I’ve been mulling over the numerous reviews of the first year of the Obama administration. It seems like the year has been amazingly quick. I read the articles and listen to the reports about how nothing has been done, how he hasn’t lived up to his campaign promises and that he is timid. Wait, I thought Fox said all the other news media were fawning sycophants? It doesn’t seem that way to me. The constant review and evaluation – 100 days, 200 days, 365 days – seems to have been taken to a completely different level for Obama. While I try to be objective about it, I find it hard not be a little pissy about it. Anyone that had been paying attention during the campaign would have known he wasn’t the radical liberal that the GOP wanted to paint as. Anyone that has ever paid any attention to the working of Washington would have known that nothing gets done quickly or easily. No one should have been surprised that the Republicans on the hill would fight against anything put forth – lashing out viciously in the death-throws of the radical right movement. No one should have been surprised that they would be obstructionist. Anyone watching would have known that Obama took office during the most serious financial crisis in decades, with two inherited wars and a huge deficit. Throw in a flu pandemic for the cherry on top.
But, I’m being told that I should be disappointed that the world is not fixed yet?!
I feel the coverage is a distraction. Things are happening. Things are in motion. You can’t call the game after the first quarter. It took the Bush administration eight years to break the world. It might take a little longer than a year to put it back together.
And, what about our responsibility? What have you done this last year to make the world a better place?
Where is the line of overreaction?
Tags: Feminism, feminist rage, Oakland Raiders, Tom Cable, water cooler, workplace behavior
Ok, so where do I draw the line around the water cooler? When do I unleash my feminist rage and when do I have to just let it go as the joke that I know it was?
I work in a male dominated office and have a good relationship with all my guys. Today, a few of them overheard a female coworker telling me about Oakland Raiders’ coach, Tom Cable, saying that he had only hit is ex-wife with an “open hand”. I was surprised by their joking attitude. They knew, and I knew, that part of it was a goad to get me going. Still, laughing and telling me “well, I never hit my wife, but sometimes she needs a good shaking” seemed to cross that line. They were riffing on a Chris Rock bit where he had a similar punch line (pun intended). Is it funny though? I just stood there, mute and stunned. I couldn’t think of anything to say. Should I joke about giving my husband a black eye? Should I tell them it was offensive? I debated in silence until they moved on.
The more I think about it, the less funny it seems. While I know that they meant nothing by it, it makes me see them in a different light. It disappoints me that they didn’t know that the joke wasn’t funny.