After Trump was elected and the HandMaid Tale was on TV, I decided, well we are living in a dystopian time why not watch it. I made it about 2 and a half episodes in and shut it off. I had nightmares for the next several nights. The only way I could Sleep without nightmares was to listen to Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me in my earphones all night long.
It is a horrible story that needed to be written. I am too faint of heart to read it or watch it. It is certainly a story of many women across the globe and a story of all women in all of the religions of the world across the board, in their fundamentalist or orthodox iterations.
I am shocked to learn that Napoleon the ‘great’ Emperor had this as a pillar of his ‘New’ France.
I am shocked to hear the stories that are coming out everywhere of miscarriages not being able to be attended to by hospitals and doctors.
I am 68 years old today. I came of age in the 1970’s. The erosion of what was accomplished in this Nation is shocking. Just about every step forward since the 1960’s has been taken back or severely curtailed.
Hi Claudia, I’m 68 too and I know what we fought for in the 70s and 80s.
To me the times of the Vietnam war, Civil rights movement, assassinations and the women’s movement were very tumultuous times, but we lived through them. We mostly had some agreement on our sources for news, although Rolling Stone and the WSJ had different takes.
Even in these times, people still recognized each other as human beings and we pretty much agreed on what was truth and what was lies….
When evil doing like Watergate was revealed, the perpetrators still had enough dignity to resign.
I think we are in a more dangerous situation now, because we can’t agree on news sources for truth, news has become entertainment instead of having a sacred duty to report the truth, it is twisted into a political narrative.
Many of our leaders will not admit wrong doing, and at least one of them has used their wealth to shield them or to delay consequences for their actions.
Claudia, it is up to us to vote and to find ways of reaching people like my sister who are just lost in conspiracy theories, COVID misinformation,MAGA and all the other ghastly lies and half truths.
Monica, we certainly are in a much more dangerous time. We as a nation of people are becoming numb to the lies. And that crazy 30 % is getting sucked deeper and deeper in.
I am trying to remain positive that we can overcome the madness. I read Jeff Teidrich every day and the Hopium chronicles by Simon Rosenberg, these help. The real news is tedious in its slowness and ‘false both sides now’stuff.
And Trump is the King of the news hour day in and day out including the Oscars. I have hope and my vote. I hope we make it. If not, my only grandchild is growing up in Australia and I am relieved that she is.
I think we boomers, as much as we are the subject of scorn, are valuable resources.
We helped bring about positive societal change, so we can draw on that experience to apply to current circumstances.
We must continue to engage with people who have fallen into the Trap.And there are many smart and good people that have fallen into it.
I believe we must engage , based on the understanding that we all pretty much want the same things, just how we go about getting Them is in question.
For example, a hot topic is the border. We all agree there must be security and we all agree that the system must be reformed.
We have relied on our representatives to come up with some solutions, but all they are doing is fighting each other’s flags, ( Republicans VS Democrats).
This is not working for us!
We can get to acceptable and even amazing solutions. We can have immigration. We can have security.
We can be kind to refugees and their families without hurting ourselves. There are great solutions out there, but we demand of our representatives that they get something done, instead of name calling and lying to get their way.
What really baffles me is in a Country where we supposedly have Freedom of Religion, or the right to No Religion, why are the GOP forcing their Religious Beliefs onto the Nation? We really really need to fight this.
Cindy, since you say you recommended this book, I got it out from the library this week. It's just a little, soft-cover paperback, shouldn't be too challenging!!! : )
Thanks, Patty. I learned from Atwood in this short interview that Ireland and Argentina, for example, have strengthened women's rights. She has faith that, as before in history, people will come together to reverse the current repressive trend. Optimism from the writer of The Handmaid's Tale!
Alice, I think that this autonomy has to come first from awareness (education), and then from taking possession, however we must come together to achieve those things.
"To remain complicit" in silence I think is the exact thing we're looking at now, how to NOT remain complicit, with the far-right staking ground in our community.
The perversion of thought that resorts to accusing others of positions they haven’t taken is destructive of discourse, intelligent debate and civil order. Name calling was once the style of school children - now the “far right”, “those MAGA people” and such are accused of all sorts of preposterous positions having nothing to do with their beliefs or actions.
Cartoon is also exactly why we looked the other way during the 2 longest wars (20 years) in our history - in the Middle East - cheap gas via control of oil resources.
Kathleen, I haven't read The Year of the Flood, but I just watched the short interview with Atwood that Patty recommended in her comment. Atwood mentions Project Drawdown, which gives hope that positive things are being down about the environment. https://drawdown.org/
Amen! Ray-gun started this ball rolling. In addition to rolling back progress in social programs. He had proposed a dress code for federal women. I was appalled as I was a scientific photographer for the USGS at the time. Another prescient book was" Wanderground by Sally Miller Gearhart. Worth dusting off.
I read this book in my early teens. It has stayed with me all my life. Although we still have abortion in the UK, there is currently a nasty undercurrent of doctors reporting women who’ve miscarried after 24 weeks for procuring illegal abortions.
After Trump was elected and the HandMaid Tale was on TV, I decided, well we are living in a dystopian time why not watch it. I made it about 2 and a half episodes in and shut it off. I had nightmares for the next several nights. The only way I could Sleep without nightmares was to listen to Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me in my earphones all night long.
It is a horrible story that needed to be written. I am too faint of heart to read it or watch it. It is certainly a story of many women across the globe and a story of all women in all of the religions of the world across the board, in their fundamentalist or orthodox iterations.
I am shocked to learn that Napoleon the ‘great’ Emperor had this as a pillar of his ‘New’ France.
I am shocked to hear the stories that are coming out everywhere of miscarriages not being able to be attended to by hospitals and doctors.
I am 68 years old today. I came of age in the 1970’s. The erosion of what was accomplished in this Nation is shocking. Just about every step forward since the 1960’s has been taken back or severely curtailed.
Hi Claudia, I’m 68 too and I know what we fought for in the 70s and 80s.
To me the times of the Vietnam war, Civil rights movement, assassinations and the women’s movement were very tumultuous times, but we lived through them. We mostly had some agreement on our sources for news, although Rolling Stone and the WSJ had different takes.
Even in these times, people still recognized each other as human beings and we pretty much agreed on what was truth and what was lies….
When evil doing like Watergate was revealed, the perpetrators still had enough dignity to resign.
I think we are in a more dangerous situation now, because we can’t agree on news sources for truth, news has become entertainment instead of having a sacred duty to report the truth, it is twisted into a political narrative.
Many of our leaders will not admit wrong doing, and at least one of them has used their wealth to shield them or to delay consequences for their actions.
Claudia, it is up to us to vote and to find ways of reaching people like my sister who are just lost in conspiracy theories, COVID misinformation,MAGA and all the other ghastly lies and half truths.
.
Monica, we certainly are in a much more dangerous time. We as a nation of people are becoming numb to the lies. And that crazy 30 % is getting sucked deeper and deeper in.
I am trying to remain positive that we can overcome the madness. I read Jeff Teidrich every day and the Hopium chronicles by Simon Rosenberg, these help. The real news is tedious in its slowness and ‘false both sides now’stuff.
And Trump is the King of the news hour day in and day out including the Oscars. I have hope and my vote. I hope we make it. If not, my only grandchild is growing up in Australia and I am relieved that she is.
You are lucky.
I think we boomers, as much as we are the subject of scorn, are valuable resources.
We helped bring about positive societal change, so we can draw on that experience to apply to current circumstances.
We must continue to engage with people who have fallen into the Trap.And there are many smart and good people that have fallen into it.
I believe we must engage , based on the understanding that we all pretty much want the same things, just how we go about getting Them is in question.
For example, a hot topic is the border. We all agree there must be security and we all agree that the system must be reformed.
We have relied on our representatives to come up with some solutions, but all they are doing is fighting each other’s flags, ( Republicans VS Democrats).
This is not working for us!
We can get to acceptable and even amazing solutions. We can have immigration. We can have security.
We can be kind to refugees and their families without hurting ourselves. There are great solutions out there, but we demand of our representatives that they get something done, instead of name calling and lying to get their way.
Build something, not tear something down.
One would think the patriarch has lost its way….
What really baffles me is in a Country where we supposedly have Freedom of Religion, or the right to No Religion, why are the GOP forcing their Religious Beliefs onto the Nation? We really really need to fight this.
Especially when the so called “Christian” right are enabling the worst genocide in a century of mostly children and their mothers.
The religious right thinks they are the right way.
Thanks Deda for sharing.
I have recommended this book for a very long time since it came out.
Wrote a recommended slip at the Bookstore.
Great WARNING!
Looks like I need to read The Yeats ofnt he Flood now too.
She is brilliant writer. Thinking ahead.
We're in a VERY bad place right now. Time for woman to take a major stand!!!!!
Cindy, since you say you recommended this book, I got it out from the library this week. It's just a little, soft-cover paperback, shouldn't be too challenging!!! : )
It's not a happy book. It's a sign of the times!
I am Not an Island
I'm not an island
I'm a woman
I'm a lover, I am a giver
I have sisters
I'm a woman
I'm not an island
I am not a piece of property
That you can or can't afford
I am not your trader's favorite stock
But I'm not to be ignored
I am strong within my boundaries
I am not your fair absurd
I'm the fount of our salvation
And I will have the final word
I'm not an island
I'm a woman
I'm a lover, I am a giver
I have sisters
I'm not an island
I'm a woman
I'm a lover, I am a giver
I have sisters
I'm a woman
I'm not an island
I am the mighty hurricane
That will beat upon your shores
I am a resurrection
I am knocking on your doors
Do you think that I am kidding
Do even think at all
While you play your favorite pastimes
And throw your favorite balls
I'm not an island
I'm a woman
I'm a lover, I am a giver
I have sisters
I'm a woman
I'm not an island
I am thriving in the sunlight
I am living my ballet
I will harken to that music
As I hear my sisters play
With one step for the future
And one for all mankind
We shall weave this dance together
And advance in pace and kind
I'm not an island
I'm a woman
I'm a lover, I am a giver
I have sisters
I'm a woman
I'm not an island
Malcolm J McKinney 2023
I don’t know if you saw this interview with Margaret Atwood.
https://www.google.com/search?q=recent+interview+with+Margaret+Atwood&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari#kpvalbx=_cJ7IYvm8A_DWkPIPzpK_oAU20
Thanks, Patty. I learned from Atwood in this short interview that Ireland and Argentina, for example, have strengthened women's rights. She has faith that, as before in history, people will come together to reverse the current repressive trend. Optimism from the writer of The Handmaid's Tale!
This is true about Ireland. We traveled there frequently since the 1980’s and the transformation is miraculous.
Thank you for this link Patty. Adore this woman.
Children, slaves, prisoners, and women do not have autonomy over their own bodies.
Alice, I think that this autonomy has to come first from awareness (education), and then from taking possession, however we must come together to achieve those things.
As Cindy said, "we must take a major stand!"
To not rebel is to remain complicit......
The struggle continues.
VOTE BLUE
"To remain complicit" in silence I think is the exact thing we're looking at now, how to NOT remain complicit, with the far-right staking ground in our community.
The perversion of thought that resorts to accusing others of positions they haven’t taken is destructive of discourse, intelligent debate and civil order. Name calling was once the style of school children - now the “far right”, “those MAGA people” and such are accused of all sorts of preposterous positions having nothing to do with their beliefs or actions.
Hi, John,
EXACTLY! The name calling and vilification of our fellow Americans must stop.
We can slow down the pace of the game, by insisting on civility in politics and on line.
No need to reduce ourselves to the lowest common denominator.
Let’s begin by understanding we fundamentally, as Americans do want the same things.
We disagree on how to bring them about.
We are being manipulated by external forces.
To give in is to turn on one another.
We must unite and begin dialogue about what we do want instead of dreading what we don’t want.
And dipshit Jon Stewart thought there was no difference between Biden and T****
Cartoon is also exactly why we looked the other way during the 2 longest wars (20 years) in our history - in the Middle East - cheap gas via control of oil resources.
Because Margaret Atwood is smarter than us…… C’est la vie 🤷♂️
Read "Thd Year of the Flood." It is every bit as frightening and possibly even more probable.
Kathleen, I haven't read The Year of the Flood, but I just watched the short interview with Atwood that Patty recommended in her comment. Atwood mentions Project Drawdown, which gives hope that positive things are being down about the environment. https://drawdown.org/
Amen! Ray-gun started this ball rolling. In addition to rolling back progress in social programs. He had proposed a dress code for federal women. I was appalled as I was a scientific photographer for the USGS at the time. Another prescient book was" Wanderground by Sally Miller Gearhart. Worth dusting off.
The problem with Americans is they hate people who state the obvious and later follow up with #IToldYouSo and go about their business.
At least we get to enjoy Twilight in the meantime
I read this book in my early teens. It has stayed with me all my life. Although we still have abortion in the UK, there is currently a nasty undercurrent of doctors reporting women who’ve miscarried after 24 weeks for procuring illegal abortions.