Pardon me if this diary seems a bit intrusive, or naïve, but I'm pretty new, and still don't really feel like I have a sense of the folks who post here. I feel a bit uncomfortable still when I do post a diary, or make a comment, not because of anything anyone has said to me specifically, (except for 2 or 3 rather harsh diary hijackers I've encountered). Uncomfortable because of being a newbie. I guess this is sort of a "break the ice" diary, 4 months late. Not about politics - no breaking news. No polls. Just conversation.
I know MyDD is a Democratic blog. I joined here in March - at the same time I joined DailyKos and TPM after reading a bit. These three sites were chosen on the recommendation of several of my students who are actively involved in the blogosphere. I'm not new to the internet. I've been posting to BB's and forums since the early days. I founded a few newsgroups on Usenet. I moderate some forums that have little, or nothing to do with politics. But the world of liberal/left net-citizens is a new one for me. I didn't read blogs, and basically got much of my news from various sources like the BBC, or Pacifica radio.
Perhaps I arrived here at a bad time. I showed up just around the time of what has been described as "the strike" and there were names of diarists being bandied about whom I had not a clue. The diaries by folks like Alegre were furiously debated, supported or excoriated. But wise to the ways of flame wars of the past on Usenet, I tried to keep my head fairly low and attempt to get a "sense" of this particular community. In March I decided to dive in and post my first comments and diary.
I wasn't aware when I originally arrived in the blogosphere of the acute acrimony between and among various Democratic camps - Edwards versus Clinton versus Obama. It didn't take me long to find out. I chose sides, simply because I had decided to back a specific candidate. I found it amusing that some people assumed I had chosen to support Obama because his skin-color is similar to my own. During the Rev. Wright period I found bemusing the general lack of understanding of black folks -and have attempted to explore and broaden insights here about Latinos/Hispanics, who are not a monolithic voting bloc.
I never chose to limit myself to one blog. I found the description of DailyKos as the Great Orange Satan amusing, and a bit over the top. Though Dkos was an easier "fit" for me - since I arrived there around the time of the conversion of many, into supporters of Barack, part of what made me a bit more comfortable were the diaries about gardening, and science, and books, and other not so rabidly political content which allowed me to grab a more comfortable seat at my keyboard. Not that I haven't run into some folks there I disagree with. I have.
Thanks to my first three choices I got links to other blogs of interest - though I have remained loyal to the first 3; I don't have time to do many more. I almost quit MyDD when things became so heated here, but realized that my impulse to flee was cowardly, and that on principle I should stay and present my p.o.v - even if it is a minority opinion.
I struggled with my own knee-jerk reactions too. As a black woman, from a mixed race family, raised partially in the Puerto Rican community and married to a black Puerto Rican some of the heated opinions here were like chalk on a blackboard to my psyche. I admit to lashing out a bit on my own - though I didn't get banned by doing so. I was called a troll twice. Which I found droll, and didn't back off from. I made a conscious choice, once I found out there was something called the "Afro-sphere" to remain here. I have enough time to talk to folks in my own communities face to face. Figgered it might be more productive to blog in an integrated environment.
I made my first online blog friend, a diarist named Angry Mouse, who steadfastly continued to support Senator Clinton on Dkos, though she did ultimately decide to support Obama. I admired her spirit. Since then I have come to know, and admire a few other's through what they write daily.
I suppose because in my current incarnation I'm an anthropologist I am nosy about "who" people are, and who makes up a community, not as simply statistics but as real people with lives outside of their keyboards and political party choices. I was nosy when I was a journalist too, so maybe it's just part of my own make-up.
It is probably bad form to ask folks about themselves without sharing about oneself, so here's a short introduction.
I've already described myself culturally, kind of, but I was born 61 years ago, in 1947 in Brooklyn NY (August 1 - today, is my birthday). Went to NYC public schools (and Hebrew school briefly), was raised by a bi-racial dad who was an atheist communist, a mom who was Presbyterian, and a white grandma from Kansas who became a Baha'i. My parents were teachers; my grandparents were working class laborers. My dad was a Tuskegee Airman in WWII and an actor on Broadway. I had one brother who died as a result of mental illness. My ancestors were slaves and slaveholders. Some black from West Africa originally, some French Huguenot, Norwegian, some Mohawk. We moved 11 times before I was 12, and lived all over the country. Much of the moving about was due to the rise of McCarthy.
My teenage years and young adulthood were spent in political activism on the left; in many ethnic and cultural communities. I am a feminist, anti-War and civil rights activist. I'm a priest in my faith which is Afro-Caribbean in origin. I worked in community broadcasting (Pacifica) for many years. I worked for 15 years as a community organizer. I'm a poet. I work in AIDS research. I own goats, dogs, cats and chickens, grow garlic and roses, and currently live on a farm. My car sports a bumper sticker that reads, "Anthropologists for Obama" since my support for Obama initially had a lot to do with his mom. I teach anthropology and women's studies at the local State University. I avidly read science fiction and re-read Jane Austen every year. I'm a genealogist, and jazz buff.
Since I live on the farm, and when not teaching my daily contact with humans is a bit limited (you can only say but so much to a goat), I've really enjoyed becoming a part of this blog-world - it certainly expands my daily discourse and I even learn a lot from those I vehemently disagree with. I hope that some of you will be willing to take time out today and share something about yourselves.
Not just the "I'm for Barack or Hillary" or "I'm just a Democrat" type of sharing. But a glimpse into who you are as "just folks". It might help me feel like I will know a bit more about you all, and feel less of an outsider. Perhaps not, but if I don't make the first advance, no one will do it for me, so "wotthehell wotthehell" as Archy the cockroach was fond of saying to Mehitabel the cat. I tried.
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