Courageous women. Creepy Men. POTUS vs. Nobel. Rogues gallery. Kate's memorial. Alabama hypocrite. Myopic Israel tours
LETTY COTTIN POGREBIN NEWSLETTER #58 NOV 14, 2017
The news is giving me whiplash: Hypocrisy squared. Highs and lows. Gains and losses. What next?
A major high for me and scores of old feminist friends and comrades was last Thursday's memorial for Kate Millett in which the pioneering author/activist was honored with spoken memories and movement music. Penelope Green's NY Times story will put you in the room where it happened. (Yes, that's Yoko in dark glasses in the front row. )
VIDEOS
Liz Smith [1923-2017]
* Gossip columns are not my cup of hemlock but I always liked Liz Smith because she didn't make things up, tried not to be gratuitously hurtful, and was endearingly self-mocking. You'll get a sense of the woman behind the by-line in this video interview with Liz conducted nine years ago by veteran Times journalist, Joyce Purnick. Best quote: "All writers have to reinvent their ethics every day," Full obit here.
* An Inconvenient Sequel, Al Gore's follow up film is both deeply disturbing and a clarion call for urgent environmental activism. Trailer here.
* Existential reality check: The Conversation Project
* Assuming you've wrapped your brain around the fact that you're not going to live forever, you'll want to initiate that awkward but necessary talk with a family member or close friend about your end-of-life medical and other preferences. (Or else strangers will make those decisions for you.) "Practice Makes Perfect," a video from The Conversation Project, will guide this effort and let you download work sheets.
DEPT. OF SEXUAL PREDATORS
* It's hard to keep up with them. Breaking news: Roy Moore, GOP candidate for Senate from Alabama, was banned from the local YMCA and from a local shopping mall for harassing teenaged girls. Source for this info: the town cop, among others.
* Kudos to the courageous women who've come forward to tell the truth about the men who humiliated, exploited, and abused them. Here's the NY Times' list of 20 members of the sordid fraternity of those accused of sexual terrorism since Harvey W. was outed on 10/5.
Attorney Gloria Allred, right, comforts Beverly Nelson at a press conference y on Monday. (Photo: Lucas Jackson/Reuters)
* Fifth woman charges Roy Moore with -- let's call it what it is -- sexual terrorism. Moore is accused of sexually assaulting teenage girls when he was in his 30s. Beverly Nelson (above) was a 16-year-old waitress when he locked the door of his car and tried to push her head into his crotch. Afterward, he said"‘You are a child. I am the district attorney,’” Nelson recalled. “If you tell anyone about this, no one will believe you.” Sound familiar?
Mort Gerberg's cartoon (above) captures the hypocrisy of holier-than-thou Christian fundamentalists like Roy Moore. Ironically, in 2003, Moore, then the state's Chief Justice, was ousted from office for defying a federal judge's order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state Supreme Court building.
Doug Jones, Democratic candidate running for Senate against Roy Moore in Alabama.
* This link will help you get to know Doug Jones, the Democrat running against Moore. Jones can beat the hypocrite if each of us sends Jones a little money to rev up his campaign. Please do so here.
My daughter, Robin Pogrebin, who covers culture for The NY Times exposed the smarmy behavior of Ben Gennocchio, a major figure in the art world. Most recently, he was executive director of The Armory Show, a major international art fair. Hours after Robin's story was published, Gennocchio was out.
Finally a man takes responsibility for his acts. Because other men deny or rationalize their sex harassment doesn't mean Louis C.K. should be canonized for finally owning up to the sick stuff he's been perpetrating on women for years. Still, C.K.'s public statement is admirable for his outright admission of guilt and his acknowledgement of the dynamics of power and the impact of his disgusting behavior on real women's lives. What took him so long to confess? Maybe the fact that so many people inside the comedy world knew about his offenses but did nothing. Had five brave women not outed his bizarre masturbatory acts, and had responsible journalists not doggedly corroborated the women's allegations, there would be no C.K. mea culpa and his career would not have crashed in a blitz of cancelations and public shame. The people who deserve canonization are the courageous survivors who spoke out and the media who listened.
Anthony Rapp in 1987, about the time Kevin Spacey hit on him.
Kevin Spacey's "apology" in response to sex abuse charges made by actor Anthony Rapp (above as a young teen) was inadequate, dishonest, and disingenuous. Allegations against Spacey keep coming -- 15 thus far -- not just for acts committed in the U.S. but in Britain. And not just for his sexual terrorism of 30 years ago but just last year.
Misplaced empathy. Ridley Scott is reshooting the already completed movie, "All the Money in the World," with Christopher Plummer replacing Spacey . Release date Dec 22. Plummer says he's "very sad about what happened to" Spacey. Are you kidding, man? This didn't HAPPEN to Spacey. Spacey DID this to frightened, powerless boys and young men. How about feeling sad for them?
* Lately it's hard to find humor in male behavior but somehow "The Male Sensitivity Reader" a dry parody by Devorah Blachor pulls it off in in McSweeney's.
POLITICS
* Sneaky ploy. Read how Republicans inserted anti-abortion language into the tax "reform" bill. Call your Senators and Congress member at 202-224-3121 to protest this under-handed attempt to define a fetus as a child -- a central strategy in their ongoing campaign to make abortion illegal.
Before the 2017 elections blur into history let's not forget these landmark victories for trans women:
Danica Roem, Virginia
" Danica Roem was elected to the 13th District seat in Virginia’s House of Delegates -- the first openly transgender person to be elected to a U.S. state legislature.
Andrea Jenkins, Minneapolis
* Andrea Jenkins won a seat on the Minneapolis City Council, becoming the first openly transgender African American woman ever elected to public office in the U.S.
*For temporary relief from the painful epidemic of sexual predation, I recommend reveling in "The Glorious Anger of Female Voters" in the current Harpers Bazaar.
* Trump said he won't meet with America's eight Nobel prize winners, two of whom already said they wouldn't meet with him. I'm waiting to hear from the other six. Why would any person of worth and accomplishment allow him or herself to be glad-handed by a crude, ignorant, war-mongering science denier?
DEPT. OF GUN VIOLENCE
* Not another one! Yes another one. Breaking news. 5 killed today in N. California shooting that ended at an elementary school.
* Here's a sobering map.
U.S. Population: 325,000,000
number of registered firearms in the U.S.: 270,000,000
**Enough already with Republicans' "thoughts and prayers." Marco Rubio ✔@marcorubio
I’m praying for all the victims, their families, and our first responders
Senator Hatch Office ✔@senorrinhatch
Woke up this morning to the horrifying news out of Las Vegas... God bless the victims and their families.
Praying for the victims and the families of the victims involved in the tragic Las Vegas shootin
* Here are the names of Republican senators who voted against the assault weapons ban in 2013. Bombard them with phone calls. (202) 224-3121. Tell them you're sick of their "thoughts and prayers." You want action.
* I don't usually sign petitions because I rarely see them lead to action but when it comes to guns, I'll do anything to keep the issue on the front burner. Please sign this. Maybe it will do some good.
ISRAEL-PALESTINE
* My current column in Moment magazine finds fault with most of the tours of Israel planned by American synagogues and Jewish groups. The average Jewish-sponsored itinerary leaves out key places and disparate voices that don't fit the sanitized, idealized Israeli narrative. If you're planning a trip to the region, you might want to ask your tour organizer to present a more honest view of the realities on the ground.
* First-ever bill on human rights for Palestinian children Introduced in Congress. If you're curious about its wording, here's the bill itself. * Combatants for Peace speaking tour. NY/Boston Check out the dates and locations where two representatives from Combatants for Peace (one Israeli, one Palestinian) will be appearing in the coming weeks to explain the purpose and activities of their organization. Or watch this moving video.
"The children of Israel and Palestine can no longer imagine what peace looks like. Please, help us create a different future for them."
-Udi Gur, Israeli Coordinator of CFP
BOOKS
* I literally choked up after hearing Nadia Murad, a Yazidi woman, speak at the UN about the ongoing genocide in Iraq and her years of forced sex slavery under the rule of ISIS militants. Her new memoir, The Last Girl, describes the rapes, beatings, and other horrific experiences that she and other kidnapped Iraqi women endured. Our natural tendency is to turn away from such grisly human suffering but Murad's story contains glimmers of hope, thanks to her human rights activism, her honesty about her ordeal and its impact on women, and the fact that the UN has named her its first Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking.
* Becoming Ms. Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women. When Burton's 5-year-old son was run over by a van and killed, she became addicted to drugs. Eventually she was arrested and imprisoned. Though never offered therapy or treatment she found her way out of the cycle of grief and self-destruction and, once clean, dedicated her life to supporting formerly incarcerated women and their children. Michelle Alexander, bestselling author of The New Jim Crow, says, "This is a story about personal transformation and collective power. It is about one woman's journey to freedom but it will help free us all."
* Hav not yet read This Is The Place: Women Writing About Home. but from the description it sounds wonderful and the advance reviews are terrific: "A diverse collection of essays that delve into the fraught concept of home as both a physical and emotional space. ... A compilation that delights on many levels and will appeal to anyone who has struggled or embraced the idea of home sweet home.” --Kirkus Reviews
EVENTS NYC
*Meet the editors and several of the contributors to This Is The Place: Women Writing about Home, (see above) at McNally Jackson bookstore. TONIGHT 7 PM. 52 Prince St.
* Elizabeth Warren fundraiser. It's a steep price point but if you can afford to support the Senator at $500 per ticket or more, this is your chance to meet her. Sun, 11/19, 5:30 - 7:00 p.m. Upper West Side. R.S.V.P. here or molly@elizabethwarren.com
* The groundbreaking NYC salary history ban is now in effect and Public Advocate “Tish” James (above), the bill's sponsor, will join PowHerNY supporters and leaders for a PowHer Breakfast Briefing Thurs, Nov 16th, 8:30 to 10:00 a.m. at Roosevelt House, 47 E 65th Street.. RSVP here. Or bev@powherny.org or 914.329.4046.
* Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, which helps protect and advance the rights of workers, immigrants, and minority communities, will honor Rabbi Ellen Lippmann, Linda Sarsour, and the activist group, We Dream in Black. at its annual Marshall Meyer Risk Taker Awards night. Wed, Dec 6, 6-9 PM, @Community Church, 45 East 35 St. Tickets here. Info meyerawards@jfrej.org/
Until next time, I hope you'll do at least one action per day to resist the Trump/GOP agenda. Click here for suggestions.