One last pre-election post
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Even though this isn’t a political blog – my plan is to include topics that involve issues that women can get involved with and help to change the world for the better, for all of us. This U.S. election has stood out as a way we can all be involved and make life better for all of us so I have written about it a lot.
Before the election tomorrow, I have a few things left I want to share about it (not necessarily in any particular order).
1) Anyone expecting really long wait times tomorrow to vote? I’m in Missouri and we don’t have early voting here. I’m planning to vote early, then start volunteering to make sure the Obama supporters in the area actually go out and vote. I believe they are also planning – if the line wait time is really long – to maybe bring coffee, etc. to people waiting so they won’t leave. I’m planning to bring something to drink with me, some granola bars, maybe something to read and an mp3 player – just in case! But what if I have to use a bathroom? I don’t know how that will work. Will people have to lose their place in line?
2) Hopefully the lines won’t be real long and I will be able to get home at a reasonable time. Then I plan to follow the results coming in on TV and if I have enough energy I’ll be on twitter.
3) I made an Obama ‘Barack O’Lantern’ for Halloween! First time I’ve ever carved a pumpkin myself. I got the stencil from Yes We Carve.
I had fun on Halloween, even dressed up – but we didn’t have nearly as many kids at our house this year. Here are a few halloween pictures – me with my big spider puppet, our giant spider and fake cemetery”
4) Have you seen these yet:
That’s one of the funniest things I’ve seen!
If you want to send it to people, go here: http://is.gd/6fGV and click on the button that says ‘Customize This Video For Your Friends’. I think some of them didn’t get through to some people I sent them to though, maybe they got tagged as spam. It may be better to set it up with a friends name but then have it sent to your address. You can then use a url shortening service (like http://is.gd/) to send the link to them in an email you write yourself (rather then the default text that is used).
5) Little Opie Cunningham, Andy and the Fonz tell us why we should vote for Obama:
6) This may not interest most people, but the following is a video made by a Canadian site about the Obama campaign in Missouri:
http://www.cbc.ca/sunday/2008/10/102608_1.html
7) Paying taxes is patriotic!
People who are patriotic, presumably, want their country to be strong and a good place for its citizens to live. What makes a country a good place to live in?
Good schools, hospitals, enforcement of law and public order, public transportation, energy, water and waste management systems, social services, infrastructure – such as roads and safe bridges.
What pays for these things? Taxes!
8 ) I really like this post by Joanne Bamberger: Excuse Me, Senator McCain — What I Want for My Daughter Isn’t About Being Liberal or Conservative.
Now – go out and vote tomorrow! – If you haven’t already!
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Related Posts:
- Have Obama’s Back – vote Democrats into Congress!
- 2 Reasons Why Women Should Vote for Obama
- Missouri doesn’t allow privacy in voting, apparently
September 24, 2008
New Book Brings Stalking Issue to Light
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(Today’s guest post is from Elizabeth Dillon and is about the prevalence of stalking and its effects on women – something we should all be aware of to protect ourselves and other women we know.)
With the release of Kate Brennan’s new memoirs entitled, “In His Sights” the issue of stalking has once again been brought to the forefront of news media. The book is the first of its kind; in it the author describes her personal accounts of stalking incidents, from phone calls, to unwanted visits, to strangers threatening to ravage her world on behalf of an ex-boyfriend. Names have been changed as the author hopes to remain anonymous and avoid further harassment from her formerly charming ex “Paul”, a man with deep seeded relationship issues and enough money to create elaborate, exasperating, and sometimes downright scary, hassles for Brennan. In the post-James Frey age, where the authenticity of memoirs is often in question, Brennan’s work appears to be legitimate, with her editor and the New York Times checking her facts. Before penning an account of her near decade of experiences Brennan questioned whether or not a novel would do more harm than good. However, she eventually decided that a publication would spread some awareness about the issue of stalking as well as act as a medium for her own personal catharsis.
While traditional notions of stalking conjure up images of crazed celebrity fans or dumped girlfriends who won’t stop calling, in reality stalking is a very serious issue that affects a great deal of people. According to a 2006 survey from the U.S. Department of Justice, 8.1% of women and 2.2% of men reported being stalked at some point in their lives. While the profile of a stalker can include nearly any characteristic, most are men of above-average intelligence stalking women. Most women know their stalker, who is often an ex-boyfriend. While the legal definition of stalking varies from state to state, it can generally be said that stalking consists of unwanted contact (including but not limited to visits, emails, phone calls and letters) between an individual and a victim in which the stalker communicates, directly or indirectly some threat that causes a victim to feel fear.
While Kate Brennan experienced her ordeal as an adult, college age women, now more than ever, are being forced to grapple with the issue of stalking. A 2000 national College Women Sexual Victimization Survey found that 13% of college women had been stalked since the beginning of their school year and that 42.4% of the perpetrators were ex-boyfriends. Often these young women are unaware of their rights, afraid to report the abuse, and are subjected to long periods of harassment without support. In some cases stalking crosses from the realm of emotional mistreatment to situations where victims fall prey to physical or sexual abuse. New technology has also made stalking easier, as sites like Myspace and Facebook provide catalogs of personal information and a simple medium for communication between strangers.
I dealt with my own stalking experience at the end of my sophomore year of college. Contacted initially through Facebook, I was followed, emailed, and messaged repeatedly after I made it explicitly clear that I was uninterested in a friendship or further correspondence in any form. While no violent or physical threats were made against me, the person contacting me did use several strategies to “hook” me in and make me feel guilty enough to respond. In messages, he shared that he was lonely and looking for friends, and repeatedly insisted that he did not have illicit intentions that he simply wanted someone to talk to. I felt guilty initially, however after months of uncomfortable letters I began to realize that I was being manipulated. As a complete stranger, this person had no right to expect advice or friendship from me. It took phone calls to my campus stalking unit, and repeated meetings with the University judiciary, to finally find myself sitting across the table from my stalker enumerating his habits at a disciplinary hearing. The entire ordeal was an uncomfortable hassle that left me emotionally drained and less trusting of people in general. My parents were worried for months, and I am still left with guilt, wondering what my denials did to this poor person’s already questionable mental health.
Whatever the severity of a stalking case, it can be said that this issue is serious, and one that can have harmful effects on both the stalker and victim. Individuals who have been stalked may suffer a range of psychological effects and might seek help by receiving cognitive behavioral therapy from a psychotherapist or medication to relieve their anxiety. If you are being stalked do not be afraid to take control of the situation by contacting the authorities. The journey may not be an easy one but it could result in a healthier lifestyle for all involved. For information about stalking and stalking resources visit the Stalking Resource Center.
More information:
Statistics
New York Times article
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September 18, 2008
Strong American Schools
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You may have seen the ads on T.V. lately for ‘Strong American Schools’. I got curious about them and decided to see what the whole thing is about.
Below is one of their ads in case you haven’t seen it – “One Nation Left Behind”:
Some statistics:
- 70% of eighth graders are not proficient in reading—and most will never catch up.
– Every year, more than 1.2 million students drop out of high school.
– Compared to students in 30 industrialized countries, American 15 year olds ranked 25th in math and 21st in science. Even America’s top math students rank 25th out of 30 when compared with top students across the globe.
If you go to www.strongamericanschools.org – the url they use in the ad, it redirects you to a page on the greatschools.net site. The site EDin08 also shows up in searches and is apparently somehow related. Wikipedia says:
At any rate the site has a page where you can research and compare schools across the country. They also have a community where you can sign up and have an account and ask questions, etc. A bunch of articles to read – there’s a lot and they look like they are pretty good and useful – about all sorts of topics related to schools and kids. The site provides quite a few other resources and tools also.
Obviously the state of American schools is a big problem, and their ads are rather effective I thought – got my attention anyway! The stated goal of the campaign is:
to achieve nationwide debate on education reform during which every presidential candidate addresses three priorities for improving education:
– Agreeing on American education standards
– Providing effective teachers in every classroom
– Giving students more time and support for learning
Change
Hopefully they will be able to meet those goals. And of course we need a president that is really committed to improving our educational system, but it will take much more than that. And much more than better schools.
Parents and, our society in general, really need to take education more seriously.
Parents who care are already involved and will stay that way. But how do you reach those who don’t care? Their kids will still struggle.
And how do you change a whole society? Being good at sports can’t be ‘cooler’ than getting good grades. TV needs to be replaced with books. Curiosity and critical thinking skills need to be cultivated in our youth (and our adults!) instead of blind adherence to authority and superstition.
How do you do that when most people are too busy and overwhelmed to even think about picking up a book? When the example many kids see is parents who would rather go out and drink or sit and watch TV rather than interact with their kids? When our popular media is filled with reality shows and the latest gossip on celebrities rather than documentaries and articles about science, etc.?
Until there is some real change in the way our whole society functions – our kids aren’t going to be doing much better than they are now. Kids with parents who are responsible – will do well. But a large percent of our population will still struggle.
Am I being too pessimistic? What do you think? Do you think this campaign will make any difference? What do you think should be done?
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September 16, 2008
Be Prepared To Be Green!
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Last week I mentioned that, if you are like most people, you probably can’t afford to go out and just buy new appliances that are more energy efficient and instead you have to wait until something breaks and then you go out and get a new one.
I suggested that what you can do now is be ready for when your major appliances break down and start researching brands and models now. And I said that because we had something break down some months ago, we weren’t prepared and went through quite a bit of nonsense that shouldn’t have happened. You can learn from our mistakes.
Our sad story
Last November, I believe it was, our hot water heater went out. I think it might have even been right before Thanksgiving weekend. I looked up places in the yellow pages to get a new one installed. Most all of the ads said they could do same day installation – that put me in a pretty good mood!
Lesson Number One: Despite the fact that the ads say they do same day installation – they don’t. Not at all. Not even close.
We ended up buying one from Lowe’s. Later that weekend – Friday or Saturday – when I was out of town and my husband was there, Lowe’s came and installed a new water heater for us.
Four months later – it stopped working.
Lesson Number Two: Always research something before you buy it and don’t assume that just because you bought it from a place you are familiar with, or that the brand is familiar, that the product is good.
After I did some searches on this particular brand of gas hot water heater I discovered that there has been problems with them for years! So we got on the phone with the company and they really gave us the run around (I don’t know how much I really like that term, but I can’t think of a better way to describe it, but let’s just say it was really bad customer service).
They eventually said they would send us a part to have replaced on it. So we waited a couple days.
Lesson Number Three: Cold – really cold – showers are very unpleasant!
[I should add that during this time we discovered that the kittens we had recently gotten had tapeworms and my husband had to have a tooth pulled. And I’m sparing you the details of the tapeworms and the tooth pulling complications. Bad week.]
A couple days later the part came in, we called the plumber. He put the part in. I thought it smelled a little gassy in the house.
Lesson Number Four: If you think you smell gas in your house, you probably do.
After the plumber left, we left also and picked up the tapeworm medicine from the vet and got a salad. When we got back the house still smelled like gas. So we called the plumber again. Sure enough – the part didn’t fit right and gas was leaking into our house.
The plumber shut off the gas and said he couldn’t do anything more with the hot water heater and that the part they sent us was bad.
We made up our minds at that point that we would return it to Lowe’s and did some research on hot water heaters, called a plumber to arrange for a Bradford White gas hot water heater to be installed.
Lesson Number Five: Once you realize you’ve bought a product that is bad – just return it right away – don’t fool around with getting it repaired.
Next day – plumber at our house again to install the new hot water heater. Amazingly that went well. Until I went back upstairs after cleaning up the mess left behind and I found: water all over the kitchen floor!
I called the plumber again. Plumber said dishwasher was dead. I got on the computer and did some research on dishwashers. (That shouldn’t surprise you at this point.)
In case you lost count, that was 3 days in a row with a plumber at our house.
Moral of the story – be prepared for major appliance breakdowns! We could have avoided most of this mess if we would have researched hot water heaters ahead of time. I had to rush around with looking up the dishwasher stuff, but I did have time to make an informed decision about it.
Lesson Number Six: More energy efficient doesn’t always mean cheaper – the Bradford White hot water heater we bought wasn’t the cheapest out there, but it is much better insulated and more energy efficient than many others we could have bought. And so far it has provided us with hot showers for almost 5 months now!
Lesson Number Seven: My advice is to research ahead of time which brands to avoid and which are good with your major appliances that you can’t live without for too long: hot water heaters, furnaces, air conditioners, refrigerators. Anything else you really need.
And if this story sounds slightly familiar I wrote about it briefly – but in more glorious tapeworm detail – before my relaunch of this blog. I thought it was worth going over it again so you can avoid a week like we had!
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September 10, 2008
2008 Run for Congo Women
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(Today’s guest post is from Holly Zhao writing for Women for Women International’s 2008 Run for Congo Women. This is a very important cause and one where women can help other women less fortunate than themselves and contribute to changing the world to be a better place for all of us. Please take some time to read her post.)
Today in the Democratic Republic of Congo, people are still struggling to recover after one of the deadliest wars in history. Because of the violent internal strife, over 5.4 million have died and new conflicts continue to arise and threaten peace every day. Women in Congo are targeted daily for sexual slavery, torture, and brutal gang rape. But despite this horrific violence, the situation in the Congo receives almost no media coverage and many are not even aware that this conflict is even happening.
Run for Congo Women is a grassroots run/walk that has grown into a global movement and is dedicated to raising awareness about this issue and supporting Women for Women International’s Congo Program. When you Run for Congo Women, you are sending a simple message of hope: that Congolese women are significant, that their lives are precious, and that you are running to help. Because of your efforts, you will be able to provide women with the chance to recover hope and rebuild their families after their lives have been torn apart by war.
Run for Congo Women will be coming to the following cities! Sign up and register today!
Morrison, CO – September 13, 2008
Portland, OR – September 14, 2008
New York, NY – October 4, 2008
Phoenix/Tempe, AZ- October 5, 2008
Chicago, IL – October 11, 2008
St. Louis, MO – October 18, 2008
To register today and for more information, visit www.runforcongowomen.org. You have the opportunity to change the life of a Congolese woman today.
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