Category Archives: Just because

May 11 2012

National Women’s History Project: History of Mother’s Day

History of Mother’s Day

Given the following possibilities, how many of us could pick the right answer?

Mother’s Day began:

In 1858, when Anna Jarvis, a young Appalachian homemaker, organized “Mother’s Work Days” to improve the sanitation and avert deaths from disease-bearing insects and seepage of polluted water.

In 1872, when Boston poet, pacifist and women’s suffragist Julia Ward Howe established a special day for mothers –and for peace– not long after the bloody Franco-Prussian War.

In 1905, when Anna Jarvis died. Her daughter, also named Anna, decided to memorialize her mother’s lifelong activism, and began a campaign that culminated in 1914 when Congress passed a Mother’s Day resolution.

The correct answer: All of the above. Each woman and all of these events have contributed to the present occasion now celebrated on the second Sunday in May.

This Mother’s Day – Honor the Strength of Women

The cause of world peace was the impetus for Julia Ward Howe’s establishment, over a century ago, of a special day for mothers. Following unsuccessful efforts to pull together an international pacifist conference after the Franco-Prussian War, Howe began to think of a global appeal to women.

“While the war was still in progress,” she wrote, she keenly felt the “cruel and unnecessary character of the contest.” She believed, as any woman might, that it could have been settled without bloodshed. And, she wondered, “Why do not the mothers of mankind interfere in these matters to prevent the waste of that human life of which they alone bear and know the cost?”

Howe’s version of Mother’s Day, which served as an occasion for advocating peace, was held successfully in Boston and elsewhere for several years, but eventually lost popularity and disappeared from public notice in the years preceding World War I.

 

For Anna Jarvis, also known as “Mother Jarvis,” community improvement by mothers was only a beginning. Throughout the Civil War she organized women’s brigades, asking her workers to do all they could without regard for which side their men had chosen. And, in 1868, she took the initiative to heal the bitter rifts between her Confederate and Union neighbors.

The younger Anna Jarvis was only twelve years old in 1878 when she listened to her mother teach a Sunday school lesson on mothers in the Bible. “I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mother’s day,” the senior Jarvis said. “There are many days for men, but none for mothers.”

Following her mother’s death, Anna Jarvis embarked on a remarkable campaign. She poured out a constant stream of letters to men of prominence — President William Taft and former President Theodore Roosevelt among them — and enlisted considerable help from Philadelphia merchant John Wannamaker.

By May of 1907, a Mother’s Day service had been arranged on the second Sunday in May at the Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, where Mother Jarvis had taught. That same day a special service was held at the Wannamaker Auditorium in Philadelphia, which could seat no more than a third of the 15,000 people who showed up.

The custom spread to churches in 45 states and in Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Mexico and Canada. The Governor of West Virginia proclaimed Mother’s Day in 1912; Pennsylvania’s governor in 1913 did the same. The following year saw the Congressional Resolution, which was promptly signed by President Woodrow Wilson.

Mother’s Day has endured. It serves now, as it originally did, to recognize the contributions of women. Mother’s Day, like the job of “mothering,” is varied and diverse. Perhaps that’s only appropriate for a day honoring the multiple ways women find to nurture their families, and the ways in which so many have nurtured their communities, their countries, and the larger world.

via National Women’s History Project.

Apr 12 2012

From Elizabeth Warren on the Buffett Rule – we couldn’t agree more!

I wanted to forward one more email to you today. Like you, I’ve signed up for a few email lists.

On Monday, President Obama’s team sent an email about the Buffett Rule — legislation that makes sure people who make more than $1 million a year pay their fair share in taxes.

The President didn’t ask me to do this, but I wanted to double check that you’d seen this email. It’s that important.

In 2009, there were 22,000 households making more than $1 million annually but paying less than 15% of their income in income taxes — and 1,470 paid no federal income taxes at all.

My opponent, Republican Senator Scott Brown, agrees with Mitt Romney that it’s okay for millionaires and billionaires to pay a lower tax rate than everyone else. He wants to block the Buffett Rule. I think that’s wrong, and I’m standing with President Obama on this.

To me, the Buffett Rule shows what this upcoming election is all about. It’s a clear choice: do we want a Senator who protects millionaires and billionaires while voting against rebuilding roads and bridges and voting against preventing layoffs for our teachers?

Or do we want to level the playing field, to change the rules so millionaires don’t pay a lower tax rate than everyone else, and to use that money to honor our promises to our parents and to make the investments so more kids have their chance to get ahead?

Thanks,

Elizabeth

 

Donate

From: Jim Messina, BarackObama.com
Sent: Monday, April 9, 2012
Subject: Buffett Rule

Obama - Biden

Elizabeth –

Warren Buffett, a billionaire, pays a lower tax rate than his secretary.

Think that’s unfair? So does Warren Buffett.

Right now, millionaires and billionaires have nearly the lowest tax rates they’ve had in 50 years, while everyone else picks up the tab.

So President Obama is asking Congress to pass a commonsense bill, known as the Buffett Rule, to fix the tax code and make sure that millionaires and billionaires pay at least the same share of their income in taxes as middle-class families.

The Buffett Rule would reduce the deficit while helping to pay for investments in education, clean energy, jobs, and other programs that will help our economy grow.

If you think that’s fair, then speak up for it before Congress votes next week — stand with President Obama in asking the richest Americans to pay their fair share.

Many Republicans are dead-set against this commonsense step, so the unfortunate reality is that next week’s vote may not go our way.

But tax fairness is one of the defining issues in this election, and supporting this policy is one of the touchstones of this campaign.

Not only does Mitt Romney oppose the Buffett Rule, but he wants to protect special breaks and loopholes that help wealthy Americans like himself avoid paying their fair share — and he wants to shower them with even more tax breaks paid for by middle-class families and seniors.

If that’s not the kind of country you want to see for the next four years, do something about it now.

Join President Obama in urging Congress to pass the Buffett Rule:

http://my.barackobama.com/Pass-the-Buffett-Rule

Thanks — and stay tuned.

Messina

Jim Messina
Campaign Manager
Obama for America

P.S. — After adding your name, check out our new Buffett Rule website to see exactly what it does, who’s behind it, and how you can help. Take a look, then pass it on.

 

Apr 10 2012

The Buffett Rule – spelled out

http://www.barackobama.com/buffett-rule?source=20120408_ofa_EMS

The Buffett Rule would create up to $32 MILLION in tax revenue from just one millionaire. Find out exactly how that money could make a difference on issues that affect us all.

Apr 6 2012

NEWFC’s Statement on RNC Chair Reince Priebus Dismissing Uproar Over Republican Attacks on Women As Fictional As A “War on Caterpillars”

New England Women for Change released the following statement in response to RNC Chair Reince Priebus dismissing the uproar over Republican efforts to roll back women’s health care as fictional as a “war on caterpillars:”

“If women needed any more proof that the Republican Party has little regard for the issues that are important to them, RNC Chair Reince Priebus comparing Republican attacks on women’s health care to a ‘war on caterpillars’ ought to remove all doubt.   When it comes to women’s issues and women’s health, Republicans are out of touch.
“The fact is, the Republican Party has been fighting tirelessly to implement policies that are antiquated on women’s health.  And their leading Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, has said he wants to ‘get rid of’ Federal funding for Planned Parenthood and supports the Blunt-Rubio amendment, which would give any employer the ability to deny their employees coverage for health care services like contraception based on their own beliefs.  It’s clear what’s bothering Reince Priebus, Mitt Romney and the GOP: Women are paying attention to GOP attempts to undermine women’s health care, and they don’t like it. The GOP has spun a web of Tea Party policies that appeal only to the extreme fringe of their party and now they’re caught in it. Chairman Priebus may try and borrow the Romney campaign’s Etch A Sketch to erase the past few months of GOP attacks on women, but women have a clear message for Reince Priebus, Mitt Romney and the GOP: You can try to erase it all you want but we’ll remember in November.”

Apr 3 2012

April Highlights in US Women’s History

Historic Events

April 2, 1931 – 17-year-old Jackie Mitchell, the second woman to play baseball in the all-male minor leagues, pitches an exhibition game against NY Yankees and strikes out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. The next day, the Baseball Commissioner voided her contract, claiming baseball was too strenuous for women. The ban was not overturned until 1992.
April 5, 1911 – 100,000 to 500,000 people march in New York City to attend the funeral of 7 unidentified people who died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire in late March.
April 7, 1805 – Sacagawea begins helping the Lewis and Clark Expedition as an interpreter.
April 7, 1987 - Opening of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC, the first museum devoted to women artists.
April 9, 1939 – Marian Anderson sings an Easter Sunday concert for more than 75,000 at Lincoln Memorial.
April 13, 1933 – Ruth Bryan Owens is the first woman to represent the U.S. as a foreign minister when she is appointed as envoy to Denmark.
April 19, 1977 – 15 women in the House of Representatives form the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues.
April 22, – Earth Day -honor Rachel Carson today, a woman who changed America and greatly influenced the environmental movement.
April 26, 1777 – American Revolution heroine Sybil Ludington, 16 years old, rides 40 miles by horseback in the middle of the night to gather the American militia to fight against the British invasion.
April 28, 1993 – First “Take Our Daughters to Work” day, sponsored by the Ms. Foundation; in 2003 it became “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work” day.

April Birthdays
April 1, 1911-(1998) Augusta Braxton Baker — African- American librarian and storyteller renowned for her contributions to children’s literature by including African-American history and culture
April 3, 1898-(1997) Katherine Esau – Ukrainian refugee whose scientific discoveries are documented in the classic Plant Anatomy (1953)
April 3, 1899 (1979) Katherine Ordway – Philanthropist, Established the Goodhill Foundation (1954) granting over 64 million dollars to save natural land in Minnesota, Kansas, and South Dakota
April 4, 1928 – Maya Angelou, author, poet, civil rights activist, actress; composed and read her poem at President Clinton’s inauguration in 1993.
April 5, 1908 (1989) Bette Davis – Renowned movie star whose career spanned “Of Human Bondage”(1934) to “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane”(1962)
April 5, 1949 (1986) Judith Resnik – Second American woman in space in 1984, who perished in Challenger explosion
April 7, 1890 (1998) Marjory Douglas – Environmentalist, suffragist, women’s rights activist, championed Indian culture and the need for preserving the Everglades
April 7, 1891 (1978) Martha Eliot – Life-long child health advocate who worked for dependent and disabled children through Social Security Act (1935)
April 7, 1944 (2002) – Julia Miller Phillips, film producer; first woman to win a Best Picture Academy Award (1973, “The Sting”) as a producer; also produced “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “Taxi Driver”
April 8, 1892 (1979) Mary Pickford – Most successful actress of the silent screen from 1898 to 1927; created with 5 others the United Artists production company
April 9, 1887 (1953) – Florence Price, first African American woman symphony composer
April 9, 1936 (1988) Valerie Solanas – Feminist provocateur, wrote “Scum Manifesto”(1967) translated in many languages , shot Andy Warhol in 1968
April 10, 1882 (1965) – Frances Perkins, first woman cabinet member, Secretary of Labor in 1933; key contributor to the Social Security Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act
April 10, 1903 (1987) – Clare Booth Luce, playwright, Congresswoman (R-CT), Ambassador to Italy (1953-1956)
April 10, 1926 (1995) Johnnie Tillmon – Director of the National Welfare Rights Organization from 1962 to 1972
April 10, 1930 – Delores Huerta, Chicana activist; co-founder United Farm Workers union
April 11, 1910 (1997) Annie Wauneka – Navajo leader, elected to Navajo Tribal Council in 1951, served 27 years, lead the campaign to eradicate TB on reservations, Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient (1963)
April 12, 1903 (1987) Justine Polier – First woman in New York Workmen’s Compensation Division, appointed as a judge in Domestic Relations Court (1935) and served for 38 years
April 12, 1883 (1976) Imogen Cunningham – Acclaimed photographer, especially noted for portraits
April 12, 1909 (2001) – Eudora Welty, writer, won Pulitzer prize for Fiction in 1973; winner of Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Literature, and the French Legion d’Honeur
April 12, 1915 (1984) Soia Mentschikoff –Russian émigré (1917) became first woman partner in a Wall Street firm (1945). .
April 13, 1919 (c.1995) Madalyn O’Hair –Atheist who championed and won the case opposing prayer in school, which the Supreme Court found unconstitutional (1962), she along with 2 others were kidnapped and murdered
April 13, 1892 (1990) Clara M. Beyer – Worked with Frances Perkins on Social Security Act(1935) and worked to abolish child labor and for minimum and maximum hour scales
April 14, 1866 (1936) – Anne Sullivan Macy, famous teacher of Helen Keller who was blind, deaf, and mute; the two worked and traveled together throughout Macy’s lifetime.
April 15, 1896 (1980) May Edward Chinn – First African American doctor in Harlem(1936) who worked with George Papanicolaon to develop the Pap smear
April 16, 1971 (1995) Selena – Popularized the Tejano sound of Mexican music with her siblings in the 1990s, fatally shot by manager in 1995
April 17, 1913 (1997) Dorothy Fosdick – International relations official, worked to develop the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall plan for international relief.
April 18, 1898 (1990) Ruth Bunzel – Anthropologist who studied women’s art and respected the culture of Pueblos in 1924. She learned the Zuno language , and pottery skills, how to grind corn and make ceremonial food
April 19, 1917 (2007) Irene Kirkaldy – July, 1944, defied bus driver in Virginia who demanded she give up her seat (in the back of the bus), and was jailed. Thurgood Marshall won her case in the Supreme Court (6 to 1) received Freedom Medal from President Clinton
April 20, 1890 (1983) Carmelita Hinton – Founder of Putney School in Vermont( 1935), a co-ed boarding school. lived and worked at Hull House, had commitment to John Dewey’s education goals and to environment and internationalism and to arts and crafts
April 20, 1895 (1986) Mary Pukul – Descendant of native Hawaiian high priestesses, she researched ancient history, collected stories and oral histories, translator at the Bishop Museum
April 22, 1891 (1979) Laura Gilpin – Photographed and worked with Navajo people 35 years to complete a record of rural American, pioneered auto chromes which won acclaim for still-lives and portraits in the platinum printing process from 1911 to 1914
April 25, 1917 (1996) – Ella Fitzgerald, “First Lady of Song”, internationally renowned jazz singer, winner of 13 Grammy Awards
April 26, 1888 (1981) Anita Loos – Screenwriter, novelist, “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” (1925)
April 26, 1907 (1991) Julia Godman Ruuttila – CIO recruiter, (1935), raised community support and welfare benefits and birth control so men could maintain solidarity. Continued to be union publicist, protested Vietnam War, retired at ago 80, plagued with asthma, ulcers, arthritis and angina, still often walked in picket lines
April 27, 1906 (1993) Alice Dunnigan – First African/American accredited to cover the US Congress in June 1947 and first journalist of color to travel with President Truman on his train trip. She had to pay for her own ticket. In 1961 Johnson appointed her to the staff of the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity
April 27, 1927 (2006) – Coretta Scott King, civil rights, human rights, and peace April 29, 1913 (1999) Margaret Owings – California artist of wild life and founder of Friends of the Sea Otters in 1968; also she helped the Environmental Defense F Fund.
April 30, 1909 (1990) Eve Arden – She acted in many theater and movie roles; most famous for teacher Connie Brooks on radio and TV from 1952 to 1956 in “Our Miss Brooks”
April 30, 1939 – Ellen Zwilich, first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for Music (1983)

Please feel free to use this information in any of your newsletters or forward it to colleagues or other interested parties. A year-round women’s history calendar is available on our website www.nwhp.org in the News and Events category. Also, please send corrections and additions to nwhp@nwhp.org 

Honor a Special Teacher
In recognition of this year’s theme, Women’s Education - Women’s Empowerment, we are inviting you to honor a teacher who has been important in your life by making a special donation https://encryp2.net/nwhp/donate/donate.php o the NWHP.  The teacher will receive a card acknowledging your gift and will be included in our 2012 Teachers Hall of Fame, which is soon to be accessed on our homepage www.nwhp.  In addition to including the teachers name and contact information, please also email a one-sentence tribute about this special teacher to nwhp@nwhp.org. Click here https://encryp2.net/nwhp/donate/donate.php or click on Donation on our homepage www.nwhp.org.

National Women’s History Project
3440 Airway Dr Ste F
Santa Rosa, CA 95403
http://www.nwhp.org
(707) 636-2888
nwhp@nwhp.org

Mar 21 2012

A letter from John Tener

Dear Friends (and friends of friends),
A retired partner of mine died last week. He was 88 years old.  He was a distinguished lawyer, community leader, husband, father, and grandfather.  He hired me some 42 years ago for my first and only law firm job.  He was a lifelong Republican until his party turned to right-wing extremism a few years ago.  He became a Democrat, and an enthusiastic supporter of President Obama.  He even drove to the Inauguration from Connecticut three years ago, at age 85.
I wrote a eulogy for him after his funeral service, and included the following poem.  It is about work.  My partner was a worker. A selfless, modest, uncomplaining worker.  Dedicated to helping others throughout his life.  He reminded me of what our President is.  A worker. Dedicated to helping others.   After you read the poem below, please take a few minutes to watch the attached video about the road we have all traveled these last three years under the leadership  and hard work of President Obama.
                    To Be of Use

The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.
I love people who harness themselves, as an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.
I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire put out.
The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.
                 Marge Piercy
Warm regards,
John
Mar 19 2012

Another example of Republicans and their “Clockwork Orange” views on women’s health decisions.

In case you missed it, Governor Corbett of Pennsylvania made some outrageous remarks last week about an ultrasound bill that is moving through his state. After being asked if the bill requiring women seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound went too far, the Governor said, “You just have to close your eyes.” Although the bill doesn’t require women to keep their eyelids open, it does mandate that a woman’s doctor turn the image toward her face, give her signed copies of the image, and describe the number of heartbeats and health of the fetus.

is this next in Pennsylvania: