Movies, politics & Smith College

Today we'll see either Finding Neverland or Ray. No hope of seeing Being Julia since it's already gone from the Burgh and never even made it to Suburbia. Still betting on Annette Bening to win since she lost against Hillary Swank in their last match-up. Love Hillary Swank though. Wish her name wasn't the same as the evil left-winger who claims to have been named after Edmund Hillary, even though he didn't climb Everest until long AFTER she was born. But don't get me started. How about that Condi? She's awesome. I'd love to meet her or at least hear her speak in person. She's making the diplomatic rounds in Europe now, trying to mend a few fences. The black community should be proud of her. I hope they are. Of course I'm sure she'll never be invited to speak at Smith since she's a right winger. I remember when I was there they rescinded an offer for Jean Kirkpatrick to speak because she was one of Reagan's people (U.N. representative). That was appalling. Of course on campuses only lefties have free speech rights, not righties. It's worse now than when I went. Though I recall one occasion when a fellow Smithie said "how can you call yourself a woman?" to me when I told her I was voting for Reagan. Reagan was anti-ERA & I thought ERA was unnecessary. There are bigger problems in the world. I have very mixed feelings about Smith. Here you have this incredible institution where young women can do ANYTHING. It's like a country club with all the beautiful facilities, brilliant minds (profs & students), gorgeous settings, an intellectual paradise where anything should be possible. But all you ever read about Smith these days is that it's the preferred choice of lesbians & transgenders. At one point the student government (or so I read) tried to remove the use of the words "he" and "she" from its literature to avoid offending those who didn't want to commit to a particular gender. Huh?? Isn't Smith a college for WOMEN??? Or do those people only like women & people of indeterminate gender, not (heaven forbid) men?? There was a feature story in the NYTimes Sunday mag about children of lesbian couples. One of their kids is a lesbian & of course she went to Smith. Every reference to Smith these days goes hand-in-hand with lesbianism. I'm not one of those anti-gay marriage people. I just want to know how a small minority of people happens to dominate one of the great collegiate institutions. I believe they are driving away qualified brilliant women. Now they'll go to Princeton or Harvard or WELLESLEY (alma mater of the evil one mentioned above.) I'm always proud when I see someone incredible on TV & I can tell people "She went to Smith." Like Julia Child, Juliet Taylor, Madeleine L'Engle, Harriet Doerr, Gloria Steinem, Nancy Reagan! You don't have to like Gloria Steinem or Nancy Reagan to admire them, by the way. Now only lesbians get press for going to Smith. I guess one of the bonuses of having only sons is that I don't have to justify my reasons for not sending them to Smith. They're not girls & they're not transgendered or transsexual so they won't be welcome there.