Last Week in the War on Women, Tara (the antisocial social worker) issued
this challenge:
In 2015, make a small change and see how much it changes the world.
and:
I did an experiment once where for the first 30 days of the new year, I did one thing every day that I'd never done before. Can't remember all of them: I tried some new foods, joined the bone marrow donor registry, signed up to be a poll worker, and tried a forgiveness meditation for my evil ex-boss (it didn't take).
So I've been wondering: How many things can I come up with that help others out, with an emphasis on women (this being a WoW column, after all), doing just a little more than I've done before? I always blog, comment, and sign petitions, so it has to be something other than that. Can I do this for 30 days? Follow me below the squiggle of wiggling outside my comfort zone to see. Perhaps you will find things that you would like to try too.
This was perhaps the worst of weeks for trying to obtain more information for doing new activities. With a holiday last week, a holiday this Thursday, presumably almost all nonessential personnel taking off, nobody answered their emails. So the short answer is, no, I could not come up with 30 to-do items. I came up with several, though, so please see the Action Items below.
But first a few words from our sponsor (you might say): Just because I wanted to focus on the positive didn't stop negativity from rearing its ugly head. So here are some news items from this week, to keep you informed:
Female veterans battling PTSD from sexual trauma fight for redress: Ramara clued me in to this article from The Washington Post. The fight for PTSD benefits after military sexual trauma (MST) has been difficult, but now the VA is reviewing old cases, and some veterans are finally succeeding. For details on how difficult this has been, please see the WaPo article.
A man of healing, a saga of suffering: The Washington Post reported on December 28 that a native American medicine man has been indicted by a federal grand jury on 15 counts of rape, sexual abuse, and intimidation of six children, some his daughters and granddaughters, some as young as 5 years old at the time. Please read the article for details on the cultural, social, and historical context of such crimes.
U.S. bishops focus anew on sterilization: As detailed in Meteor Blades' January 2 Open Thread for Night Owls, bishops have decided that Catholic hospitals should not tie women's fallopian tubes. It is immoral like abortion. Starving children their parents can't afford, that's okay apparently. Of course you can go to a different hospital. If you can find one. If you can afford it. Catholic hospitals have merged and expanded throughout the United States.
Action Items:
And now, here are the seven new things that you and I can do to help women and others, by topic:
1.
Torture: My first concern was the issue of torture, one of the most horrendous problems that came to light in 2014. I wondered, are any women held as terrorists by the U.S.? As far as I could determine, they are not. See
Wikipedia for a complete list of detainees and what is known about them at this time. Of course the government has been less than forthcoming about what they have been doing regarding "terrorists".
Nevertheless, torture should not happen to anyone, and if you are so inclined, please go to the ACLU Web site to sign petitions, join their group, and add your name to calls for accountability.
2. Excessive Force: My second concern is the use of excessive force by police officers. It's not discussed much, the names don't receive the prominence of Michael Brown or Eric Garner, but women are often abused and killed too. Such as 22-year-old Gabriella Nevarez in Sacramento, who had a 3-year-old son; and 22-year-old Rekia Boyd in Chicago (her killer goes on trial this coming year); and 48-year-old Yvette Smith in Bastrop County, Texas, another victim of a cop who should never have been hired in the first place. See the excellent article in bustle.com about women of color killed by police.
So what can we do about it? Google your city, town or county with "black lives matter". I did and found a group here in Lexington, KY, called #HandsUpKy, part of The Stop Mass Incarceration Network, where you can find information about events in your area. #HandsUpKy is having a meeting on January 4 at the library, and I plan to be there tomorrow. They also have an ongoing fund-raiser for one more day featuring a shirt with a great quote from Dr. Cornel West, "Justice Is What Love Looks Like In Public," which you can buy here for one more day only! I think I'm going to go for the hoodie; seems appropriate somehow. This organization has mostly grown through Twitter, which I haven't used before. I will sign up this week.
3. Wage Theft: Evening Blues on December 28 recommended a blog post of interest, Let's all screw the 1 percent, which brought attention to the issue of overtime pay and how such payments have diminished over the years. If we merely adjusted for wage inflation since 1975, an additional 6 million salaried workers would receive overtime pay. If we adjusted the rules so that 65% of workers were covered, as was the case in 1975, 10.4 million workers would receive overtime pay. This will disproportionately help women and minorities. President Obama can do this via executive order. He has, in fact, asked the Department of Labor to propose changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act rules, after which there will be a public comment period. One organization that is advocating for these rules is the Economic Policy Institute. As of today, I have not been able to find out from them or elsewhere when the public comment period will be. At that time, though, I will write a letter of support for the changes that will impact the most people.
4. Domestic Violence: At The Nest Center in Lexington, and GreenHouse17, serving 17 counties including ours, shelter is provided for women and children escaping domestic violence. They can use donations of baby supplies; children's supplies; clothing, jewelry, and toiletries for women; and household items. They sometimes accept gently used items. And of course always need cash. Since I don't have much money, though, I'm going to clean out my closet. I still have good business clothes that I don't intend to use now that I work at home, and jewelry that I've become allergic to. Off it goes. If you'd like to do similarly, check with your local domestic violence programs, since different programs request different items.
5. Habitat for Humanity: In 2014, 300,000 families of 1.6 million people were housed by Habitat for Humanity. In Lexington, we have a Habitat for Humanity ReStore that uses or sells furniture, appliances, building materials, and architectural salvage. They'll even pick things up! So I have some furniture that I decided created too much clutter that I was going to sell, but I will donate to Habitat for Humanity instead.
6. Banks Behaving Badly: I signed Daily Kos' petition to the Department of Justice, asking that criminal charges be brought against those at Chase Bank who knew of and participated in ongoing fraud. Alayne Fleischmann is a former employee of Chase who, as a whistleblower, faces professional repercussions, while so far Chase has paid a relatively small penalty for their crimes. After reading the Rolling Stone expose, I decided that I have not done enough. I have a small checking account at Chase. I've been doing most of my banking at a credit union, which has better deals anyway. For what it's worth, I'll get rid of the Chase account shortly, in order to sever all association with Chase Bank.
7. Medical Care: I was speaking with my neighbor yesterday, who is also an overweight single woman of middle age ;-/, and she has not seen a doctor in years. Since I'm overdue, and since we both have insurance policies that are required to cover well-woman visits for free under Obamacare, I volunteered to go to the doctor with her. We'll be going to an all-female medical practice, where we've made appointments with different network providers at the same time of day, so hopefully we can keep each other company in the waiting room and be done about the same time. Thanks, Obama!
So the above is one week's worth of ideas. Haven't found anything that appeals to you yet? Then check out this great Web site,
volunteermatch.org, where you can search for your community, and then whatever interests you within their myriad of listed volunteer opportunities. I wasn't able to get Lexington off the front page, but you can scroll to the bottom to search for your city. I have not yet been able to follow up on any of these, but for example I could be a running buddy (probably not; they'd have to carry me!), work as a micro-mentor, work as an elder helper, tutor, work for hospice, set up for concerts, and so on. So if you were wondering about how you might help out in the new year, just click on the link above!
Sun Jan 04, 2015 at 10:19 AM PT: New Year's resolutions anyone? Will you be reaching out in a new and/or additional way? Do any of these volunteer options interest you?