A Rumination by GoodNewsRoundup from Yesterday
“I am angry. Furious, really.
It is not an emotion I am comfortable with. I aim for hopeful and understanding and determined. Angry feels like I am wearing someone else’s clothes.
Women are not raised to be angry. We are encouraged to keep our negative emotions in check. “Smile” we are told repeatedly. “You are so much prettier when you smile.”
It is sometimes OK for us to be sad and scared... but angry? Not so much.
But this week I am angry. Sour taste in my mouth angry. A scream building in my throat angry. Fingers curled into fists angry. Knots in my stomach angry.
The way Republicans have treated Christine Blasey Ford has lit a fire of fury in me. I have barely been able to follow the news this week, it made me so mad.
Maybe it is all we have in common. We are around the same age, both went to prep school, both professional women with families.
km/km/I know what she is giving up by coming forward because, in many ways, her life is my life. So to see her motivations doubted and her story discounted is infuriating. It is a reminder of how far we have to go. It is a reminder of how little a woman’s word matters to those in power.
And it is a reminder to keep fighting.
…
There is nothing OK with a society that demonizes and terrorizes a woman who reports sexual abuse. There is nothing OK with a political party that insists that a young man holding his hand over a young woman’s mouth while she struggles is somehow normal or not a big deal. There is nothing OK about leaders who want to sweep abuse allegations under the rug for their own political expediency.
Let’s channel our rage.
Let’s vote those bastards out.
It is crunch time. Donate, give your time, GOTV, vote. Do all you can. Do it like our lives depend on it.
Some of ours do.” Better read the whole thing here.
Men, Listen
How can men support women? Listen, amplify the voices of women, and not insert your own feelings into the conversation. In the words of Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI), : "I just want to say to the men in this country: Just shut up and step up. Do the right thing for a change."
The Week in Review
I’ve borrowed this list from Cheers and Jeers with a tip of my hat to back-from-surgery Bill in Portland Maine. He posted this list as a poll 2 days ago. You can find his Who Won the Week? poll every Friday evening here, and you can still vote in his poll, which has about 2633 votes so far.
- Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI), for the quote of the week: "I just want to say to the men in this country: Just shut up and step up. Do the right thing for a change."
- Bob Woodward, whose new book "Fear" just broke the record for first-week sales at Simon & Schuster: 1.1 million copies
- Energy safety in the Garden State, as the country's oldest nuclear power plant (Oyster Creek, New Jersey) finally goes offline
- U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss, for ruling that Amway huckster/Sec. of Education Betsy DeVos's delay of enforcing Obama's rules protecting students from student loan hucksters was "arbitrary and capricious."
- Karma, as former GOP Oklahoma state senator and campaign chair to Donald Trump Ralph Shortey was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for child sex trafficking
- The emergency rescue and relief personnel and volunteers doing their damndest to set things right following the hurricane in the Carolinas
- U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman, for ordering Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to sit for deposition regarding his nefarious attempt to cram a citizenship question into the 2020 census
- McDonald's employees around the country who went on strike to demand that management take sexual harassment claims more seriously
- Golf Digest, for investigating the murder conviction of inmate Valentino Dixon (whose drawings of golf courses had caught their eye), which led to his freedom after 27 years
- All the video game characters who helped talk Mario Kart's Toad the mushroom man down off a high-rise ledge and whisk him to therapy, where he is now comfortably sedated
That’s “all the gnus
that’s fit to print” for today. May I suggest you return later today, after our Commenters herd their gnus to our Roundup. (Caregiving and entertaining duties today will prevent me from participating fully in comments.)
Please bring your own Good News to the comments. Sunday Roundups develop in the comments throughout the day, so check back later for more Good News.
How to bring the Good Gnus
- What’s your take on Good News for the nation?
- How are you resisting? (Your answer will mentor and encourage others by showing how easy and satisfying it is to Resist your way.)
Power with, not power over,
2thanks, a guy
Fly us away, Paul
The Beatles - Blackbird. A bird is English slang for a woman.
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