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Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Shut Up John Mayer, Stop Waiting On the World to Change











by Tracee Sioux

The hit song, Waiting on the World to Change by John Mayer, is about political apathy and I am declaring that it's time to change our tune as Americans.

Even as a political science major with an obvious interest in politics and social change, I have been just as guilty as anyone of political apathy over the last 7 years of George W. Bush's Presidency. Republicans ruled the House of Representatives, the United States Congress, appointed a majority on the Supreme Court, and controlled the Presidency of the United States. It seems all I, as a democrat, could do was wait patiently for power to swing back in our direction. I still voted, but let's face it, I live in Texas, a very conservative Republican state and I didn't harbor any illusions after 9/11 that power was going to swing in the direction of my kind any time soon.

But, now that New York Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton has announced that she will be seeking the office of President in 2008 and Illinois Democratic Senator Barack Obama will soon announce the same, it is time to stop waiting and start influencing the world to change.

I am inviting all democrats, black and white, male and female to join me in refusing to vote for one more white middle-aged man in 2008! Sorry, John Edwards but, your kind has ruled this country since it's inception and that fact has a negative influence on the possibilities for girls and minority kids. My vote will be to end the reign of white men in 2008.

Now, I don't have a thing against middle-aged white men in general. My father is one, my husband is one, my son will one day be one and my brothers and brothers-in-law, grandfathers and cousins are all inhabit the bodies of white-middle-aged men. But, I am advocating voting the gender-line or the race-line rather than the party-line in the 2008 Presidential Elections as a valid and legitimate political position.

A few weeks ago I was having dinner with a bunch of visiting relatives when a cousin of mine asked me how my younger brother was. I reported that he is working as a financial analyst for Maracopa County in Phoenix, recently bought a condo with his new wife and is expecting his first baby. I joked that my brother Klint is the only person I know who still seriously thinks he might become President of the United States and therefore probably won't be satisfied with financial analysis for too long.

My husband then shocked me by saying, "I could be President of the United States one day, I haven't entirely given up the idea."

To which I couldn't help laughing hysterically and saying, "I hate to be the one who tells you, but there is no way on God's Green Earth that you will ever be the President of the United States."

I was bewildered that my response would even come close to hurting my husband's feelings, but it did. He felt I wasn't being a very supportive wife.

After asking around I realized that having seen white men, sometimes pretty average white men, achieve the highest political office in the land had a profoundly positive effect on boys as they grew up and pursued higher education and landed jobs. They truly believed in their innermost selves that the Presidency was attainable to them. They would, after all, grow up to be white middle-aged men and they had as much chance as anyone else of achieving this ultimate ambition.

I, quite conversely, never believed this was a goal that was even remotely attainable to me. Forming my formative self in the '70s, in the midst of the women's revolution in a highly conservative household, where my parents both voted NO to the Equal Rights Amendment, thereby denying women (ME) equal rights under the Constitution of the United States, it was radical that I even thought I might be able to pursue a career when I grew up.

My son, like my husband and little brother, has only to look in a history book and see the 43 white men who have become the President to believe that he's got a chance. My daughter, however, has only to look at the same page and see that this is a possibility that she is, fairly or not, excluded from.

So, this election I urge everyone, even white, middle-aged men, to cast their vote for our daughters. A vote for Hillary means a vote for Possibility. The possibility that 50 percent of the population, females, might believe us when we tell them that if they work hard, stay in school and get good grades, they too might achieve the office of United States President.

And if Hillary doesn't win the primary, vote for ALL the minority kids out there and the possibility that they might be anything they want to be when they grow up.

Ideally, I would love to see Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on the same ticket, president and vice-president, woman and man, white and black, giving every kid in America the same hope, the same possibility, the same ambition and the same belief that they can be anything they want to be when they grow up.
To order a bumper sticker for $6 email me

Pictures of 43 Presidents of the United States
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/

Vote for Hillary Clinton
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/

Encourage Barack Obama to run for President
http://www.barackobama.com/?gclid=CJibwrGT94kCFSj0IgodYUz5QQ

Encourage my brother, Klint Johnson, to run for President
http://www.klintandjanet.com/

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I believe the equality issue has been settled. In my four years of professional life - women have dominated the upper management. And in my one year at LSE - female professors out-numbered male professors (at least in my department). Seriously, you're kicking a dead horse. I know there exist numbers out there that point to the seeming lack of CEOs that are women, as compared to men. However, sheere numbers do not convince me. Fact is, men and women often do have differences in desires, and there has not been any research done out there that measures the number of women applications for CEO positions - and those that are denied. Let alone establish a connection between discrimination and the highest levels of management in the land. I know these statements rub you the wrong way - but that is because it is a part of your core religion. I'll accept any hard-core research to the contrary - but in my own life - I've always worked for women and I beleive they do just as swell a job as any other. So I don't see discrimination against them anywhere - and I'm just stating what I've seen.
If we're voting democrat - we will only vote for John Edwards. Hillary is no more for women than she is for the poor man. She may market herself as such, but she lives in a 4 million dollar home in a state that she just happened to move to only because her election potential was greatest there. Not that this alone is cause for dislike, but I truly believe she is out only for herself, and herself alone. I don't vote for those types of people. They must at least have some appearance of selflessness, or at least a plausible potential for acting without self-interest in cases of sheer emergency. Maybe I'm being too harsh, but we are Republican (Janet even more so than I) and we cannot stomach Hillary. She obviously just wants the power - as she even left her own party hanging last election cycle (only because she, herself, wanted to be president and didn't believe Bush could be beat in 2004, which was a correct prediction). We do like John Edwards. If your party is smart, they will drop Obama and Hillary and run John. I don't think America should elect anyone simply because they are female or a minority (that is discrimination to the tee) - and that is clearly the cards being played by those two. I know you would say that it's about time that we elect a non-male or a non-white - but i'd say that it is possible for America to always elect a white male and still have no issues with discrimination. discrimination is based upon motivations, and has little to do with outcomes of actions - as it is the motivation that determines the action. I am not personally opposed to either a female president or a minority president. I gave my support to Alan Keyes decades ago and I have always beleived Margret Thatcher to have been the coolest British Prime Minister of the 80s:-). I just don't like Hillary or Obama personally.

However, our vote is for a real president - Mitt Romney. Which I am sure you are utterly revolted by. But you're motived more by sheer passion than most people, so I won't take offense to your revoltions. He did bring universal health care to Mass., and he wasn't hated as much as a Mormon Republican should have been hated in a state that has Kennedy and Kerry as their senators.

Tracee Sioux, Sioux Ink: Soul Purpose Publishing said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Tracee Sioux, Sioux Ink: Soul Purpose Publishing said...

This doesn't look like equality to me: Pictures of 43 Presidents of the United States
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/

Oceanside said...

If Hillary Clinton is president - say hello to the romper room days of Bill Clinton once again. He'll be back in there molesting all the young Whitehouse interns once again. Say no to pheohilia in the Whitehouse!

If you want a woman for president, vote for a REAL woman - Condi Rice!

Tracee Sioux, Sioux Ink: Soul Purpose Publishing said...

If she were running, I would seriously consider voting for Condi Rice.

Rebecca said...

No offense to your bro but it's really shortsighted to think that just
b/c it is your experience that women have advanced that it is generally true that there's no inequality remaining b/t men and
women. Women still have alot of ground to cover, even in the legal
profession. There's still documented institutional discrimination
against both women and racial minorities. While they will get hired,
that doesn't mean they're not discriminated against. I have seen many
articles about these groups getting "sidelined" in my profession -- either not getting enough work, or being put behind the scenes to do the trial preparation while the white men, who even have less experience, are given the valuable golden opportnities to actually go to court and present the case. Also, there's discrimination related to having kids, called "family responsiblity" discrimination. The American Bar Association Journal reports that there's been a 40% increase in family responsibility lawsuits in the last ten years. An interesting question is whether this type of discrimination is a recent phenomenon, or if people are just now taking notice. Frankly, I think a big reason for the increase in litigation is that not that long ago, there were very few women lawyers. Now, I believe I heard that women account for more than half of all law school graduates. So it makes sense that they are resisting the male-centric attitudes and prejudices they find at the venerable law firms.

Anonymous said...

You know, I never can hear that Mayer song without getting mad. As if change will just be handed to us all...

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Shut Up John Mayer, Stop Waiting On the World to Change











by Tracee Sioux

The hit song, Waiting on the World to Change by John Mayer, is about political apathy and I am declaring that it's time to change our tune as Americans.

Even as a political science major with an obvious interest in politics and social change, I have been just as guilty as anyone of political apathy over the last 7 years of George W. Bush's Presidency. Republicans ruled the House of Representatives, the United States Congress, appointed a majority on the Supreme Court, and controlled the Presidency of the United States. It seems all I, as a democrat, could do was wait patiently for power to swing back in our direction. I still voted, but let's face it, I live in Texas, a very conservative Republican state and I didn't harbor any illusions after 9/11 that power was going to swing in the direction of my kind any time soon.

But, now that New York Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton has announced that she will be seeking the office of President in 2008 and Illinois Democratic Senator Barack Obama will soon announce the same, it is time to stop waiting and start influencing the world to change.

I am inviting all democrats, black and white, male and female to join me in refusing to vote for one more white middle-aged man in 2008! Sorry, John Edwards but, your kind has ruled this country since it's inception and that fact has a negative influence on the possibilities for girls and minority kids. My vote will be to end the reign of white men in 2008.

Now, I don't have a thing against middle-aged white men in general. My father is one, my husband is one, my son will one day be one and my brothers and brothers-in-law, grandfathers and cousins are all inhabit the bodies of white-middle-aged men. But, I am advocating voting the gender-line or the race-line rather than the party-line in the 2008 Presidential Elections as a valid and legitimate political position.

A few weeks ago I was having dinner with a bunch of visiting relatives when a cousin of mine asked me how my younger brother was. I reported that he is working as a financial analyst for Maracopa County in Phoenix, recently bought a condo with his new wife and is expecting his first baby. I joked that my brother Klint is the only person I know who still seriously thinks he might become President of the United States and therefore probably won't be satisfied with financial analysis for too long.

My husband then shocked me by saying, "I could be President of the United States one day, I haven't entirely given up the idea."

To which I couldn't help laughing hysterically and saying, "I hate to be the one who tells you, but there is no way on God's Green Earth that you will ever be the President of the United States."

I was bewildered that my response would even come close to hurting my husband's feelings, but it did. He felt I wasn't being a very supportive wife.

After asking around I realized that having seen white men, sometimes pretty average white men, achieve the highest political office in the land had a profoundly positive effect on boys as they grew up and pursued higher education and landed jobs. They truly believed in their innermost selves that the Presidency was attainable to them. They would, after all, grow up to be white middle-aged men and they had as much chance as anyone else of achieving this ultimate ambition.

I, quite conversely, never believed this was a goal that was even remotely attainable to me. Forming my formative self in the '70s, in the midst of the women's revolution in a highly conservative household, where my parents both voted NO to the Equal Rights Amendment, thereby denying women (ME) equal rights under the Constitution of the United States, it was radical that I even thought I might be able to pursue a career when I grew up.

My son, like my husband and little brother, has only to look in a history book and see the 43 white men who have become the President to believe that he's got a chance. My daughter, however, has only to look at the same page and see that this is a possibility that she is, fairly or not, excluded from.

So, this election I urge everyone, even white, middle-aged men, to cast their vote for our daughters. A vote for Hillary means a vote for Possibility. The possibility that 50 percent of the population, females, might believe us when we tell them that if they work hard, stay in school and get good grades, they too might achieve the office of United States President.

And if Hillary doesn't win the primary, vote for ALL the minority kids out there and the possibility that they might be anything they want to be when they grow up.

Ideally, I would love to see Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on the same ticket, president and vice-president, woman and man, white and black, giving every kid in America the same hope, the same possibility, the same ambition and the same belief that they can be anything they want to be when they grow up.
To order a bumper sticker for $6 email me

Pictures of 43 Presidents of the United States
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/

Vote for Hillary Clinton
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/

Encourage Barack Obama to run for President
http://www.barackobama.com/?gclid=CJibwrGT94kCFSj0IgodYUz5QQ

Encourage my brother, Klint Johnson, to run for President
http://www.klintandjanet.com/

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I believe the equality issue has been settled. In my four years of professional life - women have dominated the upper management. And in my one year at LSE - female professors out-numbered male professors (at least in my department). Seriously, you're kicking a dead horse. I know there exist numbers out there that point to the seeming lack of CEOs that are women, as compared to men. However, sheere numbers do not convince me. Fact is, men and women often do have differences in desires, and there has not been any research done out there that measures the number of women applications for CEO positions - and those that are denied. Let alone establish a connection between discrimination and the highest levels of management in the land. I know these statements rub you the wrong way - but that is because it is a part of your core religion. I'll accept any hard-core research to the contrary - but in my own life - I've always worked for women and I beleive they do just as swell a job as any other. So I don't see discrimination against them anywhere - and I'm just stating what I've seen.
If we're voting democrat - we will only vote for John Edwards. Hillary is no more for women than she is for the poor man. She may market herself as such, but she lives in a 4 million dollar home in a state that she just happened to move to only because her election potential was greatest there. Not that this alone is cause for dislike, but I truly believe she is out only for herself, and herself alone. I don't vote for those types of people. They must at least have some appearance of selflessness, or at least a plausible potential for acting without self-interest in cases of sheer emergency. Maybe I'm being too harsh, but we are Republican (Janet even more so than I) and we cannot stomach Hillary. She obviously just wants the power - as she even left her own party hanging last election cycle (only because she, herself, wanted to be president and didn't believe Bush could be beat in 2004, which was a correct prediction). We do like John Edwards. If your party is smart, they will drop Obama and Hillary and run John. I don't think America should elect anyone simply because they are female or a minority (that is discrimination to the tee) - and that is clearly the cards being played by those two. I know you would say that it's about time that we elect a non-male or a non-white - but i'd say that it is possible for America to always elect a white male and still have no issues with discrimination. discrimination is based upon motivations, and has little to do with outcomes of actions - as it is the motivation that determines the action. I am not personally opposed to either a female president or a minority president. I gave my support to Alan Keyes decades ago and I have always beleived Margret Thatcher to have been the coolest British Prime Minister of the 80s:-). I just don't like Hillary or Obama personally.

However, our vote is for a real president - Mitt Romney. Which I am sure you are utterly revolted by. But you're motived more by sheer passion than most people, so I won't take offense to your revoltions. He did bring universal health care to Mass., and he wasn't hated as much as a Mormon Republican should have been hated in a state that has Kennedy and Kerry as their senators.

Tracee Sioux, Sioux Ink: Soul Purpose Publishing said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Tracee Sioux, Sioux Ink: Soul Purpose Publishing said...

This doesn't look like equality to me: Pictures of 43 Presidents of the United States
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/

Oceanside said...

If Hillary Clinton is president - say hello to the romper room days of Bill Clinton once again. He'll be back in there molesting all the young Whitehouse interns once again. Say no to pheohilia in the Whitehouse!

If you want a woman for president, vote for a REAL woman - Condi Rice!

Tracee Sioux, Sioux Ink: Soul Purpose Publishing said...

If she were running, I would seriously consider voting for Condi Rice.

Rebecca said...

No offense to your bro but it's really shortsighted to think that just
b/c it is your experience that women have advanced that it is generally true that there's no inequality remaining b/t men and
women. Women still have alot of ground to cover, even in the legal
profession. There's still documented institutional discrimination
against both women and racial minorities. While they will get hired,
that doesn't mean they're not discriminated against. I have seen many
articles about these groups getting "sidelined" in my profession -- either not getting enough work, or being put behind the scenes to do the trial preparation while the white men, who even have less experience, are given the valuable golden opportnities to actually go to court and present the case. Also, there's discrimination related to having kids, called "family responsiblity" discrimination. The American Bar Association Journal reports that there's been a 40% increase in family responsibility lawsuits in the last ten years. An interesting question is whether this type of discrimination is a recent phenomenon, or if people are just now taking notice. Frankly, I think a big reason for the increase in litigation is that not that long ago, there were very few women lawyers. Now, I believe I heard that women account for more than half of all law school graduates. So it makes sense that they are resisting the male-centric attitudes and prejudices they find at the venerable law firms.

Anonymous said...

You know, I never can hear that Mayer song without getting mad. As if change will just be handed to us all...