Bristol, Honey, This Is Just the Beginning
Sex and relationship conflict always give the morning news a little sizzle to go with the caffeine jolt.
Jill Miller Zimon over at writeslikeshetalks already said most of what I was thinking this morning as I watched media reports of the breakup of Bristol Palin and her boyfriend-fiancé-baby daddy, Levi Johnston:
Frankly, I think the only one who should be asked questions and be allowed to say, “no comment” is Bristol herself. She is 18, she is a single mother and it’s her life. Questions to Palin should go only to her existence as Bristol’s mother and either she is going to comment on that or not. I’m not even happy that she’s being asked about the subject at all – leave them all alone as far as I’m concerned. True, she kicked the door wide open during the campaign, but the Bristol-Greta interview demonstrated that Bristol is at least making some decisions, it seems.
Sigh.
I’d love to have an epistemological conversation with Sarah Palin about the word, “choice,” even knowing her whole thing about God opening doors, or not.
On the plus side, both Bristol and Sarah have now acknowledged that perhaps abstinence isn’t the 100% foolproof birth control method it’s cracked up to be. Because like all methods, it only works when it’s actually used.
However, I doubt that media attention will disappear from Bristol and baby Tripp for quite some time, at least as long as Sarah Palin is in the political limelight where she seems determined to stay to the chagrin of many in the party that used and abused her during McCain-Palin’s failed presidential campaign.
Read MoreA Brief and Checkered History of Women’s Path to Parity, Our Power Leap Moment, and the Road Ahead
Today’s Women’s History Month post was written for the NOW New York newsletter. It was a tossup whether to place it in my Heartfeldt Politics blog or if I should put it into Courageous Leadership or Powered Women. While it could have fit in any of these, I chose Heartfeldt because the movement history strikes me as being exactly where the political meets the personal. See if you agree.
“If women want any rights more than they got, why don’t they just take them, and not be talking about it.” –-Sojourner Truth, 1797-1883, former slave, abolitionist, 
Sojourner Truth – click for more infowomen’s rights activist, traveling preacher
During the last 50 years, thanks to feminism and other civil rights movements, reliable birth control, and an economy that requires more brain than brawn, women have broken many barriers that historically prevented us from partaking as equals at life’s table. I feel privileged to be part of this amazing trajectory, and I thank NOW for what it has done for all women, and for me specifically.
I was a desperate housewife in Odessa, Texas, when I discovered NOW a few years after its 1966 founding, and joined as an at-large member. Soon, I’d find the half-dozen other at-large members in West Texas’ expanse. It was a heady time of firsts for women; still, few of us could have predicted either the stunning advances or the discouraging setbacks ahead.
Fast forward to Hillary Clinton’s groundbreaking presidential campaign. Today even right-wing Republicans realize putting a woman on the ticket symbolizes electrifying change. Women outnumber men in universities, reproductive technologies have changed the power balance in personal relationships and we’re closer to parity in earnings than any time in history.
To be sure, women still don’t have full equality in any sphere of political or economic endeavor.
Read MoreJeanette Rankin, First Congresswoman
If women had held the preponderance of political leadership roles, woud peace have become more of a central organizing theme of history than war? Yesterday I met the Kamala Lopez, the director and producer of a new documentary film, A Single Woman, about Jeanette Rankin, the first woman elected to the US Congress. Rankin, a Montana…
Read MoreInternational Women’s Day at 100–We’ve Come a Long Way, Maybe
I tore open the New York Times this morning, hoping to see an article about International Women’s Day, today, March 8.
Nada. Zilch. Nothing recognizing a day first observed in 1909 and ingrained in the global women’s movement.
The economy dominates the news and for good reason, but why not at least an op ed that tells readers the effect of the global financial meltdown women and the spiraling effect that has on families. But then when it comes to cash circulation worldwide, women do 2/3 of the work but get 10% of the income, according to the International Women’s Day 2009 website. If gold rules, then no wonder that only 21% of news stories globally are about women. Yet women continue to be the primary victims of sex trafficking and other sexual abuse, dislocation from wars they didn’t start, and repressive practices such as genital cutting and even restrictions on physical movement.
Read MoreGoosebumps Over Dipnotes
I was over at the UN last week. Staffers from a variety of countries mentioned how great it feels to the international community to know that the US is back–resuming its rightful place in among the member countries of the United Nations. One woman said to me that she goes around these days smiling and saying “Yes, we can!”
What gave me goose bumps? Being reminded what a profound impact Hillary Clinton is making as Secretary of State–and a SOS who understands and prioritizes women in her approach to the rest of the world at that– when I signed onto my Twitter account (I’m Heartfeldt if you want to follow me) a moment ago and saw the following tweet from Dipnotes, the Department of State’s blog name and Twitter handle.
Question of the Week: How Best Can Women’s Rights Be Expanded Internationally?
The world recognizes March 8 as International Women’s Day. During her recent travel to the Middle East, Secretary Clinton met with women who are developing their own businesses through a microcredit program. Promoting women’s economic and political participation is an important element of U.S. foreign policy and a key component of democratic development.
Yes, indeed we can!
Read MoreInternational Women’s Day and Women’s History Month: What Do You Want to Be?
“What do you want to be?” we ask our daughters and sons when they are growing up.
Barack Obama poses this question to elementary school children in this delightful video called “I Want to Be” that looks at political leadership of women through American history. Take a look and ask yourself the same question: what do you want to be next?
This video is just in time for International Women’s Day– March 8–and Women’s History Month, celebrated throughout March. “Celebrated” is the right word for where women are today, too: on the cusp of a great leaping point toward true equality and even in some instances, parity.
Watch and see where U.S. women are in national political leadership as compared to other countries. You’ll find interesting vignettes of women shattering barriers, others who didn’t succeed but paved the way for the next woman who tried, and some facts that might surprise you.
Read MoreI Have to Learn to Spell “Sebelius”
I just realized I’ve been misspelling the name of Obama’s apparent new pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. Spelling it with an “i” instead of an “e” as the second letter. Well, I’ve got to get it right now, because it looks like I’ll be referring to her quite a bit. She’ll have one of the largest portfolios of any cabinet member, and certainly one of the most important.
Her appointment comes as no surprise, but it’s good news. Who will be the White House health czar then is the question? Maybe Obama won’t appoint one after all, since that was perhaps a position cobbled up to give Daschle extra status in the pursuit of universal health care. Pride goeth before a destruction…
Read MoreIs Obama’s Proposed Reduction in Charitable Deductions a Good Idea?
My grandmother often repeated the aphorism that charity begins at home. But those living in the White House and Congress just love to tweak tax policy to make charitable giving to causes beyond our doorsteps more complicated. This week President Obama’s 2010 budget plan proposes that allowable charitable tax deductions for those earning more than $250,000 per year be reduced by about 20%.
Since I led nonprofits for 30 years, I can tell you that any time the tax deduction for charitable contributions is decreased, contributions decrease. We’ve tried this before, in the Reagan administration, for example, just to be clear that it’s a bipartisan idea. Maybe that’s why Obama likes it.
At any rate, it was a bad idea then and it’s a bad idea now.
Reactions to taking away tax deductions vary by type of donor.
Read MoreObama and the Creation of Meaning
Check out this Wordle graphic of President Obama’s “not the state of the union” speech to Congress last night.
American, economy, health, every, people, plan, new, energy, education, Americans, America, recovery, also. These were the top words used. We didn’t hear as many specifics as we might have yearned for–or as the markets this morning indicate they were looking for–but the memes were as comforting as a warm bath after a 10 mile hike in the snow.
Obama’a speech was rhetorically excellent, his energetic delivery infectious, his vision sufficiently elevating to loosen up a worried and somewhat paralyzed nation and persuade us to consider new solutions.
“It’s not about helping banks but about helping people” was a great applause line, striking exactly the right note even though we know in our hearts that we are helping banks too. I perked up when he said, “The cost of health care keeps going up. Yet we keep delaying reform.” Has he taken on Clinton’s position that we need a universal health care plan? I dared to hope so, for incremental change won’t work and Obama has in the past tended toward the incremental fixes on this important issue.
Read MoreGoodyear, You Can Spare $360K for Lilly Ledbetter?
You know how I like to ask “so what are you going to do about it?” Well, here’s a great example, courtesy of blogger Joanne Cronrath Bamberger, aka PunditMom. She has graciously allowed me to crosspost her commentary from Huffington Post. For those of us who feel justice requires that Lilly Ledbetter receive compensation for her heroic efforts on behalf of all women’s paycheck equality, Joanne provides an easy way to communicate to Lilly’s former employer, Goodyear Rubber and Tire, and urge them to make good on the pay they in effect robbed her of over the years. Here you go, and don’t forget to drop your note to Goodyear:
As so many women have been basking in the glow of the passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the news reports reminded us that even though Lilly has become a standard bearer for the fight for fair pay for women, Lilly herself will never see a nickel of the money that she sued Goodyear Rubber and Tire for.
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