OnLine With Zoe

The Equal Rights Amendment in Reach

We have waited a long time for a renewal for the Equal Rights Amendment and it is now – it is today.  AND you can make it happen.  Please email and call these members of the Arkansas legislature and tell them that the US Constitution should include everyone.  This is the time for the nation to rise and demand its passage ~ don’t leave it to the individual 15 states that have been dragging their feet for 26 years.
Make it happen and be proud of yourself for doing it.

Senator Bobby Glover  cnhc@juno.com
Representative Larry Cowling cowlingl@arkleg.state.ar.us
Garry Smith  gpe@cei.net  870-574-1638  (co-sponsor who has asked to be removed)

Zoe Nicholson
Co-Chair of CA NOW ERA
ERA Roundtable
President Pacific Shore NOW

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From Berta Seitz of ERA Arkansas ~

DEAR ERA Supporter, first thank you for all that you have done. We still need to be vigilant and working for 2 weeks. You have been great but the opposition has geared up and we must outdo them.
ERA Supporters there are two people that we have been focusing on: Senator Bobby Glover at cnhc@juno.com and Representative Larry Cowling at cowlingl@arkleg.state.ar.us. Both are on their respective legislative committee and neither will commit to support. We must have both of them to get it out of committee. Please email each and get as many others as possible to email. We thought it was going before the Senate committee today but had a scheduling problem. It is to go before the Senate Committee on Tuesday morning, March 3 at 10AM and hopefully before the Senate on Wednesday, March 4 and to the House Committee on Friday, March 6, and before the House then the next Monday. March 9, 2009. The opposition showed up at the capitol yesterday and have their email group in full swing. We already have one co-sponsor who has asked to be removed as a sponsor. His name is Garry Smith at gpe@cei.net. He lives in Camden. His phone number is870-574-1638. Just to keep those who have signed on committed we need to again email all of the committee members. I am attaching their names and emails.
Please get out emails to these three and all of the committee members!
Secondly, we really need a big group of supporters next Tuesday when it goes to committee. The question is, "How badly do we women want be become first class citizens included in our own constitution with equal legal rights and protections?" Please ask for a day of vacation, load your car with friends and come to the capitol. It would be good to be there by 9:30. We are going to wear red. If you do not have anything red, come in any color. I have stickers for you. Folks this is a rare opportunity that we have. Let's take advantage of it. PLEASE, PLEASE, PRETTY PLEASE, CONTACT ALL COMMITTEE MEMBERS, GARRY SMITH AND AS MANY OTHERS AS YOUR CAN! PLEASE COME NEXT TUESDAY!
Berta Seitz
ERA Arkansas Coalition Coordinator

The Organic Possibility: A Feminist Portal

I have been following a very significant thread in the feminist blogosphere; What if the feminist blogosphere is a form of digital colonialism? By Mandy Van Deven and Brittany Shoot.  It is long, involved, important and provocative.  Clearly it provoked dozens of online posts and comments.  I read it last night and have been ruminating about it ever since. 

My reaction is entirely other than the academic scrutiny that many of the comments offer.  I may not even understand everything being said however I feel a strong kinship with “feminist” and “blogosphere” so I want to state some observations. 

For the sake of those readers who do not know anything about me, please let me say; I am 60 and have been posting essays for over 8 years.  A friend built a database with a GUI for me in 2000, long before I heard the word blog or blog templates were around.  I have then and continue now to consider it an art form; one with which I express my feminism.  Writing is the fundamental pillar of blogging.  It is secondary to inform and, in some cases, change the reader though I do not recommend getting attached to that!

The discussion in the blog on colonialism reminds me of a life laboratory that I found myself in when opening a women’s bookstore in 1976.  It was not that far from the start of the Second Wave, 1963.  Originally I suffered from the illusion that one could carry every feminist book in print, every magazine, every newspaper; as if the body of information could be contained AND, moreover, digest it.  This idea was outlandish, not just because it is as dynamic as humanity itself but because each student of the movement enters at a different level, different experience, different capacity.  It occurred to  me that First Amendment Rights not only applied to writers but also applies to readers having the right to process and transform at their personal best. 

Let me be very forthcoming about the application of this insight.  I am confronted on a daily basis by women in the Second Wave who have zero exposure to intersectionality, the matrix of domination or the complexities of triple oppression.  But does that make those women any less feminist?  I have no idea if my burning desire to stay in touch with the current women’s movement is because I got my first PC in 1982, went to computer school in 1986 or that I have a crazy addiction to books and information but I do know this ~ the place of entry into the movement cannot serve as a DISqualifier for membership.

I may get asked what is GLBTQQAI or hear massive complaints about “these young girls,” but what is the answer , if not , inclusion at all levels and information availability.  I do not think it is asking everyone to reach a certain bar to be granted admittance.  This is a hard-won observation and I am very interested in advancing its reality.  The internet can only be a reflection of the community that it is serving; from genius entrepreneur to brilliant academic to casual reader to bored drifter to in-depth seeker; as many variances as people. 

If you cruise way down the page you will find an entry which begins, “I am an activist,” that is the one that is close to my heart.  This author asks the bloggers – what is the organic answer?  What can be done that will lead, shape and set afoot a preferred feminist blogosphere?  As an activist, I start with the solution and ask what can be done from this moment to get to that.  Considering only the problem, no matter the intelligence and acuity, only frustrates the readers who have been enlisted.  In my mind, that is not the role of an activist ~ that is merely an agitator. 

My dream is for a single point of entry; a Feminist Portal which is the opening treasure map from which everyone can find all POV’s feminist.  Every organization, every community, every thinker, from trail blazer to the lightest touch who just wants to know that FEMINISM IS ALIVE AND WELL ~ EVER EVOLVING.

My Teacher has Left the Building

    

Mary Jane Valentine

AKA Mary Magdalene

January 23, 1995 ~ February 7, 2009

     http://www.poodlehaiku.com

   

 

Counting on Women

Over the last eight years, we have just been trying to hold the line.  Hard to face it that more pro-woman legislation has happened in the last eight days than the eight years before.  That magical phrase "before" has the taken on a whole new meaning.  Up until January 20, 2009, it belonged to 9/11 but now it belongs to Barack Obama's audacious hope.

There are many of us who watched the events of inauguration week and thought how different it would have been if Hillary Clinton had won the nomination and presidency.  Every time I heard people shriek with pride that now every parent can tell their kids that they can be anything when they grow up, I substituted, "every boy."  As the photo ops poured through the media, I searched for women's faces in roles other than wife and mother.  I can't help it.  Yeah - I heard, Mrs Biden is a doctor, Mrs Obama is an attorney.   

But nothing will make up for Hillary Clinton's Beijing 1997 speech ~ nothing.  In my dream book you will find a big strike-out of the International Women's Conference for 2007.  However we now live after January 20, 2009 and Hope is docked on the shore.  And maybe it is only right that a Year of the Women, International Women's Conference, a Presidential Commission on Women and a Cabinet position for Gender Equality had to wait for Hope to be within sight.

Occasionally something truly exciting happens within the American Women's Movement.  Several smart, technically savvy women have pooled their skills, ideas and inspiration to found, WOMEN COUNT.  Fundamentally they are calling for a Presidential Commission on Women.  Be sure to sign the petition!  Here is their own statement:

Sometimes there is a watershed moment in history when it becomes clear that things must change and leaders must act. That moment is now for the women of this country.”

We are excited to tell you about an important new effort we have joined, along with many other leading women’s organizations – and we are asking for your support and participation. Along with WomenCount, a non-profit grassroots organization, we are calling on President-elect Obama to create a Presidential Commission on Women in his first 100 days. This Commission will bring together the best minds in the country for a national conversation on women, to make change happen where we know we need it. President John Kennedy formed the first Commission of this kind 47 years ago, and appointed Eleanor Roosevelt as its chair. It’s time to seize the moment and do it again.

Join us in this effort and sign the petition now. Then forward it to your friends and family with a personal note. Help us make this happen. Women DO count. It’s our time!