Where I'm at: March 2021

 

Recently I read an article in the digital version of Ms. Magazine that made me realize something that I had unconsciously been doing for some time now.

With the exception of the wonderful man I’m lucky enough to call “Dad,” I have been systematically “divesting myself of the patriarchy”

The tea I drink every morning (and every other chance I get) comes from a woman owned shop in the Crestview Shops.

My financial advisor (yes, I have one) is a woman.

The people that I’m about to drop of my taxes to coomplete?  Woman owned company.

The new wine I just tried last night?  The ubiquitous Barefoot Wine is one of the few wineries with a woman as head winemaker.

That is just a few things.  This is an ever evolving list that I’m still working on.  Any ideas?

Support women.  Empower girls.  Change the world

Celebrate Women's History Month and International  Woman's Day on March 8th by supporting a woman owned / operated establishment.

Be healthy

J

The Women are coming

 With things a little crazy at my day job and the whole world seemingly insane I must report the creative well is a bit dry right now....so for this installment I am simply sharing a video that I found on Face Book.  Copy, paste and be inspired.

"The women are coming...."

https://www.facebook.com/1028499696/videos/10220672046444251/

My only further comment:  why is my country so far behind?????

Trust Women

 The Catholic school just down the street from me puts up this display every election cycle.  I pulled over just long enough to get this picture.  It is meant to be a memorial.  The sign reads that all of those white crosses represent the unborn fetuses lost to abortion. 

I am not questioning anybody’s deeply held beliefs. 

Let me say that again:  I am NOT questioning or condemning anyone’s belief systems.

But every time I go past this I feel compelled to point out to whoever might be listening that all of those white crosses could also represent a woman who died in childbirth after carrying a high risk pregnancy. 

Every one of those crosses could represent a single mom stuck in poverty and needing public assistance for years to come.

Every one of those crosses could represent a woman now tied indefinitely in some way or another to the abusive jerk she had been trying to get away from.    

And, yes, one of those crosses just may represent a woman who died or injured herself permanently trying to do a home abortion.

I am not questioning anybody’s faith or beliefs.  I am just pointing out that the abortion debate is a lot more complicated than our political leaders make it out to be.

The decade long study of a thousand women seeking abortion care outlined in Diana Greene Foster’s book The Turnaway Study fleshes out some of those nuances and dispels many of the “abortion myths” that are prevalent in our society still.

The end conclusion, though, was one I had intuited myself many years ago:  When a woman says she just can’t cope with a pregnancy right then – Believer her.

Protect Roe.

Trust women.

100 Years

 

“Remember the ladies.”  Abigail Adams famously wrote to her husband.

Well.  Gonna burst some bubbles here, but the men-folk that were working hard writing a new constitution when she wrote that had no intention of “remembering the ladies.”

And so the work began.

With more defeats then victories is seems like, the 19^th Amendment extending the voting power to women was not passed until June 4, 1919.  Then there was more hard work with seemingly more setbacks then victories to get it fully ratified. 

That did not happen until August 18, 1920.

That was (nearly) a hundred years ago.  That is 1,200 months.  Not factoring in leap years, that is 36,500 days.

To put things more in perspective, the women that started the suffrage movement did not live to see the conclusion.  Those that did live to see the conclusion had not been born yet when it started.  “We were not ‘given’ anything” any of them would likely snap.  “We went out and TOOK it.”

 

36,500 days.  1,200 months.  One hundred years later and we’re still not getting paid fairly.  We’re still fighting to have autonomy over our own bodies.  Women of all color and creeds are still facing harassment, domestic abuse and poverty with little resources.  Even more disgustingly, we’re Still getting blamed in some way when we’re attacked.

One hundred years…and the battle still rages.  It is no wonder that some are exhausted and at the end of their energy.  Which is why, for today at least, I am taking some time to quietly reflect on these stock photos.  These women, many never named, are not just why I can vote.  I can now also own property.  I can sign contracts and open my own bank accounts without a male co-signer.  For all their flawed and cringe worthy racist views, they are why I, a century later, can live the life that I have.

go raibh maith agat, ladies.

 

Thank you.

 

The battle will resume tomorrow.