“SAY GAY?”

Published April 14, 2024 by Nan Mykel

IS ANTI-ABORTION MOVEMENT A SIGN OF MISOGYNISM?

Why are men Randomly Punching New York City Women? – The New York Times

Ms. Pires made a note to be vigilant when she was in New York. Heading to lunch on a bright and chilly afternoon at the end of last week, she was standing at an intersection on Delancey Street waiting for the light to change when she noticed a man, walking in the opposite direction, “studying” her. She registered that he was “quite well dressed,” but almost nothing else made an impression.

Before she knew it he struck her with his fist, hitting her on the right side of her head. He fled uptown on Essex Street. She reported the incident at the Seventh Precinct, where a detective told her that these type of attacks had become “kind of a big deal at the moment.” She was left with swelling in her ear; her face turned black and blue. https://www.nytimes.com

On March 27, the Council’s Women’s Caucus issued a statement confirming that reports of these attacks were not a hoax but instead part of “an alarming trend in violence against women.”

Were women panicking needlessly? It was hard not to interpret these recent offenses within the broader context of a roving and seemingly ever-more-insidious misogyny. In 2022, the most recent year for which there is available city data, women were killed by intimate partners at a rate 30 percent higher than the previous year. Reports of domestic violence also increased during that period, and nationwide, between 2018 and 2021, incidents of domestic violence involving guns went up by more than 7 percent. And:

Six Months Post-Roe, 24 US States Have Banned Abortion or Are Likely to Do So--Guttmacher Institute

SAY GAY, anyone?

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Let’s hang onto our right to vote!!!

NO, NOT AN ECLIPSE…

Published April 14, 2024 by Nan Mykel

DO YOU REMEMBER ? It was recently mentioned that the U.S. military has an agreement with a private corporation (Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Missouri) dating back to 1941 to supply ammunition or guns when needed, and this particular company has recently been a source for several AK 47’s in private hands being used in mass shootings in the U.S. At one point President Biden determined to sever the connection, but opposition apparently stalled that intent.

The AK-47 is the deadliest weapon ever built, on the whole. Its kill count even tops nuclear weapons in sheer numbers (https://www.military.com), and although illegal, you can still buy a fully automatic AK-47. But when more ammunition or guns are needed by the Army, they become rapidly available via this US-owned, contracted-out enterprise. Check me out on Google–it is rather complicated.

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The comparison I’m making is between facilitating a potentially dangerous enterprise for the country and extending almost limitless power to Elon Musk and his giant for-profit space enterprise, with the backing of NASA. It just occurred to me how much power his outfit will have over…earthlings?

Over the internet I was mistaken for a company, and received an advertisement from someone to make my computer connections work with less interference. With that, I realized who holds the cards in this, our self-made card game. I hate to mention it, but Mr. Musk does not appear to be a very nice man. (And A.I. is on the loose).

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Tell me I’m mistaken….

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ON THE BRIGHTER SIDE

We survived the eclipse, way out in Ohio. More anon.

FORGOTTEN AID

Published April 13, 2024 by Nan Mykel

Mary McLeod Bethune - Mary McLeod Bethune Council House ...

Mary Mcleod Bethune

“During the 19th and 20th centuries, Black women played an active role in the struggle for universal suffrage. They participated in political meetings and organized political societies. African American women attended political conventions at their local churches where they planned strategies to gain the right to vote. In the late 1800s, more Black women worked for churches, newspapers, secondary schools, and colleges, which gave them a larger platform to promote their ideas….

“But in spite of their hard work, many people didn’t listen to them. Black men and white women usually led civil rights organizations and set the agenda. They often excluded Black women from their organizations and activities. For example, the National American Woman Suffrage Association prevented Black women from attending their conventions. Black women often had to march separately from white women in suffrage parades….”

“After the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified in 1920, Black women voted in elections and held political offices. However, many states passed laws that discriminated against African Americans and limited their freedoms. Black women continued to fight for their rights. Educator and political advisor Mary McLeod Bethune formed the National Council of Negro Women in 1935 to pursue civil rights. Tens of thousands of African Americans worked over several decades to secure suffrage, which occurred when the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965. This Act represents more than a century of work by Black women to make voting easier and more equitable.”

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WHO PUT WHAT IN THE WATER?

A Georgia politician saying the eclipse was a warning from God?

[Maybe if it hadn’t happened]

“Islam deserves to be seen as s free, happy religion that promotes love. Especially gender is a topic that left too many people in a situation of limitation, where it isn’t needed. I’m convinced of that. Read the scriptures, think about them. It gave me new perspectives on this topic. ” –A sincere believer

[Pretty is as pretty does?]

The new rage of choking during sex?

[Suffering has become fun?]

Santos wants to run for office again.

[!!!]

The CEO of Coca-Cola claimed that the company had “earned the right” to push price hikes because its sodas are popular.

[Duh.]

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IS IT JUST MY IMAGINATION?

Since September 11 was and is still such a mystery (in my opinion), as well as how Netanyahu didn’t respond to the alerts of a women’s lookout reporting mass activity in Hamas prior to the October 7 invasion, a dark side of me wonders if both the U.S. and Israel welcomed the attack to have an excuse to wage all-out war. Reading about Kennedy’s CIA meetings about Cuba gave me cause to wonder.

A member of an Israeli military unit of female soldiers that does surveillance on the Gaza side of the border with Israel told CBS News that “warning signs weren’t taken” … – YouTube-CBS Evening News

I REMEMBER

Published April 11, 2024 by Nan Mykel

1941 – 1981 APRIL 11: I remember my beautiful little sister who I

nicknamed “Nikki” because she had the same name as our mother, who

didn’t want to always be called the “Large” version. I regret not being more

available to her.

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Believe it or not, those eyes are blue. Nikki died of stomach cancer at 40. She bore two

children and had earlier in her life survived polio and rocky mountain spotted fever–

one of the first to survive the latter, I believe. She had no lingering effects of polio.

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Nikki called me long distance at work to wish

me happy birthday the year before she died. In

fact, when I answered the phone she sang me

the entire Happy Birthday song. I told her I have

some guilt feelings about my life and she laughed

and said, “Oh good, I’m not the only one!” We

were pregnant at the same time. Hers was born in November, mine in Dec.

When my youngest child was born she called me

at the hospital. I had to break off the conversation because the doctor

walked in just then. When I didn’t call her back right away she came straight

to the hospital and saw my baby in the hospital nursery. When she came into

my room she was weeping, and I remember how touched I felt. She was

about to be promoted at Turner Broadcasting when she died. One night in

Atlanta there was a terrible storm and she and her husband Bob had to

spend the night in Ted Turner’s private office….

I LOOKED UP “RETROGRADE”

Published April 10, 2024 by Nan Mykel

After reading that Arizona’s Supreme Court has ruled that a near total abortion ban from 1864 is enforceable, the word “retrograde” came to mind, and I looked it up on Google to see if I was right. I was: Among many definitions Google led me to, I liked best

“tending towards an earlier worse condition; declining or deteriorating.”

NBC News reports that The ruling is on hold for 14 days, and voters will likely have a chance to weigh in on a ballot measure to enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution this fall.

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WHY do I keep comparing the anti-abortion folks with our history of imprisoning suffragettes?

More than 300 suffragettes were incarcerated at during the early 20th century in one of the darker aspects of the campaign for the vote for women, and one that has historical and contemporary resonance for the women’s liberation movement. Built in 1852, Holloway prison became a female-only site in 1903.

The women of the National Woman’s Party sentenced to prison in November 1917 for picketing the White House had no idea what awaited them when they arrived at the Occoquan Workhouse. They endured brutality and abuse from the prison guards, but remained committed to their cause.

On Nov. 15, 1917, about 20 women were subjected to beatings and torture at Occoquan Workhouse, a prison in Virginia, in what became known as the “Night of Terror.” On the evening of Nov. 14, the superintendent ordered his guards to brutally assault imprisoned suffragists.

We’ll see if women nowadays are more “pushovers” than the suffragettes were, come November. Overcoming the throw of the dice that made us female presents a long row to hoe.

Image: Library of Congress

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Sorry, I couldn’t get rid of that blank space: nan?

Harry Burns Saves Women’s Right to Vote in 1920

Published April 8, 2024 by Nan Mykel

1890 — On September 6, 1890, Louisa Ann Swain of Laramie, Wyoming becomes the first woman to cast a vote in a general election. In 1890, Wyoming, with a Republican governor and Democratic legislature, insisted it would not accept statehood without keeping women’s suffrage.

Passage of the 19th Amendment

First introduced to Congress in 1878, the women’s suffrage amendment failed several times. In 1915, the amendment failed again without President Wilson’s support.

The United States’ entry into WWI, in 1917, helped to shift public opinion about women’s suffrage and role in the country. NASWA argued women should be rewarded with the right to vote for their patriotic wartime service.

In 1918, another bill was introduced, this time with President Wilson’s support. The 1918 Suffrage Bill passed the House with only one vote to spare but failed the Senate by two votes.

With increasing pressure from the public, lawmakers in both parties were anxious to pass the amendment and make it effective by the 1920 general election. To try and get the amendment passed in time for the next year’s election, President Wilson called a special session of Congress and in the spring of 1919, The House of Representatives passed the amendment followed by the Senate just a few months later.

The amendment was then submitted to the states for ratification, where it would require the approval of 36 states (three-fourths of states) to be adopted as a Constitutional Amendment. Within just a few days, several states ratified the amendment since their legislatures were actively in session. Additional states ratified at a regular pace until March 1920 when the number of states stalled at 35 for five months.

“GOOD BOY”

In the summer of 1920, the Tennessee State Senate voted to ratify the amendment, but the State House of Representatives still had to vote. A young state representative, Harry Burns, wore an anti-suffragist pin and voted against the amendment in what would be a tie vote. Harry had been internally conflicted so when a letter from his mom was delivered to him in the chambers before the revote, he took her advice. His mother urged him to “be a good boy” and vote for the amendment. In the revote, Burns cast the tie-breaking vote making Tennessee the 36th state to ratify the amendment allowing the 19th amendment to be adopted and officially become part of the U.S. Constitution on August 26, 1920..

On paper, the Amendment protected discrimination against all women, but in practice, it only gave white women the right to vote. Black women, Native American women, Asian American women, and women from other racial and ethnic minority groups were discriminated against for 45 more years until the passage of The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA). The VRA afforded crucial protections to Black, Indigenous, and Women of Color (BIWOC) voters.

I know the ho hum history of it all may be boring, but if I were alive and thought not fit to vote, it would be another story, as far as my involvement was concerned. Familiarizing ourselves with the reality of the recent past should make us more mindful of current ways that women are oppressed, and to vote seriously.

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ALTHOUGH I JUST RETURNED FROM AN ECLIPSE, I had to get this off before turning in. More tomorrow.

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OH YES: While I was musing over my “pages” listed way above, I re-read the one on SECRETS and was interested again. Moreover, I thought I had lost the extended section after 48 items, but found them still there, after a couple of blank spots continuing through entry 81. The world is certainly an interesting place, which brings to mind an earlier poem:

LETTING GO

I don’t believe in anything

but appreciate a lot.

I’m thankful for myself and the

organ music in my ear,

for the existence of all

my family, bless-’em.

Others’ frailings are okay ’cause

they’re just caught in their own net.

We need to feel good about ourselves,

’cause we’re all we’ve really got.

nan

1917 “Night of Terror”

Published April 6, 2024 by Nan Mykel

Obstructing Traffic or Exercising Free Assembly?

Both in court and later in prison, suffragists arrested on criminal charges of obstructing traffic demanded to be treated as political prisoners. They asserted that silent picketing and peaceful assembly were protected First Amendment rights, and that their arrests were politically motivated, as Mary Winsor’s sign suggests. Winsor was arrested twice, the first time on September 4, 1917, during Draft Day festivities holding a banner questioning why women had no voice in a government that was conscripting their sons. Recently released from Occoquan Workhouse after serving a lengthy sentence for picketing on Draft Day, Baltimorean Lucy Branham unfavorably compared the U.S. government to Tsarist Russia, which had earlier imprisoned historian and liberal statesman Pavel Milyukov.

This “Night of Terror” galvanized support for the women’s suffrage movement at a critical moment. The tortured prisoners included activists Dorothy Day and Lucy Burns. Some were left for dead after the beatings. They had been arrested for peacefully picketing for universal sufrage in front of the White House

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WHILE RE-READING THE PAGE “SECRETS” (top of post) I found this one:

51. Quote from Stephen Jay Gould;s Hen’s Teeth and Horse’s Toes p 244: “We hold a mirror to nature and see ourselves and our own prejudices in the glass. ,,,Aristotle described the large bee that leads the swarm as a “king,” and this misidentification of the only sexual female around persisted for at least two thousand years… He also describes the embryonic separation of a unisex into male or female. “The female course of development is, in a sense, biologically intrinsic to all mammals. It is the pattern that unfolds in the absence of any hormonal influence.” (p 154). He discusses the peniform clitorises and false scrotum of female spotted hyenas, and crabs that have faces on their backs, (p 156, Norton, 1984).

Perhaps someone should alert members of Moms for Liberty in response to their charges of transgenders’ “lies.”

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END OF…

We came, we tried, we fought

and ate each other up.

We lived and died by our own hand.

If two survived and met on a plain

would we hug one another

or kill again?

nan

NO TEST FAILS

Published April 5, 2024 by Nan Mykel

NO TEST FAILS

Students may, and theories, but
tests are hardy souls and tell
it like it is.

We have failed this test of tests,
that’s all. It’ll be back to
ground zero but minus us;

Someone or something else may
pick up the ball and run with it.
No…drop that metaphor now!

Sometime, somewhere, let there be
no such thing as power, greed
and competition. Maybe

get it right next time, although
if time doesn’t exist, when
and how? Not our ball of wax

to shape. We’re out of here soon.
It’s okay. The traits dealt failed
to mix, that’s all. We just flunked.

Glad to be taking A.I. with us.

Nan 4/4/24

WILL WE WOMEN VOTE?

Published April 5, 2024 by Nan Mykel

IT WAS A LONG ROW TO HOE

New Jersey’s Roller Coaster ride …with women’s right to vote. You probably knew this, but I didn’t…Two days before the Declaration of Independence…

July 2, 1776 — The New Jersey State Constitution is adopted. It uses the gender-neutral pronoun “they” and does not include racial categories in its election law.

November 18, 1790 — The New Jersey State Legislature passes an Act revising the regulations of the election law to include “he or she” in 7 of 13 counties in New Jersey (Bergen, Burlington, Gloucester, Hunterdon, Monmouth, Salem, and Sussex). This law also institutes township voting in these counties.

February 22, 1797 — The New Jersey Legislature passes a statewide Act revising the regulations of the election law to include “he or she,” lower the property requirement for voters from “fifty pounds proclamation money clear estate in the same” to “fifty pounds proclamation money,” and institutes township voting across the state.

October 1800 — In Bedminster Township, Somerset County, New Jersey, a state election takes place. Three women vote in that election, and 2 vote against reconvening the state constitutional convention.

December 1800 — Twenty-nine women (of 217 voters) vote in a congressional election in Upper Penns Neck Township, Salem County, New Jersey. A total of at least 75 women vote in state or congressional elections in Upper Penns Neck from 1800 – 1806, some voting year after year.

October 13, 1801 — A state election takes place in Montgomery Township, Somerset County, New Jersey. Of 343 total voters, at least 46 are women and at least four are free Black male voters. October 1802 — New Jersey residents began submitting petitions to the state legislature citing voter fraud and suppression as early as 1783. From 1783 to 1807, 73 petitions were submitted to the state (37 for voter suppression, 36 voter fraud)….October 1802 — Petitions taken in Maidenhead Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, urge the state legislature to overturn an 1802 election. Petitioners allege that married women, enslaved people, “aliens” and non-residents had voted illegally….

1805 — Martin v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts sets a legal precedent that married women did not have separate political identities or citizenship from their husbands under “coverture.”

October 1807 — A state election takes place in Chester Township, Burlington County, New Jersey. Of 260 voters, 38 are women. The election marks one of the last elections in the state that women and free people of color are legally able to participate in. https://tag.rutgers.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/suffrage-by-state.pdf

(In other words, women had the right to vote in New Jersey for more than thirty years and then it was taken away from them [us]!)

Post Script:

Compiled by the Center for American Women and Politics – August 2014

The following territories provided full voting rights to women before statehood:
1869 Territory of Wyoming
1870 Territory of Utah
1883 Territory of Washington
1887 Territory of Montana
1913 Territory of Alaska

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I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the women’s vote and about one woman who was quoted as saying she wasn’t interested in what he said, but the sight of the former president “made her all warm inside.”

By November 2024 I hope we have found more cerebral reasons for whichever way we choose to vote.

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Who’s going to get thrown under the bus next? [I hate that image, but it is so descriptive in a metaphorical way]. I heard a rumor that the conservatives are readying a new candidate for the November fray if/when Mr. Trump tires or retires…. and will enter that person to run as a conservative INDEPENDENT.

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“God Bless the USA Bible” is a period piece for sixty dollars, and the proceeds go to its generator.

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Hope this isn’t a repeat:

It’s her fault, not mine I’m told.

My Muse is ill and gotten old.

Silver threads among the brown

on her way to leaving town,

taking with her my renown.

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We’re All an April fool

Published April 4, 2024 by Nan Mykel

How do I step out of this mess? Jesus was a jew. As Keith Wilson wrote earlier, WWJD?

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Quote of the Day: “The U.S. cannot beg Netanyahu to stop bombing civilians one day and the next send him thousands more 2,000 lb. bombs that can level entire city blocks. This is obscene,” Bernie Sanders said on X. “We must end our complicity: No more bombs to Israel.”

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OH, GEE — Barf–I just received a greeting from an investment company that began, “I’m guessing congratulations are in order. You’re probably wondering why congratulations are in order, and I have a logical reason for you.

It takes skill, perseverance and savy to be counted among the wealthiest Americans. To have out-saved and out-invested your peers speaks to the kind of individual you are. It should also explain the exclusive nature of this communication.

It’s ‘exclusive’ because we select so carefully the individuals we invite to acquire (free to you) our investment guide…

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I TRIED–

To breathe some fresh air into the concept of April Fools, but then I got a stomach virus [no April Fool] and left this post unposted. I did learn that in 18th century Scotland April Fools was a 2-day event. “In Scotland, the tradition became a two-day event, starting with ‘hunting the gowk,’ in which people were sent on a “fool’s errand,” but the prank was to stop at noon. The following day was called ‘Tailie Day’ which involved hoaxes on people’s bottoms like attaching fake tails or ‘kick me’ signs onto them; an oldie but a goodie.

Our own venerable “snipe hunt” may have had its origin from the gowk hunt.

A snipe hunt is a type of practical joke or fool’s errand, in existence in North America as early as the 1840s, in which an unsuspecting newcomer is duped on phony errands (gowk is a word for cuckoo bird, a symbol for fool) and followed by Tailie Day, which involved pranks played on people’s derrieres, such as pinning fake tails or ‘kick me’ signs on them.”