Love with a Passion...

I think my last post had a negative tone, almost scolding... I realized that a few days ago.  I've been going through more than just my painful physical deficits, my rescue cat, a sweet old girl passed away... my eleven year old dog is all of a sudden been afflicted with excruciating hip pain, stomach issues, and skin wounds due to his licking his hips and legs thinking that will help.  I haven't slept a full night in at least two weeks and have an energy crisis.  I'm immersed in fear at loss... I've lost so many I've loved, to death, to ego, to I don't know what.  I found that I was reaching and grabbing not only to hard, but squeezing and with a negative tone and energy that isn't conducive to dialog, open or otherwise.
I want to apologize for my tone and my bad energy, believe me when I say that it wasn't out of anything but the desperation to be connected to someone and to have love in all it's forms in my life.  I live a life alone, which would be alright if I had friends(close by).  I live a life without kindness, or contact.  I live a life of utter solitude, if it weren't for my animals I would have no contact of any kind.  Losing Ingrid and now my Zion my sweet dog, one I've had for eleven years, since he was a baby is in constant pain...something I'd hoped we'd never share.  So, I suppose I put it onto you to fill that void... and not kindly.  I am sorry for my tone, and  my content.
However, I love with  a passion and am passionately trying to empassion others.  I listen to NPR and hear things like Senators saying things like, "I am going to make abortion illegal even in the event of rape, because God chose to have that child born."  How could anyone not have a gut, repellant reaction to something so horrifiying as that?  How could we not have some kind of dialog about the abhorant nature of the act of rape and to force a woman to carry and birth a product of something so unthinkable.  As a woman, I have been barraged with such enormous force during this election as to what our "true" place is in this country as it pertains to government and big business.  Women have not evolved in our society.  Even those of you who have been asleep and bought what you've been fed can no longer possibly deny the vast gorge between women's rights and men's.  The broad sweeping statements like, "...so that women can safely miss work to care for a sick child...." should shock and offend men and women alike.  What about the stay at home fathers or the single fathers or just plain ole' fathers?  As a single mother, I never missed a day of work, and because of being a single mother...a woman I wasn't paid as much as my male counterparts. How do I know?  I did the payroll amongst the various other responsibilities I was plied with that my male co-workers, who earned more than I, were not.  But, as I was saying, not only did I not miss work, I had to work two jobs and never was able to even use my vacation time. 
So, listening to where we really stand today, my hope is that there is a mass awakening in women....young, old, and in between, as well as men, all men...because you love the women in your life and can't imagine your daughter being violated, then either having to face a tribunal to determine whether or not she is allowed to have a "termination" or not even given a choice and at 15 or even 25, and forceably and legally made to carry to term and give birth to a child born of rape.  Rape, not being a physical and sexual assault....but a violation so horrific that it forever changes you.  It's as if a piece of your soul, your innermost, precious, sacred place has been stolen from.  It extinquishes a light and makes you feel as an asexual being, in fact worse, it makes you fear or even hate one of your most precious and sacred piece of yourself.  Your vagina, your womb, your lotus, the divine...the place of life, the place of the sacred feminine.  As a woman your vagina, your uterus, the womb means so many things and those are as unique and deeply personal as you and your mind; thoughts and feelings.  Yes, many of us heal and call ourselves survivors, and we are, we are no longer  the victim, but that sacredness that feeling of security and sanctity has been permanently damaged and can never be truly whole again.  Why do you think Bosnian women were subjected to rape camps and not just murdered as the men?  It's because of what I just described, death is death, but true torture and the breaking of the incredibly rock hard resilience of a woman's soul is accomplished only through rape or the murder/killing of the child born of choice of a woman.  With reprocussions of that nature to women, to demean the experience by defining it in the aforementioned legalese is just as grotesque as the process these politicians propose if they allow it at all.            
Now you see a portion of my passion and my desperation for connection, for dialog, and for community.  Please pardon the use of this ridiculous label, the world is starting to come to rest on the shoulders of our generation...Generation X.  If we don't start using all this technology for good purpose, dialog, community, connection, and a catalyst for change, peril is a charitable word for our future.
So again, I humbly ask you to subscribe, to connect, and to make this a revolutionary blog, a blog of humanity and discourse.  A place where we can unprogram phrases like, "different race"...and to put faces to ethnicities, minorities, and disabilities.  A place where we can talk real talk and brainstorm solutions that can realistically be implemented to show that programs, legislation, and more are workable and can be pushed into government with the force of a generation.
Please, help me change this country, our country, it's a mess and on a downward spiral...if you've agreed with nothing else I've written....I think we can all agree on that! 
I love you all, friend...stranger...accquaintance... you are all my brothers and sisters, because we bleed the same and we are hemmoraging.  Let's not put a Band-Aid on a bullet wound as been the case for so long, lets create a bond that nothing can tear, together.

Reaching Out to The Faceless Masses...

I find it amazing that this beautiful sky finds it's way over all of us... the wind in the trees, the leaves turning and falling, the cycles of everything, as people; birth, bonding, assertion, groping, growing, stumbling, falling, learning, becoming more in tune with your world as age comes upon you, aging, growing old, and death.  As the cyclical world, the organic and the real, not the technological inorganic unfeeling world; birth, bonding, growth, instinct, growing, family/reproduction, aging, wisdom, grace, and death.

I look at our natural world, animals, plants, flowers, trees, sunsets, mountains, stars... and the unseen, the wind, the way the light changes subtly as fall comes, and see and feel the graceful cyclical peace.  The unbroken chain of interdependence of each and every thing and I feel the squeezing in my chest at the clear and untarnished purity and unspoken intertwining of all, and grasp for the affinity of our natural world in my own world of ignorance, hatred, bigotry, lies, selfishness, carelessness, and oh, so much more.

We have technology, and we abuse it.  It's used for hateful "comments", "tirades of hate", and all of the execution of cowards safely tucked away behind their computers.  Instead of incorporating this into our world in a natural and cyclical way by using it to communicate in a way that would inspire change and inform those who are uninformed, we continue to remain silent.  If we don't remain silent, we speak only of ourselves and indulge our egos in a gross and one sided manner.  Very few blogs invite dialog, a "Here, here"... or a "You are so right!" comment (moderated for only those that will stroke that monologue ego) are the majority.

It makes me sad looking at this beautiful sunset and thinking how many of us missed it.  It makes me sad that with an election coming up with so many enormous issues on the board, there is no articulate dialog.  Most of all I am sad that when I started this blog, I thought, "This can be our coffee house, our place to speak"...yet it remains silent.  I had really hoped that with all of the enlightened and intelligent people this has been sent to, not one person has had an issue to bring to the table or a discussion/topic to raise.  It makes me think I should just go back to Facebook and put up "Happy face, hiding behind the mask" status updates... at least people had input there.

I am truly hoping that if I keep writing and keep asking someone will step up and be brave enough to say what they are really thinking.... The sun will continue to rise and set and the natural world will continue to fluidly coincide, unfortunately I can't say the same for us.  We are on a fast track to the destruction of all that we hold sacred.  We have already lost our Constitution, how much more are we willing to lose before we start talking about a solution, because dear ones, the solution lies within us.  We are the ones that are to take up the torch and we aren't doing much in that direction.

In love and hope....

I am Strong... I am Invincible...

Ladies... I'm still waiting for you to join in, men... I'm waiting for you to share your experiences and ask the questions you feel you can't ask without looking like a "sissy".

We are all capable of reaching understanding, but we've got to dialog... Let's work together!

Come on Ladies and Gentlemen(the feminist movement isn't just for women) Let's get a dialog going!!

Okay... Let me get you started with some more recent literature, something that you can not only relate to, but also put into a practical context.

   ManifestA: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future
Written by: Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards

   Grassroots: A Field Guide for Feminist Activism
Written by:  Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards

   http://bitchmagazine.org/blogs  

Yes I know... it uses the "B" word, however, in a non-vulgar way.  A "feminist response to pop culture"* and a reclamation of that invective word used to belittle women as no more than dogs.  But, if you sign up for an online account(doesn't cost money), you are in for a wealth of reading suggestions of contemporary literature that is relevant to both sexes, news, information, as well as a nudge in the direction of topics to help you delve into a dialog.

This blog isn't my blog, it's our blog... you don't like my challenge topic, bring me another.  It's all about communication, community, action, and a free and frank exchange of information.  This, I hope is a door that I've thrown wide open for intelligent discussion of the aforementioned.  I can write all day about myself and my opinions, but I don't want to do that... I want us to do that.  I want to hear your stories and struggles, I want to know what you know(as I am always evolving and ever open to new information), I want to help answer questions.  Help, I say that because I am hoping for a community to grow here that is a safe-haven for those with questions and those with answers.  

I'd love for someone to give me a challenge or share their opinions... keep in mind, this is a safe space, opinions are an invitation to loving, informed response.  Attacks are unwelcome, and anyone who willfully attacks someone will find themselves booted out the open door, which will remain open to everyone aside from them.  So, do not be afraid to speak as long as we all remember the old adage, "Treat people the way you want to be treated" and all will be copacetic.

I apologize for the Public Service Announcement, unfortunately with the birth of technology came the birth of unmerited ugliness.  In my "Feminist 101" post I hit on that very topic... when I was growing up we didn't have computers or cellphones, even when I was in college.  When you spoke, you spoke to someone face to face, thus thinking before speaking so you didn't find yourself on the floor.  Technology has brought us good, yet it has been detrimental in the social sphere.  As one can say the most deplorable things hidden safely behind there computer screens in cyberspace.  So, for that... I felt I must make my "Public Service Announcement".

With that out of the way... let's go!!!  Bring it on with the dialog!
We Can Do It!!!!

                       

*The name of the print and web publication is "bitch feminist response to pop culture" 

A Challenge from Me to You...

We can make the world shake... try it, and comment.  Let's have a real dialog.

Feminism in a Text Message Culture

Sitting in a cafe drinking a cup of dark roast with a fresh oxblood Moleskine notebook, I am a journal junkie, and a retractable pencil.  Creation for me, is an extension of myself, it's  personal, I must bleed on to the page and once I achieve that emotive place only then can I place it in the impersonal computer for the function of edit, grammar, and fact checking.  I delve into the depths of Feminism in today's culture.  Immediately I am distracted, what I thought had gone by the wayside... the spoken of, but rarely seen, phenomena of two young women, sitting together.  Tables peppered through the coffee shop,  topped with double non-fat soy mocha lattes manicured finger nails, and boutique clothes.  Bringing to mind an episode of “Sex and the City”, a bit cliché, yet hopeful for this cynical thirty eight year old woman.  A cockeyed picture of my youth... manicures, boutique couture, and $5.oo coffees replaced jump boots, purple patent vinyl pants with matching hair, 75 cent dark roast, cigarettes, and not a stick of deodorant between us.  Although, I notice rather than chatter and impassioned raised voices, I hear clicking, tapping, tweeting, beeping, and giggling.  But not a word spoken between these young women.  As their lattes became cold and curdled, they were enraptured in their phones.  Sitting across from one another texting on their Blackberrys, iPhones, Androids, etc. to anonymous parties, young men undoubtedly from the blushing, giggling, and squealing on the other end of their endless clicking, tapping, tweeting, and beeping apparati. 

Us at that age, were  unwashed, hyper-involved, hopelessly dressed, and poor.  Gathered at grungy couched, smoke filled, independently owned coffee shops(before the behemoths ate most of the local failed musician turned coffee house proprietor)to argue over politics, to organize a protest to protest a protest and the like.  Them, the clean, sanitized, mindless technological automatons, safely texting their “best friend” to inform her that;  "she acted like drunken dirty slut, who had embarrassed her at the “cute guy's”.  Oh, and by the way, do everyone a favor and get a fucking wax if she's going to show it all over someone's apartment".  That tirade and infraction will be forgiven by ten o'clock that night because nobody cared, not even the young woman being text messaged such hateful and abusive language, from a "sister", a person called "friend".

Thus the fundamental “element” of our culture of today, NO ONE TALKS!  No one writes, no one reads books-the paper kind, and most importantly no one relates, no one bonds.  Women sit across from each other as props, (god forbid you go someplace alone) not as a catalyst for political change with the free and frank exchanges of views spoken with other like minded women, hell, even unlike minded women.  Communication of this age, this culture, has been reduced to: wt r u doing later:-), @ Stbuks w KT <3, Hook up @ 6;-)... and on and on.

I have a twenty year old son who hasn't spoken to me on the phone, freely,  since he got one.  You can call him thirteen times in a row and no answer, text him and you get and instantaneous reply in some kind of mutant short hand that takes Cherokee code breakers to decipher.  This immanently brought me to my opinion of the reason for the state of disconnect with feminism and the younger generation. 

These young women, teenagers, and girls all with cell phones and computers have no essential relation to not only the world around them, but to the other women around them.  There is nothing elemental in this Text Message Culture.  The elemental I refer to, is the experience of natural human relation, the free flowing deeply primal essence of physically and emotionally bonding with other people.  Missing this essential and vital piece of emotive social growth is creating a society of young people without the desire to make a change, endeavor to relate, and a obvious detachment to humanity.

That being said, this technological progress has also managed to course into the vein of society as a whole.  All age groups are being infected with this “technology torpor”.  To my shock and dismay, I have found my mother has been “communicating” with friends via email for at least three years now.  She told me that that ninety percent of the women she fought side by side with in the early years have succumbed to the apathetic allure of email over emoting.  I was flabbergasted, my mother has always been my hero.  My mother was, is, and always will be a feminist activist.  As a second wave feminist, my mother was involved in the lawsuits that became the “Pregnancy Discrimination Act” of 1978, I happened to be involved(I claim feminism via in utero).  A call to arms in forming the Michigan Teachers Union, in which my grandfather a chief Union steward for the UAW supported and cajoled the UAW to become involved in it's development.  People calling our home with death threats against my mother.  I remember being small walking or should I say riding(stroller) picket lines with signs.  My mother fought, and it all started with groups of women talking and relating to their feelings of being left behind, demoralized by objectification in the workplace, and so much more.  So imagine my surprise when my mother compliantly went into the good night without so much as a picket or a poster, but what choice did she have when all of her friends were lost in cyberspace.

If this is happening to our predecessors, imagine how lost the majority of us are.  I was raised the way of the warrior spirit, taught the value of community, and thus fought the computer, at home, until 2007.  I have a television set connected to a receiver that is accessorized with a DVD player, a VCR, a dual cassette player, and a record player, however not a cable box or satellite dish to be found.  Growing up, it was reading, playing games, playing music, listening to music, create, write, daydream... and daydream big, but most of all DO!!  Most of the people I know think I'm stuck in the land before time, I prefer to think of it as the land of real time.  Not fast forward, instant gratification, take life for granted time.  Which brings us to the Fundamentals of Our Survival in a Text Message Culture.

Women were once the most revered and powerful entities on the planet.  We were worshiped as Venus', the goddess of fertility.  Our ability to create life and our ability to come together as a communal tribal counsel and “run” villages, create marketable goods that bartered with other tribes to keep everything stocked and orderly.  We were not only goddesses, but counsel and community.  We, as women, also revered one another as sacred sisters.  We raised each others children, taught each each other weaving, pottery, and other skills and passed them down to our younger generations.  The advent of organized religion were scared of the power women had over “government” and the reverence that was had for our abilities to not just create life , but to see the grays in a world that men saw only as black and white.  Hunt, fuck, and fight, then off into the good night for months at a time. 

Something had to be done to render us powerless and harmless to men in government.  They could not wage wars when we didn't meet with the minds of men.  Thus, organized religion put us in our place.  We were to cover our faces, look down when walking, not talk to men, unless of course our husband permitted it, as we were now property that was to submit not without question, the end of our counsels and community.  We began the downward spiral into “evil” and “dirty” creatures.  Cast off to exile during menstruation because what was the essence of creation became the “vile sin” we were to suffer for our role as temptress leading man into temptation.  When women dared to gather together, for in our core we were from the beginning meant to commune, and would inevitably succumb to our elemental desire to experience the kindred spirit only another woman can offer, we were covens.  Witches, that were unholy and casting spells upon people creating illness and strife.  To end with torture and death by burning.  Or branded as whores and made to live the life of a scarlet woman.
During those primitive times, the violence was a show for all to see.  Today it is hidden by the media, dumbed down by government language, sanitized for mass consumption and fed to us like baby food through our computers, iPhones, and television sets.

However, the only reason WE as women can own iPhones of our own, computers, televisions, and apartments to live in complacency, is our predecessors.  The 1st wave feminists and a big war started the ongoing fight for our true and solid places as heads of government and community leaders and the idea that one day the ignorance and fear that branded us as “less than” will wash away with the return of the hurricane of free and frank exchanges of ideas in government and at coffee shops. 

Link to A Wealth of Feminist History...

http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm

At the top left of the page it gives you topics, select Feminists.  There is a plethora of articles about Suffragettes and Feminists.  It is worth your time to read these articles...it's a wealth of invaluable information.  Remember, we learn from our history, if we don't know our history we don't know our direction.