I don't know this woman's name. Click on the image for more info. If you can figure out who she is you get a free cupcake!

The US Women’s Hockey team beat China, 12-1 yesterday. On Saturday, Canada beat Slovakia 18-1. Canada and the United States have such dominating teams simply because the sport has been popular for girls there and here for going on 20 years. In places like China and Slovakia, and even Finland and Sweden, girls are just getting turned on to the sport. In 1990 only 5,000 girls were registered with USA Hockey. Today more than 60,000 are. You can’t win at the Olympics unless the girls are playing the game.

I’m not simply indulging my own daughter’s hobby here by talking about women’s hockey a lot. Supporting women, and especially girls, as they struggle for representation and success in male-dominated areas, like sports, classical music, race car driving, politics, etc. is our JOB. I can’t play college hockey, but my daughter can. I can’t compose great classical music, but Amy Beach could (yep, I’d never heard of her either), and I can support her work and the work of others like her by pressuring classical music stations to put more women composers and conductors on their playlists.

All Pumas remember Dr. Lynette Long and the work she’s done on exposing the obama campaign’s caucus fraud. She’s now working on a project called Equal Visibility Everywhere, EVE, which works to increase the visibility of women in as many places as possible. Long is personally working a lot on the “Put a Woman in Statuary Hall” campaign (click the link. Join the group. Easy as pie.) I’m the Massachusetts chair for that effort. So, if you have any suggestions for great Massachusetts women who should be commemorated, please mention in comments here.

Another effort that’s grown out of EVE is to get more visibility for women composers and conductors on classical music station. This effort was started by Marille Herman and I’m excited to be working on it as well. We are hoping to entice Swannie to take part, along with all Pumas. Marille sent me an excellent list of radio stations around the country for us to contact, which I’ll be posting in a little while.

In the meanwhile, I find Violet Socks’ opinion on the question of “what’s feminism FOR anyway?” worth mulling over endlessly:

“The point I keep trying to make is that feminism is very simply about women’s equality. There are conservative feminists, liberal feminists, communist feminists, libertarian feminists, etc. — and that’s just on our western political landscape.

The other point I keep trying to make is that both policy and representation matter in the business of ending isms. It’s ideal if a political candidate combines both — which is why Hillary was great. But this is not always going to be the case. Which is what we have with Palin.”

REPRESENTATION = VISIBILITY. We need to see MORE WOMEN. Everywhere. On radio stations, in statuary halls, in the Olympics, on the race track, on Capitol Hill, on the Supreme Court, in the White House. Where do YOU want to see more women? How can we help?

]]> http://pumapac.org/2010/02/15/mondays-word-of-the-day-visibility/feed/ 210 http://pumapac.org/2009/06/26/death-of-a-feminist-icon/ http://pumapac.org/2009/06/26/death-of-a-feminist-icon/#comments Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:12:26 +0000 murphy http://pumapac.org/?p=6667

Yesterday’s shocking news of Michael Jackson’s death distracted me from mentioning Farrah Fawcett, the television and poster-girl legend, who also died yesterday. Fawcett’s death was not a surprise — she had been battling an aggressive recurrence of cancer — but it was still news, as she was one of the most well-known “sex objects” of the 1970’s. Obituaries and retrospectives all over the media have taken note of her struggle as an actress to overcome her huge early fame and be accepted as a serious actress, not just a pretty face. Fawcett’s harrowing and inspiring performance as a physically and emotionally abused wife in the movie “The Burning Bed” proved she really could act in serious and complex roles, but sadly, she never really repeated a performance of that caliber.

Looking at the images that pop up on the Google page I linked to above, I’m struck by how un-exploited Fawcett’s image was in the 1970’s. Sure, she’s in a bathing suit, and in somewhat provocative poses in some of the pictures, but honestly, there really is more “California Sunshine Girl” in those pictures than the HOT HOT DIRTY SEX poses and representations of everyone from Christina Aguilera to the Pussycat Dolls — from Miley Cyrus to Angeina Jolie — we are inundated with today. In the picture above, for which she is world famous, Fawcett is wearing a one-piece (!) bathing suit that sags somewhat around her belly and is cut lower around the thighs than your average 10 year old’s bathing suit today. Her breasts are unnaturally (yes, that’s a joke) small and unexposed. The most risque thing about the picture is that her nipples are visible poking the thin fabric of her bathing suit — an “au naturel” touch which would surely be photoshopped out today on the grounds of being too ickily real.

How weird that THE iconic image of the 1970’s would be WAAY too “ugly” and psychologically ambiguous to make the cut as a Facebook profile picture for your average middle school girl today, never MIND making it into a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue. We are so fully immersed in a culture in which your average 13 year old is expert enough at the “F**k me like a porn star” pose to be able to publish dozens of such self-exploitative pictures of herself on her own Facebook page without the slightest understanding of her own participation in self-exploitation, AND the supposed grown-ups like us — the ones who OWNED that damn poster and looked at in our walls every night in bed — have also forgotten what an image of self-owned feminine beauty even looks like anymore.

What Fawcett exudes in that picture, aside from her million megawatt and seemingly sincerely FRIENDLY smile and her glowing youth and beauty, is exuberant confidence and freedom. Yes, of COURSE the picture gave the boys and young men of the 1970’s a sexual thrill they’ll never forget, but it meant quite a lot to girls and young women too.

Don’t forget, Charlie’s Angels was a television hit with several explicitly FEMINIST messages. Jill, Kate, and Sabrina were smokin’ hot badasses and, as far as I recall, they spent ZERO time agonizing over their love lives, marriage opportunities, or biological clocks (yes, i LOATHE “Sex in the City.” Sorry Third Wavers). Charlie’s Angels was of a thematic piece with The Bionic Woman, Wonder Woman, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and One Day At a Time, even Three’s Company (DAMN! There was a LOT of feminism on TV in the 1970’s). Then along came the Dukes of Hazard, Dallas, Phyllis Schafly, Ronald Reagan, and the pornification of American girlhood.

Drew Barrymore, one of the most successful, talented, and powerful young women in Hollywood today did not choose to remake Angels into a mega-hit of her own because she wanted to vent her inner porn-star dreams. Where oh where are the feminist television writers of today?? I lament the dawning realization that at the age of 40 I am the youngest woman old enough to be a political feminist anymore — if you get my meaning. Any woman younger than me would have had to have worked really really diligently to wade through the Swamp Misogyny of the explosive pop culture of the the late 80’s to today and emerge undegraded and unbrainwashed. I was lucky enough to come of age during the golden age of television femnism. So sad.

Lynette Long so eloquently articulated, in an excerpt quoted by Violet Sox on her blog the other day, with regard to the importance to feminism of Sarah Palin as a representational role model, regardless of her importance or lack thereof as a feminist political activist (which reminds me — when was the last time you heard Michelle Obama or Nancy Pelosi refer to herself as a proud or committed feminist? ‘Cause Sarah Palin OFTEN refers to herself as a feminist committed to women’s equal rights. Weird, huh? But I digress.) — children NEED people in heroic roles on which to model themselves. Posters on walls of sports, music, television/movie and political heroes are NOT mere decorations. They are the manifestation of the ACTUAL dreams of children — dreams they are dreaming FOR themselves and BY themselves; their first articulation of an idea of themselves as unique and potentially GREAT adults.  A beautiful thought in itself.

Recently my eight year old and her good friend wanted to play “Businessman” — a game they devised involving job interviews, bossing employees around, designing products to sell, and making MONEY!! I was aghast when they asked me for some names of famous “businessmen” so they could give themselves characters to play. “Why not play Businesswoman!??!” I practically shrieked. Their eyes widened and they said, “Huh? Okay! We didn’t know there WERE any businesswomen!” (I am NOT making this up.) Who should they “be” they asked me. Honestly, it took me a while to come up with any semi-famous or inspirational names for them. Since economic turmoil was all over the news at the time I came up with Elizabeth Warren and Sheila Bair — women whom I was able to honestly describe as REALLY important and powerful. They LOVED it — seriously, they were PSYCHED. They still often play the Sheila and Elizabeth game and I find made up business cards and resumes for Sheila “Bear” and Elizabeth Warrin around the house all the time. As you know, Sheila Bair is a Republican and Elizabeth Warren is not exactly the most exciting character in the world — but of course Skipper and her pal could not care less about that and wouldn’t know what I was talking about if I tried to explain.

Lord, we have a lot of work to UNdo the damage to women’s freedom and power by the pornification of feminism in the past twenty years. The death of the beautifully powerful Farrah Fawcett, and my surprising realization of her role as a feminist icon, is a sad reminder of how far back we’ve fallen. 

But Fawcett’s beautiful freedom, as captured in that unforgettable image, can also be an inspirational reminder of WHY the work is worth it.

Cinie and MKfromLA both have must-reads on the methods and uses of propaganda, and, most importantly, how DANGEROUS rampant propaganda is to an electorate if we want to be informed and if we value critical thinking.

Until the Rules and Bylaws Committee of the Democratic National Committee met on May 31, 2008, the pro-obama propaganda (pro-bama-ganda?) in the So Called Free Press (SCFP) was already widespread. Heck, that propaganda is what brought us

• Hillary Clinton the premenstrual CRY BABY
• Bill and Hillary Clinton THE RACISTS
• Chelsea Clinton THE WHORE
• Hillary Clinton THE PIMP
• Hillary Clinton the TYPICAL NASTY EX-WIFE
• Hillary Clinton the CASTRATING BITCH
• Hillary Clinton the WAR MONGER
• Hillary Clinton the TEA PARTY HOSTESS
• Hillary Clinton the LIAR LIAR LIAR
• Hillary Clinton the STUPID BITCH who won’t quit
• Hillary Clinton who WANTS OBAMA ASSASINATED

But after that infamous day, all stops were pulled on the media’s full-court propaganda press. Seven short days later, Hillary Clinton, the only TRULY QUALIFIED AND HISTORIC CANDIDATE in the race dropped out  and promised her full support to the selected nominee.

And the rest, as they say, is history. But it’s ongoing history. The history of what was started one year ago today is still being made. It’s being made by people like us and all the Democrats and Independents who are waking up to how much mediocrity and venality can be bought with a three-quarters of a BILLION DOLLARS Marketing Campaign.

I was in Washington D.C. a year ago, at the RBC Meeting at the Marriot Hotel with my three daughters, my father, and my niece. I still had hope that the Party would do the right thing and count the votes of Democrats in Michigan and Florida. Along with hundreds of Clinton supporters who came from as far away as California, Florida, Arkansas, and Tennessee to protest the swindle Wexler and the rest of them were pulling off behind closed doors, I watched my Party blatantly betray on national TV the ideals I thought it stood for.

During the LONG 14 hour drive home to Boston on June 1st I made my plans. Inspired by the women I met in DC, women like Harriet Christian and Deborah, Joan from New York and others, I knew I had to do SOMETHING. Being in Washington I realized that the fix might be in, but there really was a critical mass of Democrats who would not go quietly into the night of mindless Obamadoration. We KNEW something really rotten had infected Denmark even if the SCFP would NEVER report on it or expose its ugly dark side.

And so two days after getting home from D.C. I started Puma PAC  and watched in awe as tens of thousands of outraged, heart-broken, organized, and active women and men visited, commented, and became members of our fledgling group.

And what did we accomplish? Did we force the DNC to act with integrity? No. Did we defeat obama in November? No. The forces arrayed against were too organized and too powerful, and the strongest enemy was the propagandistic media. 

So, what did we achieve?

We made it clear to the United States and the world that all was NOT RIGHT in the Democratic Party.

We raised questions about the $750 MILLION dollars in campaign contributions, obama’s unseemly associations, his razor-thin resume, his narcissim, his secrecy about EVERYTHING (yes, including the gosh darn birth certificate), and his utter lack of commitment to true Democratic values like women’s and LGBT rights that are still being asked and which will continue to be asked until satisfactory answers are found.

We created an organization and a movement that continues to this day to attract disaffected Democrats and Independents and which treats the president and his administration to DAILY skepticism, left-leaning criticism, and the only dose of HONESTY his benighted tenancy ever has to contend with.

• The national media knows what Puma is and what we fight for. The international press does too.
• The Democratic Party leadership knows who we are and know how much damage we’ve done to their preposterous attempts to claim a unified party.
• Markos Moulitsas and the rest of the thoroughly discredited Blogger BOIZ know who we are.
• And because, surely, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Bill Clinton, know Who We Are and Why We Are, 

I want ALL of them — the media, the DONC, the Blogger BOIZ, and the Clintons — to know

WE’RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE.

I’ll leave you with this thought, from Cinie:

“Remember PUMAs, it’s complacency that is our enemy; critical thinking and healthy skepticism are our long suits.  But, our ace-in-the-hole, the strongest trait we have, and must never lose, is our thoroghly justified, well earned, complete, total, fucking rage.”

Oh, and p.s., for all the idiots who STILL repeat the lie that Clinton ran a terrible campaign and Axelrod is some sort of incredible GENIUS who was working for a stupendously charismatic candidate, ahem –  Hillary Clinton WON the Democratic Primaries. The final vote count was: 

Hillary Rodham Clinton: 17,857,446  (48.04% of the votes)
Barack Hussein Obama: 17,584,649  (47.31% of the votes)

Clinton won  by 272,797 votes. That’s a lot of votes. 

Below is a post that explains Who We Are. This is a short post to explain WHY we are.

There are THREE abiding reasons for the Puma Movement. They don’t change with the daily headlines:

1. The leadership of the Democratic Party proved itself corruptible to the questionable influences and tactics of the Obama Movement. They ignored the outcome of the Primaries and installed their preferred nominee for president. This will NEVER sit right with us.
2. The sheer size and scope of the Obama Movement, and — crucially, the uncritical, even PROMOTIONAL response of the mainstream media to his ascendancy should be enough to give any citizen pause. We need a skeptical, honest, unbiased press in this country to protect us from the power and influence that a $750 million dollar marketing campaign can buy. The Puma Movement began as a direct response to the Obama Movement. Our aims are truer and our goals are pure: unbiased media coverage of candidates, a skeptical criticism of those in power, and politicians and public officials who treat voters AND our votes with the respect we deserve.
3. Non-stop, ever-present, often overwhelming sexist and misogynistic treatment of women in public life — from the media, to the major political parties, to the biggest and most influential blogs and new media forums. From Hillary and Chelsea Clinton to Sarah and Bristol Palin. From Michelle Obama to Sonia Sotomayor to Carrie Prejean. Women, no matter what their political beliefs or personal choices or lifestyles, are ALWAYS judged (and usually negatively judged) on their looks, their clothing styles, their maternal performances, and their general attractiveness as bedmates or wives. Until we can stanch the reach of this Swamp Misogyny, there will NEVER be a woman president in the United States. There will NEVER be gender parity on the Supreme Court or in Congress.

To recap: The THREE permanent reasons for WHY we need a Puma Movement are:

1. Corruption in politics
2. Corruption in the media
3. Sexism and misogyny in our public institutions

There are also changing, developing, and temporary or recurring reasons why we need a Puma Movement:

1.  The stock market went WAY down again today. The economy and how our leaders react to it and guide it are crucially important to understand, analyze, and critique if we mean to be active, thinking citizens. What issues are of importance to us: jobs, opportunities, fair play. 
2. May has been the deadliest month in Iraq in months. Pakistan is exploding. North Korea is declaring war on South Korea. The misogynistic FREAKS of Islam in Afghanistan continue their brutal oppression of women EVERY DAY.
3. Obama has nominated Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Our job is to, while being very pleased to see a qualified woman nominated, also criticize, analyze, and research her background and views. AND to discuss them in the spirit of our movement — equal opportunities for women, non-sexist critique, and open, transparent, and honest politics.
4. Whatever fresh hell the Obama Movement serves up new every day.

So, if you agree with WHY we need a Puma Movement, read the below to find out Who We Are. 

And JOIN US!

Frequently Asked Question: “Can I be a Puma if I’m a Republican?”

Answer: Who you vote for or how you like to think of yourself politically is up to you — this really IS a free country. I can’t say that a person who is registered as a Republican can’t be a Puma. Of course they can,

BUT — does it make any sense?

If you are a Republican who supports the Constitution and rejects the concept of classes of citizens; AND (not or) embraces the truth that the state has ABSOLUTELY ZERO legitimate stake in when, where, and how American citizens choose to bear or beget children (Supreme Court: Griswold, 1973); AND (not or) is fundamentally opposed to the tenets and belief systems of ANY religion being established in state or federal law or policy (including all flavors of Christianity),

then, hell yeah — you’re a Puma.

• You think there should be NO path to citizenship for illegal immigrants now in the country? Fair enough. That’s a valid, debatable position– expect to be disagreed with and to listen to opposing points of view that are equally valid.
• You think we are over-taxed and under-served by our government? Super. Me too — what do we DO about that is a legitimate, important debate for citizens to have with each other in a civil manner.
• You think the leadership of the Democratic party is lazy at best and corrupt at worst? Cool — so do we. But we also know that the Republican leadership is at least as bad.

So, it’s not so important what the letter is on your voter registration card. What really matters is how you respond to the above.

From Our Mission page: Our mission is to hold our elected officials accountable to the will of the voters, and to demand unbiased coverage from the media of all candidates, regardless of their gender.

Last year the Democratic Party leadership led us astray.

• Ignoring the Popular Vote in the Primaries
• Disenfranchising tens of millions of Democrats in Florida and Michigan
• Standing by idly as sexist attacks hobbled an accomplished and historic candidate for President
• Dismissing whole states and voting blocs as “irrelevant” to an imaginary “new” coalition

 From our Year of the Puma 2009 page: Puma PAC is in this for the long haul. Our Action Teams are working non-stop in six major areas:

• Passing the Equal Rights Amendment after 86 years of struggle
• Monitoring the 111th Congress and advocating for legislation that supports our mission
• Documenting and Protesting sexism in the mainstream media AND educating the public about its widespread and long term effects
• Developing a national women’s rights curriculum for all American children
• Researching and investigating voter fraud and campaign finance violations during the 2008 election
• Protecting women’s lives by strengthening anti-femicide laws and drawing attention to the crisis of woman-lynching in the United States

Our mission and goals haven’t changed much since Day One, June 3d 2008. Circumstances have changed; events have moved us and forced us to rethink and regroup on particular issues. Proposition Hate in California wasn’t really on our radar last summer, but now it is.  For all those wondering What We Stand For and Why, try this:

• Constitutional issues, like equal rights and individual freedoms, are not left or right issues.
• Each political party tries to own some subset of issues and use them as an arsenal to pull people to their side and attack the other side.
• You may believe the left is actually committed to lesbian rights, reproductive freedom, and peace. We don’t.
• And we KNOW the right is not committed to the above.
• Who cares what either of the parties claim to stand for anymore? It’s all utter hogwash. I’m interested in what individual people think about issues; about talking to and listening to how individual people are reacting to politics.
• Why always this push for ideology? How would ideology benefit us?
• Does anyone actually believe that someone is keeping score? That life is a macro-debate of issues and that one ideology will eventually emerge as the undisputed winner? That we somehow “owe it” to some amorphous set of values and beliefs to be “true” to them? To fight for the side of right?
• A very small set of men are competing with each other every hour of every day for dominance. ideology is nothing more than the color of the uniforms on the people fighting in each army.

Also, anyone who appears to really truly BELIEVE the talking points of either side is either

1. a cynical liar — a lieutenant whose job is to fire up the troops.
2. not too bright. 

The first should be ignored and disdained.
The second should be ignored and/or reasoned with to see if they can come to the light.

Also, I’m not so sure there are “major differences in the core values of those who would select one party over the other as the best reflections and hope to have those values reflected in policy,” as some say. Take out the homophobes and the sexists, as we (sometimes imperfectly) do, and I think we’re left with a (very) big group of people who are trying to sort out reality from talking points and ideology. And there are PRECIOUS little resources for people like us to do that. Where are we going to look? Fox News?? MSNBC?? the Blogger BOIZ?? So we look on the internet and stumble here or other places that are attempting to criticize and analyze politics and society as it is practiced by the homophobic, sexist, corrupt, corporatist, war-profiteering, insincere, lying jackasses who rule and the So Called Free Press that props them up.

• What DO we do about illegal immigration?
• The 40+ million uninsured Americans?
• Unjust, imperialist wars?
• Presidents who trample on the Constitution?
• A Congress bought and paid for by corporations?
• Maniac islamicists who terrorize women and anyone who gets in their way?
• A culture so inherently sexist that Hillary Clinton was not even allowed to run for President, never mind win?

The left AND the right have ready answers to all of the above. Pumas, and people like us who don’t yet know they are Pumas, do not. Because we’re honest and able to address complicated questions with complicated answers and ideas. And, for the record:
The FINAL results of the 2008 Democratic Primaries and Caucuses:

Hillary R. Clinton: 17,857,446 votes (48.04%)

Barack H. Obama: 17,584,649 (47.31%)

Hillary won the Democratic Primaries. And she would have knocked the socks of McCain in the general.

And she would have been a truly great president.

p.s., via mick, the number of voters not registered with either of the two major parties is at its highest level in 70 years.

If you’re a Puma too, JOIN US Today!

Today is International Swan Day, a celebration of women artists around the world. Events are mostly in California, but the blogosphere is a beautiful place and we can appreciate and learn about women artists from wherever we have access to a computer.

Some of my favorite artists:

Mary Cassat

Vanessa Bell, her portrait of her sister Virginia Woolf:

Diane Arbus, controversial American photographer:

And Judith Leyster, a Dutch painter from the 1600’s:

For more transporting images, check out these great links:

National Museum of Women in the Arts

Women Artists: Self-portraits and Representations of Womanhood

Women Artists in History

Women’s Art at the Chicago World’s Fair, 1893

 *  *  *  *  *  *  *

In other news, raise your hand if you think Obama’s War in Afghanistan is going to work. If anyone can tell me WHY exactly, in one sentence, we are expanding the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan PLEASE do so. Is it really just to prop up the puppet government we installed? What’s the mission? What’s the goal? While I’d love nothing better than to see the freak misogynists of the Taliban destroyed for all time, I hardly think liberating women in those god forsaken countries is our main goal, or even a minor, ancillary goal. This war, like all others, will mean an increase in misery, death, and terror for women and their children.

Dakinikat nails it, calling the current political situation obama’s Incompetency Crisis.

Notyoursweetie shows that Hillary has been vindicated, but that the victory is far from sweet since we ALL have to live in this country ruled by banksters and the president they bought.

And Patriotdems has a must-read essay about what, exactly, Ann Dunham Soetoro was up to in Indonesia in 1965. I can tell ya, it wasn’t basket-weavin’ like the obama machine wants us to believe.

 *  *  *  *  *  *  *

But don’t forget Pumas — we lived through Bush, we’ll live through obama. And along the way, it’s good to cherish the Spring and be revitalized with art. 

Ars longa, vita brevis

That’s a fancy way of saying — our individual lives are temporary but the beauty created by humans is eternal. Or, more plainly: art is long, life is short.

Oh, and p.s. Best of luck for a productive and fun SoCal Puma PAC meetup today! We expect a full report this evening!

You HAVE watched Iron Jawed Angles, right? If not, order it HERE now or borrow it from your library (it is widely available at libraries).

Here’s a trailer:

The Puma PAC NEW Era Team has organized a PROWL, led by the indomitable Rancho, to support a House effort to award Alice Paul the Congressional Gold Medal this year. The bill, HR 406, still needs about 100 co-sponsors in order to advance out of committee and receive a floor vote (where it is expected to pass handily — the bill languishes not because it is controversial but because there is little knowledge of it).

*  *  *  *  * TODAY’S PROWL *  *  *  *  *

CONTACT 5 MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AND ASK FOR THEIR SUPPORT OF HR 406, THE ALICE PAUL GOLD MEDAL BILL

Get Your Congressperson to Support the Gold Medal for Alice Paul!

1. Check THIS LIST to find out if your rep has signed on to sponsor. . Don’t know who your rep is? Tsk-tsk Click HERE to find out and then check THIS LIST.)

2. If your rep has NOT signed on as a co-sponsor, send her or him a copy of the letter below.

3. If your rep has signed on as a co-sponsor, yippee! But you’re not done yet, Sister. Copy and paste these email addresses into the BCC line of your email and send the letter below, adding your name.

Dear Representative,

I am writing to urge you to co-sponsor HR 406, introduced by Rep. Joe Baca of California’s 43rd District.

This bill would award a Congressional Gold Medal to Alice Paul, founder of the National Women’s Party and a person instrumental to getting the 19th amendment guaranteeing American women the right to vote passed in 1920.

You can see the entire text of the bill here:

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h406/text

We believe that March, being National Women’s History month, is a PERFECT time to highlight the struggle and achievements of such an exemplary American woman.

For more information about lending your support to this important bill, please contact  Jenny Sarabia in Congressman Baca’s office. (202)225-6161 /jenny.sarabia@mail.house.gov | 2245 Rayburn.

Thank you very much for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Your Name

Puma PAC Member (www.pumapac.org)

p.s. Currently HR 406 has 97 co-sponsors, and 33 are women. That’s 34%. Do you see what that means!? Congress is only 17% women, but 34% of this bill’s sponsors are women. When women are in Congress they work TWICE AS HARD (literally! 17 x 2 = 34) as their men colleagues to pay attention to, support, and sponsor bills that affect women. The 30% solution is REAL. It really and truly works.

If you want women’s voices heard in Washington — VOTE FOR WOMEN, every single time that you can.

Our next job is to identify those women in Congress who have NOT signed on as sponsors and contact them directly.

Not surprisingly, she was Irish. Mary Harris Jones, also known as Mother Jones, was the most famous agitator, rabble-rouser, and labor activist in American history. Born in County Cork, Ireland in 1837, she moved with her family first to Toronto, and then later on her own to Maine to teach elementary school. In 1861 she met her husband, George Jones, in Memphis and they quickly had four children. By all accounts, theirs was a happy family. George was a prominent labor union activist and Mary fully supported him, accompanying him to rallies and addressing meetings herself. In 1867 her entire family — husband and all four children — died in a yellow fever epidemic. They were all gone in less than a week. Mary was 30 years old. She never married again. Instead she spent the next 63 years as a radical advocate for the poor working class men, women, and children of America’s mines, factories, and cotton plantations.

Tragedy first struck in 1867, when her husband and all the children died in a yellow fever epidemic, within a week of each other. She stayed in Memphis nursing other victims until the epidemic waned, then moved back to Chicago, working as a dressmaker again. But tragedy soon followed. In 1871, she lost everything she owned in her home and seamstress shop in the great Chicago fire. It was then that Mary embarked upon the path that made her name synonymous with social justice. Probably the seeds were sown earlier, while sewing in the homes of wealthy Chicago families. She later said:

“Often while sewing for lords and barons who lived in magnificent houses on the Lake Shore Drive, I would look out of the plate glass windows and see the poor, shivering wretches, jobless and hungry, walking alongside the frozen lake front…. The contrast of their condition with that of the tropical comfort of the people for whom I sewed was painful to me. My employers seemed neither to notice nor to care.”

After the great fire, Mary began to attend meetings of the newly formed Knights of Labor, held in a ragged, fire-scorched building. The fraternity and its ideals must have struck a chord in Mary, bringing forth her compassion and passion. And although she continued to work in Chicago as a seamstress, she had no fixed home. She began volunteering with the Knights of Labor as an organizer — traveling back and forth across the country, from one industrial area to another, living with the workers in tent colonies and shantytowns near the mills. She in essence adopted the hard workers of America, and they called her ‘Mother.’ (One source says during a strike, a mine detective bashed the skull of a miner. While Mary cradled his head, the delirious, dying miner thought she was his mother and called her such; the name stuck.) When asked about where she lived, she said:

“My address is like my shoes. It travels with me. I abide where there is a fight against wrong.”

The Industrial Revolution was in full swing. America was changing from an agricultural to an industrial economy. Immigrants and displaced farmers made up the vast array of workers, digging out coal and forging steel. But they were subjected to nightmarish conditions and paid starvation wages. Mary would travel to wherever there was a strike, organizing and helping the workers. She would hold educational meetings, and bolster the men’s spirits to keep up the fight. Often she was at odds with union leaders. In 1877, Mary helped in the Baltimore and Ohio railroad workers’ strike in Pittsburg. In the 1880s, she organized and ran educational meetings, saying:

“Sit down and read. Educate yourself for the coming conflicts.”

On May 1, 1886, labor unions in Chicago organized a strike for an eight-hour work day. (Two years earlier, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions had called for the eight-hour work day to begin on that day.) Two days into the strike, a fight broke out and two strikers were killed by police; others were wounded. On May 4, spurred by incendiary fliers saying the police had murdered the strikers on behalf of the business owners, thousands of workers gathered in Chicago’s Haymarket Square for a rally. Although the people remained calm throughout, when the police ordered everyone to disperse and began marching in formation through the crowd, a bomb was thrown and exploded near them, killing one policeman. (Seven more policemen died later from their injuries.) The police began firing into the crowd, ultimately killing 11 people. Many of the wounded were afraid to seek treatment, for fear of being arrested.

It was because of this event that Mary “changed” her birth date to May 1, 1830 — May 1 in honor of the strike for an eight-hour work day. This date has become celebrated worldwide as International Workers’ Day (except in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand), commemorating the social and economic achievements of the labor movement and remembering the Haymarket Riot. Mary probably moved her birth seven years earlier to embellish the grandmotherly image of ‘Mother’ Jones.

Prominent strikes Mary participated in include the Pullman railroad strike in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1894; the Pennsylvania anthracite coal miners’ strike in 1902; the Ludlow miners’ strike in Colorado in 1913; and the nationwide steel workers’ strike in 1919. She also helped other workers as well. In 1901, she helped form a union of domestic servants and helped silk weavers (often daughters of miners) fight for better work conditions. In 1909, she helped striking shirtwaist workers; the next year she helped organize women bottlers in Milwaukee breweries. In 1916, she helped streetcar workers in Texas and New York.

At only five feet tall and dressed in black with just a touch of lace at her throat and wrists, Mary was a perfect picture of a grandmother. Yet when she spoke, she was dynamic, energetic and enthusiastic — bringing her audiences to tears, applause and laughter. She was a gifted storyteller with a brilliant sense of humor. Her intensity was almost explosive when she began to speak; her listeners (mostly men) sat up, fully alert, and believed that together they could do anything. She’d smile and scan the people gathered with her bright blue eyes, then say:

“I’m not a humanitarian. I’m a hell-raiser!” Another well-known quote is: “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.”

More on this amazing Irish-American woman HERE.

SM77, Puma godmother, has her latest installment in the Unemployment Chronicles HERE. And the New York Times is looking at a possible trend of micro-entrepreneurship – people who are starting (very) small businesses after giving up on traditional job searches. Sounds pretty good, but also pretty close to the make-shift, gray-market economies of emerging nations. Can’t help but think we’re headed WAY back economy-wise.

We’re preparing for the big New England Puma Meet and Greet tomorrow. Had dinner last night with some well-known Pumas who trekked pretty far to join us. I hope all lurkers, casual readers, and members know that the invitation for tomorrow extends to EVERYONE. It will be fun, inspiring, and fun. Do join us.

Heidi Li has Women’s History Month covered HERE with the news about Dr. Barbara Liskov, winner of this year’s “Nobel Prize” of computer science.

And meanwhile, it’s not Saturday without flyers! Print out your weekly supply of New ERA flyers HERE, and your Alice Paul Congressional Gold Medal flyers HERE and HERE.

Yesterday I told you about Puma PAC’s effort to support Congressman Joe Baca’s bill to award a Congressional Gold Medal to Alice Paul. 

During Women’s History Month we are celebrating contemporary women, like Hillary Clinton, who have been honored by the National Women’s History Project for the work they are doing TODAY. We are also looking WAY back to women like Hildegard of Bingen, Caterina Van Hemessen, and Hetty Green.

But there are SO many women of the recent past who have been shamefully erased from our history books and need to be revived. Alice Paul is at the top of that list.

*  *  *  *  * TODAY’S PROWL * *  *  *  *

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