Holly and I pleased to announce the unveiling of the final finalist list for the best Just Posts of 2009. In this post, you can find both the list of finalists by category, and the polls to vote for your favorite posts within those categories. [March 23, 2010: voting is now closed! Thank you for your votes! You can still scroll down to see the list of finalists. ]
Please vote! And spread the word. Spread the word to others to vote, contribute, nominate, write, and read!
Thank you thank you thank you for your interest, support, and involvement in the Just Posts!
Voting and prizes:
To get right to the voting, scroll or jump down.
- Vote within as many categories as you like, but please vote only once in each category.
- There’s no need to vote in all categories at once–come back as often as you like before voting ends.
- We’ll have the polls up and open for one week.
At the end of the process, if you have voted in more than one category, we’d love to hear from you about which post you felt was the strongest of all you read. To vote on the “best of the best,” and to give additional feedback, you can go to this page.
At the end of Monday night, March 22nd, we will close the poll and start to tally the results. The top votes in each category will receive a hand-made tile from a New Orleans artisan with a few trinkets thrown in for good measure. Using your votes and any additional written input, we will recognize a post (or two, we’re not ruling out ties) as the Best of the Best Just Posts. We’ll do something extra special for this, we’re just not sure exactly what yet.
The process:
For those of you who are interested in the process, here’s a bit about our (imperfect) process of post and category selection.
Category selection:
Looking through our massive list of semifinalists, we (mostly Holly) created categories that reflected all of those 130+ posts. Then we went back to our readers’ comments and ratings and narrowed down the categories. We tried to represent a variety of voices, writers and experiences.
Here are the categories for the Best of the 2009 Just Posts. To see the posts for each category, and the polls for voting, scroll down, or click on a category name to jump right there:
- Posts related to FOOD AND NUTRITION
- Posts related to DISEASE AND ILLNESS
- Posts related to CHILD WELFARE
- Posts related to VULNERABLE POPULATIONS
- Posts related to EDUCATION
- Posts related to SOCIAL/SOCIETAL VALUES
SOCIAL JUSTICE as political/legal :
SOCIAL JUSTICE as health/wellness:
SOCIAL JUSTICE as socio-economic inequalities :
SOCIAL JUSTICE as advocacy/service :
SOCIAL JUSTICE…
- serious topics approached with HUMOR
(because a laugh is important, too!)
In no way is this list or these categories representative of the broad theme of “Social Justice.” It represents what we’ve been able to gather, write and have nominated. If you there are topics and categories you’d like to see better represented in the Just Posts moving forward, we welcome your input. You can let us know in the comments, or using the form on this page. We also encourage you to write and nominate posts on topics that have been under-represented!
Post selection:
As you might imagine, choosing the finalists was tough. There were many excellent posts that we had to leave out, especially in categories with many posts. We also limited the number of posts that could be included by any one author to 2. Our goal was to narrow down the number of posts in a category to 3, a manageable number to read. (As you can see, we ended up with 4 posts in several categories…)
Please vote for your favorite post in as many categories as you can!
SOCIAL JUSTICE as political/legal : Posts Related to GENDER EQUITY
- Antifeminist Spam by Meloukhia at This Ain’t Livin’
- forgiveness by Christine at by flutter
- Oh Oh, She’s Back on Her Soapbox Again by Chris at Formerly Fun
- Oprah and the secret lives of moms by Liz Dwyer at love is not enough
SOCIAL JUSTICE as political/legal : Posts related to RACE
- Attention White Folks by Stacie at If you want kin, you must plant kin…
- Ma: Little Bigot On the Prairie by Mary at The Eleventh
- Stuff black folks don’t do: Creating our own oppression by Tami at What Tami Said
- the great american melting pot (?) by Hispanic Fanatic at Hispanic Fanatic
SOCIAL JUSTICE as political/legal : Posts related to SEXUALITY
- Frozen by Meagan at A Certain Lack of Focus
- Maine. by Erika at Be gay about it.
- Uncensored II by Megan at Missing in Iraq
- Why the Prop 8 Decision Inhibits Equality by Zack Ford at Zack Ford Blogs
SOCIAL JUSTICE as health/wellness: Posts related to FOOD AND NUTRITION
- Pensioneering by Thordora at Spin Me I Pulsate
- The cost of a winter tomato by Rebecca at Flying Tomato Farms
- When is zero not really zero? When it describes your food. by Kimberly at The Gav Menagerie
SOCIAL JUSTICE as health/wellness : Posts related to DISEASE AND ILLNESS
- A Day with Fibromyalgia by Amy at Je Ne Regrette Rien
- A Voice from the Back of the Queue by Mary G. at Them’s My Sentiments
- In Health there is Freedom, Health is the First of all Liberties by thordora at Spin Me I Pulsate
SOCIAL JUSTICE as health/wellness : Posts related to CHILD WELFARE
- 250 Children Dead of Cold in Andes: Death Toll Keeps Climbing by Barbara Drake at An American in Lima
- Safety and Self Worth: $175 by Stacie at If you want kin, you must plant kin…
- The Speech, Remix Edition by Kyla at The Journey
SOCIAL JUSTICE as socio-economic inequalities : Posts related to VULNERABLE POPULATIONS
- Faces of Poverty by Ashley at The Dhaka Diaries
- guilty pleasure monday: millworker (james taylor) by wreke at wrekehavoc
- The Holy Land by Emily at Wheels on the Bus
- War Ends, Schools Begin by Shahrazaad at Shahrazaad
SOCIAL JUSTICE as socio-economic inequalities : Posts related to EDUCATION
- Creative Freedoms and the Not Now Book by Claudia at The Bottom of Heaven
- On Social Justice and Education by Brigitte Knudson at A Liberal Education
- school daze by jen at one plus two
SOCIAL JUSTICE as socio-economic inequalities : Posts related to SOCIAL/SOCIETAL VALUES
- American Me by jen at one plus two
- Free speech, free range by almostidealist at One Year to Change the World
- peace train by wreke at wrekehavoc
- Quote of the Day by Adrianne at The Bodhi Tree
SOCIAL JUSTICE as advocacy/service : Posts related to SERVICE AND ACTION
- The Afghanis by Antropologa at Antropologa
- B is for Backpack by Laura at Our Feet are the Same
- A mini home makeover by Quadelle at Quadelle
- No More Hall Passes by Emily at Wheels on the Bus
SOCIAL JUSTICE as advocacy/service : Posts related to INFORMATION AND ADVOCACY
- Archbishop of Cusco to Evict More Local Restaurants by Barbara Drake at An American in Lima
- Charity vs. Democracy by Magpie at Magpie Musing
- Marriott is a Disgrace by Ilina at Dirt and Noise
- When Allies Fail, Part One by Tami at What Tami Said
SOCIAL JUSTICE… serious topics approached with HUMOR (because a laugh is important, too!)
- All Things on Cable TV Considered, I wish my Hotel had Porn… by submom at The Absence of Alternatives
- Can we talk? by Country Girl at Country Girl/City Girl
- My, what a gayngled web we weave. by Erika at Be gay about it.
If you have a post in the lists above, we invite you to display a button:
For more information on the Just Posts, please visit the Just Posts information page.
collecting tokens 
WOW. This is…wow. This is so comprehensive! And organized! Well done! Now I gotta go read everything and vote!
This is really impressive! I need to do some reading and voting too.
I am surprised to see my post included. I am absolutely honored. Thank you very much. And thank you again for taking on such an important task: I hope I could find time soon to read and vote.
Gah! How do I choose? I just read/re-read all the posts in the first category and I am stymied. Thanks for bringing them together like this. Now I am off to make some tough choices.
so many amazing posts, and i’m so glad you corral them — this way, i get more cool places to visit and read! thanks again for the nominations :-)
Whoosh! You guys did a lot – A LOT – of work on this. Thanks for including one of mine. And thanks for letting me help with the sorting.
Only now you expect me to narrow it down even more.
Whimpering.
Thank you for including my blog in this wonderful collection of socially conscious writing! I’m honored to be among the finalists.
Excellent, and I’m flattered to be included. Also, I made a short url:
http://bit.ly/2009justposts
Wow. I’m so surprised and honored to be included. I’m definitely looking forward to reading all the posts and voting. Thank you!
you are awesome. and I tweeted and linked accordingly (coming out of hibernation and everything)
found you via the eleventh. nice list
a blog you should look at: fanaticcook.blogspot.com
great info, with no agenda except getting the info out into the internet wilderness.
Thanks for the link, virginia. That does look like a great blog. (Scary info, though! That bit about sludge being used as fertilizer seriously freaks me out. Yikes!)
dudes, you’re awesome, and if I wasn’t a moron, I would TOTALLY grab a badge. But bad things happen when I try to get all fancy like. :)
Wow … and not because I made the finals. This is amazing! I can see I have my weekend’s reading planned.
Why is this mostly female bloggers?
That is a very interesting question, christine. The extremely high proportion of female bloggers in the list reflects the high proportion of female authors of blogs that we read, and blogs that other people who nominate posts read. Overall, this reflects the high proportion of female personal bloggers in general. Posts by men are very welcome in the Just Posts, but fewer have been nominated in general. If you come across social justice posts written by personal bloggers who are men, we would enthusiastically welcome your nominations!
Great list of finalists. Including a category for humor is brilliant — it’s so overlooked but, historically, so important. J Swift, Jon Stewart — it’s all part of the same continuum. I admire writers who can get their digs in while keeping the tone seemingly light.
Very honored to be included in your bunch.
Yay! Managed to read through all the posts in one sitting. Great posts!
Wow! I am mucho impressed with your categorizing skillz. I’m sure that was quite the task. And, the humor category…nice touch :-)
Thanks so much for the nod! What a great list of posts I must read.
Thanks again guys, for putting this together. There are so many voices writing amazing stuff about topics that, whether you agree or disagree, keep us thinking and talking and doing. That’s how we affect change. =)
Done and done. Excellent work. Excellent reading and rereading. Love to you and Holly both.
Thank you so much for including me among such fantastic and diverse writers. I usually get singled out for my posts on being a Brazilian bikini waxer so to garner note on the issue of feminism was a particularly proud moment. Those of us who can communicate via the written word do have an impact on the way other people think so when we risk talking about things that might be considered(I’m not sure why) borderline subversive, we help shape opinions. Thank you again for coming up with such a thoughtful and thought-provoking way to share.