FEMINISM MADE SIMPLE

In considering any issue, the first thing we need to do is define our terms. The bottom line on feminism is simply this: women are human beings. It’s no more than that. It’s no less than that.

Stereotypes of feminism abound, so let’s deal with a few of the main ones. The image of a feminist as a rude, ball-busting woman with hairy legs is so absurd that it hardly needs attention. Unfortunately many misogynists promote that image. Women seeking justice should not have to spend time defending themselves against it with such statements as “I’m not a feminist, but … ” before they go on to state that all they want is to be free of restrictive sex roles, to get equal treatment in employment and pay. To receive the same respect men receive.

Another more benevolent but equally pernicious image is that of nurturing mother – the vision of the self sacrificing, all giving woman who asks nothing for herself and seeks only the welfare of her children. And by extension the welfare of others less fortunate than she, whose needs she feels she should address before any consideration of her own.

Woman as sex object. Let’s not go there. Maybe in another commentary.

To get back to our bottom line: women are human beings. That’s the axiom. The corollary is that women’s rights are human rights. Women do not ask for “special rights.” Women just need the rights enjoyed by men.

Most women love men. It’s time men returned the sentiment  — with  respect and support.

End of rant.

Fourth of July in Petaluma

Thanks to the Argus Courier for bringing us fire chief Chris Albertson’s Guest Commentary on June 26^th. His advice is timely, for danger of residential fire always exists, especially during the time fireworks are readily available.

Several years ago, our next door neighbors went away the weekend of July 4^th. Someone, possibly a child, threw a firework onto the roof of those neighbors. Petaluma fire-fighters arrived promptly, climbed to the roof and put it out. That was lucky for us, as the neighbors’ house is quite close to our own and the fire could easily have spread to us. On another occasion, someone threw a bottle rocket into our driveway about midnight. Sounded like a bomb going off. Not a very pleasant way to be jolted awake when you have to get up early next morning to go to work.

A few years ago, our City Council discussed enacting a law that would have banned fireworks in Petaluma, except for the display at the fairgrounds. The Council refused, opting instead for a few restrictions on the dates and times when exploding the devices was permissible.

They could have shown some concern for combat veterans. Any kind of explosion has the capacity to startle a vet, given what they’ve just been through. It may even trigger some unpleasant memories.

Perhaps the annual show at the fairgrounds could be preceded by a reading, on a loudspeaker, of the Declaration of Independence, maybe even parts of our Constitution. Recalling these documents is at least as  patriotic as a display of pyrotechnics.

Good News from the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court recently handed the Bush Administration a setback when it ruled that prisoners at Guantánamo ” have the constitutional right to habeas corpus.” They may now challenge the basis of their detention.

This is certainly good news for the detainees held at Guantanamo, but it is also good news for us ordinary Americans. Habeas corpus – the Great Writ – has protected us, for at least 800 years – from arbitrary arrest, from being held without knowing the reason for said arrest, and for the opportunity to defend ourselves. Habeas corpus is one of the cornerstones of our liberty.

The Supremes in effect said to Bush, “you are not above the law.

It’s about time someone did.

McCain, Obama and Iran

If we needed any proof that the election campaign of November, 2008, is underway, checking the news provides it. Specifically, John McCain, the GOP presidential nominee has attacked and continues to attack Barack Obama, Democratic presidential nominee, on the problem of Iran.

Obama’s sin, according to McCain, is that he wants to negotiate with Iran. Horrors! That might keep us out of another nasty war like the disaster in Iraq.

Iranian President Ahmadinejad is not any sensible person’s admired statesman, of course. He’s an off-the-wall wingnut and Americans are rightly repelled by his detestable remarks denying the Holocaust and demonizing Israel. McCain’s implication that Obama wants to buddy up with this clown could well hurt the Democrat’s standing with voters. That is if we believe that is what Obama is suggesting. It isn’t. Let’s repeat: It is not.

For the benefit of those among us who don’t have time to read the news in depth, Obama’s exact words were that he “would be willing to lead tough and principled diplomacy with the appropriate Iranian leader. That wouldn’t be Ahmadinejad. Sure, he’s Iran’s president. But in Iran’s system, the country’s supreme leader is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, not the president. He is the commander in chief and it is he who has final say in foreign policy, nuclear programs and defense. We did all know that, didn’t we?

Khamenei has a history of reasonable attitudes. It was he who authorized Iranian diplomats to join Americans, in 2002 in Germany, to talk about the future of Afghanistan. It was he who agreed to direct talks between Iranian diplomats and Americans about security issues in Iraq. And, this January, it was Khamenei who stated his willingness to restore diplomatic relations with the USA after the conflict with Iraq ended.

Obama is not the naive fool portrayed by McCain. By bringing Iran and our country to the same table, the Democrat could undermine Ahmadinejad’s power. That could only be a good thing.

Of course, effective diplomacy would mean avoiding another disastrous war and the deaths of many innocents, including our own soldiers. This would make warrior McCain unhappy. But, as Winston Churchill famously once said, “Jaw-jaw is better than war-war.

Parents: Don’t let your girls grow up to be soldiers

By Beth Grimes
According to a report in a The International Herald Tribune, http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/25/opinion/edbenedict.php> women are now 15% of our military forces and more than 20% of soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. More than 70% of our female veterans have filed complaints that they were sexually harassed by the soldiers with whom they served and almost a third report being raped. 

Female soldiers are now often wounded in combat, producing the same kind of post traumatic stress disorder suffered by men. Adding sexual assault by their male comrades in arms to this trauma has made them nine times as likely as men to develop PTSD. When women fighters are re-deployed after being on leave, they often have to return to the war with the man or men who raped them. Army brass apparently does not see this a problem. 

How many Americans know that at least 191,500 women have served in the Middle East since 2001? A lot of them will add to the number of male veterans now seeking care from Veterans Administration medical services, including treatment for PTSD. Will female soldier rape victims  be expected to participate in therapy groups filled with men? The VA claims it is going provide more clinics for sufferers of PTSD. How many of these will be for women only? The VA doesn’t say.

Sadly, male officers and political leaders refuse to admit that rape and harassment of female service members is a serious issue. 

MEMORIAL DAY 2008

There really is enough for everyone’s need …

… but not for everyone’s greed.

There are two classes of people in our country:  the majority of us who do the work which creates the wealth and pays the bills, and the tiny minority that has control of most productive assets and the wealth the rest of us have constructed with our labor.

It is in the interests of that minority to keep us divided so we cannot organize to oppose its policies. The means they use are racism, sexism, ageism, homophobia and religious conflict.

If we work together to end the prejudice, hate and fear that separate us, just imagine the kind of world we could have.

By: Beth Grimes, Another Advocate for equality.

Saving Water

We are constantly admoninished to save water. Good advice. Clean water is a diminishing resource and our lives depend on it for drinking and sanitation, raising food crops, fighting fires and so on. We are advised to stop letting water run when brushing our teeth, take boot camp length showers, catch rain water in buckets and generally save water any way we can.

Good suggestions abound, but there is a another that would be more effective in water conservation. Agriculture is the biggest user of water and, of course, we have to eat. But very, very large amounts of water are used to raise cattle, pigs, and sheep for meat eaters. A vegetarian diet is healthier and more compassionate. But even if few people are unwilling to forgo ingestion of flesh food, but gave up at least one meat-based meal each week, it would help. 

I have found that giving up feasting on the dead bodies of animals, that loved their lives as much as we love our own, has helped me to become aware of the suffering of other humans, too.

Beth Grimes

The Present

LABOR HISTORY MONTH

Never heard of Labor History Month? You’re not alone. Few Americans have. But the first day of May is International Workers Day. Never heard of that either? No surprise. You won’t learn about it in a school classroom, in your newspaper, on a radio station or the TV news. The day commemorates an event that happened right here in the USA. On this day in 1886, 180,000 working men went on strike for an eight hour work day. Although little noted in our nation, International Workers Day is celebrated in countries throughout the world.

We have come to take the eight hour day for granted, together with the two-day weekend. These are now legally mandated limits on how long an employee can be forced to work without being paid overtime. They didn’t drop from heaven. Organized workers fought long and hard to gain both. At the time the May Day strike of 1886 occurred, ten hours daily, six days a week were usual. Sometimes as much as sixteen hours.

May first, 1830, was the birthdate of a remarkable woman, Mary Harris, widely known as Mother Jones. It is fitting that she should be born on the anniversary of the beginnings of our own labor movement, for this feisty woman was a dedicated union organizer.