My last word on McCain/Palin - I promise (sort of)

Which will not be mine but Vicki Noble's.I received an email from her today from which I will, with her permission, quote. Recalling the cultural revolution of the 60s and the years of reaction since, she asks:
" Sisters, don't you remember? We went wild. Like the ancient Greek Maenads (or the Indian Yoginis and Tibetan Dakinis, for that matter), we cut loose. We left our husbands, threw off our repressive jobs, our bogus traditional values and conditioned knee-jerk responses. We left the churches and synagogues in droves, we left behind the corporate tracking system and the academic elitism that supported it. We opted out in favor of freedom, liberation, and authenticity. It was a magical, thrilling, and transformative revolution in which, collectively, we took back the night, owned our own bodies, and awakened to our unique human potential."

And the rhetoric from the right ever since has been aimed at undoing this revolution and returning to "traditional" values. Politicians for whom liberation has meant the freedom to line their own pockets and to terrorise those whom they see to threaten this freedom. Faced with the crucial nature of these times, Vicki then asks this question:

"What would happen if we cut loose and became ourselves? What if we took a stance that looked more like the Daly show (Comedy Central), what if we were to laugh out loud at the absurdities and mock the players, rocking out--instead of trying to stay all buttoned up and proper? I think we've sold out our "shakti" (natural female power) in our efforts to tow the line. The revolutionary movements of the 1960s and 1970s weren't based on being square--they emerged out of a volcanic explosion of spontaneous life-force energy and creative self-expression."

A good question and a good point. I remember the feeling of the 60s - I remember the conviction that things did not have to be the way they were. And that conviction has never died - but I learnt to moderate it and try to hide who I was. That time is now past - I no longer want to hide - the threat is too grave for that luxury. So, as promised I will leave the last words to Vicki:

"I just can't see going on in the normal polite way, which will surely cost us the election. Change or die, that's the call. Let's come together, make alliances, practice solidarity. Vote for life. Organize for change. Break free. Do something radical or unexpected. Fight to win!"