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Today, I am 59 yeas old. As I take measure of what I have done with my life I am surprised by the accomplishments and the realization of all that I still want to do. My life is stratified, each layer based on those before it and like the layers of a parfait each strata adding to the blend. The formative years, the experimental years, the back -to-nature years, the familial years, the activist years form the current "parfait" of my life. I wonder what the new layers will be and what will be the cherry, the topping of this life's creation. There is so much more that I want to do with my life. I am torn between continuing in the current direction and embarking on a new adventure, leaving the strata of activism and entering one filled with travel and the enjoyment of my mate while we still have the health and capabilities to do so, thus completing life-long desires to bicycle cross country, the continental divide and Europe. To do the later, I need to slowly extricate my self from the current personally rewarding responsibilities and commitments and start training and planning for the future. Of course, this means leaving the securities and friendships of my current life for the unknown. I have never been afraid of the unknown and my life's accomplishments are testimonial to that. But at 59 I am comfortable with my current lifestyle and I do not feel sufficiently independent financially to leave work and the medical insurance associated with it to set forth on new adventures, or so has been my thinking until today. This afternoon I was speaking with my daughter and her friend and telling them that they can do whatever they want…if they truly want something, they can find a way to do so. So if they can do it in their twenties, what is stopping me from accomplishing my dreams? Not age, but desire. I therefore have to question my motivation. If this is something I really want to do? If yes, then I can make it happen. I may have to make adjustment and compromises might have to fine alternate solutions, but I am confident that I can find a way…and perhaps ease from the current life into the next, not with a demarcation but with a melding of the current and the future. Now, to search for the solutions.
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Women make up more than 50% of the US population and currently earn 48.5% of all the law degrees in the U.S. Yet, women only make up 32% of American attorneys, 27% of federal circuit court of appeals judges and 25% of federal district court judges. Sadly, women are only 11% of the U.S. Supreme Court and no woman has ever served as Chief Justice of the United States. Many women's organizations are urging President Obama to nominate a woman. Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women states, "A woman of color would go even further toward broadening the court's narrow makeup. Obama has the ability to make history yet again, and I am confident that it won't be that hard to do with the number of highly qualified women ready to serve." O'Mahony stated "the best-qualified person, male or female, deserves to be the nominee." On what criteria are we to deem the "best candidate"? Based on the law of averages, over time one would expect highly qualified women to be appointed as judges in proportion to the population. This disparity is strikingly apparent in the Supreme Court: 89% of the justices are male. The message is that women and the female perspective don't matter. This has to change. The courts need the women's perspectives. We need justices who reject traditional stereotypical descriptions of women and norms for women's behavior. We need justices who "get it." Tags: gender gap, sotomayor
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President Obama’s health insurance option is essential for all 86.7 million uninsured Americans (one in three American under 65). Obviously it is also important for those whose jobs are in peril during these difficult economic times. Not so obvious is the benefit this option could have on those who are insured and on the economy. According to recent studies, the Obama option would provide high-quality insurance, with a choice of doctors, and save 30% of the cost of private insurances. My private insurance only allows me to see only doctors who are members of the plan, only allows payment for “approved” procedures, and cost me out-of-pocket and annual deductibles as well as premium payments shared by me and my employer. If all insured Americans could save 30% of their insurance cost, that money could be spent to help boost the economy. Additionally, passing this option would force for-profit insurance companies to make their plans a better value, especially if they have to compete with a universal health plan or other health insurance options. Those with private insurance would be given the freedom to work with the doctor of their choice and to receive the care the doctor deems best, not the care that the insurance will pay for. I encourage congress to resist pressure from private insurance company lobbyists and to write an insurance option that will benefit all Americans, those insured and uninsured. Tags: health plan, private insurance, uninsured
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There was a recent play reading of Angelina by Sarasota’s Banyan Theater, about Angelina Grimke, one of the two famed Grimke sisters. The reading began with a poem by the above title. A friend of mineI tried finding that poem through Google on the Internet and could not do so, so she asked Susan Jones Mannino, the playwright and actress in the play, if she could send it to her. The odd spacing is how she received it. Exceptional even deviant you draw your long skirts across the nineteenth century Your mind burns long after death not like the harbor beacon but like a pyre of driftwood on the beach You are spared illiteracy death by pneumonia teeth which leave the gums the seamstress’ clouded eyes the mill-girl’s shortening breath by a collection of circumstances soon to be known as class privilege The laws say you can possess nothing in a world where property is everything You belong first to your father then to him who chooses you if you fail to marry you are without recourse unable to earn a workingman’s salary forbidden to vote forbidden to speak in public if married you are legally dead the law says you may not bequeath property save to your children or male kin that your husband has the right of the slaveholder to hunt down and re-possess you should you escape You may inherit slaves but have no power to free them your skin is fair you have been taught that light came to the Dark Continent with white power that the Indians live in filth and occult animal rights Your mother wore corsets to choke her spirit which if you refuse you are jeered for refusing you have heard many sermons and have carried your own interpretations locked in your heart You are a woman strong in health through a collection of circumstances soon to be known as class privilege which if you break the social compact you lose outright When you open your mouth in public human excrement is flung at you you are exceptional in personal circumstance in indignation you give up believing in protection in Scripture in man-made laws respectable as you look you are an outlaw Your mind burns not like the harbor beacon but like a fire of fiercer origin you begin speaking out and a great gust of freedom rushes in with your words yet still you speak in the shattered language of a partial vision You draw your long skirts deviant across the nineteenth century registering injustice failing to make it whole How can I fail to love your clarity and fury how can I give you all your due take courage from your courage honor your exact legacy as it is recognizing as well that it is not enough? 1980 Tags: angelina grimke, feminism, women's history. 19th century
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As printed in the Sarasota Herald Tribune Letters to the Editor, Mar 16, 2009
Women are fortunate in the US to have a plethora of feminist activist organizations such as National Organization for Women (NOW), the Feminist Majority and etc. who work endlessly to improve women's lives. But what do these advocacy groups really do "behind-the-scenes? To illustrate, let's examine their involvement in the economic recovery package to ensure that women are positively impacted and that they play an integral role in the revitalization of our economy and our country. NOW and the Feminist Majority invited feminist organization to work together to put forward very specific measures for inclusion in the recovery plan. Amazingly, the recovery team listened to these suggestions and included in the plan money for community health centers, to prevent teacher lay-offs, to train medical personnel. Even unemployment insurance modernization made it into the stimulus package, which means women who previously weren't eligible for unemployment insurance are now eligible. NOW met with members of congress to ask to "Please make sure, while we're rebuilding our physical infrastructure with shovel-ready jobs, that we are also rebuilding our human infrastructure -- with teachers, nurses, social workers, and the like -- because that infrastructure is fragile too." These women activists worked countless hours to make a difference to all the women who are unemployed, and all those who are suffering. If they had not labored tediously in this effort, the outcome of the Economic Recovery Bill would not have been the same for women. Please support feminist organizations that do so much for women. Tags: economic recovery, economy, feminist majority, feminist organizations, now, women
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