I’m liking what David Grenier has to say about Gay Marriage.
From democracynow:
RNC Warns TV Stations Not to Air MoveOn Ad
Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee is warning 250 tv stations across the country to stop running ads from MoveOn.org criticizing President Bush. The RNC claims the ads violate federal election law. MoveOn defended the ads and said it is not surprising that the Republican party QUOTE “continues to make false claims about the legality of our campaign in order to silence us.
Nobody can carry on a verbal attack alone. It takes two people – one to be the attacker, and one to be the victim. People who use verbal abuse do so because they want the fight or the scene – they want your attention – and they enjoy the havoc they create. When you take the bait in their attacks and go along with their plans, you’re not showing them how strong and assertive you are, you are giving them exactly what they want. The more you do that, the worse the situation will get. Every time you take the bait in a verbal attack, you are participating in a self-reinforcing feedback loop.
–Suzette Haden Elgin in GENDERSPEAK: Men, Women, and the Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense
Our brains and spirits are the freest things in the universe. Our bodies can live in chains, but our intellects cannot. It’s that simple. The mind will be free, or it will be dead. It can be numbed, quieted, and restrained so that it memorizes names of Portuguese explorers and plods through grades 1 to 12. If it is fiercely alive and teamed up with a forgiving spirit, it may find a way to be free even in school and stay awake that way. But these strategies are defenses, not full-fledged learning.
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Are you tickled pink to have your mind programmed into Obedient Worker mode? To cash in your cultural heritage for Mainstream Suburbia-think? To be baby-sat 35 hours every week?
–Grace Llewellyn in The Teenage Liberation Handbook
Some of the things Dru Blood says about how blogging has changed her writing really resonate with me.
Well, to be honest I wasn’t doing a whole lot of writing just prior to starting a blog. Everything else was always prioritized over the writing. For some reason, the blog had an immediacy to it that allowed for me to swoop past with the babe in arms and just tap out a random something and then swoop away…and then, over time, there was the feedback element of comments that was really encouraging.
I think blogging, and writing publically has forced me to really think about what I’m saying and the WAY I’m saying it. I can’t always take the time to craft the posts, and I don’t really proofread…so I have sort of become hyper-conscious (in a good way) about what I’m conveying.
However, since I started blogging, I have a really difficult time NOT writing for an audience. My paper journal is sparse…just lists and action items, really. I’m not sure if this is a good or a bad thing, and I’m definitely not sure if my writing has gotten any better in the almost 2 years that I’ve been blogging
