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dragonlady7via http://ift.tt/2ruT7ZT:
So, early news on the Taking Back The Government Starting On A Local Level front– my older sister(the Army sister who we just visited in Georgia)’s best friend from kindergarten thru high school–
whose mother died of cancer when she was a teenager, leaving her to raise 4 younger siblings with no money [her father was a farm laborer, so he was busy and broke], who went on to attend Cornell and row for their women’s 8 on crew, become an environmental engineer of some type, and married into a wealthy [owned a beverage conglomerate, younger brother on the US Olympic ski team a few years back] family out here in Western NY, who just relocated with her three children as her husband started a new career in farming [a big farm, up near where she grew up on a tiny, broke-ass farm, so it was a really wonderful homecoming for her], and found herself busy enough with the kids that she hadn’t looked into a new job yet while they remodeled their house and settled back into her childhood community–
well, she got fired up what with all this nonsense lately, so she ran for the local school board, she and another youngish woman (my sister will be 40 this year, so that’s what I mean by “youngish”), and overwhelmingly defeated the incumbents, who had been in power for decades and had been of the sort to “run the school like a business” and “cut costs” and dumb shit that gives you illiterate children you idiots. I couldn’t believe they were still in power; I haven’t been registered in that county since I moved away in 2002, but I sure recognized their names. When my mother was a teacher she picketed against them; I registered to vote as soon as I could, just to vote against them at her behest, but we couldn’t unseat them. They were local businessmen and thought they knew everything.
Well, they’ve finally been defeated: by a pair of educated, intelligent, driven young mothers from the neighborhood who aren’t going to put up with that bullshit anymore.
I’d link to a news story or something but there are only dry tables of schoolboard election results that won’t mean anything to anyone. But have, here, my anecdata: those campaigns encouraging women to run for office are starting to bear their first fruit. I’ve always admired this woman; she’s smart, she’s funny, she’s witty and she’s kind, she bore up phenomenally under tragedy and adversity and worked hard to find the fairy-tale future she’d always hoped for. She and my sister and about half a dozen other girls were all on the track team together and formed this straight-A no-nonsense cabal that ruled the school; her 4x400m hurdles record with my sister and two others stayed up on the gym wall for over a decade.
May her star continue to rise, and may others like her rise up as well.
(One of her younger sisters went to Cornell too, along with my youngest sister, the farm sister, so our families have remained somewhat close.)
So, early news on the Taking Back The Government Starting On A Local Level front– my older sister(the Army sister who we just visited in Georgia)’s best friend from kindergarten thru high school–
whose mother died of cancer when she was a teenager, leaving her to raise 4 younger siblings with no money [her father was a farm laborer, so he was busy and broke], who went on to attend Cornell and row for their women’s 8 on crew, become an environmental engineer of some type, and married into a wealthy [owned a beverage conglomerate, younger brother on the US Olympic ski team a few years back] family out here in Western NY, who just relocated with her three children as her husband started a new career in farming [a big farm, up near where she grew up on a tiny, broke-ass farm, so it was a really wonderful homecoming for her], and found herself busy enough with the kids that she hadn’t looked into a new job yet while they remodeled their house and settled back into her childhood community–
well, she got fired up what with all this nonsense lately, so she ran for the local school board, she and another youngish woman (my sister will be 40 this year, so that’s what I mean by “youngish”), and overwhelmingly defeated the incumbents, who had been in power for decades and had been of the sort to “run the school like a business” and “cut costs” and dumb shit that gives you illiterate children you idiots. I couldn’t believe they were still in power; I haven’t been registered in that county since I moved away in 2002, but I sure recognized their names. When my mother was a teacher she picketed against them; I registered to vote as soon as I could, just to vote against them at her behest, but we couldn’t unseat them. They were local businessmen and thought they knew everything.
Well, they’ve finally been defeated: by a pair of educated, intelligent, driven young mothers from the neighborhood who aren’t going to put up with that bullshit anymore.
I’d link to a news story or something but there are only dry tables of schoolboard election results that won’t mean anything to anyone. But have, here, my anecdata: those campaigns encouraging women to run for office are starting to bear their first fruit. I’ve always admired this woman; she’s smart, she’s funny, she’s witty and she’s kind, she bore up phenomenally under tragedy and adversity and worked hard to find the fairy-tale future she’d always hoped for. She and my sister and about half a dozen other girls were all on the track team together and formed this straight-A no-nonsense cabal that ruled the school; her 4x400m hurdles record with my sister and two others stayed up on the gym wall for over a decade.
May her star continue to rise, and may others like her rise up as well.
(One of her younger sisters went to Cornell too, along with my youngest sister, the farm sister, so our families have remained somewhat close.)
