Quotes for Women's History Month (March)

This is embarrassing, but I did not realize that I had collected this and never posted it. When I was looking at the May quotes, I found it.

This is even more appropriate for the week when I skipped two days do to being busy and tired. 

That sort of goes along with how this year has been going. I try and do a lot, and actually I am doing a lot, but it's never quite as polished and perfect as I want and sometimes forgotten things jump out at me.

However, if this is true of lots of people, it's probably still more true of women, of which I am one.

Here's to me!

There are repeats, which I usually try to avoid. There were quotes I didn't want to lose by Fannie Lou Hamer and Marie Curie.

Here's to them! 

3/1 "Service is the rent that you pay for room on this earth." -- Shirley Chisholm

3/2 "One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals. And so when I hear about negative and false attacks, I really don't invest any energy in them, because I know who I am." -- Michelle Obama

3/3 "People have said over the years that the reason I did not give up my seat was because I was tired. I did not think of being physically tired. My feet were not hurting. I was tired in a different way. I was tired of seeing so many men treated as boys and not called by their proper names or titles. I was tired of seeing children and women mistreated and disrespected because of the color of their skin. I was tired of Jim Crow laws, of legally enforced racial segregation." -- Rosa Parks

3/4 "You cannot find peace by avoiding life." -- Virginia Woolf

3/5 “One must dare to be happy.” ― Gertrude Stein

3/6 “Man is defined as a human being and a woman as a female — whenever she behaves as a human being she is said to imitate the male.” ― Simone de Beauvoir

3/7 “Aging is not 'lost youth' but a new stage of opportunity and strength.” ― Betty Friedan

3/8 "Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God: But only he who sees takes off his shoes." -- Elizabeth Barrett Browning

3/9 "Life is a spell so exquisite that everything conspires to break it." -- Emily Dickinson

3/10 "It has always seemed strange to me that in our endless discussions about education so little stress is laid on the pleasure of becoming an educated person, the enormous interest it adds to life. To be able to be caught up into the world of thought-that is to be educated." -- Edith Hamilton

3/11 "Sometimes it seem like to tell the truth today is to run the risk of being killed. But if I fall, I'll fall five feet four inches forward in the fight for freedom. I'm not backing off." -- Fannie Lou Hamer

3/12 "Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained." -- Marie Curie

3/13 "Courage is not defined by those who fought and did not fall, but by those who fought, fell and rose again." -- Adrienne Rich

3/14 "It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences." -- Audre Lorde

3/15 "When we choose to love, we choose to move against fear, against alienation and separation. The choice to love is a choice to connect, to find ourselves in the other." -- bell hooks

3/16 "A woman who writes has power, and a woman with power is feared." -- Gloria E. Anzaldúa

3/17 “Science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated.”  -- Rosalind Franklin

3/18 "Gorillas are almost altruistic in nature. There's very little if any 'me-itis.' When I get back to civilization I'm always appalled by 'me, me, me.'" -- Dian Fossey

3/19 "I've put up with too much, too long, and now I'm just too intelligent, too powerful, too beautiful, too sure of who I am finally to deserve anything less." -- Sandra Cisneros

3/20 "There is no separation. We are all from the same place. As long as there is respect and acknowledgement of connections, things continue working. When that stops we all die." -- Joy Harjo

3/21 "Above all we must realize that each of us makes a difference with our life. Each of us impacts the world around us every single day. We have a choice to use the gift of our life to make the world a better place - or not to bother." -- Jane Goodall

3/22 "The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them." -- Ida B. Wells

3/23 "I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity." – Eleanor Roosevelt

3/24 "No one is born with skill. It is developed through exercise, through repetition, through a blend of learning and reflection that's both painstaking and rewarding. And it takes time." -- Twyla Tharp

3/25  "Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less." -- Marie Curie

3/26 "There are years that ask questions and years that answer." -- Zora Neale Hurston

3/27 "The first act of insight is throw away the labels." -- Eudora Welty

3/28 "I did what my conscience told me to do, and you can't fail if you do that." -- Anita Hill

3/29 "You can pray until you faint, but unless you get up and try to do something, God is not going to put it in your lap." -- Fannie Lou Hamer

3/30 "The world has never yet seen a truly great and virtuous nation, because in the degradation of women, the very fountains of life are poisoned at their source." -- Lucretia Mott

3/31 "When feminism does not explicitly oppose racism, and when antiracism does not incorporate opposition to patriarchy, race and gender politics often end up being antagonistic to each other and both interests lose." -- Kimberle Williams Crenshaw

Who's up first?

In the Sunday blog post I was critical of Mike Lee's meltdown over military religious classifications:

https://preparedspork.blogspot.com/2026/06/an-example-of-believers.html 

I spend most of my time on how it was a little late to be getting upset. There were so many terrible things that have happened to other people! Waiting until your pride has been hurt to care about something is not the best way to demonstrate your Christianity.

(Yes, I understand that definitions vary; that's what the rest of that post covered.)

I was more struck by it because of something similar from about two weeks ago.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/05/27/us-gov-subpoenas-hasan-piker-rep-summer-lee-pittsburgh/90258486007/  

Twitch streamer Hasan Piker received a subpoena from the federal government.

You may not be familiar with Piker; honestly, why should "Twitch streamer" be a thing that pertains to political influence?

You can also argue that he is not that influential. He believes he is and prominent leftists want his influence courted, but they are wrong a lot.

(A while back, a mutual had posted something defending "hasan" and I thought it showed bad judgment, but at the time I did not know that there were two: Hasan Piker and Mehdi Hasan. I am still not sure which one she meant, but I am still pretty sure it was bad judgment.) 

Anyway, all that had happened was the subpoena being served, as well as to another person, apparently relating to a trip to Cuba.

The people currently in power are not above using that power for personal vendettas; there are legitimate reasons to be concerned. However, his reaction seemed disproportionate, especially given his tendency to make incendiary remarks. If you are constantly starting some, you should expect that every now and then there will be some, right?

Of course, he mainly attacks Democrats who tend to be law-abiding, but it would be wrong to just assume that is hypocritical cowardice.

Anyway, this started a slew of leftists (including him, if I recall) saying that we are literally at the start of the Niemoller poem.  

Here's something I learned recently: it didn't start as a poem, and there would be different versions depending on the audience. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_They_Came 

You can find versions that start with Socialists. It may hit harder if you are a DSA member, but it's not definitive. What's more, it is not even relevant because...

WE ARE NOT AT "FIRST"! WE ARE LONG PAST "FIRST"! 

They have been coming for immigrants and scientists and park rangers and women and people who are not white!

In Nazi Germany they started with the disabled and people in asylums; remember Trump making fun of a reporter and announcing no more ASL interpretation? I realize there are worse things -- that is just a small point -- but... 

YOU HAVE TO BE INCREDIBLY PRIVILEGED TO THINK THAT THEY HAVE SUDDENLY BECOME A PROBLEM!

Of course, the more privilege you have, the easier it is to be unaware of things that happen.

The more privileged you are, the more any criticism or discomfort feels like persecution. 

It is one more territory shared by Trumpers and leftists. 

Quotes for Asian-American Pacific Islander Heritage Month

This May, each Friday had content related to AAPIHM. I am kind of proud of that.

I don't always manage that level of organization, as the next few weeks are going to show. However, because I want a more equitable and just society, I try and do my part in the ways that I have available.

Songs are going on through June, which affects some other things but seemed fair because I have not done as well for songs. For quotes, I sure have a lot of actors in this one. I don't know that it's bad, but it feels like there could be more of a background.

Also, there are a few whom you may notice are only Asian, not Asian-American. I still have not completely resolved whether that should count. 

Anyway, I tried.

There is one repeat, with Grace Lee Boggs on the 3rd and 31st, but she was a big part of my reading this year, and I liked both quotes. 

The Bruce Lee quote was posted the day we got back from Seattle, where his grave is, as well as Brandon's. We did not visit them, but I did think about them.

Quotes: 

5/1 “America’s democracy is not guaranteed. It is only as strong as our willingness to fight for it. To guard it and never take it for granted. And protecting our democracy takes struggle. It takes sacrifice. But there is joy in it. And there is progress. Because we, the people, have the power to build a better future.” — Kamala Harris

5/2 “That remains part of the problem—that we don't know the unpleasant aspects of American history...and therefore we don't learn the lesson those chapters have to teach us. So we repeat them over and over again.” – George Takei

5/3 “When you read Marx (or Jesus) this way, you come to see that real wealth is not material wealth and real poverty is not just the lack of food, shelter, and clothing. Real poverty is the belief that the purpose of life is acquiring wealth and owning things. Real wealth is not the possession of property but the recognition that our deepest need, as human beings, is to keep developing our natural and acquired powers to relate to other human beings.” – Grace Lee Boggs

5/4 "No one should ever be locked away simply because they share the same race, ethnicity, or religion as a spy or terrorist. If that principle was not learned from the internment of Japanese Americans, then these are very dangerous times for our democracy." -- Fred Korematsu

5/5 “It is the fate of modern life that we repeatedly lose touch with nature, the environment, the planet. But we try to regain it again and again. It's like a circle. In children's hearts and souls when they're born into the world, nature already exists deep inside them. So what I want to do in my work is tap into their souls.” – Hayao Miyazaki

5/6 “I've always felt that if I am deserving of the Medal of Honor, there are many, many others who are. I felt a little bad receiving it, so I received it on behalf of the fellows, because there's no such thing as a single-handed war. There's always a support group, and if you didn't have people who supported you, you couldn't fight a war.” – Daniel Inouye

5/7 "Sometimes the future changes quickly and completely, and we’re left with only the choice of what to do next. We can choose to be afraid of it. Just stand there trembling, not moving. Assuming the worst that can happen. Or we step forward into the unknown, and assume it will be brilliant." -- Sandra Oh

5/8 “We need storytelling. Otherwise life just goes on and on, like the number Pi.” – Ang Lee

5/9 “Life will knock us down, but we can choose whether or not to stand back up.” – Jackie Chan

5/10 "All these people, all these things came into my life, and they’re all blessings from God. And now that I look back, I realize that these are His fingerprints all over my story." -- Jeremy Lin

5/11 “Anger is a gift, but organized anger is a weapon.” – Tammy Duckworth

5/12 “Nobody else can make the sound you make.” – Yo-Yo Ma

5/13 “Success is a collection of problems solved.” --  By I.M. Pei

5/14 "Injuries teach you how to slow down." -- Yao Ming

5/15 "Your story may not have such a happy beginning, but that doesn't make you who you are. It is the rest of your story, who you choose to be." -- Michelle Yeoh

5/16 "I don't know secret to success, but I'm pretty sure the closest thing is preparation." -- Michelle Kwan

5/17 “Man is a genius when he dreams. Dream what you are capable of. The harder you dream it, the sooner it will come true.” – Akira Kurosawa

5/18 "Every day, someone realizes a dream. I believe dreams help light our darkness and give us the push we need to move across the rink of life." -- Kristi Yamaguchi

5/19 “Our society would be better if we all were just given the opportunity to dream, to believe, and to pursue the things that make our heart sing.” — Kelly Marie Tran

5/20 “I always think that my way of doing things, I want to make life a bit easier for the people that come behind me.” -- Naomi Osaka

5/21 "Sometimes when we are generous in small, barely detectable ways it can change someone else's life forever." -- Margaret Cho

5/22 “Dream big. The sky has room for all stars.” – Constance Wu

5/23 “To me, beauty is inclusion — every size, every color — that’s the world I live in.” — Prabal Gurung

5/24 “Remember, success is a journey not a destination. Have faith in your ability. You will do just fine.” – Bruce Lee

5/25 "There's really no substitute for working hard. I think that's my biggest talent. There are always people who are funnier and more talented than I am, but I don't take anything for granted and I commit myself 100% to each of my roles." -- Ken Jeong

5/26 “You don't want to continue to do one thing and only one thing. You want to keep challenging yourself and if you do well at it, great, if you fall on your face, you tried. Like, she's really terrible at comedy! Who knew? But if you didn't try and put yourself out there you'd never know.” -- Lucy Liu

5/27 “I never was able to do karate. That's calling me a good actor. I act like I can do anything.” – Pat Morita

5/28 “Human life is difficult. But as this life is coming to an end, I consider myself lucky to have lived it.” – James Hong

5/29 “Everything you make is being made by every single experience you’ve ever had in your whole life, and on top of that, things you were born with.” — Maya Lin

5/30 "Remember that consciousness is power. Tomorrow's world is yours to build." -- Yuri Kochiyama

5/31 “Love isn't about what we did yesterday; it's about what we do today and tomorrow and the day after.” – Grace Lee Boggs

On experience

It's hard to ignore some similarities in personality and general demeanor between Platner and Fetterman, but one area in which Fetterman had clear superiority was in political experience.

I find that a little more interesting in that Fetterman's experience was not ideal, but still something. There may be some lessons in examining it.

First of all, Platner's listed experience is as harbormaster, chair of a planning board, and some leading of activist efforts. The primary detail I have seen on any of those is some people calling his harbormaster job nonexistent. 

Harbormaster job descriptions vary a lot, so that could mean it's largely an honorary position, which is not quite the same as nonexistent. That might have been something to pursue earlier in the process, but at this point there are bigger concerns.

On the other hand, Fetterman was the Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor and prior to that served as mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania for thirteen years.

I notice two things about Fetterman's experience.

The first is that those are more executive than legislative positions. The duties are different, and the ways of working. It's great to have an executive who is good at working with others, but it is more consistently a need in legislative work. 

There are people who excel at both, but it probably requires some adjustment.

The other thing about having a public service record is that it gives people a chance to observe your work.

One of the duties of a lieutenant governor, at least in Pennsylvania, is presiding over the state senate. Fetterman attended only half of the sessions in 2020, and a third of them in 2021. Starting from the inauguration, he left about a third of his work days blank. The days he did work often lasted only 4-5 hours. 

At the same time, he was diligent in visiting counties regarding marijuana legalization (which the governor had assigned him to do) and was passionate and engaged in his work overseeing the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons.

Looking at that only (without considering other personality concerns), I would not think that legislation on a national level would be the best fit for him. Putting him over a department might work great, though the shortened working schedule could have a bad effect on general morale. Putting him over a temporary project that he cared about might be better.

That's just being practical.

Being practical solely on the topic of experience for the Maine election, Mills was easily the most qualified. 

For the other three, there's not much political experience at all, but based on job backgrounds Costello and LaFlamme are both more suited to the Senate than Platner would be.

The people who are pushing Platner aren't really about that. It's image, and personality, and vibes.

It is about that in a very specific way. 

Disclosure

If you have been paying any attention at all, you will know that information keeps coming out about Graham Platner that should be damaging, but various people keep insisting that it should not be held against him.

These are the same people who insist that there is no other choice for Maine Dems, which I don't think is quite true, as was the subject of yesterday's post.

Also interesting to me, though, is information that is coming out about the people pushing Platner.

There are three notable ones that I want to mention.

One is that Annie Wu, who has been pushing Platner, is actually paid by him.

Wu styles herself as a political consultant, so that isn't too surprising. It might not even be disqualifying, except it hadn't been disclosed.

I can't find an article that isn't really snarky, including one that keeps changing Platner's first name (I think it is humor that I don't get, but I don't know), but there does seem to be an admission, kind of:

https://x.com/neeratanden/status/2059812308574953551 

I am using a link where Neera Tanden quotes Wu's tweet, because I kind of don't trust Wu not to delete. 

Anyway, Wu's explanation is that she is paid by too many people to list them all. With the amount of publicity that this particular campaign is getting, it seems like the one that most needs mentioning.

Two related things that amuse me (in a cynical way)...

Wu's reference to "un-bought" progressives while celebrating Piker:

https://x.com/Annie_Wu_22/status/2060804790708240388 

The other is this series of tweets about Mainers being tired of out of state people telling them how to vote. Wu is based in Pennsylvania and Morris Katz seems to be from New York. As veterans of campaigns for Fetterman and Bernie Sanders, those locations make sense. If they are good at what they do, it may even make sense for Platner to hire them, but they are still from out of state.

Speaking of the Fetterman campaign, one of the other fun things was Sarah Longwell's claim that she was a Conor Lamb supporter all along:

https://x.com/SarahLongwell25/status/2060735929652748377 

That was not true. There were old posts that I can't find now (maybe deleted). 

If people are realizing now that pushing Fetterman makes their judgment questionable... they are not showing any lessons learned; just pretending it didn't happen.

Speaking of "real Mainers" leads us to the third thing, Genevieve McDonald, former Maine House member and women's fishing advocate, who worked on Platner's campaign, but then stopped. 

Hey, Morris Katz comes up in this story too!

https://www.aol.com/news/top-graham-platner-adviser-threatened-152058479.html 

When contacted about information that the Wall Street Journal already had, McDonald confirmed. Katz contacted her threatening that if she did not retract, it would be spun as her betraying Platner's wife.

That is how they have spun it, and it is spreading that way. It does not appear to be true, though it does show that this group is skilled at staying on message.

https://x.com/ok_post_guy/status/2061533850636018120 

As it says, McDonald has now gone on record with the New York Times. 

Maybe I am naive to think that truth matters, but is it possible that lying, not vetting candidates thoroughly, and not caring about experience might have some bad results? 

The next senator from Maine...

One thing that I hope was really clear from last week's posts was that honesty matters.

On one level, that is part of a wider set of beliefs where lots of things matter, like knowledge and expertise and how we treat each other. I don't take many things lightly. Yes, that can be a lot of pressure and very frustrating, but trying to wave away the importance of inconvenient things has its own problems, I assure you.

One of my frustrations with leftists is what they consider important and what they don't; honesty is a big part of that. We can see a lot of that focused around the current Senate primary in Maine. This is specifically for Democrats, as Republican sitting senator Susan Collins is currently unopposed. (Two earlier contenders are now showing as withdrawn or disqualified.)

I have not been following the race closely because I will not be voting in it. That doesn't mean it doesn't matter to me; just that it makes more sense to focus on where I have an influence. 

I had to look because of something that surprised me.

Leftists have been focusing all of their strength on supporting Platner, which meant focusing their opposition on Janet Mills, who is now still on the ballot but unofficially withdrawn.

After her withdrawal, it changed to how you have to support Platner because Collins is so evil and there is no other choice.

Then I saw ads for David Costello.

There is also a write-in candidate, Andrea LaFlamme. 

If they felt safe ignoring Costello, I assume that he does not have a lot of recognition. It does not look like he has previous governmental experience, though he has consulted on environmental policy.  

Normally I would consider the lack of governmental experience to be a drawback, but he is not worse off than Platner there, and probably better in some respects.

Costello probably has a better chance than LaFlamme, whose experience is as an adjunct professor. 

I am not sure that Mills should be discounted. She is experienced as the 75th governor of Maine, state attorney general, and member of the Maine House of Representatives. She was attacked as old and it was probably pretty sexist, and yes, she did withdraw, but she is still on the ballot. If people voted for her, could she be persuaded to campaign in the general? If I were in Maine, I would want to know.

Beyond that, could Costello beat Collins? I don't know, but I don't know that Platner can either. 

Collins votes pretty consistently Republican, but gives lip service to having a conscience. Could she be pushed hard on that, and would anti-Trump sentiment help? Again, I don't know; Maine is pretty white and it shows. 

Still, they might respond to someone speaking passionately and sensibly about the environment.

With Platner, would standing firm behind him be worth it? Once more, I don't know.

He is morally repugnant and that keeps getting worse. That is a problem. He would probably end up being most like a Fetterman, compared to a Sinema or a Manchin. It does still help to have more registered Democrats seated, but some are more helpful than others.

My biggest point from this is that if you only get your information from the people shouting loudest, there is going to be a lot that you don't know.

Much of that loss will be important.

And I will have more examples of the dishonesty. 

Books by Jung Chang

On this last Friday of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month 2026, things are not going quite as planned.

I mentioned one category that I still needed to get to last week, but I did not say that it consists of books about complex parent-child relationships. Predictably, the material has gotten complicated.

However, two of the books ended up being more about history:

Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister: Three Women at the Heart of Twentieth-Century China 

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China

Both are by Jung Chang 

When writing about my undergraduate degree, and the history aspect, I generally focus on African Americans in the American West. That was my seminar, so where I had more knowledge going and and doing a deeper level of research. The runner-up is history of China (followed by England and Ancient Rome). I took a whole year's worth of 300-level courses. 

Chung's books covered material that was familiar (thought it had been a while) and added a lot more, with clarity, organization, and fascination. 

In Wild Swans, Chung writes the story of her grandmother, her mother, and herself, with lives spanning the end of the Manchu Empire, Japanese occupation, the start of the Republic, the coming of Communism, and the various stages of that, ending with movement toward modernization. 

In a different family dynamic, Big Sister covers the Soong sisters, whom -- through their own influence, wealth and marriages (including Red Sister to Sun-Yat Sen and Little Sister to Chiang Kai-Shek) were intimately involved with China's journey through those same stages. 

Sometimes relationships get complicated, but nothing complicates their lives as much as those changes, especially under Mao. 

I found both of the books very interesting. I look forward to reading Chang's other books, one on Cixi and one on Mao Zedong.

I want to focus on one aspect of Wild Swans.

Chang was a teenager who started with an adoration of Mao, encouraged by a cult of personality. Even as disillusionment came on, it was hard to let go of that attachment and question the revolution itself.

One of the key means of control was turning people against each other. Ostensibly this was to weed out enemies of the state, but it was often used by people to resolve petty grievances and jealousy. 

Even if it was not always obvious how the spite benefited Mao, there were always plenty of examples of spite.

There were also people who tried hard to maintain their integrity -- Chung's father was a tragic example -- and people who remained affectionate and kind.

With one couple, noting their kindness and happiness, Chang concluded that happy people were kind.

I don't think she got it quite right, perhaps not surprising for a teenage girl. 

I think happiness can help one be kind and kindness can help people be happy. 

Kindness can also break your heart. Caring -- especially under such terrible times -- leaves you open to pain.

Being tortured brought on schizophrenia in her father, that had to be treated with insulin shock and electroshock therapy. There were suicides driven by fear and despair. People suffered nervous breakdowns and physical injuries (as well as nutritional deprivation) that affected their health for the rest of their lives.

I just mention it because I think there are lessons for our time about the problems of corruption and the dangers of personality cults and how communism and fascism are equally susceptible to authoritarianism.

Maybe the most important lesson, though, is how much suffering can be caused by petty spite.