Concert Review: Joan Baez

I went to hear/see Joan Baez on Saturday night. The only other time I'd seen her was in August 2005, in the blistering heat (105˚F) of Crawford, Texas at Cindy Sheehan's Camp Casey. That was an experience. Saturday night? Tickets were selling for $45 each; my mother-in-law treated me, which was extremely sweet of her, or I wouldn't have gone. I'm actually not a huge Joan Baez fan.

She played a sold-out show to an audience that was largely in the 55 - 75 year-old range ... as you might expect. It is the 50 year anniversary of her first recording (made in 1959 -- the year I was born. That's just a little bind-boggling.) The songs she played ran the gamut, from the early ballads (Long Black Veil, Silver Dagger) to songs from a brand new album, produced by Steve Earle. She actually performed 5 songs by Steve Earle! (And only 1 by Bob Dylan.)

Overall it was an enjoyable concert but too often it veered over into being the kind of concert that PBS airs when they're having a pledge drive, if you know what I mean. A crowd-pleasing kind of concert for 55 - 75 year-olds. There was one flash of inspiration, when she sang Earle's wonderful song Jerusalem.

In her introduction to another Earle song -- Christmas in Washington -- Ms. Baez spoke about Woody Guthrie as being one of the first American singer-songwriters to take risks, and said that in her opinion, it was the risk-taking that distinguished a great songwriter from the others. I found that somewhat ironic, as she really took very few risks that evening. (She even edited a line in the song, changing "The unions have been busted and their proud red banners torn" to "and their banners have been torn.") Then again, at her age and this stage of her career, I think she's entitled to do a little laurel-resting.

I will admit that I was VERY pleased when she played Love Song To a Stranger. I think I probably wore out that song on my LP (you know those 12" round black thingies with the hole in the center) -- or at least made some family member want to throttle me -- back when I was a hopelessly romantic 15-year old. Sigh.

One more thing that happened at the concert. The venue where it was held chooses to hire outside security for some shows and not for others. When they hire security, the burly goons want to check everyone's purse for (management says) cameras, bottles, and cans. I have a problem with that. It's a public building (owned by the city, in fact,) not a private club, and I don't appreciate being treated like a potential criminal with warrantless searches. No other theater in town does it. So I refused. I spoke with the manager, who finally said, "I'll let you go in because you've paid for your ticket, but if you pull this stunt again you're never coming back here!"

Here's the thing: I was there to see Joan Baez, who is known for peace, love, protest, and civil disobedience. The concert was partially a benefit for Iraq Veterans Against the War. The concession stand was staffed by a guy wearing a "Resist Militarism" t-shirt. Every other person going in to that concert dutifully opened up their bag and allowed it to be searched. I was thinking, "What the hell? Does nobody else see a disconnect here, between what they presumably believe in and submitting to having their personal effects searched?"

When I refuse I look like a wacko troublemaker. What if ten people refused? Twenty? Fifty?

I felt a little ashamed throughout the rest of the evening, as if I had done something wrong. But I didn't do anything wrong. I stood up for the rights of the other 299 concert-goers! Anyway, it's perplexing and a little bit troubling. What do you think?

Are You Listening, Tammy?

Tonight I accompanied Mr. Ether and friends Donna, Beth, and Crayons to a listening session with Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin. She holds these periodically throughout her district, although never in Madison. I wonder why. Perhaps she knows she'll get a big old earful from Madisonians, or perhaps she thinks we flap our lips enough already and the people in the outlying communities have fewer chances to flap their lips. Whatever. We drove to Middleton, recently rated #1 city to live in by Money Magazine, and home of the lovely and talented Jess Wundrun. I hoped Jess would be there, but alas, she was not.

I have to say that I appreciate that Tammy holds these sessions, and that they are very down to Earth and low key. There are no security checks, no formalities ... Mr. Ether even wore his Impeach Cheney baseball cap. This one was in the Senior Center.

The last listening session I went to I arrived at about 30 minutes before it was due to start and there were already many speakers registered in front of me. I almost had to leave to get back to work before it was my turn. Tonight we took precautions to arrive plenty early, and no one was there! No matter, we went across the street to the diner to wait.

There were many eloquent speakers, and most spoke out about the need to begin impeachment investigations. While she [belatedly] signed on to H.R. Resolution 333 to impeach Cheney, Tammy hemmed and hawed about how there is not enough support for it in Congress. The people present were having none of that. "You work for us!" "Beginning the investigation is the way to build support!" "Step up, Tammy!" and so on. I'd like to think that it was the listening sessions last spring that finally got her to sign onto Kucinich's resolution, so perhaps these sessions too will bear fruit.

Tammy plays it way too safe. I'm not sure if it is because of her position as one of the few openly gay members of Congress, or what. One gentleman, while commending her on her stance on human rights issues, took her to task for failing to see the human rights abuses in Palestine. I was disappointed in her response; predictably, she talked about the failure of Hamas to put a stop to suicide bombings. I was very proud of that speaker for saying, "Just keep in mind as you are considering this, that there is no symmetry there. One side has U.S. supplied weapons while the other side has rocks and improvised explosives." In my opinion, too many politicians, even those with whom I mostly agree, are way too deep in Israel's pockets.

I especially want to commend Beth (a.k.a. "Anonymous") for advocating for immigrants and commenting on NCLB. She even invoked Saint Alfie (Kohn, that is.) Very thoughtfully and articulately done, Beth.

And Mr. Ether, who was passionate, angry, and to the point. Congresswoman Baldwin needs to hear that.

Anyway, I'm glad I went. After a long day it was tempting to go all whiny about being tired and going out into the gray, damp November evening, but being there, I was reminded that we do still have a shred of Democracy left and we need to show up whenever possible.

Take Action, via the People's Email Network

If you are so inclined, this is a message I received with a link from which you can email your critters in Congress, as well as send a letter to your local newspaper, in support of Rep. Pete Stark. Nancy Pelosi, good Republicrat that she is, took him to task for his comment about the Iraq war and SCHIP. (Pardon the funky formatting. I just don't feel like messing with it.)

If They Want A Condemnation We'll Give Them One

Once in a rare while a member of Congress will speak the plain truth
without equivocation.

Action Page: http://www.usalone.com/condemnation.php

And when Pete Stark stood up to accuse the president of the United
States of having no conscience about the deaths of the thousands of
valiant troops he sent on a criminal war mission (for his "amusement"
Stark said), while at the same time stealing the medicines out of the
mouths of babes, not a word was voiced in protest by the Republicans
present in the moment. There was only a mild generalized statement
from the chair about avoiding personal references to the president.

And the reason there was not a peep of actual outrage when Stark
spoke those indicting words (that they are so howling about now), is
that they knew in what was left of their hearts, that it was all
shamefully true.

How unlike the instant and unanimous reaction of the Democrats, when
mean Jean Schmidt called John Murtha a coward for wanting to bring
our troops home from the senseless slaughter, shouting at the chair
to take her words down. And did Schmidt sincerely apologize for
anything? Of course not. No Republican ever apologizes unless forced
to. They just blame the media for accurately reporting their words,
and blame our ears for hearing what they said and meant.

So let us be clear. What Pete Stark said was not over the line.

It was not over the top, and there was absolutely nothing wrong with
Stark's choice of words.

We are talking about a president who, when he was not being
obstinately surly, has snickered his way through every press
conference since he lied us into invading Iraq. We are talking about
a president who was making funny faces into the camera in the seconds
before he went live on the air to announce the assault. And who, with
the raucous approval of the entire media press corps, thought those
lies were just a laugh riot in hindsight.

But in an attempt to again shut up any courageous voice of dissent,
the right wing noise machine is trying after the fact to drum up
messages of condemnation. So they want a condemnation do they? Well
we'll give them one. This action page will send your personal message
on the subject, "We condemn the entire Republican leadership."

Action Page: http://www.usalone.com/condemnation.php

We condemn the Republican leadership for mercilessly obstructing
every congressional action of merit, even where that action was
supported by the overwhelming majority of the American people, as in
their engineering of the failure to override the veto of SCHIP
(latest poll 81% supporting).

We condemn the Republican leadership for resorting to filibusters at
a historic record pace, since they lost the majorities in Congress
which majorities they had done nothing with but abuse.

We condemn the Republican leadership for doing nothing to hold the
White House accountable for their lies and shredding of the
Constitution, through illegal wiretaps, torture and all, because of
their greed for political power, not allowing even investigations in
these matters.

We condemn the Republican leadership for using our troops as
political props, while exploiting their suffering and death for the
profit of their war profiteer contributors.

We condemn the Republican leadership for their cynical and sinful
hypocrisy in being the most corrupt and scandalous pack of thieves
who have ever held national office, now resigning at an unprecedented
clip (or reneging on the promise to do so), all the while posturing
to their gullible diehard supporters as the most righteous.

And we condemn the Republican leadership for seeking to hold others
to a standard of decorum that they themselves grossly and repeatedly
violate with the most hateful and false negative attack ads that have
ever besmirched the American political discourse.

We tried ourselves to call our members of Congress on Friday by phone
to offer messages of support for Stark. Randi Rhodes was giving out
the toll free Congressional phone numbers on the air for this
purpose, bless her heart. But the answering machines were all full,
we presume mostly with those words of encouragement.

Action Page: http://www.usalone.com/condemnation.php

Well we need to do more. But the only way you are going to be able to
get through to Washington this weekend is by email, which is what the
action page above will send to all your members of Congress at once.
We need every living, breathing activist we've got to submit that
action page and tell them we've had it. Enough. You will not back us
down with trumped up attacks on our heros. You're going to pass SCHIP
again just the way it is, and make the override go the other way if
necessary.

The action page sends nothing but the stated subject line. Add your
own choice words about whatever issues you are most upset about,
whether it's the occupation, SCHIP, no immunity for law breaking
telecoms, no attack on Iran, or anything else.

We want their email inboxes stuffed by Monday morning. We want their
latest fake outrage to backfire on them in the biggest way. We need
to flood them with emails this weekend like this is the biggest issue
that ever was. Because it is. And the issue is this . . .

We Will Not Back Down

Not an inch. Never again. We win this issue, we win them all. We the
people are running the show from now on. Let's show them how we
respond to their calls for condemnation of Stark. We condemn THEM,
not Stark. In numbers like they've never seen. And then we can start
passing some meaningful legislation around here, over the president's
smirking objection if necessary.

If you want to do more, email all your friends from the same action
page and encourage them to speak out too.

We almost got the first override the first time. With 81% of the
American people on our side now, is the time to pour it on, the cable
news talking fluff heads be damned.

Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed
to be ours, and forward this alert as widely as possible.

Personally, I condemn the Democrats too, for putting power and profit ahead of people, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law. I condemn the Democrats for doing too little, too late. I condemn the Democrats for total disregard of their constituency, for war mongering with the best of them, for pandering to fear, for trifling with the future of our children. I am feeling very disheartened these days.

The General We'd Like To Hear From, Come September …

I found this astounding piece in the latest issue of The Funny Times. Maybe you've seen it before. I hadn't.

"War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.

"I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.

"I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket …

"It may seem odd for me, a military man, to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major General. And during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism …

"During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."

~From a 1933 speech by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC

Did you know I support impeachment?

After Downing Street is an excellent source of information, inspiration, and (dare I say it?) hope.
This is what our representatives/candidates need to hear:

Open Letter to the National Democratic Leadership

By davidswanson

Created 2007-07-17 12:35

By Dan Monte, California Democratic Central Committee

The 2008 elections are the distraction, not impeachment.

Impeachment is not a distraction for our military that sees our once invincible force being destroyed. Impeachment is not a distraction for the families of the 380,000 soldiers and private mercenaries that are occupying Iraq. Impeachment is not a distraction for the families of the 6,000 who have died in Iraq, American and coalition forces and mercenaries. Nobody asks anymore of the many who have died in Afghanistan. Impeachment is not a distraction for the families of the nearly 1,000,000 dead in the Middle East because of this administration. Impeachment is not a distraction for the 100s of millions of people that
this administration is threatening with aggressive war.

Impeachment is not a distraction for the millions whose votes were not counted or who were kept from voting in the 2000 and 2004 elections. Impeachment is not a distraction for those whose great grandchildren will be indebted by the money stolen by this administration.

They can jail us without trial and torture us without prohibition. They can convict and execute us on secret evidence at sham trials. I will never forget this Congress that after we have given them the power to stand up and defend us against the tyranny of this administration is too distracted to do so.

Why should I think of 2008 when you will then tell me to think of 2010? You will never be forgotten for your failure of 2007.

Dan Monte, California Democratic Central Committee

Fighting Bob Fest is Coming!

If you're a Wisconsin resident (or you like to travel) save the second weekend in September for Fighting Bob Fest at the Baraboo Fairgrounds. Sure they're preaching to the choir, but sometimes it does the heart good to hear some good old-fashioned progressive political agitating. I was pleased to receive an email announcing that Cindy Sheehan will be there to receive an award honoring all the work she has done for peace. I'll be there. Will you?

Angelic Troublemaker 3

Before Al Gore became synonymous with global warming, Barry Commoner was warning the public about the delicate condition of planet Earth. Long associated with the Center for the Biology of Natural Systems at Queens College, Dr. Commoner has for decades been agitating to restore ecological balance to the biosphere, whether by outlawing nuclear testing or spreading the practice of recycling. Time magazine once nicknamed him “the Paul Revere of the environmental movement.” (read the whole interview)

I cast my first ever vote for president for Barry Commoner in 1980.

A Local Defiant Garden

My city has a long history of being divided between east and west side, with the state capital building being the midpoint. In short, the west side (where I grew up) is home to the University of Wisconsin campus and the gracious living that accompanies that. (There were/are some notable exceptions: there was a large and vibrant working class Italian neighborhood called The Greenbush just south of campus which was razed in a shameful fit of "urban renewal" in the early sixties.) The east side (to which I migrated as a young adult and where I still live) was largely industrial; home to Gisholt, Oscar Mayer, Rayovac and numerous smaller industries.

When I was a child growing up on the west side, the east side was a scary place to me. We drove through it only to get out of town and visit my grandparents near Milwaukee. My dad's chosen route was Williamson Street, as down and out a street as existed in Madison at the time, inhabited by down and out people and home to a bona fide motorcycle gang, the C.C. Riders led by a guy named Dick Smith.

Fast forward a few years. I was a young adult, and Williamson Street was becoming the counter culture place to live. There was a fledgling food co-op and rent was cheap. My brothers were sharing an apartment on Willy Street (as it was and still is affectionately known) and I moved over there too. The neighborhood was undergoing some transformation, and one of the leaders was none other than Mr. Dick Smith (mentioned above.)

There was an empty lot kitty-corner to my apartment house and next to Dick's house. It was purchased by the restaurant chain Taco John's, which intended to put up a fast food taco joint there, development much opposed by the neighborhood. Taco John's didn't care; they went ahead and began building on the lot. That night, in glorious Monkey Wrench Gang tradition, Dick organized his motorcycle gang buddies and they dismantled everything that had been built. Same thing the next night and the next. This went on for some time, it ended up in court, and eventually (a few years later) Taco John's donated the land to the neighborhood association for a neighborhood park.

Willy Street is still a special place. Unfortunately it is undergoing major luxury condo-ification right now, with some of the early community members leading the charge. (Money talks.) But the park is small and funky, and there is not a chain store to be found (unless you count the St. Vincent DePaul thrift shop.). Every September the park is at the heart of an annual street festival, the Willy Street Fair, and Dick Smith has been a prominent feature, dressed like a combination of Bacchus (the Roman god of wine) and the Green Man, smeared in green make-up and swathed with fruiting grape vines. Not your image of a motorcycle gang member!

This story always warms me to the cockles of my heart.

Ground Control to Major Tom

Congress is in recess for Memorial Day, and our representative, Tammy Baldwin, used the week to hold a series of "listening sessions" in my area. I took the morning off of work and went to a small town city hall to be a part of democracy in action. First of all, I was pleased to see Tammy looking so, well, normal. No red power suit today. She gave brief opening remarks and then simply went down her list of people who had signed up to speak to her. The room was packed, and it was not the usual suspects. It was ordinary people, some representing different nonprofit agencies and some just representing themselves.

With a few notable exceptions (one who was anti-choice and one who was anti-immigration, everyone
eventually got around to the issue of impeachment. What was really cool is, I'd be sitting there thinking about the National Livestock Identification requirements ... and then a woman got up and spoke about it. And then I was thinking about the little provision that was slipped into some bill or other, giving Bush the power to declare martial law in the case of a national emergency, that was not mentioned in any mainstream media outlet ... and a woman stood up and asked about it. It was like a lively Quaker Meeting.

I was something like speaker number 20, and I began to fear that I'd have to leave before my turn came. But 25 minutes before I had to be back at school all the way across town, my name was called. I spoke out for impeachment. I used my husband's argument that, if you are a law enforcement official and know a crime has been committed, you cannot decide that prosecution is "off the table" and maybe you'll just use oversight to keep it from happening again. I pointed out that no part of the Democrats' agenda is going to move forward as long as this administration is in power. I reminded her that she took an oath (as did Nancy Pelosi and every other member of Congress) to uphold the laws of the land, that this administration has broken law after law after law, and if that doesn't constitute "high crimes and misdemeanors" I don't know what does. I implored her to sign on to the motion to impeach Cheney. I got kind of emotional; okay, I actually cried. And I got huge applause. And then I had to book it back to work.

But it felt good to be able to speak directly to my congresswoman. Far more empowering than the peace rally this week, which I have yet to write about. It felt like she was listening.

Update: So I got a phone call from a friend at 6 this morning, saying she had woken up to me on the radio! Unfortunately it was on a fairly right wing program -- they were there recording yesterday -- and another colleague told me that people were calling in as "incensed taxpayers" because a public school teacher had taken a day off to go talk to Tammy Baldwin. The radio host vowed to find out who the teacher was. Blah blah blah. It pisses me off that people feel as if they own teachers. Their tax dollars go to pay for a lot of things that are far worse (like illegal war) but they don't yammer about that. I'm half expecting repercussions ...

An Earful

Yahoo! Tammy Baldwin has scheduled a series of "listening sessions" with her constituents in southwestern Wisconsin in the next week. The one closest to me is during a work day, but I think it's worth taking a half day, don't you?

Our representatives -- particularly the Democrats -- need to hear that their constituents care about more than who will win on American Idol.

Outlaw for a Day

I was driving home from Meeting going the back way on residential streets because my brake lights are malfunctioning (mal-what??) and saw my friend -- I'll call her "Terry" -- out doing yard work. "Terry" and I briefly became outlaws a year and a half ago on July 4. She is one of the most active activists I know, and she organized a party in her back yard, to create antiwar/anti Bush signs to put up around town. We painted a bunch of signs with pithy messages on them, and a few of us urban guerillas agreed to meet at about 11 p.m. on July 4th to place them prominently around town.

Giggling like naughty school girls, we made our first stop, at a darkened tennis court alongside a heavily traveled bypass. We got the sign up, and in about 2 seconds a patrol car pulled up. The officer looked like he was about 14 years old (and us, a handful of nearly middle aged women.) He said, "You want to take that down?" "OK," we squeaked.

I secretly wanted to go home. I'm not cut out for a life of crime! My intrepid companions wanted to have another go. And we did. We put up two signs at a bridge along another heavily traveled street. It was pretty cool.

Anyway, today "Terry" and I chatted a bit before I continued on my way, thinking about freeway blogging. And in a wonderful moment of synchronicity (oh how I love it) I got home and found this linked from Michael Moore's website. Here's the best part:

At a dinner honoring Pelosi Saturday evening, pro-impeachment activists slipped elegant placecards onto each place at the table. The cards read:

        Remember, We’re the Deciders.

        Impeachment is on the table.

        Investigate and Impeach Cheney and Bush!

Whoever came up with this idea of table-blogging is brilliant!

And all hail the freeway bloggers, who have more guts than I have!

I can't wait to be a librarian!

I cribbed this from Michael Moore's web site. (That's okay. His people cribbed it from In These Times.)

August 11th, 2004 10:31 am
I Love You, Madame Librarian - by Kurt Vonnegut

by Kurt Vonnegut / In These Times

I, like probably most of you, have seen Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11. Its title is a parody of the title of Ray Bradbury’s great science fiction novel, Fahrenheit 451. This temperature 451° Fahrenheit, is the combustion point, incidentally, of paper, of which books are composed. The hero of Bradbury’s novel is a municipal worker whose job is burning books.

And on the subject of burning books: I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength or their powerful political connections or their great wealth, who, all over this country, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves, and have refused to reveal to thought police the names of persons who have checked out those titles.

So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media. The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.

And still on the subject of books: Our daily sources of news, papers and TV, are now so craven, so unvigilant on behalf of the American people, so uninformative, that only in books can we find out what is really going on. I will cite an example: House of Bush, House of Saud by Craig Unger, published near the start of this humiliating, shameful blood-soaked year.

In case you haven’t noticed, and as a result of a shamelessly rigged election in Florida, in which thousands of African Americans were arbitrarily disenfranchised, we now present ourselves to the rest of the world as proud, grinning, jut-jawed, pitiless war lovers, with appallingly powerful weaponry and unopposed.

In case you haven’t noticed, we are now almost as feared and hated all over the world as the Nazis were.

With good reason.

In case you haven’t noticed, our unelected leaders have dehumanized millions and millions of human beings simply because of their religion and race. We wound and kill ’em and torture ’em and imprison ’em all we want.

Piece of cake.

In case you haven’t noticed, we also dehumanize our own soldiers, not because of their religion or race, but because of their low social class.

Send ’em anywhere. Make ’em do anything.

Piece of cake.

The O’Reilly Factor.

So I am a man without a country, except for the librarians and the Chicago-based magazine you are reading, In These Times.

Before we attacked Iraq, the majestic New York Times guaranteed that there were weapons of mass destruction there.

Albert Einstein and Mark Twain gave up on the human race at the end of their lives, even though Twain hadn’t even seen World War I. War is now a form of TV entertainment. And what made WWI so particularly entertaining were two American inventions, barbed wire and the machine gun. Shrapnel was invented by an Englishman of the same name. Don’t you wish you could have something named after you?

Like my distinct betters Einstein and Twain, I now am tempted to give up on people too. And, as some of you may know, this is not the first time I have surrendered to a pitiless war machine.

My last words? “Life is no way to treat an animal, not even a mouse.”

Napalm came from Harvard. Veritas!

Our president is a Christian? So was Adolf Hitler.

What can be said to our young people, now that psychopathic personalities, which is to say persons without consciences, without a sense of pity or shame, have taken all the money in the treasuries of our government and corporations and made it all their own?

Just as a postscript, I will admit I don't share Vonnegut's enthusiasm over Fahrenheit 451. I read it a while back when I was on a quest to read every book on the ALA's list of the 100 most banned books, and while the premise was most interesting, the writing itself seemed ... trite. I was also really disappointed with Ray Bradbury when he made noise about suing Michael Moore for copyright infringement over the title of Fahrenheit 911. Sourpuss.

P.P.S. If my dog, the valiant Georgia, had opposable thumbs AND knew how to type, she might publish a blog called "Odoriferous Ether" or perhaps "Deadly Emissions". Whew! It's enough to get me out of this chair and doing something else ...

So it goes.

“Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies — ‘God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.’ ”

This quote hangs on the wall of an examining room in the clinic I go to. I love it. If my clinic were a subsidiary of the RAMJAC Corporation, it wouldn't be allowed. So it goes.

I'll miss you, Kurt Vonnegut.

Everything. Is. Fine.

It's been a busy week around here for gadflies and troublemakers. On Wednesday evening I took my eleven year old daughter to see Vermont's legendary Bread and Puppet Theater performing the Everything Is Fine Circus. I saw them once before a few years ago -- back in the halcyon days when Bill Clinton was president. Remember those? As I was leaving this show, I was trying to remember what was so important in 1998 that needed to be protested and satirized. Everything is so much worse now ... I mean, Everything is fine! Really. Really. Fine.

If I was a top-drawer gadfly and troublemaker, I'd be going out tonight to hear Amy Goodman and Jeremy Scahill. But I'm a top-notch mom, and I'm going to see my luminiferous daughter performing in The Red Shoes instead.

Soul of a Citizen

I had a proud and poignant moment yesterday when I took my newly-minted-adult daughter to our city hall to vote for the first time. (She's going to be out of town over election day next week, so she had to register and then vote absentee.)

She's gone with us to vote since she was a tiny baby, so her interest in voting wasn't a surprise, but it still gave me a thrill that it was one of the main things she talked about when she was turning 18.

The employee in the City Clerk's office was very sweet about it, wishing her a happy birthday and congratulating her on her first vote. It was so cool!

Everyday Radical

I'm a novice bloggerina, and I've been following links from blogs I visit regularly to other blogs down in Blogville. I've been thinking a lot about this weird and wonderful world of blogging, and yes, I've been suffering some blogger's angst.

From whence does my angst stem?

Well, it's like this. I'm half Martha Stewart and half Rosa Parks (actually if I was ever a fraction of the person Rosa was, I'd be happy) and I wonder what I want my blog to be. Some days I visit a great many blogs of a great many creative women who post their creative endeavors, and I feel moved to post about my creative endeavors. But the other part of me is passionate (obsessed, my family would say) about social justice, especially as it pertains to children and education, peace, nonviolence. So my blog is inspired by other current event-related blogs, really my cyber-soapbox where I expound and pontificate about things very close to my heart.

I've been ruminating on this for a few days, really looking for the place that these two parts of who I am intersect -- and I think I have a glimpse of clarity about it. It came to me in the phrase "everyday radical."

I believe that every time I (or anyone) creates something, it is a radical act. Every time that I am a creator, rather than a consumer -- every time I sing in the car instead of turning on the radio, bake bread instead of buying it, pick up my guitar and play it, knit socks, write something, make dinner for my family -- all of those things are everyday radical. They are a statement of hope, of faith, of a vision of what I'd like the world to be.

So I'll just continue as I have been, but I might post a photo of a perfect loaf of French bread or Poodle Doc's mittens, or the little mousie slippers that are drying on the kitchen counter ... just every now and again. 'Cause I'm not really Martha Stewart (praise Annoya, the goddess of things that get stuck in kitchen drawers!)

Just know, when I'm in the middle of a rant, that I can also knit a mean pair of socks -- turn the heel and everything. I can even knit shoelaces, and come the Revolution, everyone's going to need to know how to knit shoelaces.

A Life Writ Large

Molly Ivins died today. Another icon gone.
Go here to read her obituary, and then dedicate your life to raising hell (or, in the words of Bayard Rustin, being an "angelic troublemaker.") Not sure how to begin your hellraising career? Molly has some suggestions in her last column.