You already know I’m a super nerdy… If you read any of my blog, that’s painfully obvious.
So it shouldn’t surprise you at all that I’ve watched/listened to this speech 3 times now.
I love this piece because it is so reminiscent of the days leading up to 2008- the passion, the call to responsibility, the need for change. This sort of power, this sort of speech really sets the tone for the possibilities of 2012- and the 4 years to follow.
I’ve read some critiques of this speech in particular as well. Some have said really ridiculous things about how union money and communism/socialism/fascism, as if those terms are interchangeable.
Others have said it’s a campaign speech, not to be confused with work as a president.
But this speech is miles past candidates Obama’s 2008 soaring rhetoric or campaign stumping.
We’re now at a point where President Obama can say- We were right: Look how far we’ve come and just how far we can go.
Yes- it makes me positively giddy. (And perhaps a tad misty eyed when I listened to NPR this morning, with workers talking about how much the car bailout, and President Obama, meant to them.)
Don’t feel like watching the whole thing? That’s ok.
Here are my highlights:
“I’ll promise you this: as long as you’ve got an ounce of fight left in you, I’ll have a ton of fight left in me.”
“If we had turned our backs on you; if America had thrown in the towel; GM and Chrysler wouldn’t exist today,” Obama said to huge cheers. “I placed my bet on American workers…three years later, the American auto industry is back.”
Said Obama: “You want to talk about values? Hard work — that’s a value. Looking out for one another — that’s a value. The idea that we are all in it together — that I am my brother’s keeper; I am my sister’s keeper — that is a value.”
Because I am me, I successfully picked the most conservative, Christian, pro-life, anti-abortion movie of the Heartland Film Festival bunch. Damn it. I’ll admit it is humorously ironic, although I’m still a little bitter at my mom for the sheer glee she got out of knowing I ended up in the middle of THIS.
My choice for movie #6 of my 9 film Heartland Film journey, October Baby, was chosen solely because I am an October baby. I figured it couldn’t be worse of a decision making move than say, a choice based on fictional characters, also known as the Zoe/Peggy debacle.
And while I left feeling like October Baby was an infinitely better made movie than A Buddy Story, I couldn’t help but feel once again women were getting cheated with a drastically one sided view of a woman’s choices.
Let me back up. The movie is the story of a girl, Hannah, who finds out she was adopted, after her birth mother tried to abort her and her brother. The early third trimester abortion failed and the mother went into labor instead, delivering twins. The son was badly hurt as a result of the abortion and died soon after. The baby girl, Hannah, makes it and is now a 19 year old freshman in college.
So Hannah decided to go on a journey to find answers and find her dirty slut career oriented mother and to hear the tale from a nurse of the failed abortion attempt. In unnecessary character information, we also find out she’s a virgin and refuses to even sleep in the same room as a man. Lovely. Oh. And that she’s baptist.
(Of note- We also find out that the twins and I share a birthday- October 7th. Bizarre coincidence, right?)
Here’s the thing. For the first chunk of the movie I thought it was a well made, compelling tale. While I found Hannah to be a tad pious and the fact that she decides to announce she’s a virgin a little ridiculous, I was tracking. ( But seriously- Can you imagine an innocent conversation with your best friend where they randomly throw in “I’m a virgin”? If you’re bestie’s wouldn’t you know that? I digress.)
Even as we listened to the story of the failed abortion attempt, I thought ok- yes. This is WHY women’s education is important- why a woman’s right, not just to choose but to education and superior health care is NECESSARY. Late term abortion’s are fraught with issues and from what the nurse said, this clinic, from 1990, wasn’t staffing knowledgeable doctors. Women need options, women need a high standard of care as well as the counseling and education to understand decisions. Ok. I’m with you movie director.
And then as we meet the birth mother- I’m expecting answers, an explanation, something. As it turns out, she’s just portrayed as formerly slutty, still bitchy career type, who doesn’t have time for Hannah or her questions.
And I couldn’t help but be frustrated. The movie should have been a call to action. Not just dealing with forgiveness and the past but also, how to prevent things like this from happening in the future. The answer isn’t lifelong chastity for the “good girls” (Hannah’s romantic interest it seems has had sex, presumably with his bitch girlfriend. A real underlying motif here was that bitches are in turn dirty whores. Or maybe that’s just what I got out of it.) but to understand- to make INFORMED choices. In the story, pregnancy resulted from a one night stand, and the birth mother was absolutely blamed, for both the choice and the resulting abortion. What about the dad? Why are we STILL, in 2011, blaming the woman for being a slut, for wanting to terminate the pregnancy to advance her education, and most of all for presumably not having the education or support system to make a better decision than a late term abortion??
In front of me in the theater was a mom with 4 or 5 teenagers in tow. All I could think was that this sort of message was dangerous for 14, 15, year old girls to be getting, especially if it was the only one they were getting. Teenagers have sex. Like it or not, it’s a reality and ignoring the situation, a lack of education for teenage girls is what GOT the birth mother in the position she was in!
In an attempt to counter the stupid- I am posting the below video, in which Rachel Maddow explains birth control, and you know, anatomy, to Mitt Romney. It’s great- watch it. Now.
p.s. Movie #5, entitled Crime after Crime, was a powerful, and surprisingly loving and humorous documentary, telling the story of the fight for justice for a woman who continually got screwed (I can’t think of a more tactful word. Sorry.) by the California justice system. Do some research, if you can. I was incredibly surprised but just how many women in the justice system had been victims of abuse (80%) and just how stacked the system is against these women, without the resources to fight. I have always had a heart for women’s rights (you couldn’t tell right?) and this movie broadened my scope of how difficult that fight sometimes is, for women, and minorities. Crime after Crime? Surprisingly uplifting and so full of heart.
How the right is shoving me farther and farther to the left.
I very proudly said for a long time that it wasn’t about a party. No one party is good or evil, nor can the merit of a candidate be based on the letter by their name.
But the thing is, the more extreme the Republican party gets-the more exclusive, the farther left I wander.
Why?
1. Education
People preach about the legacy we pass on to future generations. That’s crucial when discussing matters like healthcare and the budget. But for some reason we keep chipping away at the education system. Especially here in Indiana, there seems to be the uncanny urge to take away crucial funding for schools.
How is this possible? How can schools be the first place to take money from? You want to argue over the economy? Or the high unemployment rate? Perhaps this is, at least in part, a failure of the education system.
2. Equality
It’s no secret. I love gays. I love the gay community. I believe in gay rights. My friend always tells me that I actually have a gay man hidden inside me (don’t try to figure out the logistics on this).
The thing is- this is the civil rights issue of our generation. People are being treated like second class citizens and opponents are wrapping themselves up in a blanket of Christianity to justify their bigotry. (See: Michelle Bachmann’s New Pledge) Let me make myself clear- I did not wake up one morning and say YAY boys. I did not DECIDE to be attracted to men. I don’t believe anyone else has that choice to make either. I was born, the way I was born. Anyone in the GLBT community was born the way they were born (Too Lady Gaga? Sorry.)
And I firmly believe those facts, those personal truths do not make a higher power frown on me. In fact, if He made me, He made any number of my friends just the way they are. THEREFORE, Indiana’s Gay Marriage Amendment scares me. My state, this state, continues to move this forward, to try to constitutionally ban the rights and freedoms I take for granted. I am appalled and saddened and will continue to donate, on my itty-bitty just out of college salary, to causes that fight against this.
3. Women’s Rights
You’d have to be living under a rock to not know how much of an attack women’s rights in this state have been under. This isn’t local news, or even regional. It’s become national and garnered the attention of many public figures.
Here’s my deal. Men, men in government, male pundits, public figures, have started acting as though women’s rights- affordable women’s healthcare and our right to choose what happens to our body, are negotiable. In my opinion- they are not. More importantly, the message it sends is that if you are a “good” “christian” female, who’s family has the means to take care of her financially- the Republicans can take care of you. But if you are poor, or if you are sexually active, or if you are in need of affordable health services, then you must be a “hooker”. (Could I make that up?)
Want to know something? I made a donation to Planned Parenthood too. Even if you don’t believe in abortion, even if you don’t want it to be an option, Planned Parenthood provides invaluable health services to women is need. And that is the most important point. That is why the funding of this program, and countless others like it is crucial.
4. Insanity
I would like to write about how party members who don’t just push boundaries but go running off the side of a cliff into a big vat of insanity, then have the gall to act like it’s the big ol’ bad media’s fault, are making me think that people with a brain couldn’t possibly be Republican. Or how Republican’s are trying to oust a fellow Republican, a nationally respected, moderate, thoughtful, Republican (Lugar) because he’s “too out there” and “not adhering to the conservative agenda” But instead, I’ll finish with an adorable video that further proves, while insanity gets me talking, it also pushes me WAY AWAY from the elephants.
In my Pop Culture/Mass Media Literature class, we are reading a book by Kurt Vonnegut. Somehow, in all my reading, he is an author that has escaped me. Today, in class we watched his 2006 appearance on The Daily Show. At the end of the clip, (One completely worth watching- he’s HILARIOUS and incredibly bright!) he mentions that he made a list of “Liberal Crap I Don’t Want to Hear Again.” After a quick google search, I found it and it cracked me up. Perhaps it will make your Tuesday better!
Liberal Crap I Don’t Want to Hear Again
Give us this day our daily bread. (Oh sure.)
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. (Nobody better trespass against me. I’ll tell you that. I’ll cut you a new you-know-what.)
Blessed are the meek.
Blessed are the merciful. (You mean we can’t use torture?)
Blessed are the peacemakers. (Jane Fonda?)
Love your enemies – (Arabs?)
Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. (The hell I can’t! Look at the Reverand Pat Robertson. And he is as happy as a pig in shit.)
