They look just like everybody else.
It's not an easy thing to keep in your head. Disney movies have taught us that villains look like villains.* But in real life, they look like everybody else.
Once they get caught, and we see a mugshot and they look like they were up all night drinking and then groped a stranger in a parking lot and were driven off by force, it's easy to see them for what they are.
Now that I have your attention....
I have written briefly about this in an earlier post. But I felt the need to write just about this one particular problem this time. To support my daughter and to learn from all of our mistakes through my written word.
Rebecca is late....she is never late...
My 9 year daughter has a young man in her class that thrives on getting attention.
Two billion dollars. That’s how much the Top 5 superhero movies grossed in America in 2012. That’s more than Somalia’s annual GDP. According to some estimates, that’s how much money is spent yearly in the global black market firearms trade. It's definitely enough paper to buy you half of an aircraft carrier, one with all the bells and whistles. And that wasn't even the global box office for the movies.
There’s things that happen in a person’s life that are so scorched in the memory and burned into the heart that there’s no forgetting them.
April 28, 1789: The real-life mutiny that inspired John Boyne’s novel, Mutiny on the Bounty, took place aboard the HMS Bounty 224 years ago today. Half the ship’s crew, seduced by several months of good life on Tahiti, rose up against Captain William Bligh. Some of the mutineers’ descendants still live on Pitcairn Island.
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The military and police teach a special stance and grip for firing a weapon under intense fear and pressure. This special technique stands up under our adrenal response mechanism, that is adrenaline and cortisol dumping into our system.
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We feel like this barn, under enormous pressure to escape this fate. This visual is the scariest scenario we can imagine, whatever that may be for each individual.
When I finally meet you, will I remember how to love you? I think, somewhere in the last--what is it now? Almost 4 years?--of being mostly alone, or at least not in love, maybe I forgot what you’re supposed to do when you are in love. For instance, will I remember how to pull my limbs in from my nightly spread eagle in bed, and not hate you for taking up half the space that has, for so long, been mine, ALL MINE, GOD DAMNIT?
Here’s the church
Here’s the steeple
Open the doors…..
Ah children’s rhymes, so simple back in the day and yet speak so many truths now.
Taught to believe when we were young, believe in fairy tales, in knights in shining armor, in wrongs being righted, in the truth.
Then we grow up, and little by little those beliefs are slowly torn away.
Torn away by false faces, fake smiles, and small minds.
Having the honor of being taught by some great leaders in life, only to see idiots replace them.
Being part of some great movements only to see them torn down by pride or self involvement.
Seeing great people go forward only to have them sucked up by bigotry and lies.
Having faith in a cause, belief in a project, total everything in a group…
Only to see it screwed up by humans. Humans using these things to further themselves and not the cause,
humans more bigoted then the others they are fighting, hypocritical humans leading a cause for supposed good.
Some may call this a mid-life crisis, others may call this a coming to a realization, there are many more names for what this is….
It is called realizing the wrong people are put on pedestals, and the worshiping is now over.
There are few humans to have faith in and none of those speak out loud, use a microphone or an altar. None of them use a grandstand or video.
None of them use fancy buildings or finances.
Open the doors and see all the people,
Close the doors, done for the day
Open the doors they’ve all gone away.
You don’t need a steeple and people to believe..
When I shift my posture, fold my arms and turn away it means I don’t want to hear it again.
I’ve been here done this for over 30 years and I know the pain I cause.
When I cross my legs and look at the floor the conversation is something dark to me.
I’ve been here done this for over 20 years and I know the pain I’ve lived.
When I excuse myself or just walk away the words are more traumatic than you will ever know.
I’ve been here done this for over 20 years and I know the pain I have yet to resolve.
When I sit forward in my seat, clasp my hands, and bounce my leg, it is something that I believe in but is being threatened.
I’ve been here before, I have seen it repeat itself over and over and I have no patience left.
When I stand up in a sitting crowd, muscles tense and ready to scream out loud, but instead I walk out of the room, it is because all that has gone forward has hit a dam, and all is being washed downstream in the collapse.
I’ve been here before, watched Ignorance lead the pack while Backbone shrivels and dies.
Attentiveness or Bliss
Anger or Ignorance
What is the difference?
Standing up, singing lauds
Playing sides, giving cause
But who’s at fault, to blame
Why the rally, or campaign
For both Able and Kane
Stop your supposed moral strong
Quit your righteous wrong
For it has been going on far too long
Fighting the purchased, why
Believing an acquired campaign, sigh
Repeating lie after lie after lie
Please re-blog this, share this anyway you know how.
http://holzmantweed.tumblr.com/post/45729405362/steubenvilles-jane-doe-asked-people-to-do-something
The best way to show you support Jane Doe is to make a donation, however small and leave a Paypal note when you do saying “In the name of Jane Doe, Steubenville.” They are telling her how many people donate in her name so it’s a direct way of letting her know. Even if all you can afford is a dollar, a thousand WordPress users donating that is a thousand dollars for abuse victims. And it’s also a thousand people telling her directly that they, unlike the likes of CNN and her erstwhile “friends”, care about her, support her, and believe in her. It’s what she has actually asked people to do. In a case where she has been so effectively silenced and sidelined, I think acknowledging she’s been heard is particularly important.
(edited from createourownlight.tumblr.com original post)
http://www.salon.com/2013/02/24/the_myth_of_persecution_early_christians_werent_persecuted/
No…. the authors of the bible lied!!! no… no…. no way… it can’t be…. just as there were no women writers….
Cross-posted at Shannon's blog The Radical Housewife.
Whatever your feelings about the obnoxious commercialization of Valentine's Day, put them aside and consider the goals of today's OTHER big campaign, One Billion Rising.
...and whatever your feelings about the largely symbolic nature of the One Billion Rising movement (and I share them, believe me), consider that Katie Couric, hardly a radfem,
Late last week, I was asked, “Are you a motivational speaker?” I didn’t even hesitate when I answered, “I hope not.”
Please, do not misunderstand me; I have listened to some amazing motivational speakers. I have had chills as they energized me to run from the room and hurry to go accomplish my goals. I have wanted to set the world on fire as they predicted I could.
***Trigger warning for sexual assault, victim blaming***
Barbara Kruger created this famous poster for a women's rights march on Washington in 1989. That the message remains chillingly relevant is a testament both to Kruger's talent and to the continuous, relentless attacks on women's bodily autonomy....and just when you think you can't be MORE shocked, MORE disgusted, or MORE outraged, you are.
“ Yes, my children will avenge me. They must destroy the Romans. Horrible, dishonorable, copycat Romans. Hera argued that we must keep the two camps apart. I said, No, let them fight. Let my children destroy the usurpers. ”
–Minerva talking to Annabeth, in The Mark of Athena
****Trigger warning for sexual assault, victim blaming***
I’m writing this today because I really don’t know what else to do. I while ago I published a post saying I was no longer going to be an advocate/activist for Violence Against Women, Domestic Violence Laws, Rape Victims and so on because I needed to move on. But I finally realized today it is not so much that I need to move on, but it is because I am in the wrong generation. My generation has failed it’s women and children. My generation has failed its unions and workers. My generation has failed to remember that when you take the oath of office it is the same one that a military soldier takes.
This is supposedly a new millennium, and the next generation is here to hopefully to save our asses. I have already seen my son learn from our many mistakes and do so much better at 23 than I was doing at that age when I had him. This new millennium is also supposedly the end of the patriarch and the beginning of the matriarch if you reach outside your christian beliefs and real read facts or care about the other religions and non-religions going on.
Three bills were proposed across this great land of ours (this once great land of ours) that give more rights to a rapists than the survivor or the survivor’s family.
The other reason I am writing this today is because when I heard about the bill in New Mexico I could not let it go and decided to write the rebuttal below. I wonder if any of the elected officials proposing the asinine bills have ever thought about these consequences.
At age seventeen I was raped by a young man I knew, at age twenty-four I was raped by two men I knew. At age seventeen I had an abortion, at age twenty-four I was escaping a violent marriage. Unfortunately I had a miscarriage 5 months later in my parent’s bathroom. I had no idea I was pregnant, and was told she probably died at 3 months because of the beatings I took from my ex-husband.
A bill was introduced that rape victims carry their rapists’ child as evidence.
If I had to carry my rapist’s child (my ex-husband would not have been named a rapist) his friend may have…. what would I have told my son, 18 months old. What would I have told him about his sibling especially if it wasn’t his father’s? What would I have told my son about his sibling while I went to court? What would I have told my son about his sibling if my rapist wanted joint custody and his father didn’t What would happen when my husband adopts my son, but isn’t allowed to adopt my rapist’s child because a rapist has more rights than my husband?
For the men and women introducing these bills on behalf of the religious organizations that supported you and the other pro-life organizations that endorsed you, I know you have been asked what if this happened to your daughter. Well that doesn’t matter because all of you can afford the back room abortions, while people like me, would have had to rely on a shop vac, coat hanger, or many other life threatening devices.
If I had to give my rights to my rapists, I tell you right now, I would have dropped my son off at my parents and drove out to the country and shot myself in the head. I would not have put my parents and my son through the blind, bogus, bigoted, treatment, which you decided to enact.
About a year ago I wrote a piece titled “King, Excalibur, and his Holy Grail….” it was a parody look at Rep. King, Rep. De Graaf, Ben Stein and several others “I can’t believe they just said that” type comments using bits from Monty Python.
Lately I have thought a lot about Mr. Python and his Flying Circus as I pound my head on my key board one more time. At the time I wrote that piece last May, I had more hope, less sarcasm (really i did) less anger, and a strength that I could still help change our world. It is amazing what changes in a year.
The Holy Grail is still firmly in its Palace. Program Interruptions have yet to be acknowledged and a Greater Being is taking control. Preaching out loud The Meaning of Life, singing Sacred Sperms from the roof tops, and if you don’t have it..just pretend. With Coconuts.
Today a BREAKING story is more of was their gender, religion, or status to blame. Innocent until proven guilty is a sacred guideline for the news media and law enforcement until it comes to victims or survivors. Freedom of speech, Freedom of guns, and the Freedom of asinine nation has gone into full effect.
There are two quotes from Monty Python that are now constantly on my mind these days. From “The Meaning of Life”
“Ugh, you f*cking Americans are so POMPOUS! None of you have any balls! AND
“Shut up! Shut up you American. You always talk, you Americans. You talk and you talk and say ‘Let me tell you something’ and ‘I just wanna say this’. Well you’re dead now, so shut up.”
So we need to interrupt this program. Apologies for the unwarranted attacks by the supporting groups, we are luckily ready for such a problem and will remedy it as quickly as possible…..
While we watch the purchase of assault weapons rise, the rights of women fall, our veterans die, christian religion continue to take over, and our schools fail, I ask you one question.
The worst thing about all this is the parallel’s I see that the line between church and state is disappearing, the rich and white are the only ones being educated, fed, and premiered and our well-regulated militia is becoming a psychotic army. We never learn from our past mistakes do we? And we never teach our children about them.
Clip Clop, Clip Clop, Clip Clop. You can’t expect to wield supreme power just because some half-written, misquoted book threw a make-believe sword at you do you? Oh my bad. Then off to get your french tickler, impregnate all you can, and spread your “wisdom” just because a book says it is so.
We Americans are so f*cking POMPOUS we don’t have a collective back bone to save our country if we tried. And that goes for myself, I seriously don’t know who and what to fight for or against. I am angry and hurt by those I was raised to trust.
Clip Clop, Clip Clop, Clip Clop……..
I do believe there are many in my place; those raised by depression era parents, traditionalists, but somehow free thinkers. Those of us in my same predicament, find it hard to adhere to one word terms for the constitutional rights of all.
I have called myself a feminist for a long time but have always felt a slam in my gut when I said it. It alienated too many of the people I grew up with, to many of the people I worked with, to many of the people I befriended over the years. Feminism has taught me many things, so has fighting against domestic violence, so has fighting against bullying, so has fighting for the rights of military families and veterans, so has fighting for glbt rights, and so has fighting for the rights of epileptics and their families.
Feminism was a great effort, Gloria and the many other women fought very hard for our few rights but I think it is now time to change the tune and drop the fem from ism and introduce a new word.
My parents always believed in equality, they fought for it in wars that we will never compare to. They stood in lines for food that we will never see. Our parents, uncles, aunts saw battles on the streets that we will never comprehend and are no longer taught in our schools. Our children today don’t even remember Roe vs. Wade.
Equal needs to replace Female; Equal needs to become Equalism and Equalist. We need to start fighting for the rights of all, regardless of gender, race, or religion. Regardless of status, wealth, or age, we need to start fighting for all living in America, in the United States. Or am I just throwing out words and it is no longer the United States of America where people come to gain freedom and acceptance? When are we going to get past 9/11? We got past Pearl Harbor, even though we threw every Asian person in America in a concentration camp. But we don’t tell our children of the mistakes we made, we tell them of the tragedies that other evil countries made and make them bias, bigoted, and hateful.
It’s time to fight for equality for all who live in this country. It’s time to fight for your neighbor, your co-worker, the stranger you just passed today, maybe even yourself. Equality for all that live here in this wonderful land we call home. It’s time to become an Equalist.
A time to move on…
In 1991 I came home to Minnesota battered and broken from my first marriage. I carried with me my son, my life, and a ruined dream.
We look now 20 years later, married again to my first love, our son is grown, engaged, and building a home for himself and his love.
I have had an amazing life so far, with the help of friends and family, with the support of amazing women and men, with the understanding of those around me.
But I came to a decision at the end of November this year, with almost 20 years of advocating and activating for the rights of domestic assault/violence victims I have decided to pass the torch on to someone else. I have forgiven/passed on/and rubbed out all done against me. It is also time for me to close these doors and open new ones that don’t place angst upon my husband.
Some months ago I received a call from police officer, a body was in a morgue and a card in her pocketbook had my name on it if anything happened to her. It was early in the morning; I received a car ride down to identify her. When I saw her face I stood there silent, I stood there shocked, I stood there disbelieving. The last time I saw her face was 20 years ago, she and I were at the same shelter going through the same terror. She and I went through the same counseling, the same guidance, the same love and hope. Yet here I stood over her. Identifying her and some months later would receive her ashes in the mail because no one claimed her.
I will still do my part, but I am done telling my story, I am done being the advanced party, I am done fighting the awareness of it all. It is time to move on and have someone else tell their story, someone else fight the fight. I am too tired, too trodden, too angry, to fight anymore.
So please, stop the awareness of domestic violence and start the STOP DOMESTIC VIOLENCE…. We are already aware, it needs to stop, now.
Call the docs, Call the Bishops, Call the Warlocks! Call the the the the …. for Petro’s sake take a pill.
If it is the first or second one then call an ambulance…maybe… if there is someone on hand that knows how to take care of someone that has a seizure than go that route.
People with seizures at one time were considered gods/high priests/lords then something went wrong…. and for the rest of you…I will let all of you look that painful story up.
It has taken since then, for us to pull ourselves out of dark pits, insane asylums, state hospitals, and more. And now, for pigskins sake, we have a MAN, a REAL MAN, a FOOTBALL COACH, having seizures.
I wonder how many other of the 60,ooo epileptics in Minnesota had a seizure on Saturday. The MOMs, the DADs, the CHILDREN, the COLLEGE KIDS (like Representative Abeler who unfortunately lost his to SUDEP), the STOREKEEPERS, the BANKERS, the GOVERNMENT WORKERS (like me from 2005 to 2009 and currently from 2008 to 2012?) just to name few.
The difference between us and Coach is the stupid news keeps reporting it like its some kind of awful thing. Of those 60,000 epileptics we don’t have to report it to you stupid sports reporters every time it happens.
A seizure is normal, just like low sugar is in diabetes, just like high blood pressure, just like migraines, just like a heart attack, and can be dealt with medically or sometimes surgically. There are some seizures that are not easy to control. But those like Coach’s and mine are controlled by medication, I have mine for 34 years, had a family, worked, and more.
If the College would ignore the fans ignorant and bigoted outbursts and ranting, then all will go away. If the news will quit reporting a normal life situation, or start reporting it as a normal life situation maybe the world would treat at as normal life situation.
Over and Out
ArdentMeld.
PS.
Okay, explanation simple for your sports people to understand (I’m a sports person too I just don’t let it take up every aspect of my life)
A seizure is kinda like when a breaker goes out in your house’s breaker box during a game and the t.v., stereo, and cable go out in the living room and you have to down to the basement and flip the switch and guess what, everything is back on and alright again.
That’s what’s goes on in an epileptic’s head, so….the more the paper keeps reporting it, the more we are going to stress about it, the more we are going keep crappy floppy all over the place, the more you idiots are gonna complain.
SO STOP IT!!!
Thanks
In the news, Facebook, at water-coolers and coffee breaks across our land, a newswoman’s graceful and poignant stance being discussed. Jennifer Livingston took a very sharp stab at her weight from a viewer and turned it into a positive. I watched Ms. Livingston’s four-minute piece, and for me, the best part of it was when she spoke of parents teaching their children by example. Good or Bad, children watch us adults and learn what is wrong and right according to you. The habits you display are the habits they pick up and cleaning and smoking aren’t the only ones.
October is Anti-Bullying Month, and for those of you in Minnesota, bullying has been center stage for a few years in our state. The old adage “Kids will be Kids” is no longer acceptable and is no longer in our schools and playgrounds. It is not tolerated as adults as we look at the recent incident on the light rail of a man who started yelling racial slurs or the recent road rage incident that unfortunately ended in a shooting in a police parking lot. Child bullies become adult bullies because their parents or adult figure is or was a bully.
Bullied children are verbally abused about their appearance and behavior than color or creed. Thirty-three percent of the middle and high school students surveyed agree or strongly agrees that teachers can stop bullying. This means that 2/3 of these students are not confident that they can get help from their teachers when bullied.
Male bullying more commonly consists of verbal and physical abuse, because female bullying more commonly involves more verbal abuse and social bullying by spreading of rumors. Eighty-three percent of bullying incidents receive no intervention and continue to happen. Children who are bullies four times more likely to engage in criminal behavior in adulthood and often develop suicidal thoughts.
October has two Anti/Awareness Campaigns, one is for Bullying and one is Domestic Violence and I am very aware of the connection between the two. The unlikely intervention because it goes unreported, thinking that a report is useless because a teacher or police officer cannot fix it immediately the first time it happens. How your self-worth becomes lower and lower in your stomach.
It is Anti Bullying Month, notice it is not Bullying Awareness Month, we need to do the same with Violence…….make us anti not aware.
We are asked to become aware of many things, school zones, flashing lights, and calories to name a few. Awareness has also become the named honor of many days, weeks and even months in our calendar. But what is “being aware” of something exactly? To be conscious, sensitive, knowledgeable of something that exists or you have observed it happening, is to “be aware”.
We have many federal, state, local and non-profit organizations asking that we be aware of many things. We are mindful of homelessness, conscious of mental illness, perceptive of rape, interested in domestic violence, attentive to hunger, discerning of disabilities, cognizant of breast cancer, and experienced about PTSD.
Aware is a nice PR word advocating for something, but being aware does not bring about a need for an end. Requesting someone be aware of sex trafficking is only asking that they be informed and attentive, it is not asking for a stop to sex trafficking nor is it asking to charge the ignorant (which is the opposite of aware by the way).
So when are we going to go from requesting people be aware to demanding them to halt, prevent, end, block, cease, bar, prohibit, sojourn, or impede the many things that need to stop.
The month of October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, thank you for being aware, if you are not I will give this one time to do so, but now being aware is not ending this major issue. Its time to stop Domestic Violence and so much more.
Some of the greatest battles are won when ambushed
Survivors Connect Network, an international coalition of trafficking/prostitution survivors, has voted unanimously to stand with and support the goals of our Irish sister survivor abolitionists. These amazing women, some of whom are members of Survivors Connect Network, are working courageously to bring the Nordic model into Irish law while insisting on meaningful help for women exiting trafficking/prostitution.
Author, survivor and activist
on the outside normal seems
perfect lines
perfect beams
but no one sees below
broken wires
broken seams
a silent verge that keeps its ground
ever vigil
ever bound
until its seen face to face
silent always
silent lace
Sunday morning I decided to watch Fox Sunday News with Chris Wallace because Chief Justice Scalia was a guest. Scalia was there to talk about his new book ”Reading the Law: The Interpretation of Legal Text,” (Scalia’s co-author was law professor Robert Garner) but you know how news shows go.
While interesting questions were asked and interesting answers were given, what was even more interesting was watching Judge Scalia and matching his tone of voice with his words. His arms crossed when he became defensive, his finger over his mouth when answering a question, a sign of a possible lie, looking down at the table instead of Wallace when answering a question. A man with a long history in law and he doesn’t know how to hide his tells.
Judge Scalia is a brilliant man, I don’t disagree. But like myself, when you are unable to hide your emotion or your bias, are you a proper pick for making decisions that affect a person, a city, a county, a state, a country or the world? Think about that the next time you fill in that little dot 98 days from now.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/fox-news-sunday/2012/07/29/justice-antonin-scalia-issues-facing-scotus-and-country
What has become of our government is a question asked many times lately. The emphasis is on our federal government as the media and bloggers debate its actions. Those of us here in Minnesota are thinking the same thing along with some other states around the country. But have any of us taken a good step back and looked at our overall government? What is the state of our governments from township, to city, to school board, to county, to soil and water boards’, to chamber of commerce, to state, to federal? What have we, the citizens, gotten ourselves into in electing the governments we did?
The loss of mission oriented minds replaced by task oriented. And then there is favoritism. Now I use the word favoritism because of local elections that don’t have the billion dollar budgets like some federal elections do but favoritism still goes on. To give you a little example let me tell you a story about city, a county, and a state.
The City is on the edge of the metro area, farmlands still managed but being lost to subdivisions. This is a renewed city that is going from old to new government, budget, cooperation, but somehow the same political bias. I came from a city like this many, many, years ago. We elected a city council but unfortunately a large car dealer, the one large Lutheran church, and 2 or 3 doctors in town ruled instead. I am seeing the same thing in this town. We have an implement dealer, a church, and 2 or 3 old timers whose families have been here since the beginning. There is one sentence I here over and over “But we’ve always done it this way”. That may have been well and good 20 years ago when we were a township, but we are a city now and the way government spends, taxes, and what we are responsible for has changed. Getting the public to understand that would be easy if we didn’t have the “dirty dozen” out there saying “but we’ve always done it this way”.
Now being a city we are now responsible for security, for roads, for fire, for parks and trails, for taxes, and for the burden the county puts upon us because they no longer feel it is their responsibility (i.e. they can’t afford it). This is what is happening to every city across Minnesota, the crap is rolling off one back and on to another and ends up falling on the cities and townships and has nowhere else to go. Some of us are starting to say “No”.
School districts are asking for levies, bonding money every election year. We vote and most times we say yes. We here in the Anoka Hennepin School District 11 have yet to stand and ask “cut our administration cost”, “cut our sports costs”, no, instead, the first cut is teachers, classes, and education. Why do we have 4 principals for each school? When I was in school with the same amount of kids I had 1 principal and the kids were kept in line. We had a full-time nurse. We had a full-time counselor. We had bands for middle school and high school. We had art for middle school and high school. We had industrial arts and metals for high school. There is too much Administration in our schools, just like there is too much administration in Hospitals, and too much administration in our law and fire departments. We here in A-H 11, have a school board that is ruling by personal interest and not by student interest. During the last election, certain candidates endorsed by groups that should have never endorsed such anti civil rights candidates. These supposed “liberal rights” groups endorsed these candidates just because they were female or just because they had other endorsement coupons. What these “liberal rights” groups endorsed was bullying, hate, and suicide.
Last but not least, schools are responsible for teaching not disciplining. Parents are responsible for disciplining. If this is something parents are not responsible for then the courts will find someone responsible for them. Parents thinking that schools are a concrete box for babysitting. Schools are for educating and protecting children. If your child is an asshole, that’s your fault for not raising them correctly. And the excuse of “but I work too much to support them” is bullshit. Then you find “family”, neighbors, church, programs, etc. to help. Your child is your responsibility not the schools, but to teach him or her for the hours they are there.
The County: the County, what can I say but caught in the middle. Trying to support a structure between 21 cities, 5 school districts, a sheriff’s department and at last count I think 8 city police departments. Not to mention miles of roadway, bridges, trails, parks, and other public land. But once again, why aren’t the commissioners publically fighting back? Why are they not calling for an end to cuts to law enforcement, to education, and to transportation? The buck, or crap as I have called it, has to slide somewhere and it does not roll up hill.
The State: Where do I start; a legislature more interested in who I marry and my uterus than our debt, our economy, our children, our safety, just to name a few. We voted these people in. WE VOTED THESE PEOPLE IN! It’s our fault our state is in this mess along with our nation. Our vote put these people in power, from the smallest township to the biggest office in government and they are all connected whether you want to believe it or not.
So, what was the question? Oh yeah…“how did we get this way?” is easy to see when you look at each form of government. Too much emphasis by our media, by our money, and by our “party”, is on federal and state elections, and not even all state elections get noticed. Local elections make huge impacts to what happens further up the chain of command. It’s time to demand the chains of concern start doing their best to make sure the worst are out of the running.
Women and Running for Office…
Laurie Olmon
As I write this I am taking no sides as far as party. The lack of the female gender serving in elected office is not a party issue. It is a political issue and I will tell you why.
There has been a calling for more women to run for elected office, to get involved in politics. There have been many groups formed to help mentor young girls and women to take part in this also. Training groups that make politics more gender specific, how to be vocally assertive, what makes a good campaign, and how not to do it all. There are other groups that let women know how government works, how party systems work, and what it takes to get elected.
But what is not told to us beginners or those that choose to jump in and challenge the unlikely, is that even though rules are written they are often not followed and no one cries foul.
In the 2010 election in Minnesota, the caucus for Governor on the Democrat side was done and one person was picked and yet another still chose to run regardless in the primary. In 2008, many Republican incumbents were not endorsed because they “did not follow GOP mission” and yet these incumbents still ran as republicans and no one challenged them. This year we have a man calling bias for being fired for an affair and he has a point. Is a man supposed to know better than a woman?
A person is elected to vie for the people yet when once in office there is a majority leader, a minority leader that seems to take place of this one public servants people. Now the elected person must follow on behalf of the party and not the people. Once again the rules change.
I myself find it hard to be in this political poop pit. I was raised by rules and consequences, which I passed to my children. Favorites were not played, if you were bad you paid the consequences. Rules do not have consequences in these party’s or in politics. I would stand there in utter amazement at how the game was played.
If I wanted to play games and bend rules I would go back to the high school cliques. If I wanted to see favorites played I would go back to high school sports, plays, and things like that. If I wanted to be led by a majority leader that cared about party more than people, I would go back and vote for class president.
I understand that I have to run under a party symbol, get voted in by the people, and serve a term. But I get voted in by the people, not a government, I will follow the party “guidelines and what they stand for” but that does not mean what the party nationwide thinks is good, does not mean it is good for those that elected me.
I do believe it is because of the rules left broken or unsaid, that more women do not run for office.
Going through some basement boxes I came across some papers… in it was a miscellaneous envelope with this written on the back. I must have been driven, angry, or something because it is written in capital letters, pen, and only one mistake. I don’t know if this is copied from somewhere or what. The envelope stamp date is November 1995, I was living in New Brighton.
VICTIM
WHY DO WE HAVE DEMONS IN THE BACK OF OUR HEART?
WHY DO THEY INSIST ON COMING OUT AND TEARING OUR WORLD APART?
I’M LOVED, I’M SAFE, I’M HELD, I’M CARED FOR, I’M GIBRALTAR ROCK STRONG.
WHY DOES THE DEMON MAKE ME FEEL SO SMALL, SO WEAK, SO VERY WRONG?
I’VE KNOCKED THEM BACK. I’VE LOCKED THEM UP. I’VE PUT THEM IN THEIR PLACE.
SO PLEASE TELL ME WHY THEY COME BACK OUT AND SHOW THEIR UGLY FACE.
SO I PRAY TONIGHT TO THE DEMON LEADER “ONCE AND FOR ALL LET ME BE!”
AND HE REPLIES “DEAR SWEET CHILD, YOU BELONG TO ME.”
Written sometime between 1991 and 1993 another box finding… Black/White or Kaleidoscope
When I was younger, about fourteen or fifteen, I had 3 dreams.
The first one was to be a nurse, the second was to have a happy family, and the third was to be a great singer.
It’s amazing how at that age, and even younger, you can have these great aspirations. How you think you will have the world by the tail and in someways even think you are invincible. But my grasp on the world’s tail was loosened. Loosened by the other people imposing their reality on me. It’s really interesting, if everyone had the same reality, this world would either be a very black and white world or a very large kaleidoscope.
It’s been a long night sifting through boxes. It has been a long time since I have been back here, but it is good that I am here because it is one of the reasons I am here today.
The following is a letter I found, whether it was ever published…who knows. But it was written while I was at The Refuge…
This letter is to all the men who feel they must dominate, control and abuse. This may only be one woman’s thoughts, but I feel I speak for all the abused women out there.
Dear Abuser:
We loved you. For some of us we still love you. For some of us we shared a lifetime, and of a lot of us even a family. We went into this with hopes and dreams and love. All we asked for in return was love, respect, consideration and friendship. But instead we were blamed, ridiculed, kicked down and belittled. For some of us the bruises never showed, which would have been easier if they did. At least with the physical abuse we could see and explain our torment. With the emotional and mental abuse it was not always easy to see or deal with. You took away our self esteem, our dreams, and most of all, our trust.
For all of us we stayed. Thanking that someday you’d change. Hoping some day you would see the treasure before you. That somewhere in that twisted, paranoid mind of yours you’d come to figure out that things can be worked out without mind games, abuse or violence. But it never happened. Then when we did leave, you couldn’t believe it. You told us we didn’t have any right that we were wrong. Well….if you would have ever pulled yourself out of your self absorbed, dominating, egotistical shell, you’d have noticed that most of it was your own fault. We let you pull you down with your lies, deceit, and false promises. We let ourselves pull you up anytime you needed it. In fact, it got to the point you were standing on top of us, figuratively speaking, and we were smothering.
Of all of us that had the courage to walk away, that had the strength to live fear, that had the love and understanding of everyone around us, we will make a stand for the rest of us still out there and we will try with all our might to wipe out abuse forever.
Sincerely,
Former Victim
My tears are falling
I don’t know what to do
Double a decade
It was a mirror image us two
A tiny building with enormous strength
Our paths crossed inside
But something happened
And only I get to cross the finish line
And today
I was the only one for her to cry
I hope someday
there will be millions
For her….to smile
Racism in the neighborhood | Commentary | Minnesota Public Radio News.
Shannon Drury, former president of Minnesota NOW, is a writer, at-home parent and community activist. She writes a regular column for the Minnesota Women’s Press, blogs at http://www.theradicalhousewife.com and is a source in MPR News’ Public Insight Network.
EXCERPT:
Last fall, I attended an event sponsored by Building Bridges, a community organization that, according to its mission statement, “seeks to understand how race and racism impact our communities and to build the future of our neighborhoods together.” The group’s name reflects the yawning gap exposed when south Minneapolis neighbors clashed over a proposal to create an off-leash dog area in a park named for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. It’s also a literal reference to the east-west divide created when Interstate Hwy. 35W was built in the 1950s.
The last couple of months have brought about a few eye-opening incidents. These incidents have called into question the consistency of our governments and the ability to keep to ordinances, policies, and laws the same for all.
The biggest of all is the willingness of our governments to disregard our Constitution, the next is how our government has become a pyramid scheme and no one seems to see its dangerous consequences, and the last, is blaming the many to appeal to the few.
I try to be a basic common sense person, I have been known to become “emotional” over certain subjects or when certain basic rules are not followed. I have had to be reminded of the basic rules, but when over analyzing, over talking, or becoming sidetracked of the basic outcome needed, is now common place in government, someone has to shake the tree of hierarchy to bring reality back to the table.
Who has the right to speak? Who has the right to protest? Who has the right to speak for their constituents? A Kentucky Senator is holding up key flood insurance bill until his amendment is recognized that life begins at contraception. This is who has the right to speak for you. ALL OF YOU!! And this is the kind of person pulling the right to protest, the right to speak for others. Our government has become a mob of backroom, cigar smoking, baseball bat carrying, side stepping dealers.
When we had the Mob, at least we knew who to be afraid of and who not to deal with. But this 2012 Politics Mob is just like Clicks in Middle School, one minute you are on top and loved and the next minute you are hated and in the garbage bin out back for wearing the wrong clothes or saying hi to the wrong person.
I HAVE THE RIGHT TO SPEAK! YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO SPEAK! Don’t you ever give up that right, don’t you ever give up that voice. SPEAK UP, SPEAK LOUD! Because you are speaking for so many that don’t have a voice or feel the right.
For those of you reading this I hope you had a good life with your Dad whoever that man was.
My memories of my father:
his booming voice whether he was telling a story, laughing or singing
his willingness to help, teach, and above all make sure respect was always a young persons top priority
his love, his amazing love and the way he always let you know he loved you
My Dad never pushed me to live a certain way
My Dad lived his life and let me learn from it, allowed all the questions I could ask, and at times allowed me to find the answers to those questions.
My Dad is the reason I can stand on my own, will sit and problem solve, and always make light of what was a devastating life situation but find the silver lining in somehow
Dad died shoveling snow off the sidewalk, he lived 17 years longer than he should have with only 20% of his heart working. He never gave up, he never gave in, and he always laughed.
Thanks Daddy
Mouse loves you, and misses you dearly. Happy Father’s Day.
I often get asked what the phrase "rape culture" means. And while, honestly, the answer is no further away than wikipedia, it's sometimes easier to grasp a concept by observing it in the wild.
Ben Roethlisberger is the Super-Bowl-winning QB of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Last summer he was in Lake Tahoe for a celebrity golf tournament. While there, he flirted up a female host at Harrahs, the casino hotel where he was staying.
By Cheryl, Volunteer Advocate and Support Group Facilitator
“I shouldn’t have been drinking that night.”
“I shouldn’t have worn that top.”
“I shouldn’t have been in that place.”
These are comments I often hear from survivors of sexual assault in the support group I facilitate. Many survivors encounter these messages – directly or indirectly – and feel they must blame themselves for having been raped or assaulted.
Dependent…..Constraint…..Useless…..
Those are just three of the many words I think of as I contemplate my next step in getting my epilepsy under control.
I have been through this barrage, mirage, pharmaceutical garage, so many times before that what makes it different now?
Older? Bolder? or the fact that my I DON’T GIVE A FUCK button is beginning to smolder?
Thirty four years of hiding, biding, taking the chiding, has come down to the last straw?
But if I start this mission neurology, will I be stuck once again in hypothology? and be turned loose with no apology.
And during this wonderous hypothetical drudgery - I once again will find myself suppressed, it all pointless, and much much duress.
I preach many times that one cannot go forward if one doesn’t learn from the past, stop living in the past, forgive the past.
So what is it that makes me unwilling to learn, churn, and burn?
I guess we will have to wait and see where this trail goes…… back to the woods or forward to my pros…
Survivors Connect Network, an international online network of trafficking/prostitution survivors, now has 44 members from seven different countries. It’s been recognized that the absence of survivor leaders in most major anti-trafficking NGOs has created a void. Survivor knowledge and insight is essential. With survivor leadership the movement's success would be inevitable. Demand Abolition recently set an example by inviting seven survivors to participate in their Arresting Demand colloquium May 3rd and 4th in
My Mom has been with me since 1966. She birthed me, loved me, raised me, taught me, and gave me laughter.
My Mama loved me, loved her grandson, gave me hope, and helped me smile, and helped me home.
My Farmor, loved me, made sure I was the one for her son, took my son with open arms and helped make him ours.
A mother, mama, mommy, ma, is not of blood and tissue all the time. A mother is someone who will love you unconditionally.
Bring you through trials, celebrate successes no matter how big or small, and hug you or smile at you or leave you be…..
I have been lucky to have 3 wonderful mommies in different stages of my life.
And just remember, being a mother does not mean giving birth, being a mother means nurturing and loving and giving of your heart without conditions.
Being a mom, is knowing that someday your toils will be their amazement.
I love you Moms.
The War on Women, A Woman’s Work and Its Value, and Feminism
by Ardentmeld, April 16, 2012
Sunday, the 15th of April, three op-eds caught my eye. The reason for the interest was not so much who wrote them but what the writers were commenting on. It basically came down to the value of women and what or who damaged it, and what or who is helping its progression.
These three op-eds are based upon a comment made by Rosen on Romney, which I’m sure you heard some peep screech about. The uproar seemed mostly about the fact that it came from a liberal, feminist, lesbian adoptive mother, who is a Democratic operative; and the fact that she also said candidate families are fair game.
“She has never worked a day in her life” was basically the comment by Rosen. When I first heard the up roar about Rosen’s statement I agreed. But then the statistics, generational differences, and class and cultural differences began racing through my head. I then read yesterday the New York Times Op Ed by Frank Bruni, “Working and Women” which hit exactly on some of the things as a so called feminist I struggle with. What exactly is a woman of power? What is that definition? And who’s exactly is it? Mr. Bruni speaks of his mother and not knowing exactly if at the age of 19 it was more of a traditional generational arrangement, where dad was the income provider and mom navigated, financed, consoled, and arranged everything else out of that provision. Although the raising of 5 boys, 6 to be exact, and never really complained about that arrangement. I grew up in that arrangement for a time until the unfortunate failure of my dad’s arteries (several times) and then came the “we can replace more experienced workers with 2 or 3 inexperienced less paid workers and well, my dad became obsolete in the working world. My mother than began her 35 year career as a librarian for the school district and life changed for me and my brother.
A woman’s value and whether it is regarded as power or not is an interesting question, Linda Chavez writes that in 1992 a famous remark by Hilary Clinton “I suppose I could have stayed at home and baked cookies and had teas” shows that power of stay at home mom’s is still looked upon as “frivolous ninnies”. As Chavez points out, some say stay at home mom’s take the easy way out which is not always true. With daycare costs, food, gas, an extra car, medical bills (which rise when your children leave home), it is sometimes cheaper/cost effective to put off going back to work. Single moms are the ones that have the problem with the not working part. I worked as a wife in my first marriage, a single mom, and a wife in my second marriage up until our son was just ending middle school. I was able to go back to college and still take care of the home, be the hang out house for the kids, which was much easier to do not working with my husband deployed the second time. I had powerful jobs, I am a powerful being, but it is not because of the jobs I possess or the money I make or the people I know or my reputation.
Feminism has not made me a powerful woman, working has not made me a powerful woman, being a stay at home mom has not made me a powerful woman, the people I have met or worked with has not made me powerful. Not one of those things has made me powerful. My parents, my friends, my education, my son, my husband, my losses, my suffering, my wins, my gains, my character, all this has made me powerful.
So I am sorry Ms. Chavez, Mr. Bruni, Ms. Rosen, Ms. Tucker, you have all got it wrong. There is no one thing that makes a woman powerful. She has to do that on her own, and stop being wimpy bitch and stop being invited to the table.
Articles quoted:
http://cynthiatucker.com/2012/04/about-ann-romney-and-motherhood.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/opinion/sunday/bruni-working-and-women.html
http://m.washingtonexaminer.com/feminists-limit-womens-choices/
The reason why I speak is because of a 16 month old standing his ground yelling “No My Mommy” almost 21 years ago and children like that are still defending their mommies today.
The reason why I speak is because the taste of toilet water has not changed in over 30 years from middle school swirlys.
I still speak because begging for abuse shelter funding in 1991 is still as frustrating and aggravating as it is in 2011
I still speak because conceiving a child through marital rape and then losing her to the same man’s beating and yet 20 years later Congress won’t pass the Violence Against Women Act.
My voice will not be silenced, our voices will not be quieted, but what will it take for you to understand that nothing has changed?
My voice will not be silenced until you understand, America is no longer Beautiful and a song is no longer enough to teach our children that.
Ok, the past couple of days I have seen a big war on Viagra and pee pee dysfunction and the fact that women pay over 1 million or billion (someone will correct me) in medical care a year than men (and we shouldn’t say wo/men, we should probably say, female and males ages 12 to 67 or something like that because this is the reproductive ages in America and where hormones on both the male and female side are most likely to cause damage to the human body.
Now for more fun, it wasn’t until 10 to 15 years ago that the Medical Community realized that “OMG! Females and Males are different and when it comes to diagnosis and treatment the song is not the same” Do tell…. please.
Recently, and recently for the medical break through or change in medical diagnosis is 10 to 15 years, recently for some things (like the mammogram) is the 15th century but i digress. So, it was recently discovered that women’s heart attacks are different from men’s (sorry male female) damage different parts, have different symptoms, and caused by different “problems”. Ya don’t say.
Recently, a connection between neurological problems and hormones has become a big study. Seizure disorders in females might be caused by premenstrual cycle or by menopause, in males the start of puberty, lack of the certain something and it has nothing to do with viagra baby.
Recently, bone deterioration, dementia, and so many “disorders” is different for a male and female. Yet for hundreds of years our bodies have been treated and diagnosed the same (except for those icky parts below our belly buttons that we aren’t s’posed to talk about)
So the reason for women’s (sorry again females) health costs being higher: 1) we are finally being treated like women 2) the medical, pharmaceutical, scientific, and FDA are fixing all the screw ups they’ve made over the last ooooh CENTURY!!! by treating female bodies like female bodies. GASP! 3) the amazing retraining of the medical community to recognize signs of possible death causing illness or “disorder” like a heart attack which is now different for females because, well, you guessed it..we’re women. Question: who do you think received the bill for that jaw dropping wonderment? Was it shared with all off us equally?
Aw HELL no, its bad enough that we females have too much sex, get raped, marry violent men on purpose just to get state aid, us hussies have to pay for this 15th century way thinking some how, so lets bill the housewives for them bright, PhD’s, FDA, MD’s (again etc) for thinking that maleness was inherent in all of us.
I have the amazing honor to know Kimberia the wonder woman of Slut Walk Minneapolis, and it is Ardentmeld’s honor to pass this founding woman’s words on and to stop the word “dont get raped” and turn them into “dont rape”
Thank you Kimberia, from a rape victor, I love you.
I was driving home from work on 35E when my husband called and said the official word had finally come in. Orders had been cut, his unit would be heading to train in WI and then off to Iraq. I had been prepared for this call for some time now but for some reason a sense of dread, panic and utter loneliness overcame me and I found myself pulled over on the side of the highway during rush hour trying to fathom what was to come.
Now began the long weeks of readiness, briefings, tears, and the unknown. On Dec 7 2003 our guys were activated, and a week later they convoyed out to WI for 1 to 3 months of training. The first week in Feb. my husband and the rest of the unit landed in Kuwait, the hours and minutes of unknown had begun. Sporadic updates, sporadic communications, and ever changing conditions for our soldiers began to wear on our families. CNN and MSNBC and others like them were evil allies in making life worse for our military families. Death, death and more death was all they would report and the fact that military families didn’t seem to have the same rights as civilians when it came to the death of a loved one just made us feel even more insignificant. By month three my TV remained off but my phone and my computer remained at the ready as did every other family member’s, waiting, waiting for a connection to the life they knew before.
For those of you with loved ones at home, maybe you can understand this analogy. Imagine if you can your child or loved one going out or leaving the house and then not calling when they don’t come home at the pre-determined time. Now it’s two hours past that time, now 6 hours. Imagine that feeling for 365 to 545 days in a row. The only problem with this scenario is that you can’t call them, or their friends or the workplace or hangout. You are stuck waiting and hoping that all is well. There is always the saying “No news is good news”, but it is very hard to get in that frame of mind when it comes to a loved one.
It is now Aug 2004 and I can’t tell you when it happened or why it happened but I am sure it was an accumulation of sleepless nights, raising a teen, a house that refused to stay intact for more than a month are among a few. But I think it was mainly that many were so uncaring and unaware that military families existed and the sacrifices they were making. I don’t remember the exact day it happened but I went from being a veteran FRG volunteer and military family voice and then the spark went out. Everything that I had loved about being part of the camaraderie, the loyalty and caring just wasn’t important anymore. It became more about self preservation than it did about the group as a whole.
My husband came home in Jan 2005, it is now Dec 2005, seven hundred thirty plus days and counting. We have been through return, we were going through reunion and then the military again seemed to think that reunion and readiness with family was not as important as getting troop equipment ready for a deployment. For three months (June-Sept) my husband and co-workers spent weeks away from home and came home weekends. Every project that had been put off for the last 2 years due to his deployment was now put off again and so was our family’s reunion progress. Not only was this an emotional and mental strain, but it was also a financial strain as well, we were now back to square one.
There has been a lot said about the breaking of the “oath of office” lately and I have a couple of things I would like to point out. Yes I am deeply angered by the by the lack of duty on the part of our Congress and and our legislators. I am also deeply frustrated by the lack of understanding of what the definition of duty is for our leaders and country alike.
Definition of Oath:
1. solemn promise: a formal or legally binding pledge to do something such as tell the truth in a court of law, made formally and often naming God or a loved one as a witness
took a solemn oath of loyalty
2. words of promise: the words said when making a formal pledge, especially when reciting a conventional formula such as that used in a court of law
For example:
First, among the many other oaths like the Hippocratic, Enlisted and Officer or Military oath, there is a civil servant oath also. When I became a civil servant (ie. worked in the admin office of the MN National Guard Family Programs) I went through a series of paperwork and then stood in front of my team members, as a civilian mind you, and was asked to repeat the following similar oath which I did so without reservation.
”I, AB, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.” http://www.apfn.org/apfn/oathofoffice.htm
Second, there is also the fact that immigrants that come to this country wanting to become citizens of our wavering free society must repeat the following oath in order to gain legal US Citizenship.
The oath of allegiance is:
“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”
In some cases, USCIS allows the oath to be taken without the clauses:
“. . .that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by law. . .” http://www.uscis.gov/graphics/services/natz/oath.htm
Nevertheless, nowhere is it asked of ourUSborn citizens to take such an oath, which here in lays my third point, the oath/pledge/promise that we are no longer bound to take.
Definition of Pledge:
1. solemn undertaking: a solemn promise or undertaking
stood by her election pledges
2. something given as security: something delivered as security for the keeping of a promise or the payment of a debt or as a guarantee of good faith
Up until recent history, our children whether US Citizen or not, recited a bit of an oath at the beginning of every school day, The Pledge of Allegiance. For those of you unaware of the history of the pledge – here is some background below. Isn’t it amazing how a politician put the word “god” into the mix? The Pledge has been taken out of our schools and is no longer being held up for the importance that it is. Our freedoms are no longer center stage in our children’s education. Our children and future leaders no longer feel that sense of duty to protect our liberties, to protect their rights, to protect their freedoms.
The original Pledge of Allegiance
“I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands- one nation indivisible-with liberty and justice for all.”
On September 8, 1892, the Boston based “The Youth’s Companion” magazine published a few words for students to repeat on Columbus Day that year. Written by Francis Bellamy, the circulation manager and native of Rome, New York, and reprinted on thousands of leaflets, was sent out to public schools across the country. On October 12, 1892, the quadri-centennial of Columbus’ arrival, more than 12 million children recited the Pledge of Allegiance, thus beginning a required school-day ritual.
At the first National Flag Conference in Washington D.C., on June 14,1923, a change was made. For clarity, the words “the Flag of the United States” replaced “my flag”. In the following years various other changes were suggested but were never formally adopted.
It was not until 1942 that Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance. One year later, in June 1943, the Supreme Court ruled that school children could not be forced to recite it. In fact,today only half of our fifty states have laws that encourage the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in the classroom!
In June of 1954 an amendment was made to add the words “under God”. Then President Dwight D. Eisenhower said “In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America’s heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country’s most powerful resource in peace and war.” http://www.usflag.org/history/pledgeofallegiance.html
Finally, where does that leave us besides cursing Congress and the President for breaking their Oath of Office? We as Americans have broken our oath/pledge by not teaching our children about the “rights of America”. Instead of compromising on our children’s behalf and just bring our Pledge of Allegiance back to its original verbiage we have bickered over religious idiocies.
Civil servants have an obligation to protect our Constitution and to report and accuse those that do not defend the Constitution regardless of their party status.
Our Pledge of Allegiance was an alliance between the American people and the Offices of theUnited States and that security is now gone.
What do we do now?
You have heard it in the halls of Congress, in the media, on the blogs and Facebook ~ The War on Women. The national crack down on women’s access to “birth control” and the amazing uprising that this nation hasn’t seen since the Equal Rights Act. So why all of a sudden this major influx of feminism? And is it all feminism?
The GOP started a war on birth control that they thought would be a wagon train gone wild. It backfired, and severely. This stance they took along with the religious right against women’s health care not only affected women, but women of all ages. It affected the poor and women of color. It also affect the men in the lives of those women. Everyone had a piece of the pie in this so-called war.
The other fact was that old white men were making decisions about women’s healthcare and that did not set well with many. The crude jokes made about women and their health was no longer being tolerated. People are finally beginning to realize that a feminist male running for office is in no way the same as a feminist female. There is a realization that feminism is not about taking over the world, it is about equality, and to bring our country’s leadership out of 78th to maybe up in the teens as far as women in leadership. Cuba and China have more women in leadership roles than the United States. So much for being united.
Back to this war on women, was this a sneak around attack by the GOP to bring down Obamacare? (I so hate it being called that by the way) Not to mention the Voter ID amendments and the Immigration amendments. We are going back 200 yrs with these amendments to when only people with property could vote. A homeless veteran with PTSD living under a bridge in St. Paul, MN is not going to get an ID because he/she can not prove where he/she lives. No property. I understand the need to get control of immigrants coming in illegally, then a total revamp of our immigration system, our court systems, and the funding severely cut from both.
There is definitely a “war on women’s health” but if you look at the bigger picture it is more of a war to save the conservative elitist. Their war to save the line drawn in the sand so many years ago. The religious right’s war to prove no one is equal under God.
I thought I would never see the day when an uprising like this would come. I have had stars in my eyes ever since Joan Growe ran for top office and I said to myself “I’m gonna do that some day”. We have pulled the rug out from underneath the smug, have carried it to a higher and dryer place and we will end it. It will take more than 17% women in elected office to make sure that rug stays, so step up, ask her to run, tell her she has to, that she will make a difference.
words repeated
a treadmill of asks
over and over
while they glean and bask
many times
many doors
many steps
and yet we’re whores
our choice
health care
women’s choice
not adams care
so here we still are
80 yr old quotes
replaying at the capitols
still playing the same old notes
last straw
an anger swell
an underestimation
of a yet recognized free to vote nation
Minn. House Passes Anti-Bullying Bill « CBS Minnesota.
The Minnesota House has passed a bill requiring all public school districts to create policies aimed at reducing bullying. The bill passed Monday by a vote of 72-57. It was introduced after a rash of high-profile bullying incidents in school districts across the state.
There’s a lot of disagreement about whether the state should impose bullying standards on all local schools. Critics said it will create more bureaucracy, but might not reduce bullying.
The bill requires every school district to have anti-bullying policies, investigate complaints and keep records.
Minnesota Vikings SUCK!
In fact….VikQueens should never be used for the Vikings.
Ardent Meld
