Women's Issues

[MaryPage]

Women's Issues If Art imitates Life, what does Literature show about the place of women in our society? From the Red Tent to the new movie Anna Karenina,  to Malala Yousafzai in the news, has the state of women changed? What IS the state of women today, in your opinion? Let's talk about how women are portrayed in the press, and in literature, and how accurate it is.   How does advertising reflect, if it does, how women are portrayed?  (Remember heels and pearls to sell refrigerators?) How does it seem to you that women are portrayed today? Let's talk! National Women's History Project

Wonderful article about Planned Parenthood in the August 5th issue of THE NEW YORKER.  It starts on page 24 and is titled Letter From Austin DAUGHTERS OF TEXAS, the fight for abortion and is by Jeffrey Toobin.  Really, really good.  Wish I had pots of money!  I would give ten million each to Texas PP, Virginia PP and North Carolina PP so they could build new clinics.

[Steph]

The silliness of the local medical societies and the local hospital boards is astounding.They know darned good and well that doctors who perform abortions are good doctors , but they are terrified to give them admitting privileges.. Stupid stupid politics.

[BarbStAubrey]

Part of that is not the doctors but who owns the hospital - the most innocuous often have financial support among their private stockholders with strong anti-abortion sentiment. Here most most of the hospitals in Austin and the nearby towns are owned by Seton, the Sisters of Charity - even our so called city hospital was sold to Seton some years ago - those facilities not owned by Seton are owned by St. David's which is Episcopal - not as severe but still not public. I think there is only one hospital in South Austin that is not owned by either group but I do not know the backers because it is not a place where abortions take place. 

[Steph]

Yes, in central Florida now two corporations own all of the hospitals.. One is 7th Day Adventist.. and other I believe is non profit secular, but that is the one that pays their highest people at a rate that large corporations envy. Stupid for any non profit, but thats what they love.

[MaryPage]

Everything is all lined up and going great for the new national health program here in Maryland.  The State has lined up all the various health groups and the exchange shows all the premium costs and the SAVINGS for every group are just huge.  It is all working out here in Maryland just as the bill promised.
The great pity is that those states who are being balky and refusing to organize for it are only hurting the citizens of those states badly in their pocketbooks and in the scope of their coverage.  Such a shameful thing that a few hate filled politicians can cause so much pain to so many.
I left a forum in Seniors & Friends recently because a guy in there posted an anti-Obama joke that was so disgusting and so racist and so disrespecting of our president that it took my breath away.  No matter WHO is in the White House, that person IS the president of MY country, and I will not disrespect him or (Oh, I hope!) her!
http://marylandhbe.com/

[mabel1015j]

Glad to hear how well things are going in Maryland, sounds promising, thanks for some optimism ......... And then there is the sad fact of the racism and obstruction of Obama's administration. I think Donald Trump's birther campaign is the most obnoxious of indidviduals' response. He knows better and he does it only to be self-serving, keeping him in the news, a total egotist who is destructive to his country.

Here in NJ we are having a special primary election to fill Sen Lautenberg's seat. For some reason our "financially conservative Gov Christie" thought there was a need to have a "special election" two months before the regular election, costing us millions of unnecessarially spent dollars. The most pleasant thing about this primary election is that there are four very good Democrats running. I feel i would "win" w/ any one of them. Altho, Congressman Rush Holt, the guy who beat the computer on Jeopardy, is the most progressive of them all and gets my vote.

[MaryPage]

Christie, a Republican,  spent twelve million dollars of the taxpayer's money to hold the special election only 3 weeks prior to the regular election because HIS NAME is on the ballot in November and he does not want his vote diminished by the voters who turn out for the very popular Cory Booker, a Democrat, who is running for that Senate vacancy.

[Steph]

Sigh. Florida is not participating. The idiot that got elected governor has no intention of doing that. Even the legislature triedto at least join in, but he vetoed it..What a mess for the younger citizens.

[kidsal]

Was listening to Rachel Maddow tonight.  In North Carolina they are changing the election rules at the local level.  In one voting area they have combined three voting areas into one for a voting population of 9600 folks.  Wonder how long it will take to vote?  Have 35 parking spaces at the poll.  Guess who comprises the voting population??

[MaryPage]

I saw and heard that, too.  Surely the Justice Department will be all over it.  And the N.A.A.C.P. as well and all.
Still, the BLATANTCY of it simply staggers my mind.  How in the world, especially in this day of instant know-all & see-all, the plotting Republican strategists maintain even so much as an instant of believing they can actually manipulate the election laws to eliminate thousands of citizens from exercising their franchise is beyond my ability to absorb and contemplate.  Once upon the day, they could have gotten away with these demonic plots;  but in 2013?  No way. 
But just imagine the mind set of these human beings who even WANT to do these things!

[Steph]

Since I am in North Carolin for the summer, have been paying attention to the legislature. The entire government turned republica in the last election and they seem to be playing payback n a huge irresponsible way. It made me really understand that I will not live here all year long. The changes in voting rules, taxing, etc is amazing. They also are punishing Asheville since it is the one larger city in North Carolina that is democratic.. They have also changed the abortion laws to correspond with Texas.. Just more quietly

[MaryPage]

The big question is this:  are the newspapers and radio and television news reporting telling the citizens of North Carolina the full story of what is going on?
I know how prejudiced and old school set in their ways many North Carolinians are.  They were raised that way.
But they are also, for the most part, good people.  The heart and soul of what America is.  And they believe in fair play and decent treatment of other folks.
So if they Know what is being done, I flat out have to believe they won't stand for it.

[MaryPage]

The Washington Post has a smallish story about this in this morning's paper.  And one thing above all the other outrageous stuff blows my mind:  all polls are to close immediately at the posted closing time.  If voters are still waiting in line, too bad.  They cannot vote!
I have been an election judge many many times here in Maryland, and I know the Virginia habits as well.
It has always been that the last person in line at closing time is given a card, and no one else can join the line behind that person.  But everyone there prior to closing gets to vote, if the workers have to stay there half the night!
If you show up on time to vote in this country, you get to vote.
BUT NORTH CAROLINA WANTS TO CHANGE THAT!

[mabel1015j]

I also saw yesterday that the Gov of NC signed a piece of legislation for education "reform". One of the reforms is to remove the additional $5000 teachers are paid who earn a master's degree! Heck, why should educators not be highly educated!?! Nice lesson to public school students. I think the aliens have definitely tainted the water in NC.

I have a dear friend who grew up in NC through the fifties and sixties and as we talk about civil rights history she exclaims "I never heard about that!" The major newspapers and tv stations did not report on any sit-ins or boycotts, or protests, or marches, some if which were IN NC.

Jean

[MaryPage]

Both of my teacher daughters have masters degrees, and they obtained them at their own expense of time and cash.  I would be furious if it were their states (Maryland and Missouri) that did that.  My teacher granddaughter has a Ph.D.
It all just seems so surreal.  I was a Republican all of my life until 1980 when abortion was put in the platform.  The friends and acquaintances I worked with in the party all those many years told me not to take it seriously, that it was just put in there to placate the emerging Religious Right and that Reagan himself was Pro-Choice.  But I bolted;  it was a bridge too far for me.  And I was right to do so.  It has all been downhill from there, and I keep pinching myself over the extent to which that once great party, the Party of Lincoln, for crying out loud, has followed a downward spiral into excess and insanity.

[BarbStAubrey]

yes, several of us bolted with Reagan the actor as a puppet president - we are often caught because the Dems are often about Big City issues and an attitude of big brother taking care of all the needs of society where as we still have the attitude of Compassion emanating from local, mostly church groups that are becoming less the center of a community as compared to before Reagan. I sure wish global warming had not been made into a political issue.

[MaryPage]

Apparently the anti global warming comes from the same pulpits that say we have only been here for six thousand years and we walked the earth with the dinosaurs and god sends all the storms and tornadoes and lightening strikes and those who die were meant to and god has personally reached out and saved those who escape death and so on and on.  Religion guarantees, if we show up and tithe properly, we can all relax into the certainty that the big daddy god "up there" has a plan for us and "his" plan will unfold no matter what we do, so we'd better just worship him (no room for the question of she) and get on with our grownup lives and listen to god's voice and wishes and commands through his anointed here on Earth.  And women have no value other than their wombs and their recipes, and even what they come up with in the kitchen is nowhere near as holy as what comes from the grills the men deign to lord it over.

[Steph]

I am here in North Carolina in the summer. Up in the mountains, the Asheville paper tries to report, but the small town, Franklin and the Macon County press only have praise, This is a very thiny disguised attack on Blacks, Spanish, young people, any one they perceive as voting democratic I do hope that the court will block this.. Makes me know I dont want to live here full time. It is beautiful, but oh so conservative in the mountains.. They long for it to be 1950 again.Sad but true.

[mabel1015j]

The "Purify-the-voting-process" people just made up the story that there is huge voter fraud and refuse to  say "oh, o.k." when the statistics show it is .006 % in present day voting. That is not to say that in the past, in local districts, there has been no voter fraud - LBJ got into congress thru voter fraud and Chicago and Jersey City and NYC have had episodes of epidemics of fraud, but that has diminished significantly. One women on a show a few days ago said there were hundreds names of dead people on NC's lists. The " expert" informed her that yes, she was right there were names of people who had died whose names had not yet been removed, but no one was using the names to vote. She said "well, they could!"  TUMH - (throwing up my hands)........... As one of you said on another site REALLY??? 

Sticking to their irrational conclusions strongly suggests THEY are attempting to control the vote.

[MaryPage]

Always scenting conspiracies and being certain there are droves of people getting away with all sorts and kinds of cheating is a form of paranoia, and these folks just do not see that.  It is like a mantra to them:  everyone ELSE is trying to get away with something.
What on earth do they think it would profit any one human being to travel from precinct to precinct to vote all day long?  And how many do they think can find the time to do this on election day?  And who do they think pays them for this?
When I was working as an election judge, I assure you no one came twice through those polls and every single voter was checked and rechecked.  Shoot, we already knew most of them!
Back in the day, when I was a Republican, men from headquarters used to go down to Lincoln Park, our "colored neighborhood" back in segregation days, and stand on the corners and hand out two or three bucks, whatever it took back then to buy a pint of liquor, to all the blacks they could drive to the polls and get to vote.  Blacks voted for Mr. Lincoln's party back then.  I always thought of it as an incentive to get them to vote, and not as cheating.  Never in all my days in politics did I ever run into or even sense any real cheating.

[Steph]

I have worked in many polling areas and like MaryPage never got the feeling that anyone was cheating.They all seem sincere when they come in to vote..
When my husband died, I was changing everything to my name, house, cars, etc, I was in the county building to change my homestead and the voting office was in the same area. When I stopped, the lady told me they had already taken him off the rolls.. Someone checks obits.. Interesting..

[MaryPage]

In my county they always took great care to delete the dead.  All the records show this;  you can go back for over 60 years that I know about of my own experience.
Some people spout off about stuff they know nothing about.  It can be something absolutely horrific, such as religions that sacrifice living babies on their altars (and yes, I heard that one A LOT as a child!) to places that vote thousands and thousands of the dead.  There is no extreme that people will not allow their credulity to embrace!

[BarbStAubrey]

And then we wonder why it is sooo easy for folks to sell us an idea using fear as the cause that requires change - if they can be paranoia over folks stealing a dead person's name to vote twice they are subject to any tall tale that feeds their impressionable unthinking mind.

[mabel1015j]

CSPAN's American Historytv broadcast a terrific program from the Kennedy Library about the March on Washington this afternoon. First there was a panel who were had 2 people who were part of the March and 2 scholars of the March and then John Lewis gave a magnificent keynote about the lead-up to the March and his controversial speech.

A very interesting backstory was about women and the March. There was one question from the adience for the panel, which they did not really answer. Then they had an intermission and CSPAN had call-ins and at that point and after john Lewis' speech, many people mentioned how important the women were, and JL mentioned the importance of women in his speech. You may not remember that NO woman spoke at the Lincoln Memorial - Miriam Anderson sang and there has been a rumor that she said to MLK when he finished his prepared remarks, " tell them about the dream, Martin." No woman speaking has been an item of contention about the March ever since. All those ministers hadn't considered that when they were planning it.

They are repeating the show at 10:00 tonight and will be having shows about the March every night this week at 8:00. You may be able to get it ondemand and i know you can get it on their website.

My husband and his sister were at the March in '63.

Jean

[maryz]

Did you see the piece on CBS Sunday morning today about the man who wound up with MLK's copy of his speech? 

[mabel1015j]

No Mary, i missed that, can you elaborate?

I made a mistake above, it was Mahalia Jackson who may have said to MLK "tell them your dream, Martin," not MA.

[MaryPage]

I saw the segment on Sunday Morning on CBS yesterday about the man who owns the original typed out speech.  It had nothing in it with the words "I have a dream."  Apparently he ad libbed that.
I was pregnant with my last child and afraid to venture down in the huge crowds expected.  We were living in Rockville, Maryland at the time.  Several of our friends went, the ones we at the time called the two marshas, but they were actually Marcia and Marsha and were sisters-in-law, and Bill and Harvey.  Those four went, but David stayed home with me.  The four came back to our home to rehash it all later before returning to their own homes.

[Steph]

Women were never that prominent in the NAACP stuff.. Black ministers are not into equal as far as I can see.

[maryz]

Jean, Click here to hear the interview from CBS  Sunday Morning.

[Steph]

I was living in Delaware that year and was pregnant with my second son. My memories were more of Kennedy than ML King. He was not a favorite of mine, I preferred Vernon Jordan, and a few others from Atlanta..

[MaryPage]

My son, and my last child, was born on March 16, 1964.  When was yours born, Steph?  We were both pregnant 50 years ago.  I remember I was reading everything J.D. Salinger wrote and The Feminine Mystique and Ian Fleming's James Bonds and a lot of good stuff.

[BarbStAubrey]

ah yes, Salinger - read just about everything he wrote - my time with Salinger was the very early 50s - For years I had a Zooey Door - I am remembering Peyton Place rocking the conversations and books by Thomas B. Costain still gave us an adventure through history - remember joining a book club and receiving the Tontine as two volumes and could hardly contain myself from one month to the second. I also remember women's magazines including not only full length novels but a series of a well known book. One that I looked forward to every month is either the Ladies Home Journal or maybe it was the Woman's Companion was the full romantic story of Tristan and Iseult

[mabel1015j]

Thanks for the link Mary.

[MaryPage]

I loved The Tontine.  And I read all of Salinger in the Sixties.  In the Fifties I read Ladies Home Journal and Good Housekeeping without fail.  Most of the Salinger I read in the Sixties was in The New Yorker.  I remember reading Tristan & Isolde, but do not remember how or where, just the what.  Oh, how I hated that King Mark!

[BarbStAubrey]

Looks like we read some of the same books MaryPage - just our timing was different - in the 60s I was already using most of my spare time first as a leader and later a trainer for the Girl Scouts where as in the 50s I graduated, worked a bit, married and had my babies - when they napped I read.

[kidsal]

Thinking today of the magazine "Seventeen."  Always waited for the fall issue with the beautiful clothes for school.  What a difference a few decades makes!

[Steph]

My younger son was born 6 January 1964.. I remember the assassination and the grief. Going to church on Sunday and coming home to my husband saying they killed the assassin..  I was reading Costain ( oh how I loved The Tontine), Sinclair Lewis, Salinger.. Metalius.. and yes the wonderful ladies magazines with their wonderful stories.

[mabel1015j]

Wonderful, wonderful programs on the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington! Last night CNN had a great show talking to people who had organized and attended the March, not just the headliners. They followed it w/ a wonderful interview by Anderson Cooper of the woman who talked down the shooter in Georgia. ........ I was in tears all evening.  

CSPAN is focusing on the March all weekend. It was so much more profoundly important then just a one day event. Previously marches and protests were looked on as subversive. People in the country got a new perspective of both protest marches and the Civil Rights Movement and all movements since have used the concept to educate and to rally their followers. Thank you to everyone who participated and made it one of the most historic and peaceful events in our history.

I'm learning new things about the March and about the lead up and the follow up. It was the first non-political event covered from beginning to end by television. The reporter from ABC whose name i have forgotten at the moment, but whose face you would recognize ........oh, yes, Roger Mudd ..... Was young and new and nervous - they were so afraid of violence erupting, the Am Nazi Party was picketing close by - threw up in the bushes beside the Lincoln Memorial before he went on camera. That's interesting to know for many reasons.....i think it is good for us, especially young people to recognize that everyone of us has had anxiety, even those big muckity-mucks who look like they've got it all together.....but when they showed the video of his anchoring that day he seems cool and collected - the show must go on.

As you can tell, the historian and humanitarian in me is thoroughly enjoying the day.

Jean

[Steph]

The news from India remains awful.. Another rape.. This mornings paper had a picture of female photojournalist in Indian standing in a line with gags on their mouths. Obviously feeling that women are devalued in that area. Makes no sense with you remember Indira Gandhi, etc.

[MaryPage]

Well, the religions of this world all make women rank below men in importance in every possible way.
And the men, of course, are most happy to buy into this as an absolute given.