By Nathan Duke
A bevy of women bloggers, authors, magazine editors and activists voiced issues they considered most important to this year’s presidential race during an event last week at Long Island City’s LaGuardia Community College.
“This Is What Women Want,” a national project aimed at collecting women’s thoughts on the election that was developed by Massachusetts−based initiative Center for New Words, had traveled to Missouri, Tennessee, Mississippi and other states before making its final stop at the Long Island City school Oct. 14.
Speakers at the event listed a number of their priorities for the next U.S. president, including reproductive rights, greater roles for women in politics, increased attention to the nation’s poor and combatting national racism, sexism and homophobia.
“I hope one of our presidential hopefuls will step forward and lead with integrity,” said Kety Esquivel, founder of CrossLeft.org, an organization designed to politically organize left−leaning Christians. “We’ve been on the brink of huge problems in the past, so this is not new. We need visionary leadership.”
Betsy Reed, executive editor of The Nation magazine, said she thought the government was currently failing on a number of issues, such as universal child care. She said voters should not believe that current national economic crises should prevent them from voicing their opinions on a range of issues.
“Everything is on the table, so this is not the time to be shy about our demands,” she said. “It’s time to ask for everything we want. They may tell us to get in line behind the bankers, but we should tell them to get in line behind us.”
Carmen Van Kerckhove, who created a blog — Racialicious — about race and popular culture, said U.S. residents should realize that racism and sexism are still prevalent in the country despite U.S. Sen. Barack Obama’s (D−Ill.) bid for the White House and U.S. Sen. John McCain’s (R−Ariz.) choosing Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.
“People need to stop pretending that racism does not still exist just because a black man is running for president,” she said.
The speakers directed their comments to a camera during the event. Comments will be compiled with other “This Is What Women Want” events around the nation and then sent to the media and both presidential candidates.
Most speakers did not directly endorse a specific candidate. But city author and playwright Kate Bornstein spoke well of two candidates despite the fact that only one of them is in the current White House race.
“I was a big [U.S. Sen.] Hillary Clinton [D−N.Y.] supporter and believed in her vision of a global village,” she said. “But I’m also a big Barack Obama supporter. I don’t want to be seen as an ugly American anymore.”
Reach reporter Nathan Duke by e−mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718−229−0300, Ext. 156.
