The Bill of Reproductive Rights

I've always loved Meryl Streep, but I especially appreciate her as she appears for Draw the Line (with thanks to Trish MacGregor for this).  Listen to what Meryl Streep has to say, and let's avoid a future in which old men in congress tell women and girls what they can do with their bodies (and minds)  (in other words, not much). Among other things, this democracy was created to separate Church and State, which these patriarchs clearly do not respect. The rights of women should be self-evident.  And as overpopulation threatens all future generations,  these are the same men who decry the "welfare state" and would leave all those unwanted babies, and their mothers,  to lives of poverty.  Sign the Bill of Rights.  Meryl is right:  this is no time to be complacent.

Remember:    Rush Limbaugh called Sandra Fluke a "slut" and offered to give her "as much aspirin to put between her knees as she wants.".  Todd Akin said that during "legitimate rape" (!!) a woman can't get pregnant because "her reproductive system shuts down." As Kevin Bacon comments below, a lawmaker in Georgia equates women to "farm animals" and comments that the problem would be solved if they would just stop having sex..........Do we really want people like that with the power to decide the reproductive future of half the population? Personally, I don't like the idea of people like that having the power to drive a lawnmower,  let alone the power to shut down family planning clinics.
http://www.drawtheline.org/

An Ancestor Synchronicity

We really are all connected, and I think that's the nature of the "new paradigm", the real meaning of 2012.  It's the time when the veils are thin, and I've remembered a story that I ought to tell it in this journal before it disappears from my memory. Because it's about healing on many levels.

First, I need to say that I have a daughter who is brilliant and talented, and she herself is a mother now.  I also need to say that she is someone else's daughter, because I was 18 when she was born, and gave Shari up at birth. Birth control was very hard for young girls to get in those days, nor was education about birth  control readily available then, and I was a relatively common adolescent statistic.

I requested, at the time, that she be adopted by a Jewish family.  I'm not Jewish, but I had many friends who were, her birth father was Russian Jewish, and I think I also wanted to make sure that she didn't grow up with Catholic guilt. (I remember only too well all that shame I was supposed to feel about getting pregnant and having an "illegitimate" child.....)  She was adopted by a lovely family, and when she was 21 we met again, and through the generosity of her parents, and Shari, I was able to get to know her, and in fact she lived for a while with me in New York City.

In 2000 I was living in California, and Shari and her husband-to-be were living in Brooklyn.  Shari's mother had arranged and planned her wedding (a very bohemian affair on a boat), and I was to officiate for the service.  They were both quite un-religious, so it was to be a non-denominational service - however, I wanted to honor the many Jewish relatives who were attending Shari's wedding.  So I visited a couple of synagogues, feeling very ignorant, to see if I could find someone to read a wedding prayer, and anything else that might be appropriate (I did find someone, and also learned about a few other things).

In the course of talking with my daughter's husband,  I learned something interesting.  He had an Italian name, and always thought he was Italian - but only within the past few months he had learned that his mother's parents, experiencing prejudice when they emigrated, had changed their name, and his mother grew up never knowing that she came from a Russian Jewish background. 

I remembered a sad story that my own mother had told me that same year.  It seems that her grandmother was anti-Semitic.  Her uncle had married a Jewish woman, and had two small children with her when he died of the flu epidemic.  After his death his mother forced his wife, and her children, to leave the property they were living in (she owned it), and my mother sadly commented that she grew up never knowing these cousins, who were virtually "erased" from her family. 

Both bloodlines had a harsh injustice in their backgrounds that came from intolerance and prejudice - how marvelous when these two young people joined hands, broke the glasses with their feet, and everyone shouted "Mozeltov!"  I never really mentioned it to them, because I suppose they would have thought me sentimental and unrealistic, but truly I felt the Ancestors gather that night, a deep satisfaction that after 4 generations, these wounds finally were healed.     

L'chaim!

Ancestral Visitations

Florence on horse, Griffith Park, 1928

Girl and Horse, 1928

by Margaret Atwood

You are younger than I am, you are
Someone I never knew,
you stand under a tree,
your face half-shadowed,
Holding the horse by its bridle.

Why do you smile? Can’t you
See the apple blossoms falling around
You, snow, sun, snow,
listen, the tree dries
and is being burnt, the wind

Is bending your body,
your face ripples like water
Where did you go?

But no, you stand there
exactly the same,
you can’t hear me,

forty years ago you were caught by light
And fixed in that secret place
where we live, where we believe
nothing can change, grow older.

(On the other side
of the picture, the instant
is over, the shadow
of the tree has moved. )

You wave,

then turn and ride
out of sight through the vanished
orchard, still smiling

(as though you do not notice)

GHOSTS

Where do the dead go?

The dead that are not cosmetically renewed
and boxed, their faces familiar and serene.
Or brought to an essence, pale ashes in elegant canisters.

I ask for the other dead:

those ghosts that wander

unshriven among our sleep,
haunting the borderlands of our lives.

The dead dreams,
The failed loves.
The quests, undertaken with full courage
and paid for in blood
that never found a dragon, a Grail, a noble ordeal
and the Hero's sacred journey home.

Instead, the wrong fork was somehow taken, or the road
wandered aimlessly, finally narrowing
to a tangled gully
and the Hero was lost, in the gray and prosaic rain,
hungry, weary, to finally stop somewhere, anywhere
glad of bread, a fire, a little companionship.

Where is their graveyard?
Were they mourned?
Did we hold a wake,
bear flowers, eulogize their bright efforts
their brave hopes
and commemorate their loss with honor?

A poem?
An imperishable stone to mark their passing?

Did we give them back to the Earth
to nourish saplings yet to flower,
the unborn ones?
Or were they left to wander
in some unseen Bardo, unreleased, ungrieved.
Did we turn our backs on them unknowing,

            their voices calling, whispering impotently
            behind us
            shadowing our steps?

              Lauren Raine   1997

Sometimes a man stands up during supper
and walks outdoors, and keeps on walking,
because of a church that stands
somewhere in the East.

And his children say blessings on him
as if he were dead.

And another man, who remains inside his own house,
stays there, inside the dishes and in the glasses,
so that his children have to go
far out into the world
toward that same church,

which he forgot.

Rainier Maria Rilke (Translated by Robert Bly)

I see your  father's  gesture
(how is it possible, to remember him, after all these years?)
yet there it is renewed, a play of shadow and light
 flickering across your face.

You were a Milagro
that inhabited me

for a little while 
and then grew on without me.

What shall I call this door,
opening today between our lives?
Multitudes pass this way.  For that moment
I see them in your eyes,
then I pay the bill, finish coffee,
and descend into the subway, waving goodbye.

How can I tell you
that I am casting my love
like a daisy with petals partly plucked,
a firefall of dandelion seed
into the wind
into the world

as you must do as well?

Lauren Raine (1990)

Flora with Florence (1917)

old photos,

escaping a tin box:

stories with wings

 butterflies, or white moths

fluttering at the glass,

ephemeral, half-glimpsed stories

lighter than air, 

these unknown memories

quietly,
through 

an open window

Florence at 92

Plastic waste into low cost housing!

 

 View of a room made out of recycled plastic that the company 'Kuadro' used to manufacture low-cost houses in Tlajomulco, Mexico. Mexican engineers from the western state of Jalisco use recyclable plastic waste to build green homes that are easy to transport, set up and are durable.

Some good news!  Here's a company in Mexico (Published on Oct 12, 2012 by ReutersVideo.  )  building houses made of recycled waste plastic collected by trucks on their weekly rounds. The company, called Kuadro Ecological Solutions, says it is making the most of waste that would otherwise end up in landfills, while providing inexpensive housing at the same time.

http://youtu.be/7SqlQuDB2U0



And in the U.K.,  a company called Affresol  is doing the same - to view a video of their work with recycled plastics and housing, see:

  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/8531170.stm

"The Affresol house is a unique and effective way of building high quality homes using TPR™, which will offer a real and cost effective opportunity to the thousands of people who are currently unable to get onto the first rung of the “housing ladder”. The Affresol houses are specifically aimed at providing spacious, 2, 3, and 4 bedroom quality homes for lower income families."

And how about this house in Serbia, made from recycled plastics? Or the ones below?  Human ingenuity, how I love it!

 

Half the Sky Documentary

http://www.halftheskymovement.org/

Here's the practical side of the "Return of the Goddess".  The shadow of gender inequity, which is reinforced through the myths that inform both society and religion, is the continuing violence of gender inequity.  I applaud the film makers!

http://www.policymic.com/articles/15709/half-the-sky-documentary-review-nicholas-kristof-and-eva-mendes-force-female-inequality-into-the-light

Watch Women Are Not the Problem, They Are the Solution on PBS. See more from Independent Lens.

"Verity" - 65 Foot Bronze Pregnant Woman Sculpture

 "Verity" in Progress - for description and photos of the creation of this monumental sculpture, visit:   http://www.damienhirst.com/news/october/verit

Here's an incredible sculpture by Damien Hirst being erected in Devon, U.K. (Thanks again to Robert Moore for kindly sharing this). "Verity" is 65 feet tall, bronze, and stands with a raised sword, pregnant, with foetus, tissue, and bones "beneath the skin" revealed on one side of the sculpture's body. It is causing a lot of controversy of course, some locals apparently even worrying it will encourage teenage pregnancy, which I don't get at all. 

What a brave, monumental sculpture! "Verity" means "Truth", and the raised sword is a gesture of power, like the sword of Kali, that cuts away what must go to reveal the truth, and to create justice. She is very pregnant, pregnant with those who are still to come. They need, especially now, protection, justice, and truth if they are going to have a future at all.

 I don't understand why the artist chose to"remove the skin" on one side of the sculpture, although I think of the work of Alex and Allyson Grey, the Sacred Mirrors, in which Grey, who is an anatomical illustrator, removed the "skins" on his figures to gradually reveal the different dimensions of life, from the physical to the spiritual and esoteric bodies.

By Daily Mail Reporter
PUBLISHED: 08:55 EST, 8 October 2012 | UPDATED: 17:26 EST, 8 October 2012 
 
Some call it the Angel of the West; others deride it as the Belly of the South.
But, whether they like it or loathe it, the people of Ilfracombe are now the custodians of this giant Damien Hirst sculpture – and they’ll be looking at it for the next two decades.  The 25-ton bronze statue of a heavily pregnant woman holding a sword, arrived in the Devon seaside resort yesterday on a flatbed trailer.

Dropping in: Damien Hirst's bronze statue of a pregnant woman, called Verity, has arrived in Ilfracombe, Devon

Huge: The statue is to be placed on the harbour front and stands at 65ft and weighs over 25 tonnes

Hundreds of residents came out to catch their first glimpse of the work, which will take more than a week to assemble and install. Fans call it a ‘modern allegory of truth and justice’, but many townsfolk say it is ‘obscene and disgusting’.

On one side the woman’s skin is peeled back, revealing her skull, muscles and foetus – bringing accusations that the work is grotesque.

Complaints: Some local residents are upset about Verity, calling her obscene and claiming she could encourage teenage pregnancy

Hirst’s 65ft statue, called Verity, has been loaned to the local authority by the artist for 20 years and will stand by the town’s pier. 



Dozens  wrote to the council to object, with one saying it would ‘encourage teenage pregnancies’.Another said it was ‘demeaning to women’ while a third claimed it was ‘eccentricity posturing as art’.  Verity’s frame is a single piece of stainless steel.
The bronze exterior was cast in more than 40 pieces  while the sword and upper arm are made from a single piece of glass fibre reinforced polymer.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2214616/The-Belly-South-Bumpy-reception-seaside-town-Hirsts-disgusting-65ft-pregnant-woman.html#ixzz28oI1kin0

A Farm Bill Only Monsanto Could Love

Farmer spraying his crops. (photo: AP)

I felt this article was important to share.More proof that lobbying really does work, and if they have their way we'll not only eat "Frankenstein" foods, but we'll not be free to demand that they be labeled so we at least know what we're putting on the plate.(Thanks to Janie Rezner for this article). 

A Farm Bill Only Monsanto Could Love

By Corey Hill, Yes! Magazine

05 October 12

Three provisions in the bill would make it more difficult to regulate the safety of genetically modified crops. Consumers fight back with a flurry of organizing.

idden among the cluttered news cycle of this election season is a crucial debate about genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

September 30 marked the expiration of the 2007 Farm Bill, and the 2012 replacement is now sitting in the House of Representatives. It is unlikely that Congress will vote on the bill until after the elections, so food-safety advocates are ramping up their outreach efforts around this issue in advance of any decision.

What's the big deal with the new bill? Most importantly, the House version of the 2012 Farm Bill contains three industry-friendly provisions, numbered 10011, 10013, and 10014. Collectively, they have come to be known as the "Monsanto Rider," and the name is entirely appropriate. If passed, this bill would make it more difficult to stem the tide of GMO foods hitting store shelves.

These three provisions in the 2012 Farm Bill would grant regulatory powers solely to the United States Department of Agriculture, preventing other federal agencies from reviewing GMO applications and preventing the USDA from accepting outside money for further study. The bill would also shorten the deadline for approval to one year, with an optional 180-day extension.

And here's the kicker: the approval time bomb. If the USDA misses the truncated review deadline, the GMO in question is granted automatic approval.

Though the average time for approval of GMO applications is now three years, the USDA has never denied a single one. Environmental activists currently have the ability to delay introduction of an iffy crop by keeping approval held up for months at a time pending further review. If the 2012 Farm Bill is approved with the Monsanto Rider, this tool is removed from the arsenal.

Food-safety advocates like the Organic Consumer Association point to polling that shows nine out of ten American consumers want GMO labeling, and to the strength of the organizing in favor of GMO labeling through California's Proposition 37 ballot initiative. The Organic Consumers Association and allied organizations like the Center for Food Safety are calling upon their membership base to let their elected officials know where they stand on this issue, through phone calls, letter writing, and protest.

"People understand that the GMO foods entering our food supply have not been safety tested," said Alexis Baden-Mayer, Political Director at the Organic Consumers Association. "There isn't enough science backing them, and people want to know when food is genetically engineered. That opinion is very strong, and hopefully members of congress will be paying attention to the widespread opposition, and they'll connect with voters. Hopefully, they'll understand that [voters] matter more than the campaign donors."