OnLine With Zoe

The Quieting of the American Conscience

Conscience by Vincent van Gogh

18 hours later and, with the rising sun, the fog on the windows of the mind is clearing.  I always knew Donald was like that.  It always showed.  Move along, there is nothing new here. 

Conscious women, can I say feminist women, saw it when he divorced Ivana or Marla or dismissed Melania or man-handled Ivanka.  We saw it on the Apprentice.  We saw it with his sons and the slaughter of big game in Africa.  We saw it with his disregard for Trump workers.  With his succession of bankruptcies.  With his opulence.  With his hair, tan and oddly long ties.  With behavior that would send a second grader to the principal’s office and a sophomore to detention.  We have always seen it. 

I think the pain of this explosive revelation that Farenthold facilitated and Access Hollywood with Billy Bush withheld, lies in the slow boil of it all.  How did everyone NOT see it from the start?  That is the immorality of it all.  What has happened to the quieting of the American Conscience? 

What has happened in the pulpit where cash is grabbed and, in some cases, little boys and girls.  What has happened in textbooks in the tacit removal of the mistreatment of the indigenous people, African people, Chinese people, women in total – too many to list.  And we celebrate these atrocities naming them Columbus day or Thanksgiving day.  And, of course, Women’s Equality day which is a titular lie. 

We have sent the Elders into substandard silos of dismissal.  We have used white-out on our Story-Tellers.  We have hidden the suffering and poor who remind us of the calling to generosity and lie in stark contrast under blue tarps with their only loved one, their dog.  We arrest indiscriminately and it appears that the overcrowding of prisons is being solved with outright assassinations on the street.  We medicate people into dysfunction.  We surround cemeteries with fences to promote the worst illusion of all, immortality.

And now we will simplify this boiling pot.  We will tar and feather.  We will drag through the street.  We will make ourselves righteous by vilifying in short and long term public shaming.  When after all it was you and me. 

Please allow me to introduce myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste
I've been around for a long, long year
Stole many a man's soul to waste.

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name

I shouted out,
Who killed the Kennedys?
When after all
It was you and me

Let me please introduce myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste
And I laid traps for troubadours
Who get killed before they reached Bombay

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name
But what's confusing you
Is just the nature of my game

Just as every cop is a criminal
And all the sinners saints
As heads is tails
Just call me Lucifer
'Cause I'm in need of some restraint

So if you meet me
Have some courtesy
Have some sympathy, and some taste
Use all your well-learned politesse
Or I'll lay your soul to waste,

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name

It isn’t that I believe in the devil.
I believe in Art.
Thank you Keith and Mick

Fair Wages & The City Council

Good Evening Mr. Mayor, Ms ViceMayor, Councilmembers, City Administrators and Citizens,

Over the last year I have been to nine meetings about wages and did not speak.  I finally found my voice at the Temple Israel meeting because this is not an economic crisis, this is not a social crisis, this is a spiritual crisis.

If we rise above our chairs, we can see there are 3 types of speakers lining up before you; professionals, the poor and the not-poor.

The professionals give statistics, identify findings and educate.  They tell us about other cities and the effects of $15 on a worker’s life and an owner’s business.   

The poor ask for relief.  Not for Cost-of-Living which would be much higher, just a promise of relief in small increments.   

The not-poor ask to steady payroll so profits can remain, so business can grow, so customers won’t go to nearby cities where un-livable wages remain.

The one group that is never discussed is the half circle I see before me. 
The half circle of you; the gate way.  The elected voters. 
You are the ones who receive the pleas and weigh the stories
You are the ones who measure the possible outcomes

You think it is political and social.
But I would like to rise and point out, it is spiritual.
It is your ethical thread, your risk, your compass – collective and individual.

As a serious seeker, a social ethicist, an initiated Buddhist monk, let me offer you an insight;

You earned votes and sit in a half circle,
You are a gateway of deciders
   and the fact is -
you are called to this holy position, this sacred trust.
I believe you know what to do.
I trust you. 

Raise the Rainbow Anaheim City Council June 21, 2016

I moved to Orange County in 1976.
I built a little bookstore in Cannery Village.
It was the time of John Briggs and Prop 6 (the state proposition to not allow gays to teach)
It was the time of the shooting of Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone

At that time there were very few places where gay people knew they were safe.
Gay bookstores, Gay Bars and Gay only AA meetings.
These were the places to share lives, to speak openly, party privately.

You knew you would not be bullied.
You knew you would not be at risk.
They often had unmarked doors to keep their location secret.

In 1983-4 I was the Director of the Orange County Free Clinic which was here in Anaheim. 
We served gay people without question. 

In the 70s a young soldier from Kansas, while stationed in San Francisco, became friends with Harvey Milk.  He learned to sew and worked at the Paramount Flag Co. Harvey asked him to design a flag for Gay Pride.  It is suspected that flag maker, Gilbert Baker drew on the Wizard of Oz, Over the Rainbow as Judy Garland had just died.  Gilbert designed the striped flag we know today.

What happens to me when I see a rainbow flag?
My shoulders relax, I can breathe better, I see that there are compassionate people who are waving a message of unity and love.
I have one flying on my house.
When I see the rainbow flag in a civic setting, I know that the city leadership recognizes that this segment of society is at a particular risk and deserves a special symbol of welcome and celebration. 

On Sunday June 12,
49 of my children were murdered
They were your children
They were children of God
They were murdered because of who they loved.
They were dancing, I would guess a lot better then you or me.
But more importantly, they were in a safe space where they shake their tail feather, shimmy like their sister Kate, salsa like Ricky Martin, and just be themselves. 

Raising the rainbow flag means you see them. 
You have empathy.  AND you have PRIDE.
Maybe you don’t know but we have ways of signaling safety. 
When I see a civic space with Rainbow flags, I know that city values my safety.
I welcome you to feel this PRIDE with me. 

Fly the Rainbow Flag
49 Angels will be proud. 

2016 Platform Hearing Testimony

Zoe Nicholson
@onlinewithzoe
http://ERAOnceandForAll.com

2016 Democratic Party Platform Hearing
US Constitution

It is unimaginable that I have been writing to the US Congress about the Equal Rights Amendment for 36 years.  It is really nothing compared to the primary author, Alice Paul, who lobbied to her dying day at age 92.  She lobbied for the ERA for 54 years.  And, now, we are on a new precipice of electing a President who is not going to be included in the US Constitution which means she is not required to serve jury duty, pay taxes or allowed to run for president.  Obviously, she had better address this astounding discrepancy January 22, 2017.

As you can see from the extended footnote below¹  I am well aware that my party, the Democratic Party, has been including a call for both the ERA & CEDAW for many years. 

The point is not to INCLUDE it.  The point is to ENACT it.

Now that it is well documented that 94% of Americans believe women should be included in the US Constitution, the questions are

1. How many Americans believe Women are already included in the Constitution?
2. What is the course of action needed to ratify the Amendment?

Strategy ONE

• Introduce it early (Sen. Kennedy used to on March 22.)
• Hold Hearings in the Committee before it gets sent down the pipeline of subcommittees
• Bring the bill to the floor(s)
• Send to the states for ratification
• Push it through state legislations for a super-majority

Strategy TWO

• Introduce bill to delete section 3 of the 1972 ERA applying an artificial deadline
• Pass bill
• Ratify in 3 of the remaining 15 unratified states

Obviously this entire plan rests on these two cornerstones:

• DO MORE THAN ENDORSE THE ERA IN THE 2016 PLATFORM
• TURN CONGRESS BLUE and ELECT the Democratic nominee for President.

As Mrs Burn told her son Harry, August 18, 1920

Dear Son:
Hurrah and vote for suffrage! Don't keep them in doubt! I notice some of the speeches against. They were bitter. I have been watching to see how you stood, but have not noticed anything yet. Don't forget to be a good boy and help Mrs Cattt put the "rat" in ratification.
Your mother

In your Service,

Zoe Nicholson

Founder ERA Once and For All
June 17, 2016

   ^1.2012 Democratic Party Platform

Moving America Forward
Protecting Rights and Freedoms

Civil Rights. We believe in an America where everybody gets a fair shot and everybody plays by the same set of rules. At the core of the Democratic Party is the principle that no one should face discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, language, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability status. Democrats support our civil rights statutes and we have stepped up enforcement of laws that prohibit discrimination in the workplace and other settings. We are committed to protecting all communities from violence. We are committed to ending racial, ethnic, and religious profiling and requiring federal, state, and local enforcement agencies to take steps to eliminate the practice, and we continue to support enforcement of Title VI. We are committed to equal opportunity for all Americans and to making sure that every American is treated equally under the law.

"Because of ‘Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' each time I went off to war, no one was at the armory to say goodbye. No one was waiting at the airport when I returned. My partner, George Di Salvo, and I started a family five years ago by adopting two wonderful boys. But I kept their existence secret, because that's what the law required. Not anymore, however. Thanks to the unyielding efforts of President Obama, I can serve my country openly and proudly with my family by my side."—Dr. Vito Imbasciani, Colonel, California National Guard, Medical Service Corps

We are committed to ensuring full equality for women: we reaffirm our support for the Equal Rights Amendment, recommit to enforcing Title IX, support the Paycheck Fairness Act, and will urge ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. We know that putting America back to work is Job One, and we are committed to ensuring that Americans do not face employment discrimination. We support the Employment Non- Discrimination Act because people should not be fired based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

President Obama and the Democratic Party are committed to ensuring all Americans are treated fairly. This administration hosted the first-ever White House Conference on Bullying Prevention and we must continue our work to prevent vicious bullying of young people and support LGBT youth. The President's record, from ending "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in full cooperation with our military leadership, to passing the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, to ensuring same-sex couples can visit each other in the hospital, reflects Democrats' belief that all Americans deserve the same chance to pursue happiness, earn a living, be safe in their communities, serve their country, and take care of the ones they love. The Administration has said that the word ‘family' in immigration includes LGBT relationships in order to protect bi-national families threatened with deportation.

Women. President Obama—the son of a single mother and the father of two daughters—understands that women aren't a special interest group. They are more than half of this country, and issues that affect women also affect families. That is why the first bill he signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which helps women fight back when they are paid less than men, and why we continue to fight to overcome Republican opposition and pass the Paycheck Fairness Act to help stop gender discrimination in pay before it starts. And that is why the Justice Department and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, led by President Obama's appointees, have investigated and prosecuted numerous violations of the nation's civil rights laws, and obtained more than $140 million in relief for victims of gender discrimination. We Democrats will continue to support efforts to ensure that workers can combat gender discrimination in the workplace and to protect women against pregnancy discrimination. And that's why we support passing the Healthy Families Act, broadening the Family and Medical Leave Act, and partnering with states to move toward paid leave.

We understand that economic issues are women's issues, and the challenges of supporting and raising a family are often primarily a woman's responsibility. That's why putting Americans back to work is Job One. That's why the Affordable Care Act especially helps women by guaranteeing they and their families won't become uninsured when they lose their jobs. That's why this administration strengthened Medicare and Medicaid for millions of women and families. And that's why the Affordable Care Act is ending health insurance discrimination against women, and provides women with free access to preventive care, including prenatal screenings, mammograms, cervical cancer screening, breast-feeding supports, and contraception.

"I know firsthand the injustice of gender discrimination in pay: for years I was paid less than my male colleagues, and it took an anonymous note from a colleague to tip me off to the fact that I was being denied equal pay for equal work. I also know firsthand that President Obama takes these issues seriously: the first bill that he signed into law was focused on making sure that other women don't face the same injustice. While the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act won't change my story, I couldn't be prouder of the legislation that bears my name, and I know who is standing up for women and families."—Lilly Ledbetter

We understand that women's rights are civil rights. That's why we reaffirm our support for the ERA, recommit to enforcing Title IX, and will urge ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. That's why we are committed to ending violence against women, why Vice President Joe Biden originally wrote and championed the Violence Against Women Act during his time in the Senate, and why we support reauthorizing and strengthening it now.

The President and the Democratic Party believe that women have a right to control their reproductive choices. Democrats support access to affordable family planning services, and President Obama and Democrats will continue to stand up to Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood health centers. The Affordable Care Act ensures that women have access to contraception in their health insurance plans, and the President has respected the principle of religious liberty. Democrats support evidence-based and age-appropriate sex education.

May 14, 1982 I Thought the ERA was Ours.

This is my diary entry from Friday, May 14, 1982.  It is the opening chapter of my book, The Hungry Heart, which is the actual diary of my 40 days in Springfield, Illinois.  Phyllis and Ellie, NOW v Eagles; Equality was on the line and still is.  Many of us who are working on the election of the first woman president are hoping that it will renew a bright light on Constitutional equality.  I mean after all, the president should be included in the US Constitution.  

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

La igualdad de los derechos bajo ley no sera negada ni sera abreviada por los Estados Unidos o por cualquier estado a causa de sexo.

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

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

MAY 14, 1982
This is something I want so much, I am willing to die for it.  The fact that I want it for all women for all time makes it profound and suffocating.  I feel like I am being crushed inside a storm of feelings, fears and certainty.  I need some relief.  I know this is the right thing to do.  Food, cigarettes, privacy, pets, home and family -- take it.  I want this more. 

All I did was answer the phone.  It sounded like every other ring that had called me to the phone.  It rang in early May.  It was Sonia Johnson calling.  We had met in the Fall when she came to my bookstore to sign her book, “From Housewife to Heretic.”  We talked of the deadline for the Equal Rights Amendment, July 1, and promised one another that no matter what we did we would do it together.  "We are going to fast for the ERA,"  Sonia calmly explained to me.  "We are going to go to Illinois, sit in the Springfield rotunda, live on water only and win the ERA." 

I met Dina at the Long Beach airport at 8 A.M.  I think we are doing awfully well considering we both stopped smoking just four days ago.  Maybe in the face of not eating, not smoking seems negligible.  At least it seems to be just another task on my ToDo list.  With an extra hour before the flight, we had breakfast.  It was the first in the continuing series of meals we ate today.  Eggs, Pancakes, Toast, O.J., Coffee.  We ate as if there is no tomorrow. 

The flight to Chicago was uneventful but we missed the connecting flight to Springfield.  It took three attempts at stand-by to actually make it.  The good news is that we were able to eat another meal; packing it away like chipmunks in Fall. 

A thoughtful woman named Marion picked us up.  She is studying to be a Methodist minister.  She made the mistake of asking us if there was anything we wanted to do before we went to the meeting place.  Fried Shrimp, Baked potatoes, Blue cheese salad, Pie, Coffee.

The mystery of where we are going to stay is solved.  We have permission to stay at Kumler Methodist Church for two weeks.   We are going to sleep on the floor of the Sunday School classrooms.  The desks and chairs are itsy bitsy.  The bathroom is down right comical as the sinks and toilets are all scaled down.  The really bad news is that there are no showers.  I am really taken back about no showers.  It is muggy May in Southern Illinois.

The classrooms are stifling.  I guess they only open the windows on Sunday mornings.  The walls are covered with posters of Jesus.  This is not the Jesus I love.  This one is fair skinned, sandy hair, manicured hands, sweet little smile.  The pictures show him surrounded with pastel covered, adoring fans.  This is not the dissident, powerful, charismatic carpenter I would like to know. 

Dina and I are the first to arrive.  The other women are due in an hour or so.  They are driving from D.C. and Virginia, where they have been stumping on the ERA trail.  This is giving me too much time to sit and stew and get really scared.  I can hear Dina in the next room; she must be recording her journal.  I am stuffed but wonder  what will happen if I don’t have food for forty-four days.  Maybe it won’t take forty-four days.  I’m hungry.

What if no one cares?  What if there is no press coverage?  If I was the opposition I would deflate this by ignoring it, trivializing it or even mocking it.  But I have to remember that there is a magnificent precedent for fasting.  Most of my favorite people have fasted.  My heart says I have no choice. 

I hear the others have arrived.  Maybe they have some food. 

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
To purchase a copy of The Hungry Heart
Lune Soleil Press

Calling Long Beach to be a CEDAW CITY

 

Good evening Mayor Garcia, Vice Mayor Lowenthal Council members, administrators, Citizens of Long Beach;  In particular, thank you Councilwoman Price for calling Long Beach to become a CEDAW CITY

I have been active in the American Women’s Movement for 50 years.  In 1982, I sat on a folding chair in the Illinois State House rotunda and publicly fasted on water for 37 days for the Equal Rights Amendment,which you know never passed and to this day women are not included in the US Constitution.I am a scholar and consultant on the ERA.

Thank you for allowing me to speak on March 1, one of 32 days in the US calendar year which is legislatively assigned to raise women out of invisibility.

 

---

 

• Women hold up more than half the sky
• Women carry water from shore to home, all over the world.
• Across the globe Women bear, feed, clothe and educate the young,
• Care for the sick, aging and dying

and Yet

• We are disposable, discarded, stoned, tortured, gutted of our sexuality and denied education
• We are forced to marry at age 12
• We die in early childbirth
• We are denied reproductive autonomy
• We are raped as a weapon of war
• We are denied mobility up the corporate ladder to driving a car

The US ranks #75 in women in leadership in the world, Behind the likes of China, Nepal, Rwanda

When you have an opportunity like this to protect women, you must throw your arms around it:

• Grab it
• Carry it
• Teach it
• Be it
• DO IT
• BEHAVE as if it is passed

It is the work of only the most advanced privileged people who have this astounding opportunity.  Because you are chambered leaders, you have the chance to bypass the uncivilized behavior of the U.S. Congress, To rise and join the cities and countries that have seen the joy in the morning of valuing women.

I am here to ask you,
To lift the women of Long Beach to hear this global heart beat and be a CEDAW CITY.
Your Mother wants you to do this.
The Grandmothers of all Directions want you to do this.
Stand with me at the clear light of day and say,
that you have protected their daughters worldwide and be a CEDAW CITY.

---

 

AGENDA 16 -0201            The legislation which passed unanimously ~

Recommendation to adopt resolution in support of The Convention of the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and request City Manager to identify a current City Commission such as the Human Relations Commission that will partner with California State

University, Long Beach to complete a gender analysis study of Long Beach. After the gender analysis study is completed the selected City Commission should examine policy reforms as outlined by study and consistent with CEDAW in order to make recommendations to the City Council for implementation of any policy reforms or additional programming that is consistent with goals of CEDAW.

Is Electing a Woman for President a Revolutionary Act?

No matter if you are for Bernie or Hillary, the fact remains, many of us want to break this glass ceiling once and for all. Any woman less powerful, less formidable than Hillary could never do it. Let’s face it, young voters, liberal voters, occupy people, anti-wall street people don't even assign electing a woman as a stroke of revolution.

I read articles about how it is going to get nasty and, of course, it is. Jackie and his wife got death threats, Branch was vilified. Breaking barriers is the job of razor sharp ice cutters who can bust convention with a smile on their face.

Men are working day and night to stop the this particular ceiling being broken. Many don’t even realize it. It is a fundamental thread in the woof and warp of their lives. Possibly the thought gets diffused before it is fully formed. The mind wanders looking for reasons to never let a woman lead the USA. Women just got the right to be Rangers. A woman boxer, football coach, pilot. It is a slo-jam, very slow. The holding down of rising women is in all of our DNA. ALL OF US.

All you need do is watch Gloria Borger (CNN) and Andrea Mitchell (MSNBC) to bring this into strong relief. They blatantly diminish Hillary. They do it with entitlement, as if it advances them. It is the patriarchal position to dissect and eviscerate a woman in all respects at all times, without apology; without any thought.  

For many years I have asked where are the women? Thich Nhat Hahn’s partner is a woman. Harvey Milk’s debate partner was a woman. When we looked at photos of Arab Spring, we looked for women. Katherine Luther, Lydia Emerson, Mary Cassatt, Frida Kahlo, Frances Perkins, Coretta Scott, Grace Hopper. Look behind, look beyond the poster presentation and you will find a woman. It is the looking that is revolutionary.

Electing a woman who puts women first is the most revolutionary act for me. (Carly is an extension of the patriarchy.) It will unfold a whole new helix of thinking. Books, studies, articles have been written and published that identify what happens when there is a preponderance of woman in leadership. The entire mindset will change, FOREVER. That is a revolution.

My feminism has informed me for over 40 years. I have tested it, torn it apart and put it back together again.  I have broken convention with risk, with relentless application, with moderates shouting in my face.  I have been mystified about this great divide over the democratic candidates. At this moment it appears to me that these two camps want revolution, the disagreement is that most do not think voting for a woman is revolutionary.

Love Letter to Long Beach 2015

It was so alarming I could not take pictures. May 2, 2 P.M., 50 boxes were on the ground with nowhere to go. Two principle 6’ bookshelves had no wall space. No kitchen cupboards, no washer & dryer, no sofa. The sun was going down, a dozen people were trying to pile in whatever they could and an unrelenting inner voice kept whispering, “put it in the garage.” A bounding inner voice shouted, “there is no garage, there is no fence, there is no backyard.” The only smart stroke was that the gigantic poodle was overnight at her godmother’s house.

On the other column was that there were ten people organizing my new home. Before the moving truck arrived, one person had all of the technology up and running and two artists had delivered and arranged my mini-garden. Miracles began piling up in the form of things fitting within one inch or less; the desk, the Ikea shelves, the hangers, the shoes, the dishes, etc. Neighbors said hello as they walked up and down the street. Dogs and bikes. People speaking other than English and people who were not white. This was not the isolated island of xenophobes with Prop 8 lawn signs that was in my rearview mirror. This was Long Beach, this was Rose Park, this was the 2^nd most diverse city in the US.

In the course of a day, you might hear six disparate sirens. In the course of a month, you would meet 20+ people. In the month of July, you will hear 31 nights of fireworks. Locking doors is how it is done. Saying hello is the minimum. On a Saturday afternoon, you can hear 8 different music tracks reflecting the community. AND you can get the best Mexican food without crossing a street, right around the corner. As my friend Jean said, “This is truly urban living.”

Possibly the epitome happened in June. A man on a bike hollered into the house, “Hey can I buy one of your statues?” I stood on my porch and said no, they are not for sale. He said his mother liked them and wants one. I said, sorry, they are not for sale. The next day he came back and hollered in again. I went to see what’s what. He had a silver spray painted Buddha. He gave it to me explaining that he found it and thought I would like it. When I relayed this story to 2 local friends, they said, “That’s so Long Beach.” And now, after 8 months, I am accustomed to saying that to myself constantly, as friendliness rises up from the sidewalks, That is SO Long Beach. 

All new streets with the only familiar orientation being the ocean. The rising and setting sun assured me that I could not get too terribly lost. My GPS was my best friend. After a few google searches I noticed a pattern; nothing I wanted was more than 6 minutes away. The LGBTQ Center is 4.5 minutes. City Hall is 6 minutes. Vons and Ralphs are under 6 minutes and the master blaster was on a HOTTTT August day, there was a paleta shop 6 minutes from my house. Fifty flavors and no one spoke English. I got to stumble with my Buenos Dias, Muchos Gracias and Adios. It is no accident that the Museum of Latin American Art is 5.5 minutes, however the opening of the Frida Kahlo show was beyond an oyster’s pearl.

During Pride all of the statues wore rainbow leis. For the Dalai Lama’s birthday, I hung a Tibetan flag. Months later a woman introduced herself to me saying that she knew she wanted to know the woman in that house. You will find it hard to believe that she was saying it to a man who put up my flag pole and was my high school student in 1972. And just imagine, my letter carrier dressed as Dexter for Halloween delivery. The introductions began so fast and often that I had to admit I will never remember them all.

It’s a long, beautiful drive from Dana Rohrabacher to Alan Lowenthal. It’s a leap from posting support on facebook for $15 minimum wages to sitting at a city council meeting listening to workers stories of raising kids on $9 an hour. It is beyond my expectation that I know people running for City Council in my district and they know my name. I am bursting with national expectation over Hillary #45 but celebrating that now, for me, politics is local and I am engaged.

I did a couple of really interesting things in my new city and county. I went to a different church every week and I said yes to every meeting invitation for 5 months.

I have never had access to so many people who share many of the causes, ideas, and politics I hold. An organizer asked me to coffee which might have seemed normal to her but to me it was unheard of. I have stood in the lobby of the Renaissance Hotel in protest, I have been on the Bluffs on World AIDS Day, I prayed in front of the courthouse for gun control. I read a poem at an open mic and spoke of an activist longevity at the Grrrl Collective. I have been welcomed at a Black Lives Matter meeting and talked on a panel on the Whitewashing of Stonewall. I have argued vehemently that transwomen are women and discovered that my lifelong friend is a living hero here in Long Beach.

 

My journey through the churches was equally rich and surprising. After one service on integration, I suggested to a woman that they might offer a Sunday service in Spanish, to be told that no one in the area speaks Spanish and that is why people live there. After the shooting in South Carolina, I took flowers to a service at the Grant Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church to experience song and community as I have never seen. 
Surreptitiously, even to myself, I was searching to see if there was a place to begin public ministry teaching Engaged Buddhism. Almost unbelievably, the perfect multi-faith church is on the next block where I walk the dog most days.

All of this leaves me with two big unknowns. My new friend Kenny and I talk about it often. There is so much going on, how can one choose and where is the greatest opportunity for service. We want to do them all.

Primarily, Long Beach needs affordable housing for Queers; seniors and the homeless. I want to be a part of that long-overdue ground breaking. Personally, I want to use my fifty years of activism to inspire and advise high-risk militant change-makers.

Finally, I want to remember the names of dozens of people who know mine. Just today, as I was walking my dog, a neighbor shouted from the back of her house, “Merry Christmas, Zoe.”
Merry Christmas, Dusty.
Merry Christmas, Long Beach. 

So Long Pow Wow.

 I really did not mean to wait for the month that the show closes to post a review.  It was more that I have been really busy.  Now that the close has been announced, October 25, I feel pressed to make this happen. 

The first Long Beach City Council meeting I went to since I moved had an enthusiastic announcement about a mural show, POW WOW.  Certainly I cannot be the only person who thought it was going to be by, for and about Native Americans. 

They had my full attention.  My Potawatomi ancestry is important to me and I would support this city wide installation.  I had read that Long Beach is the second most diverse city in the country.  Opening day I drove to the central office, picked up a program and took off to drive to all nine sites. 

Not necessarily obvious in a non-binary state of mind but the documentation suggests there are 3 women among fifteen artists.  Again, though not definitive, there was not a preponderance of Native or Indigenous artists.  I feel confident in saying that the art was not bringing Native consciousness to the city. 

I suppose this all leads to one very surprising conclusion, the title was appropriated and, as such, was not acknowledged.  

Moving on to the primary and housed mural show, I went to the Long Beach Museum of Art.  Several months before, I had made a visit.  I had asked the docent if there were any works by women on view at the museum.  She told me that she didn’t know.  Using only names, which is not very reliable, my friend and I found one.  But I held great hope for Vitality and Verve: Transforming the Urban Landscape, the new show. 

Again, not certain evidence, of the twenty artists, a few are women.  Some of the names are gender neutral but lets roll with 15%.  (which I think is high).  I leave it to you, Aaron Horkey, Alex Yanes, Andrew Schoultz, Audrey Kawasaki, Brendan Monroe, Brandon Shigeta, Cryptik, Esao Andrews, Greg ‘Craola’ Simkins, Hot Tea, James Bullough, Jeff Soto, John S. Culqui, Low Bros, Meggs, Nosego, Nychos, Saber, and Tristan Eaton.

No matter the artists broken down into binary genders, a serious cultural goal with some, heretofore, resolutions unclear, let the work speak for itself.  Where are the women?  Where are the WELL women?  Where are women with clothes on ?  Or women not cut into parts lining one of the largest walls. 

The first woman is floating in pale lime green and too thin to carry a feather.  Message received.  Looking to the far wall, there is a woman in her underwear, lying on a sheet,  cut into dozens of pieces.  One repeating gash severing her head.  Trust me this is about as good as it gets.  Turning the few corners in the show, it did not get any more womanly.  Nothing fecund, well, wholesome, seasonal, celestial. 

I have to admit, I have been taught by the best; The Guerrilla Girls ~ both Guerilla Girls On Tour and Guerrilla Girls, Inc.  It is really quite simple: where are the women, in the art and artists?  Are they naked and tortured?  Are they well and valuable beyond being a sex object.  

 

The show is going to close October 25.  Interesting that LBMA’s latest email includes an annoucement about a new acquisition, Salmon Stripe by Gail Factor which will be on view November 19.  Others in the Oceanview Gallery will include works by Thelma deGoede Smith, Helen Lundeberg, Judy Chan, Karena Massengill, Mylene Raiche, and Joan Austin.  I am looking forward to seeing it.

But, really, Pow Wow??  Really?

A Tile in the Mosaic of Equality

In the streets of Chicago, 1968 I was directed by the methods and success of Gandhi.  I had read about him for years and presumed that his theories were inspiring the American Civil Rights Movement.  I grew up in devotion to the left wing of the Catholic Church, the hope of Vatican II and John XXIII.  My feminism was not really ignited yet.  In fact, I did not notice on my 15^th birthday, August 28, 1963, that no woman spoke from the podium at the Lincoln Memorial when Dr King told us of his dream. 

Many years later I heard some vague story about a woman who had led a hunger strike in jail campaigning for women’s suffrage.  At the time all I knew was Seneca, Stanton and Anthony.  Then through no direct line of influence, I found myself fasting for the Equal Rights Amendment and again I heard this woman’s name, Alice Paul.  She was the principle and most acknowledged author of the legislature.   My interested was piqued. 

Thirty-four years later, I have culled the universe for any and all information about and by Miss Paul.  I have read every book available, interviewed many people who both knew and worked for her.  I have pestered a historian friend for hundreds of articles.  I have learned to judge a book by its footnotes and to read in complete quiet.  I have been told I know more about Miss Paul than anyone.  I know her virtues, her many faults and, with humility, find me more like her with each revelation.  I have been given the honorific of Independent Scholar. 

Over the last few years one glaring truth has pierced my feminist heart.  Would it be different if I had known the first to practice Nonviolent Direct Action was a feminist woman?  Would it have different to know that the first to organize a march on the White House was a woman?  Why did my shelves have dozens of books on Gandhi’s theories and methods with application to the American Social Justice Movement and ZERO on Alice Paul’s?  Why had I read Indian Opinion and Harijan but not the Suffragist?  Why didn’t I know that both Miss Paul and M.K. Gandhi had been at suffrage rallies, spoken with Mrs Pankhurst and both left with objections to the introduction of violence.

I am devoted, I am dedicated to introduce Americans to their very own founder of Non Violent Direct Action, Miss Alice Paul.  I believe that knowing about Alice, her methods and her lifelong activism will inspire and light the way.  I base this on my own 50 years in activism.  I see how she never gave up.  She rested and moved with the ebb and flow of equality.  She did not party with the signing of the Nineteenth Amendment.  She went on to earn three law degrees to prepare for the campaign for constitutional equality.  The vote was just one tile in the mosaic of equality.   On her 92nd birthday, she spent her happy birthday phone call with First Lady Betty Ford promoting the ERA. 

We are left with a spectacular film by Sir Richard Attenborough on the life of Gandhi in which meticulous care was given to truth.  Entire scenes were recreated, dialog was taken from real life.  We need accessible accurate media to learned about, celebrate and fulfill the plans of Miss Alice Paul.  We will be better people to end the national practice of letting women age into obscurity and dismissing their legacy.  Her work of constitutional equality is now our work.

I hope you will trust me with creating a national, culturally illumined, campaign to build awareness of the infinite relevance of militant activist, Alice Paul.  There is a call for seed money on Kickstarter.  (click here) Your donation will be your tile in this particular mosaic for equality.  The goal is $9,200 which is $100 for each year of her life.  This amount is the foundation.  Once launched we will be creating both self-sustaining funding and sponsorship.  Thank you for joining this effort.  You can read about the objectives, vision and mission here.