Update May 4th- Ithaca College

This is the latest correspondence between Molly, one of the Jewish Ithaca College students, and an administrator from the College.  Molly gets my award for a real “speak-up kid”- the highest accolade bestowed by my father on anyone.  Go Molly!  This note came to me from Alyiah Bettman, at Ithaca College.

“This is the latest correspondence between Molly and Student Affairs Vice President, Brian McAree.  I just wanted you to stay in the loop with the responses from IC Administration. A. Bettman”

  

“Dear Molly,

First, I do understand that you are upset about the decisions by Students for A Just Peace to display the Palestinian flag on Israel’s Independence Day and sponsor the display/theatre event that took place in the academic quad. For your information, Students For A Just Peace followed all of the appropriate College protocols to fly the flag and sponsor their program, and are within College policy to do so. They have a right to freedom of expression, just as other student clubs and organizations have a similar right to share their opinions and reactions, as long as this is done in a civil and respectful manner and according to College policy.

Students often choose to share controversial ideas and opinions. Members of the campus community respond, in turn, with their reactions and alternative ideas and viewpoints. This is part of the educational process and is one of the essential elements of American higher education. Many times it’s not easy, and, in fact, incredibly hard. I would encourage you to continue to reach out to Students for A Just Peace to express your feelings and concerns to see if there can be a way for a productive sharing of viewpoints between your organizations and for the larger campus community.

Regarding your concerns about Beth Harris, I would encourage you to speak with her directly about how she responded to your original communication and what transpired afterward. You may want to have your organization advisor join you for this conversation if you think this would be helpful. You can also discuss your concerns with Kathleen Rountree, Provost, if you wish.

Molly, I am not aware of any actions by Students For A Just Peace that have directly threatened the safety of other students. I clearly understand why people are upset. Expressing your concerns with Students For A Just Peace certainly would be appropriate and helpful.

Sincerely,
Brian McAree
Vice President for Student Affairs and Campus Life”

 

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“Mr. McAree,

I want to draw on something you said in your response. You said “as long as this is done in a civil and respectful manner” and the manner in which SJP demonstrated was neither civil nor respectful. Mr. McAree, I have friends that serve in the IDF, I support the IDF, and a recent IC alum who served on the SAFI board is now training to go into the IDF. So when you have students laughing as they pretend to shoot pregnant women and beat them over the heads with m-16’s while wearing a mock-up of an IDF uniform, civility and respect has lost all credibility.

What you may not realize, Mr. McAree, is the sense of criminalization that Israel-supporters feel on this campus when they see things like this. As much as you may not see the threat through your own eyes, the fact that students feel threatened is not your responsibility to validate. I am telling you that a public demonization of the State of Israel threatens not only the emotional and intellectual security of Israel supporters on this campus, but the entirety of the Jewish Nation. I wonder more about the hate and venom that sources the students who make these demonstrations. That hate, Mr. McAree, terrifies me.

Wide-spread hate starts when people say nothing. And we will not stand down as hate-motivated actions stare us in the face on a campus that we take pride in.

I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Molly Wernick
Student Alliance for Israel”

 

Update May 2 on Anti-Israel Intimidation at Ithaca College

Pls see prior post for how this story began. Today I received an update from Alyia which I reprint in it’s entirety:

“Good Morning Lisa!

Sorry I couldn’t get back to you earlier.  Here’s the update as of this morning.

 

A member of the Student Alliance for Israel contacted Camera. CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) is a media-monitoring organization devoted to promoting accurate and balanced coverage of Israel. CAMERA helps students learn effective skills and strategies for countering anti-Israel bias. 

 

Camera responded and was appalled by the situation on campus.  They asked that we write something for their publication and offered their support.

 

In terms of school administration, things are upsetting.  Ithaca College President, Tom Rochon and Student Affairs Vice President, Brian McAree have responded to student emails but have not shown an ounce of support.  They continue to say that Students for a Just Peace had permits to demonstrate and fly the Palestinian flag but they are ignoring all cries for help and support from the student community. By showing their lack of respect to the safety and well being of the student body and demonstrating indifference to the situation and atmosphere on campus, they are allowing history to repeat itself.  

 

Thank you for your care and support.  I can’t tell you what it means to me and to every student who feels silenced and criminalized for supporting Israel’s right to exist.  I hope you’re having a good weekend!  

 

Shalom v’ahava, 

Alyia

Student Alliance for Israel

Ithaca College ”

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My Comment:

1. This letter speaks for itself.

2. I wonder if the administration of Ithaca College will respond when concerned parents of Jewish kids, who may be thinking of attending Ithaca College, have second thoughts about this school.  For $50,000 a year, maybe these families will find another, more hospitable, place to send their young adults.

3. I did some research on Google and found that not too long ago Ithaca College was accused by a professor of “pro-Zionist” policies as an explanation as to why that particular professor did not get the promotion she felt she deserved. Here is the blurb:

“The Chronicle of Higher Education and the Ithacan reported late last week that an assistant professor at Ithaca College, Margo Ramlal-Nanoke, hired a law firm to confront the college’s administration and board of trustees about her tenure.

Ramlal-Nanoke, a native of India who grew up in the Carribean, teaches classes about global race, ethnic relations and women in the third world. She also advises the student group Students for a Just Peace, which supports human rights and is against the occupation of the Palestinian territories, according to the group’s online listing.

In a letter sent to the college’s board of trustees, Ramlal- Nanoke and her law firm alleged her tenure review was “influenced by blatant political lobbying against her based on her teachings on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.”

Maybe Ithaca College was cowed by this lawsuit and decided that from now on, better to err against the students who speak up for Israel.

4. Unfortunately, Ithaca Colleges and other institutions of higher learning are being placed front and center in the middle of this conflict, whether they like it or not. Therefore, they had better be evenhanded about it and level the playing field regarding freedom of expression. As I said before, ignoring it won’t make it go away.

 

 

 

    

 

    

Anti-Israel Intimidation at Ithaca College

Tonight, April 30th, on Live! with Lisa, I spoke on-air by telephone live with two brave college students from Ithaca College about an ugly incident on campus today that made them feel emotionally intimidated as Jews and pro-Israel supporters.  Here is the email I received today before the show: 

Dear Lisa Wexler,

 

I wanted to give you a brief update of what is happening at Ithaca College.

 
On Tuesday evening, the members of the Student Alliance for Israel wrote a letter to the student leaders of Students for a Just Peace expressing our upset with their use of the Palestinian flag on Israel’s Independence Day. We copied that to the school president, Thomas Rochon and the school newspaper, The Ithacan, to inform them about the sentiments we see on campus. SJP sent a very aggressive and manipulative response to our email, in which the same parties were copied. After our returned clarifying response to their email, Beth Harris, a full Politics professor as well as the SJP faculty advisor, wrote an email propagating her stance on the argument to the entirety of the politics department asking for their support. Later that day that email circulated around several academic departments and was then forwarded to students.
 
In Beth Harris’s actions, she has practiced a highly unethical use of power. She took our argument entirely out of context to gain support over us and push us down. She emailed the President of the Student Alliance for Israel, and used censorship as an intimidation tactic to pressure her concession. I consider that a personal attack a student and a public attack on the students on campus who support Israel.
 
Then after today’s Student for a Just Peace demonstration on the academic quad simulating Israel’s use of check points, where students dressed and acted as Israeli soldiers holding guns then acted out shooting and beating pregnant women and children, my feelings of personal and public attack have exponentially escalated. The alienation we feel for being Israel supporters while members of the campus community has left us at times in an inconsolable emotional state and reluctant to participate in campus life.
 
Other Jewish students and Israel supporters have contacted me through email, phone call, and text message explaining their upset and feelings of criminalization by SJP. This is not a safe environment for us.  This is not an environment where I and my fellow Israel supporters feel anything but distress, upset, and fear about the climate on campus. The actions of Students for a Just Peace, Beth Harris, and the several professors that came out to support them today are absolutely unconscionable and paralyzing to the Israel-supporting members on campus and the entirety of the Jewish Community.
 
We ask you please, for your support during this difficult time on campus.  Is there anything you can do to help us to continue to support Israel?  Any resources you have would be appreciated! Thank you so much in advance for your time! 

 

Sincerely,

Alyia Bettman

abettman@gmail.com

Student Alliance for Israel

Ithaca College

MY COMMENTS:

 

Tonight on my radio show, Live! with Lisa, on 1400 WSTC and 1350 WNLK, also streaming at www.wstcwnlk.com, Alyia and her friend Molly called in live to the show to express their concerns about this incident. They said they felt intimidated and emotionally extremely upset over what had happened at the school they love. They felt betrayed by this particular professor and by the college administration. The professor patently took sides and escalated this into an ugly incident. The college administration has done nothing.  Period.  Here are my reflections and responses:

1. Why does a college campus raise a Palestinian flag in the first place? Don’t we live in America?  The students told me that no Israeli flag had ever been raised to their knowledge nor had the flag of any other soverign entity. Incidentally, who invented the Palestinian flag? Technically, there is no Palestine yet, right?

2.  If I lived in a college quad and saw this, I too would be extremely emotionally upset.  It would be like watching Nazis goose-stepping on my front door.  It doesn’t mean these students don’t have the right to protest. As a matter of free speech, they do. It doesn’t mean the pro-Palestinians don’t have the right to inflame the conflict, disseminate misinformation, and display propoganda in furtherance of their side of the issue. They do have this right. Nevertheless, it is both sad and outrageous that an international conflict is being brought to the center of an American college campus.  This isn’t the UN. And this isn’t about an American issue. It’s about an issue and a conflict occurring thousands of miles away. 

3. College in America should be about exploring one another’s differences in an enlightened and peaceful setting, so that friendships can form and other perspectives can be appreciated. I fear that with this militant, no holds barred approach that was started by the pro-Palestinian faction, just the opposite will be achieved. Instead of friends, enemies. Instead of understanding, reflexive adherance to one’s original point of view.  Instead of tolerance, bigotry and hatred.  If this is what our colleges tolerate, then what will our kids become once they graduate? What will this bode for the future of our American society?

I do not recall the British/IRA conflict reaching American college campuses in this way. Do you?

4. What this really says, and what was so frightening to these girls, is that they discovered that the world around them really hates them.  They discovered that while only a handful of students actually participated in these protests, many more silently agree with their sentiment that Israel is the true and sole culprit and cause of the suffering of the Palestinian people.  They have discovered that while they thought they lived among friends and professors whom they respected and admired, in fact they live among people who will either participate in purposely wounding their feelings, or who will ignore their feelings altogether, which is in some ways, worse.  In short, these girls have had to grow up fast, to acknowledge the realization that the America they thought they knew is changing quickly into an America hostile to Israel, and intolerant of debate. The implications of this incident are sure to sink in; eventually they will result in some Jews  leaving this nation altogether, as so many have done in France. 

5. I am told there are several organizations that can help- Stand With Us, the David Project and Camera.You can go on line and request their material. There is a DVD from Stand with Us “Hate speech on Campus” dealing with the issue. Also the David Project comes to campuses and teach students on how to speak up for Israel.

   

6. Professor Beth Harris needs to go before her employers at Ithaca College and answer an inquiry as to her actions on this matter.

 

7. The pro-Israel supporters at Ithaca College need to counter this with a massive protest of their own.

8.  Where is the college administration here? Ducking the issue won’t make it go away.

9. Maybe parents of Jewish kids ought to think twice about sending their kids to Ithaca College.

 

 

 

     

 

Elephants

The other day Wayne Pacelle was on the show and we got to talking about elephants.  Wayne Pacelle is the Executive Director of the Humane Society of the United States and runs legislative policy for the better treatment of animals in our country. 

I asked about circus elephants, having read much recent news about the lawsuits and controversy surrounding this issue.  Wayne explained to me that elephants are among the most intelligent animals on this earth and the conditions under which they are imprisoned and mistreated in circuses are simply unacceptable. He persuaded me.  

Sara Gruen’s novel, Like Water for Elephants, also helped persuade me.

This video http://fun.mivzakon.co.il/flash/video/2344/2344.html convinced me.  I will never see elephants the same way again. Take a few minutes out of your life and look at it.

Also, can someone please tell me exactly how to link my blog to my new facebook site? I am positively paleolithic when it comes to these things- Lisa

Michael Steele on Obama

I know I haven’t blogged in quite a white.

It’s not that I haven’t had anything to say, it’s that I’ve been saying it on the radio. Maybe I should just publish my opening monologues as my blogs- they are the same kind of stream of  consciousness writing I do here. On the other hand, more for me to do, so maybe not.

The Live! with Lisa radio show is now on 6 days a week. We air live on Sats from 10:30 Noon but now also on Monday- Friday 8-9 PM on AM 1400 WSTC/1350 WNLK in Fairfield County, and on www.wstcwnlk.com. That’s a lot of shows to prep and write and I’m loving it, but who has time for much else? (some people who are far better time managers than I, or people to delegate to… ).

HOWEVER, today it was announced that Michael Steele was elected Chairman of the Republican Party. Congrats Michael, I was hoping it would be you.  I know Michael from way back. We were classmates at Johns Hopkins undergrad from 1978-1981.  He was our Student Council President,  and he was a handsome, gregarious, charming fellow. A standout even then, and not for his color, although I’m guessing he was one of very few black men in our class.

Last February, in the middle of the presidential campaign, Michael Steele came on my show. Hear my interview with Michael Steele by clicking on www.livewithlisaradio.com.  It’s the February 16, 2008 show. ( I have tried umpteen times tonight to link it properly to that page- can’t get it to work).  

Michael Steele  makes a quotable quote when I asked him about his view of Obama. Let’s put it this way- he didn’t like him very much. He said- “Obama is not my brother” or words to that effect. Seems there is some bitterness over the fact that Obama went into Maryland to campaign against Steele when Steele was running for the Senate seat there.  So it will be veddy interesting to see how this plays out, for the short and long term. Don’t underestimate Michael; he’s a smart guy. And somehow I doubt he is a right wing conservative. I’m guessing he will represent the moderate wing of the Republican Party. But what to do with Sarah Palin? Ah, the fun of it all…

Hope you’ll tune in and listen to the show. And write me.

Need A Holiday Gift?

The Holidays are upon us and the snow definetly set us back this weekend but don’t fret! Log onto Lisa’s Book store to get the perfect gift sent right to your door!

LISA’S TOP TEN BOOKS OF THE YEAR

 

Wishing you and yours a Happy and Healthy Holiday and a Happy New Year!

Want Obama to Win? Here’s How

I realized this week that I could let you know what is on my mind by blogging my opening monologue from my radio show, Live! with Lisa.  It is in caps because that’s the way I write my scripts to myself. If you know a shortcut to go from all caps to proper small/large caps, let me know.

It isn’t written for the page; it’s written for the ear.   

 

Showdate Sept 20, 2008

 

I HAVE A CONFESSION TO MAKE. I WAS THE ONE WHO WHISPERED IN MCCAIN’S EAR TO PICK A WOMAN GOVERNOR AS HIS V-P ; TRUE STORY- I EMAILED CARLY FIORINA A FEW DAYS BEFORE THE SELECTION AND TOLD HER WHY I THOUGHT THAT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA FOR THE TICKET. I HAVE NO IDEA IF SHE GOT MY EMAIL. SHE NEVER RESPONDED. BUT I CAN ONLY ASSUME SHE GOT IT BECAUSE OBVIOUSLY SOMEBODY DID SOME LAST MINUTE FACT CHECKING. OF COURSE, THE KIND OF GOVERNOR I HAD IN MIND WAS OUR OWN JODI RELL, WHO IS A MODERATE PERSON, STRONG ON WOMEN’S RIGHTS ISSUES AND HEALTH CARE, AND FISCALLY TRYING TO STOP ALL THE CRAZY SPENDING.  I NEVER HEARD OF SARAH PALIN. HAD I HEARD OF HER AND THOUGHT SHE MIGHT BE CONSIDERED, I WOULD HAVE JUST SHUT UP-

BUT IT IS TRUE THAT NAMING A WOMAN REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR PRETTY MUCH SUCKED THE AIR OUT OF OBAMA’S CAMPAIGN, AT LEAST TEMPORARILY- SO IF YOU ARE AN OBAMA ADVOCATE, LISTEN UP- BECAUSE I HAVE THE SECRET WEAPON TO WINNING THIS CAMPAIGN-

 

IF YOU REALLY WANT YOUR CANDIDATE BARACK OBAMA TO WIN THIS CAMPAIGN, YOU GOTTA REMEMBER THE ONE STEADY TRUTH ABOUT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE IN THE VOTING BOOTH- IT’S THE ECONOMY STUPID.  ALWAYS HAS BEEN, ALWAYS WILL BE-

 

SOMETIMES I WISH IT WEREN’T- I WISH IT WAS THE WELLBEING OF OUR PLANET- BUT IT ISN’T. WHEN YOU WALK INTO THAT VOTING BOOTH YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT YOUR PAYCHECK.  WILL MORE DISAPPEAR INTO THE  WASTEFUL AND INEPT HANDS OF THE GOVERNMENT, OR WILL YOU HAVE MORE OF YOUR OWN MONEY TO SPEND AS YOU CHOOSE?   AND THEN THE SECOND QUESTION YOU ASK YOURSELF  IS,  WHICH ADMINISTRATION IS LIKELY TO MAKE YOU A LITTLE BIT RICHER THIS TIME AROUND?  IF YOU ARE AN ACCOUNTANT- WHO WILL MAKE IT LESS LIKELY THAT BY NEXT YEAR YOUR JOB WILL BE OUTSOURCED TO INDIA?  IF YOU ARE A MED STUDENT, WHICH PARTY WILL SEE THAT YOU CAN EARN A DECENT LIVING AS A DOCTOR? IF YOU ARE A TAXI  DRIVER, WHO IS GOING TO KEEP THE ECONOMY STRONG ENOUGH SO PEOPLE CAN AFFORD YOUR CAB AND YOU CAN STILL AFFORD TO BUY GAS?

 

IF YOU WANT OBAMA TO WIN- HERE’S MY ADVICE- TELL HIM TO CUT HIS TAX PLAN. – RIGHT NOW IT CALLS FOR AN INCREASE IF YOU EARN OVER 250K A YEAR. BUT THINK ABOUT IT- IF YOU TAKE A POLICE DETECTIVE WORKING OVERTIME AND A TEACHER WITH A MASTERS DEGREE WHO WORKS A SUMMER JOB, YOU PROBABLY COME PRETTY CLOSE TO 250K.  I KNOW LOTS OF FAMILIES WHO EARN A GROSS INCOME OF 250K AND THEY DON’T FEEL RICH, NOT EVEN CLOSE, ESPECIALLY IF THEY ARE ALSO PAYING FOR TUITION FOR PRIVATE SCHOOL OR COLLEGE OR HAVE HIGH MEDICAL BILLS, OR THEY ARE A YOUNG FAMILY WITH A HIGH MORTGAGE PAYMENT BECAUSE THEY BOUGHT A HOUSE IN THE LAST THREE YEARS AND PAID AN INFLATED PRICE FOR IT.

 

OBAMA, YOU WANT TO WIN?  SHOW THAT YOU ARE FLEXIBLE- ADMIT THAT THE ECONOMY HAS CHANGED, AND THAT A TAX INCREASE IS THE LAST THING PEOPLE WANT, AND CHANGE YOUR PLAN. IF YOU WANT TO TAX REAL MILLIONAIRES- PEOPLE’S WHOSE INCOME IS OVER ONE MILLION A YEAR, THE INDISPUTABLY RICH,  I THINK YOU COULD GET AWAY WITH THAT- BUT NOT THE ASPIRING MIDDLE CLASS, THE PEOPLE WHO ARE STRIVING TO GET TO THE 250K MARK OR WHO ARE JUST OVER IT. YOU WANT THOSE VOTES?  CALM THOSE PEOPLE DOWN.

 

 

 

Frank Capra, We Need You Now

A startling announcement just aired on WCBS-FM, a popular NY radio station which plays music, and does not normally permit its jocks to announce the news in between songs.  What was this breaking news? Loosely quoted, the following; “Don’t Open your Computer Messages from Barack Obama’s campaign- they may contain the Trojan Horse, Virus of all Viruses- Beware!- simply by opening the file, you may lose all your computer data!”

This morning’s headlines trumpet the fact that Barack Obama’s campaign raised more money in August than any other presidential candidate ever has in any other month in history.  Close to sixty-six million dollars was raised, given by over 500,000 people, many of whom gave in small dollar amounts. How was the money given; how were the messages exchanged?  Overwhelmingly by email.

Coincidence?  Or is someone who has another agenda planting the one message with a great shot at turning off the spigot of communication and money for Obama’s campaign?  You decide.

Frank Capra, that greatest of American filmmakers, already wrote the plot to this story.  Remember “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”? Jimmy Stewart, as Jefferson Smith, the neophyte, honest Senator from the midwest,  tries to defend his integrity when accused of participating in a corrupt land deal.  Stewart filibusters on the floor of the Senate, losing his voice, but struggling to get the word out beyond the Senate floor.  Boys who support him across the country publish a newspaper and distribute it themselves.  The public is starting to learn the truth. But Edward Arnold, playing the entrenched, corrupt, powerful boss, gets nervous.  He might actually lose this one. Lucky for him, however, he controls not only the politicians, but also the newspapers and the radio.  In 1942, if you controlled the radio and the newspapers, you controlled it all.  So Arnold sends his minions to steal the papers before they get distributed and beat up the newspaper boys. Mission accomplished.

What happens in the end?  Well, this being a Frank Capra story, the good guy does win.  But look again- the good guy only wins because Jimmy Stewart’s former patron, a once-great Senator gone corrupt, has a last-minute burst of conscience and confesses all on the Senate floor.  In the meantime, the poor saps, otherwise known as the public, are believing the messages given to them by their media and are telegramming the Senate to throw Jimmy Stewart out of the Senate.  If it weren’t for that one Senator, Jimmy Stewart would be out on his ear.

Manipulation of the public via the powerful establishment’s use of the media is neither a new theme or invention.  Frank Capra was onto it almost seventy years ago.  The question for all of us is, are we going to buy what they are selling us?  Who is really telling the truth among all this babble and what messages can we filter out that need to be heard?

For me, I’ll chance the probability that my computer will be just fine, thank you. I’m tired of being cowed into either doing or not doing something, based on what some unseen authority tells me. I’ll read the news from both campaigns, via email and snail mail.  I’ll peruse “elite” publications like The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Time Magazine, because I happen to believe that there is such a thing as professional journalism.  I’ll read magazines like People, World and The Nation to get different perspectives on the news.  And I’ll talk to my friends and my audience, the non-talking heads, to find out what they think too.  What I won’t do is let somebody else make up my mind for me.  If it turns out this message about Obama’s campaign emails containing a virus is false, and I suspect that it is, then I’ll hope for the best, as Frank Capra always did. I’ll hope that this time, the good guys win.

Lisa Wexler, Host, Live! with Lisa Radio Show; www.livewithlisaradio.com; livewithlisa@gmail.com; www.livewithlisaradio.wordpress/blog.

Sarah Palin

There is an email circulating now with comments from women in response to the candidacy of Sarah Palin. I have taken an intense dislike to Sarah Palin- to the positions she stands for and to the woman herself.  Perhaps it is the hypocrisy of telling me to live her family values while not respecting mine. I hate that. Or maybe it’s the simple fact that she authorized the senseless, inhumane practice of shooting defenseless wolves from helicopters. Or that she doesn’t care much about polar bears, who, when last seen, were drowning in the Arctic Ocean whose ice caps have melted substantially during the last 2 summers. The poor polar bears were seen trying to swim 400 miles towards the next land surface.  (see Sat NY Times op-ed September 6, 2008).  Anyway, this is my addition to that email of other like-minded women:

1. As a radio host, I have spoken my views publicly on programs September 5, 2008 and September 6, 2008, which will be uploaded soon on www.livewithlisaradio.com.

2. I believed that I would like Sarah Palin before she spoke- that although I would disagree with her views, I would like her. However, when you think about the twin nicknames she has garnered- Sarah Barracuda and Miss Congeniality, they are really at odds with one another. You can’t be both a barracuda and congenial at the same time. What we saw at the convention was the barracuda.

 

3. What troubles me most about the candidacy of Ms. Palin is not that she privately acts according to her own beliefs; it is that her private beliefs become a matter of public policy once she attains office.  By trying to decide what books are available for me to read, she shows a complete disregard of the first amendment. By beIittling the efforts of good people to ensure that citizens and detainees are read their rights when arrested, she shows her contempt for our sixth amendment.  By insisting that sexual education be banned in schools, she deprives my children and yours of knowledge that is essential to understanding their reproductive choices. The consequence of ignorance of those choices is found in hospital wards all over the world- aids, STDs, cervical viruses that result in cancer, unwanted children, and abortions. By trying to equate creationism with evolution, she disregards the separation of church and state which is the cornerstone of religious freedom and tolerance in our nation. By choosing to ignore the overwhelming  evidence that human conduct is responsible for climate change, she allows herself the freedom to refuse to make the changes that are necessary to confront drastic changes in our environment, our weather, and our animal, plant and marine ecologies.   

 

I find myself angry that Sarah Palin is being given this historic opportunity to represent women when they walk into the voting booth.  I am praying, fervently, that both men and women will see that merely being a woman does not suffice.  We are all voting for candidates based on who they are and what they stand for, and she certainly does not represent me.

 

Lisa’s List/ Week of May 23, 2008

Five Words That Were Not Common Verbs Five Years Ago

1. To text: to write messages on your phone; similar to e-mail.

2. To Google: to search a person or subject matter

3. To Friend someone: to put them on your social networking site

4. To Facebook: to put search someone on Facebook or to put something on Facebook’s wall

5. To Blog: to write in a web journal.