Author: AndiF

I have need a serious break from seriousness. Jerome’s diary was a nice start but I feel the need to go all the way to full-on silliness. I got my inspiration when I came across a toddler photo of me during a hunt for something else. I knew I had to do a diary with this picture and challenge the rest of you to expose your inner funny-looking kid.

Hey, I’m talking to you — can you top my cross-eyed mouth-breather with a vacant stare?  

Update [2005-11-2 13:3:51 by AndiF]: I am not getting any competition in the pathetically funny-looking kid competition. In fact, you are all are a bunch of adorable mensches. So now I feel pressured to show that I did in fact become a relatively normal looking kid. Here I am on my 20th birthday in 1970 which was also the night that Jim and I got engaged (the ring was in the “O” of the “love” in card he made).

Many of you read the diary about the Indiana “Unauthorized Reproduction” bill.

Patricia Miller, the state senator who was working on the bill has withdrawn it:

State Sen. Patricia Miller, R-Indianapolis, issued a one-sentence statement Wednesday saying: “The issue has become more complex than anticipated and will be withdrawn from consideration by the Health Finance Commission.”

You can read the full story here

This story was covered by numerous blogs and because of it, Miller received a tremendous amount of unwelcome publicity, phone calls, and emails which obviously led to her backing down.

This isn’t the first time this has happened. Earlier this year, a Virginia legislator called John Cosgrove introduced a bill that would have

required any woman who experiences “fetal death” without a doctor’s assistance to report this to the local law-enforcement agency within twelve hours of the miscarriage.  Failure to do so is punishable as a Class 1 Misdemeanor.

This bill was heavily covered by feminist blogs and again the legislator received an immense amount of attention, almost all of it negative. Within days, Cosgrove withdrew the legislation.

These are two great examples about the power of the internet and the progressive community. And they tell me that we should all try to be much aware of bills being worked on in our state legislatures. A concerted effort to publicize a “bad” bill can clearly deter its sponsor from following through because, I think, state legislators know that, given the small number voters involved, any organized effort can dramatically effect their re-election.

I wanted to write a rant about the phrase “ultimate sacrifice” which seems to be the favorite response of the Iraq war apologists to Cindy Sheehan. I hate this phrase which tries to pretend that this war was in response to some great outcry from the American people rather than being the lovechild of Bush’s ego and geo-political machinations. What “we the people” wanted was for Bin Laden to be caught and punished but that didn’t appeal to Bush since that would have been a long slog with limited (election) results. No, Bush needed to be drenched in power, splashy news, and oil so instead we got Iraq.

And now that it’s clear that the Bush administration misfigured the cost, they hide behind platitudes about nobility and sacrifice so that they don’t have to acknowledge the slaughter of both Americans and Iraqis.

I don’t want to denigrate a single person’s death in Iraq but we don’t honor them by creating a pretty fairy tale about the nature of death in war.

But this has been said before and in more moving words than I could ever manage:

Dulce Et Decorum Est
Wilfred Owen

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,–
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

It’s Saturday. It’s pretty outside. I’m going to the wedding of the daughter of one of my two oldest friends (since we were 9th graders — 40 years) where I will also get to visit with my other oldest friend whom I don’t get to see nearly often enough.

I don’t want to think about all the bad things in the world. I want fun. I want a list of really funny books to read. I want to know the funniest books you’ve ever read.

I have a three-way tie for my funniest book:

Tom Holt’s Expecting Someone Taller
This is the sequal to the Ring of Nibelungen Wagner could never have written.

Fran Lebowitz’s Metropolitan Life
Essays that should never be read when you have anything in your mouth. A sample quote: “If you are of the opinion that the contemplation of suicide is sufficient evidence of a poetic nature, do not forget that actions speak louder than words.”

Calvin Trilln’s Alice Let’s Eat
The funniest book about food and family ever written.

This diary is a corollary to the “What’s Your Main Political Concern?” diary. Most of the concerns mentioned in that diary have organizations that are actively working to address them. So here’s a chance to promote organizations that you think are worthy of our hard-earned bucks and limited free time.

I have a particular fondness for organizations that focus on incremental change because they appeal to both my pragmatic nature and my dislike of deferred gratification.

My List

The Nature Conservancy

I greatly admire this organization. They are amazingly successful at both making incremental change and turning a series of incremental changes into larger victories.

Habitat for Humanity

If only the federal housing program was good as Habitat’s.

Women for Women International

This organization works with women in countries suffering from the effects war and civil strife through economic, civil, and emotional support. Their programs include micro-loans and vocational training.

The Humane Society

Perhaps the original incremental change organization. Go to the web site or check your phone book for the local shelter. They’ll be happy to accept your money or your help at the shelter.

And by special request from my husband (a teacher).

Court-Appointed Special Advocates

This organization trains and assigns volunteers from the local community to advocate for abused and neglected children in the court system.

Tell us about your choices.

In the diary “Did age play a role in it?”, eclare asked:

As I’ve been reading over all of these posts, noting all of the awesome women who keep referring to their battle scars and their experiences, I’ve been wondering….Could you guys maybe tell us those stories? I suspect that I’m not the only person here that would really love to here the stories of those who have done so much to ensure that we, as the next generation, have all of the opportunities that we take for granted. So, if it’s not too presumptuous, I would like to put in a request for some storytelling diaries.

Though I didn’t comment in that thread, my feminism goes back to the 60’s and telling a story seems to be a great way to do my first diary (i.e., write what you know). So here’s a story to get things started.

The Birth of a Feminist

In 1962 when I was 12 years, my father died without having made a will. So the many shocks my mother suffered after his death included the news that her children had no legal guardian. Only the father was automatically assigned legal guardianship and as such only he could assign that right to someone else. Mom went to court and was named our guardian. She would have to go back to court every six months until we were of age to show that she was properly feeding, clothing, sheltering, and educating us.

Even as a 12-year-old, I had no trouble recognizing how stupid this was but it took two more events to finish the process of making me a feminist (even if I had never heard of the word at the time).

The first occurred when my mother took my older sister to get her beginners permit and they immediately came back home. As my sister furiously told me, the man at the license branch told my mother that she was a mother not the legal guardian and couldn’t sign the required paperwork; when she tried to explain, he wouldn’t listen and just told her to go home and get her husband to come back with my sister. Mother was so upset she couldn’t tell him that her husband was dead.

The second event was an off-hand remark made by my mother’s lawyer. My mother was doing some mild grumbling about having to prepare the paperwork for the regular court appearance and her lawyer said “Well, be happy you are their guardian. After all, if he had made a will, he could have named anyone he wanted.”

Well, that did it. I realized that my mother kept getting treated unfairly just because she was a woman and I decided that I wasn’t going to let that happen to me.

Epilogue: In the 70’s, I was very actively involved in the campaign to get the ERA passed in my state. As part of the effort, the laws of the state were reviewed for gender bias and changes to make the laws non-discriminatory were proposed. Over 300 laws were either changed or rescinded and among those laws changed were the ones which made the father the sole legal guardian.

So who else would like to share a story?