Up June 26, 2009
Posted by Sarah in Movies, NPR.add a comment
Up is sweet, with a surprising amount of sadness served up at the beginning of the movie. I also got a taste of a very rare sort of female character – confident, engaged, and most importantly, not sexualized. And then she snuffed it to make way for the rest of the (admittedly very good) plot. And so I’d like to add my name to the letter that circulated widely among all my Facebook friends - it would be wonderful to see a Pixar movie about a girl and the things that happen to her.
Do-over! June 7, 2009
Posted by Sarah in Books, My 2 cents, NPR.add a comment
I often joke (whine) to one of my good friends that I’d like a do-over on life, and the conversation always centers on the unfairness of not getting one. Imagine the smile on my face, then, as I listened to the NPR interview with a man who did, in fact, get several do-overs.
Of course, now that I know a do-over is possible, it turns out that I don’t really want one, but it’s always sweeter to decline an option than to be denied the option altogether.
Is it wrong to pay for sex? May 31, 2009
Posted by Sarah in My 2 cents, NPR.1 comment so far
The other night, I listened to the Intelligence Squared US debate on the question of whether it’s wrong to pay for sex.
The side against that argument conceded the many, many situations in which it is wrong to pay for sex, but argued that if any circumstances exist in which paying for sex isn’t wrong, the other side loses the debate. Fair enough – that’s logic for you.
Although I went into the debate willing to concede that there may be circumstances in which paying for sex is not harmful, this strategy left me cold. This logic is designed to uphold unfair, harmful, or abusive practices. If one person can emerge unscathed, the thinking goes, then the fault does not lie with xyz practice. Suddenly, the blame for being victimized is shifted to the victim’s shoulders – they are blamed for being weak, psychologically deficient, morally astray, or just plain old masochistic.
Furthermore, the case that the against camp did build fell flat to me – better regulation is key, chimps do it, it’s narrow minded to pass moral judgment. I felt their best arguments explained how paying for sex might benefit a john, but fell short of addressing the harm done to women by the act of prostitution.
Instead, I found myself compelled by the arguments of Catharine MacKinnon and Melissa Farley. I left with a strong visceral response that paying for sex is wrong due to its coercive nature, the frequency of violence against women in prostitution, and because of the lasting harm it does to the women who engage in it.
Listening is an act of love. January 2, 2009
Posted by Sarah in My 2 cents, NPR.Tags: My 2 cents
1 comment so far
That’s the tag line for Story Corps, an oral history project featured regularly on NPR. Unlike the news, Story Corps focuses on what happens after – after a life changing event, after a life spent together, after the dust has cleared. What so often emerges is the unmistakable sound of love, of wonder, and of hope. Rarely do I hear a clip that does not bring tears to my eyes. Here are a few that I found particularly moving.
On love, loss, and the big blue sky
On gratitude
One radical act of kindness
NPR: Making changes July 15, 2008
Posted by Sarah in My 2 cents, NPR, Rugby.add a comment
So much of the world’s news involves deadlock of one kind or another, two parties so convinced that they are right that they will feud for years, decades, and centuries rather than compromise and create something better. This NPR story reported on one man who took the opposite approach and is transforming lives and society.
And wouldn’t you know it? Rugby is involved. :)
This I Believe March 6, 2008
Posted by Sarah in Books, My 2 cents, NPR.add a comment
NPR revived a 50 year old series of personal essays called This I Believe. I loved the series on the radio and have been slowly reading through the essays in the book. One of my (many) favorites was written by Jackie Robinson, and one of his beliefs is that “…imperfections are human. But that wherever human beings were given room to breathe and time to think, those imperfections would disappear, no matter how slowly.”
