The Political Voices of Women

Mark your calendars for the Women Who Tech TeleSummit being held on May 12th, 2009.

This event will feature thought provoking panels on topics ranging from running your own start up to dealing with sexism, ageism, and the lack of diversity in the tech sector.

If you have an idea for a virtual workshop that would benefit every woman working in online communications or technology you still have a couple of days left to submit your panel ideas at http://www.womenwhotech.com/suggest_panel.html

Once again, Women Who Tech plans to host fun after parties in DC, NYC, SF, and other great cities. A limited number of sponsorship opportunities are still available for organizations who are looking to connect with women in tech.

Go to http://womenwhotech.com/sponsorships.html for more information.

Women Who Tech’s Founder, Allyson Kapin blogs for Fast Company and writes a weekly blog column called Radical Tech that follows the latest trends in tech and Web 2.0. Allyson uses this column to highlight women in the tech field and the inspiring projects and businesses they are working on.

In addition, Allyson recently became the new Blogger-In-Chief for Care2′s Frogloop covering nonprofit technology and online marketing, social media, and online fundraising. http://www.frogloop.com.

You can follow Allyson Kapin on Twitter

You can also check out Women Who Tech’s Del.icio.us Bookmarks that features insightful articles from the organization and its members.

Today history was made and my daughter wanted to see it. So I took her out of school for about an hour so she could watch the inauguration of President Barack Obama…

Here is a post from community member Pamela Lyn of Pam’s Coffee Conversation…

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Martin Luther King Jr.

Over the course of the next few days millions of people around the world will be celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. followed by the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America. During this time there will be an untold number of references to the links between Dr. King’s dream, the civil rights movement, and the inauguration of the first African-American President of the US.

However what will often be left out of the discussions about “The Dream” and its fulfillment will be an acknowledgment that Dr. King’s vision was as much about the evolution of a non-violent society and the achievement socio-economic opportunity as it was about racial equality.

I am sure that if Dr. King were with us he would be as overwhelmed with emotion at the sight of Barack Obama taking the oath of office as many of us will be. Yet I feel confident that he would be equally moved and speaking out against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; the impact of the subprime mortgage crisis on the working class fighting, the crisis in healthcare, Guantanemo and torture.

Dr. King was against war, even retaliatory ones. He was against injustice in all forms and therefore, I am sure would have been against a suspension on habeas corpus, detention without trial, extraordinary rendition, torture, and illegally spying on private citizens. I also believe that while Dr. King would be calling the nation to unity, he would also be loudly speaking out about the police shooting of 22-year-old Oscar Grant while he laid handcuffed on a Bay area subway platform.

In his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Dr King stated:

“I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.

I believe that even amid today’s motor bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men.

I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive goodwill will proclaim the rule of the land.”

Now many people would say that now is not the time to bring up these things. Now is a time for celebrating how far we, as Americans, have come. To them I reply, yes now is a time for celebrating but as Alice Walker once said, “No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow”. Now is precisely the time for the “friends” of Dr. King’s Dream and the new administration to break the silence.

As Marcia G. Yerman cited in her recent article “Obama and the Progressive Community” for The Huffington Post:

“A litmus test for many will be the stand that the Obama administration puts forth on accountability regarding the actions of Bush and his key players on the issue of torture and civil rights. The conversation is out there, and has been featured in numerous posts including a January 9th article at Talking Points Memo by Elana Schor. Jonathan Turley, Constitutional Law Professor at George Washington University, has been seen on both the Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow shows, where he has been explaining the high stakes for all Americans in getting this right.” Yerman later writes: ” As Amy Goodman said to me, referencing the election of Obama, ‘This is just an opportunity. The change hasn’t happened yet.’ Underscoring the need for each individual to be a part of the solution, she stressed, ‘The lesson is — it is completely up to you.’”

Yes, it is up to us speak out, to speak loudly and to speak often as the dream unfolds. In the months and years to come let us not be remembered for our silence.

I leave you with these thoughts from Dr. King.

READ FULL POST AT THE POLITICAL VOICES OF WOMEN COMMUNITY

You can follow Jill on this historic speech at her blog Writes Like She Talks.

Link:  Barack Obama’s “Closing Arguments” Speech

SEE FULL VIDEO OF THIS OBAMA SPEECH HERE

Here is a guest post by community member Emily Kronenberger…

[If you would like to be a guest blogger on The Political Voices of Women, just join our community, and start posting.]

A few days ago, I posted on my blog, New Wave Grrrl, about the gaps surrounding Sarah Palin’s purported policy priority of addressing the needs of children with disabilities. I questioned the McCain-Palin ticket’s ability to put our money where their mouths have been on the subject of more funding for people with special needs. On October 24th, Palin gave a speech in my home state of Pennsylvania, on just what she and John McCain planned to do in order to better serve children with disabilities.

Although Palin’s speech was heartfelt, and I believe she truly cares about disability issues as a parent and as an aunt of children with developmental disabilities, her speech and the so-called McCain-Palin plan for children with special needs (which comes less than two weeks shy of Election Day) still falls flat, and still lacks any real promise of change in the quality of life for individuals with disabilities.

One glaring reason for this is the complete lack of policies that support people with disabilities beyond childhood. People who live with physical, developmental, cognitive, and multiple disabilities need various levels of care and support services throughout their entire lifetimes, in order to achieve a better quality of life and live fully within their communities. This includes not just vocational services for people with disabilities who can and want to work, but actual Medicaid dollars to fund the programs that provide for independent living in the community and not in State institutions, regardless of the severity of one’s disability.

Read more »

We are only days away from the most scary important presidential election of our lives.  And, it’s getting more and more ugly with each passing day. So…For the sake of my sanity, and yours, let’s have a little chuckle.

Saturday Night Live Video – George Bush Endorses John McCain and Sarah Palin

Here is a guest post by community member Emily Kronenberger…

[If you would like to be a guest blogger on The Political Voices of Women, just join our community, and start posting.]

Many people, like myself, feel that the way in which a society supports its most vulnerable or disenfranchised citizens is a critical indicator of how healthy that society is, and where it is headed in the future.

The issue of disability policy and the improvements that are necessary to elevate the quality of life for children and adults with disabilities in this country has rarely made it into the mainstream discourse during this election. Unfortunately, this is not surprising as individuals with disabilities are typically excluded from the larger social and political environments, both by actual physical barriers and by traditional social practices in our society which make them invisible.

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Here is a guest post from community member Marcia G. Yerman, who also blogs at The Huffington Post.

[If you would like to be a guest blogger on The Political Voices of Women, just join our community, and start posting.]

“The Time Warner Summit: Politics 2008,” held at the Time Warner headquarters in New York City and co-sponsored with CNN, was a corporate branded event with big name heavy-hitters taking on questions about media, news, and the election. After attending both days of the conference, it reinforced my belief that digital media was the future for pushing out women’s stories, concerns, and dialogues.

There were many prominent women featured. Campbell Brown, CNN Anchor, moderated the opening keynote roundtable comprised of four men. Candy Crowley, senior political correspondent at CNN, spoke during the Media Power vs. Political Power session. One of the most dynamic speakers over the two days was Christiane Amanpour, chief international correspondent for CNN. Her persona and delivery style popped during the discussion with colleagues that included Wolf Blitzer and Fareed Zakaria and former Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke.

Whether you consider women and minorities successfully enmeshed in the total media picture
or their specificity overlooked, depends upon your point of view. But the conference was a definitive contrast to presentation I recently attended at St. John’s University, which totally focused on the intersectionality of race and gender with the election story. There, a majority of the speakers were law professors presenting academic work.

The Time Warner symposium included one panel entitled Women and the 2008 Election: Playing Politics with Gender–Media, Candidates and the Majority Vote. Led by Lisa Witter, Fenton Communications COO and co-founder of SheSource — a “brain trust” of female experts — six women explored women as swing voters and the cultural phenomenon of Sarah Palin’s candidacy. In reference to Michelle Obama, they also discussed whether you could be an outspoken black woman without being described as “angry” by media pundits.

As Witter pointed out while speaking to a full room of women — “Wish there were more you!” she joked to the sprinkling of men — 59 percent of primary voters were women. At the end of the discussion, Carol Jenkins, Women’s Media Center president, posed questions going forward for the media. She called for continued examination of “who is calling the shots, who is making the decisions, and who is missing from the picture.”

With the understanding that women do not getting their narratives adequately told — if told at all — the need for a fresh playing field is palpable. In the new media, women have an opportunity to create their own communities and their own brands. Whether on the left or right of the political spectrum, a mommy blogger or a political blogger, women are flooding the Internet. This was borne out by a BlogHer/Compass Partners survey found 36.2 million women were actively participating in blogs. Of women online, 53 percent were reading blogs, 37 percent were posting comments, and 28 percent were writing or updating blogs.

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In recent weeks, the McCain campaign has been attacking ACORN, a widely respected voter registration organization, claiming ACORN knowingly participated in “voter fraud.” In reality, this is just another calculated attempt by the McCain campaign and the RNC to suppress new and marginalized voters.

* On a side note…There are already problems in Florida with voter suppression.  I just heard this on our 11 o’clock news…

Because foreclosures are so high here, if your home has been foreclosed on, you can not use that address to vote.  You must file papers with a new address, or not vote.  The news report stressed, that anyone caught voting using an address from their foreclosed home, will be subject to arrest (3rd degree felony), and a $5,000 fine.  The report is not mentioning that this form of intimidation is considered voter suppression, on the contrary, it is warning anyone who has not had their address changed, they better not attempt to vote.  I was shocked, the news stations in Florida, are actually aiding in voter suppression.

Also See:

Nicole’s blog post on the Obama-Clinton rally in Orlando (with pics and videos). I will be posting on it soon. We didn’t have internet access at the venue, so I am a bit behind.

Sarah Palin:  Role as VP will be to Ignore The Constitution.

How much Constitutional power does the vice president have?  It seems Sarah Palin is very confused regarding the position of Vice President…

From Think Progress…

Yesterday, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) sat for an interview with KUSA, an NBC affiliate in Colorado. In response to a question sent to the network by a third grader at a local elementary school about what the Vice President does, Palin erroneously argued that the Vice President is “in charge of the United States Senate“:

Q: Brandon Garcia wants to know, “What does the Vice President do?”

PALIN: That’s something that Piper would ask me! … [T]hey’re in charge of the U.S. Senate so if they want to they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom.

From Daily Kos…

Take a look at a clip from another typically vapid and disastrous Sarah Palin television interview and see what it looks like when the reporter is actually uninterested in clarifications or follow ups. I guess that’s what Palin has moved on to these days. Local affiliate interviews with reporters who won’t ask anything hard.

But that doesn’t actually mean Palin gives correct answers. Oh, no! Far from it! All it means is that the reporter asking the questions doesn’t give any indication of being aware that the answers are incorrect.

From Taylor Marsh Broadcasts…

If women are going to be taken seriously they need to be held to the same standards as men. A man who said something so incredibly ignorant would be pilloried.

This latest gaffe, actually implying that the vice president has legislative authority, makes what she said with Couric seem harmless. This woman has no business being anywhere near the White House. John McCain’s judgment is a joke. Making America pay for it through a possible Palin presidency is dangerous.

And, adding insult to injury…

Guess how much the RNC is shelling out during this economic crisis for Sara Palin’s wardrobe???

What do you think?  Should Sarah Palin understand what the “actual” job of the vice president is?  Or, do we just expect that if McCain is elected, Sarah Palin can do what ever she wants to do?

Personally, I don’t think she is stupid (at least on this issue).  I think, if elected, she plans on ignoring the constitution every bit as much as the Bush administration did.  Let me know what you think in comments.