B.,
“If I should have the drive to seek
Knowledge of chemistry or Greek,
I’ll do it. Charles and Miss can look
Another place for hand or cook.
Some men rejoice in skill of hand,
And some in cultivating land,
But there are others who maintain
The right to cultivate the brain.”

“It seems to me,” said Booker T.,
“That all you folks have missed the boat
Who shout about the right to vote,
And spend vain days and sleepless nights
In uproar over civil rights.
Just keep your mouths shut, do not grouse,
But work, and save, and buy a house.”

“I don’t agree,” said W.E.B.,
“For what can property avail
If dignity and justice fail.
Unless you help to make the laws,
They’ll steal your house with trumped-up clause.
A rope’s as tight, a fire as hot,
No matter how much cash you’ve got.
Speak soft, and try your little plan,
But as for me, I’ll be a man.”

“It seems to me,” said Booker T.—
“I don’t agree,”
Said W.E.B.

QUOTE:  "Books are letters in bottles, cast into the waves of time, from one person trying to save the world to another.  Keep reading.  Keep writing.  Keep fighting.  We're all still here." ~ Amal El-Mohtar, This Is How You Lose the Time War (Acknowledgements)