Especially when the other candidate in the race is doing something really interesting, in comparing herself to McCain. Saying she and McCain have crossed the commander in chief threshold but Obama hasn't.
This quote keeps being floated around Dailykos lately and I think it's applicable here:
"...we've got a [Republican] target and you're out there kissing his ass in the press?" - Rahm Emanuel
Yeah, indeed, what the fuck is Senator Clinton doing?
It's bad enough you said it once, but Clinton, KNOWING you have a history of this going back to the 1980s, let you keep doing this in the campaign's name.
Good job.
And Clinton's "apology" was pathetic
"I certainly do repudiate it and I regret deeply that it was said. Obviously she doesn't speak for the campaign, she doesn't speak for any of my positions, and she has resigned from being a member of my very large finance committee."
...buh? "I don't like it but it's not like she works for my campaign or anything."
Except for the part where, you know, you did:
Ferraro notified Clinton by letter Wednesday that she would no longer serve on Clinton's finance committee as "Honorary New York Leadership Council Chair," reported the Associated Press.
But besides that, you didn't.
Your words have hurt so many people now. They express a sentiment that is so outdated, it should never even be spoken in public, much less by a popular public figure.
You, along with many other Clinton surrogates, are hurting the party and the country at this point. You're being divisive.
I'm sorry, but you're not at a disadvantage because you're white.
You want to talk disadvantage? Has this ever happened to you?:
What about this:
Or this:
I know that Barack Obama isn't a part of all that, historically, he's a bit too young. But the truth is, if Barack Obama is lucky in any respect, it's that he's smart, he works hard, he has good judgment, and that's been NOTICED DESPITE his skin color.
Do you even realize this, Ms. Ferraro?
People with a different skin color, gay people, crippled people, and yes, even women, are automatically at some disadvantage in our society. We are looked at as LESS than others because of our differences, even you, Ms. Ferraro.
The fact that he's been able to succeed this far despite all this, despite his name, despite his color is a GREAT THING.
The fact that Hillary Clinton has come this far is also a GREAT THING.
It's a testament to their strength as people to come this far.
Undoubtedly Barack Obama deals with racism on a daily basis. Undoubtedly Hillary Clinton and yourself deal with sexism on a daily basis.
Nobody should be minimizing the ability to overcome these things. Society is fucked up, Ms. Ferraro. It is behind the times. The fact that we're all embracing these two people is not something that can be overlooked or written off as a novelty.
Do you even realize what you've done?
It's just as easy to dismiss Obama as it is to dismiss Clinton. They're both "different."
Voters notice things like this.
You have indirectly caused problems for the candidate you've given your support to.
You've indirectly played on fears that set society back forty years or so, at a time when we're fucking FINALLY about to nominate our first female or black candidate for the presidency of the United friggin STATES.
You're making it more difficult for that to happen, don't you understand?
And you're playing into the idea that whites are at a disadvantage for being white. Fuck you for that, Ms. Ferraro, and that's coming from a southern white male.
You want to talk disadvantage? Look at the photos I posted above. African Americans have gone through hell, almost literally, for hundreds of years to get where they are now. They have survived so many horrific acts. They've survived slavery, they've survived beatings, hosings, hangings, they've done all this, while fighting for the right to vote, while fighting for the right to count as more than 3/5ths of a PERSON, as per the fucking Constitution of OUR COUNTRY. They've tried to have their opinions noticed, they've fought like hell for it, and largely have been ignored. I, as a white southern male, cannot possibly imagine what it must have been like to go through that, to fight so much of that. To deal with Jim Crow laws. Get that? LAWS. In OUR COUNTRY. Specifically TARGETING African Americans. They overcame that, got those laws repealed.
White people disadvantaged, my ass. Name ONE law passed specifically against white people. Name one.
You want to talk disadvantage, Ms. Ferraro?
Look at how far women have come. Look at how disadvantaged they still are. Look at how courageous women are and how much THEY have fought. Here's an example:
On July 13, the night of the 1911 census, Davison hid in a cupboard in the Palace of Westminster overnight so that on the census form she could legitimately give her place of residence that night as the "House of Commons".[1] Tony Benn MP once unofficially placed a plaque there to commemorate the event.
A possibility of her reason for entering the race track was that she was trying to attach a flag to the kings horse, so when the horse crossed the finishing line it would quite literally be flying the suffragettes flag. Evidence for this was that supposedly she had been seen in the weeks before stopping horses in the lane outside her house.
[...]
Film of the incident shows her stepping out in front of the horse, Anmer, as it rounded Tattenham Corner, with Davison carrying the banner of the WSPU.
[...]
She died 4 days later in Epsom Cottage Hospital, due to a fractured skull caused by the incident.
You want to denigrate that? Apparently you do. You even said yourself that you were nominated as VP because you were a woman.
Here's more:
In 1848, acting on these feelings and perceptions, Stanton joined Mott and a handful of other women in Seneca Falls. Together they organized the first women's rights convention held in Seneca Falls on July 19 and 20. Stanton drafted a Declaration of Sentiments, which she read at the convention. Modeled on the United States Declaration of Independence, Stanton's declaration proclaimed that men and women are created equal. She proposed, among other things, a then-controversial resolution demanding voting rights for women. The final resolutions, including female suffrage, were passed, in no small measure, because of the support of Frederick Douglass, who attended and informally spoke at the convention.
This fight has not been easy for any woman:
Believing that men should not be given the right to vote without women also being granted the franchise, Sojourner Truth, a former slave and feminist, affiliated herself with Stanton and Anthony's organization.[60] Stanton, Anthony, and Truth were joined by Matilda Joslyn Gage, who later worked on The Women's Bible with Stanton. Despite Stanton's position and the efforts of herself and others to expand the Fifteenth Amendment to include voting rights for all women, this amendment also passed, as originally written, in 1870.
You should also know, Ms. Ferraro, that these people, while they were promoting their own interests by fighting in the women's suffrage movement, they did not stop there. These people fought for the abolition of slavery, they fought against poverty, they fought against a whole host of issues. It's clear they weren't in it for themselves.
Unlike you and your little Vice Presidency novelty act.
Listen to the words of a REAL presidential person:
But they cannot be in similar circumstances unless pusilanimity and cowardise should take possession of them. They have time and warning given them to see the Evil and shun it.-I long to hear that you have declared an independancy-and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If perticuliar care and attention is not paid to the Laidies we are determined to foment a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.
That was Abigail Adams.
These are the people who care about values, Ms. Ferraro. These are the people who care about rights, equality, and advantages vs. disadvantages.
Ms. Ferraro, you should read abut Lucretia Mott. You should read about Emmeline Pankhurst.
None of these people did anything for themselves. None of these people did anything for a novelty act. Or just to be considered "lucky" and "new" and gain the ability to get on the public stage.
Nobody but you, apparently. You said it in your own words.
Even Hillary Clinton herself, has come so far:
She took her listeners along on her now 38-year journey since graduation. She recounted how after being admitted to both Harvard and Yale law schools, she attended a cocktail reception for prospective Harvard students and was introduced to a famous professor. "One of my friends said, ‘Professor So-and-So, this is Hillary Rodham, she’s trying to decide between us and our nearest competitor,' " Mrs. Clinton said. "And he looked down at me and he said, ‘Well, first, we don’t have a nearest competitor. And secondly, we don’t need any more women."’
Ms. Ferraro, you want to talk disadvantage?
Let's look at what it's been like for GLBT people in this country.
Jeremy Bentham is credited as one of the first people to, well, just look:
Bentham's position included arguments in favour of individual and economic freedom, the separation of church and state, freedom of expression, equal rights for women, animal rights, the end of slavery, the abolition of physical punishment (including that of children), the right to divorce, free trade, usury,[5] and the decriminalization of homosexuality.
He wrote the first argument for law reform for gays, in 1785, in England. It was titled Offences against One's Self His essay was not published until 1931, yes, 1931, because of fear it would offend people.
Karl Heinrich Ulrichs is arguably the pioneer of the GLBT movement.
Moving forward to the 1960s, because otherwise this diary would continue on forever, there was the Gay Liberation, which is thought to have lead to the Stonewall riots, which:
On Saturday morning, June 28, 1969, shortly after 1:20 a.m., police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village. A number of factors differentiated the raid that took place on June 28 from other such raids on the Stonewall Inn. In general, the sixth precinct tipped off the management of the Stonewall Inn prior to a raid.
Details about how the riot started vary from story to story. According to one account, a transgender woman named Sylvia Rivera threw a bottle at a police officer after being prodded by his nightstick (Duberman). Another account states that a lesbian, being brought to a patrol car through the crowd put up a struggle that encouraged the crowd to do the same (D’Emilio 232). Whatever the case may be, mêlée broke out across the crowd—which quickly overtook the police. Stunned, the police retreated into the bar. Heterosexual folk singer Dave van Ronk, who was walking through the area, was grabbed by the police, pulled into the bar, and beaten. The crowd’s attacks were unrelenting. Some tried to light the bar on fire. Others used a parking meter as a battering ram to force the police officers out. Word quickly spread of the riot and many residents, as well as patrons of nearby bars, rushed to the scene.
Ms. Ferraro, have you ever fought like that? Have you ever put yourself in harm's way for a cause? Just to get results, no matter if you live or die? Ms. Ferraro, look what happens when you do that:
In 2006, on the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, Iceland enacted a law to grant same-sex couples legal rights equal with those of heterosexual couples.
Ms. Ferraro, this is not easy. This is not a novelty. Look at the gay people who have died or who have been beaten and abused because they're gay. I won't even name their names. We know them. They are part of our collective conscience, and in a way, that makes these movements better.
One last thing, Ms. Ferraro.
You want to talk disadvantage, one more time?
Try being a GLBT person in south Alabama, try getting paralyzed at fifteen years old, and try dealing with all of that by yourself, Ms. Ferraro. Try having to re-learn to open doors. Fucking DOORS. Try having to re-learn getting dressed, and cooking. Try doing this while dealing with the pain of a spinal surgery in which they break your rib cage, rip out your lung, put a rod in your spine, and put your lung and rib cage back. Try dealing with the pain of that alone, even more, having to BREATHE into a machine every thirty minutes to make sure my lung, which had just been put back into my body, didn't collapse. It's painful.
And then, haha, the best part! People look at you if you're in a chair. They don't know what to say. They don't know how to act. Much like being a different color or having a different orientation, or being transgendered. People don't know how to deal with it. And you think we do, Ms. Ferraro? You think those of us who are minorities are somehow different than others in that we deal with these things daily? You're WRONG. We don't know how to deal anymore than you do. We don't know how to take our differences.
We just hope that people don't resort to trivializing them.
Best regards,
me.
[Thanks to dew for providing me with some of this information and helping me write this.]
