I received that heavily forwarded email message warning me about Barack Obama. It was racist. It was full of lies and innuendo. It told me to forward it to everyone I knew. You know the one.
You know how those forwarded messages usually contain lists of all of the other people it has been forwarded from and to? And normally we don’t know them.
This time, I knew most of them. Actually, my first impression was that it must be the roster from the local Lutheran Church. These are people I know and some of them I work with. One of them is a Christian therapist.
Normally I just hit “discard” with forwarded messages and do not read them. I never forward them. This time I not only hit “reply all,” but I copied and pasted some of the email addresses from earlier forwarded messages into the TO: header so everybody that I could tell had received and or forwarded this bit of nastiness was going to get my response. I wrote:
This is not only incorrect. It is racist. It is the “swiftboating” of Barack Obama.
And I signed my name — both first and last names. And I sent it to all those people most of whom will know who I am. Because this is rural America and we all know each other.
After I sent the message, I googled “swiftboating barack obama” and found some links on it, among them:
The swiftboating of Barack Obama on Daily Kos
Anybody who will deny there is a pattern to the racially charged comments that have been interjected into the presidential race is either naive or a liar. It cannot be denied and it’s become quite obvious it is a calculated effort to turn what is Barack Obama’s greatest strength against him.
Barack Obama’s greatest strength is the fact that he transcends race, and this generates majority appeal.
This article blames the Clintons. I don’t want to believe that. I’m not going to believe that.
Whatever the source, the point I make is this: from now on don’t take for granted because this is a rural area that this will play here without comment. “Good” Lutherans, and other “good” Christian people in rural America - you participate in racist nastiness when you read and believe and forward this message.
We get called ingnorant rednecks for a reason some times. It is time to stop that behavior. No matter who you’re voting for - - to remain true to your faith, it is time to reject this kind of prejudice and racism.
From Rural Womyn Zone Central to friends in Towanda:
Searching for new book titles this morning, I got lost in an online bookstore reading lists of favorite books from 2007. I like reading staff picks for best of the year. I had so much fun that I decided to send you a list of feminist bookstores instead of books. I hope you have as much fun as I did.
I can sit at home out here in my jammies on the frosty plains where the nearest bookstore is 60 miles away and explore bookstores from California to Chicago, and find out what women who love books are reading. Life is good. (Although it’s so cold here in the upstairs of this old farm house that my fingers are getting stiff - I’m going to have to get a hot cup of coffee to keep them warm!)
Antigone Books
Tucson, AZ
http://www.antigonebooks.com/
This one didn’t have their 2007 picks online yet but has a large staff with their earlier picks - so lots to look at. They also have an email newsletter. A “zany” fun bookstore.
Toronto Women’s Bookstore
http://www.womensbookstore.com/new.html
Includes new books and staff picks and has an online store. More serious than Antigone, this bookstore is “promoting anti-oppression politics and feminist politics. Our mission: To provide books by women writers, especially marginalized women, including women of colour, First Nations women, lesbians, other queer women, working class women, disabled women, Jewish women, and other groups of women.”
Wild Iris Books
Gainsville, FL
Mission: Our mission is to honor the sacred feminine and its unique diversity of expression through art, music and the written word.
http://wildirisbooks.com/
Also has a mailing list. Art, books, gifts, green products. We’moon 2008 date book.
Charis Books
http://charis.booksense.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp
Staff picks lists. I checked out Debbie’s list and found great titles like, That’s funny, you don’t look Buddhist, The Time Travelers Wife, and Hunting and Gathering. I definitely will go back and read more of these books to get a new list to either buy or order from my library.
Women and Children First
Chicago
http://www.womenandchildrenfirst.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp
” . . .shop as independently as you think . . . ” You can order any book in print from them, and they have a list of new books that you can pre-order and staff recommendations.
Center for New Words
Massachusettes
http://www.centerfornewwords.org/
Mission: To use the power and creativity of words and ideas to strengthen the voice of progressive and marginalized women in society.
Also has a blog about interesting women. These may be the kinds of blogs I can get hooked on instead of politics.
http://www.centerfornewwords.org/blog/
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The event calendars on some of these websites make me feel like moving to where there are bookstores and events! My biggest bi-monthly Saturday thing is to go to the local flea market where they have estate and moving sale items and occasionally the Saturday afternoon auction and chili supper.
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Of course, there is the Amazon Co-op Bookstore,
“the oldest independent feminist bookstore in America” in Minneapolis.http://www.amazonbookstorecoop.com/
One of their featured titles is Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy by Barbara Ehrenreich, “In the acclaimed Blood Rites, Barbara
Ehrenreich delved into the origins of our species’ attraction to war. Here, she explores the opposite impulse, one that has been so effectively suppressed that we lack even a term for it: the desire for collective joy, historically expressed in ecstatic revels of feasting, costuming, and dancing. Ehrenreich uncovers the origins of communal celebration in human biology and culture. Although sixteenth-century Europeans viewed mass festivities as foreign and ’savage,’ Ehrenreich shows that they were indigenous to the West, from the ancient Greeks’ worship of Dionysus to the medieval practice of Christianity as a ‘danced religion.’”
Book-woman, “the only feminist bookstore in Texas.”
http://ebookwoman.booksense.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp
Website says they are a full service independent bookstore “serving the reading and resource needs of all women, their friends, families, and children. We stock unique merchandise celebrating the diversity of our lives with a great selection of classic and cutting edge women’s writing. ” Features book group picks for each year, including 2008
A Room of One’s Own in Madison, Wisconsin.
http://www.roomofonesown.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp
They have recommendations and a Fight the Winter Blues list.
The only time I was in Madison was for a World Dairy Expo. We were at the hotel, the Expo building and grounds, and then got in busses and went on tours of dairy farms. Based on that limited perspective, it is hard for me to imagine that there is a feminist bookstore there. Love the name, though.
Well . . . .I know there are more bookstores to peruse, and I hate to stop, but I have to get some hot coffee or tea and warm myself up. Guess I’d better start wearing legwarmers and booties when I’m shopping online. Next week I hope to have my laptop back.
Have fun!