Don't Gel Too Soon

Behind Every Stimulus Package Are People Who Need Help

I spent part of Thursday sitting in Starbucks on the GW (George Washington University) campus after a meeting, loving being around all these students buzzing and working and laughing.  I loved college; could feel my head growing.  It's an amazing time in a young person's life and one that forms much of who we are later.  Now, though, the carefree collegian is a thing of the past.  Everyone has jobs and student loans.  Instead of leaving school with a "sky's the limit" ambition, many must look first for the job that will help them pay off their loans, and only then for the one they'll really love.

Here are some stories:

• When my husband graduated from medical school we had under $4,000 in loans to pay off.
• One of my son's friends left undergraduate school with over $100,000 in debt
• A wonderful friend who is a born teacher went to law school and then to a firm.  I asked her why.  She told me she would only be able to consider teaching once her loans were paid off - and they were enormous.
• As I've written before, both of my parents were formed by the Depression.  Each hoped for a career they were never able to pursue; instead they took the subject-related scholarships they were offered and were grateful to have them.  A would-be artist became a teacher; an architect a lawyer.  Neither complained overtly about this; I learned these facts in passing and both were quick to add how glad they were to have been able to go to college at all.
• My sisters and I were blessed to have college paid for; we were told that our education was our inheritance and not to look for much more, which was fine with us.  But most families just can't do that anymore.  It's too expensive.
• Many political observers posit that there would have been no anti-war movement in the 60's if college students had had to work while in school.  Most of us had our tuitions taken care of; that meant that we had time to organize and raise hell. 
• I remember a good friend, at dinner, saying to me bitterly, "Jim and I never had time for that stuff.  We were both working to get through school.  You guys were so righteous but you had no idea what we were doing just to be able to stay through the semester." 
• I told a recent college graduate how impressed I was with what he'd accomplished.  His response:  " didn't do anything.  Colin slept in his van for a semester because he couldn't pay both tuition and rent.  Be impressed with him!"

So.  This is kind of a random list but when we're arguing over stimulus packages, we need to remember the people behind them.  Like these. 

Hey Oscar? You Have Some Explaining to Do!

SWhen I was a kid on Oscar night, my parents made me go to bed way before the show was over, but my dad always kept a winners list for me on a shirt cardboard so I wouldn't miss anything.  It seemed so important then.  Without the entertainment shows like ET and Access Hollywood, the unedited Oscar acceptance speeches were one of the few times we got to see celebrities revealed.  It was thrilling.

Of course, the mystique - and the Oscar TV audiences -- have eroded since then.  It will be interesting to see if tonights "new" Oscars  -- which do look better and at least are doing things with a little more wit and humor - make a difference.  I'm watching as I write this - amazed that Jessica Biel, the wayward daughter from the sentimental but sweet Seventh Heaven, got to present alone  -- even if it was the tech awards.  Who would have predicted that?

I think I'm out of touch, or I've gotten crotchety in my old age.  Why?  First of all, though I'm a real, loyal Woody Allen fan, I did NOT like Vicky Christina Barcelona. . Penelope Cruz was fine, but not the best.  It's so sad when two nominees (like those in Doubt) are set against one another and split the vote.  I'm assuming that's how Cruz won.  The two women from Doubt - - Amy Adams and and Viola Davis -  especially Davis,  were just astonishing.  Their bad luck to be opposite one another in the same category.

Meanwhile, I'm struggling to figure out how to talk about the presenters in the "best supporting"category.  Goldie Hawn, whom I've always loved, just made me sad.  We're nearly the same age, and she certainly looks better than I do.  BUT tonight she looked so over surgeried, overstuffed into her dress, over everything.  It was like she had been blown up with a bicycle pump - all swollen.  BUT tonight she looked so over surgeried, overstuffed into her dress, over everything.  It was like she had been blown up with a bicycle pump - all swollen.  The toughest thing of all, though, is how many of this year's most honored movies were movies I really didn't like. 

I've written before about Slumdog.  I probably should have known I wouldn't love it; I wanted to see it too much.  It's sweet and explores the poverty and misery in India, but it just didn't do it for me.  Too neat, too pat, And, to me, terribly manipulative.  As I said, Vicky Christina Barcelona was disappointing too, shallow and silly.  I'm also ornery about the show itself.  I actually loved the musical numbers- long or not, even though everybody on Twitter was complaining about them.  Probably showing my age.  

Anyway, the show was way too long but I'm not sure what I would have cut.  I loved the five veterans honoring the nominees too.  Beyond that I'm not sure.  What I am sure of is that at least now I don't have to wait until I wake up in the morning and get the Oscar results from a shirt cardboard on the kitchen table.

The Blogging Boomers Carnival (#105) Lands Here Once Again

It's Carnival time again; the Blogging Boomers have landed here at Don't Gel Too Soon, and they have plenty to offer.  From Hole in the Donut, a story of how small the world really is - her blog helped a man discover his lost family roots when she published a present day photo of a storefront in Matten, Switzerland that had belonged to his grandfather.  He was able to match it to a historical photo that ultimately led him to records that confirmed his ancestry. 

Meanwhile, Rhea Becker tell us that she's always dreamed of opening a restaurant.  Would her Amish-concept restaurant survive in Boston?  Learn more at The Boomer Chronicles.

Is it possible to go through menopause "naturally"? asks Wendy Lawson, who put that question to a well-respected herbalist and integrative medicine physician, and shares her advice at Menopause The Blog.

On another topic, were you part of the Oscar audience?  Over at Fabulous After 40, they ask the question…How do the over 40 celebrities get to looking so sleek and perfect on the red carpet?

We all know that I Remember JFK comes up with some great memories.  This time it’s a Buffalo Nickel, in typical 1960's condition, that he found as a kid.  As he puts it:  “It wasn't often that a kid of the 60's had change in his pocket. At least it wasn't often that I did. Come to think of it, I'm short of cash right now.  Some things never change.

But go back to 1967, and if a fortunate youngster found himself with a chunk of change in his pocket, the odds were pretty favorable that among the coinage was a Buffalo Nickel or two. 

And while we're looking back -- we all do it, but it's got a bad name with most mental health professionals.  That might be changing though. What are we talking about at LifeTwo?   Nostalgia.

Here's a nice simple one on Boomer life from the Midlife Crisis Queen:  Behaviors to avoid when midlife crisis strikes! 

In another take on life, Dina at This Marriage Thing says: Single?  Here's a bit of advice on choosing the purrfect mate..

After reading a magazine article about young entrepreneurs where only 3 of 16 were women, Andrea Stenberg wonders Are Young Women Less Likely to Be Entrepreneurs?

On the political side (sort of:) Feeling a bit Obamar-ific, Janet Wendy at Gen Plus, brings you some new

online goodies from the White House

Add some technology to your politics: Barack Obama does it.  So do William Shatner, Richard Branson and John Cleese...  What is it?  Twittering.  Tweating.  Microblogging...  If you want to get in on the act, head over to Contemporary Retirement.

Ditching the N Word: Happy Weekend

Even if this is only half true, it's pretty amazing.  Next time we wonder about the impact of this election this is something to add to the equation.  Just ask an anthropologist or a semanticist or semioticist -- or for that matter a historian: language forms perspective on ideas and this is, well, riveting.(H/T to Ben Smith's Politico blog for this clip.)

Will the Obama Tax Cut Help YOU?

I didn't know about this until my friend Madeleine Perry tweeted it, so I thought maybe you didn't either. It's the Obama-Biden Tax Cut Calculator. This video explains it. Instead of fighting over tax cuts, who gets them and how much they'll yield, we can just figure it out here. Give it a try.

Remember That Old Saying "Those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it?" Well, Look at Our Economy and Believe

OK here's my question.  Did you go to high school?  Didn't they teach us all that one of the major causes of the Great Depression was leveraging, buying "on margins": buying stock for a percentage and paying off the rest from sale of the stock at a higher rate, until price slides caused the crash?  AND didn't they teach us that we had rules and regulations now that would prevent such a thing from ever happening again?  And that our government kept an eye on all that sort of investment?  And that we were safe?

So what happened?  Wasn't the SEC supposed to regulate speculation?  Weren't banks, like stock investments, supposed to be monitored?  Weren't bank boards supposed to monitor housing loans?  How did we land here again?

I wish I understood better the deregulation that I know has been implemented over time.  I know that some of the housing regulatory let-up was designed to make it easier for less affluent Americans to buy homes and ended up making many of these same people vulnerable to predatory lenders.  I know that some people simply bought homes they couldn't afford, and banks let them do it.  I know that there have been stories about this for years, yet it continued.

I know that regulation has been substantially lifted from our entire market system.  I know that our crisis is infecting other countries and taking the global economy with it.  That the American consumer has kept our economy strong for years and that now, as consumers lock up their money and cancel their credit cards, that vital tool is fading.

As a US website, America.gov, explained in December:

Goods and services purchased by Americans make up one-fifth of the global economy, but the third quarter of 2008 saw the largest drop in consumer spending since 1980.

As the financial-market turbulence prompts U.S. households to cut back spending, economies around the globe feel repercussions.

Even after all this time, it's so hard to think about this - about how clear it is now that the deregulation and even the push for an arguably necessary but overdone easing of credit for housing purchases, how between politics and greed, banks lent to many who had no business entering into the debt that has rendered them homeless now. And that doesn't even begin to consider the careless greed of much of the financial community. Nothing new here.

But I'll bet I'm not the only one whose anger continues to grow, whose frustration continues to grow, whose sadness overpowers. The futures of my honorable, hard-working children and their friends, and the younger ones who come after, are rendered fragile and discouraging. The future of the ideas and principles that were the Obama campaign are endangered by debt and the need to rescue the economy.  The debts of the Bush years have eliminated alternatives.  And as usual, when politics gets ugly and institutions become careless, the future of those who most rely on government support or protection, the weakest and less established among us, are hurt the most.

If I were my friends PunditMom Joanne or Jill, at Writes Like She Talks, I would have lots of policy citations to back all this up.  But this is a piece built more of mourning than reporting.  Some days recently, as I think about all this, I can literally feel myself in my seat in AP American History reading about the Great Depression and the checks put into place to prevent its recurrence.  I can literally feel myself listening to my parents describe their lives in the 1930's and the permanent scars those years left.  And in some ways, I can't believe it, can't believe that carelessness and greed and ignorance and an arrogance beyond describing has threatened us with those times once again. 

Women's Health Care Takes the Stage on the Hill

It makes sense.  On the heels of the announcement of a new committee (H/T Writes LIke She Talks and Punditmom) to oversee protection of women's rights, the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Human Rights, Democracy, and Global Women's Issues, Rep. Jan  Schakowsky (D-IL), U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) have introduced the “Health Care for Women Resolution.”  The resolution outlines a "new framework for women’s health" and ensure that women’s needs are a key part of the national health reform debate.  At a newsconference today, where they announced the resolution, members of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health released a report that makes it clear why such a resolution is necessary.

The report, “Women’s Health and Health Care Reform: The Key Role of Comprehensive Reproductive Care,” explores the importance or reproductive health in women’s overall health and urges that the promotion of reproductive health be part of any national health plan. Thirty-eight of fifty deans of schools of public health have endorsed the recommendations in the report. 

At a news conference announcing the resolutions, Rep. Schakowsky said:

"Any debate on national healthcare reform must address the healthcare needs of women who are often the primary caregivers and decision makers for their families," said Representative Schakowsky. "We know that women face exceptional challenges and have a very personal stake in fixing our broken health care system -- they know we need to act now. The current economic crisis is not an excuse for delay; it is a persuasive argument for an immediate response.

With new leadership on the Hill and in the White House, let's hope these are the first of many positive developments.

Blogging Boomers Are at It Again!

I'm a bit late posting this week; life took over unexpectedly.  But that doesn't diminish the usual value in the assembly known as Blogging Boomers Blog Carnival #103, this week posted by Ann Harrison at Contemporary Retirement.  This time we have everything from the stimulus package to canned food to hormone replacement.  And there's lots more.  Don't miss it.

Bloggers Support Kim Gandy for Women's Bureau Leadership,

Despite the unpleasant posturing of the New Agenda, leading feminist bloggers are lifting their voices (or keyboards) in support of Kim Gandy, currently President of NOW, as the best and most effective candidate for leadership of the Labor Department's Women's Bureau.  Among those speaking up are Liza Sabater of Culture Kitchen, Veronica Arreola at Viva La Feminista, PunditMom's Joanne Bamberger, Jill Miller Zimon at Writes Like She Talks, and me.  We need more!

Kim Gandy Would Be a Perfect Director of the Women's Bureau

This is Kim Gandy, currently moving toward the end of her second term as President of the National Organization for Women - known to most as NOW.  Throughout her tenure she has been a fierce, sensitive and sensible advocate for women's rights and the rights of women as workers, whether at WalMart or West Point.  (see her bio here or at the bottom of this post*) The initiatives she's launched have raised visibility and prospects for issues ranging from equal rights to violence against women, and she's been a national political force for women and girls.   As a modern leader and early adopter of the Web, she has been a frequent speaker at online conferences including BlogHer, and Fem 2.0 among others.   She is also, warm, smart, funny and determined.

Now she is a prime candidate to become Director of the Women's Bureau in the Department of Labor, a job she was born, and trained, to do, and there is a vague but nasty smear campaign emerging from a new organization that has very little track record and claims what appears to be a non-partisanship.  I don't want to give them any more traffic by linking to them.  But believe me, Kim Gandy, (full disclosure:  I have worked a bit with her on a broad women's initiative) is a spectacular leader, committed to the equality and well-being of all women.  If she is chosen, she will use her vast experience - and her vast network - to serve the women of this country with determination and political savvy. 

We need and deserve her as our advocate in the Women's Bureau, and any who question her commitment or capacity are, in my view, sadly mistaken.  Please ignore any groups detracting from her and her dedication to the safety, equality and success of American women and those around the world.  And if you're so inclined, you might want to post about it yourself!

*Kim Gandy - President

Kim Gandy is serving her second term as president of the National Organization for Women, elected by the group's grassroots members in 2001 and again in 2005. She has served as a national officer of NOW since 1987 and in state, local and regional leadership positions since 1973.

Gandy also is president of the NOW Foundation, chair of NOW's Political Action Committees, and serves as the principal spokesperson for all three entities. Gandy oversees NOW's multi-issue agenda, which includes: advancing reproductive freedom, promoting diversity and ending racism, stopping violence against women, winning LGBT rights, ensuring economic justice, ending sex discrimination and achieving equality for women.

Since 2001, Gandy has led NOW's campaigns on issues ranging from Supreme Court nominations to the rights of mothers and caregivers, from Social Security reform to ending the war in Iraq. Through grassroots political action, Gandy helped increase the women's vote and change the face of Congress in 2006 and is leading the organization's efforts around the pivotal 2008 elections.

Gandy regularly appears in print, television, radio and Internet media, and she appreciates the enormous impact the media have on women's lives. Under her direction, NOW has continued a decades-long commitment to media issues, such as expanding women's opportunities in the broadcast industry, increasing news coverage of women's issues, and improving the portrayal of women and girls in advertising and all media.

During Gandy's presidency, NOW celebrated its 40 year anniversary, organized conferences on issues affecting women of color and women with disabilities, campaigned against Wal-Mart as a Merchant of Shame, and expanded efforts to win equal marriage rights and benefits for same-sex couples. Through the creation of NOW's Campus Action Network and the Young Feminist Task Force, Gandy has demonstrated a commitment to reaching out to young women and encouraging their leadership in the organization.

During her first presidential term, Gandy was one of the lead organizers of The March for Women's Lives in 2004. Gandy was a key organizer of the 1989 and 1992 marches, and her expertise in mass actions helped ensure that 1.2 million activists made the 2004 march for women's reproductive freedom the largest and most diverse grassroots mobilization in our nation's history.

In the legislative arena, Gandy served on the drafting committees for two groundbreaking federal laws: the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which gave women the right to a jury trial and monetary damages in cases of sex discrimination and sexual harassment, and the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which has dramatically decreased the daily violence at abortion clinics. In addition, Gandy led the fight against anti-abortion terrorists through the landmark racketeering case NOW v. Scheidler, which was in litigation for two decades and reached the Supreme Court three times.

In 1991 Gandy directed the WomenElect 2000 Project, a nine-month grassroots organizing and recruiting effort in Louisiana which tripled the number of women in the legislature, elected the state's first woman Lieutenant Governor, and helped to defeat former Klansman David Duke for Governor.

A long-time activist, Gandy served three years as Louisiana NOW President. She was elected to the NOW National Board in 1982 and held the position of Mid-South Regional Director for four years before being elected to national office.

Gandy graduated from Louisiana Tech University in 1973 with a B.S. in mathematics. Her NOW involvement inspired her to attend law school, and she received her law degree in 1978 from Loyola University School of Law, where she was a member of the Loyola Law Review and the National Moot Court Team. Gandy went on to serve as a Senior Assistant District Attorney in New Orleans, and later opened a private trial practice, litigating countless cases seeking fair treatment for women.

Currently, she resides in Silver Spring, Md., with her husband Dr. Christopher "Kip" Lornell, an ethnomusicologist and part-time Professor of Music at George Washington University. They have two daughters, Elizabeth Cady Lornell and Katherine Eleanor Gandy.