It Takes a Village

Nearly 30 years ago, Hillary Clinton wrote a book It Takes a Village (1995), a phrase she borrowed from an African proverb. Because it was an idea being promoted by Hillary Clinton, the most polarizing woman in America at the time, there was partisan derision and a lot of noise about traditional family structures.

So the phrase and the sentiment were written off as a call for government overreach, and per usual, the inherent value of extended and more communal family structures were not celebrated until recently. Apparently, when conservative-minded men realize that it was a good thing that their Mamaws and South Asian mothers-in-law took an active role in raising their grandchildren, they get to take credit for articulating a role for post-menopausal women that no one quite knew how to previously define.

Initially when I saw James David's suggestion about enlisting the assistance of grandparents in childcare, I tweeted from a space of grief and frustration for my own situation. I don't regret sending this out, because it was/is my truth--I didn't get to rely on the support of grandparents in helping to raise my child in her formative years. In fact, due to a combination of factors, my Dad is only just now available to provide some support to us, which we appreciate and definitely do NOT take for granted as a given.

I want to provide some context and offer an expanded analysis of what he suggested by sharing more about my situation as both the beneficiary of grandparents who were very much involved in my upbringing, as well as from the perspective of a parent who did not have able-bodied caregivers at my beck and call. For me, and I suspect for a lot of my peers, this is a very complicated and sensitive issue. And what we need from policy makers, regardless of their politics and regardless of what kinds of family structures they articulate as ideal, is a lot more than suggestions based on nostalgia for a bygone era.

First, some perspective as this topic comes along at an interesting time for me. I hope to write more about this before the end of the year, but obviously, this has already been quite a year. As such, I find myself looking back and reminiscing, particularly on life as it was for me 40 years ago in 1984. That year was pivotal for me in so many ways, and for the purpose of setting the scene for this piece, it was sometime in the fall of that year when my paternal grandparents both developed chronic illnesses: my Grandmother had Parkinson's disease that progressed to a more disabling point and my Grandfather suffered a massive paralyzing stroke. Suddenly, our caregivers needed us to provide support and care for them.

Earlier that year, I graduated from elementary school, so there were already several changes underway for me. I was to start a new school without most of the friends I had known for the past six. The previous summer, our family moved into a new home and my youngest brother was ready to start school. To ensure that they were in school together, both brothers transferred to a closer elementary school. And if memory serves, my Mom was also reassigned to a new school, so everything was in flux. I recall that the school year began with promise, but things quickly unraveled by Thanksgiving.

Because life comes at you fast. 

My paternal grandparents had absolutely been integral caregivers to us in our formative years. Both were retired by the time I was born, so they had time to dote on us. I was enrolled at the elementary school two blocks from where they lived because pre-kindergarten was half day and someone needed to be available once my day was done. At the time, of course I had no idea that was the reason, but looking back I realize the dynamics of having a younger brother, a working mother, and a father who was living out-of-state to complete graduate school meant that we had to be in the care of hired or family help. 

I recall early on that my Grandmother would walk me home from school, but eventually, my Grandfather would park his blue station wagon directly in front of the building every day at 2:45pm to wait for us. It became something of a running joke among the school staff that no one else could park in Old Man Hawkins' spot. After he drove those two blocks, we headed straight to the kitchen where we got dessert for snack (I am not making this up) and it was glorious!

It was the beginning of second grade when the first series of major life changes began. My Dad graduated and moved back to DC; we moved into our own place; and my Mom announced that she was expecting another baby. My Grandmother seemed happy, but I overheard a conversation between my Mom and Aunt about how Grandma had expressed reservations about her ability to care for another baby. Years later I learned the reason was that she had been recently diagnosed with Parkinson's. So when my brother was born, Grandma helped out until he got to the mobility stage, then he went to nursery school. Granddaddy would get two of us from elementary school and then got my youngest brother from a nearby church. On off days, half days, and sick days, we were at Grandma and Granddaddy's house. 

Our maternal grandmother still worked a few days a week, but we also spent a good deal of time with her as part of an even larger extended family. Her house stayed full of extended family, and whenever the three of us were in the mix with the five to six cousins who lived with her, plus two of her grown sons, and a cat--you do the math! Of course, we grew up like siblings, so I recognize and appreciate the communal family concept James David alluded to in suggesting the participation of relatives in providing childcare.

But...and this is where my emotional tweet thread becomes relevant--not all families can rely on that kind of arrangement. A lot of people don't live near their families. For example, the Hub lives 250 miles away from his four siblings and I know plenty of people who come from families that are scattered across the country. Once upon a time, families used to live in closer proximity, but that is no longer a reality to be taken for granted. As you know, I went to college in Atlanta and at least half of my peers stayed down there for school, job opportunities, and the lower cost of living. Here in DC, most of the people I meet are transplants while many of the native-born Washingtonians (and yes, we exist) live throughout the DMV (District, Maryland, and Virginia area...pronounced urreyah). Which could mean that someone still owns and maintains Big Mama's house, but the various grandchildren, nieces and nephews, etc. could live just as many as 250 miles (4 hours) apart.

And as much as I LOVED growing up with all of those cousins, in hindsight that was a LOT on my long-widowed Grandmother! She raised eight children of her own, so perhaps she was used to that level of chaos, but to look back and realize she was in her 70s, and on any given day her home was inundated with half a dozen grandchildren. Now I'm convinced that is one of the main reasons why she worked until she was 80--so that she could get some peace and quiet!

But let's return to the point 40 years ago where my idyllic childhood memories took a dramatic turn. My paternal Grandmother had an operation from which her health never fully rebounded. My Grandfather was caring for her when he had his stroke. My Dad, an only child, had to figure out caregiving for two parents while raising three school-aged children. For a time, he stayed with his parents on the weekends. It was determined that we all needed to live under one roof, so we had an addition built onto our house. My grandparents moved in the year I started high school. 

The reality about depending on family is that circumstances change. What works in one year might not be feasible the next year. Before we moved into our own house, we lived with extended family, but that became unsustainable as everyone got older. Even in ideal situations, life happens and there have to be reasonable alternatives to fill in the gaps. For my parents, it meant needing afterschool care and transportation for my brothers while I became the classic Generation X latchkey kid. 

James David and his incoherent running mate can make off-handed suggestions about childcare costs that minimize the real-life struggles that so many people face because they have advantages that they take for granted. Donald Trump was, at best, an absentee father who never concerned himself with childcare because paying the nanny, the cook, assorted mistresses, while stiffing small business owners is just one of the perks of being a rich asshole. Usha Vance's mother, Lakshmi Chilukuri, took a leave of absence from her job for a year, and then she went back to work. I presume that when their subsequent children were born, the combined proceeds from his book sales, his Silicon Valley earnings, and his wife's law firm salary meant they could afford a nanny. And that's perfect if it worked for them. It's great that his mother-in-law had the kind of job that allowed her to return to it, unlike so many working mothers who barely get three months of unpaid leave. It's great when parents earn decent middle-class wages or higher. 

It's great when everybody lives nearby and stays healthy. My late mother-in-law lived in New York and as much as I would love to believe otherwise, there is no way she could have packed up her entire life to move here to DC. My Mom only got to assist with my Mean Teen Niece for a short time before we noticed things that revealed concerns about her health. The same way Parkinson's caused noticeable issues for my Grandmother, early-onset Alzheimer's had an immediate impact on my Mom. Like his father, my Dad doesn't seem to mind being Grand-Uber to his granddaughters because that's the extent of his childcare duties. 

It's great when every piece comes together seamlessly. Everyone gets along and there are no differing parenting philosophies. Boundaries are healthy and no one oversteps. Cultural differences are manageable and respected. No one is toxic or manipulative or duplicitous. Family gatherings are a lot like this iconic commercial:

Yeah...

For everyone else who lives in the alternative multiverse where monthly day care costs are equal to mortgage payments and relatives do not live close by, the village is where we must look for solutions. That might mean that the local church provides the day care because that is the most affordable option. Your kid might need to depend on the carpool driven by the parent still working from home who can provide drop off and pick up because their hours are more flexible. I read about 24-hour child care centers and on-site day care at certain jobs I think that makes a lot of sense for those parents who work shift jobs like essential health care workers. This notion that we can't afford to pay people living wages or that day care personnel shouldn't have to be certified when we are entrusting our children to their care is offensive. The kind of money we are willing to pay to keep our children distracted entertained as opposed to being educated, or kept alive...

Some of you know how this childcare issue impacted me, since I've written about it from time to time on this blog. I was a stay-at-home mother (SAHM), but not entirely by choice. I was assisting with the care of my Mom when I got pregnant. Even though I was already "working" from home, we added our names to the waiting list for the daycare center at the Hub's job anyway, just in case. Well, after two years (2 YEARS), there was finally an opening. We went in for the tour but balked at the strain it would put on our family budget. In the end, it made more sense for us to maintain the status quo and wait a few months for the Kid to become eligible for PreK-3 (which is universally available in our jurisdiction).

Hint, universal access to early childhood education is a policy solution. Proposing a tax credit for day care expenses is a policy solution. Suggesting that post-menopausal women ought to spend more time baking cookies and planting herb gardens with their grandkids is not a policy solution. Not unless you are willing to offer them paid family leave since many of our seniors still work.

Did I mention the dilemma of being a woman of a certain age who has both child-rearing and elder caregiving responsibilities? If not, I wrote about it a few years ago. And let me tell you that even with my Mom gone, my situation has not changed as much as you might think. My Dad will be 77 on his birthday, and he hasn't lived alone for more than 40 years. If I wasn't around, this man would live off of Jamaican meat patties and Arizona iced tea. At my Mom's funeral, I was cornered by some of his church lady friends who made it clear that they were going to hold me personally responsible if anything happened to him. And the last thing I want to do is piss off a bunch of Black church woman. 

I am not complaining. I am blessed that he is here and, as the old folks say, has a reasonable portion of health and strength. Instead, I will emphasize the fact that I am still amazed and awed by my Mom, who did all of this backwards, in heels, with a full-time job, and with two boisterous sons. But that doesn't take into account that my Mom had the benefit of a village. Once I let go of my Wonder Woman fantasies of her abilities and remembered that she had help, I've been seeing things differently. 

It is important to point out that none of us lives in the center of the village. We have a responsibility to support each other just as we are supported. This is true even when there are non-family members in the midst, because we are probably extensions of their village in some way as well. If we are late picking up our kids from day care, that makes those employees late for whatever it is that they have to do in their second shifts. If we spend most of our involvement with our child's school as adversaries, as opposed to advocates, then the result is a contentious environment that hinders learning. If you are blessed with parents who are able to help, by all means accept it, but know that the situation could easily be reversed with you and your children providing assistance to them. Sometimes that isn't possible, because let's face it, some of y'all took jobs in other parts of the country for reasons other than just the pay...

Instead of talking to economists and podcasters about issues like this, policy-makers need to talk to the people who are on the front lines. Like the working parents who need flexibility and more options. Like the people who own childcare facilities and have to navigate a complex regulatory landscape. Like the private nannies who deserve living wages and benefits. Like the single Dads who might also be working in the gig economy just to afford childcare. Like the women who have to balance elder caregiving and full-time employment. Like those grandparents who, having raised their children, have earned the right to decide how involved they want to be in raising their grandchildren. Talk to the people who actually live in the village.

Rematch Remix

Today is Super Tuesday, March 5, 2024. I was working on this before my life imploded. Maybe some of this will still make sense...

Now that we're almost done with January February with a few days left in Black History Month and you've barely heard from me in months (more on that later), why don't I try to keep some momentum going by wading into other people's politics? This year is sure to be a clusterfuck thanks to the inevitable rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. I mean, let's not pretend that either of the remaining candidates running on the GOP side have a snowball's chance in hell of prevailing against the avalanche that is The Donald; and let's accept the fact that we're not getting an alternative choice on the Democratic side either (we're riding in that station wagon with Ol' Joe). Thus, in the words of Aaron Burr to Alexander Hamilton in the Ten Duel Commandments, okay so we're doing this.

Now, I should admit that I started writing this piece last month before the New Hampshire primary when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was still in the mix. Well now that we know how that went for him, and that former Ambassador Nikki Haley is poised to continue her multi-state losing streak, including her home state of South Carolina, it won't matter if I don't finish this until March because I predict nothing will change. Back in January, there were still a few other Democratic challengers, namely Marianne Williamson and Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN), as well as a couple of "independents" and explorers. I'm not sure what's going on with Dr. Cornel West, and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) opted not to run, so we're left with Philips (who is an op) and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. whose own family refuses to endorse, so what's that about?

In the words of the late Yogi Berra, it's like deja vu all over again.

I don't really have many qualms about that because I'm one of those Democrats who never gets polled, and apparently my readership doesn't include any of the worried anonymous sources that have expressed private misgivings about the 2024 ticket. That doesn't mean that I'm not concerned about a rematch because I am, just not for the reasons that keep getting all of the oxygen in the news. I am not worried about Biden's age. I am not all that concerned that Trump is two years younger. Two old white guys duking it out for the hardest job in the world isn't must-see TV like a heavyweight prize fight, because nobody is paying to see George Forman fight Larry Holmes.

If anything, this will be like watching the Final Showcase on the Price is Right. We want to see which contestant will win: the old guy who's bidding on the RV and the cross-country vacation or the old guy who is bidding on a house-full of new appliances. If I had to bid on either of those showcases, I would have passed on one and intentionally overbid on the other. I'm sure that somebody out there needs a new Maytag dryer or a place to stay when they are driving through the desert. Just not me.

However, let's pretend that this a metaphorical choice between what might be a fantasy trip of a lifetime or the kind of practical stuff one needs at home. Described in that manner, I am going with the appliances because I imagine the third ring of Hell would be three weeks in a mobile home with my family. Surviving the pandemic with them was A LOT. I wouldn't want a repeat of that experience, not even if you paid me. Besides, upon further consideration, while all of my current household appliances work just fine right now, I could live with an upgrade. Or I could give something away. I can't imagine what I would do with an RV, where I would keep it, or how much it would cost to maintain. I live in the city, so a big motor home feels like it would become an attractive nuisance...a magnet for all kinds of untold foolishness.

Metaphorically speaking then, I think you know which candidate involves a new refrigerator and which one reminds me of Shazam.

Speaking of old childhood nostalgia, when I began drafting this piece (in January), I was thinking of The Wizard of Oz and how Nikki Haley kept giving me Cowardly Lion vibes. My initial thought was to write a Dear Nikki, put up your dukes and fight back pep talk because it felt like she was trying way too hard not to call Trump out on his racism. Well, I don't need to write that since it seems that she got a fake medal of courage from some GOP donors who seem content to keep burning money to keep this "fight" going for a few more weeks. She has taken some pointed jabs at Trump and maybe a few of them have landed. The problem is that he's not showing any signs of being hit (unless his increasingly bizarre rallies and rambling campaign speeches just happen to sound like he's an old punch-drunk fighter). 

However, to the extent that I am still a little frustrated on her behalf even as I remain deeply mistrustful of her, I wish she could have been more competitive. I wish that on both sides we had not fallen back into this pattern of placing our trust in the old white grandpa because they are the reason why we are in this mess. There is an undercurrent of thinking that the country (and the world) was better off when Big Daddy ran everything, and we all served at his beck and call. Think about it--we had the most diverse bench of candidates on the Democratic side in 2020 and still ended up with Uncle Joe who came out of retirement (but never left his basement) to run. Back in 2016, the Republicans also had a pretty diverse field until they coalesced around their Great White Hope. 

It's as if we're trying to decide between competing retro TV marathons of Father Knows Best or Leave It to Beaver.

If I were Haley, I would be pissed that in spite of her College Republican Corresponding Secretary perfectionism, they still don't trust her enough to do anything other than take notes or collect the money at the door. She can't win the election for President because, and this has to really cut deep, they would rather go with the convicted rapist who might be headed to jail. There isn't even the slightest chance that she would have been his Vice President because the Karens aren't going to allow that. So much for being the Model Minority...

Yeah, I said it because this is a multi-layered s/hit job that's happening here. Nikki Haley is more qualified than all of the other names on his short-list, yet she would be passed over for the it-girl Governor of South Dakota with her measly three electoral votes; an insurrectionist from New York who can't even help Trump win his home state; an overly ambitious two-term Congressman from Florida; the guy Haley hand-picked to serve South Carolina in the Senate; the Hydra from Hawaii; and a charismatic idiot who is an obsequious kiss-ass. I even saw where Sarah Palin's name was in the mix. And given how much more qualified than the others she is for the Vice Presidency, she's right to refuse to step-aside to clear the path for the self-anointed wannabe Dictator for Day One "only". Theoretically, her goal to save the GOP carries the same urgency as the Democrats wanting to save America.

Then what I don't understand is how the Former Trumpers seem to be disinclined to publicly endorse her. She has some voter support; just not enough to stop him nor enough to slow him down. I don't know if she hasn't asked (and why they would need to be asked) or if they just don't like her Gretchen Weiners trying to make fetch happen by running for Spring Fling Queen candidacy. Where are Chris Christie, Liz Cheney, the Bush Family, Mitt Romney, and especially former Vice President Mike Pence??? Not that it is any of my business, but...

I know, not my flying monkeys so not my circus. However, it does suggest that it isn't just Haley's disingenuousness that's so off-putting. There is definitely some other reason, and the answer can be found on the other party ticket.

Joe Biden may be old, moving slower, and taking the shorter stairs to board Air Force One, but he's still a sharp and consummate politician. In spite of the ageist mockery of his lifelong speech impediment as evidence of cognitive decline (which it isn't), I suspect Dark Brandon's super powers are finely attuned to the political pragmatism of the American electorate. You see, a person doesn't stay in Washington for 40 years and not garner an intricate understanding of how everything works. And remember that his last job was to serve as the Vice President to the first Black President.

When some of y'all lost confidence in Obama before the end of his first term--sometime between Henry Louis Gates getting arrested on his porch and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, it is my belief that it was Biden who helped to save the day behind the scenes. Biden knew that without a big policy win the grand Obama experiment would fail, so they put everything on the line and took the shot to pass the Affordable Care Act. Then his son Beau died in 2015, so Biden opted to step aside to allow history to have its way...but Hillary Clinton lost. After watching one of the most qualified candidates lose to the most dangerous person as backlash for the election of a Black man (and in rejection of the prospect of electing the first woman), Uncle Joe read the political tea leaves. And despite his effort to ease the country into the idea of the first woman President via his Vice President, y'all are cutting up again. All of this talk about Kamala Harris being a disappointment even as she has been the most visible partner than any other Vice President in history. 

Given how he supported Obama, did you expect that Biden would have shown a scintilla of disloyalty by replacing Harris? Not only would that have been disrespectful to her, as she has single-handedly ensured the success of his agenda as the tie-breaker vote in the Senate, but also to his base. And knowing how fickle and ferocious the opposition has been to seeing Black women in positions of power, he's not taking any chances. He's not setting Harris up to lose to Donald Trump given the way y'all didn't show up for Stacey Abrams against Brian Kemp in Georgia; for Val Demings against Marco Rubio in Florida; nor for Cheri Beasley against Ted Budd in North Carolina. And trust, he's watching how the Republicans enthusiastically are NOT showing up for Nikki Haley as well.

Therefore America, these are your choices: two grumpier older men.

Anyone still nervous about Biden's age or his mental acuity must not have thought this through when they voted for him back in 2020, because he was old then. So was Trump and so was Bernie Sanders (who is older than both of the other two). Either Biden was going to get older or die in office, and there is a lot of anecdotal evidence to refute the probability of the latter. First of all, his mother lived into her 90s, so he's got some genetic assistance. Second, all of the modern American Presidents since Gerald Ford have lived into their 90s, and that includes Ronald Reagan who lived with Alzheimer's disease for at least the last ten years of his life. Jimmy Carter, who is the current record-holder for post-Presidential longevity has spent this last year in hospice and he is 99! The last President to die in office was John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated. If age truly is a concern for you, then your alternative choices (other than Harris and Haley) are RFK, Jr. who is 70, Cornel West is also 70, and spoiler Jill Stein who is 74.

Furthermore, if all of the former Presidents can expect to live long and prosper, the care provided to the current officeholder ensures Wolverinesque healing capabilities. How do you think Trump's comorbid ass survived COVID in 2020? Because he received the best medical treatment on the planet! Considering how everyone in the military is vaccinated to the hilt, and they are responsible for the President's medical health, there is NO WAY they would allow anything to happen to the Commander in Chief and Leader of the Free World on their watch.

So what are the real concerns? America, it's time To Tell the Truth...

And that is, y'all ain't ready for a woman, especially not a woman of color, in the Oval Office. I don't have to personally like Nikki Haley to recognize that she is qualified for the job. But y'all don't like her, just as there are folks on my side who don't like Kamala Harris, who is also qualified. You didn't like Hillary Clinton either, which might be a debatable point since she won the popular vote; however, she lost the popular vote in enough smaller states where she should have won. There is a pattern where women who run for President might generate some momentary enthusiasm such as Elizabeth Warren, Michelle Bachmann, Carly Fiorina, but they don't close the deal. 

That is, of course, the voters' prerogative. The rest of the world has made more progress in that direction, including our cousins across the pond in the UK and down under in New Zealand. My hope is that this will be the last election where this is the case, not just because we need to move on from the old white guys, but yeah, we do. We took one small step for women in 2022, but still aren't ready to make that giant leap. But there is glass on the ground, so watch your step.

TIME to Shake It Off

Alright Swifties and the folks who hate them, I started this piece before the Superbowl conspiracy theories began circulating about Taylor Swift trying to influence your young impressionable daughters. She'll swear that she isn't, but if your daughter suddenly decides to watch the game to catch glimpses of her in a skybox instead of Usher at the Halftime...

Remember when I said that I wasn't going to say anything about Taylor Swift being named TIME Magazine's Person of the Year? Me neither (it's been almost two months)...but I do recall that I tasted blood from biting my tongue. So fine, I have a lot to say and I guarantee some of you aren't going to like it! 

I saw the list of finalists, and it reflects all of the appropriate choices that one would have expected: controversial world leaders; the righteous working man (as represented by the Hollywood strikers); the heroic Trump prosecutors; icon(s) of popular culture; and the random inanimate object thrown in the mix to represent the cultural zeitgeist of the moment. My best guess is that Barbie actually won, but then someone was going to have to figure out how to interview a toy without that coming across as inappropriately suggestive or weird. 

So they went with the neurotic human Barbie that is Taylor Swift, and as is always the case whenever her name is trending, there was controversy along the predictable lines of people being elated, annoyed, or indifferent. What surprised me was the larger than usual coalition of people who expended time and energy on being offended. 

Like really? As the world burns, y'all are upset that a pop star got featured on a magazine cover? War in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Sudan. A wannabe dictator is running for President with a solid shot at winning, but Taylor Swift is the more worrisome influence on America's youth? I know that in theory, the TIME Magazine Person of the Year isn't supposed to be as trivial as the People Magazine Sexiest Man Alive or the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue can be. However, it is just a magazine cover as well, so by now (two, four, six...eight weeks or so later) we're just ignoring whomever/whatever is staring back at us from the virtual newsstand because no one keeps physical magazines anymore excepts doctors and dentists. 

And that would have been more than enough to say on the matter, until I noted an alliance of pearl clutchers between the Black Twitterati and the Moms of Liberty. That made for the kind of strange bedfellows which caused me to reconsider my silence. On the one hand, I understand the exasperated groans...Taylor Swift (again) when Beyonce is right there??!! However, on the other hand, just when I thought it might be best to *swiftly* walk away from what looked like white-on-white violence and head back to the hood, it dawned on me that Tay-Tay has become the most polarizing white woman in America since Hillary Clinton.

Again, we're talking about a magazine cover, not the Nobel Peace Prize. I know that we want Beyonce to be given her flowers and properly acknowledged, which we can do without going full Kanye at the 2009 VMAs. Nobody is denying the impact of Beyonce's World Tour. Nobody shrugs off the devotion of her BeyHive. And though we addressed this a few weeks ago with that cute picture of Bey and Tay together at the premier of Swift's Eras movie, nobody cares if they are frenemies or fake besties. Y'all need to stop pitting these women against each other! Seriously, you need to calm down.

Go on about your business and let Taylor Swift do what she does best, which is play the victim/anti-hero of her own success. Isn't that ultimately how she got this honor, by hamming up her "Gee, aww shucks, who me?" schtick to the kind of pitch perfection that has kept people talking about her all year? So stop helping her...PLEASE! 

She's talented. She's pretty. She can be charming. She likes cats. She has a lot of famous ex-boyfriends. By naming her Person of the Year, TIME has done us a solid by starting the clock on her inevitable popular decline. I know that reads like I'm taking shots of haterade (I'm not); however, I'm simply stating the obvious. What goes up, must come down. After a year of being the center of attention, the backlash of being weary of all things Taylor, Taylor, Taylor is just beginning. 

Is that what y'all want for Beyonce?

Congressional hearings over the availability and price of her concert tickets that result in nothing? Having your pleas for her to come to your city on her much-ballyhooed concert tour go unanswered? Getting denounced by the Alpha men and Podcast Bros as a floozy and the MAGA Karens as a witch? 

Consider what the title of TIME Person of the Year really means in the grand scheme of things. She gets to share that designation with some very honorable people such as Nelson Mandela, St. Mother Teresa, and Martin Luther King, Jr., but also quite a few terrible folks like Adolph Hitler, Elon Musk, and Donald Trump. She wasn't chosen because she's some inspirational freedom fighter standing up to a Bond villain dictator (nominated again this year), nor as a symbol of some significant movement in human progress. She's no Angela Merkel; however, she is a mega-successful multi-talented artist who had a really good year. Maybe it seems inconsequential, because making people happy through art isn't at all like working for world peace or curing lethal diseases, but Lord knows that we need some joy in these turbulent times. However, this choice feels like a set up, and a few months from now, she might wish they had gone with Barbie. 

Honestly, the person who should be really pissed right now is King Charles III. Consider that he's waited his entire life for these kinds of honors, only to be relegated to being just another name on a list. I got a certain amount of petty glee to note that the American daughter-in-law he keeps trying to make us hate, the one who was too busy living her life to attend his coronation...she found time and a sitter to attend the Taylor Swift concert.  

Even I got sucked into Taylormania this year. I had just joked with a friend that I would never, only to forget that declaration when I bought tickets to the Eras film a few weeks later. Of course, they were for the Kid, under the rationale that her ability to sit through the Swift concert would determine whether she could manage to do the same for the Beyonce film (almost). We were about halfway through hour two of Eras when I realized how many TS songs I knew from just casual radio surfing in the car. And I have to give the woman her props--it was a quite a show!

So now what? Will this be the high watermark of her career?

Since I am old enough to have witnessed this phenomenon with several other global superstars, I can say with certainty that the fall ain't pretty; the splat at the bottom is ugly; and the comeback never restores the artist(s) to the heights they once achieved. Having just watched the documentary about Michael Jackson and his iconic Thriller album at 40, it reminded me of those innocent times before everything really blew up, when I was the age of many of the youngest Swifties. Back then, Jackson was setting Guiness World Records, collecting Grammy awards, integrating MTV, and overall changing the music industry. No one could touch him, but like most people who fly too close to the sun, he came crashing down to earth. 

I imagine that a similar retrospective of Eras in 20-30 years or so will find us revisiting this moment to determine where it all began to shift. Was it Taylor's fault that her presence at NFL games to cheer on her next ex-boyfriend would annoy so many people? Didn't she know that she would never overcome the ridicule of having taken a role in the movie version of CATS (2019)? How did she always manage to reach any career milestone without the "help" of Kanye West? (Yeah, I said it!)

While we can clearly see the Beyonfluence on Swift and think the worst, it isn't like she hasn't been borrowing notes and copying from the others who preceded her. Let's begin with Janet Jackson, the Fairy Godmother of every 21st Century Pop Princess. Recognize that pose from Swift's second POY TIME cover from the janet (1993) album? How many of you remember the first Taylor (Dayne) to make it big in pop music? Or that Ms. Diana Ross the Boss was the queen of multiple costume changes in a single show? I could name-drop a bunch of girl pop acts from the 80s, from Tiffany and Debbie Gibson to the Aunties Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Gloria Estefan, and Mariah Carey who were each, in her prime, pioneers who cleared away shards of broken glass so that Swift didn't get cut along the road to success. 

Heck, some of Taylor's best stuff has been ripped off inspired by others. Becoming BFFs with various LGBTQIA icons--that was Madonna in the 90s. The entire boudoir dominatrix aesthetic was big in the Aughts, which I remember well since one of the very first pieces I wrote about popular music back in 2001 was inspired by the remake of the Lady Marmalade video for the Moulin Rouge soundtrack. That same year Britney Spears performed live with a snake (Swift's snake at her show was an optical illusion). Swift must have been about twelve then, the kind of "good" girl who diligently practiced her instruments and jotted down lyrics (while taking copious notes) in her glitter-covered spiral notebook. She definitely spent a LOT of time watching classic MTV videos because hello, Michael Jackson did the zombie in the graveyard thing first. And that folksy rock-witch serving Sarah Jessica Parker in Hocus Pocus (1993) era was a clear nod to Stevie Nicks. How much do you want to bet that Swift assumed no one would make the association between one-hit wonderful Toni Basil and how she obviously inspired Shake It Off?  

Yeah, if Artificial Intelligence could have created the perfect pop star...

Which brings me back to where this all began with the TIME cover and how maybe it's just perfect that Taylor Swift would be named the Person of this most superlative thank-God-it-is-almost-over trainwreck of a Year. While some folks might be envious and critical of Beyonce for both legitimate and ridiculous reasons, she's a working mother of three married to a billionaire, so she's not worried about a magazine cover. And she's made it clear that she and Swift are like two vast oceans that maintain their unique attributes even as they mix, commingle, and share fans. Queen Bey don't need or want any parts of this foolishness.

On the other hand, Taylor Swift is probably writing a song about all of this backlash that will become next summer's earworm, and so all of this Taylorific disdain will have the opposite effect. She has a knack for courting controversy so that it serves her; hence, no matter what we say or how we feel about her, she's not going anywhere anytime soon. She is formidable, resilient, and she won this dubious honor over a King, organized labor, two dictators, and a $10 plastic doll. That this woman can be loved and reviled, admired and maligned, yet somehow manages to triumph is extraordinary.

Even if you're still convinced that Barbie would have been a better choice, the reality is that she would have melted under this kind of scrutiny. In the movie, she couldn't handle the perceived imperfection in having flat feet, and the other Barbies got overthrown in their own dreamworld by a bunch of idiots. Taylor (and here comes a bad pun), is too Swift to be undone by shallow insecurity or some male accessory who is only relevant because of his association with her. If for no other reason than to piss off the podcast bros who resent that she's way out of their league, Taylor Swift will always be a better choice than Weird Barbie...and the world will be grateful for that in 20-30 years.

Performance Evaluations

One word got me twisted: performance. When I first heard it, I reacted with incredulity. Her performance, Senator?! You mean, how she sat there and didn't flinch while Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) yelled at her about the Kavanaugh hearings from 2018? Or how she attempted several times in vain to respond to Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-TX) badgering? Or when she said that she couldn't provide a biological definition for what a woman was, anticipating that it might very well become a constitutional question before the Court? 

Or were you moved by that single tear she could no longer contain, so it spilled down her face while Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) offered her words of comfort?

That one word got me riled up with the kind of righteous anger that immediately knows how futile it is to argue when someone's mind is made up. The kind of profound disappointment one feels when despite having done everything right, something goes awry and all you can do is stand there in disbelief. 

I could think of a hundred or more hypothetical examples to illustrate how it must feel in a moment to have your hopes and dreams dashed. Perhaps the most analogous to the present moment is of Hillary Clinton the morning after her election loss to Donald Trump in 2016. All indications were that she would win because the notion of a game show reality star con man President was so unimaginable. So in the days and weeks leading up to the election, while everybody was focused on his Access Hollywood interview and whether he should apologize to his wife (but not the actress he hit on), the Clinton campaign didn't see how they could possibly lose to that fucking guy (TFG). They campaigned in states where Democrats traditionally under-performed. They ordered the fancy confetti, extra balloons, and the expensive champagne for the Election Night celebration. 

They told us to wear our pantsuits to the polls and to take our daughters so that they could witness the history of the moment when Hillary Rodham Clinton would finally crack the glass ceiling. And like so many, I did just that. I dressed my Toddlersaurus in a gray outfit that matched my gray pantsuit, and I proudly took this video of myself outside of my parents' polling place.

I haven't thought back on that day in a long time, but it is instructive in this moment. We all got caught up in the prospect of making history. But what happens if the other side has figured out a way to deny us that chance? What are we prepared to do then? 

The vote hasn't taken place yet, so maybe it is just my anxiety and frustration talking here, but my spidey senses tell me we would be wise to prepare for battle. Our jubilation is premature until Judge Jackson is sworn in as Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Nothing is assured. A third of the Senators currently serving are seniors. A Senator had a stroke in February and came back to work a month later (risking a relapse IMHO). The oldest serving Member of the House of Representatives died on a plane last week! Another variant of COVID is circulating in the United States. The strategy for getting this nomination through is that Madame Vice President would provide a tie vote, assuming that there would actually be a 50-50 split.

Y'all, the lap you are running is not for victory. It is the warm-up, so save your energy. 

Nobody pays me for advice, so take what I say with a grain of salt, but I got stuck on the word performance and it nagged at my spirit. As a political junkie, I have heard reporters who have covered Mitch McConnell throughout his career say that he never minces words. He doesn't misspeak. Thus, when he said that his decision to vote against Judge Jackson was based on her record and her performance, I understood that he was communicating something specific to his base. He was signaling them to take notice of her demeanor and to make a value judgment that justifies disqualifying her from this lifetime appointment. 

He called her Uppity. A nasty woman with table manners.

Somebody reading this is going to react and say that he didn't use those exact words; somebody else is going to say that I am reaching; and someone else will accuse me of playing that race card game we never win. But he said what he said. And all this week, every person of color who watched this hearing with me saw a lot of signaling and subliminal messaging because our eyes and ears are trained by years of enduring various microaggressions.

NOBODY thought Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was going to vote for Ketanji Brown Jackson to assume a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. I am more surprised that he waited an hour after the testimony concluded to make that announcement. He probably needed to finish his lunch. I realize that alluding to the amount of time it took for him to release a statement conjures up the ghosts of Southern juries convicting Black defendants or acquitting white mobs and that is fraught with all kinds of historical baggage, but yeah, I am putting it out there. Same energy.

But let's be very clear, his opposition isn't about her race or her gender. It is about ideology, so as he conceded the finer points of her qualifications and fitness for the job, he understood that he needed to provide cover for his Caucus to reject her. So he told his staff to find him a word that could skirt past her race and gender and hit her where she least expected. Because she had behaved. She dressed the part. She didn't roll her neck or cut her eyes or raise her voice. She comported herself exactly as others before her had done. However, by labelling her appearance before the Committee as a performance, McConnell could infer that she was too poised, too restrained, too dispassionate. Rehearsed.

Arrogant. Proud. Haughty. Insensitive. Cold.

As opposed to Eleanor McCollum, the sweet Grandma Judge Jackson accused of badgering wanton women on the sidewalks in front of abortion clinics in Massachusetts. That nice little old lady who simply handed out her cards and offered to bake cookies and serve tea for these lost girls, if only they would reconsider their choice to kill their unborn fetuses. Mind you, Judge Jackson wasn't even in the hearing room, but the contrast was stark. Aunt Bea's homemade apple pie versus Annalise Keating's store-bought key lime pie. And guess who wins every time?

But I said this wasn't about race so as proof, allow me to dredge up the nomination of Janice Rogers Brown and how she was mistreated by the Democrats almost 20 years ago. (Both sides can go tit-for-tat and round-for-round with the partisan shenanigans, by the way.) If you recall, in February Sen. Cruz invoked Judge Brown's failed nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals as an example of Democratic racism. Sen. Graham picked up where his Colleague left off, but then conceded that Judge Brown's nomination failed due to ideological differences, thus signaling how he might justify not voting for Judge Jackson this time...because all is fair in love and politics. But that doesn't explain why the successful confirmation of Judge Ada E. Brown rarely enters the conversation.

I assume my Spelman Sister performed to Mitch McConnell's satisfaction in 2019 when she became the first of two Black women TFG nominated to the federal bench. Hence my challenge to McConnell and the rest of the GOP is to #SayHerName when the next appeals court vacancy opens up on her circuit.  

I'm not taking any bets or holding my breath. McConnell has shrewdly calculated that he still wins even if he loses this round. And he has nothing to lose, since Judge Jackson will merely replace her former boss, so the ideological balance of the Court remains intact. Furthermore, she won't be seated in time to weigh in on the current docket of cases, which includes affirmative action (so her pre-emptive recusal was unnecessary). Most importantly, November is coming, so he has a campaign issue for which he can raise a ton of money and turn out a lot of votes, regardless of the outcome in the Senate. None of his minions are up for re-election this cycle anyway.

If we learned anything from TFG's upset win in 2016, it is that a man with nothing to lose is always willing to risk it all. In order to get Ketanji Brown Jackson confirmed, what are we willing to risk? That is how we need to approach this--EVERYTHING is at stake. Like I've already said, we're still warming up. Getting her nomination out of Committee and onto the floor is just the first leg of this relay. We've got three more laps until 2024. And then the marathon continues.

Instead of focusing on the prospect of making history, we need to fight. The battle isn't just about Ketanji Brown Jackson, but about this system and the arbitrary way powerful men like Mitch McConnell abuse power. Again, this isn't only about race, so trust that when Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) announces his intention, it will be just as impassioned and emotional as Sen. Cory Booker's effusive praise. Never forget that Merrick Garland was also supremely qualified.

How hard are we willing to fight? For Judge Jackson, for Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and at least three more seats in the Senate, for Stacey Abrams (D-GA), for redistricting maps that haven't been gerrymandered, for clean drinking water, for the safety of our children in school, for access to affordable healthcare, for better wages, for the right to vote? As Frederick Douglass said, power concedes nothing without a demand! And well-behaved women seldom make history. For Black women, our composure and grace under fire aren't indicators of good behavior--these are acts of defiance and resistance. Understand that as you lace up and stretch for this race.

Are you warmed up yet? Because I'm ready to give Mitch McConnell a performance he will never forget!

Bombshell

I watched the film Bombshell (2019) last night and I was left almost speechless. So I tried to sleep it off, but could not, because it was just that disturbing. I wrote most of this while half awake and STILL very agitated (I'm editing now after a midday nap).

As usual, I missed this movie when it was released. I don't recall being terribly interested in the story of the sexual harassment claims brought by the likes of Gretchen Carlson and Megyn 'Jesus -is-white-and-Santa-too' Kelly against Roger Ailes. I guess I assumed it was a given that a network that treated women on camera like spokesmodels selling sports cars would itself be the hot tub of sexism. I knew that was a timely exposé given the wave of #MeToo claims by women in other industries, particularly Hollywood. I just thought it was ironic that of all the stories to dramatize, the one chosen to illustrate the toxicity of sexism in our society would feature a bunch of self-interested white women capitalizing on a hashtag that had been co-opted from a Black woman activist.

Yet, I chose to watch the movie because I have been on a binge of sorts, and as I opt for anything other than 24 hour cable news, I thought it would be entertaining, rather poetic, and almost a too delicious pot of irony calling the kettle sexist. In hindsight, I probably should have watched more MSNBC (instead I was up all night watching Sex and the City reruns)...

I won't spoil the movie in case you haven't seen it or plan to watch, but WOW. I feel like I have been saying this repeatedly over the course of the last four year or more, but sexism is the ism that we tolerate and it will be the ism that destroys us. That statement doesn't absolve racism or nationalism of their lethality, but I just need everyone to know that fealty to the patriarchy is just as dangerous and destructive.

But don't take my word for it. At our collective peril, continue to regard sexism as a less insidious form of bias. Sexism is what fuels the hatred and disrespect for Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Sexism is what was unveiled by the plot to kidnap Governor Gretchen Wilmer of Michigan. Sexism is why the acting Capitol Police Chief, Yogananda Pittman got a vote of no-confidence and is being held to account for the lapses in preparedness against the insurrectionists on January 6 (because her predecessor quit). Sexism is why thirty-three state legislatures have proposed new voter restrictions in response to the 2020 election because the face of increased ballot access is a Black woman. Sexism is how a certain boot-licking Senator from South Carolina can go on television and suggest that Vice President Kamala Harris could get impeached as a form of revenge for supporting a bail fund for Black Lives Matter protestors.

Sexism is what elevated a con man fake billionaire reality TV show game show host with no governing experience to the most important job on the planet. We could have lived through four more years of Hillary and Bill Clinton given that we brought back everything else from the 90s. But no... y'all wanted the 80s. So that brought us the ultimate Abominable Snowflake: a man who threatened a state official in Georgia to find or toss more votes; who summoned angry mobs to the Nation's Capital; who cheered on said mobs while they ransacked the Capitol; who then refused to call off said mob as they hunted for his Vice President to capture and possibly kill; and who denied access to the National Guard from a neighboring state. The man y'all just acquitted (again) for all of these actual high crimes and misdemeanors. 

I said I wouldn't spoil the movie, but the plot of Bombshell centers around Roger Ailes and his 20 years of sexist shenanigans at FOX News. By the end, it felt very much like I had watched a dramatization of the last four years. Only the outcome was the classic stuff of Hollywood hubris--Ailes was taken down by mutiny. Gretchen Carlson's objective was not to bring down the emperor for his crimes against all of the women at her network, it was to bring him down for having demoted and humiliated her. She knew there were other women who had endured his harassment, but only got the courage to stand when her fortunes shifted. As for Megyn Kelly, coming forward was clearly part of her contract negotiations and her cheap shot of revenge against Ailes for making her play nice with Trump after he insulted her. 

Don't worry--you will not feel any sympathy for these people. While you get the sense that the women who have remained at FOX are trapped, only a few of them appear to mind. The best depiction of Stockholm syndrome is when Kelly coldly informs one of Ailes' victims that no one at the network had a duty to protect her. That in order to become the next Judge Jeanine Pirro, Laura Ingraham, or the next ex-Mrs. Trump (because there is always an opening), the law of the jungle is to kill or be killed.

If there is such a thing as karma, then it has already dealt with Ailes, who died within a year of leaving his lair at FOX. Kelly's soft landing at NBC News was short-lived and Carlson is now doing documentaries for Lifetime after a controversial tenure with the Miss America Organization. But are those real consequences in the grand scheme of things when compared to the collateral damage done by their evil deeds or selective blindness to evil? Ailes was old and in declining health anyway. Sure, Carlson and Kelly no longer enjoy the perks of being the darlings of conservative media, but they ain't hurting financially. And the Frankenstein monster they created and unleashed, he who has metaphorically killed at least half a million people on 5th Avenue over the course of his four years in office and been acquitted of abusing his power twice? He lost his Twitter account...

I tossed and turned all night, agitated by the collateral damage left in the wake of these bombs bursting in and on air. In all of the years that FOX News has been selling alternative facts and narratives, the truth has always been manipulated or mishandled to serve the needs of weak men to maintain their vice grip on power. That much was confirmed in the first five minutes when the film concedes that Trump's ascension was useful to Ailes and the Murdochs. The real bombshell has very little to do with the individual details of what happened at FOX, or at Miramax, or on the Access Hollywood tape, or with whomever Justin Timberlake has screwed with his fuck boi tendencies.

The real bombshell is that a lot of what we see is subterfuge. Makeup. Lighting. Short skirts. Clear desks. Blond ambition. And even when women prevail or succeed in dismantling some hallowed bastion of patriarchy, we still get paid less.

For Our Daughters

This past Saturday morning, I was scheduled to give a presentation on Zoom for the Debutante program at my church. I had been asked to give this talk months ago and honestly had not settled on what I would say until the last minute (as in Wednesday, after the election, in the car on my way back from Philadelphia). Initially, I had this grand idea that I would finally pull together thee comprehensive voting rights Power Point with pictures and voice-over and all kinds of other bells and whistles. But given the amount of time needed to pull that together, my packing anxieties, and all of the other things going on in my life, I decided to just speak from my heart about what inspired me to vote.

The morning of the presentation, we were in a hotel room in Queens because we were scheduled to attend a family function immediately afterward. I had to get myself ready, and the Kid, pack up most of our stuff, and make sure that the room looked presentable. And I had less than an hour to do all of that and beat a full face because y'all know how serious that has become these days! With seconds to spare, I logged on and began my talk. Around 11am, my phone began to blow up with successive text messages. I took a quick peek, but continued on with my presentation. We did take a moment at the end to acknowledge the significance of the news and I think the young ladies were still awake. But as Busy Black Saturdays go, I had no time to really sit to process the news as I had to switch back to Mommy mode in order for us to make our family gathering on time. 

But as the Debutante Program Facilitator said, I will always remember where I was and what I was doing at that very moment. I was sharing my vote story with some young ladies whom I hope will remember that day as the inspiration that helped to shape their voting stories.  

Later that day, we were celebrating with family. We got to meet our Great Baby Niece for the first time and the Kid got to spend time with her cousins. I have had the pleasure to watch all of these young people grow up, so it was quite the treat to watch Zuri interact with them. I thought about the successive changes in the country since the youngest of these cousins (12 years older than my daughter) was born in the aftermath of 9/11. I thought about how these young people were either very young kids or teenagers when Barack Obama was elected, and how in their lifetime, they witnessed the election of the first Black President, the first Black and Asian Vice President, and if things had been different four years ago, the first woman President (no worries, we've got time).

For them, every election has been some major historic first. 

Perhaps that is only significant to us because our family is very diverse, very New York in that respect. We represent several Latinx nationalities (primarily Puerto Rican), African American, West Indian, Eastern European, Greek, and Chinese American. And that is just the Hub's side of the aisle (my immediate family is African American and Puerto Rican). I know that delineating these identities makes some people uncomfortable as they would rather that we just call ourselves American, which is exactly what we are and why identity is so significant in this context. We are the melting pot/mixed salad metaphor that people claim America to be. We are rice and beans, corn bread and collard greens, roasted lamb, empanadas/beef patties/dumplings, ginger beer, coquito, and penne pasta (because this family cannot get together and not eat Italian food) at Thanksgiving dinner. We are descendants of the enslaved, the colonizers, the immigrants, and the Indigenous people that are all apart of the American story.

So when I think about the significance of Saturday, November 7, 2020 at 11am when the election was called; when my phone began buzzing non-stop for ten minutes; when I was telling my personal voting story to a few young ladies; when my daughter was somewhere in a park blithely playing with her Papi; when my nieces and nephews were deciding what to wear; and when my precious Great Baby Niece was being prepared for her christening (because that side of the family is also Catholic)...I am finally able to stop to take it all in.

That night, we were about 20 miles outside of Wilmington, DE when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris made their acceptance speeches. We wanted to drive through, but we had to stop to change clothes and drivers, get gas and coffee, so by the time we made it back on the road, everything was over. Although I have not gone back to listen to Biden's speech in full, I know that he quoted one of my favorite Catholic hymns, On Eagle's Wings. I heard the most relevant part of Harris' speech, which were her inspiring words to my daughter, my nieces, and my Great Baby Niece. Now that we are several days in, we really don't care why the lame duck DESPOTUS is firing folks from his Cabinet or why his followers are floating conspiracy theories about the Arizona vote count, I can breathe a sigh of relief. Our four-year long national nightmare is almost over.

More importantly, my daughter, nieces and great nieces, young cousins, Spelnieces, Deltanieces, their classmates, play cousins, imaginary princess/mermaid/fairy/dinosaur/pirate friends, athletic, poetic, analytic, fashionable, awkward, and every nonbinary, cis and transgender girl have witnessed another major crack in the Glass Ceiling of American politics!

I won't speculate what could happen in 2024. I will relish what is happening now. I will think back to that glorious night in November 2008 when I was in another hotel room watching election returns. An energetic young family took to the stage, followed by the man who will now lead our country through its next great series of challenges. I can't say whether Joe Biden is the next one we have been waiting for nor will I put that burden on Kamala Harris just yet. But I will say that this song and scene from one of my all-time favorite movies hits a lot different now:

There are 70+ million people who were hoping for a different result. I know that they are watching our celebrations with intense resentment. I bet the plans are already underway to undermine everything this new Administration proposes to undo--what some regard as near-fatal and irreparable harm caused by the DESPOTUS. The GOP Senate leaders have already said as much in admonishing us to be more sensitive to their hurt feelings. And in my one petty post for today, here is my response:

I am happy for Uncle Joe because clearly, three is the magic number. There is a sermon in his persistence that we will come to appreciate one day, because this man accomplished what other perennial candidates such as Eugene V. Debs, David Duke, Alan Keyes, Lyndon LaRouche, and Ralph Nader did not. And the answer is not that he won--it is that he convinced us to take his candidacy seriously enough to put him in a position to win. After four years of the Trumpacolypse, we need someone who understands and respects government enough to put things back on track. I know that there are many who believe our political system is corrupt and broken, and a look at the amount of money that it took to oust the single greatest threat to America other than this coronavirus pandemic does lend some credence to that belief. 

We trust Biden, and that extends to his soon-to-be Vice President. I need to draw the contrast here between the selection of Kamala Harris in 2020 and Sarah Palin in 2008, because many of the party-switchers then cited their lack of confidence in Palin as part of their reason for backing Obama over John McCain. I am sure that there were some who faced a similar dilemma this time, because of Biden's advanced age. And it should be noted that in 2008, his age and experience were assets. This time, Harris' youth and experience provide the same assurance, just in reverse. Palin had relevant experience and certainly had the youth, but she was not perceived as smart enough for the job...which seems totally ironic given the last four years. So in hindsight, I would definitely argue that sexism worked against her, which is why we need to accept at the outset that elevating Harris to the Presidency will be even harder than ousting the current Occupant. Because:

Ageism < Sexism and Racism

Sexism² = Racism

We are so giddy now because we know that this is just as seismic as 2008. It is just as inspiring. Four years ago when it seemed inevitable that we would elect Hillary Clinton, I don't think we were this enthusiastic. Even now, our joy is tempered lest one of these frivolous trump lawsuits decreases the vote count. Some of the mobs have threatened violence, such is their fealty to the Troll King. However, the prospect of change has already generated some of the same global accolades that made Obama such an international rock star. And the world has changed a great deal with 29 countries led by women. Yet, we need to anticipate that this election will garner the same intense backlash as 2008. Once we get past the hysteria, those who attempt "reasoned opposition" against systemic racism and sexism will claim that holding Harris to a higher standard is proof of their evolution--they don't see race or gender, they just see and hear an insufferable bitch...but that's okay.

Since I have alluded to it, I will share some bits from my voting story presentation, which perhaps may inspire some young person reading this blog years from now. I had grown up on the stories and seen the black and white photos of civil rights marchers and protestors being beaten. I knew about Fannie Lou Hamer and John Lewis. I knew that my Dad had participated in the movement in Mississippi. I was in college the first time I voted, and Sister President had demanded our participation in the process, either as registered Georgia voters, or as absentee voters in our home states. I had grown up immersed in local DC politics (Marion Barry, Mayor for Life) and observing federal politics. What cemented my desire to vote in every election and ultimately work as a voting rights advocate was the South African election in 1994. I saw color photos of miles long lines of Black voters, young and old, voting for Nelson Mandela. That was the first time Blacks could participate in the political process in a country where they were the majority, and they elected their first Black President. I have never taken the right to vote for granted since.

Therefore, for my Daughter and your Daughters (and our Sons), I will fight voter suppression. I will do my little part to keep voters informed of their rights. I will remain engaged in the process. For our children, I look upon the election of Joe Biden as a new beginning for this country. These last four years, a cruel, merciless Pharoah occupied a position of great power, which he abused at every opportunity to trample on the weak and vulnerable. It went beyond mere policy differences. Therefore, my hope is that the Biden-Harris Administration will represent the limitless possibilities of every man, every woman, every child. Children will look up to our President, a man like a modern David, flawed but wise. They will see Vice President Harris and will understand that America is a nation of immigrants--welcome from every country, every island, and from every caste. 

E pluribus unum.