My most vivid memories of Bea Arthur were of her groundbreaking role in Maude.

She was sassy, saucy and brash. 

And, as I kid, I loved her for her deadpan delivery of a good straight line at just the right time.  She cracked my granny up every week.

But most of all, I loved her — and the incredible folks who wrote the show, including the genius that is Norman Lear — for asking the really tough questions.  And using such brilliant humor to discuss the issues that needed a more public, more frank airing.

Frankly, we could use a lot more of that these days.

From abortion to sex as an older lady, Bea Arthur hit them all head on. Here’s to a great dame with amazing comic timing, and the acting chops to pull off the most difficult roles with grace and incredible heft.

Bravo.  This one is a painful curtain call for me. She’ll certainly be missed.

(YouTube — Maude’s introduction on All In The Family. Genius.)

I’ve always thought of change in politics as a sort ripple effect: each of us takes a step toward making a change, and that ripples out to others taking the same steps.

Suddenly, you have a wave and enough momentum to crash into the static and hopefully force a change of course.

When I started blogging with Jane back in 2005, it was an outlet for my disgust at media reportage of the Fitzgerald investigation, and a means to stop griping at the teevee and print talking heads and, maybe just maybe, make a difference.

I never considered that this would become a full-time gig.

At the time, The Peanut was tiny and what I needed was an intellectual outlet for all the building political frustrations and disgust at the direction the country was taking in those early days of stay-at-home mom-dom.

Her future was all-important to me then — still is — and I needed a way to make a difference while being able to care for her early needs. Blogging was a great way to put my practical legal knowledge and political obsessions to work for a greater good.  

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s words:

a time comes when silence is betrayal

have always propelled me forward in the face of injustice or wrong.  Blogging has been an extension of that need to make things better, one issue at a time. 

And look where that got me.

This new blog is an extension of that, allowing me a full-blown outlet for analysis, activism and snarky outrage, and a space to call my own for all the work I want to continue to do.

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