In honor of the holiday

Happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans. The other day I watched a rerun of a 1999 documentary on PBS called Not for Ourselves Alone. It's the story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony and their lifelong fight for women's suffrage, among other issues.

It was a beautiful documentary. The commentators were historians who specialized in the women, a curator from the Susan B. Anthony House, etc. All women. All thoughtful, intelligent and knowledgeable. The letters to and from Elizabeth and Susan were my favorite part. The beautiful language of their words, the passion they felt toward their cause and advancing the lives of American women. They were true friends, even though they were such different people, and they shared that true passion.

At the end they interviewed women who were around in 1920 when women were given the right to vote. Each recalled how she felt as she stepped into the voting booth, what an important thing she knew she was doing, how she wanted to make sure she voted for the right person. They didn't take it lightly. Neither should we.

I shed many a tear watching this wonderful documentary, but during this part I'm not ashamed to say, I cried very hard. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton worked their whole lives for the cause, knowing that women's lives would be better if they could vote, and they never lived to see that day.

Whether or not you've ever studied the women's suffrage movement, this is an excellent documentary and I highly recommend it. I dare all women to watch it and not feel proud to be female, grateful to live now, and cherish your right to vote. Please don't take that right lightly. These women (and many others) risked their lives and were shunned by many in "polite" society just so you and your daughters and granddaughters could live in a better world. We all know that it is a better world because women have equal rights.

On this day, our Independence Day, I salute Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony and I thank them for fighting the good fight, for me and for all women in the United States. Women like them make me proud to be female.

"I wonder if when I am under the sod—or cremated and floating in the air—I shall have to stir you and others up. How can you not be all on fire? ...I really believe I shall explode if some of you young women don't wake up."
Susan B. Anthony, 1898

Happy Independence Day everyone!

Yeah! Vindication

I'm really jazzed that An Inconvenient Truth won the Oscar for Best documentary tonight. As you may recall, I've loved this movie since I saw it back in June. I blogged about it here. If you haven't seen it yet, please rent it.

If you're not angry, you're not paying attention

I saw the Movie Iraq For Sale on my vacation last week. I knew this administration was corrupt and cronyism was rampant, but I never could have imagined how bad things truly are. The Republican party touts itself as the party with moral values, the kinder and gentler party, the religious party. I believe that most people who vote Republican are those things, but this administration does not have those things in common with them.

Please see this movie. The people in the movie are U.S. soldiers and civilian workers who have actually been to Iraq. They tell of horrible things. Civilians dressed up like soldiers and told to drive on roads that were labeled "red"(or dangerous) roads with no protection and no maps. They didn't even know where they were going, they were just told to drive. Many good people who were just trying to make some extra money for their families died that way. Sacrificed by these companies to make a fast buck.

They tell of the system of payment that Haliburton and Blackwater had arranged. The more money these companies spent, the bigger bonuses the government would pay them. (These are our tax dollars, people!) So, they would lease expensive cars and they wouldn't bring over any parts. If a car got a flat tire or needed a new fan belt, they'd simply burn it and lease a new one. One man told of a car/truck that was worth (IIRC) about $40,000 that over the course of 3 years, the government had paid $230,000 in lease payments on. Our tax dollars and the government doesn't even own that car now. It was a lease! Workers were put up in 4 star hotels! Meanwhile, there are many people who are homeless in our own country!

Some of the soldiers said that they were told to train the civilians to do their own jobs (many of them confidential) and after the civilians were trained, the soldiers didn't have anything to do. Why are we asking our soldiers to train civilians to do the jobs that U.S. soldiers are supposed to do? So these big companies could send workers and pad the bill they send to the government, to the Republican controlled congress.

Maybe some of you don't know that because the Republicans control all 3 branches of government (plus the Supreme Court now) there can be no oversight committees and no hearings unless they allow them. And they will NOT allow them. I hear many people ask why there is no oversight. This is why. The Democrats' hands are tied. In order to get some kind of oversight in our government, we need both parties (therefore 100% of America--not just 51%) represented. All of our voices must be heard.

Please watch the clips of this movie. Please go see it. Please start asking questions. Please educate yourself. PLEASE VOTE in November. We need accountability in government. "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." No truer words have ever been spoken.

Current Mood: Heartsick. How could this happen in America?

Another Movie Recommendation

I saw Who Killed the Electric Car this weekend and I learned so much. I remember when the cars came out and I never heard any of the positive things about them. All I heard was that there were hardly any plugs to recharge them and that they'd only go 30 miles before they needed a recharge. At the time I worked 36 miles (one way) from home and a car like that was out of the question.

They never told us that they had a battery designed to go 120 miles at that time. They didn't tell us that the electricity to charge the car was equal to 60 cents a gallon. They now have a battery designed to go over 300 + miles between charges, which is about what I get on a tank of gas. A car like that would be perfect for the everyday commute. It might not be good for road trips (unless you planned ahead) but each family could own one of them instead of a gas guzzling car.

These electric cars have no emissions and cost less to maintain and to drive. The car companies were losing money on car repairs and the oil companies were losing money on gasoline. So they called back each car when its lease was up since the car companies purposely never sold them. Once the car manufacturers got the state of CA to lower the standards for the percentage of low emission vehicles each car company had to sell in the state (the requirement is what helped create the electric car in the first place) they were able to kill them.

How greedy can a company be? Oil is finite. We need to do everything we can to conserve it for future generations. Killing the electric cars was a sin that we will all pay for in the future.

I want an electric car!

Current Mood: Steamed

Movie Recommendation

I saw An Inconvenient Truth last weekend and it was a great movie! I know what many of you are thinking, "Here goes this Lefty Tree-hugger trying to convert me to her side" but really, it's not like that at all.

First, the movie is totally non-partisan. As Gore says in the movie, "This is not a Republican issue or a Democrat issue, it's a moral issue." I couldn't agree more. I happened to see this movie in one of the most Republican counties in the entire US (and certainly in all of California) and everyone sitting in the audience around me seemed to have the same opinion I did.

The movie doesn't base anything on theories, but on data gathered over a number of years. Gore also points out that the media reports that there are scientists who don't believe in Global Warming, which simply isn't true. Of the 900+ articles published in Scientific journals, not one scientist has officially disputed one of them. And yet the other side (representing big business) will have you believe that Global Warming is a theory. And the right likes to call it "the liberal media." What liberal media?

Even if you don't want to take the word of scientists, just look at what's happened in the last couple years: the Tsunami, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, that insanely wet winter we had in 2005. Everything seems to be changing right before our eyes. This movie helps explain all that. Please give it a chance when it comes to your hometown...or at least when it's released on DVD. If you care about the world you're leaving your children, if you think it's a sin to destroy the beautiful world God gave us, of if you're simply an open-minded individual, please see this movie.

Current mood: Hopeful that people will care enough to give the movie a chance.