Let 'em know you're in!

November 6, 2012_ not very far away! What are you doing between now and then to take care of democracy no matter how bogged down perceptions may be in reactionary judgmentalism?!! 

Isn't it a grand thing to have freedom to criticize everything to the point of unconsciousness & limited exposure?

Not to insult people_ rather to hold up a mirror. Find your courage to step out from behind always only criticizing as a form of communication. Take constructive & healthy action on behalf of the rights you truly hold dear!

The French did it by God! So can WE!

Gifts from the universe, channeled through our very presence

Two weeks ago just prior to my project launch at the summer art & technology fesitval in my community, I happened on a scribe at the local farmer's market.

She was assertively plying her presence and literary wares by offering free poems to the recipient of your choice. In need of feeling love in the universe, I asked her to channel a poem from the Divine to me.

Asking me questions about favorite colors, what my obstacles in life might be, and asking me to pick up certain objects found in nature from her writing desk_ she asked me to come back in about 1/2 an hour to collect my poem.

Yet, for the artist on my summer routine through the market, I quickly misplaced that follow through obligation, and went on my merry way_ never missing the details of this wonderful encounter at all!

Later the following week as I was riding my bike on one of my normal routes, & heading for home, I heard my name shouted out from the side of the road. Following the sound my eyes immediately caught sight of the whimsical & talented scribe from the farmer's market, and all memory of that moment only a week prior, cascaded immediately within my mind & heart.

I post her talented words here, for you to please enjoy them with me_ may the Divine continue smiling upon your happy summer!

HERvotes Blog Carnival: Women Need Economic Security

This article originally posted on Ms. blog  

May 11, 2012  

by Terry O'Neill · Leave a Comment 

20Share

0diggsdig

Digg Digg

In time for Mothers Day, the 12th HERvotes blog carnival is dedicated to getting the word out about economic security for women, especially in their retirement years.  Women need better benefits — not cuts — under social safety net programs.

The economic slump in both the U.S. and Europe has prompted elites to call for “austerity.”  But we know that’s just a code word for cutting social programs women rely on disproportionately.  It turns out, though, that politicians who champion “austerity” will pay a price at the polls.  Just look at Europe: Last week, French voters ousted Nicolas Sarkozy and Greek voters threw the government into crisis — mainly in reaction to harsh cuts in social programs and (in France) an increase in the official retirement age.  Voters get it: austerity leads to a stagnant economy.

Here in the U.S., austerity imposed by state and local governments has thrown hundreds of thousands of government employees out of work, the majority of whom are women.  Want to know why the unemployment rate, while declining, hasn’t gone below 8 percent yet?  It’s mostly because of spending cuts imposed by conservative state officials like Texas Governor Rick Perry, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, Florida Governor Rick Scott, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett and others.

Despite elites’ call for across-the-board federal budget cuts and reductions in Social Security benefits, women’s organizations are calling for improvements in those benefits — specifically, child care credits for those who drop out of the work force to care for children or ill or disabled family members; an improved minimum benefit for lifetime low-wage and part-time workers, who are disproportionately women; fairer rules for disabled widows and surviving spouses, benefit equality for working widows; and equal benefits for same-sex spouses and partners, among other improvements.

In a report to be released today (Friday, May 11), the National Organization for Women Foundation, with the Institute for Women’s Policy Research and the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare call for these improvements to be made. In “Breaking the Social Security Glass Ceiling: A Proposal to Modernize Women’s Benefits” (PDF) we call for updating the program to face the new demographic reality: many women are now both bread-winners and primary care-givers and our guaranteed social insurance system should recognize that fact.

*Join us by sharing the posts below on Facebook, Twitter (using the hashtag #HERvotes), and other social media.

*Part of the #HERvotes blog carnival.

Read More:
My Time, Intellect, Skills and Labor are Worth Less than Those of My Male Peers? Really? Yes, Really.- Anny Bolgiano, Intern, Coalition of Labor Union Women

The Gifts Mothers Really Want- Ellen Bravo, Director, Family Values @ Work

Thank You, Mom, for Teaching Me to Be Safe and Secure- Malore Dusenbery, Special Populations Associate, WOW

Can’t Afford to Work?- Shawn McMahon, Manager of Research and Innovation, WOW

Making a Vital Lifeline More Secure for Women- National Organization for Women

#HERvotes, a multi-organization campaign launched in August 2011, advocates women using our voices and votes to stop the attacks on the major advances of the women’s movement, many of which are at risk in the next election.

Returning Economy to the Economy, to Education, to Culture, to the Environment

As a single woman, who full-time single parented for 23 years, while becoming better educated about emotional/psychological family history I inherited_ to bring up a healthier child & to heal myself responsibly_ I earned my first undergraduate degree at long last, along with the ever accruing interest of a 45k debt load.
Subsequently, I also experience almost 3 years of recession-related unemployment before that turned around wonderfully, yet in continual low-wage paying ways.

I have never had debt this high before.

Now, I am earning a second undergraduate degree.

In the community where I call home, there has never been a panacea of employment here. Yet, I have stayed to accomplish the needed inner healing work first.
Over time then, I have experienced getting stuck in one geographic location because not enough opportunity &/or resource in any one or combination of direction(s) could I make fit together to move on to the next place my life wants to be_ defining material success, greater participation & contribution.
To get where I am inside my sense of self today, I could not have functioned without having first intuitively learned what it takes for me to coordinate self-value with civic responsibility in pursuit of personal dreams, while having raised & love my only, highly independent-child-family_ well enough, to leave Family Of Origin dysfunctionalism behind in one generation. *Garden-variety dysfunctionalism found in 85% of American families to one degree or another.

Shame, avoidance, abandonment_ particularly the unconscious, self-negating & victim-identity kind_ expressing in the public/professional & private domains, as projected judgment toward all others, making up a large enough percentage of the gate-keeping negotiating resistance, as  to contribute significantly in stifling via obstacle-centered energy in the face of meaningful change, as the other side of many a reasonable issue requiring everyone's fully conscious capacity participation. Such as how to reasonably pay for such things as public educational access that requires a more consciously responsible availability on the part of everyone, in order to reach greater collective success for all really?!

What personal, local, state, national or international human systems of access best provide for a broader spectrum of more educated workers, entrepreneurs, retirees & leaders in this world?

I say come fearlessly together, to craft solution-centered responses that are not couched in self-serving negative, reactionary judgmentalism that is only disempowering for absolutely everyone. Leave behind past-looking story identification!

Actively engage. Empower self through constructive participation, to collectively find solution-centered answers that actually work for more & more of everyone_ without exception.

Get over fear from the inside expressing in ugly, destructive, intolerant, & even in passive/aggressive ways on the outside. The social world is reflecting this habit more & more in ways that increasingly impact everyones' capacity to access, grow and perpetuate well-being naturally. Money is not even a fully conscious tool in human interactions YET!

Stubborn, fear-based silence rooted in negative resistance, only pushes away at developing healthier individual coping skills. This quality of silence is only a way to fool one's self that others will/do not notice.

Other's DO notice.

The recession nationally, & internationally reflects what evolutionary progress we are in need of making collectively.

What do you need to learn to consciously love & value yourself so, you are more available to receive & co-participate in the reality of unconditional love in this world, together?

*Photo courtesy of thealiensinmybasement, as well as informed perspectives on this topic from, many other intelligent places on the web!

Here is Something Important to Me_ What About You?

Third Culture Kids

The term “third culture kids” was first coined by Ruth Useem in the 1960’s. She used it to refer to children who lived in a culture different from the one they were born into or the one their parents came from. Their first culture is their birth culture, or parents culture. The second culture is the culture they have moved to. The third culture is the one they create when they move to the new country. They tend to be more comfortable mixing with children who are also third culture kids than they do mixing with children from either their original culture or the culture in their new country. David Pollock, author of “Third Culture Kids”, writes:

[A third culture kid is] a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside the parents’ culture. The TCK builds relationships to all of the cultures, while not having full ownership of any. Although elements from each culture are assimilated into the TCK’s life experience, the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of a similar background.

Adaptability

Third culture kids (TCK’s) generally find it easier to adapt to new cultures and will be more likely to move often as adults. If they return to their home country they may experience reverse culture shock as they pine for the foreign country they have left behind. They are more likely to choose careers that lead them to live overseas or travel often, but may have more difficulty adjusting to long lasting relationships as they have been used to frequently saying goodbye to friends as children. Studies of adult TCK’s who have returned to their home country show that 90% of them feel “out of synch” with their peers who have never lived overseas.
Although they do not necessarily relate to their peer group in their home country there are many positives to growing up as a third culture kid. As adults, they tend to feel they can tackle any problem and adapt to any group. They usually maintain a strong interest in international issues and generally are comfortable making change in their lives when things are not going well rather than continuing with negative patterns and more than two thirds actively participate in their local communities on a voluntary basis.

Divided Loyalties

One thing that many TCK’s struggle with is the issue of divided loyalties. If their host country has a different approach to politics, religion or world issues than their home country, they can find it confusing when trying to deal with the different points of view. They are likely to have friends from a wide range of countries and some of those children’s home countries may have conflicts with other children’s home countries. All of this can be confusing for them as they try to understand the deeper issues related to cross cultural conflict. Talking to your children when these issues arise, especially if there are specific tensions in the world related to politics or religion, can help them to come to terms with understanding that the world is more grey than black and white.

Three Dimensional Reality of the World

TCK’s tend to have broader experience of the world than children who have not lived outside their home country. They may have holidays that include trekking on elephants, observing orangutans in the jungle and sleeping in longhouses. They are likely to be comfortable with long haul travel on planes and have an intimate understanding of the how the mini bar works in the hotel room! While most children in Western countries have read about volcanoes in their text books, Bali TCK’s are more likely to have climbed one and have seen them each day on their journey to school. All of their experiences give them a richer, deeper understanding of the world. This vivid reality can also be difficult for them to come to terms with. Seeing poverty firsthand can affect them emotionally. It can help to get them involved in giving back to their local community in some way, developing an understanding that we all have a role to play in eliminating poverty and making meaningful contributions to society.
While they may have a deep understanding of the country they live in and a broader understanding of the world as a whole than non-TCK’s, they may have less understanding of the culture, geography and history of their home country. British children will experience Nyepi and Galungan in Bali but are unlikely to experience Guy Fawkes in the way their peers back in the UK would do. If it is important for your children to learn about the history and culture of your home country you may have to focus on this yourself at home rather than having your children’s school address this need.
Recommended Reading: Third Culture Kids by David Pollock and Ruth van Reken
*I discovered this article on LivingInBali

Review for some; new considerations for others: How far have we actually come?

Woman must have her freedom —the fundamental freedom  of choosing whether or not she  shall be a mother and how  many children she will have. _Margaret Sanger    Sanger and Her Sons

Margaret Sanger (1879–1966).  Woman and the New Race.  1920.

The chronicle of Sanger’s decades-long battle to legalize and develop information on the prevention of venereal disease and then methods of birth control, during which she endured indictment, exile and prison.

XVIII. The Goal

WHAT is the goal of woman’s upward struggle? Is it voluntary motherhood? Is it general freedom? Or is it the birth of a new race? For freedom is not fruitless, but prolific of higher things. Being the most sacred aspect of woman’s freedom, voluntary motherhood is motherhood in its highest and holiest form. It is motherhood unchained—motherhood ready to obey its own urge to remake the world.	1
Voluntary motherhood implies a new morality—a vigorous, constructive, liberated morality. That morality will, first of all, prevent the submergence of womanhood into motherhood. It will set its face against the conversion of women into mechanical maternity and toward the creation of a new race.	2
Woman’s rôle has been that of an incubator and little more. She has given birth to an incubated race. She has given to her children what little she was permitted to give, but of herself, of her personality, almost nothing. In the mass, she has brought forth quantity, not quality. The requirement of a male dominated civilization has been numbers. She has met that requirement.	3
It is the essential function of voluntary motherhood to choose its own mate, to determine the time of childbearing and to regulate strictly the number of offspring. Natural affection upon her part, instead of selection dictated by social or economic advantage, will give her a better fatherhood for her children. The exercise of her right to decide how many children she will have and when she shall have them will procure for her the time necessary to the development of other faculties than that of reproduction. She will give play to her tastes, her talents and her ambitions. She will become a full-rounded human being.	4
Thus and only thus will woman be able to transmit to her offspring those qualities which make for a greater race.	5
The importance of developing these qualities in the mothers for transmission to the children is apparent when we recall certain well-established principles of biology. In all of the animal species below the human, motherhood has a clearly discernible superiority over fatherhood. It is the first pulse of organic life. Fatherhood is the fertilizing element. Its development, compared to that of the mother cell, is comparatively new. Likewise, its influence upon the progeny is comparatively small. There are weighty authorities who assert that through the female alone comes those modifications of form, capacity and ability which constitute evolutionary progress. It was the mothers who first developed cunning in chase, ingenuity in escaping enemies, skill in obtaining food, and adaptability. It was they also who attained unfailing discretion in leadership, adaptation to environment and boldness in attack. When the animal kingdom as a whole is surveyed, these stand out as distinctly feminine traits. They stand out also as the characteristics by which the progress of species is measured.	6
Why is all this true of the lower species yet not true of human beings? The secret is revealed by one significant fact—the female’s functions in these animal species are not limited to motherhood alone. Every organ and faculty is fully employed and perfected. Through the development of the individual mother, better and higher types of animals are produced and carried forward. In a word, natural law makes the female the expression and the conveyor of racial efficiency.	7
Birth control itself, often denounced as a violation of natural law, is nothing more or less than the facilitation of the process of weeding out the unfit, of preventing the birth of defectives or of those who will become defectives. So, in compliance with nature’s working plan, we must permit womanhood its full development before we can expect of it efficient motherhood. If we are to make racial progress, this development of womanhood must precede motherhood in every individual woman. Then and then only can the mother cease to be an incubator and be a mother indeed. Then only can she transmit to her sons and daughters the qualities which make strong individuals and, collectively, a strong race.	8
Voluntary motherhood also implies the right of marriage without maternity. Two utterly different functions are developed in the two relationships. In order to give the mate relationship its full and free play, it is necessary that no woman should be a mother against her will. There are other reasons, of course—reasons more frequently emphasized—but the reason just mentioned should never be overlooked. It is as important to the race as to the woman, for through it is developed that high love impulse which, conveyed to the child, attunes and perfects its being.	9
Marriage, quite aside from parentage, also gives two people invaluable experience. When parentage follows in its proper time, it is a better parentage because of the mutual adjustment and development—because of the knowledge thus gained. Few couples are fitted to understand the sacred mystery of child life until they have solved some of the problems arising out of their own love lives.	10
Maternal love, which usually follows upon a happy, satisfying mate love, becomes a strong and urgent craving. It then exists for two powerful, creative functions. First, for its own sake, and then for the sake of further enriching the conjugal relationship. It is from such soil that the new life should spring. It is the inherent right of the new life to have its inception in such physical ground, in such spiritual atmosphere. The child thus born is indeed a flower of love and tremendous joy. It has within it the seeds of courage and of power. This child will have the greatest strength to surmount hardships, to withstand tyrannies, to set still higher the mark of human achievement.	11
Shall we pause here to speak again of the rights of womanhood, in itself and of itself, to be absolutely free? We have talked of this right so much in these pages, only to learn that in the end, a free womanhood turns of its own desire to a free and happy motherhood, a motherhood which does not submerge the woman, but which is enriched because she is unsubmerged. When we voice, then, the necessity of setting the feminine spirit utterly and absolutely free, thought turns naturally not to rights of the woman, nor indeed of the mother, but to the rights of the child—of all children in the world. For this is the miracle of free womanhood, that in its freedom it becomes the race mother and opens its heart in fruitful affection for humanity.	12
How narrow, how pitifully puny has become motherhood in its chains! The modern motherhood enfolds one or two adoring children of its own blood, and cherishes, protects and loves them. It does not reach out to all children. When motherhood is a high privilege, not a sordid, slavish requirement, it will encircle all. Its deep, passionate intensity will overflow the limits of blood relationship. Its beauty will shine upon all, for its beauty is of the soul, whose power of enfoldment is unbounded.	13
When motherhood becomes the fruit of a deep yearning, not the result of ignorance or accident, its children will become the foundation of a new race. There will be no killing of babies in the womb by abortion, nor through neglect in foundling homes, nor will there be infanticide. Neither will children die by inches in mills and factories. No man will dare to break a child’s life upon the wheel of toil.	14
Voluntary motherhood will not be passive, resigned, or weak. Out of its craving will come forth a fierceness of love for its fruits that will make such men as remain unawakened stand aghast at its fury when offended. The tigress is less terrible in defense of her offspring than will be the human mother. The daughters of such women will not be given over to injustice and to prostitution; the sons will not perish in industry nor upon the battle field. Nor could they meet these all too common fates if an undaunted motherhood were there to defend. Childhood and youth will be too valuable in the eyes of society to waste them in the murderous mills of blind greed and hate.	15
This is the dawn. Womanhood shakes off its bondage. It asserts its right to be free. In its freedom, its thoughts turn to the race. Like begets like. We gather perfect fruit from perfect trees. The race is but the amplification of its mother body, the multiplication of flesh habitations—beautified and perfected for souls akin to the mother soul.	16
The relentless efforts of reactionary authority to suppress the message of birth control and of voluntary motherhood are futile. The powers of reaction cannot now prevent the feminine spirit from breaking its bonds. When the last fetter falls the evils that have resulted from the suppression of woman’s will to freedom, will pass. Child slavery, prostitution, feeblemindedness, physical deterioration, hunger, oppression and war will disappear from the earth.	17
In their subjection women have not been brave enough, strong enough, pure enough to bring forth great sons and daughters. Abused soil brings forth stunted growths. An abused motherhood has brought forth a low order of humanity. Great beings come forth at the call of high desire. Fearless motherhood goes out in love and passion for justice to all mankind. It brings forth fruits after its own kind. When the womb becomes fruitful through the desire of an aspiring love, another Newton will come forth to unlock further the secrets of the earth and the stars. There will come a Plato who will be understood, a Socrates who will drink no hemlock, and a Jesus who will not die upon the cross. These and the race that is to be in America await upon a motherhood that is to be sacred because it is free. *This article & the entire contents of this information, can be found in its original form on this website: http://www.bartleby.com/1013/18.html *One great resource: http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/

Bombard Apple

In the wake of the Java breach that is among those attack viruses that are (shall we say continually) making Apple computers (more) vulnerable, I recently read this sentiment on the web:  

Unfortunately if you are running Leopard (OSX 10.5) or earlier, you must manually disable or remove Java, because Apple no longer supports those older versions. It would be good if Apple issued an update for these older versions, because many people still use them.

I say let's do something about that!

In the USA, here is Apple's Software Upgrade Center telephone number: (888) 840-8433

Call them repeatedly to say how much those of us with the older versions, also need our computers to function up-to-date. Because, if we only accept things without registering preference, then there is no choice! Customer feedback makes quality in the marketplace run also! How do you want your experiences in the market to run, for you or excluding you?

I will buy my next Mac, when I have the money_ NOT when a corporation squeezes me into conforming my decision-making according to its sales reports schedule! 

Call Apple_ tell THEM what YOU want_ & you don't have to be scared, or insecure or yell at anybody to make this turn around for our benefit. We are loyal Apple customers who deserve to have our operating systems reasonably taken care of!

In North America, call: (888) 840-8433_ tell Apple what your OS needs to run secure!