SiveSiftings Archives

Dear Readers,

Here is my February blogpost for Today's Chicago Woman. Written in mid-January, I wondered about the fate of the federal healthcare reform effort, wishing Ida B. Wells were here with us to lead us in this fight. Three weeks later, boy do we need her even more! 

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One of my favorite heroines of Chicago history--in fact, of all American history--is yesterday's-Chicago-woman, Ida B. Wells.

 (See:  http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=W041.)

Ida Barnett Wells was born and educated in post-Reconstruction Mississippi, in a time when, and in a place where, African Americans experienced the very worst of what post-slavery white America offered-up to post-slavery black America. Lynching was common, and, in Ida's Mississippi homeplace, as well as in Memphis, her home as a young adult, all forms of public life were strictly segregated. (See: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_people_wells.html.)

Ida was a young woman when the U.S. Supreme Court infamously decided that "separate [could be] equal (for blacks and whites)."

(See: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_plessy.html).

Here's What You Can do To Write a New and Different Chapter in 2010

Last month, Carol Marin wrote a great piece in the Chicago Sun Times: "Why Aren't Women Running for Office," (Read it here: http://www.suntimes.com/news/marin/1915122,CST-EDT-Carol02.article).

In her column, Carol gave us the bald facts about the paucity of women running for political office in Illinois, and she reported some of the reasons why.

Various reasons were given for this sorry state-of-affairs, including the view I expressed that, too often, women don't make the decision to run soon enough, to be positioned with the experience, expertise, contacts, and fundraising capacity needed to make a viable run for a big office.

So, the result:  In Illinois in 2010--90 years since American women got the right to vote--there is only one woman running for state-wide, State office in the Illinois Democratic Primary and only two in the Republican Primary.

And, as Carol Marin reported:  "For U.S. Senate, out of 16 candidates, there is just one woman on the Democratic ticket, Cheryle Jackson, and one for the GOP, Kathleen Thomas."

"When you have both extremes saying they're unhappy, I think it's [the Senate's December 21, 2009 healthcare bill] a fair compromise, "Mrs. Boxer said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/22/health/policy/22health.html?th&emc=th

Well, Senator, Boxer, I have two words for you:  Missouri Compromise.

How preposterous is what Senator Boxer said to the nation today?  Let me count the ways.

Senator Boxer:  Just because:

1)                  people disagree, doesn't mean each side has an equally valid argument.

2)                  you made a compromise, doesn't mean you made good public policy.

3)                  you wrote a bill that 60 people voted for, doesn't mean it's a good bill.

4)                  you helped women somewhat, doesn't mean you helped them enough.

True confessions time:  I'm as much a jewelry and clothes lover as the next girl. So, the prospect of receiving holiday hearts and flowers (in the form of jewels) is a wonderful one.

But, as I've contemplated this gift-giving season, I've realized that the best gift this holiday season--for me, for you, for every single today's-Chicago-woman in your life-- isn't those jewels made of stones: it is the jewel that is life itself.

The New York Times Magazine recent special issue: Saving the World's Women:  How Changing the Lives of Women and Girls in the Developing World Can Change Everything, is a fitting read for Thanksgiving week.    

Dear Rep. Stupak,

No one reading this has forgotten that, a couple Saturday nights ago, the House of Representatives passed a healthcare "reform" bill that included your so-called Stupak Amendment.

In doing this, the House codified an American healthcare system, what an oxymoron that is, in which women's very lives are subject to the whims of weak-kneed, sexist, soulless, woman-hating politicians, who don't believe the U.S. Supreme Court really meant it, when it said there is a right to privacy under the U.S. Constitution that guarantees the right to obtain an abortion.

For, after all, this is the true intent of your bill: to make legal abortion unattainable.

Clearly, you, along with your Republican and Democratic pals, don't care whether American women live or die.  

As I was organizing one of my favorite shelves, the one with all the women's history books on it, a pamphlet came tumbling out. 

Dear Reader,

An occasional blog-series of mine is entitled:  "White Men Can't Jump," in honor of one of my favorite movies of all time.

Like Woody Harrelson, some whte men sometimes get-it-together, but much too much of the time, they don't.

So, here are the earliest chapters in this series, so you get a flavor of what's to-come!