No Excuses
Thanksgiving Shake Up?
For the first year in over a decade, my husband Alex and I won’t be with our large blended and extended family in Arizona. We’ll miss them, sure. And we’ll miss family traditions, like debating whether Alex’s white bread stuffing or my cornbread dressing is better. Then there’s my daughter’s insistence that we serve the green jello mold my mother used to make, the one that packs more calories and cholesterol into anything else you’ve ever called “salad.”
This just seemed like a good year to shake things up. Perhaps it’s the influence of unpredicted social changes like Tahrir Square and Occupy Wall Street that are shaking up the political world. (Read my recent post on what OWS has accomplished.) Or maybe it’s simply that we felt we were getting into a rut…
Read MoreWhy did the supercommittee fail? (Duh!)
Silly question today but I decided to answer it anyway. More to the point, what in your opinion should be the next steps? Who should take leadership?
Arena Asks: Congress is bracing today for the failure of the supercommittee, which will most likely fail to submit paperwork to the Congressional Budget Office by its Monday deadline.
Is this a big hit for Congress, which had a nine percent approval rating in a recent poll? And why was the supercommittee unable to make ends meet?
My Answer: The supercommittee was doomed from the start because the Republicans have less to lose politically by being intractable on revenue. The supercommittee process played right into their hands and the Democrats took the bait…
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Friday Round Up: On 40th Anniversary of Women’s Rights Decision, Reed v Reed, Justice Ginsburg Defines Her Legacy
Forty years ago, for the first time in the Fourteenth Amendment’s 103-year history, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that its Equal Protection Clause protected women’s rights in the case of Reed v. Reed.
In honor of this anniversary and to assess where constitutional protections for women stand today, the National Women’s Law Center co-hosted a panel, entitled “Reed v. Reed at 40: Equal Protection and Women’s Rights.”
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was the principal author of the brief (while working for the ACLU) on behalf of the plaintiff in Reed v. Reed led off, followed by this panel moderated by NPR’s legal affairs correspondent, Nina Totenberg…
Read MoreShe’s Doing It: Ellen Snortland – Renaissance Woman Writes, Performs, Bakes, Growls
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxaLyMV8Vko[/youtube]
At eight years old, Ellen Snortland heard her father describe Winston Churchill as a “Renaissance man” and decided then and there that she would become a “Renaissance woman.”
Ellen more than fulfilled her vision for herself- she’s an author, journalist, women’s safety and human rights activist, actor, producer, and writing/media coach, and (full disclosure) an all round generous and wonderful friend. Oh, and she’s also an accomplished Norwegian Kransekake baker !
Ellen personifies many of the No Excuses Power Tools, but her voluminous talents all seem to emanate from her extraordinary ability to use Power Tool #9: Tell Your story. And telling the world her story has been a focus for Ellen in recent years…
Read MoreFriday Round Up: The Revolution Must Be Funded Edition
While there was plenty of political intrigue and sex scandal dominating the news this past
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week, the most provocative article I read was Courtney Martin’s “’You Are the NOW of Now!’ The Future of (Online) Feminism.”
Courtney, a leading young feminist writer and an editor of Feministing.com, last year
Read MoreShall We Start a Pool re When Cain Leaves the Race?
In my previous post about Herman Cain, I suggested responses to the sexual harassment allegations that could keep him in the running. Now I agree with former Ohio Secretary of State who said at the beginning of this debacle that Cain is toast.
If you were betting, when do you think he will leave the race for president?
And what do you think last night’s election returns mean for him and the rest of the Republican candidates?
Arena Asks:Herman Cain held a press conference tonight to defend his reputation, choosing to address accusations of sexual harassment directly. “I have never acted inappropriately with anyone, period,” Cain said, indicating that he has no idea who accuser Sharon Bialek was. He added that he would not be stepping out of the presidential race.
Is Cain wise to remain in the presidential race? And does his defense of his reputation seem plausible?
My Answer: Cain is getting less plausible by the minute…
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She's Doing It: Tiffany Dufu Leads the White House Project Forward
This week’s “She’s Doing It” features a first person account of how a woman I very much admire came into leadership and stepped into her power as naturally as rivers flow from their source, despite some negative messages she received as a girl. Tiffany Dufu is a role model and example of how younger women are moving the leadership needle forward for themselves and others. Read on. And if you’re one of the over 13,000 who has had an experience with The White House Project thus far, won’t you share it here?
It all started when I got the Girl of the Year Award.
Growing up in the Pacific Northwest as the daughter of a homemaker and minister, I remember adults around me insisting: “little girls can’t lead.” Yet taking the award into my hands that day, I realized how eager I was to make a profound impact. I had a deep desire to not only affect change, but also be public about it so that other girls would see that they could be leaders, too…
Read MoreWhat should be the response to the Mississippi “Personhood” proposal?
Arena asked “Should Miss. ‘personhood’ proposal pass?” The answer is NO. And further….please read on to see what else I think about what the proposal means, and what should be done about it.
The Arena Asks: An initiative in Mississippi Tuesday would impose the country’s tightest regulations on abortion and birth control. Initiative 26 would change the definition of a person to include “every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the functional equivalent thereof.”
Should the ‘personhood’ proposal pass?
My Answer: Everyone who is or has a mother, sister, woman friend, or daughter should vote against any candidate, Republican or Democrat, who fails to support a woman’s fundamental human right to make her own childbearing decisions–including whether to have a child or not. Period.
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Friday Round Up: Who Will Carpe Occupy Wall Street's Chaos?
Nature abhors a vacuum, right? So who do you think will eventually occupy the leadership vacuum that has been a deliberate feature of Occupy Wall Street’s laudably idealistic start as a movement?
Why not a you or a woman you know?
Read MoreShe's Doing It: Young Women of The Loud Empresses Declare Their Power To!
My heart bursts with joy when people tell me what No Excuses and the message of changing how we think about power so that we can embrace it in a positive way has meant to them.
When I speak to organizations or conferences, I often ask the question “When did you know you had the power to_____.” Each person fills in the blank for herself. Then we discuss the answers with one another. Try it, and talk about it with your friend, sister, mother, or whoever you can requisition.
So after my keynote speech for the New Directions Career Center in Columbus OH (a fantastic organization that helps low income women gain economic self-sufficiency), I had one of those joyful moments. Why?
Read this post by Rae Reed in The Loud Empresses blog, Living Life OutLoud and you’ll see some young women who are embracing their power TO.
I attended an event last week, Gloria Feldt presenting “No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power,” hosted by The Center for New Directions.
I’ll be honest. I had no freaking idea what to expect. Young, wearing jeans and a V-neck, I sat amongst women with ears perked, eagerly anticipating the night’s featured speaker.
It wasn’t long before I figured out why. Wisdom poured from her lips like my brain begged for more…
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