Posted onJanuary 26, 2021|Comments Off on Watching History Happen (or Actually Enjoying A Political Morning)
I didn’t realize I was going to be writing about politics again so soon. But then again, I didn’t realize how much I was going to react to the inauguration happening. I knew I’d be watching it, but I wasn’t expecting to be so emotional about it. But I was.
This inauguration was literally history happening in front of my eyes. To see the first woman saying the oath of office to be the Vice President was amazing. In one sense, I can’t believe that this is happening in my lifetime. But in another sense, I can’t believe it took this long to happen. And I know for many of my friends, it was even more meaningful to see someone who looked like them or was of similar ethnicity. I feel like everyone I know was just in awe watching everything happen considering what happened only 2 weeks before.
And it was so nice to know most of the people in my life were watching the same thing at the same time as I was. I had several texts going with friends plus one texting group where we were all reacting in real-time to what we were seeing on tv. Some of it was serious and emotional and some of it was silly (like discussing fashion). But it really gave me a sense of community and communal experiences, which is something I have missed so much during this pandemic.
I wasn’t able to watch the entire thing without distractions. I did have to log in for work right after President Biden took his oath. But because my job now doesn’t require me to make phone calls, I was able to keep it on while I worked and I was able to listen to it. And I was recording it on my DVR so I did go back and watch some parts that I knew I hadn’t really been able to listen to. And there were so many good parts during the inauguration.
I loved seeing so many people posting positive things about politics for a day. People were feeling so much hope and not the fear that many of us have felt for a while. That’s how I felt. I knew things wouldn’t be changing right away, but at least now we had someone in charge who would make some changes for the better. For example, Trump had been saying for a while that there was a plan for vaccinations. But now we know that there wasn’t one. If he was still in charge, how long would be believing a plan was coming when one wasn’t in the works.
But I think one of my favorite things from the inauguration was seeing all my friends post photos of their kids watching it happen. I loved seeing kids watching history happen. Even if they were born during the last presidency, they might not remember that happen. So many of them will grow up in a world where a woman has been elected to such a high office. It won’t seem like a dream or something to hope for. It’s a reality of their world.
After seeing so many friends post photos, I texted my sister-in-law saying I wanted to see a photo of Rory watching. One day, he will learn about this time in school and I wanted him to have a photo proving he was there when it happened. And I loved the photo that I got texted back to me.
Since that day, it’s been nice to have things feel almost a little boring in politics again. There are daily press conferences. Things aren’t being announced on social media that others are confused about. Nobody is reacting based on just emotion. Things may be slow and boring, but they are working on getting things done and making sure they are done correctly. And that’s what I want out of my government.
Posted onJanuary 20, 2021|Comments Off on The End To One Political Era (or This Is Still Just The Start Of My Involvement)
Today, Joe Biden goes from being the President-Elect to being the President. I’m still shocked that he won because historically an incumbent wins the election. But I’m so excited to have Biden as our President and to see what happens with this country. And I don’t think it’s a surprise that I’m glad that Donald Trump will not be our President anymore.
I’ve never really hid my unhappiness with him. He liked to spread half-truths (or complete lies) and found that dividing the country worked to his advantage. He didn’t see how to help the entire country but how to help himself and those in his inner circle. And yes, I did benefit from some of his tax cuts because I’m considered a business owner, but the benefits I personally got weren’t worth all the financial penalties other people I knew got. I’d rather things be much more equal (which would mean I owe money) than for my friends to owe extra money and for me to get some bad.
And his mishandling of the pandemic continues to make me mad. We have seen how other countries have gotten things under control. Or if they aren’t totally under control, they have a fraction of the cases and deaths that we have. If Trump hadn’t been talking for months about how this is all a hoax and discouraging ways we could stay safe, who knows how many lives could have been saved. Things didn’t have to be like this. And if we had politicians who were setting better examples for us, maybe we wouldn’t be in such bad shape a year into this.
And I know that with Biden being President, things won’t just change immediately (although some Republicans did claim that nobody would be talking about the pandemic after the election and it would miraculously end). But I do have hope that things will be turning around and getting better in the near future. I hope that we will have a better plan for vaccine distribution and more guidance on ways we can stay safe while we wait. So many countries got this under control without a vaccine, so maybe we will do the same and the vaccine will just be extra protection.
While I’m not really grateful for much about the Trump Presidency, there is one thing I am grateful for. Because of him running and understanding the risks 4 years ago, I became much more involved in politics. I don’t know if I would have been involved if another Republican was running. If Trump lost, I don’t know if I would have kept things up as much. But now, I have seen how politics is something I need to be involved in. I will not be unaware because something doesn’t personally affect me. I will not hide my political views to try to be polite. Being politically involved is something I feel like I have to do. I need to do it for everyone, not just the people in my life. And I have seen what happens if our elected leaders do not feel the same push to be working for everyone.
I hope to be more involved in the future. I know that I didn’t do as much as I wanted to in this past election. But I also have learned of more ways I can be involved in the future and I am on a lot of different email lists to be notified when there are opportunities for me. I want to take advantage of them as they come up and continue to be more and more involved.
Today, I’m celebrating our country having a new president. And yes, he is the candidate I voted for, but I also believe that he feels he needs to work for everyone. He is not going to divide the country into those who voted for him and those who didn’t. There may still be a division with people who believe he was fairly elected or not, but that division is not because of Biden but because of other politicians. And if they want the unity they claim they want to see, they know they need to let their followers that Biden is the president and that he was elected fairly. We cannot have unity until those who have worked hard to divide us make things right. And I don’t know if that will happen, but I hope it will. I am so sick with how some people have believed some extreme conspiracy theories and that they cannot see beyond it. I have people in my life who do believe this pandemic was created to get Trump removed from office (they don’t believe it matters that other countries were affected too). I know people who believe that somehow, Biden will be removed and Trump will be president again, even though that’s not how it works. I have tried to reason with them and explain how certain policies and rules work, but some people still won’t listen or believe that the rules have to be followed that way.
But I do have hope that in the future, some of those people will start to see what happened and that they were misled. I don’t think they will become Democrats or huge fans of Biden, but I do hope that they understand how he was elected (and not claiming it has to be fake because Trump had bigger crowds). I want there to still be a debate within the country, but not the violence and hate that we have seen recently. We don’t all have to agree on everything, but we need to agree that everyone deserves a voice and that our elected leaders represent everyone and not just those they voted for.
And hopefully, as I become more and more involved in politics, I will find ways to help bring things together and to get others involved, and trying to help this country heal from the past 4 years.
Posted onNovember 9, 2020|Comments Off on A Weird Workout Week (or Election Week Workouts)
I think everyone can agree that the past week was a weird one. There were so many moments of heightened emotions and many of us didn’t get a lot of sleep. I know at least I didn’t sleep much. And the week and the events going on definitely affected my workouts. Sometimes in a positive way and sometimes in a negative way.
The most normal workout this past week for me was on Monday. While I was already nervous about the election, there wasn’t much I could do about it. I had been making sure all my friends were going to vote and that was that. So my workout was pretty much what I expected. I still have struggled with trying to push myself a lot, but I’m getting better at it. I am starting to modify the workouts a bit more than normal and replacing exercises that I’m more excited to do. I still try to have lots of variety, but sometimes I need to switch it up so I’m not dreading an exercise. It’s not ideal, but it’s how I’m managing.
Wednesday’s workout was a bit of a sluggish one. I didn’t sleep much at all the night before. I was exhausted and emotional. I was also stressed and a little obsessed with checking the news. I tried to look at the workout as a break from the news because I needed it, but taking a break also was stressful because I wanted to see what was happening. I didn’t know if something would be actual breaking news (not just how cable news was calling races too close to call breaking news) and I didn’t want to not know. But I was able to keep my phone face down while working out and I didn’t check social media once during the workout. I know that I was still a bit distracted, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.
Friday was my Zoom workout. I think all of us were really tired that morning. So much had happened overnight and I didn’t get a lot of sleep because of being excited about what was going on. But when I have a Zoom workout, there’s no way I can be distracted. I know my coach would call me out if she saw me on my phone or if I disappeared and wasn’t working out anymore. It was a good break for me and the first real forced break I had from the news since Tuesday. And I know I needed the break and the hard workout. I could tell how much better I was feeling as soon as I was done. Also, as soon as the workout was done and we were stretching I did check social media and updated everyone on how the election was going. I think we all were feeling better knowing that things continued to look good for us and more likely that Joe Biden would be announced President-Elect.
And on Saturday, my workout happened after the announcement had been made. I actually worked out a little later than I planned to because of the news. I was just so excited that the election was finally called. We had been prepared for an Election Week instead of just an Election Day, but I was ready for it to be done. I was getting frustrated with the news not calling it because it seemed like they had called lots of other states that didn’t have as large of a margin. But I guess it was worth the wait because it was such amazing news!
But I didn’t want to miss watching the news and seeing all the celebrations around the country, so I decided to keep my tv on while I did the workout. I always have my workout going on my iPad, so it was easy enough to keep the news on my tv. And I just lowered the volume of the workout during the blocks (after the instructions) so the news ended up being my soundtrack.
It was a good choice for me to keep the news on because it was motivating me. But I know that normally I won’t do that because it also was a bit distracting. But I was ok being a little bit distracted that day because of how incredible it was to see history being made. And while I was trying to work hard, I also was just dealing with a lot of emotions because of the election. I was tired from not sleeping, happy that the results were the way I was hoping (at least with the President and Vice President), and relief that I think we are going to have amazing leaders running our country and hopefully getting things back under control.
This week, my workouts are going to be a bit different because of my schedule, but I’m still planning on getting my 4 workouts in. And hopefully now that the election is done, I can focus a bit more on them than I did this past week. I do know that this week is when I am expecting my nausea to come back, but I’m prepared to push through. I pushed through Election Week, so I can push through Nausea Week.
Posted onNovember 3, 2020|Comments Off on Election Day (or Just Vote)
I’ve written about the importance of voting on here the other day. I’m not going to go into those same discussions again in this post. But since today is Election Day, I’m asking all of you again to please just vote.
I’m sure many of you have already voted either by mail or early in-person. And thank you for doing that. Voting is always important, but I think most of you would agree that this election is critical. There are so many things happening in our country that could be fixed or worked on if our elected leaders wanted to do so. But right now, many elected leaders do not see those issues the same way. For example, the extra unemployment could have been extended but the politicians in charge did not see that as something they needed to do. In fact, they have said they wanted to wait until after the election. So they felt like people getting a few hundred dollars a week was more than enough and it didn’t matter (for example, I’m only getting $200 a week right now which doesn’t even cover my rent).
There has been a lot of stress leading up to this election. I honestly don’t know how I’m going to feel after it’s all done. I didn’t do as much as I could have to help get the vote out, but I did as much as I could handle. I wish I had the ability to do phone and text banking like many of my friends did. And I looked into writing postcards. But honestly, my mental health couldn’t take it. And I had to be ok with that. I focused on what I could do, such as reaching out to my friends and posting on social media and amplifying voices that were more informed than mine.
And because so many of us haven’t been working, we’ve had more time than ever to worry about this election. While I don’t expect us to know who won by the end of tonight, by tonight there will be very little that we can do. All that is left is making sure that all the votes are counted and that the courts don’t stop counting ballots that arrived on time because of an arbitrary deadline. I think everyone would love to know for sure who won tonight, but that’s never really the case. So I’m mentally prepared for several days of uncertainty.
Since there will likely be uncertainty, I am doing things to make the time a bit easier on me. And one step I can do is to write these blog posts in advance. I have the next few days planned out and will likely be writing them before this post goes live. So I want to explain that the next few days will probably not mention the election or current events. I might re-write posts or move things around if I feel up for it, but I’m allowing myself to not have to worry about blogging for the next few days. I do have some fun things to write about and I’m looking forward to sharing them. And when we have more news about the outcome of the election and I can put my thoughts together, I will write about it then. But I don’t want to write a bunch of posts saying I don’t know what’s going to happen or speculating. So until there is something to write about, I don’t think I will be writing much about the election again.
So this is my last time asking you all to please vote. Being apolitical or not voting is not a sign of anything other than that you are perfectly fine with how everything is happening right now. You don’t have to have a perfect candidate to vote for them. You just have to vote for the one you feel would do a better job running our country. If you aren’t registered to vote, please check your state as many states do allow Election Day registration. If you haven’t voted in multiple elections and are embarrassed to be a first-time voter, don’t be. It doesn’t matter what you have done before now, it matters what you do this time. So vote. That’s it. That’s all you have to do. And let’s hope that this election will be one that helps our country move forward and start to improve.
Posted onOctober 29, 2020|Comments Off on Almost Election Day (or I’m Asking You All To Please Vote)
We are less than a week away from Election Day. Honestly, I’m ready for the presidential campaign to be done. It feels like it’s been going on since the last election. And that’s partially true since Trump started his re-election campaign right after he was elected. And this election has been very overwhelming. There are so many things we are all aware of as a country with what happened that might not need to have happened. We have seen how other countries have worked with slowing the pandemic and it’s frustrating to see that our national leadership isn’t doing the same. And since so many of us are out of work, we all have more time to be informed about the news each day.
Election Day feels like a very different thing this time. Normally, it felt like most people would go out to vote on Election Day. I always voted by mail, but I know a lot of people who never did that before. This year, people are calling Election Day the deadline to vote, not the date to vote. I can’t think of any of my friends in California that are voting in person. Everyone is voting by mail and almost all of us have been dropping off our ballots in a ballot box instead of mailing them back.
And I think most of us are aware that we probably won’t know who won by the end of Election Day. The projections that the various news agencies put out are just projections, not totals. Typically, it takes a few days (if not longer) after Election Day to finish counting ballots. And this is because, in most states, they cannot start counting ballots until the morning of Election Day. I don’t think states should be counting and announcing what is happening with the mail-in ballots before Election Day, but I do think it makes sense to allow states to start going through them and counting. Especially because some politicians are starting to say that they do not believe ballots should be counted after Election Day. I’m not even talking about ballots that are mailed before Election Day and arrive after. This is about ballots that are ready to be counted on Election Day but because of time they are not counted before midnight. Let’s say there are 10 million mail-in ballots but only enough time to count 7 million before midnight. Should those 3 million votes not count? Should your vote be a luck of the draw if it’s considered? No. Every vote should be counted. And there is no need for us to know who won immediately. In the last several elections, we didn’t know right away. So why do we need to know that night now?
And for ballots that are mailed back before Election Day, there are issues with those too. Many states have decided that if a ballot is postmarked before Election Day but does not arrive on time, it is not valid. And considering how slow the mail is these days, I think a lot of ballots that are mailed won’t make it in time. For example, when I mail things to my family it’s usually there within a day or two. The last time I mailed something to my parents, it took almost 3 weeks. The slow mail is the reason I used a ballot box this time. And I’m lucky in LA that we have so many ballot boxes. Other states are making it very difficult to return a ballot. For example, in Texas, they are restricting ballot boxes to 1 per county. Some counties have millions of people or are very large and people have to drive miles to get to the box. And if you mail your ballot back, it can only arrive the day after Election Day to count, so many people are dropping them off. That has lead to lines at the ballot boxes that can take hours to get through. And not everyone can take the day to drop off a ballot (or wait in line to vote in person). So making it harder to vote is also potentially preventing people from voting.
But even with all the difficulties that there might be voting this year, I want to encourage you all to vote. Actually, because of the difficulties I want people to vote. We can make voting easier for everyone if we have politicians in office who believe in doing that. Texas didn’t have to make things difficult. They made that decision and said it would be fine. Hopefully, those who are upset with these new policies will vote in people who want to make voting accessible to all. It’s not just about voting for the president (although that is important). It’s about voting for the people who will be making the decisions in your state, city, and district. You want people in office who represent you and that you agree with. And that only happens if you vote. If you don’t take this chance, you are silencing your voice for what you want.
If you have a mail-in ballot, please do not mail it back. Even if you have to drive a bit to a ballot box, it’s the only way now to guarantee your ballot will arrive on time and can be counted. If you are voting in person and if your state has early voting you may want to do that to avoid the lines that might be happening on Election Day. I know the lines for early voting are happening too, but you can time early voting around your schedule so hopefully, you can go on a day that you have more availability.
And I hope that no matter what way this election turns out, that we can find a way to come together again. The split in our country has gone too far and we need to find a way to work on supporting each other. Just because people might not have voted for a politician doesn’t mean that politician can say they aren’t going to help them. Just because you didn’t vote for someone means you should be protesting anything they do and threatening them. We are stronger when we are united and together. And we need to be stronger than we have been in the recent past so we can regain what we have lost this year.
Posted onOctober 20, 2020|Comments Off on Driving and Voting (or Having A Fun Afternoon)
I don’t leave my house that often these days. I do drive my car every few weeks so the battery doesn’t die, but those drives are usually just driving around with no purpose. It gets me out of my house, so I guess that’s something. But I rarely have something I have to do. But this past Friday, I actually had a few things to do and it got me driving around LA.
First, I had to drive to the valley to see 2 different friends who both had things for me. We still kept our distance and wore masks, but it was so nice to see friends in person. That’s really a rare treat these days. And even though I didn’t see either friend that long, the minutes I did spend with them was really nice. I got to catch up with them both and just feel a little bit of normalcy.
I have chatted with friends through social media, texts, phone calls, and video calls. But there is no substitution for seeing someone in person. And it was weird not being able to hug them or be closer when we were talking (plus the weirdness I still feel wearing masks), but this was better than nothing. And it was something that I had been looking forward to for about a week, so it was nice to have something fun in my week to keep me going when I wasn’t feeling so great.
Both of my friends lived within a few minutes of each other, so it was easy to go from one place to the next. And I lucked out with finding great parking at both of their places. Again, the little things make me happy.
Then I drove back home to my side of town for one more important errand. Last week, I worked on my ballot and made sure I got it all done. I always vote by mail, and I usually mail it back. But with the mail being slow these days and how many people might be mailing ballots back, I decided to drop off my ballot. I never have done that before and I didn’t actually realize there were drop off boxes that were not in voting places. I just thought if you dropped off your ballot that you were going to where people voted and there was a box there. I think the boxes are somewhat new to LA, but I’m not sure. I never looked into other options besides putting my ballot in the mail.
There are so many drop-off box locations around LA. I could have found one in the valley near my friends’ homes, but I didn’t think about doing that until after. I just did a search online to find the one closest to me (if you live in LA, you can use this page to search for them) and saw a few options. And the one that I knew would be easy to get to and have easy parking would be at the library near my house. Besides being near my house, it was right off of the freeway that I would be on to get home. So it was the perfect stop for me on my afternoon.
I know there are still people who will be doing in-person voting, but I think a lot more will be doing voting by mail. And that was clear when I parked at the library to drop my ballot off. There were at least 20 people that I saw while I was there (I did sit in my car for a few minutes to finish a phone call). Everyone was standing back and waiting for others to drop off their ballot to give a little space. And most people were doing some type of ballot selfie or photo when voting, and everyone was patient for that too. I waited until there wasn’t anyone else waiting and then went to take a quick voting photo before putting the ballot in.
I also have signed up for text alerts so I will know that my ballot has been received and counted. I don’t know how often they pick up the ballots from the boxes, but there’s still plenty of time so I know I’ll get those texts soon.
I know I could have spread out these different outings on different days to have more excuses to leave my house, but it just felt right to have a full afternoon. I felt relaxed knowing that I got things done that I needed to do and I felt so happy that I got to have a bit of social time. I am really learning how to appreciate all the little things so much more. 8 months ago, voting and seeing friends would have made me happy but not this happy. Now, doing these things really made my week.
Posted onOctober 9, 2020|Comments Off on Another Night Of Debate Watching (or Trying To Have Some Fun With This)
Just like with the Presidental Debate, I had a plan to watch the VP Debate. And my plan was pretty much the same for both debates. I was going to watch it through Crooked Media‘s YouTube channel so I could see their Slack conversation and I had my own FB Messenger group to message with during the debate. I find it so helpful to have people to talk to while watching debates. Sometimes for making jokes and being silly, but sometimes for asking if someone knows if something is true or not.
Also, debates can be frustrating and upsetting, depending on what they may say. If someone is saying a complete lie, it’s hard not to react to it. If someone says something that you know is against everything they said before, you want to call them out. Having people to chat with, even over text, really helps me get out whatever emotions I might feel during the debate.
For the VP Debate, there was a good mix of getting out frustration and telling jokes. Hearing Pence say that Trump has taken this pandemic seriously since January when he was calling it a hoax well beyond then was frustrating. Whenever Pence was asked about his administration, he seemed to ignore that question and just say that the American people are doing the right thing. For example, when he was asked about wearing masks, he didn’t say anything about anyone in the White House wearing masks and only that the people will do the right thing. That’s also ignoring the people claiming that wearing a mask right now violates their rights or is discrimination.
And Pence kept interrupting Harris and the moderator. My messaging group is all women, and we all have experienced men interrupting and talking over us. We were all so frustrated watching it happen. Thank goodness Harris did try to explain that she was speaking so he shouldn’t be interrupting her. But I know that so many women online were posting about how we have experienced this so much and how we wish men wouldn’t do this to us.
Even though there were a lot of things to be frustrated at, I think our message group had a lot of silliness going on too. You have to find comedy in these things otherwise you will be overwhelmed watching them. And there were a lot of moments to laugh at. But nothing was a bigger moment than the fly on Pence’s head.
I don’t know why everyone found the fly so funny, but it became one of the biggest moments of the debate. There were so many jokes being posted and I was enjoying all of them. I kept seeing a lot of posts about how the fly had been on the screen long enough to be eligible for SAG-AFTRA (even though that’s not how it works), and I decided to create something to go with that.
I lucked out that I found an image of a union card that didn’t have a member name or number on it, so it was really easy for me to come up with this tweet.
I posted it in a few places and everyone seemed to get a good laugh out of it. I also saw posts saying that the fly should be up for a SAG Award now or asking if the fly will be in the In Memorium segment at the next SAG Awards since flies don’t live that long. I know that having a fly on someone’s head wasn’t the most important thing we heard, but it was the moment that stuck with most of us and gave so many of us a much-needed laugh.
There is supposed to be another Presidental Debate in a week, but I don’t know if it will be happening. Because Trump was diagnosed with COVID, the group organizing the debates said that they would be doing it virtually for the next one. Trump has said that he will not be participating because the debate is only trying to protect Biden, which they are because Trump shouldn’t be wanting to expose others to this disease. But I know that Trump also changes his mind a lot so even though as I am writing this he says he will not attend and will do a private rally instead, that can change by the time the debate is supposed to happen (or by the time this post goes live).
I don’t know if I hope there will be another debate or not. The last Presidental Debate wasn’t good. There was no information really shared because of how often there were interruptions. It was not a good moment for this country. And I don’t know if any other debates would be better. But if there is another one, at least I have a good system figured out to make them a bit more entertaining.
Posted onOctober 2, 2020|Comments Off on Trying To Make The Debates More Fun To Watch (or Group Chats Make Things Better)
I’ve been more and more involved in politics as I’ve gotten older. Part of it is that I’m more educated about politics and how things can affect me and how my vote can really change things. And part of it is that we live in a time now where it’s difficult to not be involved unless you are really making an effort to ignore what’s happening in the world. I know there are more things that I could be doing and I’m trying to figure out ways to be involved that will work with my schedule no matter what happens. I am working on getting approved to write postcards for future elections. I just need to work on my handwriting a bit more because I have such sloppy handwriting (even after working on it before).
Because this year is the year we have nothing but time, I’ve been able to watch more political events online than I normally would. I don’t know if I’ve ever watched the Republican Convention before, but this year I did. It also helped that the Convention was a short prime-time tv event and not something going on all day. I also watched the Democrat Convention, but that’s something I normally watch at least a little. And this year, I did my watching a little differently.
Normally, I watch on tv since it’s on every single tv channel. I usually also live-tweet because I have thoughts I want to get out. But this time, I actually watched through YouTube. Crooked Media has a lot of podcasts that I love. And for events like the conventions and debates, they stream the event through YouTube on half of the screen and they have a group chat from their Slack account on the other. The people in Slack are all very involved in politics. Many worked for past candidates or administrations. They are really informed about the issues and can almost do live fact-checking (although they aren’t fact-checking like some news outlets do with checking every statement). It’s a great way to watch and to be a bit entertained and learn as well.
For the conventions, I not only watched through Crooked Media and enjoyed their chat, but I also had my own chat going too. Some of the women from Movie Club wanted to chat during the conventions, so we started a new message group to do that in (we didn’t want to clutter up the Movie Club message group). Watching with them helped keep things entertaining, just like Crooked Media did.
So before the debate, I messaged the separate group to see if they wanted to have a chat going during the debate as well. Everyone did, and we had a few other group members from Movie Club who wanted to be in it too. We had a nice sized group of people who all are very vocal about politics. So before the debate started, I got YouTube up on my tv and my phone in my hand with the message group open.
And I am so glad I had both the Crooked Media Slack to watch and my message group. I think everyone agrees that the debate was not good. It was so difficult to watch. I support Biden, but I’m not going to say he was perfect. I think he did a great job considering how often he was interrupted. It was not easy for him to get a point across because Trump was interjecting so much. And the questions didn’t seem to be ones that would push both Trump and Biden to answer with specific policy ideas. I know Biden tried to change his answer so he could include policy information, but it was so hard to hear what he wanted to say when he couldn’t speak without having to stop and start a lot.
All of us in my message group (and everyone in the Slack) seemed to be just as frustrated while watching as I was. This wasn’t a debate. I don’t know what to call it. A yelling match? A waste of time? It wasn’t what we wanted out of a debate and not what citizens deserved when listening to a current president and possible future president.
I could go into detail about a lot of things that made me mad, but I think the biggest two were things that seemed to anger so many people. The first was Trump talking about Biden’s children and trying to say some horrible things about them. Having a drug addiction isn’t good, but it’s something that so many people struggle with. Saying that having a drug addiction makes you a horrible person is not right in my opinion. Saying drug addiction is horrible would be better. Fortunately, Biden was able to say that while his son had a drug problem, he overcame it and he was proud of him. That’s an important thing for people struggling to hear. I also didn’t like how Trump was talking about one of Biden’s sons and when he didn’t get the response he wanted he switched to talking about his other son. Trump and his supporters have said many times that politician’s children should be considered off-limits. I know there is a difference between a minor and an adult. But also, this debate had nothing to do with their children. Biden did not mention many of the things Trump’s children have gotten in legal trouble for.
But what made me so mad (and it seems made most of the country mad) was that Trump would not condemn white supremacists. He was given a very clear chance to do so and claimed that he would. But he wouldn’t do that. He did tell a group to stand back and stand by and that group is now using that statement as a sign that they need to be ready to go (the idea of standing by is making them think they need to be in the streets soon). When a Republican commentator was asked about why Trump wouldn’t clearly say he was against white supremacists, the commentator said that Trump does not want to say he was against his supporters. Even FOX News hosts were saying that it was such an easy thing for Trump to do and they don’t know why he didn’t condemn such an evil group that has so much hatred. I don’t want to believe that Trump really approves of what white supremacists and other hate groups do, but it’s hard to say he’s against it when he can’t say he’s against it. And the day after the debate, he claimed he didn’t know anything about a group that he called out and said he didn’t know their actions. So if he didn’t know who this group was (which I don’t believe but I’m going with that idea), why would he say he condemns their actions when he doesn’t know what they do?
Honestly, this debate left me feeling so sad and hopeless about things. My friends in our message group felt the same way and we were all trying to cheer each other up. What we can be hopeful about is that so many people seem to be upset with what Trump did and they do not agree with how he has been handling this pandemic. I know that we might still be dealing with COVID no matter who the president was. But I wish we had a national response 6 months ago. I wish we had a leader who accepted the tests when they were offered to us instead of taking the time to create new ones. I wish we had someone in charge who was encouraging people to wear masks. So many doctors are saying that if we just wore masks that we would be at a fraction of the cases. I have known too many people who know someone who died. I have had too many friends get sick and I have worried that they would not make it. Even though all my friends have gotten better, we have no clue what the long-term effects will be on their health. I wish we weren’t dealing with policies state by state because until we have a vaccine (which looks like it will be in maybe 6 more months), we might not be able to get a handle on this like other countries have done.
Even with how upsetting it was to watch this debate, I am still going to watch the other debates. I’ll be doing it with my friends in a message group and the Slack conversation on my tv. I just hope that whatever changes the debate organization makes will allow it to be much more civil and both Trump and Biden can announce all their policies (although Trump seems very hesitant to announce any policies like what his new healthcare plan would be even when he is given the chance).
We are a month away from this election being done. If you are going to vote in person, see if you can do so before Election Day. Lines will likely be long on Election Day so voting early is a great way to avoid that. Also, voting by mail is an option. I always vote by mail (I usually can’t get the time off I need to vote and I don’t have the ability to take a day off work to wait in line if I need to take a few hours). It’s safe and voter fraud is very very low. If you don’t want to mail your ballot back, many states have boxes you can drop your ballots in near polling places. I recommend looking online at your options and picking which way will be best for you. But please vote no matter what.
And to end this on a positive note, this video made me smile. Yes, the debate was depressing, but at least this funny song was created from it.
Posted onJuly 24, 2020|Comments Off on Celebrating A New Contract (or Feeling Good About This Accomplishment)
I wrote about my union contract ratification vote before. This is something we do every 3 years for our TV/Theatrical contract (we have ratification votes on contracts every 3 years, but they happen often since we have so many contracts). But this time, it felt different. I don’t know why it got as contentious as it did, but it was a very odd feeling. I know that there are some people who had heard misinformation about the contract (for example, hearing that we lost all minimums on the contract when it was only for a very small and specific category), so some people were being very vocal against the contract and then changed their minds when they looked more into it.
And educating members so they would look more into it was something I took seriously. Even though I was for the contract, that didn’t mean I didn’t look into it and investigate every part of it. There were parts that I didn’t love as much as others and there were a few things that I wish we could have gotten more into the contract. But overall, it was an amazing contract. We are really working toward putting residuals in things that are more common, like streaming. And we got a lot of protections on set for actors who are doing more vulnerable scenes like nudity or simulated sex. And whenever I heard a member saying they were voting no for a reason that wasn’t factual, I gave them the facts. I said that I understood if they still wanted to vote no, but I wanted them to make that choice on what the contract really said and not the misinformation.
I’ve never been this involved in a contract ratification vote before. And part of that is due to my work with running our social media. Every day, multiple times a day, I would check Twitter and Instagram to see what others were posting about the contract. There were specific hashtags I checked constantly. I wanted to share posts about people excited about the contract or answer questions that some people might have had. But that also meant I would be seeing the posts that were against the contract or were negative. And seeing those every day wasn’t easy. But I tried to keep my focus on the positive ones.
The ratification vote was due on Wednesday, and we all were working hard up until the last minute. Since the voting was done online, we didn’t want to miss a minute to make sure that members were making an educated vote. Of course, I was hoping they would vote to approve, but I also wanted everyone to be educated even if that meant they voted no. And when voting was done, we really had no clue if it would pass or not.
It felt like we waited a long time for the results to come in. I was on a Zoom call with some of my friends from the union about 2 hours after the end of the vote and we were still waiting to hear what happened. And maybe 2 1/2 hours after the end of the vote, we finally saw the press release with the results.
The contract passed! It was 74.22% to 25.78%. And while that was exciting, what I was most excited about was the number of members who voted. In the past, it’s usually between 15-16% of the membership that votes. That number is really low and we have worked hard to try to get more members to be involved and to vote. And this time, we had about 27% of the membership voting! Yes, I know that number is still really low and 2/3rds of the membership did not participate, but we still almost doubled what we typically have. As much as I would have liked to have over 50% participating, this is a good step toward that and hopefully, we will be there in the future.
After I found out the contract passed, I was a bit of an emotional wreck. I worked harder on this vote than I have on any other. I was very involved and very aware of what both sides were saying. I didn’t feel certain it would pass even though I was extremely hopeful that it would. And this wasn’t just my effort. Hundreds of people worked hard to make this happen. I am so grateful to everyone who got the message out and voted. This was huge. And I am so proud of what we as a union accomplished.
Now, we just have to hope that we can reopen things soon so we can start working on this contract. I hope that I have a chance to do that soon. We worked hard for this, and I can’t wait to get to use it!
Posted onJuly 14, 2020|Comments Off on Another SAG-AFTRA Election (or 318 Million Reasons To Vote Yes)
My union service has increased every year. I’ve been getting more and more involved. Even during this pandemic and being isolated, I’ve been finding new ways to be involved. Doing this has been so important to me for many reasons. Right now, it’s important because it gives me a sense of service and purpose. And no matter what the world situation is like, it’s important to be involved because I feel like all members of the union need to be educated on union issues. There are so many things out there that are either confusing or half-truths, and I want people to know exactly what is going on.
And right now, there is something urgent that I have been trying to educated members on. We are voting on our new TV/Theatrical contract. And I am highly encouraging members to vote yes!
There are so many reasons why I think members should vote yes. I do recommend checking out this website on some of the amazing things we gain with this contract. And the biggest thing is that this contract is a $318 million dollar gain over our current contract! That is huge and it is historic! I think for so many members, this alone is a great reason to vote yes. But there are many others.
For the west coast, we have increased the jobs for background performers. I know that some people are upset that the increase is by 1 performer and not more, but the negotiating committee worked hard to get that. They would have loved to have gotten more, but it was a fight to get the 1 spot that they did.
We are also getting a huge increase in our residuals for streaming. The increase will be 26%! I have heard some people upset that broadcast syndicated residuals did not get the same increase and that when those deals are expired that they might be decreased. But there is a reason for that. In 2019, there were about 50 shows in broadcast syndication. In 2020, there were only 17 left. And that number is going to continue to decrease while streaming increases. So it is more important to get the increases in streaming where most shows are headed.
And one of the most important things we gained in this new contract is stronger protections for nudity and simulated sex on set. There are so many things within this category that we got. For auditions, they can no longer require you to submit nude photos for consideration. You must be able to see every person who is able to see your audition. So someone can’t be watching over Skype and you cannot see their face. On set, they are no required to get you a way to cover up between takes so you don’t have to sit there exposed while they work on setting up the next shot. And if you are working a background job that has nudity or simulated sex and you are not comfortable with the work, you can say so and they are still required to pay you for the day even if you go home. That’s just the start of what we got!
To me, it’s an easy choice to vote yes. I understand that this contract isn’t perfect and there are some things that I wish we had gotten, but it’s still an amazing contract. And if we vote no, there is no guarantee we will have something close to what we have. We will have to start for the beginning to try to get all these gains again, and the world is different now compared to a few months ago when this was negotiated. While some people see voting now as a move of strength that we should have a stronger contract, this contract was fought hard to get and the other side is not guaranteed to agree to anything. I am very happy with this contract and I hope that it is approved by the membership.
If you are a SAG-AFTRA member, please make sure you vote by the 22nd! Your vote is important and it matters! And if you have questions about this contract, please contact me. I want everyone who votes to know what they are voting on and I am happy to help explain what I can and get you connected to someone who can explain what I can’t.
A Day Of Watching Politics (or I Believe Her)
