A century and a half later women are still seeking equal rights, autonomy over their own health needs, equal pay and respect. We've gained so much ground, yet, of late, lost ground. Thank you to all the mothers and the not-mothers who have dedicated their lives to making the world a better place.
Gained ground, yes, but still, roughly 65% of white, working-class women voted for a guy who brags about being a sexual assualt perp, and raises money on that boast. Long way to go.
That was then, this is now. Since the last presidential election, the rights of women have been decimated. Yes, decimated. We now have less rights than we did 50 years ago. Unless every woman must enter a voting booth with a man, don't be surprised to see that alleged percentage be crushed. Ohio is the perfect example. If you think this tawdry little court case, which was supposed to be the least of them all, is being ignored by these same women, think again. Ms. Clifford's testimony about the feeling of helplessness and marginalization? Is something every woman has experienced. It will be remembered and acted upon.
He may have bragged about his sexual prowess, but remember, it was brushed off as "locker room talk." The locker room has become a court room in Manhattan and the truth is there for everyone to see.
No, it will not be the same as it was before and please, do remember, he lost in 2020 by a huge margin. Polls don't vote, people do. Those percentage are beginning to look more and more specious with each passing day.
Yes, Carol-Ann, good of you to cite "Ms. Clifford's testimony" here.
Her appearance in court this past week met and bested the high-priced team of attorneys working for their orange low-life on trial. Representing him, fittingly they tried to slut-shame her -- and she threw back at them. She highlighted how "every woman has experienced," as you say, "the feeling of helplessness and marginalization" which the orange rapist was still pushing on what they presumed another easy victim.
Good for Heather to have filled out the history behind this day -- good that you add how it's not merely history, but a yet-poisonous agenda for our still vulgar today.
I especially liked her message on X afterwards "Real men respond to testimony by being sworn in and taking the stand in court. Oh…wait. Never mind." That, friends, says it all. She knows the real Donald Trump, even if he doesn't know himself.
"Ms. Clifford's testimony about the feeling of helplessness and marginalization? Is something every woman has experienced."... who is free enough to allow herself awareness... not just in the sexual arena... to more and lesser degrees in business settings, volunteer work, too often at home. Her testimony did strike a nerve, OUCH!
I do hope, Lynn, that you, Linda, Carol-Ann and other women writing here and voting this November will strike a crushing blow against the extreme misogynist and his clueless followers. MAGA is the American version of the Taliban. Why is religion the enemy of females?
Why is religion the enemy of females? Because religion is Man made for men to dominate women. In other words, man created god to give himself the power and authority to do so! Vote Blue. Happy Mothers' Day!
Thank you Richard, I and mine will be there trying to help these disgraceful actors off stage. Your last statement is worthy of examining. Religion is faithful devotion to an acknowledged reality. There are certainly forces larger than our puny human selves. We need faith, hope., and charity. Too much of what is called religion is simply a man-made excuse to justify internal considering... no faith, hope, nor charity in nor for other. Today, Mother's Day, I'm thinking about Mother Earth... abused. A true religion would show devotion.
Richard, religion was invented by men to control women, pure and simple. I saw a meme a couple weeks ago that I read that (paraphrased) said:
I think God is a woman, and went on dates with a bunch of men, and told each of them the same "creation story" (for want of a better term). Men being who they are changed it, and religion is the first example of mansplaining that was documented.
Richard and all who posted above: I always remember Karl Marx's quote:" Religion is the opiate of the masses." Especially for women. Unfortunately, even some women drink the KoolAid and prefer a so-called strong man. I feel rage when I hear anyone, male/female/other talk about voting for the orange turd. Kudos to Stormy!
Marx was a keen observer, noting the friction between capital and labor at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution as well as the effect of religion on the masses. The older I get the more and more I favor the form of pragmatic capitalism found among the Scandinavian countries.
Good insight and parallel about MAGA. Your question at the end is a very good one that I have reflected on quite a bit. I like that Hinduism includes the Divine Mother. If you look at what's happening in India under Modi, though, that's no consolation. In any case, come time to vote I do believe women will be heard. BUT, not sure what tricks the MAGA followers and leaders have up their sleeve.
One of the curiosities I have wondered about often is societies with female deities -- China Kwan Yin, India Durga (strongest of all the deities), Africa's many goddesses -- seemingly women's lot is most repressive. Is it my western perspective, or real?
Religion hasn't been "hijacked." It serves its purpose of basically enslaving women very well; it is used to conditioned women to enslave themselves. This is less energy intensive than using violence to control us, but make no mistake, violence will be (and is being) used when the conditioning fails. What are abortion bans if not state-sponsored violence against women?
Because religion facilitated the dawn of patriarchy, controlling women's fertility along with the doctrine of discovery that allowed the church to dominate and extract for colonialism. A dominion mindset is the common thread and what we need to transcend for a new dawn.
There are religions and religions. There is a tiny book, 'Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches.' I think it will add to your thoughts on the kind of beliefs needed in the new dawning. That's a very complex idea. Thanks Susan
Yes, you are right that women might rise up against the odious misogyny that Republicans so proudly exhibit. There is, as you point out, evidence in recent election outcomes for such an uprising, and if 10% of the white, working-class women who voted for Trump in 2020 switch to Biden this year, Biden will win in a landslide. That the likes of Alito and his Dobbs-decision clique might have the effect of freeing women from systemic healthcare oppression is a delicious irony. I hope that happens. But even if it does, there will be a long way to go. We will still have to deal with upwards of 74 million Americans that the world would be a better place without. I say “we” but of couse mean “you.” I won’t get there with you, but I dearly hope that you can pull off the victory that eluded my generation. I think we whitled down the fraction louts in the white, working-class from 95% in 1965 to maybe 70% in 2024. If you can reduce it by another 25%, you have a decent chance of civilizing the SOBs. May the wind be at your back.
That is my hope, and Biden's eventual victory was impressive, but the fate of some of the key states were squeakers, some of the anti-democratic loopholes in our laws being as they are. That said, the pernicious hubris of Republicans has crossed a line. The arrogant, self-serving opinions of "justices" hand selected by the tyrannical sexual assault perp lack moral legitimacy by that very fact.
It sounds melodramatic, perhaps, but if Trump wins, democracy around the world and here in the U.S. will begin to crumble. This is the most important election in the history of the world.
It's all about the turn-out. Across the country. But even more so in the Electoral College's close-run states including Wisconsin, PA, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Virginia and Arizona
I used it in the military sense. " ...decimation was a form of military discipline in which every tenth man in a group was executed by members of his cohort." Now think of that in terms of women and pregnancy. Decimated is pretty close to the mark given the number of women/girls in this country who are of child bearing age.
The idea of "decimation" came from the Roman army. If any legion showed cowardice in a battle, the whole legion was lined up side-by-side on the edge of a high cliff. An officer then walked behind the soldiers, pushing every 10th man over the cliff to his death. The legion was "decimated".
The Supreme Court and the MAGA party seem to be doing just that wouldn't you say? Substitute state legislatures for legion captains, and it is the same. But now these "captains" leave it to the foot soldiers in the medical world to do the deed. Losing isn't always a sign of cowardice; but what is happening in this country is. The fear of losing status because of a tin pot dictator is the essence of cowardice. Look at it as a new take on "women and children first."
Yes I'm well aware of the concept. Women have been known to study military history. Some of us even make it a career.
We (women) don't fully get that we are equal is every way -- indeed, it seems that the female form xx was the beginning and xy came later for diversity. We are, and probably black women, are the original human form
I think the argument can be made that women are superior to men in all the intellectual, moral, and ethical ways that are most important to a fully functioning society. We need more women leaders. I get my healthcare from the Veterans Administration. When I'm asked about assigning a new caregiver, I always request a woman doctor. They pay better attention in all of the most important ways.
Reading today's glorious Letter from an American -- yes, GLORIOUS, and I can be very critical of some of these letters, while deeply respecting their writer and her heroic undertaking -- my mind at once turned to Russia, to the by-choice-less-than-human teenage psychopath from the Leningrad backyards who made it to immeasurable wealth and total power over the lives of his countrymen and proceeded to mass industrial murder of the close neighbors to cement that power.
And to the beyond-grotesque bespoke ideology cooked up for the sole purpose of justifying and sustaining his bloodthirsty nihilistic madness.
The poisoned shit forced on the peoples of Russia as soul-food. The Satanic perversion of a powerful Christian church reduced to a mere outgrowth of the secret police. The ocean of lies trumped up to look like what they dare call "Traditional Values". "Traditional Values" that would relegate the female sex to the role of baby factories, each to produce 8-plus kids to replenish shrinking supplies of cannon-fodder... if the dwarf from hell had not made this physically impossible by killing off an entire generation of young men.
*
And now, dear Americans, just think of it! All This Can Be Yours! As early as November... you too can -- and will -- be subject to these "Traditional Values" if the master of the Kremlin, his American moles and tools, his adoring admirer and would-be imitator, now stoking up dreams of vengeance in a Manhattan courtroom... continue to have their way...
And then, of course, All This Will Be OURS, too... as we, the rest of the world, live downstream of America...
Still, it is mothers who suffer, bearing, loving and raising sons to be sacrificed... for nothing.
Underlying all this, something that transcends gender, the gross imbalance between the masculine and the feminine principles present in all of us. This makes for a world crazily out of kilter.
Heather, PLEASE re-run this important essay at least once a month before November's election. I was born and lived in West Virginia near GRAFTON , with a tribute to Anna May Jarvis and never knew about "Mothers' Day" as a political holiday to bring peace, world-wide. Your essay brings it to the forefront and we need to promote it widely!
Decimated? Are you kidding. The overturning of Roe has expanded rights
in some states and reduced them in some.
Our abortion practices are among the most draconian in the world. Europe doesn't allow abortion beyond 15-16 weeks. The standard is even higher in most of the world. Can you another country that has abortion on demand until birth?
This is democracy at its finest. If you don't like the policies in your state. Change them. Don't bitch about it and don't expect a court to impose its will on the people.
Oh, dear another person who doesn't know what HE is talking about. May I suggest you take this ill informed text to another site? You will never be pregnant, you don't have a dog in the hunt, it isn't your body, it isn't your life. Are you in the medical field? No? Again, it is none of your business. Take your neanderthal ideas somewhere else. Your screed is what one expects from a misogynist who, either doesn't know the truth, or cares to ignore it. What I do expect is
intelligence and knowledge, not drivel that comes from a MAGA playbook.
Think about how stupid and cartoonish your post was. Besides the fact its all cliches,
lets look at the obvious:
1) Who in the hell do you think you are? THis is a democracy. You don't get to decide who
can have an opinion on ANYTHING
2) If we follow your logic then WOMEN should have no opinion on roads, buildings
infrastructure, policing, war, climate et cetera. Over 90% of the infrastructure is
designed and built by men. Men police your streets, protect you from fires, service your planes and buses, build your cars, home, and planes, pick up your trash, work and maintain
your electrical grid, Are you saying that you can have NO OPINION in those areas?
Of course not.
Yet again another dumb opinion by a leftist who could think her way out of a paper bag
Ooops, the net caught another MAGA midget throwing a misogynistic, ever so toddleresque tantrum. Pick up you malignant binky and depart.
Your comments and understand of women's rights are mirror the language and sentiments of the orange turds followers.
By the way, those professions and jobs you extol men for doing? I don't know how to break this to you; so sit down and put the malignant binky back in your mouth. So do women, lots of them. Got that? So do women. Now there is one thing a man can't do: bear a child. That's called a BFOQ - a bona fide occupational qualification. Since you can't do it, let's just say you don't have the right to legislate it. You don't have a dog in the hunt. Unless of course, you think of women as chattel. Maybe it's time you really just go away and take your neanderthal sentiments with you.
A lot of women are still browbeaten by idiot husbands who rule with no authority except their brawny intimidation. Men have always equated penises with power and many think that all women suffer from penis envy. Well, a competent brain and an empathetic heart are all that is needed for power to be wielded fairly. Women have them in equal measure, likely more so, unless men can separate power and sex. I won’t hold my breath.
Jeri: Freud was WRONG in suggesting penis envy. We all know that a vagina can function rain/sleet/snow but a penis?? Not so much (with apologies to the nice men on this site)
So true, but they have had the microphone for centuries. BTW, there are some wonderful men on this site, and I am fortunate enough to have run into some awesome ones in my life. No important man in my life has ever treated me as anything but an equal. Wish all women could say that.
Every time that 60% (give or take) statistic about white women comes up, I want to see it broken down into, e.g., married, divorced, single, and never married. (Well, I'd *really* like to see "lesbian" as an option, but even in relatively enlightened places, checking that box would be risky.) Now that same-sex marriage is legal, "married to a woman" should be separated out from "married to a man" -- but in sexist, heterosexist society that's risky too. Because I seriously doubt that 60% of white women who are not economically or psychologically dependent on men voted for Trump.
Good points, all around. In any case, if 10% of white women married to louts flip from Trump to Biden, Biden will win in a landslide. To stay safe, those women will need to tell the louts they voted for Trump, but of course the women know that. They’re not stupid. Just unfortunate.
Many women still are afraid to let go of traditional structures -- baked in codependency? It's a form of trauma and we need to heal from patriarchy and fully understand how powerful we are. We are not secondary in any way.
Thank you Berry--MOTHERS who have born all of humanity are not allowed treatment until their organs begin to fail. Let's think about that this uplifting holiday....
As I remember, during one of the many Greek wars, the women on both side refused to have sex with their husbands until they stopped the war. Anyone out there remember which one?
RR, I had to issue a query to the all-knowing Googlebot. I'm experiencing mental data retrieval issues as well (approaching 76 in early June). But I like to chalk it up to "well, I didn't need to keep track of all that trivia anyway." I'm reserving my mental bandwidth for more important things, such as preserving democracy, and trying to ensure Earth will be habitable for a long time, stuff like that.
Yes, I think I understand.(understatement) I've been 76 for several months now. MInutia is irrelevant. If it's important, it can be looked up. I just got around to getting my library card after living here for twenty some years and I've found a whole community of old farts who meet and discuss all sorts of important stuff. Not loud, but in earnest. In elementary school, I was always "truant". I would disappear into the library and start reading history and worked my way through most of what was there. My teachers always knew where to find me.
Right now, it is clear to all of us who spend time reading and commenting on various Substacks, that this next election is it. It will take all the focus we have to keep our country intact. Robert Hubble and Jessica Craven, amoung a few others who list opportunities to engage and work at various levels of campaigns, are valuable resources. I didn't get called to be a poll worker in the primary in CA, but they tell me that if they fall short anywhere nearby, I'll work somewhere not too far away. We all have to do as much as we can. Hang in there.
I don't know which one and I'm Greek. Thank you for the recall--I have long fantasized that all women stage a sex strike until our healthcare rights are reinstated. It's 2024 for heaven's sake!!
Lysistrata is the name of the play, a look into how women might have changed the course of the Peloponnesian wars, had they indeed withheld sex. See Wikipedia citation below.
Here-to-forthe I will refer to this special day as "Females' Day". Happy Females' Day to all of you loving females with or without children. May this millennium see the human female attain full equality and lead us into a Regenerative socio-economic system integrated and evolving with Mother Gaia's natural ecosystem.
My understanding is that in Cherokee tradition, the woman Elder was the one who made the decision of whether or not to go to war. Because women had the most to lose (as expressed by Julia Ward Howe), the Cherokee Nation was smart enough to understand this, and to honor women's rights. Would that all nations were so wise.
Why does the truth offend leftists? Probably because the truth is not a left wing value.
Since when did you think you were entitled to sit inside your little bubble insulated from reality. This is a public forum that and a site that champions free speech.
Might be time to grow up.
One more time - you are a hypocritic if you call Trump a tax cheat (he has never been charged with tax fraud despite countless audits and ignore HUNTER BIDEN's tax issues.
I think America is in the late cocky adolescent phase--a bit insensitive, foul mouthed and struggling with hormones and boundaries. Hopefully, we'll grow up. For some this is an amazing place to live, but far too many struggle with poverty of life and soul. IMHO.
"For some this is an ..., but far too many..." I have been thinking of your comment sometime. America produces 25% of GDP of the world and why too many struggle with poverty.
My professor at UM has told me to study Lincoln's second inaugural. There is a statement "It may strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces." Speaker Johnson, a declared Christian, supports Mr. Trump and Republicans who cut taxes of the wealthiest is IMHO is committing this offence. They live on their stock returns with no work themselves. But as Lincoln immediately followed "but let us judge not, that we be not judged." Thank you for your comment. Hiro
Even in our democracy, what we have won for women remains fragile and vulnerable. Let us rededicate ourselves on this Mothers' day to reclaiming the rights that have been taken from us.
Well said! I am reclaiming the rights attempted to be taken away from us for both me and my daughter. I did not want kids so as to focus on my careers. The Universe had other plans. In 2011, a mentor of mine who spearheaded Covenant House, shelters for homeless teens in the East Coast, introduced me to a teen who had ended up at one of the shelters. Long story short we adopted her. She just received her third masters and is happily living in Greece with her husband. Mothers' Day is my new favorite holiday....
Yes, Happy Mothers' Day to all the mothers who "have been able to teach (their children) of charity, mercy, and parience." (Howe)
Mothers who have tried to show by example that being compassionate, honest, respectful, and tolerant of others is the right way to live and interact with people.
I wonder about all those mothers who are Trump worshippers. Aren't they showing their children, by admiring Trump's behavior, that they condone his crazy rants and illegal actions? Is this the kind of behavior they want their children to exemplify? Is Trump's promise to be a dictator and demolish democracy the kind of lawlessness they want for their children's future?
It bothers me so much to see young children standing behind Trump at his rallies, waving their MAGA caps, clapping, and laughing as he curses, calls people names, makes fun of those who disagree with him, and lies about everything dishonest he's done.
These mothers are teaching their children that it's good to admire an unethical, dishonest, and unhinged man who thinks that these traits are what make a "great" president.
There's not ONE great thing about Donald Trump and mothers are misguided in holding him up as an example for their children to emulate.
We are in a lot of trouble when these children who love Trump grow up to "be like him."
That's true, but usually young children are influenced by their parents' views and beliefs.
I'm talking about really young children who probably wouldn't understand who Trump tries to be if not for hearing and seeing someone close to them continuously spout off how great Trump will be for the country.
Well I'm preparing to address those young children by writing a children's book about why not to lie. But for it truly to have a dramatic effect trump has to first go to prison....
I had some awareness of Julia Ward Howe, but not the story HCR tells of her. It belongs in every US history survey textbook. I think that the impulse of some people to try to lord it over others in the source of the preponderance of our species' preventable suffering. It has been paired with an impulse to do otherwise throughout history, but here we again in the midst of struggle.
"Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience." It is ironic that, so far as I can tell, most children are instructed to be kind and decent citizens, yet we accept so much that violates that training in adults. Trump should be everything we would NOT was to see our child become.
Let's all commit that every woman as well as as every man who subscribes to this substack will work at least some time every week until Nov5 contacting family and friends to get assurances that every possible Biden voter is (or will be) registered to vote and pledges to do so! Everyone "on deck" doing their part every week? Not too much to ask, is it? And while you are at it, please go to www.TurnUp.US to see what a brilliant group of Harvard students are doing allready to register high school seniors and Community College students all across the country ONLY IN 78 COMPETITIVE CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS AND 16 COMPETITIVE SENATE ELECTIONS? They are working in a nonpartisan tax deductible C3 organization each day and night to turnout as many younger voters as possible in order to protect reproductive rights, enact strong gun safety rules, and fight climate change! Please help them out and contribute generously to the most effective young voter movement in the entire country! Thank you.
Thank you, as always, Ira, for reminding us of what the Harvard students are doing. In case you're interested, I'm part of a group that is offering a virtual meeting that we're calling the UnConvention to examine ways in which we can make MA more lower case "d" democratic. We've got some exciting breakout sessions planned, so please think about joining us. Check out:
This is 100% accurate. Research pretty clear that when women are at the negotiating table, peace agreements more easy to reach and are more durable. Please see my Substack with Scilla Elworthy How Women leaders Stop Wars
Julia Ward Howe! Does anyone else remember The Battle Hymn of the Republic sung by the entire congregation in Westminster Abbey the Sunday after President Kennedy was assassinated? Somehow this letter seems an appropriate accompaniment to that memory of a different America.
I was in London then, where we'd been weeping in the streets ever since the morning we awoke to the terrible news, but I didn't know about Westminster Abbey. Probably because the night before I'd been singing in the Royal Festival Hall, where the scheduled performance of the Verdi Requiem had been formally dedicated to the memory of President Kennedy, with a request to abstain from applause.
Really? Our lives have followed similar paths, it seems. In London I sang with the 1st sops in the BBC Choral Society. Top conductors and soloists. You haven't lived till you've done Belshazzar's Feast placed behind the brass... Then there was "Semele" with the Handel Opera Society, rushing round the stage at Sadler's Wells dressed as a Grecian nymph. I missed so many meals because of having to travel across London to different rehearsal venues that I only weighed 58 kg when I arrived in Paris. Those were the days.
That is truly impressive. Thank you for sharing. You may enjoy this tale: My husband and his chorus friends played bridge in their dressing room. On stage one night I looked across to see that he had worn his glasses onstage. Singing and playing the adorable peasant, I went across the stage, got his glasses off and into my bosom and walked back to my spot.
One of my favorites was doing “King David,” still in graduate school at UNC-CH. Later was in San Antonio Opera chorus, introduction to opera and its stars. Then NOLA opera and symphony choruses. Endless rehearsals and teaching piano meant that before I came to Chicago and during 10 years on a boat in France where we had France Musique every night, I never saw much TV until 2016 (you can guess why a political junkie was compelled to watch MSNBC then).
Singing is joy. During WWII we sang at school and in church. Then every college had at least one chorus. There were music majors. Even my liberal arts college where I was an organ major, no longer has an organ major. Whether there are still music majors, I don’t know. But we had a string quartet of faculty members, which was an education in itself for me, who only knew orchestras from recordings.
Just today I found myself singing sotto voce, to nobody but myself and the cat at the time, the opening lyrics to a song by one of the greatest of modern American songwriters, the late, great Warren Zevon, entitled "Heartache spoken here"
"When I was young, the skies were filled with stars,
Last evening I attended a concert performed by my local community's symphony orchestra and full choir. They performed Beethoven's Ninth, his Ode to Joy. Such power in that music, brought forth by regular folks who join with others to bring such pleasure to the rest of us. I wept at the beauty of it all.
At least in the US, there are. Our youngest, who played cello in the orchestra and sang in high school, also sang in the Men’s Glee Club at his university. Most of the members who got in were music majors, although our son was not.
My memory is fuzzy, but I think we performed Brahms Requiem in college (at Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota). I played the tuba part, but although I recognized the notes when looking up the part on IMSLP, I think I had to take many of them down an octave due to them being actually in euphonium range unless maybe you were playing an F tuba.
But that said, I have a very clear memory of holding out a low D for an extended length of time at the end of a movement. Keeping this note steady at pp and not running out of air was pretty stressful!
When you feel better, try Bernstein’s “Candide,” starting with the final chorus. It may give you new energy. Thinking about the finale of the Brahms led me to Voltaire. Must be the present of climate change and politics.
Yes! Was it Keats who wrote”Beauty is Truth and Truth Beauty./That is all ye know and all ye need to know.”? The Brahms is both Beauty and Truth. “All flesh is grass…” never really resonated with me before I sang Brahms.
Impressive, Matt. I love having more than one tuba in symphonic band; my buddy and I are "even and odd" for breathing measures. We did de Meir's "Hobbits" 5th movement. Perfect intonation on the C's in the last many measures, with him on a C and me on a Bb.
What I remember was watching Sir Winston Churchill's funeral from St. Paul's Cathedral in 1965, and the congregation singing "Battle Hymn of the Republic" as it was said to be among Churchill's favorite hymns, and apt as he was an honorary citizen of the USA.
And don't forget his mother was American [Jenny Jerome] and Winston was the apple of her eye - she loved him so much. I read some of his early childhood letters to his mother - they all started as Dear Mummy. There is a terrific Biography of her life and how she influenced Winston. So sorry I don't recall the author's name.
You’re dating yourself, LOLOL. I will too… I was in 1st grade at a French Catholic school in Canada and the nuns were all crying and we were led to our desks to bow our heads in prayer. As a former Catholic, I remember the day clearly.
It was the first time I wept. Somehow hearing that American hymn of which I had learned all the verses as a child in Virginia being sung in that huge cathedral was overwhelming. I am very dated—just turned 90🤣!
Enjoying the idea of the moon singing. That’s a hard one to imagine. Does the moon sing to the astronauts? Surely after all the songs sung to her, she should have something to sing back.
I was in the 5th grade and my teacher was called to the hall outside our classroom. She came back in tears...I think it was the first time I saw grown-ups cry...and announced the tragic news while trying to pull herself together, probably hoping she wouldn't upset us. But we all started crying and the closed early. While we waited for instructions, one of the MOTHERS brought several puppies in for us. It was a very smart and intuitive tactic that worked splendidly. I'll never forget those adorable puppies and the magic they wove for the stunned, frightened and grief-stricken children.
I also remember in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 when I was still living in The Netherlands. All us American expats were reeling after it and we couldn't call the US (all the circuits were down and it would be a week before I could phone home), nor was there any computer contact (no email possible to US email servers). It was a horrible feeling. That Saturday after 9/11 was the BBC Last Night of the Proms, always a jingoistic pro-British affair that was always very festive and a lot of fun. I always watched it. The guest conductor for it happened to be American Leonard Slatkin, and in keeping with the very somber mood, the program was changed to be more pro-American and more low-key. I particularly remember Slatkin announcing they would play Barber's "Adagio for Strings", what he called "America's music of mourning . . . ". As they played it I sat there and bawled like a baby. Close-ups of the orchestra showed some of the string players with tears streaming down their cheeks. It was an incredible moment.
These collective moments are so important to our national coherence. I wonder if those who want to tear out nation apart can remember anything like this. After 9/11 the Unitarian Church I attend in NYC was full of candles, and I can recall a service on a sweltering evening after the attacks where we sang familiar hymns and young people, many of whom probably don't attend church, poured in dressed in shorts and sneakers and wept openly.
I wasn't a Unitarian at the time, only about 7 years later when my wife became pregnant and we had to tackle the problem of religious upbringing, if any.
I forget how the Catholic Newman Center which I attended (although I didn't really believe in God at that point, only in the result that belief could positively bring about) reacted to 9/11.
Rather, I mostly remember the anger I felt over subsequent months and years that the Bush administration, led by Cheney and Rumsfeld, were willing to exploit the situation for political gain, even to the point of manipulating the US into war! Not just Afghanistan, but Iraq! These were sick people!
My anger consumed me for some time until I had to tell myself to let go as being angry all of the time is bad for one's health.
I was "raised" Unitarian, and I think it greatly influenced my outlook. So many lives lost or ruined for untempered egos. I recall seeing some website just after 9/11 with page after page of photos of candlelight vigils all over the world. So sorry that so much of that good will was pushed aside.
So many people tell me that piece is inherently sad, but I never thought so. Passionate but not sad, but I can see it would be in the context. I think Barber likened it to a river joined by tributaries.
I remember in 2006(?), with Slatkin (who was music director for three years in NOLA when I lived there) as conductor of the last night of the proms, leaping out of bed after a long day in France, to sing “Land of Hope and Glory.”
"While we celebrate the modern version of Mother’s Day on May 12, in this momentous year of 2024 it’s worth remembering the original Mothers’ Day and Julia Ward Howe’s conviction that women must have the same rights as men, and that they must make their voices heard.” Indeed, you are the perfect example, HCR. Thank you. What a gift you are to us.
Hope, I found Heather's letter so inspiring in terms of a Mothers' Day and I learned a lot about Julia Ward Howe too. I am not a mother except to animals and school kids when I was in education. However, I am fully a mother who wants rights for everyone and not just women. I also wish we could solve our problems peacefully and work for a better world instead of one full of bloodshed and the destruction of the planet. When death star won, I knew women and others were going to take a step back and hard won rights would disappear. As for the The Gnomes(Noem) and Gangrenes of the world, they have no idea of the feminine and are an insult to the feminine force. And I agree with the post below...Steven Machat.
I'm in your boat, Michele; no children (other than the cats) but in 1987 my goal in life became to be the best Auntie to those kids (I have 5 nieces/nephew, and 2 great nieces in my family, and I am the "Tuba Auntie" at the U of O tuba studio.
Love that you are a tuba auntie. My family is mostly in the midwest. I have two nephews and two great nephews here on the west coast. Other than that it is 5 nieces and nephews, about 14 greats and around a dozen great greats, the latest this last week, baby Elizabeth.
Countries and cultures whose women are devalued and have fewer rights than men generally are not thriving. It costs time, money, and talent to keep women down. Those cultures miss out on all that women could contribute, and they also miss out on everything that could be contributed by men who, instead, have to police and monitor women and hold them back.
Good idea. And I am reminded that it was the role of women that provided the momentum to end the "Troubles" in Ireland. One of the most intractable conflicts in history.
You know, yourself, Bill, that it's not just "those old white guys."
In alphabetical order, you know it's also Amy Coney Barrett, Lauren Boebert, Katie Britt, Aileen Cannon, Marjorie Taylor Gazpacho, Anna Luna, Nancy Mace, Elise Stefanik, Virginia Thomas, and too many other women in turn trying also to "slap down" (as you say) blacks, others of color, our disabled, our homeless, our medically uninsured, our poisoned by corporate ogres befouling the environment, our victims of AR-15 and other mass murder assault weaponry, and kids robbed of humanities in schools so that billionaire standardized testers may all the more number, dehumanize, and package the world.
Yes, lunacy, greed, and hubris are not restricted to the male of the species but I like the idea that some Native American tribes had. The Council of the Grandmothers who had the final decision on really important matters. The women bring human life to the planet; they should have the final say in whether it is to be treasured or squandered.
I think it feels like a Dean Koontz or Stephen King novel. Koontz especially writes of evil government conspiracies that boils down to Good vs Evil, and often with heroic females outsmarting men in shadow organizations.
Add to your Dean Koontz and Stephen King the names Walker Percy, Joan Didion, Walter Mosley, Ross Macdonald, Philip K. Dick, Barbara Kingsolver, Richard Russo, Henry Adams, Faulkner, Hammet, Chandler, Melville, Mailer, Hawthorne, and many more apt authors of other novels, memoirs, and histories.
I can see that you are as much a bibliophile as I am. My favorite piece of tech is my Kindle. . . . in fact I call myself "kindle addict 53" on Amazon. I actually believe I would suffer a total breakdown if I couldn't use it! I'm stuck in bed with a crumbling spine and I read digital books 8 hours a day. I used to be able to go to the library for my drug of choice and read for free, but alas....those days are over.
I'll finish up reading the news and Substack in a bit, and then I'll get started on a Brandon Sanderson - he's a fantasy/speculative fiction writer whom I just recently discovered. The Hyperion Cantos series was fantastic and I felt like I left this world and immersed myself in a very different - but no less "real" - universe.
As long as I have my kindle and my cat, Mr. Peanut, I can hang on.
Add to your Orwell, Huxley, and Golding the names of Dean Koontz and Stephen King, as Paula Dean submits here also.
Add also the names Walker Percy, Joan Didion, Walter Mosley, Ross Macdonald, Philip K. Dick, and many more trenchant authors of novels, histories, and memoirs.
Well, when you see some of those bat sh!t crazy women out there in all their trump paraphernalia, some saying he was sent by god I have to wonder if they have any self awareness or self dignity. I highly doubt it. Those women are just as gullible or greedy as the men who support trump. Gender should play a roll but think about the upbringing & education that has led to this movement, those positions were foisted on young girls & boys making it very easy to manipulate them.
They simply kill us, Bill. Here, it's by domestic violence or abortion restrictions or mass shootings; there, it's by fiat, beatings, and gunshots. But yes, I'm hopeful the tide is turning, but not before the Authoritarians step down. There is such a long way yet to go...
The patriarchy is alive and well in America. The Catholic Church has taught most of the members of SCOTUS that men should be in charge of well, everything. And for some bizarre reason, they should remain celibate, which few of them do and that women cannot preach the word of God from the pulpit.
Does the leadership in the church even consider that the quality of priests has dropped off substantially over the past 100 years is because of their archaic view of women and their role in modern society?
It's not just Catholic. I was raised Southern Baptist. It didn't take. Haven't been to "church" in over 50 years and have never missed it. "Church" to me is just another group trying to control society by promising something they can't deliver.
Women need to recognize "the pregnancy police" are very possible if the "Orange Turd" is not flushed in November. Every woman must consider their daughters and grand-daughters and those of all the other women out there. NO woman wants a state representative monitoring and directing her pregnancy.
My maternal grandmother graduated Summa Cum Laude and was elected Phi Beta Kappa eleven years before she could vote. The only careers available to her were teacher, nurse, secretary - or wife and mother.
My mom graduated college, became a science and math teacher, got married, bore four children, managed the family budget, and was elected President of the Board of Education of the parochial school we all attended before she was allowed to have a checking account or credit card in her own name.
I was a sophomore in high school when my parents suggested I open my own checking account- and savings account. At 19, Roe V Wade was adjudicated and I was able to make private decisions about my healthcare. I made my own choice regarding college - and career - and didn’t get married until I was in my 30’s. I made more money than my late husband, managed the family budget, and retained a separate checking account to fund my own interests with zero oversight throughout.
My daughter and step daughter have always had access to banking services in their own name, credit cards, and access to world class women’s healthcare. And though both have partners, they are quite independent of the guys in their lives.
Full circle. My grandniece just graduated high school with honors, and will attend college in the fall - both in a red state. Her choice so far is to become a wildlife biologist - a choice we all heartily approve.
Yet her mom is so worried about Sophie not having access to healthcare - either birth control or abortion, never mind choosing whether to having children or not, that she called to ask if I would help if needed because I live in a blue state.
Yes, of course I will. I will also work to get out the vote, here and elsewhere and work to preserve women’s rights everywhere.
But can I just say that this mama bear is seriously pissed off that the question had to be asked? 2024. More than 100 years after my brilliant grandmother earned the right to vote. More than 60 years after my wicked smart and capable mom earned the right to be financially independent of her husband.
More than 50 years after I earned to right to make my own healthcare choices - a right that continues.
I have been thinking about this for awhile now. I think the rule law in this country—the architecture— is built on protecting property, not people. Roe was based on rights of privacy (if I understand correctly) so was always on shaky ground. Women were the property of their husband’s when this country was formed. That disconnect has not been sufficiently addressed in law. I think. Just like the 14th amendment did not protect formerly enslaved and their progeny until laws were finally changed enough in 1965, women’s rights have not been protected enough in law and women are still vulnerable to being reduced again to property. I think all civil rights in general cannot be protected enough—are vulnerable—until women’s rights are fully achieved. Until we begin to protect people over property we will keep having the same struggles, one step forward and two back. Maybe a fight based on property law may be the way to finally gain reproductive freedom in our country. I am not sure about this but have been wondering why oh why we women have lost so much so fast in the country that holds itself up as the best democracy in the world. A crazy belief given all that women have lost in this country. Of course with rabid Catholics on the SCOTUS we may have to wait a long long time to regain reproductive freedoms for women in this country. It may be too late for a fight based in any law. The SCOTUS is so thoroughly corrupted right now.
I am unable to imagine all of the progress our planet could have achieved if it weren't for the patriarchy holding them down.
I fully admit that my wife is smarter than I am and that's why I rarely make any "family" decisions without consulting with her. But, truth be told, she is better at consulting me about "family" decisions than I am.
How amazing the accomplishments are of women like Marie Curie and Einstein's wife Maleva Meric who "assisted" Albert with the toughest parts of his theory of relativity and many of his other theories. How we have wasted so much talent just so women can raise our kids and keep our homes clean and tidy.
Hear, hear, Sheila! My maternal grandmother was also a college graduate and a math teacher until she got married, when she lost her job because married women shouldn’t work. She ended up doing all the bookkeeping for my grandfather’s business. My mother, an Ivy League graduate (Cornell, because they accepted women), didn’t work until after she and my dad divorced - and she needed her father’s co-signature to get credit. Most Ivy League colleges (and other men’s colleges) didn’t accept women until I was in high school, and I’m only 63. If Dr. Richardson were only a few years older, she would have attended Radcliffe, not Harvard. I don’t think my daughters have any notion of how far we have come in just a few generations, and how much is at risk now. To me, this is living memory; to them, it’s ancient history.
Love this passage, Ma'am. I came from a family in which both parents were bright, but my mother particularly so. While the sit-down dinner often took place at more of a donnybrook than dining room table, my father revered that keen intellect and fierce egalitarianism of my mother. So, I have long been pre-disposed toward the strength of women.
✌️
Though older and alone now (i.e., never married), life has shown me a variety of cultures, some radically different. I have found three things to be be paramount in my thinking about about braking endemic conflict and about American politics, no matter how conservative I am at times.
⚖️
1st, if I want to change a policy, argue with the men.
2nd, if I want to change a culture, work with the women.
3rd, I sure wish the Equal Rights Amendment *were re-opened and ratified post-haste.
⚖️
Thank you, Dr Richardson, and may you enjoy a warm Mothers' Day with your family. Happy Mothers' Day to all of the other women here whether blessed *with children or not.
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EDIT: a great novel about women and the home front is 'The Care and Management of Lies' by Jacqueline Winspear. It is set in the U.K. during World War I.
Until women end the male domination of Western and Muslim religions where women are a second class of people there by those rules which women obey, women will never have true equality. As you wrote all humans come from the womb of mankind. ALL.
Mother's Day has never meant anything to me. It didn't mean anything to my parents, and as a mother, it still means nothing to me. But Mothers' Day? I can whole heartedly get on board with what Julia Ward Howe was campaigning for. As his daughter wrote for him in Robert Hubbell's weekend letter, "The open secret in the modern grassroots movement is that it is 90% women! When the history of this period is written, women will be credited with the leading role in saving our democracy."
From the 14th Amendment: "Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State."
The part about being 21 years of age must have changed since the voting age is now 18? Is there some reason that the part about being male CAN'T be changed? If for no other reason just to remove the sex/gender part from the Constitution?
It was passed because of the Vietnam war. We were sending people to battle (the draft) & with all the protests going on someone came to the realization that we were sending kids to death before they could vote. So instead of stopping that insane war they lowered the age to vote.
They changed the age from 21 to 18 during the Vietnam War, because the young men being drafted were outraged by being forced to fight when they couldn't vote, and Mothers(!) (and fathers too) began court cases or lawsuits to resist the draft. They even lowered the drinking age for a few years. Because: WAR in a distant foreign country had to be fought by the young sons of America and all obstacles preventing that had to be removed. Even Ukraine won't draft soldiers under 25.
Lisa, Amendment 19 Gave women the right to vote "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied of abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. (it should have read gender) it only took 15 months from proposal to certification The Equal Rights Amendment first proposed in 1923 and reintroduced in 1971 “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex (gender)” was approved by 2/3 of Congress in 1971 but 53 years later it has failed to garner AND hold ratification by 38 States. That is how frightened some legislators in some States are of women. Twelve to Thirteen States have been able keep this innocuous Amendment from passing. A number of men (including Trump) would take away our right to voted if they could.
Real men, sure of their own value, have no problem sharing equality, only weak men who fear any challenge to their masculinity are afraid to grant equal rights to all.
Thank you, as always, Heather! A happy Mothers’ Dayctovyou!
“As Howe worked to unite women, she came to realize that a woman did not have to center her life around a man, but rather should be “a free agent, fully sharing with man every human right and every human responsibility.” “This discovery was like the addition of a new continent to the map of the world,” she later recalled, “or of a new testament to the old ordinances.” She threw herself into the struggle for women’s suffrage, understanding that in order to create a more just and peaceful society, women must take up their rightful place as equal participants in American politics.
While we celebrate the modern version of Mother’s Day on May 12, in this momentous year of 2024 it’s worth remembering the original Mothers’ Day and Julia Ward Howe’s conviction that women must have the same rights as men, and that they must make their voices heard.”
Yet another awesome, but simple lesson in American history from our esteemed professor. I have long regretted the ability of our country to ignore the talent, intellect and skill, of 1/2 of our population. As a long time advisor to my institution of higher education (CU) I am proud to note that our college of Engineering leads the nation in female enrollment. Engineers solve problems for humanity. Women will lead that charge toward the future. At the age of 77, I may not be around to observe the result but it will come.
We still have Putins in this world -- men who firmly hold to having women stay home, having usefulness only in two rooms of the house. And men have trained or conditioned women to surrender any vestige of self so to fulfill their own goals. Putin has called for women to produce 4-8 children per family so to grow the Russian population.
Someone please correct me if I am wrong, But many many decades ago did not China impose a one child rule for families - and were not girl babies killed so the family could produce a son? - Guess what! They realized that not enough girls were available to marry the sons.......and did, not they invade other countries and kidnap girls?
The thought of Putin just being "re-elected" to another 6 year term is heartbreaking and horrifying. He is really a narcissistic monster. Forcing women to have 4-8 children sounds like a nightmare. :(
Since 2009 there have been over 15 million families with a female householder and no spouse present in the United States. Some of these women became pregnant after being raped and may or may not be receiving child support from their abuser.
To all of you single mothers a special HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY to you.
In the U.S., women could finally obtain credit without a husband's approval around the same time the ERA was proposed but never ratified. Still today, my sister defers to her husband on just about every matter, as did my late sister. My late wife didn't buy it. God bless her.
I hope women will again declare their independence in a new manner (political independence) in sync with a developing movement aimed at changing how our society responds to a host of issues.
I'd never realized what those three dots might mean, progwoman.
So thank you. I often err and post things really needing edits. Even obvious, little things embarrass. Next time, I'll try as you say -- so thank you again.
Lucky me, I use those dots often because of mind lapses or clumsy fingers. Not that I am smart. Just curios. I hit them a long time ago just to see what would happen. Did it again. Fixed "of clumsy" to "or clunsy"...
A century and a half later women are still seeking equal rights, autonomy over their own health needs, equal pay and respect. We've gained so much ground, yet, of late, lost ground. Thank you to all the mothers and the not-mothers who have dedicated their lives to making the world a better place.
Gained ground, yes, but still, roughly 65% of white, working-class women voted for a guy who brags about being a sexual assualt perp, and raises money on that boast. Long way to go.
That was then, this is now. Since the last presidential election, the rights of women have been decimated. Yes, decimated. We now have less rights than we did 50 years ago. Unless every woman must enter a voting booth with a man, don't be surprised to see that alleged percentage be crushed. Ohio is the perfect example. If you think this tawdry little court case, which was supposed to be the least of them all, is being ignored by these same women, think again. Ms. Clifford's testimony about the feeling of helplessness and marginalization? Is something every woman has experienced. It will be remembered and acted upon.
He may have bragged about his sexual prowess, but remember, it was brushed off as "locker room talk." The locker room has become a court room in Manhattan and the truth is there for everyone to see.
No, it will not be the same as it was before and please, do remember, he lost in 2020 by a huge margin. Polls don't vote, people do. Those percentage are beginning to look more and more specious with each passing day.
Yes, Carol-Ann, good of you to cite "Ms. Clifford's testimony" here.
Her appearance in court this past week met and bested the high-priced team of attorneys working for their orange low-life on trial. Representing him, fittingly they tried to slut-shame her -- and she threw back at them. She highlighted how "every woman has experienced," as you say, "the feeling of helplessness and marginalization" which the orange rapist was still pushing on what they presumed another easy victim.
Good for Heather to have filled out the history behind this day -- good that you add how it's not merely history, but a yet-poisonous agenda for our still vulgar today.
Stormy Daniels speaks truth to power! What a befitting Mothers Day Tribute.
I especially liked her message on X afterwards "Real men respond to testimony by being sworn in and taking the stand in court. Oh…wait. Never mind." That, friends, says it all. She knows the real Donald Trump, even if he doesn't know himself.
I kept hearing from all directions, and all ages, how much women liked Stormy Daniels.. how they approved of her!
"Ms. Clifford's testimony about the feeling of helplessness and marginalization? Is something every woman has experienced."... who is free enough to allow herself awareness... not just in the sexual arena... to more and lesser degrees in business settings, volunteer work, too often at home. Her testimony did strike a nerve, OUCH!
I do hope, Lynn, that you, Linda, Carol-Ann and other women writing here and voting this November will strike a crushing blow against the extreme misogynist and his clueless followers. MAGA is the American version of the Taliban. Why is religion the enemy of females?
Why is religion the enemy of females? Because religion is Man made for men to dominate women. In other words, man created god to give himself the power and authority to do so! Vote Blue. Happy Mothers' Day!
Thank you Richard, I and mine will be there trying to help these disgraceful actors off stage. Your last statement is worthy of examining. Religion is faithful devotion to an acknowledged reality. There are certainly forces larger than our puny human selves. We need faith, hope., and charity. Too much of what is called religion is simply a man-made excuse to justify internal considering... no faith, hope, nor charity in nor for other. Today, Mother's Day, I'm thinking about Mother Earth... abused. A true religion would show devotion.
Richard, religion was invented by men to control women, pure and simple. I saw a meme a couple weeks ago that I read that (paraphrased) said:
I think God is a woman, and went on dates with a bunch of men, and told each of them the same "creation story" (for want of a better term). Men being who they are changed it, and religion is the first example of mansplaining that was documented.
Richard and all who posted above: I always remember Karl Marx's quote:" Religion is the opiate of the masses." Especially for women. Unfortunately, even some women drink the KoolAid and prefer a so-called strong man. I feel rage when I hear anyone, male/female/other talk about voting for the orange turd. Kudos to Stormy!
Marx was a keen observer, noting the friction between capital and labor at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution as well as the effect of religion on the masses. The older I get the more and more I favor the form of pragmatic capitalism found among the Scandinavian countries.
There are religions and religions. Read the tiny book, 'Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches.' I think it will expand your thoughts on KoolAid.
Good insight and parallel about MAGA. Your question at the end is a very good one that I have reflected on quite a bit. I like that Hinduism includes the Divine Mother. If you look at what's happening in India under Modi, though, that's no consolation. In any case, come time to vote I do believe women will be heard. BUT, not sure what tricks the MAGA followers and leaders have up their sleeve.
One of the curiosities I have wondered about often is societies with female deities -- China Kwan Yin, India Durga (strongest of all the deities), Africa's many goddesses -- seemingly women's lot is most repressive. Is it my western perspective, or real?
Hijacked religion! Hijacked by perverted creatures!
Religion hasn't been "hijacked." It serves its purpose of basically enslaving women very well; it is used to conditioned women to enslave themselves. This is less energy intensive than using violence to control us, but make no mistake, violence will be (and is being) used when the conditioning fails. What are abortion bans if not state-sponsored violence against women?
Because religion facilitated the dawn of patriarchy, controlling women's fertility along with the doctrine of discovery that allowed the church to dominate and extract for colonialism. A dominion mindset is the common thread and what we need to transcend for a new dawn.
There are religions and religions. There is a tiny book, 'Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches.' I think it will add to your thoughts on the kind of beliefs needed in the new dawning. That's a very complex idea. Thanks Susan
Yes, you are right that women might rise up against the odious misogyny that Republicans so proudly exhibit. There is, as you point out, evidence in recent election outcomes for such an uprising, and if 10% of the white, working-class women who voted for Trump in 2020 switch to Biden this year, Biden will win in a landslide. That the likes of Alito and his Dobbs-decision clique might have the effect of freeing women from systemic healthcare oppression is a delicious irony. I hope that happens. But even if it does, there will be a long way to go. We will still have to deal with upwards of 74 million Americans that the world would be a better place without. I say “we” but of couse mean “you.” I won’t get there with you, but I dearly hope that you can pull off the victory that eluded my generation. I think we whitled down the fraction louts in the white, working-class from 95% in 1965 to maybe 70% in 2024. If you can reduce it by another 25%, you have a decent chance of civilizing the SOBs. May the wind be at your back.
We lost much when the early Christian church chose what books to be added and to be banned, and when they removed the goddess from the story.
Steve, Have you read, 'Cows, Pig, Wars, and Witches?' each worshiped by some group on Earth. Fascinating little book about organized beliefs.
Thanks for the suggestion - I have not read it
That is my hope, and Biden's eventual victory was impressive, but the fate of some of the key states were squeakers, some of the anti-democratic loopholes in our laws being as they are. That said, the pernicious hubris of Republicans has crossed a line. The arrogant, self-serving opinions of "justices" hand selected by the tyrannical sexual assault perp lack moral legitimacy by that very fact.
Remember, J L, it was nominated. They were hand selected for him to nominate by the Federalist Leos and Mitches.
Everyone watch out for the Federalists.
The plutocratic power behind the throne.
The throne keeps the plebes distracted while their pockets are picked by the plutos.
Yes, we're getting to a central core of the problems right there! Thanks for highlighting the fact.
Has any previous candidate ever lost the popular vote 3 times and the electoral college twice? Orange 3 time loser turd
And yet... he might win and impose his extravagant selfishness on the world again.
It sounds melodramatic, perhaps, but if Trump wins, democracy around the world and here in the U.S. will begin to crumble. This is the most important election in the history of the world.
And of course, 90 years ago: - https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-reichstag-fire-and-nazis-rise-power-180962240/
You are SO right!
gods fobid!
It's all about the turn-out. Across the country. But even more so in the Electoral College's close-run states including Wisconsin, PA, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Virginia and Arizona
"Decimated" means to reduce by 10%. It might be more accurated to say "cratered". Women have never been treated as equals by men.
I used it in the military sense. " ...decimation was a form of military discipline in which every tenth man in a group was executed by members of his cohort." Now think of that in terms of women and pregnancy. Decimated is pretty close to the mark given the number of women/girls in this country who are of child bearing age.
The idea of "decimation" came from the Roman army. If any legion showed cowardice in a battle, the whole legion was lined up side-by-side on the edge of a high cliff. An officer then walked behind the soldiers, pushing every 10th man over the cliff to his death. The legion was "decimated".
The Supreme Court and the MAGA party seem to be doing just that wouldn't you say? Substitute state legislatures for legion captains, and it is the same. But now these "captains" leave it to the foot soldiers in the medical world to do the deed. Losing isn't always a sign of cowardice; but what is happening in this country is. The fear of losing status because of a tin pot dictator is the essence of cowardice. Look at it as a new take on "women and children first."
Yes I'm well aware of the concept. Women have been known to study military history. Some of us even make it a career.
Wow.
In Western society.
Elaine, I’m curious! Is there a society in which men and women are equal? Maybe an indigenous society? I would love to read more about that.
You might be interested in the Mosuo culture in the Himalayas where they practice "walking marriages". The women rule the relationship.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/article/portraits-of-chinese-Mosuo-matriarchs
Many indigenous cultures were, still are matrilineal and more gender equal
We (women) don't fully get that we are equal is every way -- indeed, it seems that the female form xx was the beginning and xy came later for diversity. We are, and probably black women, are the original human form
I think the argument can be made that women are superior to men in all the intellectual, moral, and ethical ways that are most important to a fully functioning society. We need more women leaders. I get my healthcare from the Veterans Administration. When I'm asked about assigning a new caregiver, I always request a woman doctor. They pay better attention in all of the most important ways.
Reading today's glorious Letter from an American -- yes, GLORIOUS, and I can be very critical of some of these letters, while deeply respecting their writer and her heroic undertaking -- my mind at once turned to Russia, to the by-choice-less-than-human teenage psychopath from the Leningrad backyards who made it to immeasurable wealth and total power over the lives of his countrymen and proceeded to mass industrial murder of the close neighbors to cement that power.
And to the beyond-grotesque bespoke ideology cooked up for the sole purpose of justifying and sustaining his bloodthirsty nihilistic madness.
The poisoned shit forced on the peoples of Russia as soul-food. The Satanic perversion of a powerful Christian church reduced to a mere outgrowth of the secret police. The ocean of lies trumped up to look like what they dare call "Traditional Values". "Traditional Values" that would relegate the female sex to the role of baby factories, each to produce 8-plus kids to replenish shrinking supplies of cannon-fodder... if the dwarf from hell had not made this physically impossible by killing off an entire generation of young men.
*
And now, dear Americans, just think of it! All This Can Be Yours! As early as November... you too can -- and will -- be subject to these "Traditional Values" if the master of the Kremlin, his American moles and tools, his adoring admirer and would-be imitator, now stoking up dreams of vengeance in a Manhattan courtroom... continue to have their way...
And then, of course, All This Will Be OURS, too... as we, the rest of the world, live downstream of America...
The world is counting on America's real women -- for women are our champions of survival!
Yes, if mankind survives, it will be thanks to our mothers.
If we go down, we know too well whose doing it will have been.
I agree with you completely but would like to include “all women” not just “mothers”
Sure. No question about that intention.
Still, it is mothers who suffer, bearing, loving and raising sons to be sacrificed... for nothing.
Underlying all this, something that transcends gender, the gross imbalance between the masculine and the feminine principles present in all of us. This makes for a world crazily out of kilter.
A bird with one wing pinioned.
Nuts...
Heather, PLEASE re-run this important essay at least once a month before November's election. I was born and lived in West Virginia near GRAFTON , with a tribute to Anna May Jarvis and never knew about "Mothers' Day" as a political holiday to bring peace, world-wide. Your essay brings it to the forefront and we need to promote it widely!
True that there has been progress, but please don't become complacent.
Millions of unregistered women trend heavily Democratic. Register Democrats - save democracy.
https://www.fieldteam6.org/actions
Thank you, Professor, for telling us our history, what’s at stake, and of noble souls who have gone before.
Elizabeth Taylor to Richard Burton in The Sandpiper (1966): "And where did this conversation take place? In a bar? Or in a locker room?"
The more things change, etc.
Good Point! Glad you said it!!
Brava Carol-Ann
Decimated? Are you kidding. The overturning of Roe has expanded rights
in some states and reduced them in some.
Our abortion practices are among the most draconian in the world. Europe doesn't allow abortion beyond 15-16 weeks. The standard is even higher in most of the world. Can you another country that has abortion on demand until birth?
This is democracy at its finest. If you don't like the policies in your state. Change them. Don't bitch about it and don't expect a court to impose its will on the people.
Oh, dear another person who doesn't know what HE is talking about. May I suggest you take this ill informed text to another site? You will never be pregnant, you don't have a dog in the hunt, it isn't your body, it isn't your life. Are you in the medical field? No? Again, it is none of your business. Take your neanderthal ideas somewhere else. Your screed is what one expects from a misogynist who, either doesn't know the truth, or cares to ignore it. What I do expect is
intelligence and knowledge, not drivel that comes from a MAGA playbook.
Think about how stupid and cartoonish your post was. Besides the fact its all cliches,
lets look at the obvious:
1) Who in the hell do you think you are? THis is a democracy. You don't get to decide who
can have an opinion on ANYTHING
2) If we follow your logic then WOMEN should have no opinion on roads, buildings
infrastructure, policing, war, climate et cetera. Over 90% of the infrastructure is
designed and built by men. Men police your streets, protect you from fires, service your planes and buses, build your cars, home, and planes, pick up your trash, work and maintain
your electrical grid, Are you saying that you can have NO OPINION in those areas?
Of course not.
Yet again another dumb opinion by a leftist who could think her way out of a paper bag
Ooops, the net caught another MAGA midget throwing a misogynistic, ever so toddleresque tantrum. Pick up you malignant binky and depart.
Your comments and understand of women's rights are mirror the language and sentiments of the orange turds followers.
By the way, those professions and jobs you extol men for doing? I don't know how to break this to you; so sit down and put the malignant binky back in your mouth. So do women, lots of them. Got that? So do women. Now there is one thing a man can't do: bear a child. That's called a BFOQ - a bona fide occupational qualification. Since you can't do it, let's just say you don't have the right to legislate it. You don't have a dog in the hunt. Unless of course, you think of women as chattel. Maybe it's time you really just go away and take your neanderthal sentiments with you.
And many women still support this man. I cannot understand this.
Stockholm Syndrome? Fear of failure? Being raised to believe father or whom ever male knows best?
A lot of women are still browbeaten by idiot husbands who rule with no authority except their brawny intimidation. Men have always equated penises with power and many think that all women suffer from penis envy. Well, a competent brain and an empathetic heart are all that is needed for power to be wielded fairly. Women have them in equal measure, likely more so, unless men can separate power and sex. I won’t hold my breath.
Excellent statement! This……this is what it’s all about……..
Truth!!
A penis has 4000 nerve endings, a clitoris 8. I would rather have the clitoris:)
Is that why men reportedly think about sex every six seconds. I would agree
Jeri: Freud was WRONG in suggesting penis envy. We all know that a vagina can function rain/sleet/snow but a penis?? Not so much (with apologies to the nice men on this site)
So true, but they have had the microphone for centuries. BTW, there are some wonderful men on this site, and I am fortunate enough to have run into some awesome ones in my life. No important man in my life has ever treated me as anything but an equal. Wish all women could say that.
There is no “but”. Only “and”. As in….”Gained ground, yes”….AND gaining more.
Bravo to all women of the world.
🗽💜
Long way to go, most unfortunately, even as so many still support Trump.
Of course. We still are a democracy and choice is everything.
Salud!
🗽💜
Every time that 60% (give or take) statistic about white women comes up, I want to see it broken down into, e.g., married, divorced, single, and never married. (Well, I'd *really* like to see "lesbian" as an option, but even in relatively enlightened places, checking that box would be risky.) Now that same-sex marriage is legal, "married to a woman" should be separated out from "married to a man" -- but in sexist, heterosexist society that's risky too. Because I seriously doubt that 60% of white women who are not economically or psychologically dependent on men voted for Trump.
Good points, all around. In any case, if 10% of white women married to louts flip from Trump to Biden, Biden will win in a landslide. To stay safe, those women will need to tell the louts they voted for Trump, but of course the women know that. They’re not stupid. Just unfortunate.
I'm praying for those 10%, and glad secret ballots are a thing -- although with vote-by-mail, voters have to be somewhat crafty about it.
So true! Good reminder...and it made me laugh.. but maybe it should make me cry!
Many women still are afraid to let go of traditional structures -- baked in codependency? It's a form of trauma and we need to heal from patriarchy and fully understand how powerful we are. We are not secondary in any way.
All TOO true and sad. I have a couple of friends who voted for the orange man and think he’s a good businessman and they have daughters, clueless!
Yeah, what the hell is wrong with them???
😰
Zactly
Thank you Berry--MOTHERS who have born all of humanity are not allowed treatment until their organs begin to fail. Let's think about that this uplifting holiday....
women were seeking equal rights in ancient Greece! Thank you for calling us to remember the mothers.
As I remember, during one of the many Greek wars, the women on both side refused to have sex with their husbands until they stopped the war. Anyone out there remember which one?
Lysistrata?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysistrata
Yes. Damn, it's been so long since these things were on the tip of my tounge. Thank you David. I'll be able to sleep tonoght.
RR, I had to issue a query to the all-knowing Googlebot. I'm experiencing mental data retrieval issues as well (approaching 76 in early June). But I like to chalk it up to "well, I didn't need to keep track of all that trivia anyway." I'm reserving my mental bandwidth for more important things, such as preserving democracy, and trying to ensure Earth will be habitable for a long time, stuff like that.
Yes, I think I understand.(understatement) I've been 76 for several months now. MInutia is irrelevant. If it's important, it can be looked up. I just got around to getting my library card after living here for twenty some years and I've found a whole community of old farts who meet and discuss all sorts of important stuff. Not loud, but in earnest. In elementary school, I was always "truant". I would disappear into the library and start reading history and worked my way through most of what was there. My teachers always knew where to find me.
Right now, it is clear to all of us who spend time reading and commenting on various Substacks, that this next election is it. It will take all the focus we have to keep our country intact. Robert Hubble and Jessica Craven, amoung a few others who list opportunities to engage and work at various levels of campaigns, are valuable resources. I didn't get called to be a poll worker in the primary in CA, but they tell me that if they fall short anywhere nearby, I'll work somewhere not too far away. We all have to do as much as we can. Hang in there.
I don't know which one and I'm Greek. Thank you for the recall--I have long fantasized that all women stage a sex strike until our healthcare rights are reinstated. It's 2024 for heaven's sake!!
Lysistrata is the name of the play, a look into how women might have changed the course of the Peloponnesian wars, had they indeed withheld sex. See Wikipedia citation below.
Lysistrata -- and was re-enacted modern times by Leymah Gbowee in Liberia -- won the Novel Peace prize
Wow. The best Mothers Day message ever. Thank you Professor Richardson. This is a timely reminder. For all women. Mothers of democracy.
Salud!
🗽💜
YES
Here-to-forthe I will refer to this special day as "Females' Day". Happy Females' Day to all of you loving females with or without children. May this millennium see the human female attain full equality and lead us into a Regenerative socio-economic system integrated and evolving with Mother Gaia's natural ecosystem.
My exact thoughts this morning! Thank you so much for articulating my thoughts.
My understanding is that in Cherokee tradition, the woman Elder was the one who made the decision of whether or not to go to war. Because women had the most to lose (as expressed by Julia Ward Howe), the Cherokee Nation was smart enough to understand this, and to honor women's rights. Would that all nations were so wise.
Thank you for all the men that have made the world a better place
There always has to be one of these trolling, tone deaf comments.
Why does the truth offend leftists? Probably because the truth is not a left wing value.
Since when did you think you were entitled to sit inside your little bubble insulated from reality. This is a public forum that and a site that champions free speech.
Might be time to grow up.
One more time - you are a hypocritic if you call Trump a tax cheat (he has never been charged with tax fraud despite countless audits and ignore HUNTER BIDEN's tax issues.
That makes you a phony.
Fathers Day is next month. Don't worry, you won't be left out. ;-)
I love Main (ME), once being a student camp couselor in Tenants Harbour. Make America the better place to live first, then the world.
I think America is in the late cocky adolescent phase--a bit insensitive, foul mouthed and struggling with hormones and boundaries. Hopefully, we'll grow up. For some this is an amazing place to live, but far too many struggle with poverty of life and soul. IMHO.
"For some this is an ..., but far too many..." I have been thinking of your comment sometime. America produces 25% of GDP of the world and why too many struggle with poverty.
My professor at UM has told me to study Lincoln's second inaugural. There is a statement "It may strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces." Speaker Johnson, a declared Christian, supports Mr. Trump and Republicans who cut taxes of the wealthiest is IMHO is committing this offence. They live on their stock returns with no work themselves. But as Lincoln immediately followed "but let us judge not, that we be not judged." Thank you for your comment. Hiro
And, still trying to eliminate war and make peace in this world!! Such a tough job…..
Even in our democracy, what we have won for women remains fragile and vulnerable. Let us rededicate ourselves on this Mothers' day to reclaiming the rights that have been taken from us.
Well said! I am reclaiming the rights attempted to be taken away from us for both me and my daughter. I did not want kids so as to focus on my careers. The Universe had other plans. In 2011, a mentor of mine who spearheaded Covenant House, shelters for homeless teens in the East Coast, introduced me to a teen who had ended up at one of the shelters. Long story short we adopted her. She just received her third masters and is happily living in Greece with her husband. Mothers' Day is my new favorite holiday....
What a mitzvah! Happy Mothers' Day to you and to all who have loved, mentored, fostered, taught, and cared for others!
Yes, Happy Mothers' Day to all the mothers who "have been able to teach (their children) of charity, mercy, and parience." (Howe)
Mothers who have tried to show by example that being compassionate, honest, respectful, and tolerant of others is the right way to live and interact with people.
I wonder about all those mothers who are Trump worshippers. Aren't they showing their children, by admiring Trump's behavior, that they condone his crazy rants and illegal actions? Is this the kind of behavior they want their children to exemplify? Is Trump's promise to be a dictator and demolish democracy the kind of lawlessness they want for their children's future?
It bothers me so much to see young children standing behind Trump at his rallies, waving their MAGA caps, clapping, and laughing as he curses, calls people names, makes fun of those who disagree with him, and lies about everything dishonest he's done.
These mothers are teaching their children that it's good to admire an unethical, dishonest, and unhinged man who thinks that these traits are what make a "great" president.
There's not ONE great thing about Donald Trump and mothers are misguided in holding him up as an example for their children to emulate.
We are in a lot of trouble when these children who love Trump grow up to "be like him."
But what about those mothers who despise who trump is and yet their child loves him. That's whom I'm truly sorry for....
That's true, but usually young children are influenced by their parents' views and beliefs.
I'm talking about really young children who probably wouldn't understand who Trump tries to be if not for hearing and seeing someone close to them continuously spout off how great Trump will be for the country.
Well I'm preparing to address those young children by writing a children's book about why not to lie. But for it truly to have a dramatic effect trump has to first go to prison....
While I see your point, I also feel for those mothers whose children abandon her for an 🍊💩
THANK YOU!
Sophia: Bless you. Bless you!
I had some awareness of Julia Ward Howe, but not the story HCR tells of her. It belongs in every US history survey textbook. I think that the impulse of some people to try to lord it over others in the source of the preponderance of our species' preventable suffering. It has been paired with an impulse to do otherwise throughout history, but here we again in the midst of struggle.
"Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience." It is ironic that, so far as I can tell, most children are instructed to be kind and decent citizens, yet we accept so much that violates that training in adults. Trump should be everything we would NOT was to see our child become.
"We share the same biology
Regardless of ideology
Believe me when I say to you
I hope the Russians love their children too" - Sting
Let's all commit that every woman as well as as every man who subscribes to this substack will work at least some time every week until Nov5 contacting family and friends to get assurances that every possible Biden voter is (or will be) registered to vote and pledges to do so! Everyone "on deck" doing their part every week? Not too much to ask, is it? And while you are at it, please go to www.TurnUp.US to see what a brilliant group of Harvard students are doing allready to register high school seniors and Community College students all across the country ONLY IN 78 COMPETITIVE CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS AND 16 COMPETITIVE SENATE ELECTIONS? They are working in a nonpartisan tax deductible C3 organization each day and night to turnout as many younger voters as possible in order to protect reproductive rights, enact strong gun safety rules, and fight climate change! Please help them out and contribute generously to the most effective young voter movement in the entire country! Thank you.
Thank you, as always, Ira, for reminding us of what the Harvard students are doing. In case you're interested, I'm part of a group that is offering a virtual meeting that we're calling the UnConvention to examine ways in which we can make MA more lower case "d" democratic. We've got some exciting breakout sessions planned, so please think about joining us. Check out:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1U2SDTsQ18YffywYZt0yWoMJi0r2VRfs6f3UBmNbFJsY/edit
Thanks for the invite; I’ll check it out as we need everyone on board in different ways
First of all, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY and HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY everyone.
Did you ever notice that there is less violence in the world now that women have become leaders in society and all levels of government?
This is 100% accurate. Research pretty clear that when women are at the negotiating table, peace agreements more easy to reach and are more durable. Please see my Substack with Scilla Elworthy How Women leaders Stop Wars
I will check it out. Thanks Susan.
Julia Ward Howe! Does anyone else remember The Battle Hymn of the Republic sung by the entire congregation in Westminster Abbey the Sunday after President Kennedy was assassinated? Somehow this letter seems an appropriate accompaniment to that memory of a different America.
I was in London then, where we'd been weeping in the streets ever since the morning we awoke to the terrible news, but I didn't know about Westminster Abbey. Probably because the night before I'd been singing in the Royal Festival Hall, where the scheduled performance of the Verdi Requiem had been formally dedicated to the memory of President Kennedy, with a request to abstain from applause.
With whom did you sing. Were you a soloist or chorister? My past life was one chorus after another, opera or symphony after church choirs.
Really? Our lives have followed similar paths, it seems. In London I sang with the 1st sops in the BBC Choral Society. Top conductors and soloists. You haven't lived till you've done Belshazzar's Feast placed behind the brass... Then there was "Semele" with the Handel Opera Society, rushing round the stage at Sadler's Wells dressed as a Grecian nymph. I missed so many meals because of having to travel across London to different rehearsal venues that I only weighed 58 kg when I arrived in Paris. Those were the days.
That is truly impressive. Thank you for sharing. You may enjoy this tale: My husband and his chorus friends played bridge in their dressing room. On stage one night I looked across to see that he had worn his glasses onstage. Singing and playing the adorable peasant, I went across the stage, got his glasses off and into my bosom and walked back to my spot.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻😎
One of my favorites was doing “King David,” still in graduate school at UNC-CH. Later was in San Antonio Opera chorus, introduction to opera and its stars. Then NOLA opera and symphony choruses. Endless rehearsals and teaching piano meant that before I came to Chicago and during 10 years on a boat in France where we had France Musique every night, I never saw much TV until 2016 (you can guess why a political junkie was compelled to watch MSNBC then).
I never got to sing the Verdi, nut the Brahms three times.
Wow!
Both Anne-Louise and Virginia, I am impressed!
Singing is joy. During WWII we sang at school and in church. Then every college had at least one chorus. There were music majors. Even my liberal arts college where I was an organ major, no longer has an organ major. Whether there are still music majors, I don’t know. But we had a string quartet of faculty members, which was an education in itself for me, who only knew orchestras from recordings.
Again, impressed I am, Virginia!
Yes, singing is indeed JOY!
Even songs that are somewhat less than joyful.
Just today I found myself singing sotto voce, to nobody but myself and the cat at the time, the opening lyrics to a song by one of the greatest of modern American songwriters, the late, great Warren Zevon, entitled "Heartache spoken here"
"When I was young, the skies were filled with stars,
I watched them burn out one by one"
Respectfully for Warren Zevon, they didn't just "burn out."
Our billionaire classes, rather, actively, maliciously, by organized, dark-monied plan snuffed them out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdwNkvcAoXg
Last evening I attended a concert performed by my local community's symphony orchestra and full choir. They performed Beethoven's Ninth, his Ode to Joy. Such power in that music, brought forth by regular folks who join with others to bring such pleasure to the rest of us. I wept at the beauty of it all.
I got to watch our local symphony perform that several years ago; the real treat was knowing several people in both of those groups.
At least in the US, there are. Our youngest, who played cello in the orchestra and sang in high school, also sang in the Men’s Glee Club at his university. Most of the members who got in were music majors, although our son was not.
My memory is fuzzy, but I think we performed Brahms Requiem in college (at Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota). I played the tuba part, but although I recognized the notes when looking up the part on IMSLP, I think I had to take many of them down an octave due to them being actually in euphonium range unless maybe you were playing an F tuba.
But that said, I have a very clear memory of holding out a low D for an extended length of time at the end of a movement. Keeping this note steady at pp and not running out of air was pretty stressful!
I have the requiem (Klemperer) on endless loop in my car. I was widowed last year, and I think that music has saved my life.
Pleas
Please read the lower comment first.
When you feel better, try Bernstein’s “Candide,” starting with the final chorus. It may give you new energy. Thinking about the finale of the Brahms led me to Voltaire. Must be the present of climate change and politics.
Yes! Was it Keats who wrote”Beauty is Truth and Truth Beauty./That is all ye know and all ye need to know.”? The Brahms is both Beauty and Truth. “All flesh is grass…” never really resonated with me before I sang Brahms.
Impressive, Matt. I love having more than one tuba in symphonic band; my buddy and I are "even and odd" for breathing measures. We did de Meir's "Hobbits" 5th movement. Perfect intonation on the C's in the last many measures, with him on a C and me on a Bb.
What I remember was watching Sir Winston Churchill's funeral from St. Paul's Cathedral in 1965, and the congregation singing "Battle Hymn of the Republic" as it was said to be among Churchill's favorite hymns, and apt as he was an honorary citizen of the USA.
And don't forget his mother was American [Jenny Jerome] and Winston was the apple of her eye - she loved him so much. I read some of his early childhood letters to his mother - they all started as Dear Mummy. There is a terrific Biography of her life and how she influenced Winston. So sorry I don't recall the author's name.
You’re dating yourself, LOLOL. I will too… I was in 1st grade at a French Catholic school in Canada and the nuns were all crying and we were led to our desks to bow our heads in prayer. As a former Catholic, I remember the day clearly.
It was the first time I wept. Somehow hearing that American hymn of which I had learned all the verses as a child in Virginia being sung in that huge cathedral was overwhelming. I am very dated—just turned 90🤣!
Good for you! Happy 90th. I just turned 67 and hoping to live as long as you!!
Thank you. I am still singing at least once a day so that I can continue to sing. Range is abominable, but pitch is still good.
You're a pleasure to read also. Thanks for sharing!!
Thank you for reading.
Mazel Tov, Virginia! May you continue to sing with the birds and many moons!
*for many moons*!
Enjoying the idea of the moon singing. That’s a hard one to imagine. Does the moon sing to the astronauts? Surely after all the songs sung to her, she should have something to sing back.
And "sharp as a tack".
I was in the 5th grade and my teacher was called to the hall outside our classroom. She came back in tears...I think it was the first time I saw grown-ups cry...and announced the tragic news while trying to pull herself together, probably hoping she wouldn't upset us. But we all started crying and the closed early. While we waited for instructions, one of the MOTHERS brought several puppies in for us. It was a very smart and intuitive tactic that worked splendidly. I'll never forget those adorable puppies and the magic they wove for the stunned, frightened and grief-stricken children.
No. But it brings a tear to my eye just thinking about it. 😢
I couldn’t find video of it, but found they did it after 9/11 attacks on WTC & Pentagon
https://youtu.be/rmpo0csiIMs?si=cjW34mIUNGT4vk2Z
I also remember in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 when I was still living in The Netherlands. All us American expats were reeling after it and we couldn't call the US (all the circuits were down and it would be a week before I could phone home), nor was there any computer contact (no email possible to US email servers). It was a horrible feeling. That Saturday after 9/11 was the BBC Last Night of the Proms, always a jingoistic pro-British affair that was always very festive and a lot of fun. I always watched it. The guest conductor for it happened to be American Leonard Slatkin, and in keeping with the very somber mood, the program was changed to be more pro-American and more low-key. I particularly remember Slatkin announcing they would play Barber's "Adagio for Strings", what he called "America's music of mourning . . . ". As they played it I sat there and bawled like a baby. Close-ups of the orchestra showed some of the string players with tears streaming down their cheeks. It was an incredible moment.
These collective moments are so important to our national coherence. I wonder if those who want to tear out nation apart can remember anything like this. After 9/11 the Unitarian Church I attend in NYC was full of candles, and I can recall a service on a sweltering evening after the attacks where we sang familiar hymns and young people, many of whom probably don't attend church, poured in dressed in shorts and sneakers and wept openly.
I wasn't a Unitarian at the time, only about 7 years later when my wife became pregnant and we had to tackle the problem of religious upbringing, if any.
I forget how the Catholic Newman Center which I attended (although I didn't really believe in God at that point, only in the result that belief could positively bring about) reacted to 9/11.
Rather, I mostly remember the anger I felt over subsequent months and years that the Bush administration, led by Cheney and Rumsfeld, were willing to exploit the situation for political gain, even to the point of manipulating the US into war! Not just Afghanistan, but Iraq! These were sick people!
My anger consumed me for some time until I had to tell myself to let go as being angry all of the time is bad for one's health.
I was "raised" Unitarian, and I think it greatly influenced my outlook. So many lives lost or ruined for untempered egos. I recall seeing some website just after 9/11 with page after page of photos of candlelight vigils all over the world. So sorry that so much of that good will was pushed aside.
Regarding US and Israel, it seems that when a war hawk is in charge, the killing on the other end will be 100 fold.
Just for the record, Julia Ward Howe was a Unitarian.
So many people tell me that piece is inherently sad, but I never thought so. Passionate but not sad, but I can see it would be in the context. I think Barber likened it to a river joined by tributaries.
That piece will do it, Bruce.
I remember in 2006(?), with Slatkin (who was music director for three years in NOLA when I lived there) as conductor of the last night of the proms, leaping out of bed after a long day in France, to sing “Land of Hope and Glory.”
"While we celebrate the modern version of Mother’s Day on May 12, in this momentous year of 2024 it’s worth remembering the original Mothers’ Day and Julia Ward Howe’s conviction that women must have the same rights as men, and that they must make their voices heard.” Indeed, you are the perfect example, HCR. Thank you. What a gift you are to us.
Hope, I found Heather's letter so inspiring in terms of a Mothers' Day and I learned a lot about Julia Ward Howe too. I am not a mother except to animals and school kids when I was in education. However, I am fully a mother who wants rights for everyone and not just women. I also wish we could solve our problems peacefully and work for a better world instead of one full of bloodshed and the destruction of the planet. When death star won, I knew women and others were going to take a step back and hard won rights would disappear. As for the The Gnomes(Noem) and Gangrenes of the world, they have no idea of the feminine and are an insult to the feminine force. And I agree with the post below...Steven Machat.
BTW, I may have to use your "Gangrene" nom de fair without attribution, Michele!
Be my guest.
You’re talking about Marjorie Traitor Gangrene, I assume? Perhaps a little respect is in order--Ms. Gangrene, please.
Marble Mouth Gangrene.
That way we account for the poison in her bloodstream, as well as the less-than-literate vocalizations she tries to make.
MT Gangrene...
🤣🤣🤣
LOL. My bad.
I'm in your boat, Michele; no children (other than the cats) but in 1987 my goal in life became to be the best Auntie to those kids (I have 5 nieces/nephew, and 2 great nieces in my family, and I am the "Tuba Auntie" at the U of O tuba studio.
Love that you are a tuba auntie. My family is mostly in the midwest. I have two nephews and two great nephews here on the west coast. Other than that it is 5 nieces and nephews, about 14 greats and around a dozen great greats, the latest this last week, baby Elizabeth.
Countries and cultures whose women are devalued and have fewer rights than men generally are not thriving. It costs time, money, and talent to keep women down. Those cultures miss out on all that women could contribute, and they also miss out on everything that could be contributed by men who, instead, have to police and monitor women and hold them back.
Well said, LaurieOregon!
Spot on Laurie 🙏
A profound and perceptive observation, Laurie! Brava!
Agreed, neighbor!
Old American white guys still controlling the destiny of women. Denying women freedom of choice and equal levels of healthcare.
Old male clerics in the Middle East treating women as possessions. Telling them they are not worthy of education. Telling them how to dress.
What if on some Mothers' Day, women around the world said "enough" of your death, destruction and dumb ass approach to governing?
Considering what has happened to women's rights recently, it is hard to believe it is 2024. It feels like 1924. 1824...
Will women declare their rights on November 5th? Will they slap down those old white guys...finally?
Time to get out “Lysistrata.”
Good idea. And I am reminded that it was the role of women that provided the momentum to end the "Troubles" in Ireland. One of the most intractable conflicts in history.
You know, yourself, Bill, that it's not just "those old white guys."
In alphabetical order, you know it's also Amy Coney Barrett, Lauren Boebert, Katie Britt, Aileen Cannon, Marjorie Taylor Gazpacho, Anna Luna, Nancy Mace, Elise Stefanik, Virginia Thomas, and too many other women in turn trying also to "slap down" (as you say) blacks, others of color, our disabled, our homeless, our medically uninsured, our poisoned by corporate ogres befouling the environment, our victims of AR-15 and other mass murder assault weaponry, and kids robbed of humanities in schools so that billionaire standardized testers may all the more number, dehumanize, and package the world.
Yes, lunacy, greed, and hubris are not restricted to the male of the species but I like the idea that some Native American tribes had. The Council of the Grandmothers who had the final decision on really important matters. The women bring human life to the planet; they should have the final say in whether it is to be treasured or squandered.
Of course, that's true. But the likes of Barrett subscribe to the ancient beliefs of patriarchy. And yes, oligarchy rhymes with patriarchy.
I am trying to decide whether this novel we are living in was written by Orwell, Huxley or Golding.
I think it feels like a Dean Koontz or Stephen King novel. Koontz especially writes of evil government conspiracies that boils down to Good vs Evil, and often with heroic females outsmarting men in shadow organizations.
Excellent point, Paula.
Add to your Dean Koontz and Stephen King the names Walker Percy, Joan Didion, Walter Mosley, Ross Macdonald, Philip K. Dick, Barbara Kingsolver, Richard Russo, Henry Adams, Faulkner, Hammet, Chandler, Melville, Mailer, Hawthorne, and many more apt authors of other novels, memoirs, and histories.
I can see that you are as much a bibliophile as I am. My favorite piece of tech is my Kindle. . . . in fact I call myself "kindle addict 53" on Amazon. I actually believe I would suffer a total breakdown if I couldn't use it! I'm stuck in bed with a crumbling spine and I read digital books 8 hours a day. I used to be able to go to the library for my drug of choice and read for free, but alas....those days are over.
I'll finish up reading the news and Substack in a bit, and then I'll get started on a Brandon Sanderson - he's a fantasy/speculative fiction writer whom I just recently discovered. The Hyperion Cantos series was fantastic and I felt like I left this world and immersed myself in a very different - but no less "real" - universe.
As long as I have my kindle and my cat, Mr. Peanut, I can hang on.
Hang on in there, Paula.
But please cite some of your reading to further aptly illuminate comments you make here.
Excellent point, Bill.
Add to your Orwell, Huxley, and Golding the names of Dean Koontz and Stephen King, as Paula Dean submits here also.
Add also the names Walker Percy, Joan Didion, Walter Mosley, Ross Macdonald, Philip K. Dick, and many more trenchant authors of novels, histories, and memoirs.
It's not about female bodies in positions of power, it's about a hyper-masculinity worldview. Men can also embrace the feminine, and do.
Well, when you see some of those bat sh!t crazy women out there in all their trump paraphernalia, some saying he was sent by god I have to wonder if they have any self awareness or self dignity. I highly doubt it. Those women are just as gullible or greedy as the men who support trump. Gender should play a roll but think about the upbringing & education that has led to this movement, those positions were foisted on young girls & boys making it very easy to manipulate them.
They simply kill us, Bill. Here, it's by domestic violence or abortion restrictions or mass shootings; there, it's by fiat, beatings, and gunshots. But yes, I'm hopeful the tide is turning, but not before the Authoritarians step down. There is such a long way yet to go...
Thank you Bill. You are obviously among the real men.
The patriarchy is alive and well in America. The Catholic Church has taught most of the members of SCOTUS that men should be in charge of well, everything. And for some bizarre reason, they should remain celibate, which few of them do and that women cannot preach the word of God from the pulpit.
Does the leadership in the church even consider that the quality of priests has dropped off substantially over the past 100 years is because of their archaic view of women and their role in modern society?
It's not just Catholic. I was raised Southern Baptist. It didn't take. Haven't been to "church" in over 50 years and have never missed it. "Church" to me is just another group trying to control society by promising something they can't deliver.
Amen to that!
Not to mention actively converting the hospitals...
Both the Catholic Church and the Baptists.
Women need to recognize "the pregnancy police" are very possible if the "Orange Turd" is not flushed in November. Every woman must consider their daughters and grand-daughters and those of all the other women out there. NO woman wants a state representative monitoring and directing her pregnancy.
My maternal grandmother graduated Summa Cum Laude and was elected Phi Beta Kappa eleven years before she could vote. The only careers available to her were teacher, nurse, secretary - or wife and mother.
My mom graduated college, became a science and math teacher, got married, bore four children, managed the family budget, and was elected President of the Board of Education of the parochial school we all attended before she was allowed to have a checking account or credit card in her own name.
I was a sophomore in high school when my parents suggested I open my own checking account- and savings account. At 19, Roe V Wade was adjudicated and I was able to make private decisions about my healthcare. I made my own choice regarding college - and career - and didn’t get married until I was in my 30’s. I made more money than my late husband, managed the family budget, and retained a separate checking account to fund my own interests with zero oversight throughout.
My daughter and step daughter have always had access to banking services in their own name, credit cards, and access to world class women’s healthcare. And though both have partners, they are quite independent of the guys in their lives.
Full circle. My grandniece just graduated high school with honors, and will attend college in the fall - both in a red state. Her choice so far is to become a wildlife biologist - a choice we all heartily approve.
Yet her mom is so worried about Sophie not having access to healthcare - either birth control or abortion, never mind choosing whether to having children or not, that she called to ask if I would help if needed because I live in a blue state.
Yes, of course I will. I will also work to get out the vote, here and elsewhere and work to preserve women’s rights everywhere.
But can I just say that this mama bear is seriously pissed off that the question had to be asked? 2024. More than 100 years after my brilliant grandmother earned the right to vote. More than 60 years after my wicked smart and capable mom earned the right to be financially independent of her husband.
More than 50 years after I earned to right to make my own healthcare choices - a right that continues.
Really? Happy Mother’s Day. I think? 🤨
I have been thinking about this for awhile now. I think the rule law in this country—the architecture— is built on protecting property, not people. Roe was based on rights of privacy (if I understand correctly) so was always on shaky ground. Women were the property of their husband’s when this country was formed. That disconnect has not been sufficiently addressed in law. I think. Just like the 14th amendment did not protect formerly enslaved and their progeny until laws were finally changed enough in 1965, women’s rights have not been protected enough in law and women are still vulnerable to being reduced again to property. I think all civil rights in general cannot be protected enough—are vulnerable—until women’s rights are fully achieved. Until we begin to protect people over property we will keep having the same struggles, one step forward and two back. Maybe a fight based on property law may be the way to finally gain reproductive freedom in our country. I am not sure about this but have been wondering why oh why we women have lost so much so fast in the country that holds itself up as the best democracy in the world. A crazy belief given all that women have lost in this country. Of course with rabid Catholics on the SCOTUS we may have to wait a long long time to regain reproductive freedoms for women in this country. It may be too late for a fight based in any law. The SCOTUS is so thoroughly corrupted right now.
Mary Ellen, you are 100% accurate about the "rule of law" protecting property above all else.
I am unable to imagine all of the progress our planet could have achieved if it weren't for the patriarchy holding them down.
I fully admit that my wife is smarter than I am and that's why I rarely make any "family" decisions without consulting with her. But, truth be told, she is better at consulting me about "family" decisions than I am.
How amazing the accomplishments are of women like Marie Curie and Einstein's wife Maleva Meric who "assisted" Albert with the toughest parts of his theory of relativity and many of his other theories. How we have wasted so much talent just so women can raise our kids and keep our homes clean and tidy.
Hear, hear, Sheila! My maternal grandmother was also a college graduate and a math teacher until she got married, when she lost her job because married women shouldn’t work. She ended up doing all the bookkeeping for my grandfather’s business. My mother, an Ivy League graduate (Cornell, because they accepted women), didn’t work until after she and my dad divorced - and she needed her father’s co-signature to get credit. Most Ivy League colleges (and other men’s colleges) didn’t accept women until I was in high school, and I’m only 63. If Dr. Richardson were only a few years older, she would have attended Radcliffe, not Harvard. I don’t think my daughters have any notion of how far we have come in just a few generations, and how much is at risk now. To me, this is living memory; to them, it’s ancient history.
Agree, KR!
AMEN, Sheila!!
Cheering your words, Sheila!
Do. Not. Cross. a pissed off Mama Bear.
Thank you for this family history, Sheila.
Arise Women!
Love this passage, Ma'am. I came from a family in which both parents were bright, but my mother particularly so. While the sit-down dinner often took place at more of a donnybrook than dining room table, my father revered that keen intellect and fierce egalitarianism of my mother. So, I have long been pre-disposed toward the strength of women.
✌️
Though older and alone now (i.e., never married), life has shown me a variety of cultures, some radically different. I have found three things to be be paramount in my thinking about about braking endemic conflict and about American politics, no matter how conservative I am at times.
⚖️
1st, if I want to change a policy, argue with the men.
2nd, if I want to change a culture, work with the women.
3rd, I sure wish the Equal Rights Amendment *were re-opened and ratified post-haste.
⚖️
Thank you, Dr Richardson, and may you enjoy a warm Mothers' Day with your family. Happy Mothers' Day to all of the other women here whether blessed *with children or not.
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EDIT: a great novel about women and the home front is 'The Care and Management of Lies' by Jacqueline Winspear. It is set in the U.K. during World War I.
Until women end the male domination of Western and Muslim religions where women are a second class of people there by those rules which women obey, women will never have true equality. As you wrote all humans come from the womb of mankind. ALL.
Now that is an interesting phrase--“the womb of mankind.” Stopped me in my reading.
Humankind, perhaps?
"It's almost like men make up the rules." John Fugelsang.
Mother's Day has never meant anything to me. It didn't mean anything to my parents, and as a mother, it still means nothing to me. But Mothers' Day? I can whole heartedly get on board with what Julia Ward Howe was campaigning for. As his daughter wrote for him in Robert Hubbell's weekend letter, "The open secret in the modern grassroots movement is that it is 90% women! When the history of this period is written, women will be credited with the leading role in saving our democracy."
From the 14th Amendment: "Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State."
The part about being 21 years of age must have changed since the voting age is now 18? Is there some reason that the part about being male CAN'T be changed? If for no other reason just to remove the sex/gender part from the Constitution?
The Equal Rights Amendment would do so, if Congress will allow the extension of its ratification.
Do you know if there had to be an amendment to change the voting age from 21 to 18?
Yes, it's the 26th amendment
Suffrage for eigtlhteen-year olds
It was passed because of the Vietnam war. We were sending people to battle (the draft) & with all the protests going on someone came to the realization that we were sending kids to death before they could vote. So instead of stopping that insane war they lowered the age to vote.
It passed the 37th state in July, 1972 so apparently 18 year olds could vote in the 1972 election. I turned 18 one month after the general election.
Interesting to note that Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico and North Dakota never have voted to approve the 26th amendment.
Thank you!
They changed the age from 21 to 18 during the Vietnam War, because the young men being drafted were outraged by being forced to fight when they couldn't vote, and Mothers(!) (and fathers too) began court cases or lawsuits to resist the draft. They even lowered the drinking age for a few years. Because: WAR in a distant foreign country had to be fought by the young sons of America and all obstacles preventing that had to be removed. Even Ukraine won't draft soldiers under 25.
Amendment 26.
Lisa, Amendment 19 Gave women the right to vote "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied of abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. (it should have read gender) it only took 15 months from proposal to certification The Equal Rights Amendment first proposed in 1923 and reintroduced in 1971 “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex (gender)” was approved by 2/3 of Congress in 1971 but 53 years later it has failed to garner AND hold ratification by 38 States. That is how frightened some legislators in some States are of women. Twelve to Thirteen States have been able keep this innocuous Amendment from passing. A number of men (including Trump) would take away our right to voted if they could.
Real men, sure of their own value, have no problem sharing equality, only weak men who fear any challenge to their masculinity are afraid to grant equal rights to all.
Thank you, as always, Heather! A happy Mothers’ Dayctovyou!
“As Howe worked to unite women, she came to realize that a woman did not have to center her life around a man, but rather should be “a free agent, fully sharing with man every human right and every human responsibility.” “This discovery was like the addition of a new continent to the map of the world,” she later recalled, “or of a new testament to the old ordinances.” She threw herself into the struggle for women’s suffrage, understanding that in order to create a more just and peaceful society, women must take up their rightful place as equal participants in American politics.
While we celebrate the modern version of Mother’s Day on May 12, in this momentous year of 2024 it’s worth remembering the original Mothers’ Day and Julia Ward Howe’s conviction that women must have the same rights as men, and that they must make their voices heard.”
Amen!
Yet another awesome, but simple lesson in American history from our esteemed professor. I have long regretted the ability of our country to ignore the talent, intellect and skill, of 1/2 of our population. As a long time advisor to my institution of higher education (CU) I am proud to note that our college of Engineering leads the nation in female enrollment. Engineers solve problems for humanity. Women will lead that charge toward the future. At the age of 77, I may not be around to observe the result but it will come.
Check it out. https://youtu.be/VHeWndnHuQs?si=bDFztcWk37Tvvcbf
And yet, we still have bloody, cruel, useless wars, and lots of mothers are being killed.
We still have Putins in this world -- men who firmly hold to having women stay home, having usefulness only in two rooms of the house. And men have trained or conditioned women to surrender any vestige of self so to fulfill their own goals. Putin has called for women to produce 4-8 children per family so to grow the Russian population.
Someone please correct me if I am wrong, But many many decades ago did not China impose a one child rule for families - and were not girl babies killed so the family could produce a son? - Guess what! They realized that not enough girls were available to marry the sons.......and did, not they invade other countries and kidnap girls?
Yes, they did have a one child rule, and there were likely lots of baby girls murdered but it wasn't by state mandate.
This wikipedia entry should help refresh your memory.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-child_policy
The thought of Putin just being "re-elected" to another 6 year term is heartbreaking and horrifying. He is really a narcissistic monster. Forcing women to have 4-8 children sounds like a nightmare. :(
Ture. But Elon Musk has at least 9 kids, which to me is pretty scary as well.
And Don Snoreleone with his 5 kids -- Ugh! Hopefully, all these kids are not influenced by their father's other than genetically.
Since 2009 there have been over 15 million families with a female householder and no spouse present in the United States. Some of these women became pregnant after being raped and may or may not be receiving child support from their abuser.
To all of you single mothers a special HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY to you.
In the U.S., women could finally obtain credit without a husband's approval around the same time the ERA was proposed but never ratified. Still today, my sister defers to her husband on just about every matter, as did my late sister. My late wife didn't buy it. God bless her.
I hope women will again declare their independence in a new manner (political independence) in sync with a developing movement aimed at changing how our society responds to a host of issues.
https://www.letusvote.org/
I don't find an edit function. ERA "amendment" is redundant.
You have to click on the three little dots in teh lower right corner.
Just like me. progwoman, in speed, I mix letters too teh, instead of the...
Haha. Maybe I'll leave it.
I'd never realized what those three dots might mean, progwoman.
So thank you. I often err and post things really needing edits. Even obvious, little things embarrass. Next time, I'll try as you say -- so thank you again.
Lucky me, I use those dots often because of mind lapses or clumsy fingers. Not that I am smart. Just curios. I hit them a long time ago just to see what would happen. Did it again. Fixed "of clumsy" to "or clunsy"...
Thank you. I swear, I tried that last night and got different options. Made several edits just now. 🙂
Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers!