Blogging for awareness about Sexual Violence is a good idea. There are many types of violence, some not so obvious as others. If we compare women in Muslim countries to women in the West, you'd say it's obvious that the Muslim women are subjected to violence constantly - war, genocide, systematic rape; punishment for learning to read or wearing anything other than a burka; being sold into marriage or sexual servitude as young children; and the horrible practice of female genital mutilation. Men in those countries won't even shake hands with women sent to represent our government. Women can't leave their homes unescorted because of the possibility they'll be abducted, raped and killed. A woman's own family may murder her if they feel she has dishonored them in some way. A woman's in-laws may murder her if her dowry isn't large enough. No human should live in these conditions for any reason.

Femivist

Today, women bloggers all over the web are blogging to raise awareness about Sexual Violence. I'll be doing what I can on as many of my blogs as I can, and I invite the other women in the blogosphere to do the same. Keep checking in, and make sure you go to Femivist at the link above to see a list of the amazing posts as they hit the web!

Technorati tags: women, femi

I've been thinking about the Women's History issue for 25 years. There's precious little of it out there, precisely because men have been the historians. There have been excellent books on Herstory since the 70's, but I'm very disappointed to find that most young women have either never heard of them, or they buy into the smears directed at them by patriarchal sources. Cynthia Eller gets all the press because she sold her sisters out for a seat at the table with the big boys.

Her attitude is bullshit. Knowledge of the importance of women in the ancient world could have a very real effect on women's futures. It gives us a new way to view everything -- religions, politics, society, families, education, labor issues - all of it. We need to know where we've been. We need to know that the sad state of affairs in which we find ourselves today is neither natural nor inevitable. There have been and still are peaceful, matrifocal societies which have managed to survive patriarchy and colonialism. Representatives from these cultures attended a Matriarchy Conference in Austin last fall. Herstory is real, and we are discovering more every day. We have to dig through the ashes of witch burnings and Christian raids on ancient cultures to find it, but it's there for us and it's high time we give it a thorough look as women, for ourselves.

Deanna Zandt at Alternet's Echo Chamber has an important post called Talking points on the federal abortion ban. She's emphasizing that we need to be careful not to use anti-choice "frames" when discussing reproductive rights. In particular, we need not to use their frame for emergency procedures performed in the second or third trimester.

As you know, these procedures are exceedingly rare - only about 2,000 a year in a country of 220+ Million people - and it only used to save the life of the mother. The opposition uses it to chip away at reproductive freedom. Our opponents are relentless and we need to use every opportunity to get the focus off the fetus and get it on the life of the mother where it belongs.

http://greenparty.org/values.php

Grassroots Democracy

Every human being deserves a say in the decisions that affect their lives; no one should be subject to the will of another. Therefore we will work to increase public participation at every level of government and to ensure that our public representatives are fully accountable to the people who elect them. We will also work to create new types of political organizations that expand the process of participatory democracy by directly including citizens in the decision-making process.

Ecological Wisdom

Human societies must operate with the understanding that we are part of nature, not separate from nature. We must maintain an ecological balance and live within the ecological and resource limits of our communities and our planet. We support a sustainable society that utilizes resources in such a way that future generations will benefit and not suffer from the practices of our generation. To this end we must have agricultural practices that replenish the soil; move to an energy efficient economy; and live in ways that respect the integrity of natural systems.

Hey, Y'all

Please come over to Culture Kitchen and help us come up with the top three questions liberal bloggers want answered in these hearings.

Please hurry - time's a-wastin'!

Thanks so much!