2008 Woodie Awards
I’m blogging for the Katrina Project, an effort to raise money for the New Orleans Library System. Check it out (and consider donating).
Has anyone been keeping up with the news story about the life-size sculpture of Britney Spears giving birth for purposes of promoting a Pro-Life mentality? (And isn’t embarrassed to admit it?) Well, I have – and I only have this to say: I don’t even care that conservatives are using a pop star as a political tool to wage ideological war, but they could at least attempt to display some cogency in their thought process. If you haven’t seen the sculpture, Mrs. Federline, née Spears, is giving birth on a bear skin rug. She is clutching the head of a bear with its jaw open as she…bends over. Does anyone else see the irony and contradiction in using the carcass of a once majestic and breathing creature in a sculpture meant to promote the sanctity of life?
As of last night, we as Princeton students have a key voice in the pending Lewis v Harris case. Princeton Justice Project, submitting an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs, seven gay and lesbian couples seeking the right to marry, successfully petitioned the USG to put a referendum on next month’s election ballot to have them sign onto the brief. A ‘yes’ on the referendum, and thus having the Princeton student body stamp their name on the cause of state civil rights, would send a bold, important message New Jersey should hear.
There was a lot of talk at last night’s USG meeting about the role of student government in political stance taking. The bottom line, though, is that the USG has certainly taken stances on national issues before: in the 1970s taking a stand on divestment from South Africa, in 2003 passing a resolution in favor of the University’s amicus brief on college admission affirmative action. Further, gay marriage is as much a student concern as it is a national or political one; Lewis v Harris would entitle gay Princeton students who choose to marry the same rights as married heterosexual students (think married housing, etc). The matter could even affect the caliber of students Princeton attracts, as under Massachusetts law at Harvard gay students can marry, and at Yale in Connecticut enter into a civil union. The USG has the opportunity to tell gay students that Princeton values the rights competitor schools grant them. Moreover, because the matter is going through referendum, USG members need not worry they are deciding an issue excluded from the platform they were elected on–it’s impossible to misrepresent a studentry plainly asserting issue-specific, yes or no feedback. Indeed, if the USG signs the brief, it won’t just be the student government talking–it will be the student body.
Obviously, it’s imperative gay students and their allies help to win this vote. Chris Lloyd, head of the Gay Family Rights Project of the PJP, is compiling an email list of supporters; to receive updates and information on how to help, email Chris.
The Texas Taliban won big last night as 74% of voters approved an amendment to the state constitution that bans gay marriage.
It should be patently clear that there’s a strong judicial precedent against the ability of individual states to make their own marriage laws. Go back to 1967, when the Supreme Court ruled in Loving v. Virginia that individual states couldn’t prohibit persons of different races from marrying each other. You can see where I’m going with this: the logic of Loving clearly suggests that states can’t enact laws prohibiting same-sex life partners from entering into the same institutional arrangement enjoyed by different-sex couples.
I think the Supreme Court needs to clarify what the Constitution says about gay marriage. The question, it seems to me, is whether the Loving precedent is the right one here.
My CP colleague Josh Eidelson really does nail the point about Rosa Parks. Plenty of folks will try to sanitize what she did on that bus, but historically-informed Americans should resist that urge.
We’re debating it at Campus Progress. Join in; it’ll be fun! And maybe I will reveal what I actually think about it at some point. It’s all Savickas’ fault, anyway.
With that, nothing more from me until Monday. Have a nice weekend. I won’t led the indictments hit me on the way out.
Here’s an event happening tonight:
Oh the Lies We Told; Bringing Abortion to America
Wednesday, Oct 19 at 7:30 PM
Duration: 1 hourLocation: McCosh 50
Category: Lectures
This event offers free food.Details:
A Panel Discussion featuring Robert P. George, Bernard Nathanson, and Ramesh Ponnuru
Come hear a very distinguished panel discuss how abortion was brought to America. McCormick Professor Robert P. George will discuss the underlying jurisprudence of Roe v. Wade, National Review Editor Ramesh Ponnuru ‘95 will present on the historical developments underlying abortion on demand, and Dr. Bernard Nathanson, co-founder of the National Association for the Repeal of the Abortion Laws (NARAL) who subsequently became pro-life, will reveal the lies that he and his colleagues told to pave the way for abortion in America.
Contact prolife@princeton.edu for more information or to be placed on our email list.
[fruit and cookies. There’ll be drinks and whatnot too]
I honestly wish that these people would be as concerned about the lives of the born as they seem to be about the unborn.
Sam:
Honest journalists do not cite anonymous sources with titles that are this misleading. “Former hill staffer” is a term that could be applied to thousands of schmucks I know, including my roommate. Scooter Libby is Cheney’s chief of staff! If you describe him as a “former hill staffer,” you’re doing it for one reason: you want to help an administration that is trying to take down Joe Wilson without getting caught. In other words, you’re collaborating on a crime!
Judith Miller- no sympathy, utter scorn from me at the moment.
The following is the text of a short speech that I delivered last night at a Hurricane Katrina benefit concert held in the University Chapel:
“It’s now been over a month since that fatefall morning on August 29th when Hurricane Katrina made landfall near Buras, Louisiana. At that time, my family and I sat around the TV in Dallas watching and waiting to see what would happen to our house, our home, and our community.
We hoped the levees would hold and that the pumps would work as they should… but that was not to be. That night, and the next day, and into the next, we sat watching glassy-eyed, as the situation went from bad, to worse, to catastrophic. Looters-of all races, mind you-broke into stores, some searching for food and water on which to live and others searching for vengeance and for payback. Rescuers tried their best to save people but with communications down, they found their efforts to be greatly hampered.
This is the story we’ve all heard- both you and I. We all know about the incompetence of the politicians– both local and federal, Democrat and Republican. We all know about the failure of those heading the relief efforts to act swiftly, appropriately, and effectively. We all know this, and those individuals responsible have felt the repercussions.
But perhaps we’ve been learning the wrong lessons from the Hurricane. As Princeton Prof. Eddie Glaude explained at a panel examining the Hurricane’s aftermath “Katrina displayed the disaster that was already among us.”
Before the Hurricane transformed it back into a swamp, New Orleans stood as a monument to our inability as a nation to confront the problem of urban poverty. One out of every four New Orleans residents, most of them black, lived below the poverty line. Every morning, these individuals sent their children off to learn– or fail to learn- at some of the worst public schools in the entire nation. During the day, they went to work at jobs that often didn’t pay enough to make ends meet. At night, they returned home to dilapidated slums and dangerous housing projects.
These were the people that society forgot- these were the people that society did its best to ignore.
Not surprisingly, when the hurricane loomed perilously close in the Gulf of Mexico and evacuation orders were issued telling residents to get out of town, the poor of New Orleans, of Mississippi, of Alabama, of our country, were ignored again. The one-third of New Orleans households without an automobile- three times the national average- had no way of leaving the city. No buses came along to pick them up. They were left to fend completely for themselves.
Major events fade quickly into memory, and the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina will probably not be an exception to this rule. But I cling to the hope that this natural disaster will lift the veil of invisibility cloaking the human disasters that lurk in cities across the nation.
Give money to help those effected by Hurricane Katrina, but I implore all of you: please don’t stop there.”
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