WOMEN OPENING THE WAY

mary cassatt

I had the good fortune to see the women's soccer, futball, game of America and Japan. They had a tremendous tv audience because the Daytona race was put on hold for rain and wet track. I was at Justin's house to see the race. He switched to the women's game. It was a dynamic game from the start. The women on the American team held our attention for their skill and strength. He changed channels back to the race from time to time to see how track drying was progressing. Evidently, almost everyone who wanted to see the race watched the whole football game. The race did not start til the football game was over. It was like a divine plan. Nascar racing has become the most watched sport on tv, so it was a sizeable television audience watching the game. It would be mostly white men watching, people who care nothing for soccer, especially women's soccer. They had a huge audience. That they held the audience is what matters. Going by people I've talked with who usually watch the race, everybody was enthusiastic about the game, came away with an interest in the game. The women showed such skill and control they impressed everyone who saw them. And they won too. 

mary cassatt

Soccer has recently in years entered the American school system without much attention. I feel like this game opened soccer to an American audience in such a way that it will generate more interest in the game. Maybe teenage boys kicking a ball around will be the next thing to annoy adults after skateboards. I felt like the game with the Japanese was the beginning of an American interest in the game. It has been trying to take hold here for a few decades, but never went much past kids playing it. The kids are grown up now, more kids are playing it, the fan base for the game is growing. Had it not rained at Daytona, the futball game would have been one of the great sports moments without so great a number of viewers. People I've talked with, both men and women, were impressed, feeling a degree of excitement over the unexpected all the way around. A good day for woman pride. I felt like it was a breakthrough into the future of respect for women. I felt a rush of quiet pride run through the women I know. Americans have been focused on the particularly American sports of baseball, football and basketball. Through soccer, futball, we have a sport that all the rest of the world plays. 

mary cassatt

Hillary Clinton is front and center again, advocating for women's rights as she pursues her own political ambition. And we have Bernie Sanders challenging the ruling class and Wall Street, an advocate for the people who work for a living and have no access to lobbyists or representatives. Our representatives in NC obey corporate interests. Sanders is so relentlessly making a case for the working people, I can't help but think of him a paid assassin's target, his private plane going down with no indication in the black box what happened. If he does not survive the campaign run, he will make a great martyr, cause for the ones who want him dead to let him live and go to work on destroying his name and credibility. The likelihood of martyrdom kept Bob Marley alive in Jamaica. Peter Tosh did not have the insurance of a threat of martyrdom and failed to make it. To JFKs assassins he was more of a threat alive than a martyr. I'd suspect Bernie would become a pop culture martyr on tshirts that say I AM BERNIE. I'd like to see him make it. The republican opposition would be dead set against him for being a socialist, and especially for challenging their puppeteers. At the same time they'd be enchanted that he's white, albeit a Jew, at last white. 

mary cassatt

I'm with Bernie. He's a sharp stick in the republican eye. I'm with Obama, too, for the same reason. Recalling a time in the coffee shop talking with a woman I've known to speak to for several years. She said, "I'm a con-SER-vative!" I said, "I'm a SO-cialist!" She said, "I bet you voted for o-BA-ma." I said, "Sure did. He's a sharp stick in the republican eye." Hillary will be a sharp stick in the republican eye, as well. Hillary's influence on liberating and inspiring young women will keep republicans writhing in paroxysms for decades to come. If Hillary and Bernie could run together, they'd be sharp sticks in both republican eyes. The people invested in intolerance could flare into a blinding rage. It could set off a right-wing armed rebellion too. The republican right has become the only terrorist threat in America, could possibly trigger a reaction, martial law. It could get complicated real fast. I tell myself, whatever the problem, it has to play itself out. It will play itself out. I tell myself, observe from afar and stay out of the way of stray bullets. For our society to get on to the next step, we'll have to address our racism, educate ourselves out of it. As long as blame is all that's going on, nothing will be solved. 

mary cassatt by mary cassatt

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