Old news or eternal truths? You decide!

It's taken me awhile to get my thoughts together on Madeleine Albright/Gloria Steinem "mispeakings".  At first I was too shocked to comment.  Ms. Albright scolded women who supported Bernie Sanders rather than Hillary Clinton and threatened them with "a special place in Hell for women who don't help other women."  Really, Madeleine?  Seriously?  Even in the early days of the resurgent women's movement, when I was a beginning feminist, my friends and I, who considered ourselves pretty hardcore, voted and worked for candidates based on their records and not their genders. 

I don't remember Ms. Albright calling for support of Sarah Palin in 2008.

But Ms. Steinem may have hit on something when she said that young women might be flocking to Bernie Sanders's campaign because that's "where the boys are."  In an interview with Bill Maher, the "feminist icon," as she is known, said,  "When you're young, you're thinking, 'Where are the boys?The boys are with Bernie'.  (Naturally, this brought indignation from feminists young and old.  prompting Ms. S. to tweet that she "misspoke" and declare Senator Sanders "an honorary woman,")

I'll be honest.  Years ago, when I joined the Young Democrats, one of the reasons was to meet guys.  The Equal Rights Amendment, LGBT rights, and reproductive freedom were important, of course, but I have to admit now (and I might have admitted then) that "finding someone" and having a relationship were more important.  And I can't have been the only one.  These are not bad things to want.  But we sometimes act like they are.  How can we be thinking about hooking up when we have to save the world or at least the country?

I have no idea how we can, but we do.

And actually, it's not that important.  It's sort of like church;  whatever gets you in the door, whether it's to meet someone, make business connections, or to get a good sugar buzz from the doughnuts at coffee hour, it's a first step.  Keep coming back and the important aspects of Christianity or Judaism or Unitarianism or whatever, can click in. 

So let's think of our political goals.  A lot of people have come in the door.  In spite of our differences, maybe we can work together together to achieve them.