I haven’t been posting much recently, too much disgust, not enough snark or (imagined) wit on hand to counterbalance it. But when both catnip and Polly Jones (although I was massively tardy and didn’t respond to her email…) tagged me, and Scott dropped a line, I had to wade back in. Because it’s a topic that I don’t write about often enough, but one that has had profound impacts on my life.

I am a feminist. I am a woman. I am a humanitarian. I am a human being.

And my sisters before me helped me be able to sit here at my computer and proclaim those things loud and clear.

5 things feminism has done for me:

1. I grew up in the ‘70’s in Toronto and with a Prime Minister in charge who was a pro-humanity flower child (albeit a grumpy one)… I digress… I never gave a second thought to not being equal. Until I had to. But when I did I never looked back or questioned my right to be an equal.

Feminism helped my voice come through

2. I’m in my 30’s and have made several choices regarding family planning in my time (code-speak for you non-fundamentalists out there, I’ve had an abortion). I came from a troubled childhood and if I had been forced to carry a baby to term in my teens I can only imagine the fucked up life she would have had. Like I did.

Feminism gave me control over my own body

3. Sex. Love it. Grew up in a religious environment where I was supposed to be ashamed of it, grew up with a messed up mother who was forced to do messed up things to make ends meet, but still… Sex is beautiful. And fun. And natural.

Feminism made it possible for me to get my freak on

4. Growing up I was a tom-boy who loved her Barbie dolls and Nancy Drew. Running, jumping, climbing trees and then cutting Barbie’s hair for a night on the town in her pink Corvette. Thing is – I still do. I’m complex. I’m more than Susie Homemaker, I’m a real person.

Feminism has helped me be recognized as a whole human being

5. I’m a pacifist with a mean streak. I’m aggressive and direct and don’t take much shit. I also cry. A lot. Especially at sappy movies or when an animal is hurt.

Feminism has helped that make me, me and not an emotional bitch

All in all… I’d say…

Long Live Feminism.

And long live Humanitarianism.

Both seem to be in too short supply these days.

ps - The 6th thing feminism has done for me is quite important... it's enabled me to tell the bad guys from the good. And there are a ton of good ones out there.

depriving a mother of food to feed her child

depriving a boy of a shelter from the cold

a grandmother cowering in the night at the tip of the rifle

dropping bombs on people cooking dinner

dropping bombs on people fleeing from your bombs

paying for the dropping of bombs with each tax on the Big Mac

torture

brutality

photographing your prey

raping and killing a family

believing you are some how better than anyone else

taunting your prey

propaganda

fear

brutality

What is deplorable? Is it the targeting of civilians and UN peacekeepers in Lebanon?

No. Apparently it is Kofi Annan's words about the Israeli attacks on the UNIFIL outpost in Southern Lebanon Tuesday in which observers from Canada, China, Austria, and Finland were killed.

Daniel Ayalon, Israel's ambassador to the U.S., called Annan's reaction "deplorable." He said the observers were caught in crossfire between Hezbollah and Israel.

And what was his reaction that was so "deplorable"? What were those horrible words that dared not be spoken?

"I am shocked and deeply distressed by the apparently deliberate targeting by Israeli Defence Forces of a UN observer post in southern Lebanon that has killed two UN military observers, with two more feared dead," Annan said from Rome.

...

Annan said the attack took place "despite personal assurances given to me by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that UN positions would be spared Israeli fire."

Struger [spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon known as UNIFIL] said there had been 14 other incidents of firing close to this position from the Israeli side Tuesday afternoon.

"The firing continued even during the rescue operation," he said.

The UN base has been in operation since 1972 and co-ordinates the organization's activities in southern Lebanon.

Yes, I can see how that statement would be deplorable. Annan and the international community are starting to not tow the party line. And that makes these statements dangerous to the 'official' story the Americans and Israelis are trying to sell back home.

The UNIFIL team in action (slideshow).


Peace.

"What we've got here is failure to
communicate...
Some men you just can't reach...
So, you get what we had here last week,
which is the way he wants it!
Well, he gets it!
N' I don't like it any more than you men."

~ Strother Martin's speech in Cool Hand Luke, 1967

Look at your young men fighting
Look at your women crying
Look at your young men dying
The way they've always done before

Look at the hate we're breeding
Look at the fear we're feeding
Look at the lives we're leading
The way we've always done before

My hands are tied
The billions shift from side to side
And the wars go on with brainwashed pride
For the love of God and our human rights
And all these things are swept aside
By bloody hands time can't deny
And are washed away by your genocide
And history hides the lies of our civil wars

....

I went numb when I learned to see
So I never fell for Vietnam
We got the wall of D.C. to remind us all
That you can't trust freedom
When it's not in your hands
When everybody's fightin'
For their promised land

....

Look at the shoes you're filling
Look at the blood we're spilling
Look at the world we're killing
The way we've always done before
Look in the doubt we've wallowed
Look at the leaders we've followed
Look at the lies we've swallowed
And I don't want to hear no more

My hands are tied
For all I've seen has changed my mind
But still the wars go on as the years go by
With no love of God or human rights
'Cause all these dreams are swept aside
By bloody hands of the hypnotized
Who carry the cross of homicide
And history bears the scars of our civil wars

~ "Civil War", Guns n' Roses

Some folks are born made to wave the flag,
Ooh, theyre red, white and blue.
And when the band plays hail to the chief,
Ooh, they point the cannon at you, lord,

It aint me, it aint me, I aint no senators son, son.
It aint me, it aint me; I aint no fortunate one, no,

....

Some folks inherit star spangled eyes,
Ooh, they send you down to war, lord,
And when you ask them, how much should we give?
Ooh, they only answer more! more! more! yoh,

It aint me, it aint me, I aint no military son, son.
It aint me, it aint me; I aint no fortunate one, one.

~ "Fortunate Son", CCR

"Of course the people don't want war... the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them that they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism... it works the same in any country."

~ Reichmarshall Hermann Goering

Every state must have its enemies. Great powers must have especially monstrous foes. Above all, these foes must arise from within, for national pride does not admit that a great nation can be defeated by any outside force. That is why, though its origins are elsewhere, the stab in the back has become the sustaining myth of modern American nationalism. Since the end of World War II it has been the device by which the American right wing has both revitalized itself and repeatedly avoided responsibility for its own worst blunders. Indeed, the right has distilled its tale of betrayal into a formula: Advocate some momentarily popular but reckless policy. Deny culpability when that policy is exposed as disastrous. Blame the disaster on internal enemies who hate America. Repeat, always making sure to increase the number of internal enemies.

~ Kevin Baker, Harpers Magazine, July 2006

He said hey north, you're south, shut your big mouth

~ "New Orleans is sinkin'", The Tragically Hip

"War is the enemy of all mankind"

~ "War", Edwin Starr

I almost let these stand on their own. But, the context within which I am feeling and hearing these words is one I didn't expect. I am seeing the very things railed against, or warned of, in these words echoed in the "progressive" blogosphere freely and clearly, with absolute glee in some cases. As if Allah himself were directing them on their righteous crusade.

Internal enemies and external enemies... anti-American, anti-troop. They are labeled the "dissenters", the "hate preachers", "Muslim", "Canadian", "foreigner", it makes no difference once the war religion of America is questioned. The language of propaganda is used freely. Of hate. Of suppression. And, of course, it is being directed at people who hold different opinions of the role of the military in society, war resisters, and citizen responsiblity.

It is what has kept America on a rightward path for decades. The fallacy that if you would rather have peacekeepers vs. warmakers you are "anti-American" or somehow "against the troops" and "spitting on them". It is dangerous when the right uses it, but it only becomes truly dangerous when used by the "left" against its own.

Because once a label is allowed to be used as a weapon to stifle free thought, the right and the powers that be, win. It is legitimized.

What has brought this plethora of quotes on you ask? Well, recent occurrences at Booman Tribune, where I used to be a participant. Until words and meanings were twisted, insults thrown, jingoism, and militarism started running rampant. (I'm not going to link to the posts (although even the deleted diary's comments I have saved), but they are all over the site for the last two weeks for any who feel the need to check it out) And of course it continues to this day, while the worst offenders are excused for their behaviour by those who run the site, under the auspices of "being fair" & "not getting in the middle".

"An error does not become a mistake until you refuse to correct it. Without debate, without criticism, no administration and no country can succeed - and no republic can survive."

~ President John F. Kennedy

Debating the role the military should play in society, questioning if troops should be resisting an illegal war, and demanding accountability and responsibility to the civilian population and constitution is not "anti-anything", unless it's "anti-fundamentalism". It is the role of every single person on this planet if humanity is to move forward. No one is suggesting that ALL troops are evil, or that ALL Americans are whatever, or that we don't have sympathy for the real lives on the line, I mean, I'm certainly not George W. on a crusade, but I am questioning a lot of things... I do so with the Canadian military, and I do so with the military of the most powerful country on earth.

We are all citizens of this planet, no matter if we like it or not. No one is better or more equal.

And giving power to those who would label is dangerous for us all in the end. It allows Presidents to say things like "you are with us or against us", or "axis of evil". It gives power to those who would jail ACLU or anti-war activists. It enables jihads, lynchings and the dehumanization of the "other".

For a "progressive community" to do so opened my eyes to just how much work there is left to do.

And I loved you when our love was blessed
and I love you now there's nothing left
but sorrow and a sense of overtime
and I missed you since the place got wrecked
And I just don't care what happens next
looks like freedom but it feels like death
it's something in between, I guess

~ "Closing Time", Leonard Cohen

O' for a good life, we just might have to weaken
and find somewhere to go
go somewhere we're needed
find somewhere to grow
grow somewhere we're needed.

~ "It's a good life if you don't weaken", The Tragically Hip

Al Gore continues to march on and is interviewed in the upcoming Rolling Stone about Bush, Global Warming, Iraq, the Democrats, and what is needed to move forward with serious grassroots political change in the U.S.

I'm not going to provide any commentary, nor huge blockquotes because you really need to read the whole interview... it's Gore, he talks alot...

But here are a few choice quotes:

because the path to a solution lies through changing the minds of the American people. Not just on the facts -- they're almost there on the facts -- but in the sense of urgency that's appropriate and necessary. Once that happens, then things that seem impossible now politically are going to be imperative. I believe there is a hunger in the country to be part of a larger vision that changes the way we relate to the environment and the economy.

But Bush is insulated -- his staff smiles a lot and only gives him the news that he wants to hear. Unfortunately, they still have this delusion that they create their own reality. As George Orwell wrote, we human beings are capable of convincing ourselves of something that's not true long after the accumulated evidence would convince any reasonable person that it's wrong. And when leaders persist in that error, sooner or later they have a collision with reality, often on a battlefield. That, in essence, is exactly what happened in Iraq.

Do you still consider yourself a Democrat?
Oh, yeah. I mean, I still consider myself a Baptist too, even though the denomination has tried to run me off with their attitude toward women and so forth!