Some ideas from an old woman

McCain and that constant sado/masochistic rant about his POW experience—I’ve been wondering about that for years now—that whole bunch of neocons seem to be living in some kind of 80”s gay boy SM club, and frankly, McCain has ridden Bush’s leg so much there’s a smooth place where his genitalia should be. 

Be that as it may, what I’d like to offer is this:  this election is not about feminism.  It is not about race.  It is not about a lot of things that ‘they’ (and ‘we’) are trying to make it about. 

This election is about whether we want to end America as we know it;  whether we want to be present for the death of The Constitution and the Bill of Rights of the United States of America, whether we want to lose all the inches—inches and crumbs—of expanded freedom that we have fought for over the years of this country’s existence, or whether we want to witness the demise of traditional American freedoms. 

As a Lesbian (and mother of two) who came out publicly in the little town of Chapel Hill, NC in the early 70’s and managed to be on the periphery of struggle for integration, the feminist movement, gay rights, and one of the first women in male dominated jobs here and there, and now as a ‘retired’ Lesbian, and grandmother to seven and a great-grandmother, what concerns me most is whether or not my progeny will have the same rights to take part in their own struggles to better society in this country that I had. 

Admitted, we thought the country was fascist then—and scary as hell. 

What will it be like if we have another four years of another president like the one we have now? 

Book burning? 

All those so-called secret detention facilities that Halliburton built in the USA filled with liberals? 

Main stream press that calls their editorializing news? 

Abortion a crime, again? 

Afraid to speak our minds because ‘they’ are listening to every word we manage to externalize?  It’s here, now. 

Homeland Security (Homeland?  What’s that about?) will most definitely shine a big, bright light up your ass if you make too much noise. 

Remember all those young women who died from toxic abortions before Roe v Wade?  That ‘s why abortion law got changed—not because we thought killing a human fetus was morally right or wrong. 

My point is this:  we must go forward, it seems to me, and it also seems to me that the McCain/Palin machine wants to take us back to some idealized past which destroys all these decades of tiny/minute/snail-like progress that we may have made in service to our own ideals. 

Words matter a great deal. Some of them have even had  an old cynic like me looking charitably at Palin until I looked at what it means if McCain/Palin win this election. 

And that’s about as ugly as it gets, with or without lipstick.

While I’m at it:  

What I find unbelievable is that Karl Rove is running around loose when we all know he and his ilk should be in jail. That being said, of course Rove and all the other so-called neo-con-(morons) (including all the rich boys and girls sucking the life out of America with their greed) don't want Obama in the White House, and I'll bet they especially don't want Biden in a position to be turning over any rocks--nevermind who Obama will appoint as Attorney General.

Rove is the pus on the pimple that has become our corporate culture and whose members are most responsible for taking our country into what promises to be another era of dark years of depression and poverty.

 

 A quote for your consideration: 

 “Our entire banking system”, said William Gibbs McAdoo in exasperation, “does credit to a collection of imbeciles.”

 The Crisis of the Old Order: 1919-1933, The Age of Roosevelt, Volume I (The Age of Roosevelt)

by Arthur M. "Schlesinger, Jr.