Author: Becky Sarwate

Holy crap! I won! (March 25, 2010)

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iwpa_award_seal

Back in January, the Editor-in-Chief at StreetWise, Suzanne Hanney, told me she’d like to nominate two of the pieces I wrote for the paper last year for Mate E. Palmer Communications awards, sponsored by the Illinois Woman’s Press Association. At the time, I thought she had gone daft. I had been a freelance reporter for all of about five minutes when she told me I actually had a shot of winning such an accolade. I spent a sizeable amount of time in 2009 honing a reputation as a go-to journalist for Chicago’s burgeoning urban agriculture business. But considering that my previous reporting experience consisted of theater criticism for the Lincoln Park High School newspaper, I figured I still had a ways to go before earning the right to trophies. But is always nice to be nominated for something, and Suzanne has been a critical mentor in my development as a writer. I can never thank her enough for all she’s done.

So imagine my great astonishment as I returned from the gym Tuesday afternoon and opened a letter from the Association. I had to read it several times over before anything made sense. It seems the good ladies of journalism decided to make me the State’s winner in the Special Articles: Agriculture, Agribusiness, Aquaculture category. Really? Wow!

Pleased as I am, I did have to take a moment to appreciate the irony. Ms. Concrete Jungle herself, lover of all things urban and high culture, wins a media award for writing about farming. True enough that the farming takes place within City limits, but it’s agriculture. If there is such a designation, I have what the horticulture set might refer to as a “black thumb.” I couldn’t even keep a cactus alive when I was living in Bensenville. But I suppose that’s life, isn’t it? Full of surprises.

The awards luncheon will be held on Saturday, May 15th, and I will receive the honor in front of a sea of female journalists who have been in the game much longer than I. How humbling and awe-inspiring. I don’t do praise well, never have, so when the inevitable tears of embarassment materialize, I will have the support of my family to help me dry them. It means so much to me that Jen will be sitting at my table, because honestly, I wouldn’t be writing this post were it not for her. A little more than a year ago, I was languishing in corporate hell, nursing a dream, but doing nothing about it. Jen invited me to participate in this blog, then kicked me in the pants as often as needed until I found the guts to branch out.

As a winner of the 2010 Mate E. Palmer Communications Contest, I will have paid entry for a wider competition, sponsored by the National Woman’s Press Association (NWPA), of which I am also a member. Again let us pause to reflect on that idea that Boop will going womano y womano against seasoned Red state agriculture vets. It’s kind of hilarious.

I dare not develop a big enough head to think I will place at the national level. I still can’t believe something I wrote will be considered at all. But I feel pretty amazing today, not to mention vindicated. I chucked it all, literally – safety, salary, benefits and continuity – to enter into a new field, as it has fallen on hard times, and when I have to compete for bylines against people ten years younger than me, with twice the experience. But even more astounding than having the gall to take a risky plunge is the fact that it’s working.

I’ll be damned.

Trying to Understand America(ns) (March 23, 2010)

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DUMB+ASS%20AMERICANS!!!

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

I don’t get it. I cannot, for the life of me, comprehend why Americans in general are dead set against health care reform. I know regular reader Mr. A. can’t wait to tell me it’s all about deficits and concern for our financial future. But I don’t buy it. Where was that concern with our dependence on foreign oil, which allowed countries we diametrically oppose ideologically, to price gouge us for the last four decades? Where was that abhorrence for non-budgetary spending when we went off to a pointless war in Iraq? How about during the criminally negligent Bush tax cuts during the same period? Why not call for some heads when the corrupt financial system nearly brought us to ruin?

How can it be something that is at long last beneficial to the regular Joe that has the crowds baying? I hate to sound like an elitist liberal snob, but have we as a nation lost the ability to understand what is in our best interest? I hear a lot of talk about how Democrats lost the “message war” on health reform last summer, about the time Sarah Palin started spewing her garbage about death panels. But perhaps I gave my fellow citizens too much credit in believing we had educated ourselves beyond that foolishness?

The bill (or bills) are not perfect. I will admit it. I wanted a public option. The changes we are set to implement attempt to build upon and fix the system already in place. That’s certainly better than nothing, but definitely stops short of the revolution some of us were hoping for. Yet and still, a majority of the nation opposes the legislation. It’s a head scratcher for certain.

Insurance companies will no longer be able to: cap your annual health care expenses, drop you when you’re sick, or flat out deny people with pre-existing conditions. Jobless college graduates will be able to keep their parents coverage until the age of 26. Sure, the plan has a cost, but it is more than paid for in long term savings and deficit reductions. We will never be able to say that about the hundreads of billions we have thrown down the Iraq drain.

So what is it? Are we afraid of change? Are the Republicans having to answer to the special interest groups and lobbyists who line their pockets? Are these the people being polled? Why doesn’t CNN ever call me? I don’t have the answers. I am thinking out loud here.

Anyone, anyone?

Shamrock Stomach Flu (March 20, 2010)

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Sick Stomach

Long, gross story short: something happened to my stomach and I have been unleashing gastronomic pyrotechnics since about 9:00 PM Thursday night. It continued all day yesterday, though I pride myself on having been able to participate in a phone interview for a job whilst flat on my back. It certainly sucked having to cancel my Friday night social plans, but as our regular blog followers may remember, I am running the Shamrock Shuffle tomorrow morning in Grant Park. I have exactly 24 hours to get my strength back.

Given that all I managed to keep down yesterday was snack size bag of Oreo cookies (at least my upset stomach has good taste), Step 1 is going to be eating healthy, light foods. No one can run an 8k on an empty stomach. Step 2 is rehydration via water and Gatorade, with a dash of ginger tea thrown in.

The change in the weather makes things more interesting too. After a near 70 degree day yesterday, I am presently watching snowflakes fall outside my office window. No matter, I like a challenge. Bring it Mother Nature. Bring on the remnants of stomach flu. I will run and I will finish in less than 50 minutes.

Wish me luck!

Wal-Mart Gift Wraps Me Another Reason to Hate Them (March 18, 2010)

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walmart_bingo_card_1

I have been calling this retailer “The Evil Empire” for years. I know they have everything, and they have it on the cheap, but I won’t shop there.

Let’s leave aside the unfair business practices, and predatory assault on regional Mom and Pop stores the chain unleashed in the 1980s and 90s. Let’s forget about their sweat shop labor practices: the abuse of needy seniors, the unfair pay raises awarded to men over women. I can even try to overlook some of their most glaring PR gaffes, say two Christmases ago when a man did a nice thing and bought hundreds of $10 store gift cards to pass out at his local outlet, only to be kicked out of the place by management, worried that the benvolent gift might decrease recipient spending.

On the whole, no matter how many lovey dovey ad campaigns they launch, Wal-Mart appears to me to be the very eptiome of the heartless corporation. Daley and I don’t see eye to eye on much, but I for one am thrilled he has thus far kept Wal-Mart out of City limits. May it always remain that way. I would rather spend an additional five cents on my body wash at the far more civic minded Target.

Incidentally, if you doubt the veracity of any of my claims thus far, feel free to take to the Web. The truth is out there, as Mulder might say.

However, last evening while watching CNN, and again this morning, when I booted up my computer, I came across a story that managed to shock me, though I had long given up on Wal-Mart having any shame:

Black people must leave, NJ Walmart announcer says
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Black-people-must-leave-NJ-apf-1749619349.html?x=0

Now, before any of you jump on my back, yes, I know this was one rogue employee, and this behavior is not explicitly condoned by corporate. Wal-Mart execs are falling all over themselves to snuff this PR mess, vowing to get to the bottom of the “unacceptable” behavior. That’s wonderful, except this is nowhere near the first time complaints of racism have been leveled at the retail giant. This latest example, perhaps arguably the most egregious, is just one of many.

1. November 16, 2009

Arrest at Walmart triggers charges of racism
Incident with white customers and workers could land black teacher in jail
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33963193/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

2. May 2009

Wal-Mart Charged with Racism…Again, and Other News
http://www.racewire.org/archives/2009/05/walmart_charged_with_racismaga.html

3. December 2, 2005

Racism alive and well at your neighborhood Wal-Mart
http://www.thoughtcrimes.org/s9/index.php?/archives/380-Racism-alive-and-well-at-your-neighborhood-Wal-Mart.html
If we expect the President of the United States to be held accountable for the direction of our nation, down to the smallest detail, then we must hold the chiefs of Wal-Mart to the same standard.

I bet New York wishes it could create some literal distance between itself and the white trash Garden State right about now.

I refused to be dazzled by dollar bargains when my social conscience knows better. As I detailed, it’s more than just systemic racism that irks me about the company. But this pattern has to be fixed, and fixed now. And “yes, we can” shop at another store until Wal-Mart cleans up it’s act – recession or not.

Young Texans Are About To Get A Whole Lot Dumber – And Your Kids Might Get Stupider Too (March 16, 2010)

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Texas

Instead of galvanizing me to act (though I’m not sure yet what I can do), this latest news story makes me want to sit down and release my frustration via a good cry:

U.S. history textbooks could soon be flavored heavily with Texas conservatism
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts1253

The item made me painfully aware of two truths of which I remained ignorant to this point. First, it seems that the Texas education system is such a large consumer of new textbooks, it is able, quite literally, to determine the curriculum and ideology imbibed by the rest of the nation’s students. And in the second place, the Lone Star State apparently has no regard at all for the fundamental U.S. principle of the separation of Church and State. Unhappy with what they view as the “liberal leanings” of our children’s schoolbooks, they have decided to cherry pick the facts they like, excise the ones they don’t. And most disturbingly, it seems no one is going to stop them.

Among the new conceptions of our nation’s history that students will be told to embrace:

1. “A greater emphasis on ‘the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s.'”

In other words, less Bill Clinton, or the successful work of activists in creating awareness and containing the AIDS epidemic that threatened our populace 30 years ago. Instead, more Reaganomics, more Newt Gingrinch, more O’Reilly and Limbaugh.

2. “A reduced scope for Latino history and culture.”

As of 2009, Latinos represented a full 15% of the American population. That percentage is considerably higher in Texas. Nevermind that the State was once part of Mexico, Latinos will be marginalized in favor of the compelling influence of crusty old white men in the nation’s development. Tragic.

3. “Thomas Jefferson no longer included among writers influencing the nation’s intellectual origins.”

By the time I reached this outrage, I was tempted to start slapping anyone wearing a cowboy hat. Among the intellectual forerunners to be highlighted in Jefferson’s place: medieval Catholic philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas, Puritan theologian John Calvin and conservative British law scholar William Blackstone. Two of these three were never even colonists, let alone Americans. I realize Jefferson, a slave owner, was hardly perfect, but it’s impossible to overstate his importance in the U.S. origin story. Believe it or not, I am wiping tears from my eyes as I continue to contemplate this atrocity.

I could go on, but I will let you folks read the rest of this insanity for yourselves. The good news is that a final vote to implement these changes will not come until May. There is still time to stop the crazy. I just need to figure out how. Any ideas? If Rosebud runs up to me in six years, insisting that Joe McCarthy was really just a misunderstood patriot/martyr, I don’t know what I’ll do.