May 26, 2007
Dublin, Ireland

Dear Democratic Congress,

Hello, my name is Cindy Sheehan and my son Casey Sheehan was killed on April 04, 2004 in Sadr City , Baghdad , Iraq . He was killed when the Republicans still were in control of Congress. Naively, I set off on my tireless campaign calling on Congress to rescind George’s authority to wage his war of terror while asking him “for what noble cause” did Casey and thousands of other have to die. Now, with Democrats in control of Congress, I have lost my optimistic naiveté and have become cynically pessimistic as I see you all caving into as one Daily Kos poster called: “Mr. 28%” [read the rest].

In a second post, written yesterday, she elaborates:

I have come to some heartbreaking conclusions this Memorial Day Morning. These are not spur of the moment reflections, but things I have been meditating on for about a year now. The conclusions that I have slowly and very reluctantly come to are very heartbreaking to me.

The first conclusion is that I was the darling of the so-called left as long as I limited my protests to George Bush and the Republican Party. Of course, I was slandered and libeled by the right as a “tool” of the Democratic Party. This label was to marginalize me and my message. How could a woman have an original thought, or be working outside of our “two-party” system?

However, when I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the “left” started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used. I guess no one paid attention to me when I said that the issue of peace and people dying for no reason is not a matter of “right or left”, but “right and wrong.”

I am deemed a radical because I believe that partisan politics should be left to the wayside when hundreds of thousands of people are dying for a war based on lies that is supported by Democrats and Republican alike. It amazes me that people who are sharp on the issues and can zero in like a laser beam on lies, misrepresentations, and political expediency when it comes to one party refuse to recognize it in their own party. Blind party loyalty is dangerous whatever side it occurs on. People of the world look on us Americans as jokes because we allow our political leaders so much murderous latitude and if we don’t find alternatives to this corrupt “two” party system our Representative Republic will die and be replaced with what we are rapidly descending into with nary a check or balance: a fascist corporate wasteland. I am demonized because I don’t see party affiliation or nationality when I look at a person, I see that person’s heart. If someone looks, dresses, acts, talks and votes like a Republican, then why do they deserve support just because he/she calls him/herself a Democrat? [read the rest]

I am not much of a recapper (I don’t even like pageants!). But I’m in this thing and must fulfill my duties until the end! So here is what you officially need to know about the 2007 Miss Universe pageant:

Miss USA fell, and then got booed. (Trump blames Mexico’s anger over American immigration policy. I blame Elvis.) Whatever, she’s a trooper, smiling through the jeers: “Buenas Noches, Mexico.” Ouch! →

← Miss Japan won, and Miss Mexico didn’t make it into the finals.

¤

What I’m interested in, though, is Reuters‘ description of this year’s pageant as troubled. And they don’t mean “troubled” as in “we should be troubled it still exists,” a la Sweden, but troubled by its many controversies. Now, again, not big on the pageants. At worst they are just too tightly tethered to processes of female oppression through objectification; and at best they simply propogate the modern sense that all women must be “perfect,” e.g. smart, beautiful, and talented in completely mainstream, high capitalist ways.

But let us put that aside from now, for I am interested to see what counts as troubling in the Miss universe. According to Reuters:

A raven-haired Miss Japan, Riyo Mori, was crowned Miss Universe 2007 on Monday in a contest marked by protests, a banned dress and the withdrawal of one beauty queen on the ground the pageant degrades women.

I find these events far from troubling, and even think we should assume them to be par for the course– although I am also willing to admit that Reuters might simply be trying to wring some spicy story out of this monumental, hugely watched, non-event! But protests are good, especially when they are trying to bring attention to violence against women during an event that screens us from such violence (more on the protests later). And of course there was a banned dress. The Miss Universe costume is the pinnacle of nationalist couture; I’d be more worried if there were never controversy over what a contestant is wearing. Unless of course you’re Balkan or a European non-aligned state. And yay Sweden, “giving in” to the feminists. Or can we say, “responding to women’s concerns”?

But then the Reuters report takes a turn for the worse, letting too many things slip into, categorically, “troubled.” Let’s watch the progression of these three paragraphs. Beginning with the protests, the story moves from that which is a sign of trouble, to that which is “quirky,” to a reference to winner Zuleyka Rivera’s incipient eating disorder in last year’s conference:

This year, [the contest] attracted protesters wearing white dresses splashed with fake blood and sashes proclaiming “Miss Juarez,” ”Miss Atenco” and “Miss Michoacan” in reference to places in Mexico made infamous by killings or sexual abuse of women.In another quirk for 2007, the long, twisted dreadlocks of Miss Jamaica, the contest’s first ever Rastafarian participant, and the close-shaved head of Miss Tanzania stood out from the lacquered manes of the other contestants.Last year’s Miss Universe event in Los Angeles also made its mark when winner Rivera caused gasps by slumping to the ground in a faint during a post-pageant news conference.

In another post, I found myself unexpectedly reading Miss Tanzania and Miss Jamaica as beacons of light in an event that otherwise signals a kind of dreary global vision. According to Reuters, it turns out I am just totally into pathology– feminism, diversity, and political action…

And, oh, why do I care about a random Reuters story? It’s because no one seems to care so much about the Miss Universe pageant this year. That is quite fine with me, but it means that across the world (checked on the world this morning!), the Reuters story is the story– cited, misquoted, and plagiarized unto infinity in blogs, magazines, and newspapers. More stories will emerge, but the “trouble” might give this one just enough spice to keep it afloat in a sea of follow-ups.

And to quote my three year-old son: I don’t like this “trouble.” Or to paraphrase Objectify This, to the tune of Big Pun:

“I’m not a troublehater ’cause I dream a lot.”