Hi. Thanks for visiting. It's been a while since I've done any serious updating to Partisan Witch Hunt, so I thought I'd at least check in and share a few words about myself, and this place.
Most likely you're here because one of your favorite lefty sites links to me, Democratic Underground or Evil GOP Bastards. Or perhaps you're here because you were doing research on Salem and I diverted you. Or perhaps you're here because some of your friends at your favorite wingnut message board recruited you to spend a couple hours answering my poll over and over again. If there's something else that drew you here, I'd love to hear about it.
But, who am I and what am I doing here?
I'm a musician and I live in Brooklyn with my musician boyfriend. We run a little recording studio and both have other jobs. I work for 2 non-profits, doing development work for one and as a direct service provider for the other.
I made my first freeby website during campaign 2000. I was new to the internet, and had just started learning html when Bush announced that Cheney would be his running mate. I put together a one page directory of informative links, with a message board and some animated gifs called The Cheney Reaction. The site was very much about election 2000 and getting out the anti-Republican vote. After the selection, there wasn't much reason to keep it updated. It was time to build something new.
I made a series of sites promoting my art and music. I spent most of my time working, recording and performing. I didn't build another political site until after September 11th, 2001. There's no one who wasn't affected in some way by the events of that day, each in our own way. I built my September 11th page to help me cope.
When Alec Baldwin compared the trauma of the September 11th attacks to the trauma of the 2000 election, I was so grateful. September 11th was primary day in New York City, and while I remember wailing and puking while the smoke built up outside my window and all I could think about were the people, so many people killed at once, and all the people who had, all at once, lost people they loved as much as I love my boyfriend who was standing in the window, home with me and not at work in the World Trade Center--I also remember thinking, They're going to cancel the primary! And I remembered what happened in our last election, and I was so scared that my vote would never be counted again and that democracy was really over.
I've talked about it and I've written about it so many times. My friends from Democratic Underground will read this and think, There she is, talking about primary day, 2001 again. Next we're going to hear about that school I walked down the block to the school, the neighborhood school that's my polling place. The towers had just come down, and all the kids were at the windows facing the river, watching. All the kids, pressed against the windows, they'd all just seen. And all that smoke was coming. I was crying and my boyfriend was holding my hand. The election volunteer asked, "Did you know someone?" I just looked at her. And I voted. I knew the election would be canceled. But I didn't know if I would ever have another chance to vote.
I just wish Alec Baldwin had gone further. He said, "I know that's a harsh thing to say, perhaps, but I believe that what happened in 2000 did as much damage to the pillars of democracy as terrorists did to the pillars of commerce in New York City," Yes, I was so grateful to hear someone acknowledge that our democracy had been wounded by the events election 2000, and especially to relate it to September 11th--because to me one is so inexorably an extension of the other. It did make me feel so much more understood, so much more normal, to hear acknowledgment that we're suffering from a dual PTSD. But it wasn't just the pillars of commerce that were damaged by the attacks. I looked across the river and I saw death, and waste, and pain, and poison and a great plume of camouflage for the Republican agenda. I understood September 11th immediately as a crisis of democracy. I knew that terrorists could kill and destroy, but that only we could truly bring our nation down. And I knew that not enough people were saying that, not enough people were truly defending our nation.
My old September 11th site eventually evolved into Partisan Witch Hunt, my political home on the web.
Sometimes this site is very current, and sometimes, I slack. There's been so much to discourage us, and even more to make us grieve. Sometimes, when I think of the children we've killed in Iraq, I want to make sure this place is as complete, informative and functional as possible. I want to take advantage of every available resource to oppose our monestrous administration. And sometimes, I need to remember that I'm not in this alone, and I can stop and take care of myself, and there are still so many people using the internet to organize and share vital information.
I appreciate so much every visitor who has written to me. Whether you wanted to tell me that I should be hung in public or that I've inspired you or given you hope, your words help me to know that despite the imperfection of this place, it's important that I keep working on it.
I just keep remembering something that Gandhi said. "What you do is of little significance, but it's very important that you do it."
So, again, thanks for visiting me. Please check back from time to time.
