In the coming elections, it is important to remember that war and peace are as much womens issues, as are health, the environment, and the achievement of educational and occupational equality. Because we believe that all of these concerns are not only fundamental but closely intertwined, this Tuesday we will be casting our vote for Senator Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.
Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, we have watched with shock and sorrow as our country has become mired in war. The resulting tragedy for our own soldiers, their immediate families and for the people of Iraq has been incalculable.
Less obvious, but no less grave has been the impact on our domestic institutions and economy. With a defense budget of half a trillion dollars and expenditures now averaging $12 billion a month for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, resources that might have been used for health care, housing, education, repair of infrastructure, relief of poverty and community development have been drained away.
We urgently need a Presidential candidate, who understands that preemptive attacks on other countries and the reliance on military force have diminished rather then strengthened our national security. And we urgently need a Presidential candidate whose first priority is to address domestic needs. We do not believe that Senator Hillary Clinton is that candidate
We base our judgment on her seven-year record as the Senator from New York. As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, she has carefully identified herself as a supporter of a strong, enlarged and proactive military. In 2002, she voted to authorize the use of force against Iraq, while voting against an amendment that would have mandated further diplomacy. In subsequent years, she expressed enthusiastic support for the war effort, objected to fixed timelines for the withdrawal of U.S troops and until last summer voted for the unconditional funding of the war.
Under pressure from the Democratic base, Senator Clinton has recently issued numerous statements about bringing the troops home responsibly. But her actual plan would leave tens of thousands of Americans soldiers in Iraq over a period of many years. Her record of embracing military solutions and the foreign policy advisors she has selected make us doubt that she will end this calamitous war.
Choosing to support Senator Obama was not an easy decision for us because electing a woman President would be a cause for celebration in itself and because we deplore the sexist attacks against Senator Clinton that have circulated in the media. However, we also recognize that the election of Barack Obama would be an historic achievement and that his support for gender equality has been unwavering.
In backing Senator Obama, we are mindful of the inconsistencies in his voting record and the limitations of his own plans for withdrawal. Yet it is noteworthy that at a time when this position was politically unpopular and when he was aiming for national office, Barack Obama opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq and has spoken out against the war ever since. This puts him in a far better position to articulate a clear challenge to a Republican opponent.
We are also moved by the positive tone of the Obama campaign, the tremendous energy it has released across the country, the dramatic engagement of young people and the impetus for change that his candidacy embodies.
We are speaking out now because we cannot afford to elect another President who will continue the aggressive, interventionist policies of the present.
(list in formation)
Lila Abu-Lughod, Institute for Research on Women and Gender, Columbia University
Janet Abu-Lughod
Rev. Patricia Ackerman – clergy/ environmentalist
Meena Alexander, Poet, Hunter College, CUNY
Frances Anderson, Progressive Democrats for America
Electa Arenal,writer, translator
Eva-Lee Baird, peace activist
Valerie Barr, Union College
Rosalyn Baxandall, State University of New York/Old Westbury
Nan Bauer-Maglin, City University of New York (Emerita)
Carolyn Patti Blum, human rights lawyer/consultant
Cynthia Bogard, Hofstra University
Marsha Borenstein, Major Owens Communications Services Center
Alice Bucker,
Erin Clermont, writer/editor, Veteran Feminists of America,
Sandra Coliver, human rights lawyer
Louise Fischer Cozzi, Jewelry Designer
Judy DAngio, Executive Secretary
Ann Decker, Art Director, Illustrator, Educator
Victoria de Grazia, Columbia University
Sue Donnelly, peace activist
Gina Eichenbaum-Pikser, Student Nurse-Midwife
Zillah Eisenstein, Ithaca College, writer &feminist activist
Carolyn Eisenberg, Hofstra University
Kate Ellis, Rutgers University
Sally Fisher, HIV /VAW Activist
Nanette Funk, Brooklyn College
Lin Goodwin, Professor
Farah Jasmine Griffin, professor and writer
Sally Fisher, HIV / VAW Activist
Nanette Funk, Brooklyn College
Judi Gardner. Middle School Home & Careers Teacher
Reena Geevarghese,peace activist
Joan P. Gibbs, Esq. National Conference of Black Lawyers*
Linda Gnat-Mullin, Energetic Empowerment
Tami Gold, Hunter College, professor and filmmaker, Hunter College
Stephanie Golden, writer
Linda Gordon, New York University
Diane Greenlent, photographer and peace activist
Farah Jasmine Griffin, professor and writer
Carole Gruber, William Paterson University (Emeritus)
Lynne Haney. New York University
Alice Kessler Harris, Columbia University
Sheila Hanks, Retired
Saidiya Hartman, Columbia University
Jane Hirschmann
Carol Horwitz, lawyer
Martha Howell, Columbia University
Carole Huston, peace activist
Sally Jones, peace activist
Daphne Joslin, William Paterson University of New Jersey
Laura Kogel, writer and psychotherapist
Lucy Koteen
Nancy Kricorian, author, peace activist
Jane Kurinsky, LMSW, peaceActivist
Anna Lapp, Author/Activist
Tanya Laurer, Artist
Diane Greenlent, photographer and peace activist
Gail Lerner, NYC, Peace Activist
Andrea Libresco, Hofstra University
Sandy Livingston, writer
Barbara Machtinger, Bloomfield College
Karen Malpede, writer, teacher, peace activist
Emily Martin, professor, anthropology, NYU
Vicki McFadden, mother of Iraq vet and peace activist.
Oseye Mchawi, Center for Law and Social Justice, and Yoruba Society of Brooklyn, Inc. (President)
D. H. Melhem, poet, writer, independent scholar
Margaret Melkonian, LI peace activist, (Vice President), UN representative, Hague Appeal for Peace
Maria E. Montoya, New York University
Cheryl Mwaria, Hofstra University
Paula Nesoff, LaGuardia Community College
Elizabeth A. McGee, Social sector consultant, High Impact Partnering
Oseye Mchawi, Center for Law and Social Justice, and Yoruba Society of Brooklyn, Inc. (President)
Susan OMalley, Kingsborough Community College
Lynn Otty, peace activist
Rosalind Petchesky, Distinguished Professor of Political Science
Hunter College & the Graduate Center, CUNY
Charlotte Phillips, pediatrician and peace activist
Katha Pollitt, author
Alexandra Ponce de Leon, Media Research Analyst,Universal McCann NY
Linda Prine MD, Reproductive Rights Activist
Amy Quinn-Suplina, community peace & justice activist
Alice Radosh, Research Psychologist, retired writer, Volunteer Fire Fighter
Janet Randall, Northeastern University
Marci Reaven
Nancy Romer, Brooklyn College
Constancia Dinky Romilly, Registered Nurse, Bellevue Hospital Center – Retired
Esther Rowland, Barnard College Emeritus
Martha Saxton, Amherst College
Alice Slater, Esq.
Marjorie Siegel, Teacher,Educator and Researcher, Teachers College, Columbia University
Judith Stacey, New York University
Gretchen Stromberg, senior citizen
Joan Sturgis, physician
Melissa Van, peace activist
Andrea A. Vasquez, American Social History Project, The Graduate Center, CUNY
Sandy Weinbaum, non-profit administrator
Cora Weiss, Feminist peace organizer: Pres. Hague Appeal for Peace,
Former President, International Peace Bureau now UN Rep for IPB;
Joan Wile, author, peace activist, and grandmother
Bethany Yarrow, singer
Rosalie Yelen, peace activist, women’s health advocate
Susan Yohn, Hofstra University
Marilyn Young, New York University
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8 Comments
Idiocy.
The Republican party (including Fox, CNN, all the media and magazines now in the hip-pocket OF the Republicans, duh! are damn-well HOPING that you and all Dems. will vote Obama BECAUSE he cannot win against a “stereotypical” ‘War Hero’ like McCain! You think there is no EQUAL galvanizing and nefariousness going on in the old GOP camp? They…and I do believe they are a “they”…as alien to me as shop-til-you-drop, aren’t very very happy Obama is in the neck and neck of it all. Oh God you traitors! You have a monumentous chance to get a woman in the oval office and save this country AND send the best known and loved face all around the world as an emissary to repair the abominable damage that the 2 squaters Bush and Cheney have done on Federal land and to all the world. What is the matter with your perception? No, “I’M ” not “right” the whole Universe is trying to tell you Hillary is the one and you and your troupe against her is about to blow it bigtime.
This is my response to Robin Morgan’s revamped essay, which almost had me changing my mind about what to do tomorrow. Almost. Robin, couldn’t YOU please be the nominee instead? Please??
Yes, I think Hillary wipes the floor with John Kerry and the 2000 / pre-Nobel persona of Al Gore. I am so thrilled at the strong slate of democratic candidates we’ve seen this time around; and even more thrilled that breaking the white man mold may finally be upon us. I am moved by the “Goodbye” post… except the Hillary-can-do-no-wrong part which I think requires a blind eye. To me a stubborn Clinton liability is actually getting in the way of the gender possibility that has so motivated us. Yes, we are motivated. And we ignore the Clinton liability at our peril, especially if or when Hillary Clinton is the nominee.
Only once two debates ago did HRC hit home the importance of electing a woman president let alone for its own sake, wherein the Luntz curve of enthusiasm hit the roof and stayed there for a full minute, and reverberated in the press and blogs for days. Of course, yes! Hillary woke us up to this obvious we keep just below consciousness: from the U.S., a woman president (finally!) will move the world in ineffably, incalculably positive ways. Democrats anyway seem to be embracing this already, clearly, so that’s not the liability here. So then what’s the problem?
The Clintons as a team have been the powerhouses of Democratic politics, pretty much from the beginning of the first Clinton presidency (Hm, see, I like the sound of that — first and second Clinton presidencies. But, see, that is also my fear; the electorate is fatigued with dynasty canadacies, first Bush and now Clinton, and people will only become more and more aware of the all-over-again as November rolls around. We see it happening already. I certainly feel the fatigue. HRC conjures strong 90’s sensations. Unlike George, HRC is not running away from the other guy — the Clintons are an institution the way Sr and Jr never would or could be. Been-there-done-that feelings are not to be ignored. Anyway, end parenthesis…). The Clintons backed several of the few, and notably less progressive, democrats who lost in 2006; for starters, Harold Ford whom they then tried to foist into Howard Dean’s victory seat at the DNC. Clinton / Carville politics deny to this day the reality that divide-and-conquer centrism didn’t win the day in 2006, but rather, well, look at it this way: the house progressive caucus is bigger than it has ever been in history. I think this democratic primary reveals the clash of two paradigms — ironically, brought to fore by Edwards, not Obama, but now embodied almost by accident in the Obama insurgency.
I vividly remember my excitement during the first Clinton-Gore Campaign in 1992. I came of age under the impossibly discouraging Reagan-Bush era. There was so much insurgent promise from outside-the-beltway in Clinton (and yes, “two for the price of one” too) that people obviously feel now in the Obama campaign. The promise started to fizzle after the UHC fiasco, and died with Welfare-to-Work and NAFTA. Other than the presidency, Democrats were losing the day, cycle after cycle. Clinton One had no coattails. The 96 campaign was the absolute opposite of the 92 campaign, wherein the Team Clinton school of Democratic politics was truly solidified. It is that school that was rocked in 06 and is on the block now this election cycle. This election, for me, is about getting beyond the fatigue.
That is the importance I see in the Obama campaign from the public arena. There is tremendous significance in the energy and passion of the street ART dedicated to Obama. All you have to do is imagine DipDive type of inspired creatively bubbling forth under Kerry, or Gore, or either of the Clintons (post-1992). You can’t. It doesn’t happen. The reason for it, and the social significance should not be underestimated. My fear, of course, is embodied in the “don’t fall for false hopes” put-down of the Clinton campaign: That Obama will be all promise, but when in office just another NAFTA technocrat, at a time when America psychologically is in dire need of a return to the moon.
HRC’s “the importance of a woman president” moment two debates ago was a taste of a return to the moon for America. Otherwise, the Clinton DLC legacy has been one that I see only fortifying that old depression voters will harbor come November. At the same time, FDR (who went into office with about as much experience as Barack, Teddy, and JFK too), reminded us that it is up to *us* and not the leaders we choose, to make the leadership. So hoping for the best from Barack Obama is not enough. Just remember that the Clinton machine won’t be fodder for any DipDive videos — it’s just not in it or its legacy. Whoever is the nominee, we gotta lotta work. That’s what we have to notice now.
This is my response to Robin Morgan’s revamped Goodbye essay, which almost had me changing my vote tomorrow. Almost. Robin, can you be the nominee instead, please? Please??
Yes, I think Hillary wipes the floor with John Kerry and the 2000 / pre-Nobel persona of Al Gore. I am so thrilled at the strong slate of democratic candidates we’ve seen this time around; and even more thrilled that breaking the white man mold may finally be upon us. I am moved by the “Goodbye” post… except the Hillary-can-do-no-wrong part which I think requires a blind eye. To me a stubborn Clinton liability is actually getting in the way of the gender possibility that has so motivated us. Yes, we are motivated. And we ignore the Clinton liability at our peril, especially if or when Hillary Clinton is the nominee.
Only once two debates ago did HRC hit home the importance of electing a woman president let alone for its own sake, wherein the Luntz curve of enthusiasm hit the roof and stayed there for a full minute, and reverberated in the press and blogs for days. Of course, yes! Hillary woke us up to this obvious we keep just below consciousness: from the U.S., a woman president (finally!) will move the world in ineffably, incalculably positive ways. Democrats anyway seem to be embracing this already, clearly, so that’s not the liability here. So then what’s the problem?
The Clintons as a team have been the powerhouses of Democratic politics, pretty much from the beginning of the first Clinton presidency (Hm, see, I like the sound of that — first and second Clinton presidencies. But, see, that is also my fear; the electorate is fatigued with dynasty canadacies, first Bush and now Clinton, and people will only become more and more aware of the all-over-again as November rolls around. We see it happening already. I certainly feel the fatigue. HRC conjures strong 90’s sensations. Unlike George, HRC is not running away from the other guy — the Clintons are an institution the way Sr and Jr never would or could be. Been-there-done-that feelings are not to be ignored. Anyway, end parenthesis…). The Clintons backed several of the few, and notably less progressive, democrats who lost in 2006; for starters, Harold Ford whom they then tried to foist into Howard Dean’s victory seat at the DNC. Clinton / Carville politics deny to this day the reality that divide-and-conquer centrism didn’t win the day in 2006, but rather, well, look at it this way: the house progressive caucus is bigger than it has ever been in history. I think this democratic primary reveals the clash of two paradigms — ironically, brought to fore by Edwards, not Obama, but now embodied almost by accident in the Obama insurgency.
I vividly remember my excitement during the first Clinton-Gore Campaign in 1992. I came of age under the impossibly discouraging Reagan-Bush era. There was so much insurgent promise from outside-the-beltway in Clinton (and yes, “two for the price of one” too) that people obviously feel now in the Obama campaign. The promise started to fizzle after the UHC fiasco, and died with Welfare-to-Work and NAFTA. Other than the presidency, Democrats were losing the day, cycle after cycle. Clinton One had no coattails. The 96 campaign was the absolute opposite of the 92 campaign, wherein the Team Clinton school of Democratic politics was truly solidified. It is that school that was rocked in 06 and is on the block now this election cycle. This election, for me, is about getting beyond the fatigue.
That is the importance I see in the Obama campaign from the public arena. There is tremendous significance in the energy and passion of the street ART dedicated to Obama. All you have to do is imagine DipDive type of inspired creatively bubbling forth under Kerry, or Gore, or either of the Clintons (post-1992). You can’t. It doesn’t happen. The reason for it, and the social significance should not be underestimated. My fear, of course, is embodied in the “don’t fall for false hopes” put-down of the Clinton campaign: That Obama will be all promise, but when in office just another NAFTA technocrat, at a time when America psychologically is in dire need of a return to the moon.
HRC’s “the importance of a woman president” moment two debates ago was a taste of a return to the moon for America. Otherwise, the Clinton DLC legacy has been one that I see only fortifying that old depression voters will harbor come November. At the same time, FDR (who went into office with about as much experience as Barack, Teddy, and JFK too), reminded us that it is up to *us* and not the leaders we choose, to make the leadership. So hoping for the best from Barack Obama is not enough. Just remember that the Clinton machine won’t be fodder for any DipDive videos — it’s just not in it or its legacy. Whoever is the nominee, we gotta lotta work. That’s what we have to notice now.
I find this list of names startling. Yes. We need to get out of this insane war, yesterday, but it is not the only important issue. Not by a long shot. This is an excuse to back an appealing man. This is what certain kinds of women (women with lots of choices) tend to do. This is why we have not had a woman president in our herstory. It is because of women like you.
Robin Morgan is on our talk points. She has given us the torch to pass on and take the truth into the voting booths and beyond. Seeing the OB women’s list this am makes me think of the tired who want journey change but have lost terack of their woman leader! What is further disheartening is that I know some of you who signed that statemnt – shame on your lack of feminist politics that we work for.
Carol Burke
I am voting for Hillary. I am walking “on the shoulders” of my heroine, Robin Morgan, who always tells it like it is.
God please can someone make an fabulous video of all the cultural icons and issues she discussed with her voice reading thi in the background and put it on YOUTUBE. Please!
I was for Barack until his courage in opposing the war when he had no power turned into absolute ZERO ACTION when he had power. Even when symbolically he couldn’t have refused to confirm Condoleeza Riche, eh voted for her. Please tell me how he is the candidate for change? Please tell me why his wife gets away with saying anything she wants but no one harshes on her?
It’s always good to find like-minded people. Thanx and I’m going to add you to my RSS feed.
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