Tell ya what bothered me about Leonhardt's article - that throw-off line about the 200k house. you can move in next door to me in oklahoma city for 85k, and your kids can walk three blocks to a fine public school. But the families that go to that school can't afford to buy that house. They pay the same amount to rent something smaller.

Leonhardt's blindness to real life was like a gut punch to me. mary catherine reynolds

Posted at February 8, 2007 7:08 PM in response to Pre-K and the Right

mary catherine reynolds
On a pretty regular basis, I schlep my PA system and guitar, sometimes my piano player and drummer, and lead the singing at our local anti-war rally. There's nothing about nostalgia involved. The equipment is heavy and the work is emotionally draining. But it's necessary for us here in Oklahoma City for a number of reasons. Here follows a list, not comprehensive.

The people of this right-leaning state need to see us. You can't see a person's vote on television. You can see that person carry a sign and march in a rally. The people here who don't get it yet need a chance to see that their community is not monolithically pro-war. Our local media is happy to show the rallies, if only as objects of ridicule. And they always give one or more of us a chance for a sound bite that might change someone's mind.

The coverage of rallies on TV helps us find like -minded people who will come to meetings, read blogs and contribute money and time for our local movement, which is decades old and strong, if small.

We need to confront the smattering of pro-war counter protesters that always show up and look them in the eye. They need to see people who dare to disagree with them in flesh and blood. With each rally, there are fewer of them, and our numbers are constant.

As many have mentioned in this thread, i march for dozens or even hundreds who can't. Those people need to know i'm marching, and haven't given up.

I don't want anyone to be able to say, "if the war's so bad, why aren't people marching?" It is so bad, and we are.

We marchers need to see each other, and encourage each other. It's too easy to sit in front of the screen and think you're the only one, blogs such as this notwithstanding.

We need to march now so our organization is sharp if things get worse. Here's a link to something worth laying down in front of a bulldozer for.

http://www.sosalliance.org/underwater_video.shtml

thanks for reading this - thanks everyone for posting.

Posted at January 26, 2007 7:51 PM in response to Can we get over the 60s already?

wasn't it about a year ago that i heard this on my car radio? "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."

Posted at September 6, 2006 8:24 PM in response to Out of the Mouths of Idiots: "One of the Hardest Parts of My Job"

does anybody know of any online (or offline) rebuttals to the "gay marriage is causing Sweden to go to hell" argument that wingers are putting up? here in the heartland we have to be able to talk about these things.

mary catherine reynolds

Posted at June 8, 2006 12:10 PM in response to Inhofe, "American Exceptionalism," and the Wackiness of the Academic Right

as a gay person i'm willing to let the struggle for marriage rights take a lower priority than working to defeat the Bush administration in 2006 and opposing the war.  imo opinion that's not the same as "accept(ing) inequality."  i think it is disciplined and mature to fight battles you can win and not go off "kicking and  screaming," as one activist emailed me, tilting at windmills - especially windmills that kick back so painfully.  so i rise in support of NickDoe. 

i do agree with many of David Goroff's points, though. 

gay couples who are well enough off can go to a lawyer and get a lot of the advantages of marriage down in a contract.  not all, but a lot.  (don't go quoting me the list - i've read the pamphlet.) gay couples who are less well off can look a little harder and get a lawyer to help them do the same thing.  i wish the national gay leadership would focus on a practical, low-key campaign for something like that.   

and i don't have any way to prove it, but i smell a rat somewhere in the gay leadership.  i think someone in a position to do so handed us over to Rove.  and it seems the Log Cabiners always do the exact perfect thing to advance the Bush's cause at just the right moment, whether they announce their support, or their grief-stricken, disillusioned withdrawal of same.

mary catherine reynolds

Posted at February 17, 2006 7:30 PM in response to Freedom to Marry week