posted here on September 15, 2010.
i think what she misses is that even on these lands we're all occupiers. that's a big gap in her analysis which reduces the power of what she tries to say. she also has no analysis of her own white skinned, middle-class privilege, mother of slain solier in a culture that venerates war which has no doubt shielded her from real harm time and time again. i do like that she defines as a 9/11 truther and talks with ferocity about amerikkka as an empire and that she links the democrats and republicans together as one paid from the same evil ass pot.
3 transmissions:
yes, and also, as much as she spouts "girl power," she doesn't conduct her life as a feminist would. i'm talking about interactions between me and her inner circle. and her.
i have heard Cindy Sheehan talking about the genocidal roots (and stems and leaves) of this country, so I do believe she has that analysis, meaning about our presence on these hallowed Indian lands.
She has purposefully used her white-skin privilege, middle class privilege, mother of fallen soldier privilege, and grandmother privilege to criticize the evil empire. She knew the traction that would give her, and has given her, and she has used it full-throttle. She know she may be bumped off and she has been on the receiving end of very creepy and frightening symbolic actions. She said, over the summer, that if she dies young, or disappears, to ask the White House what happened to her. Sheehan is indeed an inspiring speaker and writer, but lacks knowledge of how to organize. She has chosen male tyrant misogynists to be in her inner circle, and she doesn't stop their harassing antics even when they are pointed out to her.
I think that one of the lessons I learned really late on was that people who organize on certain platforms for particular reasons are not perfect. Far from it. They are so very human. Some do not walk their talk in particular situations. Some never walk their talk. Ever. I think that for me what I've ended up looking for were people who knew how to recognize when they were not able to consistently live their political and who could be honest about this. I think that being able to recognize their own human contradictions would be a wonderful thing. Much better than constantly attempting to hide them by smoothing things over or lying or the other things people who are in the public eye to a greater or lesser extent (this includes grassroots community people, feminists of colour, gays and lesbians who work at a community not national or international level). I'm talking about being able to reconcile being human with a politic that is layered, messy and complex. It's difficult, though, because most people who are taught in the public schools have been raised to relate to things in very flat ways. They want simple concepts, simple sound bytes, clearly discernable public images. They're manipulable because of this. This is why obamarama exists and why people who voted for him are now, after the fact, complaining about him seeming a lot more complex and grey shaded than they thought. I don't meet organizers who know how to be complex and be alright with it. It's a sad state of affairs really. Sheehan would probably benifit from having better advisors who cared about her ongoing contradictory whole political/personal development. We all could. Thanks for commenting and staying with me as I work my own political/personal through, second waver. I appreciate the company. :)
Post a Comment