Pat Arnow's Personal and Political


Archived Home Page, Winter 2004
“... the struggle for justice should never be abandoned because of the apparent overwhelming power of those who have the guns and the money and who seem invincible in their determination to hold on to it. That apparent power has, again and again, proved vulnerable to human qualities less measurable than bombs and dollars: moral fervor, determination, unity, organization, sacrifice, wit, ingenuity, courage, patience--whether by blacks in Alabama and South Africa, peasants in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Vietnam, or workers and intellectuals in Poland, Hungary and the Soviet Union itself. No cold calculation of the balance of power need deter people who are persuaded that their cause is just.” — Howard Zinn, from “The Optimism of Uncertainty,” The Nation, September 2, 2004. Click here to read full article

Photos on this website are available in high-resolution format. Please e-mail your request.

Some good guys finish first

U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer campaigns at the Staten Island Ferry terminal for Democrat Diane Savino (left) running for a New York State Senate seat representing the north shore of Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn including Coney Island and Bensonhurst. She won! And Sen. Schumer won reelection by a landslide.

From The Chief-Leader, New York City's City civil employees' weekly.
Click here for more pictures from The Chief.

More from Howard Zinn and “The Optimism of Uncertainty,” The Nation:

“Revolutionary change does not come as one cataclysmic moment (beware of such moments!) but as an endless succession of surprises, moving zigzag toward a more decent society. We don't have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world. Even when we don't "win," there is fun and fulfillment in the fact that we have been involved, with other good people, in something worthwhile. We need hope.”

Weird Sex History

Sex researcher Wardell Pomeroy (right) was one of Alfred Kinsey's co-authors of the groundbreaking studies, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female. In 1977, I interviewed Pomeroy for a magazine/catalog published by the group that ran the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality. (I worked in the for-profit film and book distributor for the nonprofit institute in San Francisco, and that's a whole 'nother story.)

Recently, the movie Kinsey came out with Liam Neeson as Kinsey. Chris O'Donnell plays Pomeroy.

Sex researcher Wardell Pomeroy in 1977. Photo by Pat Arnow

My interview had a lot to do with his views on childhood sexuality--his books included Boys and Sex, Girls and Sex and Your Child and Sex. His views were not exactly mainstream then. They're not now, either. He believed pornography should be completely uncensored and available for anyone over the age of 16, that young girls should learn about orgasms, and he encouraged child-to-child sex play and thought incest might not be all that damaging. Was he forward-thinking or kinda creepy? You can judge. E-mail me, and I'll send you a pdf with the interview on it.

The Bronx is up, the Battery's down
People ride around in a hole in the ground
And they have for 100 years now.
I got to ride from City Hall to Grand Central Terminal in the vintage car put in service for the centennial. Here are some pictures

Miss Subways rides a vintage train at the 100th anniversary of the New York City Subway Oct. 27, 2004.

Transit employees dressed in period costumes for the subway centennial.

Ralph Vega wears the uniform of a conductor a hundred years ago. He's a conductor today, too.

Ads for Lifebuoy soap, Luna Park, Sloan's Liniment on the 100 year old subway car. Photo by Pat Arnow

Ad for "Hebe—A compound of evaporated skimmed milk and vegetable fat." From the 100-year-old subway car brought out for the centennial of the NYC subway. Photo by Pat Arnow

Wicker seat from vintage subway car. Photo by Pat Arnow

Above: (Left) Ads for Lifebuoy soap, Luna Park, Sloan's Liniment. (Right) Ad for "Hebe—A compound of evaporated skimmed milk and vegetable fat."

Left: Wicker seat.

More good guys finishing first
Even in North Carolina good election news can happen.
Jen Strom for the Independent reports on a rural county that has beat back developers—and the slow growth consciousness surely had something to do with her investigative reporting for the alternative weekly there. Click here to read about the grassroots victory in Chatham County.

And More from Howard Zinn
and “The Optimism of Uncertainty,” The Nation:

“An optimist isn't necessarily a blithe, slightly sappy whistler in the dark of our time. To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places--and there are so many--where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”
Click here to read full article

And
The seven Democratic senators who voted against the Iraq war all won re-election – and they did it by an average margin of nearly 30%.
Anti-war Democrat senators who won:

Barbara Boxer – California – 58%-38%
Daniel Inouye – Hawaii – 76%-21%
Barbara Mikulski – Maryland – 65%-34%
Patty Murray – Washington – 55%-43%
Russ Feingold – Wisconsin – 55%-44%
Ron Wyden – Oregon – 63%-32%
Pat Leahy – Vermont – 71%-25%

from “Bright Spots” by Evan Derkacz for AlterNet

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