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.

It was with sadness that I learned that Dr Tiller's clinic will not reopen. Since his assassination, women's organizations have urged the FBI and local law enforcement to assess the security needs of targeted abortion clinics and healthcare workers nationwide. The National Organization for Women has asked attorney general Eric Holder and head of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to treat these murders in the same way they would treat politically-motivated domestic terrorism of any other kind and put the full resources of their two departments behind that effort. Other organizations are providing aid to targeted clinics and have successfully requested and received federal protection for some severely targeted providers.

Dr. Tiller murder is a stark reminder that women still do not have control over their bodies and that health care professionals who tend to all aspects of women's health, including abortion and birth control are putting themselves in danger. It angers me that the increase in anti-abortion extremist activity is resulting in Dr. Tiller's clinic's not reopening. Without access to clinics, women have no choice.

Women must renew efforts to maintain safe and legal access to abortion and birth control. We must speak out against the term "pro-life" to describe anti-abortion groups. Murder is not pro-life. We must continue to promote reproductive rights legislation in Florida and nationally. We must let Dr. Tiller's murder be a call to action and not let intimidation by anti-abortion extremists continue.

Tags: dr. tiller, violence against women

Reproductive rights supporters are outraged at the news about the murder of Dr. George Tiller of Wichita KS.  Dr. Tiller was gunned down as he was entering the Reformation Lutheran Church to attend services. This courageous, kind man continued to help women even after being shot in 1993, receiving countless threats, and having his clinic vandalized earlier this month.

The doctor was shot for saving the lives of women. He was killed to "rescue" fetuses by someone who could not see the irony of his actions. His death represents a culture of violence often directed at women.

Sara-Mana NOW is grateful that the FBI and law enforcements agencies are treating this killing as a threat to the security of our society, of women and all who aid women.

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

The House of Representatives passed the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 (H.R. 1913) on April 29.  This bill provides much-needed protections and tools to combat-and help eliminate hate and bias crimes and helps protect women who are not currently protected under the justice system. Unfortunately, Representative Buchanan voted against this bill. Being anti hate is not a partisan position; it is one of humanity, kindness, common sense. Evidently our misogynistic representative possesses none of these characteristics.

Last week, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) introduced the Senate companion bill, S. 909, named for hate-crimes victim Matthew Shepard.  This bill is necessary to ensure that victims of gender-based hate crimes receive the protection they deserve. 

Hate crimes are serious problems.  For this reason I encourage Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) and Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) to support this legislation that will provide greater protections to women victims, who are not currently protected by federal hate crimes law.
 

Their support of this and  similar legislation in the future will send a clear signal that hate-driven violence carried out against any individual will not be tolerated in Florida or anywhere in the US.

Tags: hate crimes

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

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

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

This week, Floridian women received a double whammy.  First, the Medicaid Family Planning State Option was removed from the economic recovery. This option would have allowed Florida to use Medicaid funds to extend family planning services to more low-income women. Then Governor Crist vetoed a proposal by the Legislature to cut $574,728 from the state budget to ineffective crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) that do nothing to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and that often give inaccurate medical information and put women at risk.

Especially in these difficult financial times, women need affordable family planning services. If Florida had used the money to fund birth control instead of this CPCs, more than 100, 000 women could have received accurate and sound birth control.

For several years, Florida NOW has called for an immediate halt of state money to CPCs.  Not only do these so-called “clinics” have a history of misleading and intimidating women, they utilize taxpayer money that could be used to provide legitimate family planning services to women in need.

Tags: cpcs, family planning

Republicans removed The MEDICAID FAMILY PLANNING STATE OPTION from the economic recovery plan in the House of Representatives. This OPTION would have allowed states (at their option) to use Medicaid funds to extend family planning services to more low-income women, something that currently requires a time-consuming waiver process. States choosing this waiver could significantly expand access to contraception.

The Medicaid Family Planning Option in the House recovery plan is especially important to expand access to contraception in a time of economic recession when an unemployed woman has to choose between spending that $50 on the light bill, groceries, or a pack of pills. Guess which goes first?

According to government studies, every $1 spent on family planning saves $4 in prenatal care and childbirth expenses for unintended pregnancies. It's the only kind of Medicaid spending that actually saves money.

 What is harder to figure out is why President Obama (who just last week lifted the global gag rule and made a strong pro-Roe statement on January 22), acquiesced  on this issue.

President Obama needs to hear that women are angry that something so integral to women's health care has been given the old heave-ho, without so much as a whimper of a fight. And Congress needs to hear that we want them to pass the Medicaid Family Planning Option immediately and fund it appropriately.

For more information about the MEDICAID FAMILY PLANNING STATE OPTION visit the March of Dimes link below and then contact both the president and Congress.

Tags: family planning