OnLine With Zoe

Slow News Day

• Ferrari worth 1.5 million in crash
• Paternity of A N Smith's daughter
• Was Katie Couric mean to the Edwards
• Punk'd Canceled
• Corwin attacked by elephant
• Martha Stewart wants to trademark the name, "Katonah."

If you look at news sites on the web, you can now chose between TOP NEWS STORES and MOST POPULAR NEWS STORIES.  And, yet, today I doubt that you will find that Senator Edward Kennedy will introduce the Equal Rights Amendment to the 110th Congress.  "Happy 25th ERA," she said sarcastically. 

Today, just a mere 84 years later, we are still working to include women in the US Constitution.  It isn't a sexy story; no Ferrari, no DNA, no overdose or rehab.  It is just the simple notion that the US Constitution should include women.

Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any state, on account of sex.

While it took a search to find this piece, when it displayed in Google, I started to well up.  This is my kinda headline ~

Senators Kennedy & Boxer, Reps. Maloney & Nadler Begin New Push for Women's Equality Amendment

     Women Still Have No Guarantee of Equal Rights in the Constitution

WASHINGTON, March 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --

Senator Ted Kennedy (D- MA), Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), and Ellie Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority and strong leader on the fight for women's equality will announce the reintroduction of the Women's Equality Amendment on Tuesday. An amendment to guarantee equal rights to women has still never been ratified and added to the U.S. Constitution, even though it was first introduced in 1923. The ERA passed Congress in 1972 but lapsed in 1982 when it fell three states short of ratification. This year, there are more than 190 original co-sponsors of the Women's Equality Amendment (ERA).

The Members will also announce the plans for forthcoming hearings on the Women's Equality Amendment in the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Chaired

by Rep. Nadler. The Senators and Members will be joined by leading women's rights groups for the reintroduction with the hopes that in the 110th Congress, women will finally achieve official equality in America.

    WHAT: Announcement of the Women's Equality Amendment

    WHO: Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA)

         Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA)

         Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)

         Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-CA)

         Rep. John Dingell (D-MI)

        Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA)

         Eleanor Smeal, Feminist Majority

    WHEN: TUESDAY, March 27, 2:30 pm

    WHERE: 485 Russell Senate Office Building (Indian Affairs hearing room)  Washington, DC

CONTACT: Laura Capps (Kennedy), +1-202-224-2633 or Joe Soldevere (Maloney), +1-202-225-7944 or Amy Rutkin (Nadler), +1-212-367-7350.

Happy Spring, Happy Day

All the way home, driving down the I215, I kept saying to myself, "I want to do this every day!"  "I want to do this every day!" "I want to do this every day!"  Nothing makes me happier than talking to a group of women large or small, in weight, age or number, about women. 

Today I spoke to the most inspiring, inspired group of women who have come together to support one another, mentor one another and enjoy one another.  They come from different levels of works ~ from office admin to exec director ~ and lunch.  They are the MOVEMENT of WOMEN.  There was contagious laughter and I sold out of books!  gads.  sweet joyous day.

This was the San Bernardino County Women's Network.  Driving there, I was considering who might be there.  I never know the people's beliefs or politics and (you may be surprised to read) I don't want to offend anyone.  To my delight, the walls were lined with posters of Diego Rivera, Mother Jones, Caesar Chavez, Dr M. L. King and progressive quotations.  Oh heavens, I may be home!

From CWN's website ~

It is an organization open to all employees of offices governed by the Board of Supervisors, SANBAG, LAFCO, and the County Superintendent of Schools, and the Superior Court of California ~ County of San Bernardino and to everyone supporting the Network's objectives. The organization's objectives are supported by the Board of Supervisors and the Chief Administrative Officer of the County of San Bernardino.

Thank you Michelle, Denise & Melonee.

This is what it is all about.  They have a mentoring program, a lending library, scholarships, monthly lunches, golf tournament and more...  But what I found most fantastic was that so many stayed to talk with me~ they told me that they loved reseting their commitment to the women's movement, they told me about their daughters and nieces; mostly they told me about their work for women and girls in San Bernardino.

What a great day. Happy Spring.

Blogging NOW II

The calls I made around the country about running for office in CA NOW were oddly balancing between discouraging and exhilarating poles - or were they polls.  From Florida to New England, the mid-West to the South-West and all around California I heard the exact same thing.  They warned me and congratulated me.  They admonished me and supported me.  They asked me to never give up and offered their insights.

Over the last twenty years, hundreds of women left the leadership, thousands left the membership of NOW because it stepped away from a true grassroots, activist organization.  It had become focused on legislation and Political Actions Committees which granted endorsements to politicians and bills.  In that migration, it naturally became a sword in the hands of wealthy, privileged and advance-degreed (many law degreed) women.  The very power that women working in health, self-help, reproductive rights, women's education and , most fundamentally, consciousness raising was whittled away for the dubious idea that government alone will advance women. 

My short hand of this is that women advance from the inside out, not from the laws that are made by the government.  It should be clear coming from both directions ~ 1) many laws have changed, even the 19th Amendment passed, but women are not voting to advance their issues; certainly the Congress (16% women) has disregarded women's health and safety.  2) as women suffocate from advertising, racism, ageism, taxation, rising living costs (still making 76/100 on the dollar) they have all they can do to manage their lives; supporting a legislative organization is not high on the the TO-DO list.

My older sisters told me that they want NOW to return to the women who are in NEED of women's rights - to a membership led organization that addresses women from the bottom up.  It should be led by the very women who need equal pay, reproductive autonomy, universal health care, true representation for their taxes, day care, maternity leave and fundamentally a community that engenders the unfolding of leadership from within and self-discovery.

But then they also told me that it will not happen, NOW will never allow the organization to be in the hands of young women, middle class women, multi-cultural women.  It is too ensconced in its own exclusive circle, too intoxicated with its own swaggering power in the rotundas across America, too elevated in its private, privileged hierarchy.  They said that it is too late to return it to its point of original intention.

It seemed providential that I had been reading for the last couple of years about organic leadership; bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress; Paulo Friere, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Robert Greenleaf, Servant Leadership, Margaret Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science.  Brittled, hardened, top-down organizations cannot survive as society grows larger, communities have exquisite needs, leadership must come from within.  No matter how accustomed people are to be ruled from above, their own leadership will find the lifeboats while the ship goes down.  Top-down leadership is fundamentally flawed, dare I say, "unnatural?"  Organic leadership rises up from those who NEED what leadership provides.

more...

Blogging NOW

Last night, once again, I found myself in a room hearing a person ask, "What is a blog?"  I have been writing one for so long, I assume people know it is an abbreviation for Web Log.  It is not necessarily a diary.  It is not necessarily personal.  The wonderful thing about blogs is that they are whatever the author wants them to be; from 52 Cupcakes to Presidential candidates I read many, enjoy many and send them to my desktop.  My personal blog is really a set of light posts ~ not lite posts ~ many are fairly heavy.  But after writing two autobiographies, it would be safe to say I narrate my life often, gave away privacy long ago, come out on a daily basis and value truth.  I consider deeply, laugh loudly, cry openly and chose to tell what I can.  Voila - my blog.

Today I am drawn to write about my running for office in California NOW.  It was a decision I made on January 5.  Precisely it is a decision that made me on January 5.  As I have said right here in my blog, no one is more surprised than me.  Twenty-five years ago I watched NOW disintegrate in the wake of the ERA not passing within the (since defunct) 3 year, 3 month deadline.  Dozens of women, whom I knew, were devastated and many left public life. 

My journey took a big turn on a spiritual highway.  No big secret there.  I applied to a community on October 18, 1982 and stayed for over 11 years.  The authenticity of the community might lead to an interesting conversation, but my dedication to Tibetan Buddhism, serious spiritual discipline and leading an, "examined life" was and is never in question. 

Many years later I felt a calling to come back to the American Women's Movement.  I think it has a lot to do with  the Veteran Feminists of America and working for Barbara Love on her brilliant encyclopedic,  Feminists Who Changed America, 1963 - 1975.  I made some calls about the local NOW Chapter, went to a disturbing meeting, met one of the co-chairs and was told clearly that the chapter was about to close.  So I started my own, Pacific Shore OC NOW.  It is just terrific with people who are truly enthusiastic and a big source of joy in my life.

I thought, hmmmmmmmmmmm. I will see what is happening on the state level and went to a board meeting in November, 2006.  Holy Toledo, Batgirl - it was the same people, the same arguments, the same elitism, the same conversation, the same misunderstandings, the same scene I saw and heard over 20 years ago.  It was heated and nasty.  At one point a woman stood shrieking and waved her bar card.  She said that the rest of us who don't have bar cards would never understand the seriousness of what was going on and she would have to leave the room, leaving her friend crying and her friends leaping to her side to offer comfort.  What the heck was that!  I waited for the meeting to end, went to my friend, the president, asked how to file a grievance with CANOW.  She told me, "not if you don't want to be sued."

I really poured over that.  It seemed to imply that there was no vehicle in place for grievances.  Then I wondered if I was being warned or, even, threatened.  As I have learned to do over the years I consider what is the opposite ~ "Oh, no Zoe, you should not do that, they might sue you," would be what a friend might say.  And to add to the mystery, I came to find out that there is a grievance committee.  That led me to ask, wouldn't a friend just say, "Yes, call me tomorrow, I will give you information about how you can file one."  I am still baffled about all of that. 

I went home and made lots of calls to original founders, original leaders, my older sisters, as I call them.  One by one they told me that they left years ago and why.

more . . .

I've got a Secret

I promised myself that I would not "blog" today.  I have a lot to do but it is simply irresistible.  The word, blog, is so blotchy, abbreviated and fails miserably compared to what the verb means to me.  It calls my very best, that which I am drawn to share ~ write on the walls of my cave.  Maybe a tourist will enter with a torch and find a bit of rest or sustenance.

The Secret is getting so much attention.  Oprah and Ellen say they have been practicing conscious creation all their lives and it seems evident.  Of course, I can only chortle, "we all have; its just that you two asked for better stuff." 

Many years ago, when I was working in The Magic Speller Bookstore, there were two extraordinary sisters who came in to shop.  They had a limousine with a driver.  They ordered the most expensive and esoteric books.  I knew the books.  They knew the authors.  One day they told me that they we meeting with a group of meditators in the valley, San Fernando Valley that is.  They met with several of the authors and used their focus to diminish and, ultimately, stave off earthquakes.  Brava!  What more can one say?  Brava!

Now the marketeers have brought The Secret to the American masses.  okey dokey.  I can celebrate that.  But I am sad that they teach its application in only four areas - areas in which we already have too much focus; money, diet, sex and jobs.  And I hear nothing about money for philanthropy, healthy diets for the poor, wholesome sex with reproductive intelligence and jobs which advance society.

Could they offer the same paint-by-number directions to:

1. help a family develop unity and clarity
2. lift our neighborhoods out of violence
3. spread health and information to dispel disease
4. bring joy and community to the lonely
5. posit honesty and leadership into national politics
6. bring conversation and patience to enemies
7. light our souls and flood hearts with kindness

Oh well, its no secret what a fool I am.  I have been consciously creating it for many years, many lifetimes.