Just Powers

Today is Blog Action Day and the topic is water. Unfortunately I am exhausted and it is late in the day, so this is not going to be the post I wish it to be. I also love participating in Blog Action Day though, so I am loathe to not post something.

Over at Change.org’s page about Blog Action Day they have an explanation of why water was chosen as the topic for this Blog Action Day. I will post a couple of facts here which will have to suffice as my post on the topic - but please please head over to the Change.org page and check it out. There is so much information there it will make your head spin. And there is a cool water use calculator, which I just took:

Over 600 gallons of water a day sounds like a heck of a lot for one person, even if it is 500 gallons less than average. I guess we need to add some low flow shower heads to our “wish list”.

So, here are some facts about water to get you thinking, and maybe acting -

• One in eight human beings do not have access to clean water.
• Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of diseases and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war.
• The UN predicts that one tenth of the global disease burden can be prevented simply by improving water supply and sanitation.
• African women walk over 40 billion hours each year carrying cisterns weighing up to 18 kilograms to gather water, which is usually still not safe to drink.
• Every week, nearly 38,000 children under the age of 5 die from unsafe drinking water and unhygienic living conditions.
• It takes 24 liters of water to produce one hamburger. That means it would take over 19.9 billion liters of water to make just one hamburger for every person in Europe.
• The average person uses 465 liters of water per day. Find out how much you use and start thinking about how you can use less.

Hi.

I’m back. Not that I expect you to really care, since I have neglected you for so long. But nevertheless, here I am. And if any of you are still there, hi.

I would like to say that I have been doing something worthwhile since I have been gone. Something like working on the Obama campaign in Ohio, or helping victims of Hurricane Ike in Texas, or doing research on Sarah Palin in Alaska (um, yeah - WTF?), or working with Chris Dodd on the bailout plan. But alas I have not been doing any of these things.

I have mostly been sleeping, and yelling at Mike, throwing up occasionally, and feeling sick constantly. Yep. I’m pregnant. Which would be great news - really, IS great news - except for the fact that I am probably the most miserable pregnant person I know. Which is where I am now. Miserable. Sick. I am twelve weeks now, due at the beginning of April, to which you will respond - Great! The bad part is almost over! - except not so much. With Emma my miserableness lasted until around 18 weeks, so you could have six more weeks of my moaning before I start being able to marvel in the miracle. (So sorry Mike).

There is so much to catch up on - I know I owe a 20-month update on Emma (which is sitting in my draft folder right now) and a 21-month update (which I have not started, and probably never will) not to mention updates on what she is doing NOW.

The biggest thing is happening that she is talking up a storm. When we had our 18-month checkup and she really was not talking much, at all, the doctor said not to worry, but to call if we felt concerned at around 21-months. Well, pretty much ON her 21-month birthday, Emma started talking - repeating words we said to her and saying some that we had no recollection of ever teaching her in the first place. I know a lot of parents who kept track of their kids first words, and what words they knew at particular points in time, but honestly she learned so many words so quickly that I can’t even keep track anymore. I know at 19-months she was saying “bohbee” for bunny (although I think we figured out later she was actually saying “baby” which makes a little more sense) and “down rain” and “sorry”, but there wasn’t much more language until the last few weeks when she just became a torrent of words.

The other major development is that Emma moved to her big-girl bed last week and is now sleeping in it full-time. This has Mike and I reeling, but she seems really happy about it, so we are determined to NOT dump her back in the crib and insist she STOP GROWING UP. The whole thing happened kind of under the radar - she decided one day that she wanted to sleep in the bed for a nap (we set it up in her room right around the time we found out we were going to need the crib for someone else, sooner rather than later). That night, after the successful nap-in-the-bed, we looked at each other, shrugged, and asked her if she wanted to sleep in the bed again. To which she responded with vigorous nodding of her head. And that was it. We are planning (sniff) on moving the crib out of her room (sniff) this weekend.

Sheesh, there is so much more to talk about, Obama, McCain, Palin (seriously, WTF?) not to mention economic crises (I spent $250 at the grocery store this week - and we don’t eat meat. Something is very seriously wrong) and the second installment of “Bad Mother Moments”. I promise I will be back again. Right now I need to go take a nap.

Senator Barack Obama secured the Democratic nomination for President tonight with 2,130 delegates, well over the 2,118 required to win the nomination.

I don’t think there is much that needs to be said really, except that I am so happy, for all of us.

Liza Sabater just posted over on Personal Democracy Forum’s Tech President about Dear Senator Hillary Clinton, Please Step Down — a post written a few days ago by mommy blogger Erin Kotecki Vest, on her blog Queen of Spain.

My response to this is twofold - the letter to Senator Clinton is a heartfelt and well thought out argument for why the Democratic party and the country need Senator Clinton to end her run for President. Go read it. Right now. Seriously, go. Clearly I am an Obama supporter, but I have felt ambivalent/conflicted/sad that I am not more excited about the first viable woman candidate for President (even while I have been annoyed that so many think I should support her just because we have the same body parts). Erin’s letter puts into words how I have felt about Senator Clinton since she first got into the race.

Liza’s post at Tech President makes some great points about the power of mommy bloggers. The “Step Down Hillary” post has 146 comments and counting — many from mommy bloggers who are paying attention to the candidates but aren’t seeing that favor returned — and its popularity and the traffic it has generated on Digg has completely overwhelmed the Queen of Spain’s hosting company.

Blogher has been trying for months to get the Presidential candidates to sit down for interviews, to share their views with the 7.6 million women in the Blogher network. As far as I can tell, they still have not had any success. Which blows my mind. 7.6 million people. Voters. Right here, waiting for the candidates to come tell us why we should vote for them. Erin’s letter and Liza’s post make it clear why political campaigns and consultants need to start paying attention to mommy bloggers.

And now that there seems to be at least a burst of interest in us and what we have to say about this election, kudos to Erin for saying what so many of us have been thinking. We are a demographic that is paying attention, we are politically savvy, and we have a lot to say.

This week is the 11th Annual Freedom to Marry Week. In support, The Other Mother has asked bloggers to post on the themes something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue throughout the week. Today is something new. (Thanks to Doodaddy for letting me know about this, who heard about it from an amazing and powerful post by LesbianDad, who heard about it from The Other Mother.)

Today also happens to be Mike’s and my anniversary. Which is really quite ironic, as I will explain.

Mike and I almost didn’t get married. There were various reasons we weren’t interested in nuptials, but the biggest was that we were, and are, disgusted by the lack of equality in marriage in our society, and we felt strongly about not getting married until our gay friends could. We also felt strongly that our relationship was our business and a little piece of paper from the state wasn’t going to make it any more “legitimate”, and it sure wouldn’t protect us from the fate of just over 50% of all relationships the state labels “official”. So thanks but no thanks, not for us.

Then we bought a house together, and started talking about having kids, and we were suddenly faced with the same legal issues our partnered, and parenting, gay friends deal with all the time. At that point I didn’t even know that there are 1,138 legal rights accorded married couples that non-married couples do not enjoy. I just knew it didn’t make sense that as a non-married couple Mike and I, and all of our gay friends, had so many more hoops to jump through if we were even allowed to jump at all.

We talked about this issue with our friends, gay and straight, and several of our gay friends told us they thought we should get married. They told us if they could, they sure as hell would. Still we resisted. Finally, we decided three days before a business-trip-turned-vacation to the US Virgin Islands that we should just go ahead and do it. But, we told ourselves, we wouldn’t tell anyone. We didn’t want a big deal made of it and, frankly, we were a little ashamed. We felt completely guilty that it was so easy for us and so difficult for some. So even though it didn’t solve anything, we would just pretend it hadn’t happen.

So we got married on this day two years ago, on a beach in St. John. And it was very nice and we didn’t tell anyone. But then we got pregnant a few months later, and realized we hadn’t really thought our plan through to the end. We suspected that our families would be upset at the idea of us having a baby without being married, and we were right. Although they didn’t put it this way, they were upset for precisely for the same reasons we are upset that our gay friends can’t marry when they have kids. Because, like it or not, in our society, marriage affords a protection to the family unit that being unmarried does not.

So, long story short (too late!), we told them. And there was great rejoicing.

And so, it is ironic that the anniversary of our non-wedding is the same week as Freedom to Marry Week. Actually I don’t really know if it is ironic or appropriate or nothing at all or what. I do know that Mike and I still feel chagrined that our family is protected in ways that other families aren’t. Until they are, we will keep trying to make some change by voting for folks who can make a difference and supporting our gay friends and their families and making sure the issue doesn’t go away.

So for the something new theme today I give you a picture of Emma holding her first political sign. Here’s hoping that we are entering an era of new hope and new equality and that our politicians will do their job. Maybe by the time Emma decides to become someone’s partner and have a family of her own, everyone will have the chance for equal protection under the law.

To learn more about why equal rights are so important, especially in emergencies, go here, and to learn what you can do to help, go here.

I would like to deal with a little issue here that I have been hearing and reading a lot about lately — the insistence by some that women should vote for Hillary because she is a woman, and she may be our last chance to vote for a woman for President for a long time.

Let me say this loud and clear - as a woman, I don’t *have* to vote for anyone. I have every right, and responsibility in fact, to vote for who I think is the best candidate.

As a feminist, it is important to me to support women in positions of leadership, and those who are seeking to be in leadership. Having said that, I also feel pretty strongly that it does me no good to support a woman just because she is a woman, if her views and opinions don’t mesh with mine. I mean, even though they are women I doubt I would ever vote for Elizabeth Dole or Katherine Harris, since we have very different views on a lot of things.

Kate Michelman, former president of NARAL, wrote about this issue recently on Salon and did a much better job discussing the whole thing than I ever could.

This is my favorite:

The women’s movement is about free choice, self-determination and challenging a status quo that fails a lot of Americans, not just women. And it is not about going along. It’s about transcending, about having the freedom to follow one’s heart, about creating and pursuing new opportunities, and about the American dream being for all Americans.

Amen sister. And as for the argument that Mrs. Clinton is the last woman who will run for President for a long time, Ms. Michelman had this to say:

Matthews’ other Hardball, which also deserved more time than the red light gave me, was: “How can you pass, Kate, on the opportunity to support a woman for president when this may be the last chance for that to happen in your lifetime?”… It may be news to Chris Matthews, but great women have already arrived on the national stage — and they are here to stay. They are running state governments, big cities and major corporations. And every day in the armed forces they are defending our families and our country.

I am thrilled that the first election in my daughter’s lifetime includes a strong, viable woman running for President, and I look forward to the dozens of women who will run in years to come. When my daughter asks me about this election, I will tell her how grateful I am to the women’s movement for making it possible for Mrs. Clinton to run for President — and for me to vote for her opponent.

On the eve of Super Tuesday. Enjoy.

Ever since I got this license plate (and the DC version before it)I have had fun watching the reaction it elicits. As I drive down the street I either get smiles and thumbs ups, or nasty glares and the occasional finger, although in the DC area mostly the former. I have also had a bunch of notes left on my car - pro and con - all of which I have kept. My favorite one is also the most recent - “JERK!”.

Now that we have a new car, it seems like a good time to retire these plates. It is a new time, one without W, and hopefully one with a rebirth of hope nationwide.

Luckily the plate will live on since it has been posted on several different blogs and forums. Here is where I have seen it:

• Boston.com
• Democratic Underground
• Real Crashes
• Stumble Upon
• Growabrain
• Reddit

Now we just need to figure out what our next plates will say. BARACK ?

Photo by Flickr user Agent Relaxed

Barack Obama won the Iowa Caucus tonight, receiving 38% of the delegates.

To say that we are happy about the results is a huge understatement. I think Mike and I had not really admitted to ourselves how invested we are in Senator Obama’s campaign. We haven’t been able to be as active as we would like, but clearly our hearts are in it all the way, as evidenced by our tears as we watched his acceptance speech. I think we were both a little surprised by how much this meant to us.

I know, I know. We are total geeks.

So, uh, Christmas was a little more sick and dramatic than I was planning. Since Christmas is my favorite time of year and I am feeling a little sad about it being kind of a bust, I am just going to move on and start planning for next year.

Let me just mention, by way of a little bit of advice, that if your baby throws up for hours and hours, she is probably sick. And even when she stops throwing up you might not want to expose others to whatever it was that made her sick, even if it is Christmas Day. Because if you do, every. single. person. who comes into contact with her may end up throwing up for hours and hours, which would really be a downer at Christmas.

So, moving right along…what else is happening…oh yeah - the Iowa caucus is tomorrow! Four years ago I was doing field for the Dean campaign in Henry and Washington Counties. I was living and working in a tiny room in the home of a supporter in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa and made more phone calls in a four week period than I ever thought possible. I attended a caucus in a little town whose name I have since blocked out, and I knew before that caucus was over that the outcome statewide was not going to be what I had worked and hoped for. I got ragingly drunk that night, then packed up and went to the U.P. of Michigan to continue working for Dean. Good times.

It is a little mind boggling to think about how much my life has changed in four years. But even with all the changes I am still riveted by what is happening tomorrow. I am afraid to hope for too much, the last campaign taught me that, but I am pulling for Barack Obama. When I ran screaming from left Iowa, I lost contact with all the folks I worked with while I was there, so I can’t even check in with them to see what they think is going to happen. I just hope my favorite precinct captain, Mary Ellen, is an Obama supporter. If she is, we have nothing to worry about.

Fired up? Ready to go!