Friday Round Up: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
It’s been quite a week between the lawmakers in Washington taking the debt-ceiling deal to the 11th hour and yesterday being one of the worst days in the financial markets since 2008. Yet despite all the chaos, this Friday’s Round Up is going deploy Power Tool #5 ‘Carpe the Chaos’ and keep marching forward to highlight some of the good, not just the bad and the ugly – we’ve had quite enough of that.
And while this may seem like an odd place for a movie reference, She Negotiates Founder Victoria Pynchon’s ForbesWoman article “The Budget End-Game as Bad Summer Movie” was certainly a box-office hit! Pynchon’s witty tongue-in-cheek piece told a tale of incredible drama that is getting mixed reviews from both sides of the aisles and sadly, left many Americans leaving the theatre disheartened and incredibly disappointed.
“Meanwhile, the American-public-as-summer-movie-focus-group begs the studio to provide a more satisfactory conclusion or its executives will find them at home watching The Real Housewives of New York City while they re-calculate their ability to pay the electricity bill, purchase health insurance, pay the rent, finish college, or retire sometime before their 80th birthdays.” — Victoria Pynchon, “TheBudget End-Game as Bad Summer Movie”
However, there was one story this week with a very happy ending. As of August 1st, new insurance plans are required to fully cover women’s preventative care including free birth control, wellness visits and other services under the Affordable Health Care Act. In announcing the new historic guidelines, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said they will help women get the care they need to stay healthy.
“Today we are accepting the recommendations of the Institute of Medicine, so no woman in America needs to choose between paying a grocery bill and paying for the key care that can save her life.” — HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius
INTENTIONING
Sex, Power, Pandemics, and How Women
Will Take The Lead for (Everyone’s) GoodThe new book from Gloria Feldt about the future, taking the leadership lessons learned from this disruption and creating a better world for all through the power of intention.
Dr. Howard Koh, Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Health says that by 2013, thirty-four million U.S. women ages 18 to 64 will receive the benefits spelled out in the new ruling. This couldn’t come at a better time as it appears a rough road is still ahead for American women.
However, there are some voices in the women’s political blogosphere that are mad as hell and aren’t going to take it anymore! Donna Norton’s post on MomsRising.org says it’s time that after all of the endless weeks of watching Washington, it’s time for someone else to “drive the bus”. She says it is especially critical now that the soon-to-be-formed super committees will be on deck to decide all of the deficit reduction measures promised in the debt-ceiling deal because as she puts it, “the ride isn’t over yet”.
“Urge Congress to appoint legislators to serve on the super committee who will stand up for families on Main Street, not just bankers on Wall Street — and, while you’re at it, tell Congress what you’d do if you were in the driver’s seat:
She’s so right, the ride is far from over and as this rocky road trip continues, where will you be?
The future economic turbulence may bring wrong turns from lawmakers and other leaders. To ‘Carpe the Chaos’, where can you get behind the driver’s seat to set things back on course?
GLORIA FELDT is the New York Times bestselling author of several books including No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power, a sought-after speaker and frequent contributor to major news outlets, and the Co-Founder and President of Take The Lead. People has called her “the voice of experience,” and among the many honors she has been given, Vanity Fair called her one of America’s “Top 200 Women Legends, Leaders, and Trailblazers,” and Glamour chose her as a “Woman of the Year.”
As co-founder and president of Take The Lead, a leading women’s leadership nonprofit, her mission is to achieve gender parity by 2025 through innovative training programs, workshops, a groundbreaking 50 Women Can Change The World immersive, online courses, a free weekly newsletter, and events including a monthly Virtual Happy Hour program and a Take The Lead Day symposium that reached over 400,000 women globally in 2017.
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There always seems to be a caveat with the Obama Administration. This is from a NARAL press release on Monday:
I wonder what other requirements of the health insurance reform bill are to be optional, because of “moral” controversy. Did Obama feel it was necessary to appease the Catholic Church again?
Aletha, As the New York Times piece “What Happened to Obama’s Passion” said today about his leadership style that he needs to under stand that “the arc of history does not bend toward justice through capitulation cast as compromise.”
By this time, it has become difficult for me to believe Obama cares a whit for justice, or indeed anything besides getting reelected. I read that NY Times article. It was insightful, but I do not believe anything has happened to Obama; he is just another politician who made empty promises on the campaign trail. What puzzles me is, why did people believe his rhetoric? Does once burned, twice shy not apply to politics?