greening it up one step at a time

I’m not an environmentalist green freak but I do care about the environment. I realize that it will be difficult for the world’s citizens to scale back and make changes to their lives to the degree necessary to effect REAL change in our environment but that doesn’t mean all efforts are futile.

Side story, my uncle made me SO upset last week when he littered out of the passenger seat window when I was driving. We were in a parking lot, so it didn’t disturb traffic for me to get out of the car and pick up his trash. See, he refused to pick it up himself. He said he didn’t care about the environment and I was on some liberal bullshit. Hmph, and people wonder why their communities look so crappy. I don’t tolerate people litteriing around me and it’s even more enraging when there’s a trashcan in plain sight (as was the case with my uncle). He’s a lost cause though. He thinks processed foods are better than vegetables because they’re processed and that sunscreen is a ploy by manufacturers to get us to buy stuff we don’t need. *le sigh*

Anyway, it makes me feel better to know that I am doing my little itty bitty part to reduce the impact my life has on the earth. I should also confess that bringing my own reusable bags to the grocery store makes me feel slightly superior to you plastic bag packers and double baggers. LOL, I don’t know why. That’s not the main impetus for “going green,” however. I want to be healthy so I want the air, water, earth, and atmosphere to be healthy as well.  I care about what goes on because I don’t want to be a destroyer of worlds (literally)! So I take the time to educate myself about environmental issues by reading books, articles and studies. I also like getting little tips from helpful sites and blogs like the now defunct Make-It-Green Girl and her podcasts. Before going off the air last year, MIGG put together 10 easy steps to take toward living a greener life. She looked at it as a New Year’s resolution kind of list but we can undertake these steps at any time.

part of the problem

Post-Gazette

We have become so accustomed to living in a society saturated with misogyny that the barbaric treatment of women and girls has come to be more or less expected.

We profess to being shocked at one or another of these outlandish crimes, but the shock wears off quickly in an environment in which the rape, murder and humiliation of females is not only a staple of the news, but an important cornerstone of the nation’s entertainment.

– Bob Herbert, “Women at Risk” NYT Column, 8/7/09

Love Lockdown?

Swiped from The Curvature, Cara writes about limited condom access at CVS stores. We’ve all seen condoms locked up behind the counter or out in the aisle somewhere. Like Cara says, I don’t buy condoms at places I need to ask permission to get inside the case. It’s a rubber, not the Hope Diamond! Anyway, it sucks but it’s not hard to believe that communities of color are getting hit with the lockup more so than others. Read the blog below and then click the link at the bottom to make your voice heard on the issue:

Spotlight: the heartbroke daily

I’m not just here to toot my own blog horn. I’m here to put you good people up on to some other good people out there with computers. Enter the heartbroke daily, a literary blog in which a serial lover named Knox Dupree relates the story of a different woman who broke his heart. Every day. Although a fictional character, Knox chronicles his “persistent lovesickness” with the hope that his escapades will shed some light on the “perplexing condition of humanity.”  Here’s one entry that I think illustrates the sad and funny nature of not only Knox Dupree’s life, but of Love itself.

Michelle isn’t losing anything

Reposting from Michelle Obama Watch where Gina points out Michelle Obama’s somewhat different, not lesser, role as First Lady.

We have another in a growing list of laments that somehow the fact that Michelle Obama will not be working for someone else and will be free to fill her time with the activities of her choosing is somehow a great tragedy and a setback for women. This time its Rebecca Traister in The National Post in an article called “Not Such a Long Way Baby”

Americans may be ready for a black president, but not, apparently, for a career-minded First Lady averse to the traditional domesticity of her role…In all the worrying about how Sasha and Malia will adjust to having their lives turned upside down, in all the fretting about how Barack Obama will move his Chicagostyle shop to Washington, why is there so little curiosity about how Michelle will adjust to the loss of her own private, very successful, very high-profile and very independent identity? How will Michelle Obama feel as she becomes what she has long resisted — an extension of her husband? The National Post

Can somebody show me a survey of Americans to support this statement about Americans rejecting the idea of “career-minded” women? Didn’t Lynne Chaney keep her job for the past four years and write a couple of books as well? Weren’t there concerns during the campaign about the role Todd Palin played in Alaska government?

Now during the campaign, I was annoyed with the “Michelle Obama Needs a Makeover” meme that the New York Times pushed tirelessly. I didn’t see anything wrong with her that needed to be made over. All of that “First Mom” business got started to combat the “She’s too STRONG” meme. I reject them both. I reject the notion that MOMs are somehow weak and powerless. HA! You haven’t met my Mama.

Second, I reject the notion that accomplished women are inherently “STRONG” ( good or bad). I know plenty of accomplished, “driven” people who are miserable and crazy. I think both sides of this Mom vs Career argumant are equally annoying because they assume that each is mutually exclusive and one is inferior to the other. It assumes that Michelle’s brain will suddenly stop functioning and she will place all of her talents in a box and hide them away for four or eight years.

Be Bold: Women of Color Against Violence

On Thursday, October 30th, join survivors, allies, activists, organizers, bloggers, artists, sisters and friends in speaking out against violence against women of color.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Violence against women of color is a huge problem the world over. Here in the U.S., a newly released study reinforces what many of us already know, Black women in America are victims of crime at rates higher than our counterparts of other races. The Violence Policy Center’s report“When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2006 Homicide Data,”stated

The study stated there were 1,818 race-identified females murdered by males. And while white women accounted for the largest total of those killed–1,208–African American women were killed at a rate nearly three times higher.

Of those homicides where a murder weapon could be identified, 305 of the victims were fatally shot and most during the course of an argument. (Source Chicago Defender)

Women of color are hit harder by violence often because they already deal with issues that normally make it difficult to exorcise one’s self from a dangerous situation (i.e. economics, housing, family structure, education, and unemployment).

Hey Young World…(the vote is yours)

Peep Jay Smooth of ill doctrine spit it for the youth vote out there. I know I’m tired of hearing this because I’m one of those people who really LIKES to vote and feels it’s a DUTY to do so. There are a lot of knuckleheads out there that don’t get it, though. We ALL need to pull some folks to the side from now up until the polls close at 7pm on Nov 4 and ask, “have you voted yet?”

I already had my seat in hell reserved

but Sarah Palin just told me that I’ve got VIP access now. Sweet! Ta-Nehisi Coates suggested bloggers should post this around the web. Guess he was flabbergasted Palin would basically use religion and the fear of eternal hell-fire to guilt believers into voting for her.

I think the clip is ridiculous, partly because she sounds funny and partly because she takes Madeline Albright’s quote out of context. She even misquotes it by using the word “support” instead of “help”. I have to agree wholeheartedly with a commenter on Coates’ blog who goes by the name Cynic:

[…] It’s a stupid comment, and a cheap throw-away line. But it’s fairly clear that Sarah Palin doesn’t have a theology, as religious scholars might use that term – no systematic understanding of the world or God’s role in it, that seeks to grapple with the paradoxes and profundities of faith. She isn’t speaking a religious truth – support her or burn – so much as giving voice to her twisted brand of feminism, in which opposing an unqualified woman running for office is an act of sexism.

Neo-Buppies

(n.) \nē-ō-bə-pē\
What: Upwardly mobile urbanites conflicted by the challenges of keepin’ it real
Habitat: Conference rooms, ‘hoods
Pet peeves: Hackneyed Diddy-esque excess

I had to laugh at this piece in Radar Magazine. Every issue they feature a new “species” and this month it’s the Neo Buppie. According to writer Brian Marsh,

Jazmin & Neville

New York’s young black urban professionals are definitely upping their game. Rejecting the ghettoizing BET stereotype of the bling-flossing, Cristal-drinking playa, a subtler breed of brothers (and sisters) are deftly navigating their way between outer-borough neighborhoods like Bed-Stuy and Fort Greene and the minimalist conference rooms of Mahattan’s creative professions. Meet the Neo-Buppies. More Kanye than Ghostface Killah, they combine pedigreed educations, lefty politics and ‘hood savvy to infiltrate mainstream ad agencies and publicity firms but still go out of their way to retain the respect of the gully crowd back on the old block. Pulling off their tricky style – a cake-and-eat-it-too mélange of young Hollywood labels, crossover brands, and slyly understated ghetto flourishes – isn’t easy (you try keeping 4,000 fashion codifiers straight!), but it’s paying off. With Barack Obama poised to become America’s new baller-in-chief, dapper rapper-turned-actor Common dropping a new CD, and clean-cut crooner John Legend embarking on a new tour, this brownstone-dwelling, socially conscious crew is taking the nation by storm.

Funny and eerily accurate, save the repeated references to “ghetto” which I find annoying and simple. Not to mention how Marsh gets too hyphy with the hyphen. Whatever. Get your Neo-Bup on by copying Jazmin’s and Neville’s steeze.

“The Unavailable Man”

Ever have someone tell you something you already know to be true, you just needed to hear it come out of someone else’s mouth in a tough-love, “bitch get some ackright!” kind of way? Well, Collete just put it down. Colette, a dating and relationship expert, discusses the enigma of the “unavailable man”. Who is he? Why isn’t he calling you back? And most importantly, how do you move on, once and for all?

Why You Should Say Good-bye to The Unavailable Guy

By Colette

How many times have you thought you met the perfect guy? He’s intelligent, funny, successful, and sexy as hell. You want to date him, and ultimately end up in a relationship with him. However, Mr. Smart and Sexy is only willing to give you a ¼ of his time (if you’re lucky), and you want more.

Sometimes, he calls you. Sometimes, he doesn’t. He pulls disappearing acts for days at a time. He cancels on you at the last minute, and once in a while, he doesn’t even bother to show up. Yet, you continue to see him. You make excuses for him. You tell yourself that he really likes you, but he has so many other things going on.

These are some of the classic excuses when dealing with an unavailable man – and like many women, I’ve used them a million times: