For The Little Sister & Baby Bear #3

Interesting...

So now the lamestream media is going to defend a racist, wife-abusing, drunken, out of control cop.

You go lefties! Obama for emperor!

Posted by: patch | August 30, 2008 2:09 PM

Monegan confirmed his allegiance to the "Good Old Boys Network" in failing to do anything about an obviously unfit trooper. Obviously, he was not doing his job to protect and defend the residents and laws of Alaska and he had to ge.
Way to go, Gov. Palin

Posted by: Larry | August 30, 2008 2:22 PM

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/washingtonpostinvestigations/2008/08/monegan_to_palin_maam_i_need_t.html

This is more for The Little Sister than for the public, "This is my Position" blog.

A lot of people are asking me, and I have been resistant to respond, about my Political Position since Hillary did not get the Democratic Nomination. The reason was because , at the start of the Presidential Race, the Democratic offerings were unpalatable. So at that time 2 years ago, The Little Sister and I begrudgingly acknowledged that we were again on the same Political Team. For the first time, the entire family was on the same side.

Then Hilary joined the race. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pantsuits was on the move. For those of you who don't know, in the corporate world, the Suit is the uniform – and the Pant Suit is the "everything but the tie" female answer to the Executive Uniform. I am a fan of the pantsuit.

People didn't even ask me anymore. On the day she put her hat in the ring, The Little Sister called me at 6am to say, "Your with her right?". I didn't know yet, and turned on the news. With Little Sister on the phone, I whooped and hollered and politely told The Little Sister that she would be a fool not to support Hillary simply because we are both Middle Manager Women in the Corporate World. Hillary is our role model. Mom raised us to be as strong and independent and fiercely capable as any man. And she ensured we were US Citizens to guarantee we would be totally free women, free to do what when and how we pleased. Of course I was supporting Hillary and still do.

Hillary is Our Generation. Every woman under the age of 60 has benefitted from the same Fore Mothers of Women's Liberation in the United States as Hillary. We share the same DNA. It doesn't matter what your Political Position is, if you are a woman, you have a bank account, you have a Driver's License, you are a US Citizen with the ability to vote, and you have the right to attend the University of your choice, then you too are a Child of the Fore Mother's of Women's Liberation. Feminism is a bad word these days. But ask any Socially Conservative women if she is willing to turn back the days to Pre-Movement, and she will have you committed. You must be touched, dear, sit and have a cold cloth on your forehead. Ask any Democratic woman and you could likely end up in the Emergency Room. Regardless of our political views, we are women, we are free, and we are never going to let that freedom escape our control.

Then Hillary did not get The Nod. Instead, Obama got it. We all held our breath when Obama visted Hillary at her Washington Office immediately after the voting closed. No word on anything from that meeting. We all thought it – What if it was an Obama/Hillary ticket? Would that work? Somehow, someway, the deal was not struck. Now we have Obama/Biden. The Democrats have completely cast out the women's vote. They put us aside and said "Too bad, so sad".

Not a single woman on the ticket.

McCain was supposed to pick Romney. McCain was supposed to ensure our Family would remain on opposite sides for at least another 4 years. And then he did the unthinkable. McCain chose Palin, blindsiding everyone and putting Women back into the equation. But wait, there's more. McCain chose a VP candicate from our Sisterhood!! She is a Corporate Mother, a Business Woman Soccer Mom. A Woman with a sister embroiled in a nasty divorce and custody battle with an abusive ex-husband!

Every Social issue that ever mattered to a Woman is rolled up into one candidate. Pay Equity, Social Engineering, Education, Economy… need I go on? For the educated woman, looking out for herself and her family, which Ticket is she going to choose? Is that a great big DUH?

The Liberal Media wasted no time getting this story out to the voters. So now the Democrats are supporting the Good Old Boys? How does that equate? Supporting a cop that couldn't even follow the simplest of laws – hunting without a license – and violating the very laws and rules he has sworn to uphold. This is what the Democratic Party and the Liberal Media want to support? A cop who tasers his own Clan? What if the kid said "Hey Dad, try the .22 out on me! Let's see if it really hurts!", would we be reading about a teenager murdered by his step-Dad? And the best inference, that Palin placed pressure on Monegan to do something. Like the entire Police Force is threatened by an abused woman and her Senetor Sister! They run the daily life of the sister, they determine wether Palin's family has a good day or a bad day in their home town… and the idea here is that Palin pressured the cops to do something about their out-of-control Officer. There must be something in the water up there in Alaska.

So, being the educated woman that I am, I say, GOOD! Show the Good Senator from Alaska defending her Family tooth and nail. We love seeing a woman protecting her Tribe. The angry Mama Bear swiping at the aggressor, claws and flesh and teeth. Bring it on! Teach America's Daughters how to be strong, fiercely independent Citizens who protect their freedoms and their families!

Now our Family is reunited in the Political Arena. And all our Canadian Mom cares about is "Which one is going to benefit my daughters best?"

I am supporting the McCain/Palin ticket, and it seems that plenty of other folks feel the same way about McCain's pick as the private party donations mounted since the announcement of Pailin as his running mate. I hate that it's another 4 years of Republicans, but if this is the compromise we have to make to get a Woman in the Whitehouse, then so be it.

Is that such an outrageous position? Maybe, maybe not. Hillary played nice by not contesting the Democratic Election. She could have tied it up in court and demanded a fair recount. She did not. She was polite. Her politeness is admirable, but it doesn't get Women in the Whitehouse.

Consider this: women control 85% or more of the average US household's discretionary budget. Women decide where families go on vacation. Women decide what educational choices are made in terms of their children. Women control the brand names that enter their homes. And believe it or not, women control religion. We have controlled government from behind the men for thousands of years. Why not finally come out from behind the curtain oh great and powerful Oz, and show the world who wears the pants.

Of course there are die hard Democrats who will never leave their party. That's to be expected. But those of us who think for ourselves and decide what is best for us, we outnumber the die-hard Democrats. And our ability to cross party lines to defend our choices is legendary.

So yes, I am voting for McCain because he is giving me, a woman, representation at the highest office. The foot will be in the door for a Female President, and that's what I want for me, for The Little Sister, and especially for Baby Bear #3.

Why My Aunt Judy Isn’t A Pagan

Cauldron Farm is a small homestead in Hubbardston, which is just south of Gardner in Central Massachusetts

Why My Aunt Judy Isn't a Pagan

Why My Aunt Judy Isn't A Pagan (Or How Far We Still Have To Go)

A few years ago, my Aunt Judy had a faithquake. Raised by one Baptist and one Methodist parent, she decided that her church wasn't doing enough for her and cycled quickly, in a period of a few years, through several different religions. She'd call up periodically and tell me about her perambulations, since I was the member of the family with the strangest religion yet.

I'm a hardline, polytheistic, pantheistic, animistic, died-and-born-again-the-shamanic-way pagan. Of course, I was perfectly willing to help when she decided to check out paganism as a potential faith - having already investigated and tossed Buddhism, Shinto, Taoism, Hinduism, and Native American beliefs. I gave her a list of reading materials in books on and the Net, and sent her to investigate practicing groups in her area. After about eight months, however, she came back to me to talk about this final leg of her search, and to apologize, regretfully.

It seemed that she hadn't found what she wanted here, either, All right, I understand that religion is an intensely personal and intensely individual journey. There is no one path that's right for everyone, and sometimes a search is necessary. However, I have to admit that I foolishly assumed her issues would be with the theology and beliefs of my faith, or perhaps its politics. Of course, I had to ask where paganism had fallen short for her....and I got a surprise.

First, let me point out that Aunt Judy, although raised Christian, is by no means a Bible-thumping fundamentalist. Like most of the rest of my family, she's an environmentally aware liberal Democrat, a self-proclaimed feminist since I was in diapers, raised in a white-bread liberal church that politely tolerates queers and would never be so rude as to suggest that anyone short of a mass murderer is destined for Hell. She admitted to finding a surprising resonance with many pagan beliefs and values, admitted to being touched by its aesthetics and rituals, and will always carry with the skills of Tarot and astrology that she picked up on this leg of her search.

However, for her at least, a big part of religion is community of belief, and community action under that flag of belief. She pointed out that she could believe anything she wanted in the privacy of her bedroom, and intended to, but the point of her search was to find others of like mind with which to band together, worship, and serve. And, she felt, paganism fell down severely in that category.

But there are a lot of pagan groups! I protested, but soon discovered that what she really wanted was not a coven but a congregation - something with a built-in structure where she could step in and out without having to start over each time. She enumerated the things she'd liked about her church upbringing - the seeming effortlessness with which service projects were initiated and carried out, the willingness and enthusiasm of church members to pitch in and help, the regular schedule with some worship-oriented thing happening every week and sometimes twice. The child care and potluck suppers.

I remembered how hard I'd had to work the last time I tried to get a bunch of pagans to do a service project, First of all, just agreeing on something politically correct enough for all the members took months, and then, when we actually went to do the work at a local soup kitchen, half the people didn't show up. I was almost ashamed of us. Leading pagans is like herding cats, they say. I noticed the fundamentalist church had more people there than we did, and after asking I discovered that this wasn't a regular gig for them either, but just something they'd decided to do a week ago. A week ago! I tried to bring it up with my fellow pagans, to no avail. They're all just brainwashed, the tossed-off opinion seemed to be, and we're individualists. Creative. Not clones. Of course it's easier to get them to show up and work. Maybe that's the case, but I still felt bad about it, especially when I heard some of my fellow pagan workers trumpet proudly for months afterwards how they had actually done real service work, as if it was something terribly special for which they deserved extra praise.

If I'm a Baptist or a Mormon or even a Buddhist, Aunt Judy pointed out, "I can go anywhere in the country and get in trouble, and make a few phone calls and find someone who will come out and talk to me, even if I'm in jail. If I die anywhere in the country, my friends can find a clergyperson to speak at my funeral on a day's notice. I can be buried in a graveyard of my faith. I can get marital counseling on a day's notice. If I need food, I can call a church and they'll have a list of local food banks and help agencies. If I want to help with something, I can walk in, offer myself, and be sent to do something useful for the community in short order. If I'm pagan, I can't do any of those things.

She also missed, quite frankly, having a building. She agreed that one didn't have to have a building in order to worship, but she argued that buildings become community centers, and thus serve to bring people together, and that they also serve as places that members can give the gift of devotional art, long a satisfying spiritual experience. Gardens! she said. Even the Shinto priests have gardens. And there's no place for monasticism in paganism, so there are no retreat places. She feels that our rejection of monasticism, in whatever form, is a mistake.

She also pointed out the lack of older people in the pagan community - my Aunt Judy is no spring chicken - and suggested that part of this lack is our faith's serious lack of a service structure. Older people get a lot of their needs met through churches, she said, whether it's a community, company, delivered meals, or even a minister to show up every week and pay attention to them. That's why a lot of them stay in churches even when they might not necessarily believe the dogma. Paganism has a lot less to offer them than, say, the Catholic Church.

Of course, I had to bring up how many folks came to paganism after being somewhat religiously abused by harsh doctrines; they may see the concept of structure and buildings and Meals on Wheels as far too intertwined with harmful dogma to ever be separated. Her brow furrowed. Do you mean that most pagans are just reacting against their upbringings? she asked. Religions structured on rebellion against something, rather than being open to whatever is good, generally don't last very long. Then she grinned. With the possible exception of the Satanists, that is. But eventually you have to get over it.

Aunt Judy has joined a Quaker church now, and is happy. She still practices Tarot and astrology, and keeps a little goddess altar in her room. She's casually tossed off that she might look into the pagan community again someday....when we've grown up a little, she implies. I wish her well, and I hope she's found her place. Her cogent points did not shake my faith in my religion, but they did spotlight a number of big holes in its practice. Of all the people I know who call themselves pagan high priests or high priestesses, perhaps five percent do anything near the amount of religious scut-work performed by the average English Anglican vicar, or Brooklyn rabbi, or even the cheery old Methodist minister who served our family while I was growing up. And even with the question of stealth, I know more out pagans than I do in the closet ones.

Sometimes I feel like our religion is going through an extended adolescence, and it doesn't want to grow up. Part of this may be the all-too-young demographics of most pagans....I'm old enough now to remember the battles over child care at pagan festivals two decades ago, back when it seemed most pagans were college-age, and a few had just started to have families. Part of it may be that we've embraced, as a group, the archetype of the Youth, and are still warily coming to terms with what a community with as many Elders as Youths would look like. Would all those Elders start telling those Youths what to do, I can almost hear people thinking as a knee-jerk reaction. Would they start trying to Curb Our Freedoms? Would they try to Make Us Work? Would they start, God/dess help us, passing a Collection Plate for Maintenance on the Temple Roof? Or talking about Pagan Nursing Homes? What a Major Bummer!

Every day, though, my teenage daughter gleefully tells me how many new grey hairs I've grown. People who look like I once did have started to show up on my doorstep and treat me like I was....an Elder. I'm not sure what I think of this, or what's the best way to handle it. I'm beginning to think that it will be up to those of us with the grey hairs to build the buildings and set up the service projects, among ourselves. And maybe, somewhere along the line, the Youths will start to nose around, hungry for the satisfaction of Meaningful Work, drawn by the sound of people Making A Difference In The World.

And maybe I'll let you carry some boxes. Because my back is aching, and I cannot shoulder the work of dragging this community kicking and screaming into adulthood alone. ("2004", 2, "Raven Kaldera")