(9AM EST – promoted by Nightprowlkitty)
Bless her soul, Mom would’a been 96 had she lived this long. It never occurred to me that she must’ve been age six when women got the vote. I just never thought about it I guess. Anyway. She was a lifelong Democrat of the FDR / Kennedy persuasion (she grew up in the Berkshires) and an avid political junkie before there really was such a thing.
She was also…. how shall I say this…? hell on wheels if you crossed her. There was a down side to that, if you were her kid, heh, but…. man… she would have LOVED this letter (full text after the leap). It’s so …. her style. lol
Jane Hamsher posted this letter at FDL A new letter to President Obama from Donna L. Wagner, President of the Older Women’s League (OWL), is still calling for Simpson to be – er, canned.
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500Dear Mr. President,
It is with great disappointment that we received your response to the situation regarding Alan Simpson’s continued co-chairmanship of your National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. I sincerely hope that Mr. Simpson apologized to you for his embarrassing actions and that is why you have chosen to accept his apology and keep him on board. OWL released a statement yesterday that expressed our Executive Director, Ashley Carson’s, gratitude for Mr. Simpson’s prompt apology, but that OWL still wishes to see him resign.
Today is Women’s Equality Day. Last week Carson was the keynote speaker at the Veterans’ Administration celebration of this momentous occasion, and today many of our colleagues are all across the country speaking and celebrating the day that women finally got the right to vote in the United States. It’s been ninety years since women got the right to vote, but sexism still exists in many forms, both subtly and blatantly.
OWL’s members believe that choosing to keep Mr. Simpson as your co-chair sends a message that your Administration does not take sexism seriously and also that you are not concerned about Mr. Simpson’s views regarding Social Security. There are a number of occasions where racial discrimination appeared both within government and elsewhere, and where your Administration acted swiftly and appropriately to correct wrongdoing. Why is one form of discrimination any different from another?
OWL does not accept discrimination in any form – sex, race, religion, socio-economic status, health status and the like.
We appreciate the Women’s Equality Day Proclamation that you released earlier today and will be sending it to all of our members and friends. As you call upon Americans to “recommit themselves to the goal of true gender equality in this country,” it is important that you lead by example. Alan Simpson’s actions do not reflect your vision.
We have supported your efforts to reform health care and have been there to support any and all of your efforts that result in improvements to the lives of women as we age. Therefore, we respectfully request that you reconsider your decision to keep Alan Simpson in such a prestigious and important position under your leadership.Sincerely,
Donna L. Wagner, Ph.D.
President, Older Women’s League
The tone is completely respectful, civil, and appropriate, yet it’s “passive aggressive” as all get out.
Maybe I’ll go join them. Oops, they have “dues”. Well, at least I’ll try to send them a Thank You note. Mom would approve.
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I like it! Doubtful Obama (who picked him) thinks much about “older women” of the kind that really need SS or medicare. Or younger women who may need medicaid.
Speaking of suckling government programs – wonder how much $$$ Alan has scarfed down since his senatorial days, his gold plated “government” pension and his 4 star medical insurance. I presume he is getting paid for his “work” on this committee as well.
Oh the irony.
women’s role in the Five Nation Confederacy of the Iroquois League? Women were full, voting decision makers with respect to economic activities (agricultural), and lineal descent ran in the female line. A little too radical for the framers of our Constitution, no? Men and Women following the status of the Mother, reflecting ideas of an egalitarian society? And this was hundreds of years before women even got the vote here!
Fiscal Responsibility Commission? WTF! How about a Commission for the Rededication of American Idealism? Good old, basic, social equality stuff? Or is there nothing here to rededicate to? Perhaps we need to focus on Core Moral Values and how those can mould economic activity rather than the other way around! Are we friggin backwards or not?
this letter and your essay. She too was a FDR/Kennedy Democrat and a closet socialist who belonged to a country club and yet took me and my grandma to hear Eldredge Cleaver speak at USC in Irvine. My dad would say Uh,Oh Gretchen’s on her soap box when she would start with her frequent political rants. My mom too was passive aggressive, in a manipulative way, she would say you get more flies with honey then vinegar, social graces were important. On the other hand she would go all out aggressive when dealing with the pols of Orange County where we lived. She was an all out feisty liberal.
As regards to Allen Simpson the sexist aspect of his email while appalling was just one aspect of it’s offensiveness. He’s a ultra ‘conservative’ hateful ranting ideologue. His whole POV and agenda is blatantly against social equality, democracy or even common decency. You have to wonder why he was/is on this administrations political stage. The only reason’s I come up with are CT and fixes, set up’s for ‘compromise’. I don’t think being polite or passive aggressive or even civil makes a difference when addressing this traitorous administration. Lawless sociopaths could care less about older women or younger women or people at large were just in the way of their nasty visions of greed and dominance.
…your mother. As Shaharazade says above, my mother would love this also. BTW: Mine would have been 100 last May 1st.
“I got a raise last week” when her SS check went up a bit. She was all proud about it. Then we’d go out for coffee and danish or something wild like that – her treat. Good times.
When I watch older people standing in front of some produce or canned goods thinking hard about saving a few cents (hell I do it myself), I’d like to take one of those cans and throw it at the nearest deficit hawk in sight.
I am so sick and tired of people like Simpson and his “folksy” talk. He is a mean sob. Don’t forget it. Every time someone talks about their grandchildren’s futures to me as one of the selling points of “tweaking” SS, I say I am amazed that they would consider handing their grandchildren’s future to people like Peterson or Simpson. Wake the hell up people. None of us know what hardships may come up in our lives and many would be damned grateful for a check coming in regularly if their fortunes went south.
shot across the bow of Social Security. For Obama to have appointed Simpson and Bowles as co-chairs reflects more than anything else the death of social consciousness in American politics. And by a Democratic president, yet. American Empire is now transcendent policy. The wagons are forming around War and Exploitative Capitalism, ready to fight any who dare to challenge and any who dare to weaken it. And dismantling the main pillars of the FDR/LBJ legacy is now number 1 on their list.
Simpson (Wyoming) and Bowles (N. Carolina) are so removed from the average person that it’s laughable if it weren’t tragic. They’ve laid their cards out on the table, and it appears that the American People might actually fold. Only Obama could have brought this about. In retrospect, politically, McCain Palin would have been better.