“I just couldn’t take the rape threats anymore,” my friend said, after finally deciding to leave Twitter last month. She wistfully talked about how good Twitter was when it was good – before every post was met with threats of physical violence or insults or both. As you no doubt have heard, and likely experienced, Twitter … Continue reading Blue Sky and Birds: When Good People Don’t Tolerate Bad Behavior
I’m not a humanitarian. I’m a hell raiser. ~Mother Jones Pray for the dead. Fight like hell for the living. ~Mother Jones. We’re living through historic times. As we’re wading through the weight of every day, it’s easy to dismiss our ability to change the world around us. But, especially now, I think it’s important … Continue reading She Was A Hell Raiser, Not a Humanitarian: Be Like Mother Jones
“Everything can be taken from a [wo]man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” Viktor Frankl It’s hardest to tell the kids. I startled awake at 4 AM the day after the election, and before even looking at my … Continue reading The Sun Always Comes Up
Last night, a poll out of Iowa dropped that has the political world gobsmacked. According to Ann Selzer’s Des Moines Register poll, which is widely considered the gold-standard poll in Iowa, Kamala Harris now leads in Iowa by three points. For reference, Donald Trump won Iowa in 2020 by 8 points. (Just one point off of the … Continue reading The Shock is Shocking: Pundits Don’t Seem to Get This Election
It’s the week of Halloween – a celebratory yet shadowy time, when we’re primed to scare ourselves with animatronic monsters and scary movies and stories about things that go bump in the night. And so on Saturday night, like families all across the country, we went trick-or-treating. Every year, we walk to a nearby neighborhood … Continue reading Fear Factor: Halloween Edition
The human race has only one really effective weapon and that is laughter. ~Mark Twain Over the weekend, on Jimmy Kimmel Live, a video dropped that is both hilarious and deadly serious. https://youtu.be/GGxwn_N9DtE?si=9zy-kZcxPzTlwJsi It features Dave Bautista – a professional wrestler-turned-actor who played Dax the Destroyer on Guardians of the Galaxy. He’s a man’s man … Continue reading Of Course You Can Laugh: This Moment is Serious and Ridiculous
“It’s almost like she’s a woman, and nothing she does is going to be right.” So said a friend of mine as we vented about the double standard that’s once again gripped media coverage of the election. Just yesterday, CNN’s Jim Acosta pointed to Trump’s openly authoritarian comments and asked – “Has the Vice President not … Continue reading Not Like That: The Criticism of Harris Is the Chorus of Our Lives
Last week, before the vice presidential debate, I was asked by a number of friends whether I would be tuning in. The answer was an emphatic no. It wasn’t because I thought Tim Walz would do a bad job. It wasn’t because I had a sense of foreboding after Biden’s campaign-ending debate. It’s because as … Continue reading Why This Red State Democrat Couldn’t Watch the Vice Presidential Debate
To be a woman is to be interrupted. In boardrooms and family rooms and courtrooms, women's actual voices are often cut short – their thoughts and ideas demonstrated to be less important than what their male counterpart has to say. We learn it from infancy, really. Watching our mothers interrupted. Watching how they respond to … Continue reading Interrupted Women, Interrupting: Excuse Us, We’re Speaking
It was such a mild and beautiful afternoon that not many people were home to answer the door. But that didn’t stop my friend from running through his turf. He had been out knocking doors for a local Democratic nominee in a quiet, tree-lined suburban St. Louis community – one that’s so well known for being … Continue reading Bearing Witness: Democrats Holding Space and Opening Doors
Small Deeds Done 