California NOW

Scary Budget, Scary Future

There's something I've been hearing about, and it scares me to death.

Of course everyone knows about the subprime mortgage collapse, and how it's driving families out of their homes across the country, and especially in California, where property values had risen so sharply in previous years. The Central Valley now has one of the highest rates of mortgage defaults in the country, and we have seen the recent market fall disproportionately affect women and children.

Now we're starting to hear that the housing market fall is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to our national economy.

This article and this video have me really wondering about where we'll be in a few years, as a nation. I have no desire to raise my daughter during a second Great Depression.

It's not just the matter of economic instability and collapse, either. What happens to women's rights when people are worried about simply getting food on the table each day? Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs suggests that concern about civil rights goes out the window when people have more immediate needs to worry about. It isn't just women who have to worry; all workers' rights take a hit when the supply of workers is greater than the demand.

Is this part of what we're seeing in our current state budget crisis and the decision to cut programs for some of our state's neediest people?

The Governor's May budget revise will be released on the 14th, and is expected to show a deficit of up to $20 billion. Governor Schwarzenegger is also expected to suggest additional budget cuts at this time, on top of his current proposals to remove some low-income children from the CalWORKs rolls, slash funding to local schools by $443 per student, and reduce grants to disabled women!

Fewer than half of families in California can afford the basics of housing, child care, food, health insurance and transportation. A family of four needs to earn $72,000 a year, more than three times the federal poverty level, just to make ends meet. Single-parent families, most often headed by women, have it even worse.

The state legislature is still debating on how to balance our state budget, and has until June 15th to get a budget to the Governor. With a 2/3 majority needed to pass the budget, every vote is needed! Tell your State Senator and Representative to help ensure that we don't put the weight of fixing our budget crisis on the backs of poor women and children.

Thought we could be reminded of our meaning...

FEMINISM

Pronunciation: \ˈfe-mə-ˌni-zəm\
Function: noun
Date: 1895 (Feminism is from 1851, but meant at first "state of being feminine;" sense of "advocacy of women's rights" is 1895.)
1 : the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes
2 : organized activity on behalf of women's rights and interests

Hey Lesbians, We May Need to Come up with a New Name!

Three residents of the island of Lesbos are taking lesbians to court.  They claim that the organization Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece, in using the term lesbian to identify queer women, creates hardships for Lesbos residents. 

Sappho, an ancient Greek poet, was born on the island of Lesbos.  Many of her poems express romantic relationships between women.  From Sappho's birthplace we get out sexual identity.  In her poem, I have not had one word from her, she wrote:

"When she left, she wept
a great deal; she said to me, 'This parting must be
endured, Sappho.  I go, unwillingly.'
I said, 'Go, and be happy
but remember (you know
well) whom you leave shackled by love...'"

According to a spokesperson this is not an attack on lesbians, who create a large tourist trade for the island.  Instead, they want to be able to identify their nationality as Lesbians without having to clarify that they are not homosexual. One of the plaintiff's, however, stated that this use of the term "insults the identity" of the people of Lesbos. 

Maybe it's just me, but this stinks a bit of homophobia. Or could it be just a matter of reclaiming national identity? 

Let's Teach Kids that Beauty is only Skin-Deep!

Yes, that's sarcasm you hear. 

A new children's book, My Beautiful Mommy, is scheduled to be released on Mother's Day (reminder, it's May 11th).  The book allows you to "join a young girl as her Mommy goes through her plastic surgery experience, and learn how the whole family pitches in to help Mommy achieves her beautiful results."

Hooray!  Now young girls can start dreaming early about they day that they can become even more beautiful!  After all, that's what we truly value in our society, right?

What do we stand for?

With our ever-changing world demanding us to be many things all at once, sometimes we forget to take time to remind ourselves who we are BEFORE we're asked to be something else.
The women's movement is no different. Women are constantly asked to be all things to all people - nurturing, hard-working, compassionate, beautiful, intelligent, charming, empowered, and so much more. But I realize in my activism, I sometimes forget to check in with myself. I get so wrapped up with event planning and decision making and stand taking that I forget to ask myself why it is I'm planning the event or making the decision or taking a stand.
I need to be reminded of my personal mission in life. What is my purpose? Why am I a feminist? Why do I devote so much of my life to defending, supporting, and empowering women and girls? You'd think after years of participating in feminist activism that the answer would be clear, but sometimes the process dilutes the potency of my efforts, and what I set out to accomplish looks very little like the outcome.
I suppose this is why organizations, businesses, and the like develop mission statements. But sometimes it seems even those are abandoned, as we get swept away in the hustle and bustle of getting the job done - whatever "the job" may be.
Certainly not the most conventional post, I'm asking us all as feminists to look inside ourselves and define our own personal mission statement. In so doing, we will define who we are as feminists, as a feminist organization, as women and men committed to creating equality. So...
Who are we? What do we stand for?