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Tag Archives: Women’s Rights
Rev your engines!
Grab you keys
your self-esteem
keep your hope alive
and get behind your wheels of choice
and drive, baby, drive!
Fighting for rights
A man, close to the front, pumped his fist. “My wife don’t have time for more learning. We got six kids needing supper on the table.”
A melee of querulous male voices erupted from the crowd.
“Why do women prostitute themselves to the abnormal passion of man?” Miss Fisher continued. “Because they are poverty-stricken, destitute above temptation and driven by necessity. They sell themselves, in marriage or out, for bread and shelter, for the necessities of life. How can we blame them? They have no other recourse but to live in a society that dictates what they, we, can and cannot do. To solve this problem, we demand that women be allowed to exercise their inherent, personal, citizen’s right to be a voice in the government, municipal, state, and national. Then, women will have the power to protect themselves.”
“We men protect our women just fine,” a voice shouted. Other men shouted their agreement.
Mayor Hicks stepped to the podium, his lips pursed. “Enough of your heckling. Save your disagreements for editorials in the newspapers. She has a right to free speech.”
“So do we,” someone boomed back.
The mayor banged a fist on the podium. “These women are invited guests. By God, we will show them our southern Hospitality.”
The raw egg came from nowhere. It narrowly missed the Mayor’s head before landing on the bandstand floor. He squinted, searching the crowd.
Poor Mrs. Fenwick held a shaky hand over her mouth.
Miss Fisher reached below the dais and pulled out a speaking trumpet. “The true relation of the sexes can never be attained until women are free and equal with man,” she continued, her determination thundering above the chaos.
The second egg hit the podium dead center.
Excerpt from The Last Bordello
No Pissing in the CUSP-idors
Me and the world in 1977
You probably know by now how much I love research. When I came across this photo of me on a camping trip in Colorado, I took a look back.
Notable things for me that year:
-President Carter grants pardon to American Draft dodgers of the Vietnam War
-Popular songs were the Eagles Hotel California and New Kid in Town, and The Bee Gees, How Deep is Your Love
-The first “Rocky” movie came out as did “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”
-The National Women’s Conference, held in Houston, was the first meeting of its type in the U.S. since the Women’s Rights Convention in New York in 1848.
But the best? The Medal of Freedom was awarded posthumously to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (to Coretta Scott King an MLK, Sr.)
I just spoke to the Prez
He sent me this email. I know The Affordable Care Act has it’s issues. Still.
Here’s my response.
I should have asked him to tweet a response back. Something about blood coming out of my you-know-what. Dammit! Why do I think of these things later?!
A Crowd of Resistance
Mrs. Helen Stoddard of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union speaks to an unruly crowd.
Mrs. Stoddard scanned the crowd. Some listened while others talked among themselves, paying no attention to her whatsoever.
“I grieve with you, citizens of San Antonio. One woman from your San Antonio Women’s Club continues to grieve for her husband, who fell to his death while drunk. Another woman is dead by the hands of her husband, the owner of a saloon. His only defense? ‘I was drunk. I didn’t know what I was doing.’”
Someone yelled, “Drink or not, Carl’s a louse. Never takes me on credit.” The woman next to him punched his arm.
“Who will be next?” Mrs. Stoddard continued. “Will it be your daughter, still in her youth, whose face will feel the wrath of a hand that has held too many whiskeys? Will it be your mother, your sister, or your aunt who will have the misfortune to be associated with a drunkard? Will the man stumble down the stairs of his home and find an innocent target? Point the edge of his knife to her throat? Will she be pummeled by a fist, discarded like a mere piece of garbage?”
“Maybe she weren’t so innocent.” The man, close to the front, laughed. A few others joined his guffaw.
“In the words of the great Elizabeth Cady Stanton, ‘Reformers from all sides claim for themselves a higher position than the church. Our God is a God of justice, mercy, and truth. Their God sanctions violence, oppression, and wine-bibbing, and winks at gross moral delinquencies. Our Bible commands us to love our enemies, to Resist evil, to break every yoke, and let the oppressed go free…In our creed, it is a sin to hold a slave, to hang a man on the gallows, to make war on defenseless nations, or to sell rum to a weak brother and rob the widow and the orphan of a protector and a home.’”
I turned my back to the bandstand. It was dark now, but the gas lampposts provided enough light to see a shadowy figure behind a cluster of trees twenty feet behind me.
“I’ll be right back, Aunt Amelia. I want to check on something.”
If Sadie was still there, I didn’t want to scare her away. Trying to be inconspicuous, I inched to the left of the tree and then slipped behind it. “Sadie?”
Excerpt from The Last Bordello
Keep Your Poisonous Swab away from MY Canal
On a scale from one to Ten on the happiness meter, I’d say that I’m a fairly consistent eight. But, unfortunately, the needle of my frustration o-meter’s is perilously close to the danger zone. Why?
My core belief system, my moral code has not only been challenged, but also marginalized by the flip of a narcissistic man’s hand.
Anyone who has read some of my past blogs know who I am and what I stand for. And, what I acknowledge as my truth, isn’t about to change now. In fact, now, that select politicians have dipped their poisonous swab into my ideology canal, the results will come back as they always have, and this time, with a vengeance. I will continue to fight for the oppressed, for the rights of humanity and stand up against tyranny.
It has come to my attention that many folks did not understand the reason for the “Women’s March.” That’s okay. Hopefully, after so much has been written, they now understand. It wasn’t a protest against, but a march for. A march toward a better place for all humans.
How is that a bad thing?
Yes, I heard that somewhere in the world, there were acts of violence at the women’s march. The one I read about was of a pro-life supporter who was spit upon for her beliefs. Outrageous, in my opinion. I am not pro abortion in any way. I would have done (and tried) anything to have given birth to my two wonderful children who have made me a grandmother.
I am for the right to choose. I know, some of you might not understand this, and it’s too hard to explain in this post.
I also believe that some of the signs carried at various marches were “inappropriate.” Yet the ones who carried them had as much right to do so as the pro-life marchers.
Because, in that march, there was room for everyone, Republicans and Democrats alike who believed in the rights of humanity.
Now, here is my frustration. Four million plus people across the world marched to show their support for equality and since then, my mind has returned to vague memories of the sixties and the more prominent ones in the seventy and eighties. So why didn’t the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) pass? The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal rights for women .
“Gender equality, also known as sex equality, gender egalitarianism, sexual equality, or equality of the genders, is the view that everyone should receive equal treatment and not be discriminated against based on their gender.[This is one of the objectives of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which seeks to create equality in law and in social situations, such as in democratic activities and securing equal pay for equal work.” (see wikipedia for more info on the 9th amendment to the constitution and also the 14th which finally gave rights to same-sex couples.)
The National Organization for Women, N.O.W., founded in 1966, worked toward equal pay for women. How has that worked out so far?
I recently turned, gulp, sixty. Do I really have to do this all over again?
Our Seeds are Growing and We Will Be Watching!
I do believe that all the marchers on Saturday were part of an Oversight committee. We will keep our eyes on the new President, while our hands remain over our hearts.
How I love this piece of art by Louisa Cannell!
and this t-shirt some friends of mine wore at the march!
Four Million Threads
They showed from every corner
From sea to shining sea
And set their sights to ameliorate
The key of democracy.
And, across the globe they crowded
Lifting wings of strength, declared
the rights of all humanity
Shall no longer be impaired.
Yes, on that day, they gathered
Determined, forged ahead
awareness in a tapestry,
made from four million thread.
-CDW 1-22-17
Please have a look at these related posts:
Jill -a lie by any other name is still a lie.
GC’s, “Yes gentlemen , the oft labelled “weaker sex” demonstrated to the entire world that they had more spine and political savvy than many of the top gun politicians around the world.”
And marches around the world.
Carolyn Dennis-Willingham 