Feminist heaven: Nina Simone. US monuments boogie. Dance Across America. Amanda Gorman! A bunch of Bidens. Kamala and Doug. Bernie's mittens. Conservative turns tail.
LETTY COTTIN POGREBIN / NEWSLETTER #99 / JAN 24, 2021
* The Great Nina Simone sings what many of us felt on Inauguration Day. Listen here.
[MLK breaks out of his monument to dance for joy]
* If you haven't yet seen this brilliant video you'll want to jive with our euphoric national monuments.
* This gorgeous compendium shows happy people from diverse U.S. communities (above) "Dance Across America" on Inauguration Day.
FEMINIST HEAVEN
It will take a while to cleanse the body politic of the filth built up over the last four years but the Biden-Harris Inauguration was as close to feminist heaven as any mainstream political event I've witnessed.
* Here's why:
* This is what real love looks like. Joe and Jill, and Kamala and Doug, above, show authentic, ebullient, mutual adoration. (As opposed to the performative pretense of the Orange Menace and the Ice Queen.)
* Amanda Gorman's poem was spectacular & the 22-year-old read it with blazing energy and cool composure. (See full text at the end of this Newsletter.) Her not-yet published books shot to the top of bestseller lists. Google exploded with 16 million searches for "poet's yellow coat." Suddenly, kids wanedt to grow up to be poets and parents were okay with it. Amanda didn't just coast on her laurels, she tipped her bright red headpiece to her predecessors, "the women whose footsteps I dance in. While reciting my poem, I wore a ring with a caged bird—a gift from Oprah for the occasion to symbolize Maya Angelou, a previous inaugural poet. Here's to the women who have climbed my hills before."
* Amanda also has written a powerful poem about reproductive rights in which she counsels us to "Fight fire with feminism."
* Amanda's amazing interview on James Corden Show. She's lovable! Self-effacing. Smart. Real. And funny! She talks about her mom, overcoming her speech impediment, her journey to that podium, how Dr. Biden saw her at the Library of Congress and recommended her as the Inaugural poet, what went through her head as she read her poem. "I'm a descendant of a slave who was also named Amanda." Also was thinking, "I'm cold...don't trip...don't mess up." Corden: "You make poetry cool for so many young people."
* When Andrea Hall, the first Black woman to serve as fire captain for the South Fulton Fire Dept, simultaneously spoke and signed the Pledge of Allegiance, her facility with ASL plus her race, gender and landmark occupational achievement embodied intersectionality in a single image.
* Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez hit it out of the park (and looked sensational). Lady G, in top vocal form, belted the national anthem with electric ferocity. Though its lyrics make no sense for our era, her passion moved me. J. Lo made "This Land is My Land" the intro to "America the Beautiful" delivering the message that this land must belong to everyone before America can be beautiful. Garth Brooks, the country music crossover star sang "Amazing Grace" and asked everyone to join in on the last verse. Brooks, a Republican Cis guy and long-time supporter of LGBTQ rights said his appearance there was a "statement of unity."[
* It was bliss to see Kamala Harris, the first woman and first African-American/South Asian, ascend to the nation's second highest position and be sworn in by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first LatinX woman on the Supreme Court.
* Also great to watch the Vice President's husband, Doug Emhoff, wear the mantle of the first-ever Second Gentleman with ease, dignity and obvious pride in his wife. As we know, their marriage is both inter-racial and inter-religious -- she, raised Hindu and Christian; he, a Jew (photo with menorah above). Kamala is stepmom to Doug's kids who call her Mamala, a variation of the Yiddish "Mameleh" for "little Mama." (Icing on the cake: Doug's first wife, Kerstin, who's good pals with Kamala, was there to support her and the rest of the family at the swearing in.)
* Biden's inaugural address was reassuring, uplifting, and blessedly normal. I always revel in seeing his pleasure at being surrounded by his beloved (Dr.) Jill, and their blended family (above at his 2013 swearing in as Obama's VP). I kinda like the fact that Biden's three children all married Jews and he's grandfather to several Jewish grandchildren. (below, 5 of 7 of them reciting the Pledge). Joe once kvelled, “I’m the only Irish-Catholic you know who had his dream met because his daughter married a Jewish surgeon.”
SHATTERING THE GLASS
* The four founding mothers of the Ms. Foundation & the Free to Be You and Me Foundation (below) reflect on Kamala Harris' place in history.
l-r : Gloria Steinem, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Marlo Thomas, Pat Carbine
* Fashion Statements. Kamala wore purple to honor Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman to run for president. Purple also represents a combination of red and blue states as well as the signature color of the women's suffrage movement, the so-called "First Wave" of American feminism. J. Lo wore white, the other color signifying support for women's right to vote. Amanda wore yellow to express her gratitude to Dr. Jill Biden, who "discovered" her. Lady Gaga in a fabulous dress, blue top, red skirt, said she wore dove with olive branch (above) to proclaim her wish: "May we all make peace with one another."
MEME MADNESS
* Bernie Sanders tells Seth Myers how it feels to become a wildly viral meme. Above, the original photo of Bernie in mittens seated social distanced at the inauguration looking like men do when they're waiting for their wives to try on clothes. Below, a few of the hundreds of variations on the image that made me LOL. Writer Amanda Silbering tweeted an interesting take that the memes "offered American Jews a chance to heal from the rampant anti-semitism in the news cycle.” P.S. the maker of Bernie's hand-knitted mittens, Jen Ellis, is a schoolteacher from Essex Junction, VT. She says the mittens sold out fast and because she's a working mom, she has no time to knit more.
* Speaking of poetry, Esther Cohen, who writes a poem a day, (subscribe here) all delightful and warmly lovingly human, wrote this one about the Vermont Senator and his mittens:
Bernie Comes to Dinner (COVID)
by Esther Cohen (Jan 23, 2021 09:32 am)
Bernie in his practical coat, brown or grey
Bernie wearing mittens big mittens made
from recycled wool the Washington Post had a whole
story on Bernie’s mittens he became
an instant meme and suddenly we could put a picture of Bernie
anywhere a coffee mug on top of the Empire State Building
even inside this apartment where he is wearing a mask
and those mittens and we could all ask him
some basic questions such as what would he like
for dinner because who wouldn’t want Bernie
to come to dinner.
DEEP BOW TO GEORGIA'S NEW SENATORS
For his swearing-in, Jon Ossoff used a Hebrew Bible that belonged to a rabbi whose Atlanta synagogue was bombed by white supremacists. Before the ceremony (above with V.P Kamala Harris administering the oath), Ossoff said, "That book isn’t just about the synagogue and my Jewish background,. It’s also about the necessity of reanimating the spirit of the civil rights movement and building alliances to pass landmark civil rights legislation.” Raphael Warnock swore his oath on the Bible given to him by the congregation of Ebenezer Baptist Church when he became its Senior Pastor. Ebenezer was MLK, Jr.'s church until he was assassinated. John Lewis' funeral was held there last summer.
* Conservative pundit, Kevin D. Williamson scolds Trumpers in the National Review “But the judges!” you protest. Fair point: Trump’s absurd attempts to overturn the election through specious legal challenges were laughed out of court by the very men and women he appointed to the bench. Even his judges think he’s a joke. Everybody has figured that out. Except you. And so, goodbye, Donald J. Trump, the man who wanted to be Conrad Hilton but turned out to be Paris Hilton. Au revoir, Ivanka and Jared ...So long, Melania — it’s still not entirely clear what you got out of this, but I hope it was worth it. A fond farewell to Ted Cruz’s reputation and Mike Pence’s self-respect, Lindsey Graham’s manhood and Fox News’s business model. In with “Dr.” Jill Biden, out with “Dr.” Sebastian Gorka. Good night, ladies, good night, sweet ladies, good night."
* Finally, this song says it all !!!! ( "Somebody tell Kanye and Ben Carson...")
PRINT IT OUT, READ IT TO YOUR KIDS, POST IT ON YOUR FRIDGE
“The Hill We Climb” by Amanda Gorman
When day comes, we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade?
The loss we carry. A sea we must wade.
We braved the belly of the beast.
We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace, and the norms and notions of what “just” is isn’t always justice.
And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it.
Somehow we do it.
Somehow we weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished.
We, the successors of a country and a time where a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president, only to find herself reciting for one.
And, yes, we are far from polished, far from pristine, but that doesn’t mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect.
We are striving to forge our union with purpose.
To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man.
And so we lift our gaze, not to what stands between us, but what stands before us.
We close the divide because we know to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside.
We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another.
We seek harm to none and harmony for all.
Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true.
That even as we grieved, we grew.
That even as we hurt, we hoped.
That even as we tired, we tried.
That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious.
Not because we will never again know defeat, but because we will never again sow division.
Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid.
If we’re to live up to our own time, then victory won’t lie in the blade, but in all the bridges we’ve made.
That is the promise to glade, the hill we climb, if only we dare.
It’s because being American is more than a pride we inherit.
It’s the past we step into and how we repair it.
We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation, rather than share it.
Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy.
And this effort very nearly succeeded.
But while democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated.
In this truth, in this faith we trust, for while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us.
This is the era of just redemption.
We feared at its inception.
We did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour.
But within it we found the power to author a new chapter, to offer hope and laughter to ourselves.
So, while once we asked, how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe, now we assert, how could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?
We will not march back to what was, but move to what shall be: a country that is bruised but whole, benevolent but bold, fierce and free.
We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation, become the future.
Our blunders become their burdens.
But one thing is certain.
If we merge mercy with might, and might with right, then love becomes our legacy and change our children’s birthright.
So let us leave behind a country better than the one we were left.
Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest, we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one.
We will rise from the golden hills of the West.
We will rise from the windswept Northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution.
We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the Midwestern states.
We will rise from the sun-baked South.
We will rebuild, reconcile, and recover.
And every known nook of our nation and every corner called our country, our people diverse and beautiful, will emerge battered and beautiful.
When day comes, we step out of the shade of flame and unafraid.The new dawn balloons as we free it.
For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it.
If only we’re brave enough to be it.
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