Activism
The Pence Amendment and Planned Parenthood: Do More Than Sign a Petition
My inbox is choking with urgent appeals. Write your Congressperson. Sign this petition. Forward this video. Send money.
Social media is atwitter with people shocked about the “Republican war on women.” Or outraged at the Pence Amendment to defund Planned Parenthood and the move to eliminate the entire Title X family planning program that helps low-income women get health care and prevent abortions, for heaven sake.
The histrionics reach ever higher decibels, escalating shock and fear. From friends, I hear, “I’m speechless. What are we going to do?” From uninformed reporters, “But should taxpayers be forced to pay for abortion?” From frustrated activists: “We need to march.”
Much as I hate to quote Ronald Reagan, “There you go again.”
Ironically, Reagan threw this phrase at President Jimmy Carter who in a debate had made the case for national health insurance. That conflict still rages today, just like right-wing politicians and women’s advocacy groups are still caught in a never-ending Kabuki drama about what on the surface appears to be abortion, but in reality is a much broader assault on family planning, birth control, and underneath it all, women and our role in this world.
No one can change that narrative but us, and we must do it quickly. The good news is we already know how and have the tools at our disposal.
Read MoreHow Can Women Reach Political Parity in a Chaotic Time?
You know I believe chaos is opportunity. But are women carpe-ing the chaos? With all those groups helping women run for office, why aren’t we moving the dial toward political parity faster? At the rate we’re going, it’ll take us 70 years to get there. And even if we do, will it be a plus or a cruel joke if, say, Michelle Bachmann becomes the first woman president? Isn’t it time for progressive women to come out of the closet and acknowledge that a women’s agenda is more important than her gender?
I’m excited to have a chance to ask questions like these about women, power, media, and politics of three of the most politically savvy women I know at the 92Y in New York this coming Sunday night 1/23, at 7:30 pm. You are most cordially invited.
Read MoreDali Time Happy New Year
There’s a wonderful exhibit of surrealist Salvador Dali paintings and sculptures in New York’s Time Warner Center. They’re so alluring, they’re even upstaging the huge Botero Adam and Eve sculptures that attract much photo-snapping of people grinning slyly at Adam’s eye-level penis.
I am mesmerized by Dali’s clock sculptures. They drip time, melt time, warp time. Juxtapose fast and slow passage of time, or rather tease us for thinking such mundane distinctions exist. Apparently Dali agreed with Albert Einstein that time exists only so that everything doesn’t happen at once.
Read MoreStories Heal, Stories Connect, Stories Matter
Your heartfelt responses to Amy Ferris’s extraordinary post “I Matter” tell me I’m not alone in being moved by it. Amy’s plunge into the coldest, deepest wells of pain–her courage to swim around in those emotionally drenching experiences, then emerge to share them– and at the same time to share her liberation from the most…
Read MoreSHE Should Talk At TED: 5 Ways to Get Started
I get so excited I can hardly stand it when I see women embracing their “power-to” leadership and using the 9 Ways power tools I share in No Excuses.
When it comes to defining our own terms and creating a movement to take action for TEDparity, my “heartfeldt” belief is that women are beyond merely offering an opinion that TED should be more inclusive. We are the majority of population, voters, people with college degrees, and purchasers of consumer goods. We don’t need to be supplicants. And for sure there are plenty among us who have big and exciting ideas. Please share yours here and on twitter @SheTalkTed and the She Should Talk at Ted Facebook page.
If you’re in NY, there’s still time today to register for and attend the TEDWomen/TEDx636_11thAve follow up round table this evening, sponsored by the New York Women Social Entrepreneurs, to discuss action steps with panelists
Read MoreWhat Movement Have You Started Today?
Thanks to Shelby Knox for posting this on Facebook today:
On this date in 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, AL, city bus. Her arrest sparked the bus boycott and her courage fueled the burgeoning Civil Right Movement. Parks once said, “I want to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free…so other people would also be free.” A beautiful goal, achieved by a revolutionary woman.
Parks helped to spark the Civil Rights Movement by this action. Over on my 9 Ways blog this week, I’m showing examples of No Excuses power tool #7: “create a movement”–with ways we can join together with others to do everything from planning Thanksgiving dinner to world-changing actions like Rosa Parks’.
Today is also World AIDS Day. It’s a good day to think about the amazing progress that has been made so that a diagnosis of HIV/AIDS is not the death warrant is was when the disease was first identified in the 1980’s, thanks to the many people who started movements large and small to combat the disease.
What movement have you created, joined, or contributed to lately? What movement do you think needs creating?
Read MoreHelp Girls Make Change
Friends, I received this from Tara Roberts, a young woman with a mission to empower girls that I think is so worthy. I’ve voted and encourage you to do so too.
I traveled around the world interviewing girl and young women change makers for 10 months last year. Now, I hope to create an interactive online network called “girltank” to connect these dynamic young women and support them in changing the world.
And all I need is your vote. By October 31st. For a $15K grant to build the site.
The site will offer video clips of the young women, forums, blogs, how-to podcasts, a resource directory, and online workshops. Each element will allow the young women to get to know each other, grow their capacity as leaders, learn more about areas that have a global impact on women, and receive support around their work to change the world. I also hope the site will inspire other girls and young women to get involved.
I promise that it will be very exciting! 🙂
Thanks in advance for your help!
http://youtopia2010.uservoice.com/forums/81825-youth-issues
(Psssst – And feel free to pass the word!)
Read MoreSay It Isn’t So, O!
They always disappoint you, these politicians. I tend to be a bit of a Pollyanna or at least a cockeyed optimist even after all these years of political involvement. And though Obama’s appointments have sometimes been thrilling, sometimes worrying; I figured we needed to cut the guy some slack; he’s got a mighty hard job in front of him after all, and it is critically important that he be successful.
But today, he went too far when he gave Rev. Rick Warren the enormous honor of delivering the invocation at his inauguration. I mean, please. Sarah Posner at The Nation writes:
There was no doubt that Obama, like every president before him, would pick a Christian minister to perform this sacred duty. But Obama had thousands of clergy to choose from, and the choice of Warren is not only a slap in the face to progressive ministers toiling on the front lines of advocacy and service, but a bow to the continuing influence of the religious right in American politics. Warren vocally opposes gay marriage, does not believe in evolution, has compared abortion to the Holocaust and backed the assassination of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Excuse me, but what about the basic human rights of women and gays? Is Obama buying into the absurd notion that such disrespect for our fundamental humanity is just a matter of opinion rather than a violation of simple justice?
Read MoreSee Red, Be Red for Equal Pay Day, Today
[caption id="attachment_3820" align="alignright" width="175" caption="My red shoes"]
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Red happens to be my favorite color. I’m an Aries after all. A classic one according to my sister (maybe that wasn’t meant as a compliment? Pioneering, passionate courageous, dynamic they say, but also selfish, impulsive, impatient, foolhardy.). Even my planet, Mars, named for the god of war, is red.
So I laughed when tweets from AAUW and National Women’s Law Center (NLRC), two organizations that have been pushing for the Paycheck Fairness Act and have declared this Blogging for Fair Pay Day, told me to wear red today.
No problem. I’ll just close my eyes and pull something out of my closet. It’ll more than likely be red.
There are many fabulous people blogging today about the fact that women make on average 78 cents to every $1 earned by a man, and women of color earn even less: African-American women earn 62¢, Latinas earn 53¢ for $1 earned by white, non-Hispanic men. NLRC can tell you how the comparison shakes down in your state.
Rather than write a long diatribe, I want to link Heartfeldt readers to some sources I’ve found particularly compelling or useful.
Read MoreWowed by Women–Powered Bloggers on Earth Day 2009
One of my favorite adages is simply that nothing every just happens; people make it happen. A woman, Rachel Carson, ignited the modern environmental movement with her influential science writing, in particular the blockbuster The Silent Spring. Today on the 40th Earth Day, women bloggers are highlighting their affection for Mother Earth. So I want to highlight some of my favorite women-powered bloggers on Earth Day 2009.
It’s always a good idea to start out by asking a question, and that’s what Feministe has done, opening a forum for their readers to share what each is doing for Earth Day. I confess to rather enjoying Jill’s historical reflection of witches throwing birth control pills out into middle-America, but then old habits die hard, don’t they, lol?
On a slightly more serious note, read Marianne Schnall’s column on how to make Earth Day a family affair. Marianne is a co-founder of EcoMall.com, an amazing website compendium of environmental knowledge, advice, and activism. Marianne’s tips for a family Earth Day today range from taking an early morning walk with your children to help them learn to appreciate the simple beauties of their environment to sharing a family letter writing campaign on an environmental issue that affects your family directly (and what doesn’t?) She’s also the founder of Feminist.com, once again illustrating the connection between Earth Mother and Mother Earth.
Pinching pennies these days? Watch this woman’s video on Top Ten Ways to Save Green for Mama Earth:
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