Goodbye, Senator Kennedy

Ted Kennedy was a senator for the state of Massachusetts for 47 years—six months longer than the life span of his older brother, John. During his time in the Senate, Kennedy championed many causes, such as a federally mandated minimum wage, health care and immigration reform. However, this weekend marked the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and its devastation on New Orleans and on Black people, in particular.

Of all the campaigns and bills introduced by Kennedy, what stands out to me this particular weekend is how he, in 1964, was the man who, in the face of resentment from many whites, delivered on the promises his brothers made to help end segregation and pass the Civil Rights Act.

John F. Kennedy attempted to pass the legislation during his lifetime but had a difficult relationship with civil rights leaders — particularly the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. But after his death, Bobby and Ted pushed forward with the bill and under President Johnson’s mandate to memorialize JFK, it was signed into law.
Four months after the assassination of JFK, Edward Kennedy, then a 32-year-old serving his first term in the Senate, gave his first major speech and chose civil rights as the topic.

"My brother was the first president of the United States to state publicly that segregation was wrong," Kennedy said. "His heart and soul are in this bill. If his life and death had a meaning, it was that we should not hate but love one another; we should use our powers not to create conditions of oppression that lead to violence, but conditions of freedom that lead to peace. It is in that spirit that I hope the Senate will pass this bill."

Kennedy became a friend of Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s wife, after MLK’s death and even helped to create a federal holiday established in her husband's honor. More than two decades later, when Senators Clinton and Obama were battling for the Democratic nomination in 2008, Kennedy threw his weight behind Obama and gave his campaign needed momentum.

Ted Kennedy was a man of privilege, born into a privileged family. A wealthy, White male with access to all the best in life. He sometimes used that privilege for selfish ends and sometimes he did not. He was a complicated man without a tidy rap-up. But he will be missed.

The Daily Squishy

Edward Moore Kennedy

I wrote a eulogy for Ted Kennedy a year ago, during my bored, early summer days in Tampa, Florida while we waited for Monster's permanent residency to come through. I saved a draft for the day the news came that Senator Kennedy died. I knew that day would come relatively soon, as he was diagnosed with malignant brain cancer a few months before. But when it did come, last night, I opened the draft to...nothing. No document. And so, I'll have to try to recreate it this weekend, when I have time to think it all through. Because Ted Kennedy wasn't a Disney character, he was a complex and complicated man.

For now, here is Teddy's eulogy for his big brother Bobby in 1968. I think it captures some of the Kennedy spirit, the idea of legacy and reputation for fevered representation. This weekend, I want to touch on the good and bad that was Ted Kennedy, the way he wielded his privelege to help and to hurt.

But today, this brilliant eulogy is my goodbye to a man I have admired, despite his many faults and demons. While there are and will be many other Kennedys in the public eye, Senator Kennedy's passing is the end of an era that stretched from my grandparents lives to my own. And he will be missed.

Freedom!

When life let's me down, I find this video on Youtube. I like to think the different models are myself and my sisters, rockin' out to the sound of our FREEDOM!

P.S. I'm the Christy Turlington character.

I figure, Maria is the Naomi Campbell character,
Gina is Cindy Crawford,
Angie is Linda Evangalista
Becca is the blonde tall girl (can't remember her name, Tatiana something)
and Lilly is the boy? Yeah, I guess I haven't thought that through.

Week in Review

Climbed a mountain with my sister on Sunday. We had SUCH a good time but then I got shaky and sick on the way home. It took two bowls of miso soup for me to recover enough to finish the journey home.
Work was work. I had a goal of writing another five decisions and don't even remember if I made it. I think I did. We had a sushi day on Thursday and I ate too fast, so fast that I couldn't bare the thought of eathing anything but sushi for the rest of the day.

Thursday, I worked out for the first time since the mountain climb on Sunday. I had a long, tough, soothing spin class that melted away all resistence.
Friday, after work, me and my girls went sample sale shopping. This involves an adventure where the three of us pile into E's car and, instead of going home, we follow aprinted-out map and my iphone google maps all the way to a warehouse. Inside, we find top quality clothing discounted by 50% or 75%. I found a pinstrip pencil skirt with a buttery soft lining for 1/3 of its regular price. It's perfect for my practice and I felt so powerful and sophisticated in it!

All week, Monster and I have been watching the third season of "Dexter". We are both enjoying it so much, it's like watching a great movie in small installments.
Today, Saturday, I worked on an article I'm writing for an NGO I've been volunteering with since last summer. I finished it, did laundry, cleaned and straightened a bit, organized my summer clothes and brought some jeans (sample sale finds) to the tailor to be hemmed and taken in.

I also watched three Meryl Streep movies from the '80s and '90s ("A Cry in the Dark", "Sophie's Choice" and "Postcards from the Edge.")

The Ladies of "Mad Men"

"Joan" Dress!

In honor of the "Mad Men" dress up day I organized at work for this Friday, I think Mrs. O would be a wonderful Joan. Gah! This dress! Love!

"I Wanna Rock Your Gypsy Soul"

My early years were rather unconventional--traveling with my parents and younger sisters in a small caravan, bathing in streams, sleeping next the the ocean as a young teenage in Puerto Rico, floating on the Volga river in Russia and sleeping under the stars in Zimbabwe. My childhood and early adulthood was all about moving on to the next place, the next adventure, and that hasn't really left me.

And there's the rub: even while I prepare for my future life in the law and settling down to the seriousness of firm work, I can't stop my gypsy mind from wandering. There are so many places to see, so many adventures to have!

Still, I think I have found a pretty good comprimise. In a lot of ways, the of study of law is a constant adventure, delving into areas you have never yet been, ways of being that you have never thought of before. It's a mental adventure.

And, since we are not having kids, in theory we could spend our holidays exploring the world. I know Monster has a list of places he'd like to visit and so do I. I also know that constant travel, in the end, is not sustainable. And that part of my life, I just have to face it, is over.

But I can still embrace the spirit of adventure I had as a child and that can lead me to awesome adventures.

But there will always be an wanderer in me, and I think that is a good thing.

Life with Sisters as Siblings

It is unusual for families to consist of six siblings, much less that each of those siblings be female. So, it's quite a unique thing to be one of six sisters. Since moving to Canada, I try never to take this unique opportunity to be close to my siblings for granted.

Even though a few of us live in the same city, we sisters don't see each other very often (case in point, two sisters are missing from the picture below.) When we can get together, we enjoy each other's company so much. One of the things I most admire about my sisters is their independence and intellect. Each of them have varied career paths and goals, but they remain open and interested in so many things. We always have lively discussions and, because we are so comfortable and open with each other and because my sisters are so well-read, I never stop learning from our conversations, especially on political topics.

I think we challenge and support each other and my relationship with my sisters is one of the most positive relationships in my life, where I get support and encouragement but never a free pass.

The Daily Squishy

With Mommy. 10 months.

Happy Birthday President Obama, Kenyan National

Today is the President's 48th birthday and in honor of his newly released birth certificate, I wanted to discuss the allegations that Obama is a usurper and how those allegations are racist in nature.

What provokes these angry and nonsensical cries of a non-constutitionally elected President other than sheer desperation? The nation has changed, it has changed faster than expected. Last month the Census Bureau released a new analysis of the 2008 presidential election results. If found that increases among minority voters accounted for virtually all the five million additional votes cast in comparison to 2004. Black women had a higher turnout rate than any other group, and young blacks turned out at a higher rate than young whites.

This week eleven Republican congressmen have signed on to a bill requiring that presidential candidates produce their birth certificates. This, after Obama has released his own birth certificate, the existance of which has been verified by Hawaii officials over and over. This bizarre “birther” movement is out to prove that Obama is not a naturally born citizen.

As my husband recently pointed out, don't these people believe in the power of the Republican party? If Barack Obama's birth certificate was faked, wouldn't they have discovered this before the election?

Obama’s election, far from leading us into a "post racial America" has only compounded it. There is no purer expression of this hatred than the claim that Obama is literally not an American — or, as Sarah Palin would have it, not a “real American.” The birth-certificate flap is just the latest version of the campaign to strip Obama of his American identity with faux controversies over flag pins, the Pledge of Allegiance and his middle name.

Last summer, Cokie Roberts of ABC News even faulted him for taking a vacation in his home state of Hawaii a few weeks before his grandmother died. She described the 49th State as a foreign, exotic place, and critized him for vacationing there rather than, say, Disney.

When have you heard the same for a white president? How many people know that John McCain was born in Panama?

I Don't Know

Today is one of those days when I feel I have no answers. Am I doing the right thing? Am I succeeding? Today, I cannot answer those questions. It all began when I missed my stylist appointment and had to wear my hair up ten days in a row. Soon, I was sporting a style only favored by Olive Oil and let's just say I don't exactly rock it.

Next, I came to work this morning with cotton between my ears where my brain should be and had to be so careful not to mess up my decisions. Next, I went to a new workout class at the gym, and the instructor was just awful: all 80's style with quick, jerky movements. For someone who focuses on form in order to relax (yes, I am THAT type-A) it was unsettling and very soon I felt pain in my right knee and just walked out of class.

Today was a day where I felt I was spinning my wheels, unable to get anywhere. I moved to Canada to get closer to my sisters. Am I closer to them emotionally? It's hard to say. I started law school to increase my thinking power but today I felt unable to expend any brain activity and just coasted along, fixing and re-researching my prior decisions to make sure they were perfect, unable to move ahead. I am in my mid-thirties and desire intense, satisfying workouts and I ended up hurt and frustrated.

Today is one of those days when I have no idea how well I'm doing.

Not "Pro-Life" but Pro-Dude

An Ohio Congressman (guess which party?) has re-introduced legislation that would give the father the decision-making power in obtaining an abortion. As the law currently stands under Roe v. Wade, fathers are left out of the equation when a woman considers whether or not to take her pregnancy to term. Representative Adams wants to change that. In the legislation he introduced last week, House Bill 252, the biological father's written consent is required before an abortion can be done.

Adams called the measure a "father's right bill" to protect the interest of fathers who are given no say in the abortion process. Additionally, the bill provides for criminal penalties for women seeking abortions who do not obtain consent properly.

"Providing a false biological father would be a first-degree misdemeanor the first time, which means not more than six months and jail, and a maximum $1,000 fine," Adams said. "And on the second occasion, providing false information would be considered a fifth-degree felony."

While this proposed legislation is outrageous, I'm actually pretty pleased to see anti-choicers showing their true colors. Because, when couched in the language of "pro choice" a false impression can emerge that opponents of women's choice are invested in the life of the fetus. Of course, if that were really true, there would also be scads of legislation providing programs and aid to women and their un-aborted children. Look around, where is the legislation?

As the entire emphasis is on what occurs within a woman's body, the life of the fetus is clearly not really the interest. Instead, Rep. Adams bill is focused on the will of the man, the father, the impregnator, over the actual human being who must carry the child within her womb, go through painful labor and then make the extremely difficult choice of whether to raise the child herself or give it away.

The focus of Adams bill is slut-shaming. It is very similar in nature to former bills which tried to define the moment of "life" at when the sperm hits the egg, rather than the more psysiological marker of implanation in the uterus. Because sperm-ing is all about thz menzs whereas implanation occurs solely within a woman's body.

In the world-as-it-actually-is (called "reality"), woman who find out they are pregnant very, very often do go to the father first with the news. Discussing the situation with the other person involved is what we do as human beings. Even scared, confused human beings! It is only when there is something negative in the relationship, abuse, a break up, a rape, etc, that a woman determines not to tell the father. Believe me, the decision to tell or not tell the father does not slip anyone's mind.

We don't need laws to get sexual partners to communicate over a pregnancy because that already happens. And so, this law is not about confering. It is not aimed at getting sexual partners to communiate. Instead, it is about the man deciding what will be the fate of a woman's body. It is the man's literal control over the woman's body. This same desire for control is what is behind forcing burquas over woman's bodies, forced marriages, child brides, honor killings and keeping girls out of school.

I do not believe this bill has any chance in passing, much less becoming law. And so, I think it's a positive thing. It is better for undecided citizens to see the anti-choicers' openly displayed feelings of women-as-chattle, belonging to a man. This is the real issue they are concerned with, not the cluster of cells that may or may not become a person someday. The woman is a person now, and her sexuality and agency are what anti-choicers are deparate to curtail.

I love this bill in the same way I loved the anti-contraception legislation introduced in the Bush era. Because if you want to bring down the number of abortions, what is better than contraception, aka, not getting pregnant in the first place? Why wouldn't those against abortion embrace contraception? It's the most rational solution to not getting pregnant!

I am not against children, pregnancy or babies. At all. What I am against is manipulation and forcing people into choices that may not be best for them. Each person should have the opportunity to decide for themselves what is best. Period.

Hat tip to my lovely sister Maria.

Whistler Trip

We wanted to see Whistler before the Olympics. Since we've been here for two years and the Olympics start in six months, it was past time. We plotted our route to take us to Harrison "Hot Springs" for one night and then we would drive up the mountains the long way to Whistler. While here are definite parts of that trip we will not repeat, we had a wonderful time and saw some beautiful parts of B.C.

Harrison Hot Springs. No hot springs in sight but there was this beautiful lake.



















On the road Saturday morning.
















This river had gold in it. Commemorating the Gold Rush. This is the part of our trip where the temporature rose unbearably until we we sweltering in our non-air conditioned vehicle.















Whistler! We loved Whistler--it was much cooler in the mountains and we enjoyed the views, shopping, the spa, our hotel was great. We'll definitely be back to white water raft, bike and hike in the summer and ski and skate in the winter.

















On the way home, more gorgeous mountains on the Sea to Sky highway.