Local women's group promotes education for traditional and nontraditional students

Women helping women is a powerful thing!

My latest on Troy Patch.:

Read the full story here.

Religion, women and reproductive health

"Dispelling Myths:  Women, Reproductive Rights and Religion"

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Offices of the National Council of Jewish Women

Greater Detroit section 

26400 Lahser Road, 
Suite 306 Southfield, Mich.
6 p.m. - 7:45 p.m.

Reproductive rights are in the public spotlight big time.

"Prochoice," "prolife," "antiabortion," "proabortion," and "Planned Parenthood," are terms we see in the headlines on an almost daily basis.

Reproductive rights include political, legal and medical issues.  Religion, morality and emotion add even more fuel to the fire.

To put religion and reproductive rights in perspective, the Oakland County chapter of the National Organization for Women, along with The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, the greater Detroit section of the National Council of Jewish Women and Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Michigan, will present an interfaith discussion "Dispelling Myths:  Religion, Women and Reproductive Health."

Speakers will be Rabbi Marla Hornsten of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich. and Rev. Rony S. Veska of the First United Methodist Church of Ferndale, Mich.

The event is free and open to the public.  Light refreshments will be served.

Related Links:


Oakland County NOW
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Rights
NCJW - Greater Detroit section
Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Michigan


"Rabbi Marla Hornsten is Proud to be Temple's Pioneer" -- from Patch.com 12 March 2011.

I also found an interesting conversation with Steph Herold, a Jewish repro rights activist on Jewcy.com.

Of Playboy bunnies and feminism

"A feminist protest in 2011 to the Playboy Bunnies is lame. Look around you - certain things of a sexual nature are everywhere now. Playboy and the Playboy clubs were the end of sexism.

"Women were being held bondage for hundreds of years, owned first by their fathers and then their husbands, Playboy helped to change all that."

-- Playboy founder Hugh Hefner,85, responding to feminist protests at the re-launched Playboy club in London.

Cherie on Patch.com: Southeast Michigan Dyke March 2011

Read the full story here.

Kudos to Washtenaw County Board Chairman Conan Smith for standing with Planned Parenthood

Smith

"Planned Parenthood proves every year and every cycle that the dollars we allocate go to provide the service that they have applied to provide and that they do it very well,"  --Washtenaw County Board Chaiman Conan Smith addressing citizen concerns about county money allocated to Planned Parenthood as part of a community-based human services program.

When I participated in the Breast Cancer 3-Day walk five years ago, I was surprised when a potential donor told me she could not give me a contribution because the Susan G. Komen foundation gives money to Planned Parenthood -- an organization that performs abortions.

I called my coach and asked if she had heard this before.

"Yeah, we get a couple every year,"  she said.

And yes, Komen does give money to Planned Parenthood.  The funds are earmarked for breast health programs and have nothing to do with abortion services.

My coach told me that Planned Parenthood reaches many women who live in under-served areas and might not otherwise have access to health care.

However, that perception of Planned Parenthood as a primary abortion provider still exists, as shown in a recent meeting of the Washtenaw County board of commissioners.

The board voted unanimously to allocate $1 million from the county's annual fund for community-based human services programs.

According to Ann Arbor.com:


"Before the vote, several residents spoke out against the proposed use of taxpayer dollars to fund Planned Parenthood, one of several agencies slated to receive money. According to the plan approved by commissioners, the county will give the agency $53,040 for comprehensive prenatal care  — medical care given to pregnant women to ensure they and their babies are healthy and strong.

Multiple residents argued against funding an agency they consider immoral for promoting abortion, but county officials said none of the money is going to fund abortion services."

Some residents, "read graphic descriptions of abortions with accounts of the decapitation and dismemberment of fetuses."

The voice of reason was County Board Chairman Conan Smith, D-Ann Arbor.

He said, as did my 3-Day coach, that there usually is a handful of people who complain about the county's allocation to Planned Parenthood every year and added that any particular organization's mission is its own business — all the county is interested in is the outcome of the services for which it provides funding.

He added that Planned Parenthood does this very well.


Email or call Commissioner Smith and thank him for standing with Planned Parenthood.

Abramson named first woman editor at The New York Times

Abramson

I don't often post directly from news agencies, but this is huge!  -- CWR

By Jennifer Saba 

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The New York Times named Jill Abramson as its first woman executive editor, putting her in control of one the world's most respected newspapers as the industry struggles to keep advertisers and readers.

Abramson, 57, is the first woman editor to lead the Times newsroom in a new era for papers, when a generation of readers increasingly prefers to get news from online sources such as Twitter, Facebook and a host of websites.

Abramson, the paper's managing editor, will succeed Bill Keller, 62, who will become a writer for the New York Times Magazine and for the paper's Sunday opinion section.

Assistant Managing Editor and Washington Bureau Chief Dean Baquet will become managing editor.
Both appointments are effective September 6, the New York Times Co said on Thursday.

It was widely expected that Abramson and Baquet, 54, would rise through the ranks and that one of them would assume the highest editorial position at the paper.

Abramson worked as an investigative journalist and covered Washington. She joined the Times in 1997 from the Wall Street Journal, now owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. She became the paper's Washington bureau chief in 2000.

Times Co Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. said he accepted Keller's decision with "mixed emotions," and said Abramson was the best person to fill the role.

"Bill came to me several weeks ago and told me that he felt the time had come for him to step down from the role of executive editor," Sulzberger said in a statement.

Baquet rejoined the Times in March 2007 after serving as managing editor of the Los Angeles Times. He won a Pulitzer Prize, the nation's highest honor for newspaper reporting, while he worked at the Chicago Tribune.

(Editing by Robert MacMillan)

Feminist Quote Bag

From More magazine

Eve Ensler

"You build an army of women ... They'll say, 'Uh-huh, we're not taking this any longer,' and put an end to this rape problem fast."  -- Eve Ensler (The Vagina Monologues) on the opening of a new leadership-training compound she spearheaded for Congolese women.

Stevie Nicks

"Onstage, I can't look like a 63-year-old grandma.  I have to keep my hair beautiful and my body pretty cool.  I have to wear something youthful but not age inappropriate, and I can stay young as long as I want to." -- Stevie Nicks, rock star and former member of Fleetwood Mac who just completed a 17-city tour with Rod Stewart and released a new solo album "In Your Dreams."

Patty Davis

"We bear witness to ourselves in mirrors.  They could be in our bathrooms, where we stand exposed or in gyms and department store changing rooms.  Whether we're clothed or not, the vulnerability is always there -- as is the awareness that there is also, deep within us, an internal mirror.  We are never completely finished with who we once were, and we meet that person every time we
stare at our own reflection."  --- Patty Davis,  (daughter of Ronald and Nancy Reagan) talking about changing body image and awareness at age 58.