MOMocrats™

Stop the Bullying--Blog Action for National Coming Out Day, October 11, 2010

The latest suicide of a young person who was bullied about his sexuality by his classmates and acquaintances has me shaken up. Tyler Clementi's is the fourth such reported death in less than a month. And yet we continue to hear of more such suicides.

I'm stunned and horrified that two Rutgers students thought it would be "funny" to livestream schoolmate Clementi's sexual activity over the internet without his permission or knowledge, directly contradicting Clementi's request for privacy.

As a parent, I'm devastated by the Clementis' terrible loss of their beautiful, gifted son. There is nothing so heart-wrenching as parents forced to bury their child; a situation so profoundly unjust and sorrowful it goes against everything parents attempt in the simple, hopeful act of nurturing children. People of all ages recognize this grief; you need not be a parent to understand it. But I think parents feel a particular pain knowing that in some cases, their vast love and acceptance, like Wendy Walsh's for her now-dead son Seth, was not enough to counter the hate. When he came out to his mother, Wendy Walsh told Seth, "It's okay, sweetheart, I love you no matter what." I'm heartbroken that despite her abiding love, her son couldn't endure torment from his schoolmates and the deafening, indifferent silence of teachers and staff.

Ellen DeGeneres immediately made a moving and urgent plea to suicidal young LGBT people to "stick around." Be around for the changes, because society is changing--unevenly, slowly, in pockets here and there. But it is changing for the better.

Dan Savage, the popular sex-positive advice columnist, started "It Gets Better," a similar movement to reassure and encourage LGBT youth that they will find love, that with luck and perserverance and the warm support of friends and allies they will find their niche in the world.

National Coming Out Day is October 11, 2010--seven days from now. And October is Anti-Bullying Month.

I'm starting up a Blog Action that I hope everyone will join, from the parenting blogosphere, to LGBT bloggers who have already written and vlogged so movingly about homophobic bullying and the courage to come out. I know caring educators will have something to say, as will activists in the youth and feminist movements. I think we allies need to find one another.

If you've blogged a memorial about the suicides of of kids tormented because of their sexual orientation, if you have a hopeful coming out story to share, if you have resources to help people who witness bullying become the ones to stop it, please add your blog post link to the Simply Linked below. For the next seven days until National Coming Out Day, October 11, let's demonstrate that there's more love, compassion, and acceptance out there than there is cruelty and hate.

A Green Revolution of Another Kind: Iranian Protests on Social Media for a Fair and Free Election

Who else is sitting home late on a Friday night, twittering, but a mom of a small kid? I'd like to say I was out doing something tragically hip, or even out somewhere, but... this past weekend, I was at home and swapping quips on the nightly carnivalesque Burning Man For Shut-Ins called Twitter.

Half a world away, Iranians were turning out in record numbers to vote for their new president. Very rapidly, tweets among my lefty-liberalish friends began to highlight Iranian sources of news for the results of the election. (The #tcot people, or Top Conservatives on Twitter, seemed not as attuned to what was happening. Some speculations why here.)

Light chitchat turned to concern as many of the people I follow and I realized that many Iranians found serious anomalies in the way votes were counted. Very quickly, it seemed that the most helpful thing one could do as a westerner sympathetic to the goals of Iranians demanding a free and fair election, with a re-vote if necessary, was to retweet the as-it-happens tweets of Iranians, which could be viewed under the hashtag #iranelections.

Email Our President: Yes, We Can.

As Sarah, fellow MOMocrat, pointed out, we've already gotten a glimpse into a specific change to our federal government: The website for the White House is alight with photos and information regarding our new executive, President (!!) Barack Obama, and his administration. 

Don't know about you, but I was moved to tears throughout yesterday; at one point, my three year old son, upon catching me wet-eyed for the umpteenth time, said, "Mom?  Are you gonna cry AGAIN??  Don't cry again, mom!  No more crying!  You should be happy!"  (I tried in vain every time to explain the body's urge to release overwhelming joy by means other than smiles wreathed on smiles, because our faces would break if that was all we could do, but he didn't buy it.)  (While I kind of do.  Because it really felt as if my face was on the verge of cracking wide open as I watched our new President, (!!) Barack Obama, give a speech that made the crowd of two million people standing in the blistering cold there in Washington dance and cry and shimmy, that made everyone around the world feel a sense of lightening, made us all meet the eye of the future with a bravery that -- we're in this together.  And my face wasn't up to the challenge, even if my spirit was, so I was grateful to be able to cry.  Yeah.  I'm a total girl.  Shut up.)

But getting back to the shiny, spankin'-new website devoted to our government's executive branch, I already have a favorite page:  the one where you can talk directly to our new President, (!!) Barack Obama.

(Okay, I'm also geeking over this jump-off page that itemizes all of the new administration's agenda, conveniently referred to as, uh, the Agenda.  Basically, the whole site is like a present.  Inauguration '09 really *was* Christmas yesterday.)

So, go.  Go talk directly to our current President, !!!!, because I have this crazy, gut feeling he's actually interested in hearing what we think.

Debbie takes out the bulk of her zany ideas on her personal blog, i obsess.  She also gives vent to her quasi-Pagan worship of timeworn-yet-beautiful things on her thrift blog, didyoubuythatnew.com.

Go read it: Top posts from around the 'Net: Tssking and Tasking Palin, Explaining S-CHIP in states

There have been some fantastic blog posts recently about topics you may or may not be familiar with. If you can, take a few minutes and read these fantastic posts that I highly recommend:

"Let’s talk Emmenak, Sarah"---OmegaMom, an Alaskan resident, takes Sarah Palin to task for ignoring the humanitarian crisis in the Alaskan village of Emmonak. The crisis is due to extreme cold and high fuel prices. A local resident says his community needs heating fuel and food. OmegaMom writes:

Dear Sarah:

I understand that you currently have more public relations than policy people on your administrative payroll.  Perhaps it’s time to review how well they’re doing?

I know you’ve been awfully busy giving interviews lately wherein you chastise “anonymous bloggers” for spreading lies and innuendo–I’m guessing related to the whole “is she really Trig’s mom?” question, which is only being followed by hardline nutcases–but don’t you think your PR people might mention Emmenak to you?  It’s been big news in the Alaska blogosphere these past few days, but there hasn’t been a peep out of your office about it.

I would think this would be an excellent chance for you to show your “Alaska mom” instincts, being Mrs. Compassion and Mama Bear, fighting for the health and welfare of the people of your state.

Go read it!

And what else do I suggest that you read?

Blog Action Day: "People Shouldn't Be Ashamed to Smile"

I didn't grow up poor; it was a shock to learn in retrospect that I grew up solidly lower middle class when all along I thought I was middle class. A trip to the Ponderosa restaurant for baked potato and Tuesday cheap steaks night was a treat. Big occasions we celebrated at Red Lobster; I thought the deep fried seasoned hush puppies were so exotic and special.

As the daughter of college professors in a rural upstate NY college town where unemployment perennially hovered at 14% or more when Reagan took office, I experienced the conundrum of having my education-revering immigrant Chinese parents stuff me full of the grandiose superiority of 5,000 years of Chinese culture (largely irrelevant if not a liability to my schoolyard concerns) at the same time I learned that my dad's salary was less than what a unionized big-city bus driver made then.

My Brush With Kos, and the Golden Ticket

Winning by analogy--

I just got a golden ticket. Literally.

Here in the Big Tent, Kos of Daily Kos stood up and waved two delicious Thursday night lilac colored passes edged with gold gilt: Hall press passes to tonight's Barack Obama acceptance speech. (Hall press passes are the inner sanctum, baby. As close as press is allowed.)

Now, you may know that 10 of us MOMocrats are here. Through the insane grifter skills of our fearless leaders and O.G. MOMos CityMama (shout-out to you and AT&T for the cell phones, girl!) and Glennia (The Silent I), we managed to get 9 passes for our DNC-attending crew for this magical night. We worried and fretted about how to get that last pass, begging and pleading and importuning to anyone who looked like they could possibly help us.

No luck.

Some unfortunate MOMo was going to have to take one for the team. Definitely an uncomfortable, unhappy proposition.

So when Kos suddenly stood up and waved the two Hall press passes around--the Golden Tickets--Julie P. and I leaped up and joined the crowd around Kos. He debated about how to distribute them. What would be fair?

The DNC: Who's a MOMocrat?

Just a month ago I was in the land of "mommybloggers" and other Powerful Blogger Ladies at the conference for women who blog (Blogher), in San Francisco. Who I was and what I was doing online at either MOMocrats or my own personal blog was never in question. If anything, it was a giant lovefest of information, connection, and community.

The DNC is a whole 'nother animal, with a different purpose. We've all come together to drink OBiden kool-aid and do the work of electing more and better Democrats. It's one part girding for battle, one part pep rally, and one part lovefest. And what's at stake is epic: War. Peace. Love. And what's on your dinner table every day.

Naturally all this inflated self-importance can infect the brain. Can't tell you how many "cute little pats on the head" from MSM *and* other political bloggers I've experienced upon telling them I write for MOMocrats.

Women Who Rock Politics & Tech

They're not all moms and most of them are not bloggers, but there are a bunch of incredible women who are leading in the emerging field intersecting technology and government via politics and policy, nonprofits and advocacy. They have founded organizations, written about digital democracy, or developed tools to implement it.

To highlight the fact that the root of Netroots isn't all men, I put as many of these women as I could find into one list at - where else? The Political Voices of Women. Here's the list. Check it twice. Remember the names, because you'll be seeing them again.

Netroots Restless Over FISA Telecom Immunity and Blue Dog Dems

The Netroots are restless and up in arms. Passionate bloggers and citizen journos at DailyKos, The HuffingtonPost, FireDogLake, and here at MOMocrats have shifted attention briefly from the presidential race and Obama to a piece of legislation called FISA: the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. (A history of its uses and current incorporation into the Department of Homeland Security's purview here and here.) FISA's latest incarnation passed a House vote and is now up for a Senate vote next week.*

Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) on the impact of FISA

McCain: Snickr

So you know Flickr, where you can browse online photos people take?

Have a gander at Snickr, where you can browse online potshots people take at McCain. Snickr is what you'll do when you read quips collected at this DailyKos diary that has visited the McCain website and archived all the best, snarkiest comments about McCain Golf Gear (so environmentally correct, golf!!) so you don't have get your ISP dirty by clicking over to the official McCain website yourself. For some strange reason, there's a tug of war going on with snarky reviews and comments of McCain golf balls posted, then removed, and others taking their place.

A few of my favorites:

Balls June 11, 2008 Reviewer:  Jesus H. Crist from Lime jello cottage cheese background
Adequate replacements for the balls I was required to leave behind last time I visited Bob Jones University

Iraq Forever!!! June 10, 2008
Reviewer: Mitt Romney from Boston, MA United States
I thought that I would give this McBush golf set to Dad for Father's Day as a way to commemorate his leaving Mom for the younger, blonder, much richer woman!!

Enjoy! And pass along to your friends and loved ones in the military! You know, they're the ones who won't be able to use the GI Bill til they've put in as many years of service as John McCain.

Cynematic plans to make a laughingstock of McCain for the next six months. There is just so much to work with. She blogs at P i l l o w b o o k.