dailyrebellions

I met her before she got really big at a rally in Trenton, New Jersey for choice.

I met her at a NOW rally in DC that I was working. She was unbelievably skinny. It was surprising. But incredibly sweet. She signed a NOW round for me!

Because, as a lesbian, he is the only boy I would ever date – must be the voice – did you HEAR him in Moulin Rouge? What talent!

Because she single handedly reversed the Republican’s opposition to fundraising restraints. Mostly because she is the only woman on earth inspiring enough to out fundraise THEM.

because she writes the lyrics of this generation of women.

I was a TOTAL dork.

“Senator Barb,” as those of us in MD call her, has quite the reputation. In the campaign world, she as known as the US Senate’s major female difficult personality. I would be too if I had first entered the Senate when there were no women’s bathrooms even available because there were NO WOMEN IN THE SENATE. sheesh. Anyway, she reminds me of my mother, an unmarried, extremely short polish woman with an attitude, a genius IQ, and the resolve of a bulldozer. I am her biggest fan. So I was on my way to a political job I had in DC, and I saw her in the Train Station in Baltimore. She is one of the few Senators that keeps as many hours as possible in her home state in her home state office. She commutes to DC every day like the rest of the MD folk. There she was, in a very regal and classy purple coat, bossing around a very nervous and jittery young man who must have only been 20 or so.

I walked up to her like a friggin Beatles fan. I could hardly talk. I was a TOTAL DORK. “Oh my Gosh you are Senator Barbara Mikulski!” I said as I dropped my bag all over the floor. “I am your BIGGEST FAN!!” I was totally gushing. “The work you have done for the digital divide, and the way you have brought women in the Senate together to beat partisan lines for breast cancer and other women’s issues…I am your BIGGEST FAN!”

The assistant, who was obviously behind schedule, interrupted. “The train is almost here, Senator”

She didnt miss a beat. She silenced him with a wave of her regal hand and turned from rough-boss to mommy-figure in a heartbeat. “Well hello, dear,” she said. “What’s your name?” She turned to her assistant and growled under her breath, “She comes first. There will be another train.”

“I’m Suzannah…I..uh…work for the National Organization for Women in DC…I am your BIGGEST FAN!! oh wait..I said that…I just want to tell you you are my IDOL…I mean…the work you do…I can’t believe I met you… I AM YOUR BIGGEST FAN”

Yes I was a dork. And she was super sweet. She gave me her card, and drew me in with her presence which was larger than life and surprisin for someone not over 5 feet tall.

I ADORE Senator Barb. And the crapcake receipe (an ode to her state) that she has on her website.

(From Wikipedia)

Ehrenreich was born Barbara Alexander to Isabelle Oxley and Ben Alexander. Her father was a copper miner who went on to study at Carnegie Mellon University and who eventually became an executive at the Gillette Corporation. Ehrenreich studied physics at Reed College, graduating in 1963. Her senior thesis was entitled Electrochemical oscillations of the silicon anode. In 1968, she received a Ph.D in cell biology from Rockefeller University.

Citing her interest in social change ([1]), she opted for political activism, instead of pursuing a scientific career. She met her first husband, John Ehrenreich, during an anti-war activism campaign in New York City.

In 1970, her first child, Rosa (later Rosa Brooks), was born. Her second child, Benjamin, was born in 1972. Barbara divorced John and in 1983 married Gary Stevenson, a warehouse employee who later became a union organizer. She divorced Stevenson in the early 1990s.

From 1991 to 1997, Ehrenreich was a regular columnist for Time magazine. Currently, she contributes regularly to The Progressive.

Ehrenreich has also written for the New York Times, Mother Jones, The Atlantic Monthly, Ms, The New Republic, Z Magazine, In These Times, Salon.com, and other publications.

In 1998 and 2000, she taught essay writing at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley.

In 2004, Ehrenreich wrote a month-long guest column for the New York Times while regular columnist Thomas Friedman was on leave and she was invited to stay on as a columnist. She declined, saying that she preferred to spend her time more on long-term activities, such as book-writing.

Ehrenreich was diagnosed with breast cancer shortly after the release of her book, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. In her article “Welcome to Cancerland,” published in the November 2001 issue of Harper’s Magazine, she describes her breast cancer experience and debates the medical industry’s problems with the issue of breast cancer.

In 2006, Ehrenreich founded United Professionals, an organization whose website, http://www.unitedprofessionals.org, describes it as “a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization for white-collar workers, regardless of profession or employment status. We reach out to all unemployed, underemployed, and anxiously employed workers — people who bought the American dream that education and credentials could lead to a secure middle class life, but now find their lives disrupted by forces beyond their control.”

Ehrenreich is currently an honorary co-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America. She also serves on the NORML Board of Directors.