Big Victory and Small Victories
Big Victory: Election Reflection
Our troubled country is back on the right track with the defining election of our next president, Barack Obama. We, along, with the rest of the country and world can breathe a mountain-sized sigh of relief!
After ignoring the warnings of 9/11, after the false evidence leading to the Iraq war, after Katrina, and after the near catastrophic economic collapse, the Republican Party did not deserve to win and voters in record numbers made sure they did not.
To many people, President-Elect Barack Obama may be a crapshoot, but surely no more so than several of our past presidents. To Obama’s credit, he ran an almost flawless campaign, and he seems to inspire and lift up virtually everyone, across financial, class, racial and gender divides – as well as party lines. He appears to possess all the essential ingredients of a strong, powerful national and world leader: calm and steady, passionate and measured, curious and intelligent, compassionate and decisive.
What does his election mean to women?
Well, for this woman…. how do you spell R-E-L-I-E-F?
For now, women do not have to sweat the next Supreme Court appointees; nor further erosion of women’s right to choose; nor the continuation of GITMO; nor the imperious disregard for civil liberties; nor the shoot-from-the-hip, reactive, ideologically-rooted economic and military decisions that have practically collapsed our infrastructure and world reputation.
Whew!
We look forward to a real “change” administration focused on military solutions to two existing wars, leading a renewed effort to wage the war on poverty not people, creating better education and job opportunities, implementing a health insurance system that works for small businesses and all Americans. Looking forward, and for, ideas and legislation that immediately address the looming climate crisis and advancing the search for a cure for cancer and so many other diseases by approving funding for stem cell research.
We recognize the daunting task ahead for this next President and Congress. The brilliance of Obama’s campaign theme was his unrelenting message to unite the country and Congress. He reached deeply into both rural and urban communities in every state to electrify our youth and heretofore disenfranchised groups and to begin reestablishing America as one nation, undivided. The success of his agenda will build on this foundation of unity and hopefully under his leadership will bury the ugly partisanship and polarization that has plagued this nation for so many years.
Through Obama’s inspiring leadership there is new hope that all of us, women and men, rich, middle class and the poor, young and old alike will work hard to get our country back. The result of this election is powerful evidence of the resilience of democracy and its ideals in which we can once again believe in with optimism and pride.
Small Victories: Vermont Woman Newspaper Celebrates Five Years
We are unabashedly celebrating our 5th anniversary.
While the daily newspapers are struggling to compete with the 24/7 cable networks and Internet blogs, the good news is that locally-owned community and alternative weekly and monthly publications are thriving.
This issue of Vermont Woman is the culmination of the efforts made by many women beginning with Vermont Woman “the First” (1985-1990). Thirteen years later, we began publishing this revised and revived Vermont Woman. Critics raised their doubts, from who will read it, who will support it, how will it make money, to who really gives a damn! We were warned that the timing was wrong, the issues muted, the cost daunting, and that the formidable challenges simply outweighed the effort.
Admittedly, the journey has at times been rocky; but so too has it been exhilarating.
It is the small victories, the ones that seem to have touched a reader, that have made all the difference. Like the college student who, having delivered late-night pizza to us and seeing what we were working on, exclaimed that she loved our paper and was thrilled to be standing in our office; or the fellow in the parking lot of Hunger Mountain Coop in Montpelier, who spotted my car with the VTWMN license plates and waited for the latest copy, saying it was his favorite read; or the woman who called to say she was moved to tears when reading about my grandmother. “The thinking person’s paper” was how a Burlington business owner recently described Vermont Woman.
Reflecting on a body of work that now stretches to 10 full years of publishing, we pause to measure the value of publishing a women’s newspaper.
It is useful to check the mission statement from time to time. Ours is clear and simple;
Vermont Woman Newspaper is a statewide monthly dedicated to providing a woman’s perspective on current events, business, health, education, finance, legal, sports, family, relationships, and the arts; to inspire; to educate; to on occasion delight, provoke, entertain and to surprise; and to strive for editorial and design excellence.
Vermont Woman has been fortunate to have the team of Margaret Michniewicz (editor since 2004) and Jan Doerler (creative director since 2003), who launched us in October 2003 with a dynamic new look. Our editorial staff is rounded out by the invaluable contributions of Assistant Editor Mary Fratini and Associate Editor Amy Lilly for the last four years, and the stalwart group of contributing writers and columnists to our pages.
The dedication to excellent writing, photography and design is due to these women’s untiring diligence, talent, and passion for producing Vermont Woman knowing that every month their work reaches thousands of readers throughout Vermont.
The efforts and support of past Vermont Woman staff members have all contributed to our longevity and success. A loving nod to Rickey Gard Diamond, founding editor in 1985 of the first Vermont Woman, who continues her involvement as contributing editor; and a heartfelt thank you to Deb Alden, founding editor of the current Vermont Woman, in 2003. Their vision was critical to launching both publications.
No paper can survive very long without the support of its founders, freelance writers, distribution outlets and advertisers. Vermont Woman (and our readers!) continue to benefit from their solid support and contributions.
Vermont provides an amazing environment to publish a woman’s newspaper and as far as I know there is no paper quite like her in the entire country. But then again, how could there be – there’s no place quite like Vermont!
As publisher, I am enormously proud and honored to be associated with so many thinking, edgy, provocative, and bold women.
Thank you all.
To Be Continued.
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Vermont Woman is a forum for news, issues, features, arts and entertainment from the perspective, experience, and voices of Vermont women. Vermont Woman is a monthly newspaper published in South Burlington, Vermont and is excerpted here on this site. All content ©Copyright 2009, Vermont Woman Publishing |
