Dirty Little Secret

(Notice my language restraint? Because you never know when Lovebug could start reading)

Kim is not my friend or relative. Kim is Kim Gandy, the president of the National Organization of Women. I joined NOW in college. That’s right, I don’t just call myself a card-carrying feminist, I actually am one. Or, at least I used to be. Apparently my views are starting to differ from mainstream feminism.

Kim Gandy is all over CNN, claiming that Obama’s Cabinet picks don’t include enough women. For the record, there are five – the same number as Clinton and Bush’s first cabinets. Sure, I’d love it if the Cabinet matched the population with a nice 50-50 split, but the world would have to change a lot before I’d go on CNN to complain about it.

In a world where rape victims are blamed and then stoned to death (even Fox covered it), where a quarter of women in the US are victims of domestic violence at some point in their lifetimes and where Viagra is more likely to be covered by insurance than birth control pills we have more important things to complain about on national television.

I suppose it’s possible that she did complain about those things and (typically) this is the only complaint that the media embraced. But even if that’s what happened, I still want her to shut up. Shouldn’t the president of NOW be more media savvy than I am?

So I see on the news that they have positively identified the bones of Caylee Anthony.

I’m not surprised. I am saddened, of course. I mean, what sane person doesn’t find this whole story depressing?

What depresses me more, though, is all the missing kids we don’t hear about. Is Caylee Anthony the only kid to have gone missing in the last six months? Unfortunately, no.

But she’s probably the only cute little white girl with an attractive single mom to have gone missing in the last six months. Sure, I’d like to think that the only reason the media has been all over this story is that Casey Anthony is a compelling villain, but it’s not true. Caylee was adorable. And white.

Jennifer Hudson’s missing (black) nephew didn’t garner as much coverage as Caylee has.

And I’m not saying that there shouldn’t have been so much about Caylee. But over 2000 children go missing EVERY DAY. And roughly 2000 children are murdered by their parents or caretakers every year. So the story of Caylee Anthony is not some weird anomaly that deserves media obsession to the exclusion of stories about all the other missing and murdered kids.

When was the last time you saw a news frenzy about a missing child with dark skin? Excluding Jennifer Hudson’s nephew, the last one I can remember occurred when I lived in Kansas City. In that case, it was a story about how they found the remains of a little African-American girl. . . and were hoping someone would identify her. Because the media obviously didn’t pick up the story when she went missing.

The other thing that ticked me off during this news story – and during that long ago Kansas City story – was the pile of bears and toys placed near the sites. Not that I begrudge honoring the dead. . .but where were all these caring people when these children were being neglected and abused while they were alive? Were they calling the department of children and family services? Were they offering to baby-sit? Were they giving bears and toys to the family or other needy families? Were they helping the stressed out parents around them?

Maybe they were. But while teaching I saw so many people afraid to get involved. . .often until it was too late. Some of those people were actually grandparents. Which brings me back to Caylee. I think
I blame her grandparents almost as much as I blame her mother.

Dear Zola Martinez,

We have never met. Or spoken. Or read each other’s blogs. Hell, I don’t even know if you have a blog. I’ll guess not, because most bloggers I know have more sense than you do. You have made the mistake of giving out my cell phone number to countless online universities.

Possibly you are too stupid to remember your own phone number and you have given mine as a purely innocent mistake. Er, mistakes, since I’ve already gotten ten phone calls in the last twenty-four hours. To make the same mistake ten times in a row makes me wonder if you are not quite ready for a university education.

Possibly you made up a number when filling out the online university forms, not wanting to admit you didn’t have one or maybe fearing giving out your number on the internet. Didn’t it occur to you that you were giving out SOMEONE’S number? And that if the admissions offices used that number they would wind up talking to an irate person that was not you? I’m not sure that’s the impression you want to give the people who will soon be reviewing your application.

Possibly you are someone I know, someone looking for a way to aggravate me. You have succeeded, but who the hell are you? It’s a fairly new number that I only just gave out to people I like. Surely Wendy Lapham and those girls in the band have gotten over their high school hostility by now? And if they haven’t, who would have sold me out to them? I only talk to about four people from high school. I don’t keep in touch with anyone from college, though I was much nicer then. Unless my ex-husband has somehow tracked me down AND found out that I told people that he liked to wear my underwear under his jeans. I can’t think of anyone I’ve pissed off – except my children and Hot Guy – for months. So the revenge motive doesn’t seem a very plausible explanation for the calls I’ve received.

So I’d appreciate an explanation, Zola, if that’s really your name. Are you a complete idiot, a thoughtless schmuck or some kind of psychobitch?

Thanks for your time,

Jerseygirl

What do you guys think is going on? And what should I do about it?

Have you gotten an email “accusing” Barack Obama of being Muslim?

(For the record, I wouldn’t really care if he was Muslim, because it’s not the typical Muslims, especially not the typical American Muslims, who become crazy terrorists AND it was men who called themselves Christians who caused the Oklahoma City bombing. Just saying.)

What I find especially laughable is that the people passing on these emails are the same people who freaked out over Obama’s affiliation with the Reverend Wright – you know, his former pastor at a CHRISTIAN church.

So let’s all repeat this together – Barack Obama is NOT a Muslim.

But wait, Fox News reports he attended a Muslim school.

Yeah, when he lived in Indonesia. Where most schools are Muslim. I know a number of people who were sent to Catholic schools because they were better than the nearby public schools. . . . .but it didn’t turn any of them Catholic.

So can we please forget this whole guilty by middle name association and skin color thing? It’s beneath us as a nation.

Fine, says Fox News, but what about his terrorist hand gesture?

You mean the dapping? With his wife? Common African-American practice? The hand gesture Ironflower learned after high-fiving? The gesture that none of the Iraq vets I know ever saw done between any Middle-Easterners in their entire tours? That gesture?

Well, stutters Fox, his baby mama hates white people.

Er, Obama doesn’t have a baby mama. Unless he had kids before he married Michelle. Which I’m SURE would have come out long before now. Oh, you meant Michelle? She can’t be his baby mama, she’s his wife. And I’m pretty sure the campaign staff would be a lot darker if Michelle truly hated all white people. Perhaps she just hates ignorant white people like you?

I’m sorry if I sound bitter or if I’m preaching to the choir. But I just can’t stand that all this ignorance is actually being used to attack Obama. And that former Hillary supporters might vote for McCain because of it.

(Though the ones I saw on some news program – who have some dreadful group called Hillary fans for McCain or something – said that they were voting for McCain because of the sexism against Hillary. I’m not sure how voting for the anti-choice, anti-stem cell research, anti-gay marriage, anti-affordable health care  McCain strikes a blow for feminism, but hopefully there aren’t too many of those idiots out there)

I know there are people out there who legitimately support McCain and that’s fine. If his politics match yours, great. If you support him because you heard Obama’s really a Muslim whose baby mama hates white people, please go back to middle school where you belong. And remember, middle schoolers aren’t allowed to vote.