I’m slowly starting to piece together why some of the more popular bandwagon issues–in this case, feminism–can be hard to swallow. It’s this quote from Maria Shriver:
I think that’s the beauty…to have Madeleine Albright and Kate Gosselin at the same place.
The context of the quote explains the ellipses. It’s Maria Shriver’s Women’s Conference, an event usually noted for its tendency to draw high-powered women into a relatively open forum. It has the feel-good attitude that’s so popular, the attempt to show diversity and brilliance among a single demographic of truly remarkable people. But that demographic is not only enough to put a renowned diplomat on the same stage as a tabloid-crazed stagemom, it’s a simplicity worth celebrating? Madeleine Albright earned her way to one of the post powerful positions in the world, and Kate Gosselin pandered her way into a divorce and a self-destructing cable show. We should celebrate what they have in common? In their case…anatomy? That’s what’s so beautiful? And if so, how is that different from the way men traditionally viewed women? Have we really evolved?
The woman’s journey in America has been intriguing, valuable, and certainly worth celebrating. But will American women ever see themselves as more than that demographic?
A growing theme here. This video is getting some play but not enough. It leaves two burning questions: 1) How long will Gibbs keep his job? and 2) Will he be the only member of the administration subjected to this?
Cameras OUTSIDE the West Wing, December 2007
The James S. Brady Briefing Room in the White House is small. It was remodeled just about a year ago but its relatively small size keeps with the White House tradition of not making the press too comfortable within those walls. After all, no matter how long the honeymoon, there comes a time when separation is just healthy. So for that reason, especially in the age of round-the-clock cable news, the camera shot of the reporter standing on the lawn in front of the West Wing, the North Portico of the White House in the background, has become a staple. It’s roomier out there, and it’s also symbolic. The reporter sits inside, cramped between his or her competitors for the story, and steps outside, not out of earshot but out of the shadow of the presidency to report objectively. That is, if they take their job as a most unique public servant seriously.
When Herbert Hoover’s staff tried to court the press corps by providing them with a small workspace and shiny new typewriters, the critics were wary. Mustn’t get too cozy. Today, the producers, writers, anchors and interpreters of ABC made themselves at home on the state floors of our house and completely redefined the American political idea of the bully pulpit. How will the presidency ever function again without news production on its own, over-extended turf? Whether or not the president’s staff really, literally stood with their fingers on the switch and working the TelePrompTer yields to the symbolism of today’s “news” coverage. It’s the People’s House. But with the cameras pointed outward, not inward, only show someone not doing their job.
Thank you, Major Garrett.
This from France is fascinating. Sarkozy is speaking up over the politically incorrect-but TRUE-symbolism of the burqa for women. His dictum: don’t wear them.
Senator Tom Coburn’s report on wasteful stimulus projects plays lightweight politics in the grander scheme of the fact that, well, everyone’s responsible for this spending disaster. But without being unreasonably conspiratorial out here in the blogosphere, has it occurred to anyone that maybe some of these projects are just really lame cover for something else? The pundits–and Coburn, for that matter–are right that some of these expenditures are too outrageous to be true. Funds for turtle research to jump start the economy? Looks like filler text to me.
I’m not saying anything other than maybe it’s not as outrageous as we think it is. Consider this: did members of Congress actually put “research and development for atomic weapon to put a final end to this war once and for all” anywhere in any appropriations bill? No, they hid the Manhattan Project and most of its funding for obvious reasons. So is it possible that someone in Washington is actually exercising discretion and judgment in an era with threats and challenges unlike any before?
Possible. Not probable. But, a meager attempt at optimism, in this our world in which the vice president of the United States goes around disclosing locations.
I spent a great couple of days with a very good friend in a really wonderful place over the weekend. It was a perfect little weekend trip and I experienced a first. I present the first train I’ve ever ran in front of:
It’s blurry, my hands still shaking from the escapade. But as I covered my eyes and ran behind my friend, blindly (literally) following, I kind of figured this is something everyone should do once.
That’s what it means to identify yourself as an American, according to this clip from Newsweek’s Evan Thomas.
This deserves a lot of play. A LOT of play.
If not for the presumption that America is now, on the whole, “bad,” if not for the dismissal of Reagan the simpleton for devoting himself to America (Thomas: “parochial, chauvinistic, provincial”), the declaration that Barack Obama is, in fact, a god:
Anyone seen what happened in the New York legislature today? We talk about political coups as disruptive and detrimental to the political process, but there’s something exciting about the idea of the coup in American legislative bodies. Is it because it shows a calculating, active side of legislators, ill will notwithstanding, we see all too rarely now? The New York incident is vaguely reminiscent of what happened in Tennessee earlier this year, minus the literal power (outlet) play. Take heart, good Americans, the best thing about our system is that these coups aren’t permanent. Neither are they powered by the military, so political drama, run thy course.
One of the world’s favorite people–true statement–is breaking her official silence when she goes On The Record tonight. The rightfully-honored namesake for the Laura W. Bush Institute for Women’s Health will surely say a thing or two worth hearing, and not for sensation’s sake. Two years ago, when I was a columnist for my college newspaper, one of her health initiatives particularly inspired. A political column I wrote in 2007 is reproduced here in light of Mrs. Bush’s honor today.
Maybe it’s narrow-mindedness, maybe it’s evidence of the stigma most Americans have towards the image of Muslim women, but I was struck this week by a photo that showed the plight and possibilities of the relationship between Americans and members of the world community marginalized by other aspects of their culture. It is evidence of the most powerful weapon in engaging moderate Muslims in the challenge to defeat radical terrorists: the common experience.
On a goodwill mission, Laura Bush was joined at several events by women leaders from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Against a backdrop of hot pink and fuchsia silk, Mrs. Bush sat with six women shrouded in thick black burkas, three of whom completely covered their faces. She carried a message of a very real threat that transcends nationality–breast cancer awareness.
The image is puzzling. Arab women are perceived by westerners to be deprived of any semblance of gender equality or, to a greater extent, simple respect. The travesties committed against women in Islamofascist nations–the example of Saddam Hussein’s government notwithstanding–tell a harrowing story of shame and oppression for an enormous population of women. Yet there was a gleam of hope in Mrs. Bush’s guests. It was not in their eyes but affixed to their garments in the form of tiny pink ribbons. What is, in the United States, a common symbol of a nonpartisan and uncontroversial issue, symbolizes so much more for these women.
In her remarks promoting the U.S.-Middle East Partnership on Breast Cancer Awareness and Research, Mrs. Bush described the evolution of the issue in the United States. It was fear of impropriety, she suggested, that prevented many American women from speaking out about challenges involved with breast cancer until the past two decades slowly gave the issue the attention it deserved. In Abu Dhabi, she praised the concept of the Pink Majlis, a forum at the Sheikh Khalifa Medical Center where women could freely discuss with doctors, nurses, and a support group the challenges of their diagnosis. Such is a freedom not afforded across the spectrum of their society, nor does it stretch across their immediate environment to impact the dominance of the radicalism that depends on darkness to thrive. Maybe, hopefully, these women will summon the courage to bring more to light than the challenges leveled by their disease.
Thus, the illumination of an issue so unrelated to terrorism is radicalism’s greatest threat. the struggle in the Muslim world lies in the depravity faced by so many of its people, and the dominant solution for too many has been the acceptance of Islamofascism as one’s sole salvation. As American and Arab women endeavor to raise awareness, a bold step is made in disproving the myth that there is no ground on which members of different cultures can meet, and a simple pink ribbon has the potential to symbolize that the embraced live is worth living.
– Political column, Lee Clarion, November 1, 2007
