17 September 2020: Some uplifting news

I have no uplifting news about Lake Charles, BUT I do have some positive feedback about political fundraising.

I assumed I’d miss the Flip the Senate event I got to co-host because it occurred while I was in Louisiana, but fortunately, my phone had enough cellular service that Mom and I snuggled in bed and Zoomed in. It was such a fabulous event. More than 1,100 blue supporters tuned in and raised over $200,000 for the Jaime Harrison, Theresa Greenfield, Steve Bullock, and Barbara Bollier campaigns. It was such an inspiring event- we were especially fired up to hear from Jaime and Theresa.

A week later, Tom and I realized we’d both donated to the “Princess Bride Live Read” fundraiser for the Wisconsin Dems. Every original cast member who is still alive, minus Fred Savage, agreed to participate, and the replacement cast for those no longer with us, like Andre the Giant, were terrifically filled (Josh Gad played Fezzik). Tom and I and the boys were still in the midst of the nail-biter US Open men’s final when the show began. So we toggled back and forth for a bit, increasingly immersed in the utterly delightful cast party that was this read-through. As it turned out, thousands upon thousands of folks logged on to watch, and despite the fits and starts of bandwidth and location challenges, it turned out to be the ultimate escapist event of joy, nostalgia, teamwork and memory. And, it raised more than $4.25 MILLION. Mandy Patinkin, oh my heart. He was sweating as he reprised Inigo Montoya.

The very next night was the monthly NOPE Neighbors meeting. Each meeting welcomes at least one current candidate for a red-to-blue flippable district, encourages generous donation to said candidate and their co-ballot peers, and educates out the wazoo. Last month we raised more than $20,000 in short order for Elissa Slotkin and the MI slate. But at THIS month’s meeting with Hiral Tiperneni (AZ-6) and Marc Elias of Democracy Docket, we raised more than $75,000 for a large slate of candidates PLUS a slate of protect the vote efforts.

Because, HELLO! We desperately need to protect the vote and go blue. So, give what you can, volunteer, engage, help, vote, work at the polls. PLEASE. Everything depends on it.

13 August 2020: A friend shot in Portland, save the USPS, daily

Y’all, this past Friday, while awaiting delivery of a case of wine, I received this message just before 7p.

People, HOW does any company think it can get away with this nonsense in this day and age in America? We are all always home and, certainly, the four of us were on Friday.

THINK! Update! It’s like the email I just received letting me know that my application to serve as an election judge has been accepted. I am thrilled to serve as an election worker this November, but, unlike the email stated, the next election is not June 2, 2020. It is, DUH, November 3, 2020. 81 days from now, 80 if you receive this tomorrow. I know we’re all tired and borderline nuts, but damn. This shit is serious.

Speaking of serious shit: Kamala. Kamala is a boss. Super smart, fierce, accomplished, ambitious, can be played by Maya Rudolph. She grilled Brett Kavanaugh with the fire of 10,000 suns. You go, Joe. Should trump stick with Mother’s husband, Kamala will skewer him. I await the first VP debate with gimlet eyes, glee, and a to-be-made-then vat of popcorn.

I remain the most enthusiastic fan of Elizabeth Warren, Julián Castro, Tammy Duckworth, Val Demings, Adam Schiff, and Eric Swalwell and hope all are considered for cabinet positions when the blue wave comes. Katie Porter should run for Kamala’s Senate seat! Increasingly, my attitude is elect/seat women, burn the bulk of this country’s infrastructure down, and let’s go from there.

In the meantime, SAVE THE GODDAMN US POSTAL SERVICE. Seriously, y’all. This is NOT funny. Knowing he/they can only win by cheating, trump/the GOP are, you guessed, it trying to cheat by defunding the postal service so that people cannot vote by mail. As you can imagine, the ability to vote by mail is, in a pandemic, crucial. Voting also happens to be a goddamn right unless you’ve been disenfranchised for being poor, black, poor and black, brown in many cases, once smoked or sold pot and were thrown in jail for 90 years, and so forth. #SystemicRacism #EndWhiteSupremacy

link to article

Even Susan “Concerned” Collins is, wait for it, concerned!

Let’s all clutch our pearls together in the deep knowing that she will not do one thing about it.

I spoke to our mail carrier today, and he said that DC and VA have already had mail-sorting machines removed from postal stations; this hasn’t happened in our area in Maryland yet, but he said it’s coming.

The above pictures were snapped in Eugene, OR, this week. Oregon, man. Three weeks ago, as part of the Wall of Moms peacefully protesting in Portland, my dear friend Ellen was shot in the foot by the federal goon squad while the moms flanking her were shot in the leg and arm respectively. Ellen is asthmatic and was already in a cast as she’d broken an ankle several weeks prior; she is now in a wheelchair because the goon’s rubber bullet broke her foot through her shoe. Here is her article in Time.

Not it’s not! We are NOT fine. Nothing is.

But this is funny, so I’ll leave you with it and a plea to get busy bringing Blue home.

27 May 2020: BLACK LIVES MATTER + Larry Kramer

Other than the fact that my flowers are putting on an incredible show, I have nothing good to express or share.

a calla lily from a bulb my mom brought me from her yard

I am so very sad that one of my heroes, Larry Kramer, has just died. I saw The Normal Heart on Broadway some years ago (does my Playbill really say 2011?) and still think about it to this day. Kramer was, in addition to a playwright, a forceful AIDS activist who founded the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, the first organization to serve HIV-positive individuals. Larry’s anger was so righteous, and he used it for so much good.

I am so deeply enraged that just weeks after angry, armed-to-the-teeth white people stormed the capitol in Michigan and marched into a Raleigh, NC, Subway for sandwiches, none of which met with any punishment, a 46-year-old black man in Minneapolis, George Floyd, died after a policeman knelt on his neck for 8 minutes as he repeatedly said, “Please, I can’t breathe.” Police had been called as Floyd appeared to be trying to use forged documents at Cup Foods, a bodega-like store, and when they arrived, they found him sitting in a car nearby. They say he appeared to be intoxicated. If you watch the video, Floyd just looks tired and confused. He does not resist. Once on the ground, the policemen, four -why four?- treat him like trash. They are condescending and awful and don’t respond to bystanders asking them to get off of Floyd and help him. After several minutes, Floyd stops moving. The policeman only takes his knee off Floyd’s neck when the ambulance arrives. The police killed a man for nothing. I am thankful they have all been fired, but I hope they go to jail for life.

Meanwhile, there are riots in Minneapolis. I would absolutely be rioting if I were there. The police, colleagues of those who killed Floyd, having been firing into the crowds with tear gas and rubber bullets, harming protesters who simply want some fucking justice. Their anger is also righteous, and yet in trying to use it for good, they are stymied and shot, minimized and subdued.

Did anything, ANYTHING, like this happen to the furious protesters storming the goddamn capitol building in Lansing? Storming a sandwich joint in Raleigh? No. Because those protesters were white.

Meanwhile, perhaps you also saw the hideous news from Central Park where a black man, Christian Cooper, calmly asked a white woman, Amy Cooper, to leash her dog (the law), and she immediately freaks out, aggressively confronts him, and then calls the police wailing about a black man threatening her and her dog. She knows she is being recorded, and still she lies. It is grotesque to watch the way she tells 911 a completely inaccurate version of what’s really happening. Her privilege is on full display, but Mr. Cooper never would have been believed had he not, wisely, been recording the interaction. He could so easily have ended up like George Floyd or Eric Garner or Philando Castile or on and on and on. Amy has been fired from her job and her dog -that she was clearly choking during the entire video- has been taken from her, and she has spent the past few days crying that her life has been ruined. Let the punishment fit the crime, sister. Christian Cooper’s grace since has been something to behold. This is a terrific article.

And this happened today, in Texas. If you still think there isn’t systemic racism throughout America and most certainly in the criminal and justice systems, you have your head up your ass.

In 2016, my friend, Freddie, wrote this. I asked him if I could share it again, and he kindly agreed despite telling me he’d forgotten he wrote it. That itself is such a heartbreaking realization, as if these feelings are so common and thorough they could be expressed and again subsumed.

I'm a sin eater
Not by choice
By default
When you're the only black person in a white space
that's what happens
My job is to assuage white guilt
Tell them it's OK,
Tell them I know they're a good person
But I can't do it anymore
I'm choking on the sin
It’s too much
I can't breathe
And I never wanted this job in the first place I
just wanted a nice job so I can buy my family a nice
house in a nice neighborhood
Didn't know I couldn't have one without having the other
I'm weighing now if it's worth it
I can't take the stares any longer
The sorry's
The How are you doing today
I want to work and go home
But I'm a Sin eater
So every white person in the office has to tell me their pain
How much they hurt
How sick they are
And then they can go home feeling better about themselves
But where does that leave me?

Wear your masks, be kind, vote, and stand up for decency and justice. Right matters.