Category Archives: public life
Women March
As the plans for the Women’s March on Washington began to coalesce shortly after the election, I kept the whole thing at arm’s length: It’s a huge diversion of energy from the work we have to do. Let’s wait till … Continue reading
Office Hours
Getting around the Barnstable Dukes Nantucket house district is a challenge. If you don’t live here, or even if you do, check out the map. Barnstable Dukes Nantucket comprises Nantucket County (surprise!); the County of Dukes County (no kidding, that’s its … Continue reading
Messiah
I sang in a performance of Handel’s Messiah on Saturday night. “An Island Family Tradition Returns” said the poster, and so it was. I’m not a trained singer but I can carry a tune, I like to sing, and if I … Continue reading
Listening Tour #1
Dylan Fernandes, state representative elect from the Barnstable Dukes Nantucket district, ran a campaign that emphasized “transparency, accessibility, and community engagement,” so it’s not surprising that a month before he takes office he was already conducting his first “listening tour” of … Continue reading
November License Plate Report
I thought about titling this “Nothing to See Here, Folks” but every license-plate-related post in this blog so far has been titled “[MONTH] License Plate Report” and I am nothing if not conservative. Some of my friends do not believe … Continue reading
A Liberal Paradox
The other day I overheard a guy I know who most certainly voted for Trump complain that a guy he knows has said he won’t do business with Trump supporters. Well, I wasn’t about to wade into that one. I … Continue reading
Do We Love Our Freedom?
I’ve written before about my ambivalence about Veterans Day. November 11 was the birthday of my uncle Neville, a gentle soul who came home shell-shocked from World War II, so the family story goes, and never really got his feet … Continue reading
Dear Vineyarders Who Haven’t Voted Yet
I’ve been trying hard not to give in to apocalyptic rhetoric this election season, but these much-quoted words from Lord of the Rings keep running through my head: “But this, I deem, is our duty. And better so than to perish … Continue reading
No One Ever Gave Women the Right to Vote
Originally posted on hecatedemeter:
Women weren’t “given” the right to vote. Our great-grandmothers and grandmothers clawed it for us from the Patriarchy, one beating after another, one force feeding after another, one terrified night in a jail cell after another.…
Campaigning
I spent a couple of hours yesterday knocking on doors in Oak Bluffs on behalf of Dylan Fernandes, Democratic candidate for state representative from our district, and Julian Cyr, Democratic candidate for state senator. Knocking on strangers’ doors is way … Continue reading
From the Seasonally Occupied Territories . . . 