INSIDE/OUT

A New Day

With the inauguration a little less than two weeks away, it seemed like an appropriate time to fire up the Inside/Out blog and beat the drum for the incoming president. On a personal note, it is really, really wonderful to be able to refer to the president as PRESIDENT Obama, instead of all the goofy euphemisms I had to think up (President Weenie, The Selected President, George the Lesser, et al) because I refused to call the fool that sat in the White House for the last eight years the president.

Last May I wrote with some heat that I thought that America was incapable of electing a person of color to the highest office in the land. I am happy to have been proven wrong about that. President elect Obama has made a profound impression on the American psyche. He showed himself to be smart as a campaigner, shrewd as a debater, and gracious as a winner. He won with a hefty majority, and that winning seems to have energized many parts of an America reeling from war, unemployment, and recession. I wrote that heated blog post out of bitter disappointment that Hillary Clinton had lost her bid in the primaries for the presidency. Now that Hillary has been picked as the Secretary of State, it appears that things may be looking up in the world of diplomacy.

And, God knows, the world needs some diplomacy now.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to rage, incurring civilian and military casualties. (Yesterday, January 6, 2009, Staff Sgt. Anthony D. Davis, 29, of Daytona Beach, Fla died in Northern Iraq from enemy fire. Think of that. Nearly five years and our kids are still dying for a lie.) In Gaza, the Israelis are hurrying while the First Fool is still in office to inflict as much damage as possible on the Palestinians. (At this writing, 680 Palestinians are known dead since the fighting began on December 27, and some 3000 are believed wounded. There is also the staggering humanitarian problem of food, water, and sanitation for nearly three quarters of a million people in the Gaza war zone.) If there was ever a time and place for strong diplomacy, it is NOW in the Middle East. It will not be easy to knock some sense into Israel. The Israeli lobby here is powerful and rich, and many, including Hillary, are beholden to them. It will take courage to stand up to them and make peace with both sides.

Perhaps even more challenging are the economic woes here at home. Today the Dow dropped 245 points on news of more job losses and declining oil prices.

The hard work of governing looms ahead for President Obama. He will have to make many hard choices, many of which will cause pain for someone or other. He will need our good will, our prayers. We can only hope, in a time when hope maybe the best medicine we have, for wisdom.


[Karma: 0 (+/-)] Mamie on 01.07.09 @ 07:34 PM PST [link] [9 Comments]

Two Weeks of Hypocrisy

As I write this, Thursday evening, September 4, 2008, Cindy McCain is saying that she has "the most marvelous husband..." and she remarks about John McCain's "steadfast sense of honor," neglecting to mention that his honor did not apply to his first marriage.

But to the subject at hand....

After two weeks of political conventions marked by flag waving, betrayals, confetti, lies, patriotic music, protests, and some of the most shameless and unforgivable lack of imagination yet to be foisted on American citizens, both parties have shown that they are no longer capable of understanding what America and the world need to survive. Instead, we have been given an overdose of the sugary, pre-packaged imagery that public relations firms dream up, a focus-grouped fantasy of American life that the parties want us to think we want. There are no jobless, homeless, legless, and armless; no minorities discriminated against, no mentally crippled citizens wandering the streets uncared for. No war refugees, no political prisoners, no blighted cities or oil soaked beaches. Only the pristine wilderness, the home town, the sacred family, the holy war against the enemies of The Land of the Free. They want us to stay asleep.

Some how, some way, we must wake up.

We will not wake up in time to defeat either or both of the major parties' candidates in November. For a time, the forces of hypocrisy will rule, destroying our republic by calling oppression security, corporate greed prosperity, and spreading imperial conquest of the world disguised as free trade. The poor will continue to suffer, our troops will continue to die, and our economy will continue to wither.

Obama betrayed Hillary and the millions who voted for her, picking instead Joe Byden for Vice President, a tired political hack with plenty of experience in the kind of back room, rat fucking politics practiced in Washington.

McCain responded by picking Sara Palin, a young political hack once mayor of a one horse town in Alaska, who managed to get herself elected governor. America has suddenly been confronted with its own soccer (or hockey) mom image, cheerful as a Starbucks barista, shrewd and hard as a street hooker, chatty, opinionated, and vapid as a character out of a sitcom.

Obama declares that we should get out of Iraq "honorably", but continue allowing our children to fight and die in Afghanistan. For the fiction of capturing Osama Bin Laden.

McCain says, however, that Obama's too soft and we should honor our troops by staying in Iraq too--honor here meaning, presumably, that we best honor our young people by allowing them to be shot at, maimed, and killed. For oil and Israel.

I will vote for Obama, though the prospect is not appealing. If he is elected there is a chance, a small chance, that some day things will get better. There are terrible forces arrayed against him, to be sure. The far right loathes the idea of a person of color as president. They will do everything to discredit him.

If McCain wins there will be a long, dark night for America--the dark night begun by the last eight years. It was only the beginning of the end when the administration destroyed habeas corpus. Look for more erosion of the few rights you have left as a citizen.

If we stay awake, however, present to bear witness to the sorrows of our wars and the decline of our economy, there may come a day, perhaps after we're gone, when the sun will shine again.

Sometimes, as Jack Kornfield says, all you can do is plant the seeds and pray.

Peace.





[Karma: 0 (+/-)] Mamie on 09.04.08 @ 08:10 PM PST [link] [4 Comments]

Remember Me from Quang Tri

Unknown Soldiers, Quang Tri Vietnam 1971

I am posting the email exchange below as a reminder of the personal costs of war. This is a lesson that every generation seems to have to learn, to their pain and peril. Do not tell me that Iraq and Vietnam are somehow different. They are both examples of how useless war truly is. Quang Tri, near the demilitarized zone separating South and North Vietnam, was the worst place in the world in 1971.

On Jul 9, 2008, at 7:50 PM:

My Dearest Ms. Van Doren,
In 1971, I was in Quang Tri, Vietnam with the US Army.   We were in a lot of combat and we had suffered a lot of casualties.
I didn't want to be there.  At times I was so depressed that I was almost suicidal.
Then in April, you came to see us.  My unit was brought in from the field right when the MPs started spraying the stage
with bug spray to chase away the mosquitoes and bats.  I could not believe my eyes.  You were the most beautiful thing I
ever saw.   You gave us the will to keep on going.   I think that we saw so much bad stuff that we sort of forgot what it would
be like to go back home and were sort of giving up.  Seeing you was like a wonderful dream come true.  I heard about all the bad stuff
you went through to come up there and see us.  I'm glad that you recovered and are doing well.   I just wanted to say THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All my Love and Devotion,
Clyde Baker
5th Mechanized Infantry
177th Armor
Quang Tri, Vietnam

------------------------------------

July 10, 2008

Dear Clyde,

Thank you so much for your touching letter.  After reading it last night,  I went to bed reliving the frightening and yet fond memories of those days.  Often it feels like all those things happened just yesterday.  Your gratitude for our visit together in a make shift theater, crowded with mosquitos and bats, on that long ago night, fill me with warm sense of camaraderie and my own gratitude for you being there to make my trip worth while.

I am posting your wonderful letter on my website and on MySpace in the hopes that people can be reminded of the personal costs of war.

Love and kindness,
Mamie Van Doren

p.s.
If you'd like an autographed photo, please pick one out on my website, and I will send it to you free of charge.
[Karma: 0 (+/-)] Mamie on 07.10.08 @ 12:02 PM PST [link] [1 Comment]

The Last Election in America

"The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything." --Joseph Stalin

With election day just visible on the horizon, a bit of reflection on the last election in America. Oh, when was that? If you voted in the election of 1996, you voted in the last REAL election in this troubled land. I say that not because a Democrat was elected, but because it was the last election not held in the clutches of the neo-creeps behind President Weenie, who ultimately overturned democracy in America. That was before the election of 2000, when the Florida Secretary of State, beholden to the governor and brother of the presidential candidate, stepped in to gerrymander the votes from the Sunshine State, and the Supreme Court overstepped in any authority ever envisaged for them by the drafters of the Constitution by deciding an election.

End of game, children. Everyone lost.

Come 2004, the Bushits had installed computer technology for voters to cast their votes. Of course, the technology was owned by Diebold, whose owner is a MAJOR contributor to the ruling Republican party. When concerned secretaries of state wanted independent analysis of the software entrusted to the sacred task of voting, Diebold said, sorry, it's a proprietary trade secret. The ensuing debacle in Ohio, in which John Kerry lost, even though many, many more people claimed to have voted for him than were counted, pretty much ensured that democratic elections as we had come to know them in the last couple of centuries were done for.

In 2008 there could very well be a landslide for Obama, especially if he's smart enough to pick Hillary as his running mate, and the ruling powers may be hard pressed to cover it up. It will be necessary for the Weenie/Cheenie geeks to conjure up, say, a national emergency, or "leak" evidence at the last minute that Obama and bin Laden are really half brothers, invalidate the entire election and throw it back to the Supremes one more time. Welcome President McCain. What's that attached to your hip? Oh, it's former President Weener.

It is not a pleasant prospect, looking toward the election season. CNN will be all atwitter with the prospects of Obama being elected, and Fox will have a raging hard on for wacky John "The Hundred Years War" McCain. Abandon all hope if you watch the news for the next 160 days or so. But if you must watch, keep your eye on what they're not showing, and listen for what they're not saying. There's going to be a deluge of government sourced news trying to make the incumbent half wits look good.

Oh, and vote anyway. I couldn't hurt.



[Karma: 0 (+/-)] Mamie on 06.28.08 @ 03:30 PM PST [link] [2 Comments]

Hillary Loses. Or Does She?

Now that the delegates, super and otherwise, have made their choices, at last Hillary can relax a bit for now and let Obama lead the charge. It is a huge disappointment to me and many other supporters, say, eighteen million or so, that she did not win enough delegates to sew up the nomination. The question is: what now?

Sadly, Hillary did not do well among young women in the primaries. This is because, I believe, most of the products of today's educational system lack any real sense of history. They cannot be blamed for not knowing the struggles of women to gain equality--something that in many ways still eludes them today. Take it from one who knows, sexism in the 20th century was bad. In the 21st it is still not GOOD, but then it was very bad. To have a woman come so close to the biggest prize in politics and then lose it, well, hurts. But women have had pain before. Remember, if men had to endure the pain of childbirth, there would be no babies. Women will come back and fight the good fight. Because they must. Because men have made such a mess of things, someone will have to be there to clean it up.

Will Obama pick someone else as a running mate and toss away the eighteen million votes cast for Hillary? Many of those votes were women's and one wonders how many will stay loyal to the Democratic party in the face of yet another example of a woman hitting the glass ceiling. Answer: many will not. Many will feel disenfranchised and betrayed. If we are all very, very lucky, Obama will have smart advisors, and will be sharply focused on the realities of today's politics. He really needs Hillary--much more now than she needs him. In fact, we may see that Hillary only lost a battle, not the war.




[Karma: 0 (+/-)] Mamie on 06.08.08 @ 07:41 PM PST [link] [1 Comment]

Decide What's Really Important. Now.

Yesterday Bill Clinton lambasted the press and many in the Democratic party because of their attempted early burial of Hillary's chances for the nomination at the convention. His argument ran something like: while Obama has won a majority of the delegates, Hillary has won the "popular vote" in the course of the primaries, particularly in the states where, come November, the Demos stand to win the electoral delegates. Nominating Obama, Bill's argument goes, will give up the election to [shudder] McCain because Obama can't win in those states. I'm inclined to agree with him. Hillary represents the candidate with the most experience, the most coherent plans for AFTER the election, and the broadest appeal to the electorate, Democratic AND Republican.

I have said before that I thought McCain was really beatable, no matter who the candidate. And nothing would make me happier than the election of Obama, Hillary, or any Democrat, thereby putting a stake in the heart of the policies of The Selected President, which his bitch, John McCain, keeps saying were so wonderfully successful. That ignores, however, an unspoken, tragic flaw in America. Though we talk the talk of equal opportunity and do our best to gloss over our history, we remain in this early decade of the 21st century a profoundly racist AND sexist country. Some of the Democratic party is trying their best to ignore that awful fact. Racism is not something that a few generations can erase. It has terrible staying power and we ignore it at our peril. Sexism is so rooted in our culture, our DNA, worldwide, that only positive force of will can begin to heal it. Our nation is reeling under the weight of the colossal moral and financial burden of this illegal war, greed on a grand scale among multinational corporations, and a corrupt, arrogant government on the take from every fat cat imaginable, and the people be damned. We need to make absolutely sure that our candidate, this time, is electable. We need to put aside our native "isms" and get down to work. We need to stop fighting and start campaigning, and make McCain OWN President Weenie's legacy.

CNN has become a constant annoyance lately, in that they clearly prefer to be seen as sexist rather than racist. Hillary's slightest misstep or misspeak is hammered away for hours by pundit after pundit. Obama gets a more or less free ride and oodles of gushing coverage, doing the same vague speechifying offering only slogans instead of positions and plans.

A legend passed away over the weekend: Utah Phillips. Who? I heard you say. Well, I can't expect that many knew who he was, but he was a man of iron integrity who wrote and performed folk songs all over the country for much of his 73 years. Utah was a labor organizer and spent a large part of his long life working for worker and human rights. He founded the Peace and Justice Center and a shelter for the homeless. Amy Goodman of "Democracy Now" interviewed him in January 2004 and what he had to say about the Democratic presidential race that was just starting then is absolutely on target four and a half years later:

"...You know, it’s like buying a seat on the Titanic, the Democratic Party, but they’re the only force, organized force, that has the ability to [get the fascists out of power]. So it’s imperative that the entire progressive movement come together, like they did in the Great Depression at the time of the CIO... ...for right now, all the difference has got to be pushed aside. I am absolutely appalled at these Democratic candidates hammering on each other, you know, not recognizing the direness of our situation.

It is long since, since those people should have sat down in a room together and decided which one could be elected and put everything they had into that person."

Hillary is the one. Let's join forces, Obamaites and Hillaryistas and WIN.
[Karma: 0 (+/-)] Mamie on 05.27.08 @ 06:42 PM PST [link] [3 Comments]

Pau Gasol--Wow!

Pau Gasol
He is SOOOO cute!

I usually write about politics and such on this blog, but I am making a exception here to call attention to my new crush, Lakers starting center, Pau Gasol. Some of you may know that I am an ardent Laker fan. The Lakers, for you non-basketball fans, are the NBA's glamour team. From coast to coast they sell out arenas and occupy the minds of sports writers in every hometown newspaper. They're the LAKERS.

The past few years, however, have been our years in the wilderness. Since Shaquile left in a huff and Kobe stayed in a huff, the team has been divided and divisive, and unable to play as, well, a TEAM.

All the sports talk pundits questioned Lakers G.M. Mitch Kupcheck's competence for refusing to trade young Andrew Bynum for a proven star, and Lakers owner Jerry Buss's sanity for not firing Kupcheck. Kobe bitched and threatened, and even the Zen master, coach Phil Jackson began to hint that something should be done.

This year began with the promise of Bynum's talent, giving the Lakers an early edge, but his knee injury early on deflated our hopes for a team that might make a good showing. The early games showed a team with real promise, but all of us held our hopes in reserve, because the same thing happened last year and we tanked early. When it became clear that Bynum wouldn't soon be back, we all shrugged and said, "Maybe next year."

Then came Pau, born in Spain, seven feet tall, and 27 years old, he's exactly what the Laker's needed--and what I needed. He's not only a talented player who adds depth and breadth to the Laker's lineup, he has added heart. The Lakers stormed through the season and finished with the lead in the West, and now they've swept the Denver Nuggets in the first round. Pau is a large part of the reason. The Lakers have come together into a cohesive, hard-playing team.

Jerry Buss, is a longtime friend (he backed one of my movies in the 1960s) and he always invites me to sit in his VIP suite. I haven't been to a Laker's game for a while, but now that Pau is here, I'm going to start going again. Personal to Jerry: Please make sure that I get to meet Pau!

For sure, the rest of the playoffs will not be as easy as the sweep of the Nuggets, but the Lakers--Kobe, Pau, Luke Walton, Sasha, Fisher, and Vlad--and an ass-kicking bench are going to be a force to be reckoned with.



[Karma: 0 (+/-)] Mamie on 04.29.08 @ 08:25 PM PST [link] [2 Comments]