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A Message to Sanders Supporters

punkgrrrl March 08, 2020 Critiquing Leave a Comment

First – I am one of you. It took me 2 other candidates to get here, but I am now on board with Senator Sanders and sincerely hope he gets the nomination. Having said that, I wish that getting to this point would have been a little less contentious and I still feel that Senator Warren had the best coalition building power in the race, but it is a new day. A day for revolution.

Now that I am certain I have turned off a majority of the moderate Dems that will be voting “blue no matter who”, we can talk more candidly about what I came here to say.

I do not believe it is a surprise that I support Senator Sanders, considering my far left viewpoints on nearly everything, and at this point, my support is moot since I already voted in a primary (for Senator Warren – although I was still tempted to tick that box for Senator Harris) but I would still like to talk about what is to come. I am hopeful that you, as a Sanders supporter, would see that no matter what happens in this primary season, we will eventually need to unite as one to make change happen.

All this back and forth in the primary season is just a build-up for the real fight. November. The general election. The country is in dire need of a change to both the office of the Presidency and down-ballot races in key States where we either need to pick up or retain Democratic seats. Without a majority in the Executive and Legislative branches of government, we will have a stalemate throughout the next 4 years. This could be good if we flip the Senate and retain the House and still have Trump as POTUS*, but it would be VERY VERY bad if it goes the other way and the Republicans gain control of the House, retaining their hold on the Senate and Presidency.

That outcome would spell the end to every progressive policy that we want to put in place. It would set our country back hundreds of years since they could institute even more conservative (religious right based) policies that would restrict the rights of nearly everyone except the extremely wealthy, white, cis, straight, dudes.

As a Sanders supporter, I am pretty certain that you already know all of the above and that is why you are so adamant to elect Bernie in November. And again, I am with you, but here is the caveat. I have voted in every general election since 1992 and what I can say with certainty is, when you don’t unite behind the candidate that is put up for the nomination and come out in BIG numbers to vote, you lose.

And that is why I want to BEG you to please – if the candidate isn’t Bernie – still go vote. You may not want to pull that lever or tick that box for Biden, but the alternative will keep Trump in the oval office for 4 more years and inflict permanent and lasting damage to our country and the life that we all want to be living. The lives we all deserve. The freedom and rights that we should be able to take for granted and not have to continue fighting our whole lives to obtain.

The progressive (and even radical) ideas that we want to move forward will NEVER get legs if we don’t get rid of the current administration. 4 more years will give them more power than any administration should have and I don’t think our democracy can survive that. I am not being hyperbolic when I say that – I am being real.

And I know, from experience, that voting for a third party or write-in candidate causes the same thing to happen. I voted for Perot. I voted for Nader. I am not ashamed to say that I cast ballots for the third party, but I am disappointed in my former self that I didn’t see the writing on the wall. I told myself that I lived in a State (New York) where it didn’t really matter because the Democrat was going to sweep no matter what. I at least went to the voting booth and cast a ballot, but I still wish I would have united behind the party pick during those elections. In voting for the third party candidates I was setting a bad example for future generations. I was showing future voters that it would be just fine to vote for whomever you wish without any consequences.

Don’t get me wrong – when I voted for Nader it was because he was my parties pick, as I was registered Green for many years, but I still regret making those decisions because of the stir that they caused in future elections. The decision to vote for Nader, when he wasn’t the Democratic nominee set a standard for Clinton to lose in 2016. I can see a direct line from the 2000 to the 2016 election and I feel complicit in that decision.

So, having said that, I implore you, please, if Senator Sanders does not win the nomination, vote blue anyway. Don’t stay home and sulk (as I would have if I didn’t have Perot or Nader to fill that void) and don’t write in Sanders. Please, go vote for Biden and then vote in the down-ballot races as well, because they are SUPER important. I don’t think we are really stressing that fact enough in the media. The Senate needs to be flipped and we need to retain the House to continue this Sanders revolution. It might not be led by the person that we want to lead it, but it will happen if we get our country back from the clutches of the far right. Voting blue, down the whole ticket, is the only way to make this happen.

Thank you for listening to my ramble. I just really don’t want to see my fellow Sanders supporters do what I did back in the day and vote from a space of disillusionment. This race is TOO important to do that. No matter how sad, mad, frustrated, or angry we feel that our candidate isn’t the nominee, we have to set those feelings aside to do what is best for everyone in this country. We can grieve the loss of that particular form of radical action, but then we must get up and do what we need to do to continue fighting another day. This election could seriously determine whether we have the capacity and the ability to continue fighting in the next 4 years and beyond. Don’t make the same mistakes I made back in the day – vote Blue no matter who and move our country forward together.

Happy voting!

PS – After all is said and done, we need to have a SERIOUS talk about sexism and racism and homophobia in the electoral process and American politics in general. Starting with the most diverse field of nominees and landing with the two White, Cishet, dudes in the final primaries (I know that Gabbard is still in it, but I just cannot with her) is abominable. Dems can certainly do better, but we need to discuss how and make it real for the next cycle in 2022. A great start would be to LISTEN to people from marginalized communities and have constructive conversations led by those who are directly affected by bias in politics. Just a thought for the future.

Let’s Talk About ‘X’

punkgrrrl October 14, 2019 Critiquing Leave a Comment

Generation X – the perpetual middle child. We are often left out of conversations about generational contributions and that is most likely because of how we were treated from day one.

Growing up with the original “me” generation (boomers) as parents really took a toll on us as a group. We were seen as lazy in relation to their generation, but that was mainly because in the 80s/90s we were in our teens and twenties. What kids AREN’T lazy in their teens? Laziness is a defining factor of the teenage years. Sure there are those who have a drive from the day they are born, but those people are outliers. Most teenagers (and yes I am making a generalization here) are lazy.

Teenagers also need more sleep than children and adults do (read about that here) and so it can seem like they are lazy when their bodies are just craving more sleep. Due to their schedules, they usually don’t get the right amount of sleep (9 hours per night is what a teen actually needs) and so they may appear groggy during the day. Although these sleep patterns are seen in teenagers from all generations, somehow Generation X was tagged with the laziness and slacker labels. Due to these labels, we have been ignored or inched out of many conversations over the years and now, because we are a slightly smaller generation sandwiched between two larger generations (the ‘me’ generation boomers and the ‘me me me’ generation Millennials) things like this happen.

Being ignored has it’s upside too, though. It means that we were not marketed to heavily until we reached our 40s and 50s. Either advertisers didn’t believe we had disposable income (which could be the case since we lived through a pretty bad down turn in the markets in both 2001 and 2008) or they simply couldn’t figure out how to use our grunge music to sell us products. Our musicians didn’t sell out in their 20s like some of the current day musicians have. And hey – no judgement on the sell out thing – Millennials need to sell out in order to acquire all the things that will make them feel safe and happy. Gen Xers were just better at making due.

Now, we can thank our former latch key status for supposedly teaching us to be better with our finances, so it isn’t all bad, but it can be disconcerting to see our generation completely ignored. Especially when it comes to popular media. Specifically, a show that a lot of us adored when it first came out in the 90s, that has now decided to completely erase us from the timeline of, well, time!

That show is Tales of the City, which has been rebooted on Netflix for another go at it. Armisted Maupin has been brought on as a consultant and the new series revolves around the old characters, Anna Madrigal who is now 90 and the gang from Barbary Lane, who are now supposedly in their late 40s. They have also added new characters – Shawna, the daughter of Connie Bradshaw, who is 25 years old and a slew of other Millennials that are the new tenants and ‘Barbarians’.

I would normally suspend my disbelief to be okay with the fact that some of the ages of characters are not exactly correct, but when it results in everyone my age being written out of the story it makes me a little mad. I mean – Shawna should be in her 40s. She should be a Gen Xer. But that wouldn’t make for great television since they wouldn’t be able to have the boomers make fun of her as a Millennial (which they do several times throughout the new series). The main characters from the original series (Mary Ann, Brian, Mouse, DeDee, etc.), in this timeline, are actually Gen X, but because they should be in their 50s/60s, they act more like boomers. And they refer to them as old folks, even though the actors are clearly in their late 40s and early 50s. So although there are characters that are the age range of Gen X, they are not perceived as such. These people were in their 20s in the original show (filmed in the 90s, set in the 70s), which means that with the normal passing of time they would actually be in their 60s/70s now. All this to erase a generation that nobody wants to reference and be sure to include the 2 ME generations in the storyline.

I get that it is just a show, but think about how popular culture has treated Gen X over the years and you will see why this can be bothersome. It bleeds into other parts of our lives in a way that allows the 2 generations before and after us to not take us seriously. It allows them to dismiss us in order to serve their own needs. Even while we are generating social security to take care of the boomers and allowing the Millennials to come back home to live with us after college or their first failed attempt in the workplace. We have supported both generations emotionally for YEARS and what do we get out of it? Invisibility.

I suppose that as a generation, Xers might LIKE to be invisible as it did provide some good cover in our younger years. We had a lot more freedom than the Millennials are getting. But, in the long run, the price we paid for anonymity has caught up to us. We didn’t have to see our idols sell out for a quick buck, but we also lost a lot of our people along the way.

So – while we languish here in the next decade, trying to make our way as middle-agers, we will remain invisible. As we plow through all the stereotypical assumptions about our generation to help make the world a better place and rid our politics of boomers like our current POTUS*, we will just have to consider ourselves the new silent generation. Maybe we didn’t have a world war to unite us, but we have certainly had a lot to deal with in the last 40-55 years on earth and life will continue to be a grind. The upside is that Gen Xers know how to deal with ‘the grind’ and we will eventually prevail no matter how invisible we are. It is, after all, always the quiet ones that make the most lasting impact.

Gen X Kids

punkgrrrl October 08, 2019 Critiquing, Reading, Watching Leave a Comment

Today I was sent a link to an author Twitter account that brought up a very interesting dialogue concerning the state of Gen Xers. The author, Sally Kilpatrick, asked a question concerning the moms of Gen X women that know how to do domestic tasks that we, as Gen X women do not know how to do. She is doing research for a character in her next novel that is, apparently, going to be a Gen Xer, and she wanted to get feedback from women born between 1965 and 1980.

As you might have imagined, it brought her some nasty feedback as there are people on the radical side of feminism that were offended by her assumption that women need to do domestic work and people on the side of radical non-feminism that were upset that she thought they couldn’t do domestic work at all. Both of these opinions, and the resulting vitriol she received (this is a common occurrence on Twitter whenever a woman or person from any marginalized group tweets) are not where I want to focus this post. The question itself raised some interesting thoughts for me, as a Gen Xer that was raised by two working parents. My mom was the main breadwinner for the majority of my formative years and she certainly pushed me to be high achieving, but in my experience that was not a replacement for learning basic life skills.

I think the difference here, and what the twitterverse might be taking too seriously, is that I wasn’t taught domestic chores in order to ‘grab a husband’ or ‘live my life alone’, but I learned how to cook and clean so that I could function in whatever scenario I chose to put myself into as an adult. She wasn’t ‘training’ me for domestic life, she was preparing me for the inevitable. Humans need to eat and keep their living spaces clean. These are basic things that ALL humans, no matter what sex or gender they happen to be, need to know how to perform. Unfortunately, many people on the boy side of the gender spectrum do not get the same education or treatment when it comes to domestic chores, or at least they didn’t prior to the late 1980s. Today, in America, we are moving toward more egalitarian setups for our lives, so that means that people that fall on the male side of the gender spectrum have to learn the same things that people on the female side do. This also goes for non gender binary folks. Humans, in general, need to keep their spaces clean and have a way to feed themselves.

But her question was not specifically about cooking and cleaning. Even if you didn’t have a parent that taught you those skills, and you didn’t have a home economics class in school, you would still be able to read a cookbook or watch a YouTube video to figure out basic life skills. Kilpatrick was focusing more on the craft art type of tasks. Things that you would have learned if you finished high school before 1985, but possibly not if matriculated after that time. The only way to learn some of these things, like sewing, knitting, crocheting, and other household craft tasks, would be to have the knowledge passed down to you from someone older. In fact, in my case, I learned many of these skills from my grandmothers. My Nana taught me to knit and my Grandma taught me cross-stitch. I took the skills I learned from those ladies and learned beading and macrame on my own, with the help of books and videos (yes – videos – it was the 90s after all.)

I did learn to cook from my mother and she passed her sauce recipe down to me (as all Italian mothers do) but I also used the basic skills I was taught to continue learning on my own. When I was in junior high, I actually did take home economics (or home ec for short) as it was still offered. The class was divided into 4 ten week periods consisting of sewing, typing, cooking, and wood shop. In the 80s, home ec was combined with technology and that meant that all students took all home ec subjects. Prior to that time the ‘boys’ would take shop and the ‘girls’ would take sewing, cooking, and typing. But, I was in one of the last classes to have these mandatory classes so we just took everything. This was a very positive experience for me as it allowed me to learn how to use machinery as well.

That year I learned how to thread a sewing machine and make a pillow AND how to use a table saw to cut wood to make a base for a lamp. I also learned how to drill a whole in a Chianti bottle and not crack it to make the lamp itself. I learned how to type 80 words per minute on what would now be considered an old fashioned typewriter AND how to bake chocolate chip cookies. I am not certain if home ec is still offered in high schools today, but if it is, I hope that any human is able to take it no matter their gender. I hope we haven’t moved backwards to re-gendering the tasks. With everything going on in America to try and move our society back to the 1950s, I wouldn’t be surprised if home ec was again something that only girls were enrolled in while boys were enrolled in shop class. That would be a shame, but it wouldn’t be surprising considering the current state of thought in America. (see: Mike Pence – I refuse to give him any linked clicks, but you can Google him)

I also believe that those of us born between 1965 and 1980 found great ways to learn things on our own. Being latch key kids gave us a freedom that Boomers and Millennials did not have. We came home from school and had to figure out how to manage our time to complete homework or make a snack. We had to navigate public transportation and we were given much more freedom to ride bikes and play at friend’s homes without a lot of oversight. We learned how to be self-sufficient at an early age and that has helped us moving into our teen and adult years. Being able to seek out information to learn the things we need to know has always been a skill of Gen X and the Internet was the best tool we could have hoped for to assist us with that research.

In light of this, it seems that Gen Xers (and the author focused mainly on women here, but I want to open it up to ALL genders) are the most resourceful generation of all. We could take or leave the home ec and shop classes and still be skilled at tasks that were taught there simply by seeking out the skills we needed to complete those tasks on our own. Basically, we were happy when a teacher or family member or friend wanted to convey new skills to us that we could take with us, but if we couldn’t find someone that was willing to teach us in our immediate circle, we found the information other ways. Libraries were our friends back before the Internet and now we use all the tools at our disposal with a computer and a wi-fi connection. In the end, the members of Gen X should feel proud to have well rounded skill sets. We worked hard for that knowledge and we are willing to share it with any Boomer or Millennial that comes calling. Tech support or mentorship – either way we are always willing to lend a hand and impart knowledge that we gained on our own.

If you doubt the Gen X penchant for learning new things independently, consider these cartoons that were some of our favourites back in the day…

And the most important formative Gen X show – this made us readers!

Buffalo, Then (Part Two)

punkgrrrl February 22, 2019 Critiquing, Tasting 1 Comment

This week, the Buffalo News printed a piece on coffeehouses in the Gusto section of the paper. This was very cool and I am super excited for the continued success of coffee in Buffalo, NY. While the scene is growing today, we at Gen X Reactions are more on the side of nostalgia and enjoy a trip down memory lane when it comes to coffee. I am also famous (amoung my small group of family & friends) for being somewhat of an archivist (read: hoarder), which is why I have the following gem from 1997. It was an article on the ‘new’ coffee scene in Buffalo. I’m certain that the 90s were not the only booming time for coffee in Buffalo – I mean it is a Rust Belt city and what substance keeps the working people going like coffee – but it was a great time.

In the mid-90s, we were just getting the Seattle scene wave in the city and it was glorious. You could still smoke indoors, which made the ambiance of the coffeehouses much more mysterious and murky. Baristas talked to patrons like bartenders – the relationship was not merely transactional as it can feel today. Technology had not reached everyone yet, in the form of smartphones and only a few lucky (read: wealthy) kids had cellphones at all. We would sit for hours, playing mancala and chatting with the various people that frequented these spots.

So – without further ado – here is the article that I speak of. Enjoy the nostalgia and be sure to patronize the coffeehouses of today! They are cool in their own way and in 20 years we will look back on them with the same fondness we do for these joints. After all, Grindhaus is Java Temple, Remedy House is Stimulance, Tipico is Topic, and Aroma will always be Aroma. It is all in your perception.

Cover photo of Stimulance coffeehouse was taken by Robert Kirkham.

Not the best headline, but it was the 90s.

Caffe Aroma – still a mainstay of Buffalo, NY

Back when sPot was still The Spot.
References to Hallwalls are so 90s.

Gotta love that ‘coffee ring’. So retro.

Stimulance says, “why drink depression?”

One last capture to acclimate you to the 1997 pop culture scene.

This was truly a great time in Buffalo for coffee and camaraderie. The 90s had it all – grunge, caffeine, nicotine, and that thing where you ingest substances until 4 am and then get up for school the next morning at 8 am like nothing happened – I am pretty sure it is called youth (h/t to Stefan).

2019 is shaping up to be pretty awesome, coffee-wise, too for Buffalo – so check out the Gusto article for more on that. I must say that I was very disappointed that they didn’t include Caffe Aroma in the article, if even just to give a nod with spot and sweetness_7 as one of the originals. At this point, they ARE the original for Buffalo. They also snubbed my favourite coffeehouse in Buffalo: Grindhaus. Why they were left out is confusing since they are an excellent place to get your caffeine fix. They also have awesome food choices for a quick snack or a lunchtime meal – like the VLT with a side of mujadara or a ricotta toast.

Still – lots of awesomeness is finally happening in the Buffalo coffee scene. They have embraced third wave coffee much better than the previous generation embraced fair trade (Stimulance did do fair trade and a cup program, just for the sake of clarity) and the baristas are extremely knowledgeable now by comparison.

The coffee scene in Buffalo has definitely been revived, after surviving a dry spell in the first decade of this new century. So get out there and enjoy!

Peace and happy caffeinating,

Punkgrrrl

Tech Reliant

grunge_doctor June 25, 2017 Critiquing Leave a Comment

When did I become so reliant on technology? I feel like I cannot do anything without some form of tech assisting me or literally doing the thing for me. And so when access to technology is taken away from me (cell service drops, wifi isn’t available, laptop crashes, etc.), I don’t know what to do with myself. I don’t know how to function without the tech!

I wasn’t always like this. I used to resist technology. I waited as long as humanly possible to get a cell phone and to transition to an mp3 player. And while I understand that cassette players and landlines are still technically technology, I felt safe in the world of analog. If you need to get a hold of me call me at home or at work or just come find me. Does anyone remember how it was before cellphones? At the time it was normal. At the time it was just how it was. We didn’t need to be in contact with all the people all the time. We didn’t have social media. We had socializing. We didn’t have Google Drive and iTunes and Bluetooth. We had notebooks and shelves full of records and really long extension cords. But then one day I turned into this person who can’t leave the house without his iPhone. I’m that guy who shares pictures of every meal he eats with the world. I am the one who needs to be available to anyone who may possibly want to get ahold of him at any possible moment—whether he’s in the middle of something or not.

It’s easy to blame the tech manufacturers. They’ve made it impossible to not need their technology. It’s almost impossible to find cassette players anymore, not to mention actual cassettes. Everything is digital in this day and age. And if your email doesn’t come straight to your phone, then what the hell are you doing with your life? How are you even functioning in this world? But the truth is we’ve all allowed the tech to control our lives—despite every Terminator movie and at least one Joss Whedon television show and most Doctor Who storylines and the entirety of Black Mirror showing us how dangerous it is to so.

BUT IT MAKES LIFE SO EASY.

It’s true. And in some industries, technology is a moneymaker. Take the education field, for instance: Most universities have moved to a distance-learning model. These schools are able to connect with students from across the globe in a way they never were before. Sounds great, right? The issue with this is that these colleges see how much money they make from enrolling students who don’t actually have to sit in a classroom and who don’t have to live in their dorms and they start to insist that all the departments have more and more online classes. They can accept more and more students and collect more and more tuition money, without having to build more academic buildings. And at this point, there is no going back.

How would humans handle it if all the cellular and satellite services stopped working one day? Would we find a way to do our everyday activities without our technology? Would we just move on with our lives? Or would we RIOT and DESTROY EVERYTHING because we weren’t able to post a status update?