social commentary – Page 8 – Life in the Cheese Drawer

this ain't mt. olympus

February 10, 2014 kate Comments 0 Comment

did you know russian TV edited this faux pas out, and they saw an earlier dress rehearsal? http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/feb/7/olympic-ring-malfunction-mars-sochi-opening-ceremo/

there has been so much discussion on the gay rights issue in russia – will the corporate sponsors take a stand? will the olympic village truly be a place of tolerance? would the russians really arrest olympians who hold protests or rallies?
i think it’s a cover.
why was this brought to the forefront so close to the olympics? what prompted this sudden, “hey! they hate gays over there!” rush of protests and news coverage? because when you look at russia, it turns out they have a problem that extends beyond gay rights: let’s take a look at basic HUMAN rights.
there were mass protests in russia after the 2011 elections, when putin was elected back as president with a start to his term in 2012. (you might remember this little music group called pussy riot from that mess.) although the elections were supposed to be transparent and putin won by 60+%, the opposition to his presidency was pretty clear.
the previous president, mr. medvedez, had made a few advances as far as political freedoms, but once putin was back, he pretty much obliterated these and enacted new laws restricting non-governmental organizations and freedom of assemblies/expression. the basic rights we have as US citizens, like freedom to assemble and protest, are not found in russia.
a law was passed that blocks internet content that is deemed extreme or harmful to kids. “homosexual propaganda” is banned. in chechnya, a republic of russia, a virtue campaign for women is in full force for women to wear headscarves at all times, and they must wear them in public buildings. you could go on and on, i’m sure, but you’re not going to read anything that long. google it.
as for the olympics themselves, sochi certainly did its fair share of eminent domain to get the buildings up, but in many cases the compensation for land was unfair and the process not entirely transparent. there was one family of 6 that was evicted without any reimbursement. migrant workers reported excessive work hours, unpaid wages, and failure to provide contracts. and then journalists who decided to report on the issues faced censorship, and activists were detained when protesting. let’s not even get into the police force corruption.
so, you can protest these olympics for the gay rights issue, sure. but know that is just the very tip of the iceberg, and you should really be protesting for basic human rights.
which brings up the ultimate questions: why boycott an event whose organizational president made it pretty clear that discrimination of any kind during the games would not be tolerated, even if you didn’t see it on NBC? why boycott an event whose goal is to “contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport practised in accordance with Olympism and its values”? why boycott an event that most athletes only dream about competing in, because its location is less than ideal? i agree that the IOC could have made a better choice, but there are better ways to protest this event than by not watching our US athletes compete on a worldwide stage to promote a better world.
sources: http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2013/country-chapters/russia?page=3

sizeism? weightism?

January 18, 2014 kate Comments 3 comments

i got a phone call from megan this morning after i’d entered my morning weight in myfitnesspal.
“you lost 67 pounds???! that’s a tiny asian person!”
too true. then she posited the question, which had come up before, if i noticed anything different in how people treated me. i really don’t. maybe i was oblivious to it, but i’ve had more than one person tell me that i didn’t seem “fat”, so -to-speak, when i weighed my highest – just bigger.
but, the one thing that does give me pause is my two job searches. after getting laid off from poopwest supply in ’06 and all through my graduate assistantship, i was looking for jobs. my resume was stellar – i got 20+ interviews out of it – but the only permanent job was at merrill as a prepress tech, a sort of fall-back position that i took to keep my fingers in the adobe programs (and for money to keep me off the streets!).
i had interviews at banks, casinos, universities, departments of tourism – really awesome places, now that i think about it. but no one wanted me, which i attributed at the time to my reservedness, shyness, and sub-par creative abilities (i was actually told i should probably not apply to true creative designer positions after seeking feedback from an interviewer).
enter job search #2, after merrill decided to shove my hours back to 3-11. at this point, i’d lost almost 50 pounds and was wearing a size 16/18 as opposed to a size 20/22. i sent out a few resumes – not a lot – and got one phone interview for a release writing position at mayo (which i’m not surprised i didn’t get because my experience doesn’t contain a ton of writing) and one phone interview at RCTC. surprise! job landed after one face-to-face interview.
is it just coincidence? i know people can be judgey toward overweight people. heck, even i am now (more in a “HEY i can do it; you can TOO” kind of way). i’m sure it’s more of a subconscious thing, sort of like racism and genderism (?), where your stereotypes and expectations flood your good reasoning.
another thing i’ve considered, even though i don’t personally think it made a difference, but i could be clouding my own perception, is perhaps my self-esteem rose because of the weight loss and resulted in my being a little less reserved in my interview. it’s hard to know.
what do you think? is weightism/sizeism a legit thing like racism or genderism?
i want to say i’ve written about this before, but i can’t remember. so if i did, you can ignore this post!

DMC (dumpyville must change!)

January 9, 2014 kate Comments 0 Comment

let’s talk about rochester again and my and my mom’s perception of it as outsiders coming in.
(it’s good to preface this by saying that we’ve decided to rename rochester “dumpyville”.)
in many larger towns throughout MN, you know what you’re getting from the town. st. cloud is mostly working class; mankato and moorhead (fargo) are pretty much the same. duluth is good looking and a tourist destination, and the cities are a mix of high-end destinations and shopping meccas.
rochester is an enigma.
on the one hand, this is the largest out-state city in the state, home to 106,000 people. it’s a destination for many people seeking high-end medical care, and those working for mayo definitely know it. on the other hand, this town has a lot of people who don’t work at mayo, and it seems like the town wants to sweep those people under the rug and not acknowledge them.
it’s my theory that this town is still mentally at a population of 25,000 in the year 1960 and doesn’t want to budge past that.
the downtown is pretty, filled with mayo buildings and some supporting high end restaurants and hotels. there are some clothing stores where the clothes cost more than my paycheck, specialty stores, and a drug store. Drive down the road to st. mary’s hospital, and you’ll find a lot of privately owned stores, restaurants, and hotels along the way.
then the bubble busts.
after downtown, it seems like everything is willy nilly all over the city. stores and restaurants where working-class chumps like myself would frequent are located in the oddest spots. the main thoroughfare through town is actually the 6-lane hwy 52, so you’d wonder if that had anything to do with the odd placement. but fargo has I-29 running right through it, and they manage to serve up a decent location of its stores, eating establishments, and destinations.
and it’s not for lack of stores. there are two walmarts, two targets, two menards, as well as additional home improvement stores, two barnes and nobles, a small-ish mall, a smattering of chain restaurants, and many differently owned grocery stores (unlike the coborns’ monopoly in st. cloud). but to get to them, you have to drive all over the dang town to get there. the targets are on the extreme opposite ends of town, and the walmarts are not far behind. the mall is pretty centrally located, which would be nice if there were anything worth visiting in the mall (well, there IS a pretzelmaker…YUM). the olive garden is on a frontage road tucked beside 52, about 1/4 mile from the exit and in a half a block. there are a few decent restaurants along hwy 63 on the south end of town, but that’s about as good as it gets. and on top of that, there is NO TGIFRIDAYS. (serious sadface when i learned that.)
it’s almost like rochester is trying to hide the fact that it does, indeed, have a working class that likes to go to olive garden and target rather than eat at michael’s and buy shoes at the shoestore downtown.
now, the DMC (destination medial center) is a big deal now that it got approved. the number one development area? “Livable City/Retail/Dining”. if that’s truly what they want to accomplish in the next 20 years, they’re going to have move their focus away from downtown for a little bit and realize that yes, there is something more to rochester than the mayo clinic, and people other than mayo employees do actually live and work here. maybe then we can move beyond dumpyville.

goodwill toward all

December 24, 2013 kate Comments 0 Comment

in the great blog migration, i lost a post i wrote about celebrating christmas. i remember it being quite good, and i’m going to try to revisit it.
christmastime. the word conjures visions of early mornings and wrapping paper, christmas trees and manger scenes, stockings, flutters of hope, and long-standing traditions. the manger scene is what most will tell you is central – the meaning of the season. belief in the divine humanity of jesus.
what about those who don’t believe in the divineness of jesus? who think jesus was pretty cool, but don’t necessarily think he was son of god? the population of people raised on christianity but leaving it behind – atheism, agnosticism, secularism, non-religious – is increasing in the US. this means there is a group of people out there who have celebrated christmas their entire lives, and over time they decide christianity is not for them. do they stop celebrating christmas?
some do. i would wager that most don’t. on top of that, there are non-christian religious who do celebrate christmas (some jewish people do). personally, i think it’s easy to embrace the christmas spirit without believing in the divinity of jesus.
there are a lot of elements to christmas besides the nativity, many of which are religious in nature, many of which are not. symbols aside, one of the biggest parts of this season is family history and tradition behind it. christmas is something a person celebrates every year, and mostly the same way. sure, there are new family dynamics and refined gifting tastes, but ultimately, the bones of christmas remain. this is a difficult thing to suddenly renounce, especially with a long holiday season such as christmas, which we probably spend more time entrenched in that all other holidays combined. how do you say goodbye to something you have been celebrating all your life?
you don’t. in fact, a lot of christmas spirit can be spread without the divinity of jesus and just by being a simple person trying to be good and empathetic in the world. happiness, family, gift giving, caring for others, joy, goodwill to all, peace on earth, hope – none need the divine to be spread as far as christmas cheer can reach.
and that’s what it’s all about, right? even the nativity story is about family, giving, happiness, joy, peace, hope. so while some may scoff at christmas as a religious holiday, it is so much more, and there’s no reason that everyone can’t partake. in turn, it would be nice to accept non-christians and non-religious celebrating christmas without skeptical looks and questions as to why they would celebrate the season.
because what WOULD jesus do? divine or not, he would open his door, hand you a cup of hot chocolate, and invite you to sing christmas carols ’round the tree.
happy christmas.

omission

November 16, 2013 kate Comments 4 comments

let me tell you a story about avoiding childhood trauma by omission. i’m not saying my parents were deceptive; my mom is the most honest person i know. but adult matters don’t need to be discussed with children, especially if their foreseen consequences don’t necessarily come to fruition.
my childhood was not your normal childhood. we lived on welfare and foodstamps for a good two years when i was 11-13 years old while my mom went back to school to get her degree (and get a better job – guess what? welfare works!).
you ask my brother, and he will be able to tell you nothing of that time. my sister liz was amazed at ice cube trays a few years ago, mentioning that we only had store-bought ice growing up. i looked at her like she was crazy; we used ice cube trays until i was 14 years old. needless to say, as the oldest, i remember the most about this time.
i didn’t comprehend the stigma. in fact, a lot of the response we got was positive and in the form of help from church and community members. but as a non-financial-dealing person of the family, i had no idea how stressful this actually was.
i recently found out the reason why we were almost homeless at one point, and for personal reasons (hi mom!) i’m not going to explain. but i will say this: the deception by omission was probably one of the best things my parents did for my siblings’ and my relationships with other family members.
i remember a little about the sale of 60 acres of the family farm (it was my dad’s dad’s land): watching the surveyors and pulling the long 150′ measuring tape along the east edge of the property. only later did i find out some more details – how my mom’s friend helped us out with some money and how close we were to being homeless.
i never wondered the reasons behind the foreclosure on the land – i always thought it was just because we were on welfare. sure, that had to be part of it; if we’d had a lot of money, it wouldn’t have been an issue at all. but after hearing more information, it became a little clearer and understandable, and my relationships were different, so i could more easily come to terms with what i was hearing. if i’d heard it when i was 13, i would have been devastated.
but i will say that the omission my parents performed during that time was for the best. i don’t consider it deceptive, because it was an adult matter. we grow cynical and suspicious with age, and to have that thrust upon a person at an early age is to deprive her of an innocence that doesn’t last forever. we need the hope and wonder of our childhood to keep our cynical selves in check later in life.