Women's Legacy Project

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Punditry & Peace

Panties in a Knot Over Pantywaist Protocol on Guns

Blogging & Writing

There is a dearth of reason in this country.  I believe this lack ultimately traces to the erosion of education in our country.  High School students should be able to complete the coursework in the 5th grade readers that their great, great, grandparents had to complete in order to have basic education.  Completion of the 6th reader prepared a student to be able to teach others.
We are a nation of ignoramuses.  We allow a “patriot” act that destroys many of the freedoms essential to a democracy which generations of Americans fought and died to create and protect.  We also refuse to reign in corporations.
West Point study on three types of right wing extremist groups and each type’s likelihood of using violence:  http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/01/18/1467741/west-point-study-right-wing-threat/
Read this and learn, buckos.
Over the last 20 years, what has killed them most Americans?

  • Guns
  • Domestic Terrorists
  • International Terrorists

Guns wins the quiz.  It is going on a million plus.  Actually the number I saw was over 900,000 souls since 9/11/01.  Domestic terrorists were up for debate in my opinion.  Do you count Waco, or is that attributable to the ATF?  International terrorism in the U.S.  Way way under 5000, no matter how you parse the numbers.  Almost a 1,000,000 versus 5,000?  We give up all decency and shoes to go through airport security, even when the cargo on the same flight isn’t searched, but the corporations who manufacture guns get whatever they want for a free ride for psychos who buy their guns in the name of “freedom?”  Give me an effing break!!!
The proletariat are brainwashed by the fancy plastic crap and the guns that The Great Satan (aka Walmart) sells.
All the idiots I grew up with.  Not all the people, just the stupid ones, that stayed in the little home town in the Midwest clinging to their guns and their religion think they have it better than anyone else in the world.  How the hell was this brainwashing allowed to happen?
No one gives a shit about your hunting.  When was the last time anyone actually stayed alive through the practice of hunting and missed crop farming.  For my family it was a year back in the 1960s.  Unless you can say something similar, I really don’t want to hear your panty-waist bs about liberty.
Guns are impinging on my liberty.  Friends were shot in Tucson.  The D.C. sniper shot a woman at the shopping center where I shopped several times a week in Arlington.  My family relocated to the D.C. area to support a granting agency that could not get people to move to the D.C. area after 9/11 because our family felt it was our duty to do so.  Two brothers and one husband has served in the military. One was horrendously wounded while serving his time in the economic draft.   I’ve been escorted out of U.S. Senate hearings for speaking truth to power.
I am so pissed off at the death and maiming of more innocents by I will bet you anything right-wing, home-grown terrorists, that I could spit venom.
Women!  Wake up!  We have to take governance back and create a world that is somewhat sane again.  This glorification of men as potential militia has gone far enough.  No one needs semi-automatic weapons, mega-clips, ammonia nitrate (fertilizer) that is not marked with tracing materials, nor the ability to sell guns to drug lords at the local fairgrounds during the off season.
Put down your effing coupons long enough to think about who your purchases support and who wins when you play good American wife and mum that never talks about sex, drugs, rock and roll, or religion or politics.  The status quo wins.  The status quo sucks.
Wake up.  Soon it really will be too late.  I would just keep my mouth shut, but your complacency is effing up my grandchildren’s future.  Take your finger out of your nose and start thinking about what is going on around you…
Perhaps I am being a bit hard on you, but WAKE THE F… UP!
 

Election Apps

Election 2012, Information and Tech

Apps of the week I'm featuring this wonderful and wacky Wednesday are all centered on the upcoming election. So just in case you would rather use a mobile app to check out what is what rather than resorting to the old-fashioned “binder full of women” approach, the app by Election Protection is the way to go.

The election protection site has tons of info, but the App is the most non-partisan element on it. You can check your voter registration status, find your polling place, and report problems with the voting process that you notice. I HIGHLY recommend it! Free of course.

Now for some fun!

One of my favorite apps is not really an election app, but sorta is. Election Indecision is Comedy Central's Election App. Well worth checking out and it actually does have reminders for events, such as the final Presidential Debate, that you can set. Free.

The most potentially useful app to download at this late date in the 2012 election cycle is one that can continue to be used for political research. With Political Time Machine you can easily listen to candidates through time and see what they said when. Yes, you can watch videos of President Obama and Former Governor Romney through time as they speak about issues, but you can also listen to famous political speeches and public events far back into the 20th Century, actually all the way back to 1892.

The app has crashed on me and I had to not just restart the app, but power down and restart the iPad to get it to run again. This crashing may be a buffer issue in my iPad. Fun and educational and it can settle arguments as to whom said what when. And of course it is free.

So these three apps cover my “in the moment” need through the next three weeks, my need for humor, and my need to research past speeches now and in the future. Political apps can be very useful!

 

Be Kind When People Say, "I'm So Sick of Politics" – Part 2

Uncategorized

In this post, that is one in a series, I look at the recent social media meme of “I’m so sick of politics” and examine some of the reasons and responses why it is such a recurrent theme during the height of the campaign in a critical election that will determine whether the trajectory of United States moving toward a corporatist state and away from a capitalist state continues at the exponentially increasing rate it has taken over the last several decades or whether the human protections and family and community safeguards put in place during the 20th Century will stand throughout the third century of The United States of America.
In the first installment in this series of posts I talked about my own background and the how and why I became a political animal at a rather early age. In today’s post I look at the cognitive dissonance that may be engendering the pervasive “leave me out of it” attitude expressed by so many on social media and my own attempts, often unsuccessful, to be calm and accepting of others opinions and beliefs.
Again, I have to be straight up about my belief that the “family atomics,” to use an analogy from Frank Herbert’s Dune, have maneuvered events including elections and political appointments over the last few decades to position key players in power positions throughout the legislature, judiciary, and executive branches of government so that individuals and families behind some of the largest multintional corporations can exercise undo influence over the course of America “Democracy.” I won’t go into detail here, but there are many reputable sources of information about these manipulations which are easy to access should you want to look at the data.
But as a facebook friend just said “informed rationality is the most productive manner to address justifiable concerns.”
It bothers me that so many people just want to turn off any political discussion until after the elections in November. A democratic state cannot survive without an informed and involved citizenry. The concept of civic responsibility needs to be brought back into mainstream thought and discussion. So that is problem one, and I can certainly be kind and just talk about volunteer work, community involvement beyond family or church, and the need for awareness of current events. No problem there. But the next sticky subject is far more complex, both in the motivational reason for others and in control over my reactions to others.
Conservatism and Progressivism as political motivations are being confused with Republican and Democrtic organizations or parties that have almost nothing to do with motivation. Political thought has almost nothing to do with partisan action. The questions we should be asking have almost nothing to do with the issues that the political machines put forward, spin, and relentlessly stir to the top.
We need to ask,

  • “What are you trying to conserve?”
  • “What do you want to have progress?”

If platitudes and generalities are the answers, then we need to call a foul. Values, debt reduction, and strength are not answers. Our country was founded on ideals. Values are implicit in our guiding documents, we do not need to specify further constraints on those values. Our spiritual values can and should guide individual action, but collective action must focus on areas of agreement to solve specific problems. The largest questions will always find answers only in individual human hearts.
I stumbled over information about an event that is to take place shortly after the Fall elections. The name attracted me. Sister Giant. It is a call to action for the blending of the spiritual with the political because no matter what the results of the election might be, there will be a need for women’s action to transform our country. The conference organizers are taking on the understandable quandary that many women confront when facing the political.

Yet there are understandable reasons for the lack of female participation in our electoral politics, not the least of which is that the entire political system is contrary to everything a feminine heart stands for. It lacks inclusion. It lacks poetry. It doesn’t nurture. It doesn’t love. And without those things, the feminine psyche disconnects.

Most women understand that where we put our attention is where there will be growth. Attention, visualization, and energy all feed their focus. It is time for, as the Sister Giant materils say, “Women, nonviolence, and birthing a new American politics.” There are many paths to having women actively shape this new American politics and this particular conference is but one of these many, many paths.
So the response the next time a friend says, “I’m so sick of politics,” could be, “So what are we going to do about that?” It is worth the try.
 

Deja Vu All Over Again Within The Women's Peace Movement

Blogging & Writing, Creekside Commentary, Election 2012

I am approaching the ten year mark for becoming a peace activist. That is a big chunk of my life and probably worthy of some reflection.

Working with groups of women to create public messages that cannot be missed and are memorable has been a big part of my life over the last decade. I became involved in working for peace, which is distinct and stands apart from being anti-war.
Working for peace has allowed me to find my personal power and true convictions. My search for peace and how I can help create a more peaceful world for my daughters and granddaughters has opened areas of understanding about my personal and family history and indeed about culture and humanity that I could have missed had I walked a different path. I have found meaning behind phrases. The courage of conviction means much more to me after facing adversity and knowing that truth and goodness backed me up. It is not a zealous fervor, rather it is a calm peace.
Working for peace, for me, requires being peace. After years of involvement I can now see themes and threads within the cloth of the movement. The patterns repeat and can prompt questions about the very notion of progress. I’m not sure that things ever really get better. Overall things just change. We can have some influence over the aspects of our lives where that change occurs, however. We, as a culture, can change the areas where we direct our focus. The places we focus our attentions are the areas where we put our practice and the areas where our visualization of goals can change outcomes.
I like the birth of movements and strategies. Small numbers of newly energized people more easily focus on large unifying goals, and differences have not had time to become entrenched. Ten years down the road that is less likely. The differences between the Democrats and the Greens, for example, in the ranks of the women’s peace movement are more evident as tactics that clearly frame different belief sets become the focus of disagreements within the larger group. There is a reason beyond simple financial considerations as to why 501c3, also known as “nonprofits,” steer clear of allegiance to particular political groups.
I love working for peace and pressing progress towards the area of peace. I dislike internal, fracticious divides as to who is more left or right. I dislike absolutes. I dislike oversimplification. I dislike the internal absolutes that divide people who should be working together for advancing overarching principles. Whether these divides are political or religious, we sometimes have to look beyond the differences to commonalities. Where can we work together? This is the question we should be asking ourselves.
I have no room for division. We can only advance toward common goals. You can call these goals progressive or conservative, but neither is accurate, we can only move toward preservation of our best aspirations as we move forward in time. The words of a woman who lived 150 years ago echo in my thoughts as I write this. I will listen for her voice in the messages that I hear this week I will align myself with the women who echo her message in calls for present and future action. That is all I can ever do.
 

Synchronicity and Hope for America Found in Arizona, Of All Places

Creekside Commentary

I love the concepts of synergy, synchronicity, and the untraceable, invisible spheres of influence that are so very present with every breath in life, and that pervade every molecule in the physical world. So when things align, and I observe patterns of behavior and occurence, I pay attention. There is unfortunately a huge problem distinguishing the line between pattern recognition via intuition, and delusions of reference. Oh well, C’est la vie. I invite you to click and listen to The Police while you read on.

Today is Fathers Day and my husband and my 23rd wedding anniversary. Synchronicity one.

The next area is the unusual and sad coupling of the silent march from Harlem to the Mayor’s home in NYC to end Stop and Frisk with the death of Rodney King, on the West Coast. This tragic event brings up memories I have of the horrific, thuggish police brutality in the near death beating of a black man in L.A., and the lack of ANY convictions of policemen in the case that in turn sparked the L.A. riots of ’91 is a strange co-occurence. Groups who both have been repressed, ghettoized, and lynched, and still experiences these outrages today,are banding together in a joint march that would have been unthinkable even last year. In spirit, I believe Rodney King and Matthew Shepard are walking with them arm in arm.

Political synchronicities seem to abound as of late.

I got really pumped up by attending a political event in support of Richard Carmona’s Senate campaign with the Hubby yesterday at which Rich obviously spoke, but at which Al Franken was the “Headliner.”

I realized at the event that I could feel the energy gathering to be released through a groundswell of Americans, of all sorts, banding together to restore opportunity for all Americans. The core principle of the American Dream was so real it was visceral. We are re-birthing the Dream sisters and brothers.

Rich Carmona, is the GOP’s worst nightmare: a true American Hero, holder of National level appointed post for a recent Republican President, decorated veteran (2 bronze stars), physician, deputy sheriff, SWAT Team leader who supports vets, women’s rights to access to complete autonomous access to healthcare, believes that what his mother told him about how women have never started a war and the real need for equitable reflection of percentages of women in the population to be seen in the government, and in the absolute need for access to education for all so as to allow pursuit of the American Dream. Carmona is such a strong candidate, a Democratic candidate, from Arizona, the proving ground for Republican general weaponry, as well as corporatist Weapons of Mass Cultural Destruction, that it almost makes me giddy. He is part of what looks to be the coalescing of several independent responses and reactions to Republican overreach and repression of rights. This synchronous coming together may well form the perfect storm of bipartisan groundswell to counter the systematic, anti-American, corporate-led dismantling of the American Dream.

This overlaps, for those of us in Tucson, with Ron Barber’s win to serve out the remainder of Gabrielle Giffords term in the U.S. House of Representatives. What may be even more important is that the extremist Right-wing candidate, Jesse Kelly, who has had full Republican backing in the last two House races for AZ District 8, announced he would not run again. In his concession speech on Tuesday night he said he would announce his intention to run again, or not, within a couple of days. I personally believe he wanted to run again, but that he had to check with the big money, national boys to see if they would pump the huge sums of money Kelly needed in order to even come close, and yet still lose, to his Democratic opponent in recent elections.

I think the big money boys said, “No.” Southeast Arizona should have campaigns that are fairly low key, and, of interest primarily to residents within the district. The Southeastern-most corner of Arizona, has always seemed to draw more national and big money attention from the RNC and the DNC than would be expected. This was true when the Rep was Jim Kolbe, when the Rep was Gabby Giffords, and now when the Rep is Ron Barber. I will have to write another piece to dig into the dirty dish that is that story.

Arizona has been pivotal as a symbol, a symbol that has been carefully constructed by the neo-con, tea-bagging, prison-and-guns-as-a-growth-industry, corporate backers. Our state has taken on iconic proportions. The people who have made Arizona the laughing stock of the nation are falling victim to one of the common pitfalls about which political strategists warn their clients; that is believing your own propaganda.

Our southern border, that happens to be a state and national border, has been “guarded” by Nazi-connected, child and family slayers. Much of the national press coverage depicted them as proud American patriots. Bull pucky. Our citizenry fell victim to cold blooded murder in an attempted assassination of a U.S. Member of Congress by a mentaToolslly off balance young man who read Mein Kampf and probably was influenced by the antipathy of outrage, lies, and vitriol that formed the center of an ideological war being waged in our backyards just like Sheriff Dupnik said. Sheriff Dupnik, synchronistically, has been Rich Carmona’s boss in his role as a deputy for over two decades.

Arizona isn’t what has been depicted in the media for so long. Our supposed State Leaders, who gather in Phoenix reflect political manipulation of legislative district lines, huge influxes of national and international corporate money in podunk elections, actual election rigging, far more than they do the Arizona people. The un-balance of power in our State House that lists toward ultra right wing king pins, uber-Christian zealots, and Mormons whose families were too conservative to live in Utah make up a disproportionate block there. This in no way reflects Arizona’s amazing diversity and eclectic richness. The oligarchy has ruled here for quite some time.

It allowed extremist Russell Pearce to preside over the Arizona Senate until he was recalled through bi-partisan efforts to oust the “Man behind Jan” and good friend of known neo-Nazi J. T. Ready. Ready was Republican candidate for Pinal County Sheriff and Minute Man Militia Member and also falls into the category of mass murderer who killed his family, including a toddler, before killing himself earlier this year.

I attended a debate between all the parties running for Congress in 2010 on the University of Arizona Campus. The person with whom I attended was holding a Giffords sign outside the venue after the event. Neo-nazi thugs who had been evident inside the venue as Jesse Kelly supporters came up to us with their German-esque lettering, Nazi slogan-infested black t-shirts and other skinhead regalia, and attempted to push over and intimidate my friend. When our ground was firmly stood, they spat on my friend’s shoes.

I have spoken out, for years about these disturbing connections between out of control, intimidation wielding, murder threatening thugs, and rogue cops within Tucson Police Department. This was even before the local and state level Republican Party has allowed the likes of Kelly and Ready to represent them. I still firmly believe the Tea Party funded by the Koch Bros tested their on the ground “astro turf” tactics right here in Tucson all the way down to the border. I am not the only person to notice these connections that seem to link neo-Nazis with government “leaders” in Arizona. Tucson housed retired mafioso, but Phoenix was where the dirty work was done.  Just like Vegas, the glitz and bling of  false, neo-con idolatry was probably planned near Tucson.

The equal and opposite reaction that cultural systems theorists would predict in reaction to the massive swing toward fascism this country took over the last several decades may well be building as I write. Being inside the systems in which these sorts of homeostatic properties operate, we cannot see or understand what is really happening. But just like in math and physics, we can observe patterns, that may or may not signify anything.

Carmona and Franken, seen here together on stage in Tucson on 6/16/2012becoming “new best friends” must mean something!

But really, a former Surgeon General who heads up SWAT teams and was awarded two bronze stars hanging out with a former Saturday Night Live comedian surely signifies that “the times, they are a changin’.”