What's Up With That? #3

I really do believe that Republicans hate women. 

It sounds crazy, and I've given it a lot of thought, but the evidence is becoming pretty strong.  In any and all situations they take every one's side except women. 

They mess with reproductive rights attempting to send us back to the bad old days siding with male church hierarchy, they vote against the Reauthorization of the Violence against Women Act siding with God knows who (rapists and abusers?), and now they block the Paycheck Fairness Act.  What the heck is their problem?  Did a woman scare them as a child?  Do they have mommy issues?

Republicans filibustered Democrats’ effort to pass a bill that would have opened up far more avenues for women to sue businesses when they suspect pay discrimination.  The legislation, known as the Paycheck Fairness Act, would shift burdens of proof toward businesses to defend their pay decisions, and would give women the right to sue for compensatory and punitive damages. It would allow women to file a class-action suit and would make them specifically have to opt out of the class.

All I can say to that is "Whoo hoo"!  It's about time.

Democrats fell more than a half-dozen votes shy of the 60 needed to head off the filibuster, but said they’ll force the Republicans to vote on it again in the walk-up to this year’s election.

Like I've said before,  I remember when my mom found out in the 1970's that the man who held her managerial job previously, received a salary twice as large as hers. She confronted her boss and he said,” Why do you think we hired a woman? We can pay you less.” She went to the State’s Attorney for justice and was patronized, and informed, “that’s how life is”.

That whole frustrating ordeal was a real wake up call to the inequities in the male female dynamic in the world.  She wasn't a feminist before, but she started to turn that direction.

I've known many women since who have suffered financial discrimination in the workplace, which is why companies don't want you sharing the details of your salary with your co-workers.  They don't want you to know you're being screwed.

Who 's side are they taking against women? Those poor sad corporations and businesses. My theory is that if corporations and businesses did what's right in the first place, they wouldn't have to worry about law suits. And yes, it was said during the Republican Primary contests, "Corporations are people", but evidently not female people.

What's Up With That #2

Here's another "What's Up With That" moment.  I shake my head in wonder.

Who in the world could be against the Senate Bill S. 1925, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2011 .  Simply put, it was a bill to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act of 1994.  I mean really, who is FOR violence against women?

Apparently 31 Republican Senators are.

Here is the "Roll Call" of shame of the "Nays" from the April vote:

Barrasso (R-WY) Blunt (R-MO) Boozman (R-AR) Burr (R-NC) Chambliss (R-GA) Coburn (R-OK) Cochran (R-MS) Cornyn (R-TX) DeMint (R-SC) Enzi (R-WY) Graham (R-SC)

Grassley (R-IA) Hatch (R-UT) Inhofe (R-OK) Isakson (R-GA) Johanns (R-NE) Johnson (R-WI) Kyl (R-AZ) Lee (R-UT) Lugar (R-IN) McConnell (R-KY) Moran (R-KS)

Paul (R-KY) Risch (R-ID) Roberts (R-KS) Rubio (R-FL) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Thune (R-SD) Toomey (R-PA) Wicker (R-MS)

Could the "Party of NO" be so out of control that they'd actually take a position of insensitivity to violence against women just because the original bill was signed into law by a Democratic President?

I had a friend who was wearing a tee shirt from the what used to be "Women's Strength" in Peoria.  The shirt said "You can't beat a woman".  She was at some event downtown and a complete stranger walked up to her and whispered in her ear, "You wanna make a bet?"  Then he leered and walked away. 

Until that type of climate for women is gone, bills such as S. 1925 are necessary.

What's Up With That #1 Addendum

Before we leave the subject of the wealthy versus the shrinking middle class, I need to say one more thing.

After the last blog was published, I read yet another editorial in the PJS about Fat Cat Unions destroying the economy.  You know, those wealthy teachers and road workers who suck so much money out of state budgets.

I know what they mean.  I see those evil teachers, after having to take classes and in most cases get their Masters to keep their jobs, getting so rich off our tax dollars that they almost quit their second job.  You know, the one they have to take to make the mortgage on their middle class home.

(If you want to see what happens to non-union people in the teaching profession, go to a food pantry some time and see the day care workers and teacher's aids standing in line because they get paid so little they can't make ends meet.)

I see those road workers, after spending 12 hours a day in the broiling heat or freezing cold, hopping in their  BMW's and going home to their mansions.  Or, maybe it's a Chevy truck and a house in the suburbs.

Unions gave us five day work weeks, paid vacations, benefits and much more.  Without them, those things will go away, for management as well as union workers.  If you find that hard to believe, Caterpillar is a prime example.

Every time they take something away from union workers, they take it away from management.  If union workers lose some vacation days, so does management.  Lose health benefits, so does management.  And so it goes.  If they no longer have to provide union benefits because their are no unions, soon no one will have them, and the gap between those at the top and those at the bottom will become a chasm.

I suppose that will work out alright.

The wealthy can live in their mansions on the hilltop,and the peasants and serfs can live below, looking up at the rich and serving their every need.

What's Up With That? #1

Have you ever just sat down and thought, “What’s up with that?’  I do it more and more as I get older.  The world is a mysterious place that never ceases to amaze and boggle my mind.  I know why the phrase “WTF” is prevalent in today’s social media, it seems apropos for many situations.

Most of these WTF moments cause me to rant and rave in the privacy of my own home.  But, my husband is getting tired of listening to me, and ultimately, what’s the fun of a one man audience?

So, I’m going to share some of my “What’s up with that?” thoughts one at a time, and see if writing them down helps the fog to clear.

The first phenomenon I would like to ponder is the recent trend of people (many of them middle class or lower) falling over themselves to be apologists for the rich.  God forbid anyone makes a suggestion that the rich aren’t paying their fair share, or corporate heads are overpaid, or are screwing (I couldn’t think of a more polite word) their employees.  Don’t even think of mentioning corporations who don’t pay taxes, or getting rid of tax breaks for the rich.  Katie bar the door!  You’d be smashed into smithereens by masses of people stampeding over top of each other to stick up for those “poor rich folks”! 

I read the editorial page, and am amazed at the letters defending the wealthy top percent.  God love ‘em, I didn’t realize they needed the help.  However, I do understand that if some of their tax breaks disappear they might be forced to keep their third vehicle a year longer, or maybe have to do some of their own lawn work.  My heart goes out to them.  Maybe Willie Nelson could organize a rich-aid concert.   

A friend told me that she didn’t think the rich should pay more taxes because they were “job makers”.  Really?  They were in hog heaven during the Bush administration and how’d that work out?  Just where were those jobs they made?  Can anyone say India and China?  They sure as heck weren’t here!

Meanwhile as the old depression era song says, “The rich get rich and the poor get poorer”.  The income gap is bigger than ever before, and the middle class is shrinking.   Union jobs, aka good jobs, are disappearing and budgets, state and federal, are being balanced on the backs of the middle and lower class, while the rich just skate along fat and happy.  Just look at Wisconsin.  Their shrewd governor was able to convince a majority of the state that their problems came from those awful teachers and road workers.   Of course he just winked at the wealthy, while giving them the old secret handshake.  I can hear the CEO's now, their little mouths salivating while they rub their soft white hands, “Let’s move to Wisconsin, we can pay the non-union workers a pittance, and make record profits for ourselves.   Whoo hoo!  “Can anyone say bank account in the Cayman Islands, and a winter home in the Bahamas?

So, next time you feel like being an apologist for the rich, just remember, the rich have no intention of being an apologist for you.

Mother's Day

The nation sets aside Sunday May 13^th as the day to honor those women who have loved, disciplined and worried about us our entire lives.  Those women who will always think of us, no matter what our age, as “kids”, and who, no matter how important we think we are, will wipe a spot off our face with spit and a hanky; our mothers. 

Where did Mother’s day come from?  Is it just a Hallmark holiday as some say?  Let’s see.

The earliest Mother's Day celebrations may have been the spring celebrations of ancient Greece in honor of Rhea, the Mother of the Gods.

During the 1600's, on the fourth Sunday of Lent, England celebrated a day honoring the mothers of England called "Mothering Sunday".  

On that day the wealthy would give their servants the day off, and they and were encouraged to return home and spend the day with their mothers.  They usually brought along a special cake called a “Mothering Cake” to add a special touch to the festivities.

As Christianity spread throughout Europe, the celebration changed to honor the "Mother Church", commemorating the belief that the church gave them life.  Over time, the church festival blended with the Mothering Sunday celebration, and people began honoring their mothers as well as the church.

In the United States, Julia Ward Howe (who wrote the words to the Battle hymn of the Republic) suggested the first Mother's Day in 1872 as a day dedicated to peace.  Every year, Ms. Howe would hold organized Mother's Day meetings in Boston, Massachusetts.

In 1907, a woman from Philadelphia, Ana Jarvis, began a campaign to establish a national Mother's Day.  Ms. Jarvis persuaded her mother's church in Grafton, West Virginia to celebrate Mother's Day on the second Sunday of May, the anniversary of her mother's death. By the next year, churches in Philadelphia were also honoring mothers on that day.

Ms. Jarvis and her supporters started a letter writing campaign to ministers, businessmen, and politicians in their quest to establish a national Mother's Day.  They were amazingly successful.  By 1911, almost every state celebrated Mother's Day.  President Woodrow Wilson, in 1914, made the official announcement proclaiming Mother's Day as a national holiday held each year on the 2nd Sunday of May, the anniversary of Ms. Jarvis’ Mothers death.

     In 1911, Joyce Hall and his brothers formed a wholesale postcard business that they named Hall Brothers, the forerunner of Hallmark.  They introduced the Pansy Card, the first Mother’s Day card in 1939, long after the establishment of Mother’s Day.  So, it seems that Mother’s Day is not a holiday created by Hallmark to sell more cards. 

I’d like to close with a few “Motherisms” that I’ve seen on the internet.

Mother taught me about logic….”Because I said so, that’s why!”

Mother taught me genetics…”You’re just like your father!”

Mother taught me about religion…”You better pray that will come out of the carpet!”

Mother taught me about my roots…”Shut that door.  Were you born in a barn?”

Mother taught me about anticipation….”Just wait until we

get home!”

Happy Mother’s Day!

   

   

WE’VE COME A LONG WAY BABY

Lately the newspapers and airwaves are full of comments about the new "War on Women".  In this case it's primarily concern about a  war on women's reproductive rights, but in the not too distant past, the war was raging about many aspects of women's lives.  That's the fear of many who remember the "bad old days",  that we're regressing little by little back into those unenlightened times.

I admit, unfortunately I'm old enough to have lived through some of that history.

I had the privilege of meeting Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem, and had three unpleasant encounters with an amazingly nasty, foul mouthed Phyllis Schlafly.

I marched for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment in Peoria and Springfield, and lobbied the Illinois General Assembly, along with busloads of farm women bearing baskets of homemade bread to soften them up.  Then we watched in frustration as ratification failed.

Four decades ago, my male pastor informed me that women would never be allowed to enter the ministry.  If they wanted to serve God, they should teach in a parochial school.  For some unknown reason, it also took a male reproductive organ to light candles, serve on council, (unless you wanted to be the secretary), and pass an offering plate.  Now I have been blessed to have had a woman for my pastor.

No matter what the weather, girls had to wear dresses to school and church.  They also didn’t cut grass, take out the garbage, or have organized sports.  Those were boy things.  The only decent options presented to high school girls for non- homemaking careers were teaching and nursing.

A survey I conducted for one of my women’s studies classes at ISU back in the early seventies concurred with the prevailing attitudes that people wouldn’t use a woman lawyer, and would only go to a woman doctor for less serious ailments. 

Once, in high school, I was surprised to find myself in the non-college track English class.  My previous teacher, tracked me down, took me aside and told me I didn’t belong there, get out now.  I went to my advisor, only to have her tell me that it wasn’t necessary for a woman to go to college, that she could have a fulfilled life with a high school education.  Just find a man.  She advised me to take home economics.  I bugged them until they changed my class schedule, but it wasn’t easy.

At college, I once peeked at my records while my advisor was out of the room.  Imagine my surprise when I saw that when I told my high school advisor I wanted to try pre-law, he put in my records I wanted to be a legal secretary.  I had never taken a secretarial class in my life.  I have the utmost respect for secretaries, but that was not a skill set I had.

I remember when my mom found out that the man who held her managerial job previously, received a salary twice as large as hers. She confronted her boss and he said,” Why do you think we hired a woman? We can pay you less.” She went to the State’s Attorney for justice and was patronized and informed, “that’s how life is”.

I remember the “shot heard round the world” when Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in the tennis “battle of the sexes”.

I could reminisce for pages, but I don’t have enough room.  Suffice it to say, as they said back then, “we’ve come a long way baby.”

But, we’re not there yet.  Women are apathetic about their rights, not appreciating the hard won battles of the past.  If they’re not diligent, those rights could slip away.  They still receive an average of 80 cents to a man’s dollar in the workplace.  The glass ceiling is above their heads, only now in stealth form, and just the thought of a woman running for president brings all the sexists out of the woodwork.  Lawmakers seem more adamant about laws protecting the flag, or English, than laws protecting women, especially our poor sisters.

So, as the new "War on Women" heats up during this election year, let’s remember the old adage, “Those who ignore the mistakes of the past, are bound to repeat them in the future.”

      

Plastic Peeve

On the front page of the Peoria Journal Star today, a headline announced that legislation is being considered to do away with plastic shopping bags.

May I comment?

Whoo hoo!

Consider my pet peeve, the plastic shopping bag.  I hate them.

On a personal level, they’re a pain.  They fall over in the car, dumping groceries to roll around in the back, driving me nuts.  Baggers insist on putting just a couple items in each bag, leaving me with an army of the things to load and unload, and then I’m stuck with them.  They multiply at night when no one is looking, then jump out and attack whenever I try to walk past their storage area.

I’ve stared at what I thought was a cool bird for long periods of time before realizing that it was just a white or brown plastic bag stuck in a tree.  And, as dumb as that sounds, I was glad to learn that it’s a common mistake.  “Bird Watcher’s Digest” has had several articles about those blasted bags being the nemesis of bird watchers.

If you’ve ever paid attention as you drive the country roads in Central Illinois, there are plastic bags stuck in trees and bushes in unbelievable numbers.  Just look around, you’ll be amazed. Those ubiquitous plastic shopping bags are everywhere.  They are multiplying in the wild and we need thin the herd. 

On an environmental level, studies estimate that Americans alone use over use over 84 billion plastic bags annually.  Besides being unsightly roadside attractions, they take hundreds of years to break down as they flap from trees, clog storm drains, float in the breeze, fill the bellies, and kill animals that mistake them for food, and clutter landfills.  As they decompose, tiny toxic bits seep into the waterways and the earth, poisoning the planet for hundreds of years to come.

Plastic bags are made from oil, gas, and coal by-products, wasting resources and polluting the Earth by their production.

So, next time the bagger asks paper or plastic, get a jump on the legislators and say paper, or better yet say “No” bag.  Many stores now sell canvas reusable bags, or bring any canvas bag from home.  If you’re stuck with plastic bags, many stores, such as Krogers, have recycling bins inside their front doors.  Consider recycling instead of filling up your local landfill.

With lots of tiny steps in the right direction, we can get closer to the goal of getting rid of those darn bags, before the legislation wheels even start to churn.