Waiting for the Shoe to Drop

Is it just me, or is this Obama craze making anybody else a little nervous? I didn't think too much about the be-jeweled Obama baby doll tees in the L.A. boutiques, and I laughed a little at the Obama candy bars at the airport. But then when I saw the Obama Big Gulp cups at the 7-11, I started to think that things were getting a little out of hand.

Among the things that I spend the least amount of time on, shopping is high on the list. So I know I'm not the most qualified expert in this area, but this much I know - I've never seen a president merchandised this way before. In my lifetime, I've never even seen a president that people really love. I was 14 when Clinton got elected, and the Monica Lewinsky scandal happened not long after I was old enough to vote. After spending most of my adult life with W., from the year I graduated from college until now, I am of course excited about the promise that Obama brings - reforming health care, revitalizing the economy, ending the war in Iraq, bringing political equality to the GLBT community, and even opening up Cuba, as my Dad thinks will happen under his leadership (and this is from a man who voted for W. The first time).

Obama has become synonymous with the words "change" and "hope", and I love - I really do love that people are excited for something different, but the fact that we've already iconized him makes me a little nervous. We've projected so many wishes and desires onto this man that he's become a cross section between Jesus and Elvis - part savior, part legend. The pedestal we've constructed for him seems so incredibly high that I'm already flinching at the disappointment and disillusionment it seems to foreshadow.

I know I come across as a bit jaded. It surprises me, as I have come to realize that I'm somehow more comfortable with everyone bitching, moaning, and making fun of the president rather than treating him like the second coming. I grew up with Dana Carvey's great impression of Daddy Bush on Saturday Night Live where he made fun of all his trite phrases; I remember the laughs we got out of Dan Quayle's misspelling of potatoe (with the "e" on the end); then there was the ordeal over Monica's stained dress, and then of course, the ridiculousness that we've been living with for the last 8 years.

But I did always want things to be different. I remember falling in love (platonically, of course) with Ross Perot's no nonsense b.s. in the early 90's. I remember rooting for Jesse Jackson in the democratic primaries in the late 80's - yes, just because he was black. I can still remember the hope and desire on the representative's faces from Puerto Rico during that broadcast. I wanted Jesse to win because I could see how much it mattered to them. It didn't matter to me - I was only 10. And I didn't know that he didn't stand a chance in hell at winning.

I do know how much this election means to us, myself included. I think the thing that worries me the most is that if we are not satisfied with the results over the next 4-8 years, if this doesn't work out as we've planned, we'll never allow ourselves to get caught up in the promise of our political future again. When I think about it that way, I know I have to be wrong. I have to be wrong about my sense of impending doom that hovers over this pervasive idealism. I don't believe we're fooling ourselves into thinking we're taking a huge leap forward only to fall back into generations of bitterness. How could I believe that, when life is about progress and change, about moving forward and evolving.

So I can guarantee that you won't be seeing me sporting my Obama skateboard around town (featured above), but I will do my best to stop waiting for the first shoe to drop. And to really start allowing myself to feel a part of this time in history.

Eve Ensler's "Drill, Drill, Drill"

If you came here to read something Butch Jamie related, my producing partner recently wrote a "Fun Facts" post that you can read here. Otherwise, I wanted to share with you some points of interest about Sarah Palin that were brought to my attention since my last post.

If you want to read more about the Palin controversy, check out a blog called Women Against Sarah Palin. Today there's a great post by Republican women who refuse to vote for McCain/Palin. My favorite was a quote that somebody included from Mark Twain - "Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it."

You can also read a posting about Palin that my Christian yet pro-Obama friend wrote on her blog here. Since she has many Christian friends, her posting sparked some controversy, although I'm glad to know that not all Christians are "against" us.

My mom sent me a link to a PSA that was put out independently by the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund. Palin has a terrible pro-wildlife record, from shooting wolves by aircraft to even arguing with Bush to remove polar bears from the endangered species list. Since Palin is a supposed advocate of "pro-life," I would urge her to realize that life does not just refer to people.



I used to work in the media center for a non-profit environmental and consumer advocacy organization called PIRG, and I still occasionally take on assignments for them. Last month, I videotaped interviews of former PIRG employees and asked them, "What do you think is the most important environmental issue today?" 4 out of every 5 people said the same thing - global warming.

Sarah Palin, however, doesn't believe in global warming, as if it's some sort of passe theory. Or rather, "part of God's plan," as she calls it. I wonder if unnecessary human violence against wolves and other animals is part of God's plan as well?

Two people have passed along to me a moving essay about all of this that was written by Eve Ensler, pasted below from The Huffington Post. I hope you will pass it along as well.

Drill, Drill, Drill
By Eve Ensler

I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.

I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.

But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.

I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.

Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, "It was a task from God."

Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist's baby or not.

She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes.

Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.

Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.

Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.

I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.

If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, "Drill Drill Drill." I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.

Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?

If the Glasses Fit...look a little closer

As usual, it's been far too long since I last wrote. With the presidential campaign in full swing, I wanted to post a great SNL skit with lesbian heart throb (as I call her anyway) Tina Fey as Gov. Palin and Amy Poehler as Senator Clinton.



When I first learned that McCain had chosen Palin for his running mate, I thought it was a smart move for the Republican party to choose a woman. Then of course, after I found out more about her, I realized it wasn't such a smart choice after all. I hoped that would mean good news for us Democrats, but ironically, people seem to be taken with her. As much as I don't like McCain, it's scary to think that I actually like him more than Palin. If he kicks the bucket while he's in the White House, we're all in trouble. If he even gets to the White House, we're all in trouble. My Dad, who's been a Republican all his life, eventually swung over to the left after W came along. As he keeps saying, "Come on people - it's the 21st century - wake up."