I love Sir Charles. And I don’t mean I love him like I love my kids or I love him like I love red gummy Swedish fish. I mean…I LOVE CHARLES BARKLEY!
Yeah, it’s a scream-it-from-the-rooftops kind of love.
Back when I was young and spry (because I’m convinced I am now old and flabby- no really-you should see the stretch marks) I played basketball and adored Chuck. Between Rick Mahorn and Charles Barkley I really needed no other men in my life.
In fact, one of the greatest lessons I ever learned just might have been from Sir Charles.
In 1993, back when I was graduating High School and idolizing a then First Lady Rodham Clinton, Charles Barkley declared sports figures should not be considered role models. There was more, and there was a lot of discussion about turning celebrities or public figures into icons.
I made a mental note, and went about my life.
It’s now 2008 and I can unabashedly say Barkley was right about the role model thing. He’s been right about a few other things since then, but I am now CERTAIN that public figures as role models are a BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD idea.
Where in the hell is Erin going with this…
I am now completely and totally disappointed, to the point of heartbreak, in Senator Hilary Clinton and Gloria Steinem.
Disgusted, actually.
Two women who I spent many of my young years idolizing and championing have turned into establishment game-playing, fear mongering, surrogate talking-point spouting hacks.
They are so far into the system they can’t even see the rest of us, die hard feminist fans, out here gaping at them.
Mouth wide open when we watch this:
Mouth wide open when we read this.Gaping.Wondering where the women I knew have gone. Wondering if they will find their “voice” or their conscience. Wondering if they even realize what is happening to them. Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones I’m looking at you too.
However, in the end it is my fault. I held them up. I obviously turned them into something they are not, all those years.
Lesson learned.
Thanks Chuck.
***updated** apparently Clinton is now running FAKE NEWS to trick voters.
Amen to that. The only good thing that’s come out of being so disappointed in the women I used to think highly of is this: I’m much more down-to-earth and constantly reality-checking anyone I actually trust now. That’s probably a good thing, but the slap in the face by these women still stings.
Steinem broke my heart. She was that powerful strong woman that I hoped to grow up to be, and now it seems when she talks she’s just as bad as those she was opposing. *sigh*
Is Karl Rove running Hillary’s campaign?
And shouldn’t that be a (oooh scary) RED phone?
And how was Hillary “tested?” Oh, yeah, right, Monica.
Perhaps I am naive. After all, I am one of those polite, apologetic Canadians. Having said that, if she is victorious in her nomination, can she really be as bad as George W. Bush?
Well, Hillary is just fighting in the same way that all the men who went before her have fought while Barack is using a somewhat more stereotypically err dare I write it….I will write teeny tiny letters….feminine manner….you know trying for consensus…harmony…keeping a cool head….using reason…letting others have some input….What an idea that couldn’t possible work.
Thing is I’ve liked the man since I first heard that nominating speech of his and I am thinking I may need to get my butt out and work more actively to get him nominated.
I can’t tell you how appalling it is to see women who want a candidate just because that candidate happens to be a woman, wife, and mother and now is the time for that to happen.
cow fodder — I am so d…..n tired (35 years worth ) of women thinking that if they hitch their careers to some successful woman then they will get what they want without regard to whether that person is the right person to teach them and has the right things to teach. If it is a woman then it has to be good. more cow fodder!
We need …well if you care what I think you can go to my page and get an ear full.
A blog friend sent me to your site and I shall go and thank her now.
I will read more later and possible rant some more in response but I surmise that rants are allowed here.
Am I the only one who seems to remember, that the last time she was answering phones at 3am in the White house, she was telling Bill his whores shouldn’t call after 12am?
This just in, the new starting QB for the Green Bay Packers is Brett Favre’s wife, since she’s been watching him do it for 17 years she figures she now understands the cover 2 defense better than anyone else.