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“…Choosing to support Senator Obama was not an easy decision for us because electing a woman President would be a cause for celebration in itself and because we deplore the sexist attacks against Senator Clinton that have circulated in the media. However, we also recognize that the election of Barack Obama would be another historic achievement and that his support for gender equality has been unwavering.
In backing Senator Obama, we are mindful of the inconsistencies in his voting record and the limitations of his own plans for withdrawal. Yet it is noteworthy that at a time when this position was politically unpopular and when he was aiming for national office, Barack Obama opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq and has spoken out against the war ever since. This puts him in a far better position to articulate a clear challenge to a Republican opponent.
We are also moved by the positive tone of the Obama campaign, the tremendous energy it has released across the country, the dramatic engagement of young people and the impetus for change that his candidacy embodies.
We are speaking out now because we cannot afford to elect another President who will continue the aggressive, interventionist policies of the present. “
Hell yes. My name is #1085. What’s yours?
Already found you and signed too, I’m on the next page after you.
Hi
I found your site through http://plainjanemom.com. I’m an Australian so I can’t vote in US elections, but I’m a big Obama fan and actually wrote a similar post about the choice between him and Hillary Clinton: Why My Money is on Barack Obama.
I actually feel like the whole world is affected by the decisions of the President of the United States so we should all get a vote!
I’m a relatively new blogger so I’m still discovering all the great blogs out there, but I really love your writing voice so I’ll be back.
Cheers
Kelly
done.
I’m 1138. 🙂
am a 68 yr old white male feminist, who was also very much involved with the civil rights movement of the 60s and 70s. I have a scar above my right eye and a bullet hole in my left arm gained during this period, merely because I was supporting what was right. I was no “hero�, my involement was pre-ordained because I was “raised� by heroic parents who fought long before I did. What I did was merely a follow-up to their struggle for fairness and equality.
However, today I am totally dismayed and frankly “heartbroken� to see Black Americans voting along racial lines. I swore to doubters prior to the primaries that it would never happen, I argued that Black Americans were better and fairer than that!
As to the feminist aspect: I also have been a feminist since a child, starting with my mother(who was an accomplished pilot) not being able to join the WW11 “Women’s Ferry Corp� because she had a child (me). Men also were parents of course, but that was irrevelent. The fact she was denied, while knowing that she was as good as any, haunted her the rest of her life, but did not damper her activism at all. Merely made her more determined.
I married a feminist, a woman who well could have been my mother’s daughter in every aspect. She founded the first Women’s Political Caucus in our area of the South and brought me into the women’s movement of the 70s with the advent of the ERA. I have been involved since.
I gave speeches, campaigned, did all I could to get the ERA passed in an area of the country that was probably just as hostile to the ERA as it was to the Civl Rights Act. I again was only doing what was “right and Fair�. Again nothing heroic or noble, merely honoring my “up-bringing�.
I am nobody important, just a dismayed old man who has tried his best to support both racial minorities and women in their quest for equality. I have done so against, and in spite of, my own race and gender because my race and gender were the ones “holding both groups back�.
Today I see (with some noteable exceptions, like my wife and other very fair-minded women and blacks) both Blacks and “so called, self ordained feminists�, most of whom are too young to have been involved in either movement personally, demeaning and abandoning Hillary Clinton based on some so called “wonderous movement of change in the air�. I find it shocking, inexplicable, vacuous, and a true insult to all who have “paved the way� for any progess that has has been made for either women or Black Americans.
Hillary Clinton, in my opinion, has never done anything to deserve the horrendous treatment she has received from the press, the right, misogynists, certain blacks, and now “so called feminists�! She has tried (as her record proves) to do what is right for this country and ALL of its citizens. She has of course made mistakes but none to warrant the irrational “pounding� she has and is taking. Even with her mistakes, her record is proof that she has at least tried. When we really try, any of us will sometimes fail. Had we at least helped her fight for healthcare approx. 14 years ago, we might not have it as an issue today. She has never stopped trying, she is strong in the face of all odds, she is determined, and she is right about this country needing a leader, not an inspiration.
For me, perservering through the ad-hominem “beatings� she has taken and is taking (her clothes, she failed in her healthcare effort, she divides, her laugh, her emotions, her lack of fervor, her makeup, her wrinkles, ad finitum) is adequate proof that she is strong enough, determined enough, and certainly brilliant enough to “rescue� this “beaten up� country, if it is at all possible for anyone to do so following Bush!
In my opinion, women (especially those who call themselves feminists) should be doing everything possible to come to her aid, as opposed to calling for her to “roll-over and surrender�. That is what far too many women have historically been doing all of my 68 years.
It is amazing that today, so many women, such as some of those on this blog, still feel the need for some charismatic man, regardless of how empty his (shared and borrowed) rhetoric may be, to lead them out of the “wilderness�.
We men, all of us, have done nothing but screw things up for ages, while holding women and minorities at bay with empty promises!
It is high time we tried an era of Women’s governance. I cannot help but believe it will not only be much different, but also much better for all of us and the world.
I apologize for the length of this post and any statements that may seem offensive. I appreciate the opportunity to be able to share an old man’s views and frustrations.
A few foot notes, if I may, to try to explain my frustration:
1. 1961, Ithink the year Obama was born, is the year I got this scar over my eye at a Montgomery bus station. I was shot approx. 9 mo. later in ‘62 in a white citizens council “drive by� shooting.
2. The Civil Rights movment of that time was inspiring, brave and necessary. However, it was also very sexist: For confirmation do a search for Diane Nash, a young black woman, with beautiful green eyes, that I had a 2 yr crush on. She could have persuaded me to fight a windmill, not that hard considering my life-long “Don Quixote� complex, however she could have inspired me to “tilt� at them perphaps 2 at a time!
Diane, Ella Baker, and other young women were the “backbone�. Ella even accused MLK of being “afraid� to ride a bus. They also very much resented the sexism and movement dominance of the male, religious leaders (SCLC)
Please if you will, to verify that I am not just blowing smoke:
Do a search of Diane, Ella, Anne Moody, Gloria Richardson, Paula Gidding’s writings and see how they were used and “pushed back�.
In truth, then and now, regardless of their efforts and contributions women were still pushed to the back of the bus.
It is time for women to totally step forward! Not all women are white, black, brown, yellow or otherwise, However, women of any color are ALL WOMEN. It is time to stop subjugating yourselves to the “process�, and start subjugating the “process� to you.
Michael
Call me 1193.
Call me a feminist.
Call me a black man married to a brilliant, strong historian.
Call me an Obama supporter because he is a good candidate… not because of “vacuous” racial identiy reasons.
Call me a man who isn’t voting for Obama because he is male, or because HRC is female.
Call me a man who won’t vote for HRC because of her politically motivated vote for the Iraqi war.