Musings of Navigating The Finite remainder of life from Porchville, with the hope of a glimpse of The Infinite

Sunday, January 22, 2017

Real Men

In honor of the millions of women and men world wide who marched in the Women's March on Washington and sister marches,  January 21, 2017.

10 comments:

  1. I marched and I appreciate the support! It was near overwhelming to see the throngs of women in pink hats and carrying signs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for going out and showing your colors Olga! I was heartened by the turn out in not only the Washington march but many of the sister marches as well.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

      Delete
  2. I think these marches are a bad example to the world. The elections are over, the result should be respected by all, otherwise everything turns into chaos.
    And by the way, why didn't these women in pink march during the reign of the famous womanizers Kennedy and Bill Clinton. In the case of the Kennedy brothers two women died because of the brothers' behavior: Marylin Monroe and Mary Jo Kopechnik.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think we are going to have to agree to disagree. I don't dispute that Trump won the election, I accept that fact although I don't respect it. Due to the oddities of the American Electoral College, Trump won by less than 78,000 votes total in three swing states. Secretary Clinton won the overall popular vote by almost 3 million votes. Trump's claim to a landslide is based on 78,000 votes. No doubt the rules are the rules.

      It is impossible to gauge the effect that Russian hacking had on the results of the election. Also it is impossible to gauge the effect of Comey's unusual press releases. But I don't think it takes a statistical genius to say that they had some effect. Daily Wiki-leaks aimed against Secretary Clinton? Normal FBI procedure is to not mention cases in which the decision is to not prosecute. Also the FBI is to refrain from releasing information that may affect an election within a certain period before election day. Comey violated both of those procedures. No effect on the election? Perhaps but I doubt it. As such, again I personally accept the results, but I can't say that I am pleased or respect those results.

      I might also add that our Constitution does not agree with you. The First Amendment states:

      Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

      The Women's March was peaceable and I believe they have grievances they would like to redress. Good or bad idea, it is protected by our Constitution.

      As for the previous men you name, I was not fan of their actions, although I don't believe that Jack Kennedy's affairs were known until well after his death. I also don't believe that there has ever been a reliable linkage of Kennedy to Monroe's death although it remains a popular conspiracy theory.

      Duta, thanks for stopping by and commenting.

      Delete
  3. I haven't really been following all the "hoopla", it's just too damned depressing. I did manage to see a video on Facebook about one Donna Hylton who was one of the speakers at the march. I had never heard of her (and I'm glad I had never heard of the atrocities committed by her because of her beliefs/values). I wonder what your thoughts are on her?

    A friend of mine who is male and keeps pushing the fact on Facebook that he is pro-wemin (women) posted a video of her speech and asked us "wemin" that even tho he is very pro-wemin are we asking him to believe in what this wemin is touting? It angered me beyond belief! People are so ONE-SIDED and they do not see any other side or anyone else's beliefs, all they see is controversy and drama! It's so ridiculous for him to assume that this one wemin spoke for all wemin! And to taunt us?? That doesn't sound very pro-wemin to me! I just ignored him because I don't like to get caught up on all the fighting and backstabbing on Facebook, but it's sad that a man I considered to be educated and charming is really just a drama queen!

    But regardless of that moron, what say you about Donna Hylton? Had you heard of her?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have never heard of her either. It appears as though she was involved in a rather heinous crime. But it also appears as though she was tried, convicted, and served 27 years in prison. She seems to have changed her ways and is now a feminist activist seeking prison reform. Are we to condemn people who have paid their debt to society and are working for good? The nature of the reporting on the sites I saw was basically "Oh look the Women's March embraced this terrible person who committed kidnapping and torture." They were trying to discredit the march by pointing to this person's criminal past. To what degree the woman was involved in the crime and as to whether her punishment was just is unknown to me. But at face value it appears that this woman is trying to do good and improve the lives of women in prison.

    Is the Women's March perfect? No nothing is perfect. Am I going to change my opinion of the March because this woman was allowed to speak? No I am not. Women's voices are varied and there is a broad spectrum of concerns that was being addressed by the march. One does not have to agree with all opinions.

    Regarding Facebook, not a member and never will be. So the many problems with negative posts and unreasonable opinions and comments are not a concern of mine.

    Regarding anyone that refers to women as wemin, I refer them to take to heart the placard at the top of my post.

    I could not find Hylton's speech, but did see an interview she conducted shortly after the speech. I found nothing to fault in what she was saying.

    So is this person on FB objecting to what Hylton said, or using her as a way to demonize the march?

    Alicia, alway an honor. Thanks for commenting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! Always an honor to read something you post and I always enjoy reading the comments left by various people.

      I agree with much of what you said. So many people are also trying to discredit the march because of Madonna as well. I guess it's just our society now that only sees the bad in anything and just brushes aside the good, that's what keeps us in check, in fear with a feeling of being powerless to do anything about the situations.

      I do agree that once someone has served their sentence they should be allowed to make amends and make something of their lives. I don't know if that is what this lady is doing...but surely there were/are better spokes-people for this women's movement than the ones that spoke? I don't know. Like I said I didn't/don't follow all this stuff, I try to avoid the headlines but this one just really caught my eye. I too watched that same interview you mentioned.

      Whether or not this march was a good idea, the one blessing we have in the good ol' US of A is the right to do/have/attend marches like this.

      Delete
    2. Alicia, what is important to me is that (don't hold me to the number) 4.7 million people (men attended also) are voicing their objections to what they see is a wide variety of wrong directions. Should Planned Parenthood be defunded? Are women only worth 77 cents on a dollar? Should public education be trashed for a voucher system? Should the Affordable Care Act be demolished? Are we going to address rape in the military, college campuses, and in society in general or are we going to sweep it under the table as in the past? Should the US block people on the basis of religion? Should women be subjected to humiliating situations in prison? Should we round up immigrants and send them back? Should we build a wall? All these questions are being asked by the people in the march. The march is far bigger than speeches given by any one activist or some celebrity careless with her words.

      To me, what a handful of speakers say does not discredit the millions of people on the march who were expressing genuine concern over the direction that the new administration is taking on a number of issues. We should not lose sight of the forest for the trees.

      Delete
    3. I agree! We should definitely address all the issues you list above, but it should be with tolerance and wisdom, every topic you name has two sides to the coin and unfortunately people don't want to take the time to flip that coin and read what's on the other side. We shall see what happens in the days/months/years to come. So far all I know is that we the taxpayers in California will be paying for a wall pretty soon!

      Delete
    4. Tolerance and wisdom? What the hell is that? Oh yeah that thing that existed in political and social discourse before everyone got their own customized cable news channel and then created echo chambers on the internet, and the politicians learned to preach to that.

      Yes you are right, all these questions need to be looked at with tolerance and wisdom, civilized discourse, a willingness for compromise, and perhaps a little less tweeting.

      Thanks for your insightful comments.

      Delete