Political take #1. Yeah, the Republicans lost gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, lost seats in the Republican-gerrymandered Virginia statehouse, and faced losses elsewhere. This happens. I’m interested in them (and quite chuffed at the results, especially the loss of a critic of the Women’s March) but I am truthfully more interested in what happens next year as we have the entire House and 1/3 of the Senate up for re-election.
Political take #2. One of the big victories from Tuesday was Danica Roem who was elected to the Virginia statehouse. She is transgendered and beat Bob Marshall, the author of the transgendered bathroom bill and self-titled “chief homophobe”. Marshall’s sister pwned him royally for the way he ran his campaign.
Danica spoke of him very charitably after her win and I think we need to follow her example:
Political take #3. I have said before that I love Suzan DelBene, my Congressional representative. This is just one reason why. (Clergy, by the way, would be huge losers under this tax plan as would any self-employed person.)
Political take #4. I saw a tweet from Andrew T. Walker on the election of Danica Roem and needed to respond.
Yes, Danica Roem is transgendered as are a few other politicians elected on Tuesday. Yes, Jenny Durkan, the mayor-elect of Seattle, is a lesbian. (When I found this out, my response was literally, “OK?” I care more about the fact that she has ideas for fixing the issue of homelessness and her ability to deal with the sanctuary city issue than I do about what she does in her private life.) Somehow this is going to warp our children?
Seriously, y’all, teach your kids to treat *EVERY* person they encounter with dignity and maybe you’ll be contributing to building a better society.
School news. I’m challenging Business English this quarter because I don’t think I should have to take it. (The Regents of the University of California feel I satisfied my writing requirements after passing the English Composition/Literature AP Test with a score of 4. I also passed the Subject A examination prior to starting at UC Santa Cruz. In other words, WHY AM I HAVING TO TAKE YET ANOTHER ENGLISH CLASS?!?!?!?)
Anyway, I have to sit the challenge test so I have been working through exercises in the Business English book. In doing this, I discovered that the inclusive language policy at my seminary screwed up my ability to use pronouns correctly. This made me a “little” grumpy…
My test got postponed to this coming Monday because the instructor was ill. This means that I have more time to study pronoun usage and agreement with their antecedents. Wheeeeeeee!!!
Sweatpants and coffee. I discovered the awesomeness that is the Sweatpants and Coffee Facebook page this week. I have been sharing pictures like this one on my feed because it describes my curmudgeonly nature *SO* well!
Veterans Day. Thank your favorite veteran for their service this weekend. They make this country a better and safer place every day.
For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.
Sadly many veterans of our endless unjust wars suffer from PTSD which can result in their own deaths by suicide or, for the male ones, a heightened rate of abuse of wives, girlfriends and children. So they are not always in a safer and better place nor do they always make our country such for others. I think we as churches and individuals need to find a way to support them and their families better than unqualified endorsements of heroism and success which also fail to address the issue of moral injury.
Wounded Warrior Project is one of the best known and Swords to Plowshares looks good too. There doesn’t appear to be a major group for military sexual trauma but there are a sections at Gift From Within which is a broader PTSD group and RAINN one of the best sexual assault groups.