How do you spell hypocrisy? F-O-X (alternate spelling: C-B-S).

This is a real head-scratcher. The same TV networks that have no problem running shows chock full of gratuitous sex and violence draw the line at running condom ads. What’s up with that?

Here’s a recent message from Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America (Planned Parenthood Health Systems of SC is a Network member group):

Here’s a pretty telling story from the world of media. There is a new condom commercial on the airwaves that starts with a bunch of women in a bar surrounded by some men who happen to look like pigs. One of these men then shuffles to the men’s room, grabs a condom from a vending machine, and all of a sudden is turned into a regular guy. But the message at the end is what I like: “Use a condom every time.”

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If you haven’t seen the OreoMobile show, which has been touring South Carolina since early June, you have another chance on July 8. The rolling civics lesson will offer its short program at the Unitarian Church in Charleston, 4 Archdale St., at 11:30 Sunday morning. If you’re in the area, check it out. You’ll get some perspective on this country’s budget priorities, some free toys and Oreos. Bring your own milk.

The movable feast stopped at the Network’s board meeting June 9 in Columbia. It was entertaining and appalling in equal measure. The presentation was fun; the statistics frightening.

Activist Aaron Rubin launches a pack of Oreos into the crowd at the Network’s June board meeting in Columbia.

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So I read in today’s The State that JayBo is walking across South Carolina, with his sights set on San Francisco. He expects it will take him a year to walk the 2,800 miles and that he will emerge on the Left Coast a new, slimmer Bo. “I get to see wonderful things, meet new interesting people, and yes I will lose weight,” he wrote in his blog on his third day.

I love this story, and I am rooting for JayBo. I know how transformative a long walk can be. In the fall of 2002, I trekked solo across northern Spain. It took me a month to do the 500-mile pilgrims’ trail, known to seekers around the world as the Camino de Santiago. And while the trail was physically demanding – crossing two mountain ranges and the meseta, a vast moonscape that takes days to traverse – I found the biggest challenge was mental. The scariest part was not traveling alone or packs of wild dogs (which I’d read about in Paulo Coelho’s book The Pilgrimage), it was navigating the landscape in my head. With no distractions, no phone, no radio, nothing but the sound of my feet meeting the earth, there I was with myself. Hours upon end, just me and my thoughts.

Terrifying.

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A vigil to honor the life of 20-year-old Sean Kennedy was held tonight in Columbia. Friends and family shared songs, poetry, prayers and stories with the crowd that gathered at the State House to pay its respects.

It appears that Kennedy, who was beaten after leaving a club in the Upstate in May, was killed because he was gay. The 18-year-old accused of the crime is being held on murder charges in a Greenville jail. The assault has sparked public outrage and renewed pressure to enact hate crimes legislation in South Carolina, one of only four states without such protection. Rep. Seth Whipper (D-Charleston) introduced a bill in March; maybe this tragedy will generate enough heat to move the legislature to act when it reconvenes in January.

Sean Kennedy’s mother, Elke, and sister, Dawn.

Good news from SC Fair Share today:

The General Assembly has overwhelmingly overridden the Governor’s vetoes of additional SCHIP funding and the proviso expanding SCHIP eligibility from 150% to 200% of the federal poverty level.

This is a great victory for 65,000 children that has taken us a long time to get to. Thanks for everyone who helped today and over the years.

John Ruoff

South Carolina Equality Coalition – a Network member – sent this notice today. Congratulations!

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SCEC CELEBRATES VISIBILITY AND INCLUSION!

We prevailed! The SC Democratic Party voted yesterday to set a goal of sending at least 3 openly GLBT delegates from South Carolina to the presidential convention in 2008. Long active in political organizing in this state, gays and lesbians are now being recognized as an important constituency of the state party. The new policy sets an explicit standard of visibility and inclusion.

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As we have in the past, the Network will power down over the summer months. We won’t resume our monthly meeting schedule until September. Meanwhile, we have extra time to read and ruminate. Got me wondering what you have on your reading list. If you have a good book or magazine to recommend, let’s hear about it.

The magazines I subscribe to include Harper’s, The Nation, Ms. (although it is a shadow of its former glorious self) and Yoga Journal. For daily news, I get The State, read the BBC online and listen to NPR. And I sometimes listen to Rush, just to keep my hackles up.

So how ’bout you? Got anything to recommend?

Becci Robbins

We’ve decided it’s time to take the plunge into the 21st Century and add our voice to the blogoshpere. Thanks to our Webmaster Steve Hait for gently easing us into this medium. We hope this will be a useful forum for us to stay in touch, share our stories and ideas, and to give hope to other progressives in South Carolina. We also hope to reach beyond our own membership to broaden our base and engage folks who have yet to get active in their communities and government.

Because we progressives live in a hostile climate here in the Palmetto State, this site will be moderately moderated. We invite your posts, but comments will be monitored to keep the ubiquitous and rabid right from infecting this site with their venom. This doesn’t mean that the loopiest of the left can expect a free pass, either. We’re interested in a thoughtful exchange rather than bombs lobbed in either direction. There is enough of that in this world.

Let the blogging begin!

Becci Robbins