Newscoma

I’m the penguin with the handbag standing in the back.

Not responsible but an accomplice nonetheless.

Last night I missed all the fanfare in a monumental day in history. I was sitting in a local, very emotional board meeting that I’m not going to talk about here. I usually talk around the items that happen in my day job anyway and just write about my reaction to what I do for a living. It’s called a blog where we get to navel gaze about our lives.

So I missed the speeches and probably won’t get to watch them until later today when I have some time.

With that said, I have read the reaction of how folks perceived the last day of the democratic primary. I find that people usually deal with politics from an emotional level. Be it locally or nationally.

I read with great disappointment these posts from Aunt B. Left Wing Cracker and Mack regarding Tennessee Guerilla Women. That blog has won national kudos and has done a great deal for communicating the ongoing battle for women’s rights. I don’t want to take that away from TGW but I must say that as a woman in my 40s there is one thing that I’ve realized as the gray at my hairline becomes a bit whiter and that is not everyone who disagrees with me is out to get me. Sometimes it’s just a different philosophy.

Was there misogyny in this race? Yes.

As a woman, I cringed at moments where Hillary Clinton was asked about her pantsuits and pictures were photoshopped making her into some sort of wicked witch. I hated that.

Was there a covert, and sometimes blatant, thread of racism in this contest? Yes. I felt the nasty sting of Bill Hobbs’ attack on Barack Obama and I have listened to some rather nasty words thrown at the candidate.

And although I don’t always write about feminism here doesn’t mean that I don’t live a life of being a professional woman in a male-dominated world.  During my career in news and social work, I’ve had some rather nasty words thrown at me as well as other women have as well.

I try to let my actions speak louder than my words. People that know me know that I’m more than this blog.

So speeches were given last night and in internalizing the immediate needs of my particular community, I find my concerns about this country are more than just race and sexism which can’t be fixed in a day but should be fixed nonetheless. I don’t want my nieces listening to the nastiness that I have on occasion. With that said, there has to be a unified effort to make sure they are okay. And taking our toys and going home because our candidate of choice didn’t win doesn’t cut it for me. I just want something different from the last eight years.  This country has had a rough run. And I don’t want those same nieces to ever go through something like this ever again.

My concerns, for right now at least, are about the economy and the war (where women and people of color die too), about a recession in my community that has no access to rural public transportation and where gas prices have created such hardships where I’ve seen people reduced to tears choosing between milk and getting to work. Jackson Miller posted this yesterday and that’s what I’m talking about.

Politics are emotional and I don’t care what anyone says, it is. But there has to be unity in fixing some of the things in this country that are impacting regular people. It’s the only way.