The Frisco paper ran a long piece Saturday on Susie (“Medea”) Benjamin, the ubiquitous protester we’ve written about from time to time. It answers two burning questions about her name and the source of her funding:
Yet before she adopted the name “Medea” as a Tufts University freshman, she was Susie Benjamin, self-described “nice Jewish girl from Long Island.” A high school cheerleader who dated the school’s top athlete. Benjamin jokes that her mother’s favorite form of protest was “returning something at Saks that she had kept for a year.”
Her father, Al, is a well-to-do developer, who says he has “donated hundreds of thousands” of dollars to Global Exchange over its 14-year-history. No strings attached, say both Al and Medea Benjamin. Al has supported Jewish- related charities; Medea supports a Palestinian state. Said the daughter, with a smile, “It’s best that families don’t talk about some things.”
We think “Medusa” would have been a more appropriate name, but who can quibble with a mother who names herself after the Susan Smith of Greek mythology?