I would like to start by sharing a story, a short anecdote if you will. My school received a donation a few months ago of two television sets to be placed in a "hang-out" area on campus. For the first two weeks, the televisions remained on CNN, an actual news station. For some reason, unknown to me or my fellow liberal ladies, the televisions were changed to FOX news. I am not going to use this story as a place to express my not so glowing views on FOX news, as everyone knows it's right-wing conservative propaganda designed to brainwash its viewers with half-truths and misinformation. Instead, I will continue with the story. After seeing this change, I assume someone complained, because I witnessed the tv returning to CNN after a few days. I also witnessed the uproar that came from my fellow students about two minutes later. They yelled so much, that the administrator felt so much pressure, he returned the tv to FOX, where it remains to this day. This change upsets me so much that I cringe whenever I walk into this area of school. My friends all expressed unhappiness with the decision, yet made no effort to do anything. One of my friends made a feeble attempt in asking one of the adults if it could be changed, to which he replied he didn't have the remote. Though I fully intend to take the situation into my own hands very shortly, I think this situation mirrors perfectly the kind of apathy that exists among people today. Why is it that people with the most radical and insane ideas are the loudest, and often the only voices heard? Does it make sense that people with reasonable ideas are shut out of the conversation, because they don't hold up crazy signs or make sweeping generalizations about entire groups of people? We need to do something about this disinterest among moderate, or at least reasonable people. Let's allow some new people a turn to talk, we've heard enough from some of you. And yes I am talking to you Sarah Palin. Oh and Mike Huckabee.. but more about him later.
I also recently attended the UN Commission on the Status of Women conference in New York. This conference reaffirmed for me the incredible power of women. I have been thinking a lot about the effect women have on the environment and politics and everything, and it really is staggering. There is so much talk about the power of the white male, but women have so much more power than we realize. We may not be able to harness the power just yet, but its there. I am entirely confident that women can affect real change. All it will take is some organizing, and this will come. To all the ladies out there that are feeling impatient or like they can't make a difference, I say keep fighting. Your power is there, I promise you. Sometimes it just takes a little bit longer to be utilized fully. As the primary consumers, women have the power to literally decide what products are popular and essentially created. We have the power to shut down or change big evil corporations that are harming the environment and our fellow people. I am of course not suggesting that all women should reject men and male ideas, I just wanted to share with you that women are more powerful than you may first think.
I do want to take this opportunity to criticize Mike Huckabee for his criticism of Natalie Portman's pregnancy and his ridiculous statements about unwed mothers, but I think after my talk about the power of women, I will leave my inevitable harangue for another day. Thanks for reading liberal ladies.
