I am truly flattered by the effort that you and Martha have spent to express yourselves and your opinion on our blog. Thank you for your energy and thoughts.

I would reiterate that it is not my job to defend or promote Hillary. So, you can’t say I am sexist for not having done so.

I think that in your blind affection for Hillary, you have not carefully read my Obama posts. Because, many of them were double-edged swords. I like Reverend Jeremiah Wright much more than Obama. And, if anything, I was trying to shame Obama into defending Reverend Wright, and challenging Obama to confront racism in America more boldly.

I hope I am not smarmy. Though, I suppose, just being in this thing called politics, makes someone have to pitch things in ways that become pointed and disingenuous. I would like to think that they can’t call you smarmy until you receive money or have a paid, political job. I hope that I am not smarmy in my volunteering for causes that I believe will bring peace and justice.

I believe that I am allowed to dislike someone, even though that person is a woman. In my political life, the most important thing to me is my right to express myself and be heard. I have often pushed “write-in” candidates, equally with Green Party candidates, because I just want people to speak their mind to power. So, since I am a New Yorker, and my friends and I told our Senator, Hillary Clinton that we wanted her to vote against the war, and instead, she had some demonstrators in front of her office arrested, and told people that while she received tens of thousands of calls and e-mails against the war, she voted for it anyway, that was a kind of last straw to me. As a poet and activist, I can’t stand to have my voice mocked and dismissed in that way. As a constituent of Senator Clinton, and as a citizen, I think I have a right to dislike her after that episode.

I think I hold my tongue pretty well considering my intense dislike for her. I could have made a lot of blog entries about all the things I dislike about her, and all the policies she has that I find repugnant.

Another thing about politics is, sometimes, it is a favor to “abstain”, when on the other hand, your vote would be a resounding “no”.

Thanks,
Kimberly Wilder

Dear Martha,

If I wasn’t so tired from all the work I do for peace and progressive politics, I would laugh at your post instead of wince.

The links are very uneven, because I am a citizen who only has so much time and energy to keep up with this site that is a service to the community.

Also, since what was there before was the address listed, that anyone could copy and paste, and considering that I don’t think with all Clinton’s friends and money, anyone could possibly have trouble finding her site just because I didn’t link well enough, your argument seems like a pretty mean-spirited jibe at a volunteer, citizen activist.

Oh, well.

I fixed the darned link. Either you or Hillary should probably pay me or thank me.

(But, please don’t. I like to stay independent. At least from corporate politics.)

Peace and struggle,
Kimberly Wilder