Sue Katz: Consenting Adult

I feel the Bern in my revolutionary heart: My first foray at 68 into American electoral politics.

I was up very late last night and while channel surfing came upon Bernie Sanders on C-Span giving a speech at a college I never heard of in, I believe, Ohio. I’m thin on the details because I was watching from my bed a 12-inch TV across the room and couldn’t read the identifying bottom ribbon.

I was absolutely riveted to Bernie’s recitation of dozens of issues dear to my heart, some of them unremarked by public figures since back in movement days. He talked about women getting pay equity and reproductive rights, and then blew my mind with a promise of high-quality affordable day care for pre-schoolers. This was a revolutionary feminist demand in 1970 (free 24/7 daycare) and still is.

He talked about economic and racial justice, of course, but he also talked about how ridiculous it is that weed is in the same crime category as heroin. He affirmed that heroin is dangerous and bad, but that weed should be decriminalized.

He said young people should be rewarded, not punished, for wanting to be educated; that instead of dumping students into lifelong debt, we should pay them a stipend for studying, as is done in other countries. It would be in the interest of the future of the country. Instead of building jails, we should build colleges. Instead of incarcerating young people, we should save money (and lives) by sending them to school. He talked about trade schools as well – noting that professions like plumbing can be great.

The list went on and on, although he was interrupted after every sentence, if not in the middle of most, by rapturous applause. I have never heard a presidential candidate give a speech that would keep me up at 3:00am with its radical tenor, its clarity, and its echo from our dreams.

Really, time is running out folks. Let’s get this guy who was marching next to us since the 60s elected.

Let me address one more point. Why do I think Bernie is more likely than Hillary to beat Trump? I’ll answer with an anecdote. I was chatting with the woman checking me out at TJ-Maxx. She was a 50+, Black woman with a ton of caring responsibilities at home. She was obviously heads-down just trying to survive, not following the daily peeps and poops of this election. She said she would vote for either Trump or Bernie because they both sound like they are speaking passionately from the heart. She was horrified when I told her some of the things Trump actually says.

The more people see of Bernie, the more they’re going to support him. Both Trump and Hillary have high negatives: they may shine within their own primaries, but out in the wild that will harm them. I’ve heard that independents make up 1/3 of the electorate. Many of those independents will go for Bernie if they find Trump distasteful.

Trump will be so awful to Hillary that I can’t bear to think about it. Bernie speaks truth to pigs. He’s clean: he can’t be touched personally. And he has the most experience of any of the primary runners: as a mayor and with his decades as a Representative and a Senator. He has negotiated through all those decades as an Independent and as a Socialist. I mean the man still calls himself a Socialist!

I’ve never before been involved in American electoral politics except as a protester, but time is running out. Each minute is precious, and I feel the Bern.

Where to Invade Next: Film Review

Nothing better than a documentary that makes both worthy points and riotous jokes. Michael Moore, who has been extremely ill in the run-up to the release of Where to Invade Next and therefore unable to promote it, opens his film with his “invitation” from the joint chiefs of staff to go invade some countries and bring back bounty. One minute into the film, and I’m already hooting.

And so he takes his American flag and colonizes (intellectually speaking) a number of countries, mostly European. For context, he identifies a few of the problems here that need fixing with a collage of images including the housing crisis, police violence against black youth, the criminal justice system, schools, and food. He’s off to plunder some solutions.

In Finland, he finds out how they went from a poor school rating (equal to the States), to being the world’s #1 best educators (no standardized tests, almost no homework, fewer hours of school). In Italy, he is astonished by the level of workers’ benefits, especially paid leave (8+ weeks), and CEOs tell him why they would rather have satisfied employees than a bit more profit. The profound humanity of the criminal justice system in Norway is a revelation. Slovenia provides free college education to anyone who wants to come and partake. Portugal has won the war on drugs by decriminalizing them across the board and beefing up treatment options. Good food and fine dining, the French feel, is part of a child’s education, so chefs prepare exquisite school lunches. In Iceland and Tunisia, Moore learns about women’s leadership. In fact, the sincere feminism underlying this film is its biggest surprise.

Along the way, we hear how small countries shame the USA with their remarkable achievements – and how, ironically, most of their theories are based on ideas born (or rather stillborn) in the USA. We also meet folks, just folks, in each country who convey a kind of sweet solidarity with their neighbors and fellow humans that too often is lacking here.

Where to Invade Next has been getting lousy reviews from a number of sources, not the least – surprise, surprise – the Wall Street Journal. I haven’t laughed so often during a film in a very long time and I think it’s just the kind of film – ironic but not cynical – that could show untraveled Americans what is not only possible, but is actually happening in other countries. Moore’s film does what travel does: broadens our concepts, undermines our cultural assumptions, and gives us a break from our daily grind. Please go see it.

Here's the trailer:

 

Mustang: Film Review

Although Mustang is an outstanding and multi-layered film, I’m going to keep this review short. The bottom line: Mustang is subtle and fast-moving, joyous and painful.

Five orphaned sisters are being raised in a village in northern Turkey by their kind if bewildered grandmother and their hypocritical, abusive uncle.

All the girls try with varied strategies to push back against their repressive imprisonment by the uncle and against the limited opportunities offered to women in the general culture. Together they are a rambunctious, tight-knit posse, slowly unraveled by the prison of their gender. The youngest girl, still pre-pubescent, is the strongest fighter, initiating most of their rebellions.

Forced marriage, virginity tests, restrictions on colors and styles of clothes, exclusion from education, and outright family rape make up their constrained circumstances. Nonetheless, the girls manage to maintain a stunning level of loving intimacy. Their solidarity is only matched by their playfulness.

The woman director/writer Deniz Gamze Ergüven has given us an astonishing debut film, with rich performances by the actors. It is crammed with the life of girls, which may explain why it has been nominated for a Foreign Language Film Oscar. Because Mustang is dense with content and relationships, it’s important not to miss the beginning of the film and to stay focused throughout.

Trigger warning: There is violence but it is off-screen. I don’t see films with violence against women, but I’d like to see this one again.

Very highly recommended. Here's the trailer:

 

Only men sit

I need a new office chair. I’m a writer, so I’m in my computer chair about 12 hours a day. The last one I inherited from a friend who died. Now 6 or 7 years later, I suddenly realize there is no seat left. I’m just sitting on the metal under-structure.

The only place that sells decent chairs for under $500 seems to be Staples. Despite my pressing need, I have visited three different Staples branches to try their chairs again and again, without buying one. Why? Because apparently the chair manufacturers have not been informed that women ever sit down. And because they think every man is 6’ tall.

There are at least three results from the fact that the designers and engineers are probably all men:

1) Out of 20 chairs that I tried in Staples, 13 did not lower low enough for me to really plant my feet on the ground. Some of them didn’t lower enough for me to touch anything but my toes to the ground. I’m now 5’2” – that is not so far out of human range to be excluded from a seat.

2) The seats in over half of the chairs are too big, especially from back to knee. If I sit all the way back, my legs don’t bend over the edge.

3) The arm rests are built for arms that hang down from shoulders that are much wider than mine. So the most I can do is rest my forearms on the inner edge of the arm rests, which is very uncomfortable.

All I want is to find something small, compact, comfortable, and healthy. I’ve got my credit card ready. I want to buy. And yet, I have still not found a fitting place to deposit my butt.