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Love this woman
Kay W.
January 02, 2026
My husband and I watched some of Mamdani’s swearing in yesterday - such a (rare) wholly positive event. We were amused by the media focus on the various religious texts used by the newly elected participants (Jewish, Christian, Muslim) - our political media really are the most conventional, rigid people in the world. My favorite line from his speech was “I was elected as a democratic socialist and I plan to govern as one” - that’s authenticity too, an unapologetic presentation and defense of one’s own beliefs.
There was also some petty nastiness about the price of Mamdani’s wife’s boots - to me that’s in the “Al Gore travels in an airplane!” tranche of stupidity. Turns out the boots were used/borrowed anyway. Used/rented clothing is all the rage with the youngs and…they’re right. We’re filling landfills with apparel we cast off after one season. I’ve been following their lead and purchasing used from sites like Thred Up. Makes a lot of sense.
Here’s my favorite swearing in story:
When Karen Smith took her oath as the new president of the Central Bucks County, Pa., school board, she opted to forgo the Bible her colleagues used—instead placing her hand on a stack of contested library books that had become a flashpoint in her reelection.
The move was a symbolic repudiation of the prior board’s priorities. It had made national headlines in recent years after a conservative majority passed a policy to review and restrict library books with “sexualized content.” Critics of the policy said it would lead to a practical ban on some titles, including those that appeared in Smith’s stack at the Dec. 4 meeting.
Smith and her four newly elected Democratic colleagues had campaigned on changing course, and successfully flipped the nine-member board’s ideological majority in November. Soon after, it began rolling back some of the prior board’s policies.
Good for them for moving on their agenda. If we’ve learned anything from the far Right it’s that if we don’t stick up for our values no one will.
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