Friday, April 21, 2017

Weekend Reading: The Trying to Rally Edition

I'm planning to go to my local science march tomorrow. I'm sure I'll be glad once I get there, but right now, my main emotion about this is resentment. I don't want to have to march to defend science. It is my wedding anniversary, and instead of doing something nice with my husband, I am sticking him with the Saturday gymnastics classes so that I can go march. It seems ridiculous to have to march to say "we should let facts inform our opinions, not the other way around," but here we are.

I also don't want to have to make phone calls and send faxes to insist that the people in power take the conflicts of interest in this administration and the Russian interference in our election seriously. Some seriously sketchy and not at all normal stuff is going on, and I don't know if its goal is to make the Trump family money or to advance Putin's interests or both. It seems I shouldn't have to exert so much pressure to get this investigated.

I don't want to have to make another round of phone calls against the latest disaster of a health care "plan" from the Republicans. I don't want to have to make phone calls against the stupid wall. I hate that I worry about sending a letter to the Secretary of Homeland Security protesting the deportation of a young man with DACA protection. I'll probably do it, but my husband's renewed green card hasn't come in the mail yet, so maybe I should just avoid drawing attention to us, instead. I hate that this thought even crosses my mind.

And I am well and truly tired of being sanctimoniously exhorted to feel empathy for the voters who put us in this mess. My empathy store is a little depleted right now.

I know I need to get over myself and keep working for what is right. And I will. I will rally and go to the march tomorrow. I will rally and make my phone calls/send my faxes next Wednesday. I will keep going. But every now and then, I will feel some resentment that I have to spend my time on this.

All of which has nothing to do with today's links.

I think Jamelle Bouie's take on the recent special elections is good.

David Fahrenthold talks about three ways in which what he learned from reporting on Donald Trump's charity giving foreshadowed Trump's behavior as president.

Here's an alternative vision for the border region just east of Otay Mesa. I know there must be some people in San Diego who support the wall, but I haven't run into them. Even the people who want stronger border enforcement think the wall won't work, and want the money spent in other ways.

Caroline Criado-Perez has a good post about Fearless Girl and the reaction of the guy who created the charging bull statue. No, really, read it even if you're sick of that whole discussion.

The Handmaid's Tale is a warning for conservative women. This article got shared out by Margaret Atwood herself, which was pretty cool. It touches on one of the issues I've long had with women who lead campaigns in defense of "traditional values" like women being housewives. They have a career: they speak and write and have a space outside their home. But they would deny it to me. Sarah Jones, the author of the article, comes from a conservative Christian background, and she understands and explains it better than I do. If for no other reason, this article is worth your time.

(I have one point of disagreement: I do think it is possible to be anti-abortion and a feminist, but I think the people who claim to be rarely follow through on what would be required to truly be a feminist. To me, a feminist has to want women to have the same chance at self-fulfillment as men. That is only possible if a reproductive accident will not derail our lives. Access to abortion is one way to make that possible. But there are other ways. Better maternity leave, more cultural support for and less discrimination against mothers in the workplace, better child care subsidies for people who need them.... If you are opposed abortion but still consider yourself a feminist, I think you need to spend some time thinking about how to make a world in which abortion would not feel so necessary to so many women. I don't see a lot of that work being done, to be honest, but then again, I haven't gone in search of it. I suspect there are pockets of people thinking like this in the anti-abortion movement, but right now, they are utterly drowned out by the "a woman's place is in the home" crowd.)

Moving on from the contentious issues....

This is an interesting history of the pursuit of happiness.

Speaking of happiness... We have a lot of stuff, and it seems to be stressing us out, not making us happy, particularly if we are women. This is probably why that Kondo method was popular: it promised a way to get rid of stuff.

And here's something that did make me happy: A nice post from Margaret Redlich, the author of Don't Call It Bollywood, about the history of dancing in films (US and Indian).

Kelly J. Baker wrote a really nice essay about quitting.

Warning: this language guessing game is a huge time sink.

BUNNY!




That's it for this week. If you're marching tomorrow, I hope you have a good time!

5 comments:

  1. Ugh. Especially this time of year when I have so many demands on my time. I am also really irritated that my reps aren't doing their jobs and I have to waste all this time. But I keep doing it.

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  2. I'm taking my two boys to march tomorrow. They're 7 and 9, I think it's important for them to witness this. Luckily, we didn't have prior commitments.

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  3. We're skipping DC1's math circle to go. There are a ton of kids here.

    People seem to like my dismal scientist shirt, but not as much as my 4 year olds I love science sign and lab coat.

    There's a woman cosplaying as ms frizzle.

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  4. EarthSciProf4:53 AM

    Definitely understand and share your feeling of resentment. Do feel a little better after attending the March in DC.

    Also, found your post on barriers to be insightful and depressing. The individual human and the societal cost of men setting/being those barriers is staggering. Upon re-reading it, I appreciated the glimmers of hope. But I can't even imagine how tiring it must be for you and so many women.

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    1. Thanks! I felt better after the San Diego march, too. We had a really big turnout- they're estimating ~15,000. And I saw lots of people I know. The San Diego science community is big, but small at the same time.

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