Kamala Harris

Painful anniversary

~ MaryG ~ 9 Comments

It’s painful to go back and read this post from about a year ago—the day after Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. I had cried during her acceptance speech.

After so many months of dread and fear, I finally let myself feel hope and optimism for the future. My little granddaughter would be coming into a world where a woman of color was President, women’s rights to their own bodies would be restored, protecting our planet would be an international mission, and hate and racism would recede.

The Hillary Clinton nightmare would not repeat itself. It couldn’t.

I even bought my soon-to-arrive precious granddaughter a Harris-Walz onesie that said “For a Brighter Tomorrow.”

My daughter put my granddaughter in the onesie one time in early January, just so I could see it on her.

I had been imagining that we might get together and watch Kamala’s inauguration as a family. I imagined it would be a day of great joy.

Alt-inauguration

~ MaryG ~ 13 Comments

OK, I know I live in a deep blue Massachusetts bubble, but I have not heard of one single person who plans to watch Donald Trump’s inauguration tomorrow.

Feelings seem to range from benign avoidance to disgust and true nausea that it’s being held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

I don’t think I’ve skipped watching an American presidential inauguration in the past 30 years. They are part of American history. Hell, I’d normally watch for the cold-weather women’s fashions alone. The coats! The gloves! The hats!

But I will not be watching this one. And I’m just so relieved Michelle Obama is skipping it too.

My alt-inauguration plan is to go see a midday matinee of The Last Showgirl, starring Pamela Anderson and Jamie Lee Curtis, in a movie theater with my husband. Anderson’s performance is getting good reviews and since she’s the estranged ex-wife of Trump inaugural performer Kid Rock, it seemed like a great choice.

What’s your alt-inauguration plan? Or are you planning to watch?

Michelle Obama’s 2009 inauguration look
Michelle Obama’s 2013 inauguration look
I loved Kamala’s purple coat in 2021
And then there was this. Possibly the worst look ever worn to a presidential inauguration.

Five skills

~ MaryG ~ 6 Comments

Share five things you’re good at.

I attended a three-hour business zoom meeting last night for my church. We are an elected, unpaid executive board. Someone else was running the meeting and honestly, it was pretty bad…poorly organized and inefficient. We spent an excessive amount of time on non-issues and didn’t even get to the important items until 9:15pm.

I’m realizing that even though I’m good at it, I don’t want to do volunteer roles like this. If I’m going to do “work work,” I want to be paid. If I’m going to volunteer, I want it to be fun.

I still managed to accomplish several things for the church during the meeting using my business skills:

  1. Perceptiveness (understanding situations clearly)
  2. Prioritizing
  3. Speaking directly
  4. Writing succinctly
  5. Getting shit done

I have fully recovered from whatever Imposter Syndrome I may have had when I was younger (see yesterday’s post).

Keep Calm and Carry On

~ MaryG ~ 10 Comments

It’s finally here. Election Day 2024.

And the stakes seem absolutely monumental. Not just for the United States, but for the whole world.

The best advice I’ve seen is from my former UU minister, the Reverend Fred Small. He says, “If you’re feeling anxious (or worse) about the presidential election, I recommend deep breaths, meditation, and this video released last night by the Harris campaign.”

He was right. The video makes me feel better. We’ve got some extremely competent and professional women— like Jen O’Malley Dillon and Dana Remus—running the Harris Campaign. They know what they’re doing.

Breathe.

Keep Kamala & Carry On-a-la

Hillary PTSD

~ MaryG ~ 13 Comments

My get-out-the-vote calls went pretty well today. It was actually kind of fun. I talked to left-leaning voters from Pennsylvania. Many had already voted for Kamala and were willing to reach out to friends and family to do the same. One young man from Erie County, PA told me he wasn’t just excited, he was ECSTATIC to make Kamala Harris the next President of the United States.

So why don’t I feel better? Where’s my joy? Why am I SO anxious?

Because I remember 8 years ago…

Here I am in my cute little pantsuit (which no longer fits) on November 8, 2016, heading out to help elect Hillary Clinton as our first woman president. I was so excited and happy. Joyful!

And then….

Utter despair, bitter disappointment, disbelief, and a huge amount of anger at every single person who saw fit to pull the lever for Mr. Grab-em-by-the-Pussy Donald Trump.

Tomorrow (US Election Day) is going to be rough. I’m going to wear my new KA-MA-LA t-shirt and buy some celebratory champagne, but I also have to prepare myself for the worst. I have Hillary PTSD. Of course I’m hoping against hope that it’ll be a Kamala landslide and red states will start dropping early on. (My fantasy is that Florida miraculously goes blue by 9pm.) But that’s probably not going to happen. It’s probably going to be some sort of a protracted nail biter like Biden/Trump in 2020. (It took four days from Election Day for CNN to declare Biden the winner.)

The one and only good thing about the November 8, 2016 election was that Massachusetts legalized recreational cannabis the very same night. And that is the only reason I’ve made it through the past eight years.

May the Trump Era in the United States of America end tomorrow.

🇺🇸

Phone calls for Harris

~ MaryG ~ 7 Comments

I signed up for a two-hour shift making phone calls for Harris tomorrow.

A friend sent this message earlier today:

Hi everyone,

I just finished a get-out-the-vote phone bank for MoveOn.org. It involved asking voters to remind 3 friends or family members to vote. It was fun! Remember this is coming from the person who would rather chew nails than make these calls! It was easy, lots of people answered, most were friendly, many agreed to remind others and one even agreed to volunteer. I had some great conversations.  The link to sign up is already below, but here it is again: https://mobilize.us/s/y58Kqy
One person said she was definitely voting for “Miss Kamala,” all her family members had voted, but she would remind younger co-workers who might not otherwise vote.

There are lots of shifts left between now and the election, and it’s a great antidote to election anxiety.

Lynn
(she/her/hers)

I really don’t feel like making calls, but defeating Trump is my self-professed Number One Objective of 2024. I’ve written more than 30 blog posts focused or partially focused on him. I started this blog nine years ago, exactly as Trump began his ascension. In many ways, he has been hanging over my life and my blog like a dark cloud the entire time.

So I better get off my butt and join my grandmother friends in making some calls to voters tomorrow. We gotta leave it all on the field!

If you live in the US and have some time on Monday or Tuesday, you can use this link (or the one above) to sign up:

https://track-mg.mobilize.us/CL0/https:%2F%2Fmobilize.us%2Fs%2FXSg67M/1/01000192f4afee2c-54e7c91e-cd19-4693-a83d-a9e5af0ef9c7-000000/sV9xaKVYJa9D2NZc-zQNL5kTcP0pHVc6zXxry3G8maA=377

Wasn’t Kamala great on SNL last night?

I pulpitted (is that a word?)

~ MaryG ~ 6 Comments

As part of my duties as a member of my church’s Executive Team, I briefly occupied the pulpit this morning. First time!

I’m pleased to report that despite my current state of mind, I was extremely pleasant. No F-bombs were dropped. I did not make any verbal references (veiled or otherwise) to the upcoming election, although I did wear my Chuck Taylor sneakers and some pearls. And also a brat-green t-shirt.

I received a couple of knowing compliments on my sneakers and feedback that I was a “natural” up there. I consider this a win (although I did forget to say a couple of things I had planned). Next time I’m going to write my remarks in large print on an index card, instead of looking at the tiny typeface on my phone.

More Boston HA-bah (you know, the place where the colonists dumped all that tea in 1773)

~ MaryG ~ 12 Comments
The Valiant
Boston skyline with Leader Bank Pavilion (aka Harborlights) on the far left
And…darkness

Completed in 2003, the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge (on the right side of photo) was named to honor the late Lenny Zakim’s civil rights and race relations work in Boston.
Back in the dock at Rowe’s Wharf, the huge flag seemed symbolic. It was the final night of the epic 2024 Democratic National Convention. Kamala Harris was accepting our party’s nomination later that night.

“And, so, on behalf of the people, on behalf of every American, regardless of party, race, gender or the language your grandmother speaks. On behalf of my mother, and everyone who has ever set out on their own unlikely journey. On behalf of Americans like the people I grew up with — people who work hard, chase their dreams and look out for one another. On behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth, I accept your nomination to be president of the United States of America.”

~Vice President Kamala D. Harris, Democratic National Convention, August 22, 2024