Stash Flash and Introduction
I'm embarrassed by how little blue I could find in the stash:
These are all sock yarns, and in my defense I'd like to point out that I didn't have time to delve very deep into my stash. This is what was readily accessible. Also, I just happened to already be working on a pair of socks in blue when I learned about this KAL:
My favorite color, and by far the dominant one in my stash, is red...but remember! Red is the color of the LEFT in Europe and every other civilized corner of the globe!
Nevertheless. I'm really glad this KAL came along, to remind me to knit some blue and enjoy it, and also to provide some much-needed, like-minded company!
A little background, as suggested by Emma: My hippie parents raised me liberal and proud, but my (huge) extended family are mostly evangelical conservatives. And I grew up in Holland, MI, the most conservative county in America (yes, supposedly more so than Orange Co., CA), which hasn't elected a democratic candidate since the Civil War (when the democrats were the more conservative party, mind you...). More churches per capita than any other town in the country, at least in the 1980s when I was growing up there. And those churches are by enormous proportion either Dutch Reformed, or Dutch Christian Reformed. Not a lot of diversity, obviously. I guess my flippant answer as to why I'm a liberal is that I know the other side very well and IT'S HORRIFYING.
Less flippantly, I believe strongly that every citizen of this country, of every stripe and income bracket, would benefit most from strong educational support for every child, rational and fully accountable -- but comprehensive -- social services, a government that stays out of people's private lives and is accountable to voters, a short, government-funded electoral process, regulated capitalism that provides basic protections to consumers and employees, and FREE YARN FOR EVERYBODY. Okay, maybe that last part was just to see if you were still reading (not that it wouldn't be a good idea...and I DO support knitting in elementary school curricula!) I honestly can't understand how anyone in their right mind could not support this most basic and centrist agenda. Those who do not, I think, are either crazy, deluded, willfully ignorant, or lining their own pockets in a way that I think can only be described as criminal. But maybe it's just me. I'd be happy enough if there was just general discussion of any of these issues.
So that's me. I have a blog, here, and I'm delighted to join this KAL.
Fetching would be fetching in blue, would it not?? Hmmm...
posted by Kate A. @ 12:26 PM
9 comments
9 Comments:
I love your agenda, and agree with your free yarn for everyone stance :) The art teacher at my daughers' school taught the entire school - okay, just K through 12, and that's only about 220 students - how to knit a few years ago. I went in a couple times to help out. The kids were given the choice of doing spool knitting, frame knitting, or using needles; most opted for needles, and some became really good at it pretty quickly. Was nice to sit and knit with them.
I also think Fetching would look lovely in blue, and I know just where to get the yarn for it; I'm off to my LYS later today :)
Kate....aye, AYE to everything on your agenda...I think I've mentioned this before in a comment, but being an older hippie earth momma, having raised three in a liberal setting..I was so glad to have read a recent post of yours...the bag story...that you loved your childhood.
If you ever run, and I believe you should....you'd be a great President.
mmmmm free yarn for all.....
(I love red also and know all about it being the colour of the Left everywhere else)
ps Blue Fetching...heavenly.
Hi Marianne!
Thanks for suggesting I should run, but the truth is that the American people aren't ready for me! I feel it's important to distinguish between what I honestly think is best for *everyone*, which is my political platform as a citizen and voter...and what I, personally, selfishly, would really want if I could be in *power*. What I really want (i.e., the country I want to live in):...comprehensive free health care, mandatory free liberal arts-oriented university education for all, required psychotherapy for all men who can't pass a qualifying exam on emotional intelligence, a global ban on frat parties and non-organic farming, cruelty-free animal husbandry and scientific testing, the current GOP leadership on trial in the Hague for crimes against humanity, required study abroad for all American students, knitters in all key leadership positions (I'd let people who are left of center and willing to learn to knit to stay in power), legal marriage for any consenting adults who want it and no tax/benefit penalties against unmarried couples, actual (as opposed to virtual) freedom of religion...and I'm serious about that free yarn. And once I'd gotten all that, I'd step down in favor of a woman of color, so I could have more time to knit.
Really - America is not ready for me. ;-) I think I'm more useful as a voter and a critic than a candidate.
And I've been meaning to respond to your earlier comment on my blog for ages, and will get to it soon!
Don't fret yourself.
Sweetheart, you have my vote all the way. This is one American who is and has been so ready for one of your calibre.
Where *is* this 'person'....should've been done long ago.
I already have blue yarn for Fetching! Just waiting to cast on when I can have some selfish knitting time!
Tee hee. I just took the questionnaire that Kimmer linked to in another comment, at www.politicalcompass.org.
I ended up as far left as Gandhi, but significantly more libertarian. See what I mean?
It's a really cool site, btw. I love that they map you on two axes - left to right is economics, authoritarian/libertarian is social. If people were aware of these differences, I think a lot fewer Americans would vote Republican. The Dems are obviously (though just barely) on the left/libertarian side (though many of them I think would be just over the line to the left, and also just over the line to authoritarian, while the old Repubs would fall just barely right/libertarian, and the new ones...WAY out in la-la-land in the right/authoritarian corner. If we could get beyond just right/left (I give up on an actual subtle understanding of the issues), people's votes might more accurately reflect their actual views, and wouldn't that be nice.
I'm really going to shut up now.
Kate, on the political compass I end up around (-7, -7), which puts me further left than Gandhi. I like that it plots economics and social. I know quite a few people who are social liberals but fiscal conservatives, so just lumping them into the "liberal" or "libertarian" categories isn't quite right.
What I find amusing about the whole political situation in this country right now is that people like Nancy Pelosi are called "extreme leftists" when most people in this country want the things she outlined in her first 100 hours plan. Stephanie Miller had a great comeback to Sean Hannity when he called her extreme; she simply said that her father was Goldwater's running mate and she voted for Reagan, and if that makes her extreme then so is most of the country.
The Republican party has shifted so far to the right that Goldwater would be considered a liberal today, and his views never changed. He was still with us to see his party get hijacked by the "Religious Reich" and was not happy about this at all. The last thing Goldwater's Republican party wanted was government getting involved in everyone's private lives and decisions, yet that's just where this current crop wants to be. Not that I could see myself ever becoming a Republican if they do manage to kick out the Dobsons, Falwells, and Robertsons, but it would be nice to see them return to what Goldwater stood for. Gods, did I say that???
Hi Kimmer! Yes! I know exactly what you mean! I found myself thinking, when I took that test, that I wish everyone in the whole country would take it...to find out where they really are, and where their candidates really are. The GOP do SUCH a good job of making words mean whatever they want them to mean, that they have most of the country voting directly *against* their own best interests and cherished values! That really sticks in my craw, and that's why I agree with you that I'd be really happy to see the GOP go back to its mid-century roots (NIXON seems liberal now!!). Like I said before, I don't really need, or even want, the whole country to be quite as left (and libertarian!) as me, but I do absolutely demand that people actually vote rationally!
It's scary, too, how much all of European politics have moved rightward lately without anyone much noticing. You'd think they'd see where that's taken us here in the US and back off it! Anyway...a fascinating web site that I think is doing a lot of good! I teach Soviet history, so I always have to go through a spiel with the students on how the basic right-left spectrum isn't too helpful because there are too many other factors muddying the waters whenever you go beyond economics. I look forward to being able to show them that X-Y graph next time, and urging them all to go to the site and find out where they really stand....
The America I'm from is very much ready for Kate A. for POTUS!!!!
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