The Glass Menagerie

She Stoops To Conquer

Raising Your Voice Lowers Your Dignity: Probably nothing should surprise us when it comes to politics. America has boasted of its melting pot standing for decades. Inside a melting pot is a, dare I say, olio? We are a nation of “people of color.” It rankles me when one ethnic group uses that descriptor for its own. People of color come in every hue – black, brown, red, yellow, bronze, and oh yes, white. The melting pot includes males, females, hermaphrodites, gays, straights, asexual, Christians, Muslims, other types of theists, atheists, and immigrants from every country and even countries that no longer exist. Every person who arrived in this great country had to be true to their individuality while attempting to blend into the vaguely defined mainstream. Every group has had a glass ceiling to break through.

Discrimination is not limited to race and gender: The American society is based on equality. That is sometimes a difficult concept to grasp; since we are all different, how can we all be equal? Equality means equal opportunity and freedom allows for those consenting adults to opt to not to follow the path of equality. An example currently in the news is the women of a polygamous sect. If they choose to live as “sister wives” American freedom allows them to do so provided no laws are broken. Yet every group that is different from the mainstream – whether that difference is racial, gender, ethnic, religious, or any other defining characteristic – has had to fight for equality.

Dogs and Irish Keep Off The Grass: Those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it. American Indian tribes discriminated against each other. Early settlers discriminated against the Indians, Jews, Irish, Slavs, Chinese, Africans, Japanese, Arabs, and nearly all religious groups faced a glass ceiling. Some broke it with the help of anti-discrimination laws, others by having members of their group become prominent and increased in number to become part of the mainstream. But although many groups have broken through that mythical glass ceiling others still crash against it for the process is a slow, tedious, and often frustrating one.

Hillary, Geraldine, and the Glass Ceiling: One of Hillary Clinton’s surrogates, herself once a vice presidential candidate, has made the talk show circuit claiming blatant gender discrimination by the Obama camp toward Senator Clinton. The surrogate implies that the so-called glass ceiling is keeping her candidate from winning the nomination. News flash for the surrogate and the Clinton camp: the very fact that Hillary is a viable competitive candidate shows that the barrier that would keep women from the highest office in the land has been breached. To suggest that she should be elected BECAUSE she is a woman, or for that matter that Senator Obama should be elected BECAUSE he is the first African American to run is to perpetuate the very discrimination against which she rails.

May the best... uh, Person Win: The Clinton campaign needs to refocus from crying to campaigning. Moving the goalposts to suit your strengths is a strategy I find unsavory, but it seems to be working for her. She has become a much better campaigner and her abrasive factor has smoothed considerably. If she wins the nomination it needs to be because she ran a better campaign – not because the sleaze factors of whining, devisiveness and mudslinging boosted her numbers.

A little blogging music Maestro.... “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” by Elton John.

Dr. Forgot