I'm With Her, and I Voted

It has been a wild 24 hours. I got home from work last night, and went to phone bank at someone's house. I then went home and took a nap, and headed to the airport at 3:00 am to greet Secretary Clinton as she arrived home from Raleigh, NC. Yes, 3:00 am, in the cold, in the dark, in a huge crowd. It was crazy, awesome.



We got home from the airport at about 4:30 am, and went to bed...only to get up at 7:00 am to go vote. [We paused to make coffee, and stopped at the deli for bacon/egg/cheese sandwiches.] I loved filling in my little circle for Hillary Rodham Clinton; I loved having my 12yo in on the action; I was a little bit verklempt about the whole thing.



We were still in the building when the Clintons arrived, but we were already in the exit hallway. So we made our way to the crowd at the front of the school, and joined the waiters and watchers - another crowd of fans and supporters. Best of all was a woman carrying a vintage "Votes For Women" umbrella, who turned out to be Elizabeth Cady Stanton's great-granddaughter.



Eventually, the Clintons emerged to greet the crowd and talk to the press. I wasn't close enough for a selfie or a handshake, but I did get a picture.



And then I went to work, where I found great graffiti on the sidewalk near Union Square.



I think it's going to be a long night, but #imwithher.

I'm With Her, And You Need To Vote TOMORROW

Tomorrow morning, I'm going to get up at the crack of dawn, and haul on over to my polling place. Polls open at 6, and I aim to be there plenty early, so I can catch my usual train to the city.

What are you going to do? Do you know where your polling place is? Are you going to vote before work, after work? Do you know what time the polls open, close? (I hope it goes without saying that you know that you CANNOT vote by text or online.)

If you're thinking "I don't have to vote; she's going to win my bluest blue state", think again and make a plan to vote. There are down ballot races everywhere: governors, senators, representatives, state assembly members and state senators and local judges and mayors and town council members and dogcatchers. Go vote for them.

Here, check to see where you vote - the League of Women Voters has an easy tool:

And if you need some encouragement, this We Are The World parody is seriously funny and possibly completely not safe for work (or children or people with delicate sensibilities).



VOTE!

I'm With Her, And Doing Everything I Can

As I drove down county today for my shift at the Field Office, I thought about the fact that lots of other elections in my lifetime have been important to me, but this is the one I’ve really plunged into.

I helped canvass before the NY primary, I’ve donated money, I’ve got a window cling on the car, and another on the garage door. I’ve got two lawn signs (and a third for a woman who’s running for the State Senate). I’ve bought pins, shirts, candles, cards; the pins I wear on a rotating basis and most of the other stuff is living on the mantle in a quasi shrine. I’ve worked the phones at the Brooklyn headquarters, at houses in my town, at the field office. I helped organize a fundraiser, I’ve gone all in.

And I ask myself, why? Why this year, this election. It’s this woman, it’s my child.

Hillary is qualified – “There has never been any man or woman more qualified for this office than Hillary Clinton,” said President Obama. She’s a policy wonk. She’s been doing this for years. She’s even-tempered, she’s warm, she works like there’s no tomorrow.

My child – and your child, and yours, and your grandchild, and the next door neighbor’s child – deserve a world in which women get to make decisions about their own bodies, in which Black Lives Matter, in which children do not grow up in poverty and education is a priority. Where nuclear weapons do not proliferate, where climate change is understood as real. Where science matters, and the 1% pays their fair share in taxes. Where everyone has access to the health care than they need, and where military weapons are off the streets. Where people of all religions are free to worship without persecution, and LGBT people are free to marry whom they choose. And where women’s rights are human rights.

And she’s my Wellesley sister and my Chappaqua neighbor, and she's the best person for the job of President of these United States.

I’m With Her.

VOTE.

I'm With Her, And You Need To Vote

Like everyone I know, and everyone you know, and everyone else, I’ve been thinking a lot about politics and the imminent presidential election in these United States. I avoid the polling data, but I’ve read every piece that David Fahrenthold has written about the Trump Foundation, I’ve read so many thoughtful, nuanced essays on why people love Hillary Clinton, I've read countless lists comparing his crimes to hers, and today, I sent an all staff memo out reminding everyone in the office to vote:

As you may have heard, Election Day is next Tuesday, November 8.

Please vote.

And if you have issues with timing or lines, keep in mind that there is no school and we would rather that you vote than worry about being late to work.

Polls in NY are open from 6am to 9pm. [I don’t know about NJ.]

VOTE!

I’m worried. I’m worried about the possibility of our country being led by a man who has admitted sexual assault, who has used his foundation for personal gain, who’s on trial for fraud with regard to Trump University, who hasn’t released his taxes (because he doesn’t want to show us that he hasn’t paid any), who has called for the ban of an entire religion from entering the US, who belittled John McCain for being a POW, who’s called Mexicans rapists, who attacked a beauty pageant winner for being overweight, who wonders why we can’t use the nuclear weapons we have, who thinks women who have abortions should be punished, who makes fun of disabled people, who disregards the First Amendment and wants an end to freedom of the press, who thinks global warming is a Chinese hoax, who loves Putin, who doesn’t pay his contractors, who … do I need to go on?

No.

There is simply no contest. Secretary Clinton is smart, informed, thoughtful, practiced and measured. You may find something, one thing, that you want to quibble with on a point of policy. But overall, there is no contest. Politics is about compromise, about being able to reach across the aisle, about being able to get to 95% and letting that other 5% go because the 95% is better than nothing. She’s the 95%. He’s ZERO.

Don’t forget to vote.

In Which The Good Grey Lady Drops All Decorum

I know that this happened on Saturday, but the hard copy of the printed paper has been sitting on my kitchen table since then, and I want to record this for posterity.

If you embiggen that so that you can read it, you will see that the lead story on the front page of the New York Times on Saturday, October 8, 2016 prints the words bitch, pussy, fuck and tits.

This is two of George Carlin's Seven Dirty Words and newspaper journalists of a certain age have collapsed into puddles of ectoplasm and/or rolled over in their graves.

We may have actually reached the end of Western civilization as we have known it.

If you haven't figured it out, I'm With Her, and the orange man must never become President.

Glass Ceilings

Last weekend, there was a book festival in my town. It's a great event - lots and LOTS of authors, each at a smallish table with a big pile of books, chatting and signing, signing and chatting. There were food trucks doling out wood fired pizzas and artisanal grilled cheese, and portable mini-golf for toddlers, and lots of friends hauling boxes and running cash registers and ferrying cups of tea to parched chatty authors.

I bought a bunch of books: a September head start on my Christmas shopping, and a baby present for Flutter's baby. There is something wonderful about buying a goofy pull-tab book and getting it signed "Dear Baby Rob" by Matthew van Fleet himself.

The authors cover a wide spectrum - one lives in our town and has written one book, others have been writing tons of books over years and years. I had a copy of Vicki Cobb's Science Experiments You Can Eat when I was in middle school; Vicki Cobb was there with it and lots of other books.

Jane Yolen was there too. She's written a pile of books, all over the map. I'm kind of fond of Bad Girls, because I have a subversive streak and I am working hard on teaching my twelve year old to stand up for herself, to recognize sexist behavior, to be no shrinking violet.

But the sweetest part of the day? Jane Yolen gave a copy of a poem to the force-of-nature organizer of the event, who happens to be the number one rabble rouser in support of Hillary Clinton in our town, and asked that the poem get to Secretary Clinton. It's a terrific little poem:

HC: A Modern Ode

She stands there,
hammer in hand
staring at the ceiling,
measuring with her careful eye,
finding just the right spot
to ding it down.
No wasted effort,
no casual boast,
the eye not the I.
A flick of the wrist,
a perfect strike.
The suffragettes smile
in their iron cradles.
Shards of glass
fall around us
like the Perseid stars.

–©2016 Jane Yolen all rights reserved

I've given a copy to my little unshrinking violet, because glass ceiling? Here we come.