Today is waitress day. Two stories about waitress kind of stood out in my research. The first is about a waitress that was fired for a Facebook posting. Here is the article:
http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2010/05/19/facebook-post-leads-to-waitress-firing/?icid=main|htmlws-sb-n|dl4|link6|http%3A%2F%2Fjobs.aol.com%2Farticles%2F2010%2F05%2F19%2Ffacebook-post-leads-to-waitress-firing%2F
I don't think this waitress should have been fired at all. I'm one of those that thinks that food servers have one tremendously hard job. I also know from my occupation that waitress pay tax on eight per-cent of the total amount of business that they bill. That eight per cent is added right to their W-2 form. I also know the more people that they turnover per table the more tips they make. I would never in this lifetime sit at a table for three hours. And if I did the tip would definitely allow for that. In addition I just seem to be one of those guys that waitresses and waiters play to. I either look like an easy mark or a nice guy. "This table is just fun to serve." "Please come back, it was so enjoyable to see you." and so on. I know it is a bunch of crap but it makes me feel good so I tip well. The only time I drawback on tips is when the food server is rude or if they give me something that I didn't order and argue about it. I definitely think this waitress had the right to vent on Facebook and unless she mentioned the customers names, which I don't think she did, she never should she have been fired.
Now on to the next story. The closest Hooters here closed due to lack of business. Says a lot for the community, doesn't it? The only reason I ever went there was for business lunches and only because the married men clients wanted to go there. The single men clients wanted to go elsewhere, to where the food was better. Single men wanted food, married wanted? No more words, tell me what you think of the following story:
http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/offbeat/130-lb-hooters-waitress-told-to-lose-weight-to-keep-job-051810
That woman is beautiful, she certainly doesn't need to lose weight in my opinion. I'm also guessing that the manager, if it is man, needs to lose a hell of lot more weight than she does.
Should have the waitress been fired for her Facebook posting? Should the waitress at Hooters be fired if she doesn't loss weight?
Yesterday's Who Am I was Calamity Jane whose real name was Martha Jane Cannary Burke
I was born in 1904 in The Bronx and died in Connecticut in 1971. My father was an inventor and engineer that believed in equality in education and opportunity for all of his children. My mom died while attending college. I was married twice, the first when I was eighteen. The next marriage was in 1939 to a writer but we divorced in 1942. I pursued a degree in Herpetology at several colleges including Columbia, Michigan, Purdue, Indiana, and Western Reserve University. I received my degree in 1927 from Cornell. I studied photography as a hobby while a very young woman. I developed the styles and techniques that I needed for various formats on my own. My father was also somewhat of a camera enthusiast and he exposed me to the wonders of the photographic lens as a youngster. I was a woman of many firsts. I was a forerunner in the newly emerging field of photojournalism, and was the first female to be hired as such. I was the first photographer for a well known financial magazine. I was the first Western photographer allowed into the Soviet Union. I was the first female photojournalist for Life magazine. I was the first female war correspondent and the first to be allowed to work in combat zones during World War II, and one of the first photographers to enter and document the death camps. I made history with the publication my her haunting photos of the Depression. I wrote six books about my international travels. I was the premiere female industrial photographer, getting her at a Steel Company around 1927. Who Am I?
Friday, May 21, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Waiting In Style
I'm a little late today. I took my car to the car doctor early this morning then it was wait, wait, wait. About four hours worth of waiting. I spent some time reading the follow-up to PRESUMED INNOCENT, titled INNOCENT, both of course being written by Scott Turow. I also went for a nice walk. Had breakfast. Made a few calls. Then after I got the car back in good health I went to a lunch appointment. How do survive a four hour wait?
Speaking of reading, what is the longest you have waited to return a library book? Can you beat the record mentioned in the following article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100520/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_book_library_washington
That's all for today.
Yesterday's answer was Belle Starr, also known as Myra Maybelle Shirley
Today's Who Am I?
I was the eldest of six children born in 1852 in Missouri. I died in South Dakota in 1903 and asked to be born next to the only man I ever loved, Wild Bill. My mother died in 1866, We then moved to Utah where my dad died in 1867. I became the head of the family and moved us to Wyoming. I had no formal education but set myself apart from other women because I could work and socialize with tough frontier men. From digging gold to drinking in bars to dressing and cussing like man I was better than the tough guys and they accepted me. I became an expert horse rider as a very young belle. I was considered a remarkable good shot and a fearless rider. I was described both as extremely attractive and as a pretty, dark-eyed woman. I joined General Custer or General Cook as a scout and went to Arizona for the Indian Campaign. Here I started dressing like a man. While in Arizona, in the winter of 1871, I had a great many adventures with the Indians, for as a scout I had a great many dangerous missions to perform and, while I was in many close places, I always succeeded in getting away safely, for by this time I was considered the most reckless and daring rider and one of the best shots in the western country. I knew both the Buffalo and The Wild Bills. I road to Fort Laramie then on to Deadwood. During the month of June, I acted as a pony express rider carrying the U.S. mail between Deadwood and Custer, a distance of fifty miles, over one of the roughest trails in the Black Hills country. As many of the riders before me had been held up and robbed of their packages, mail and money that they carried, for that was the only means of getting mail and money between these points. It was considered the most dangerous route in the Hills, but as my reputation as a rider and quick shot was well known, I was molested very little, for the toll gatherers looked on me as being a good fellow, and they knew that I never missed my mark. I made the round trip every two days which was considered pretty good riding in that country. I remained around Deadwood all that summer visiting all the camps within an area of one hundred miles. My friend, Wild Bill, remained in Deadwood during the summer with the exception of occasional visits to the camps. I remained in the Deadwood area locating claims and going from camp to camp. One morning in the spring of 1877, I rode toward Crook City. I had gone about twelve miles out when I met the overland mail running from Cheyenne to Deadwood. Upon looking closely I saw they were pursued by Indians. The horses ran to the barn as was their custom. As the horses stopped I rode along side of the coach and found the driver lying face downwards in the boot of the stage, he having been shot by the Indians. When the stage got to the station the Indians hid in the bushes. I immediately removed all baggage from the coach except the mail. I then took the driver's seat and with all haste drove to Deadwood, carrying six passengers and the dead driver. I later went to Rapid City to pan for gold. After that, I went to Fort Pierre, driving wagon trains from Rapid city to the fort, and from Fort Pierce to Sturgis. I was married at thirty-three but not to Wild Bill. I had a daughter in 1887. Late in my career I did shows being billed as the "heroine of a thousand thrilling adventures." Who Am I? Real name too please.
Speaking of reading, what is the longest you have waited to return a library book? Can you beat the record mentioned in the following article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100520/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_book_library_washington
That's all for today.
Yesterday's answer was Belle Starr, also known as Myra Maybelle Shirley
Today's Who Am I?
I was the eldest of six children born in 1852 in Missouri. I died in South Dakota in 1903 and asked to be born next to the only man I ever loved, Wild Bill. My mother died in 1866, We then moved to Utah where my dad died in 1867. I became the head of the family and moved us to Wyoming. I had no formal education but set myself apart from other women because I could work and socialize with tough frontier men. From digging gold to drinking in bars to dressing and cussing like man I was better than the tough guys and they accepted me. I became an expert horse rider as a very young belle. I was considered a remarkable good shot and a fearless rider. I was described both as extremely attractive and as a pretty, dark-eyed woman. I joined General Custer or General Cook as a scout and went to Arizona for the Indian Campaign. Here I started dressing like a man. While in Arizona, in the winter of 1871, I had a great many adventures with the Indians, for as a scout I had a great many dangerous missions to perform and, while I was in many close places, I always succeeded in getting away safely, for by this time I was considered the most reckless and daring rider and one of the best shots in the western country. I knew both the Buffalo and The Wild Bills. I road to Fort Laramie then on to Deadwood. During the month of June, I acted as a pony express rider carrying the U.S. mail between Deadwood and Custer, a distance of fifty miles, over one of the roughest trails in the Black Hills country. As many of the riders before me had been held up and robbed of their packages, mail and money that they carried, for that was the only means of getting mail and money between these points. It was considered the most dangerous route in the Hills, but as my reputation as a rider and quick shot was well known, I was molested very little, for the toll gatherers looked on me as being a good fellow, and they knew that I never missed my mark. I made the round trip every two days which was considered pretty good riding in that country. I remained around Deadwood all that summer visiting all the camps within an area of one hundred miles. My friend, Wild Bill, remained in Deadwood during the summer with the exception of occasional visits to the camps. I remained in the Deadwood area locating claims and going from camp to camp. One morning in the spring of 1877, I rode toward Crook City. I had gone about twelve miles out when I met the overland mail running from Cheyenne to Deadwood. Upon looking closely I saw they were pursued by Indians. The horses ran to the barn as was their custom. As the horses stopped I rode along side of the coach and found the driver lying face downwards in the boot of the stage, he having been shot by the Indians. When the stage got to the station the Indians hid in the bushes. I immediately removed all baggage from the coach except the mail. I then took the driver's seat and with all haste drove to Deadwood, carrying six passengers and the dead driver. I later went to Rapid City to pan for gold. After that, I went to Fort Pierre, driving wagon trains from Rapid city to the fort, and from Fort Pierce to Sturgis. I was married at thirty-three but not to Wild Bill. I had a daughter in 1887. Late in my career I did shows being billed as the "heroine of a thousand thrilling adventures." Who Am I? Real name too please.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Protecting Data
This is a first, the accounting seminar yesterday was actually pretty interesting. It was about how to protect your data and your clients' data from hackers, a crash, natural disasters and other untold things. One question, in the average year how many cell phones are left behind in cabs in the City of Chicago? I will put that number at the end of the Who Am I and you can tell me how close your guess was. I will give you a hint, I didn't know that many survived cab rides there.
Did you know that 93% of businesses that lost their computer network for more than ten days due to a disaster filed bankruptcy within year? Half the companies filed bankruptcy almost immediately.
Do you have a digital photocopier? Did you know they have hard drives on them? A copy of any document that you copy is placed on that hard drive? When you replaced the photocopier with a new product did you go to the trouble of deleting everything on the copier's hard drive? If not you sent a lot of personal data out to the masses. Maybe you don't have one but does the bank you frequent, the doctor's office you go to, the accountant's office where your tax return is prepared or other places where you take you business have one? Do they delete the information before they upgrade to a new product? Check out the following article:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/04/19/eveningnews/main6412439.shtml
What do you do to protect yourself? There really is no fail safe way, however, you can reduce your risks:
Verify all your bank accounts and data frequently.
Even though most security software, like Symantac, sends definition updates every five minutes you still should do manual updates and scans weekly at a minimum.
Don't leave your computer signed on to the Internet when you aren't at your computer.
Before you ditch your copy machine call the manufacturer and ask them if your model has a hard drive on it and then have them instruct you how to delete the information on that hard drive.
Encrypt your information. Encryption basically turns your data into gobblegook that is unreadable to anyone that tries to steal your information. Windows 7, the Ultimate version, has a program on called Bitblocker that you can use to encrypt your data.
Comments are appreciated? How close you was you answer to the cell phone question?
Who Am I?
You know the name that made me famous but do you know my real name? Born 1848 in 1848in Missouri and I was shot to death in Oklahoma in 1889. At a female academy I excelled in reading, spelling, grammar, arithmetic, deportment, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and music, learning to play the piano. My father was a wealthy innkeeper and my mother was descended from one of two famous bickering families. My home town was burned to the ground by Confederate guerillas during the Civil War. My older brother who fought for the Confederacy with William C. Quantrill's guerillas, was killed by Union troops. During the Old West, the law of the whole nation had yet to tame that frontier which was spottily settled. This resulted in lawlessness seen in the personage of those known as outlaws-lawbreakers whose notorious reputations often exceeded their very person to mythical proportions. I was one such outlaw. From my association with outlaws such as Jesse James and the Younger brothers I reached a level of fantastic notoriety that today leaves the facts of my life not always distinguishable from the fiction. As a teenager during the Civil War I reported the positions of Union troops to Confederacy. One of my childhood friends in Missouri was Cole Younger, who served in Quantrill's guerillas with Jesse and Frank James. After the war these men turned to outlawry, primarily that of robbery of banks, trains, stagecoaches, and people. In their flights from lawmen they would sometimes hide out at my family's farm. I married in 1866. We had one daughter. My husband tried farming but shot in cold blood the man who accidentally shot his brother in a quarrel. Wanted by the law, he fled to California with Me. Two years later my husband again ran afoul of the law for passing counterfeit money and we fled with our two children to Texas. There I wore buckskins and moccasins or tight black jackets, black velvet skirts, high-topped boots, a man's Stetson hat with an ostrich plume, and twin holstered pistols. I spent much time in saloons, drinking and gambling at dice, cards, and roulette. At times I would ride my horse through the streets shooting off my pistols. This wild behavior was among the things that gave rise to my exaggerated image as a pistol-wielding outlaw. My husband was shot in Paris, Texas. As the young widow of an outlaw I left Texas, putting my children in the care of relatives. I immersed myself in outlawry: organizing, planning and fencing for the rustlers, horse thieves and bootleggers, as well as harboring them from the law. These enterprises proved lucrative enough for me to employ bribery to free my cohorts from the law whenever they were caught. When I was unable to buy off the lawmen I seduced them into looking the other way. The Hanging Judge became obsessed with bringing me to justice. I eluded him at every turn. Finally caught the judge sentenced my then husband and I to jail in Detroit. I was a model prisoner and won the respect of the prison matron. I was released but not reformed and said "I am a friend to any brave and gallant outlaw." I continued to be arrested for charges of robbery but often the hanging judge was forced to release me for lack of evidence. In 1889 while riding from the general store to my ranch I was killed by a shotgun blast to the back. My murderer was never identified. I was buried on my ranch with a marble headstone on which was engraved a bell, her horse, a star and the epitaph written by my daughter which reads:
"Shed not for her the bitter tear,
Nor give the heart to vain regret;
'Tis but the casket that lies here,
The gem that filled it sparkles yet."
Who Am I? Extra respect for the name I was born with.
800,000.
Did you know that 93% of businesses that lost their computer network for more than ten days due to a disaster filed bankruptcy within year? Half the companies filed bankruptcy almost immediately.
Do you have a digital photocopier? Did you know they have hard drives on them? A copy of any document that you copy is placed on that hard drive? When you replaced the photocopier with a new product did you go to the trouble of deleting everything on the copier's hard drive? If not you sent a lot of personal data out to the masses. Maybe you don't have one but does the bank you frequent, the doctor's office you go to, the accountant's office where your tax return is prepared or other places where you take you business have one? Do they delete the information before they upgrade to a new product? Check out the following article:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/04/19/eveningnews/main6412439.shtml
What do you do to protect yourself? There really is no fail safe way, however, you can reduce your risks:
Verify all your bank accounts and data frequently.
Even though most security software, like Symantac, sends definition updates every five minutes you still should do manual updates and scans weekly at a minimum.
Don't leave your computer signed on to the Internet when you aren't at your computer.
Before you ditch your copy machine call the manufacturer and ask them if your model has a hard drive on it and then have them instruct you how to delete the information on that hard drive.
Encrypt your information. Encryption basically turns your data into gobblegook that is unreadable to anyone that tries to steal your information. Windows 7, the Ultimate version, has a program on called Bitblocker that you can use to encrypt your data.
Comments are appreciated? How close you was you answer to the cell phone question?
Who Am I?
You know the name that made me famous but do you know my real name? Born 1848 in 1848in Missouri and I was shot to death in Oklahoma in 1889. At a female academy I excelled in reading, spelling, grammar, arithmetic, deportment, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and music, learning to play the piano. My father was a wealthy innkeeper and my mother was descended from one of two famous bickering families. My home town was burned to the ground by Confederate guerillas during the Civil War. My older brother who fought for the Confederacy with William C. Quantrill's guerillas, was killed by Union troops. During the Old West, the law of the whole nation had yet to tame that frontier which was spottily settled. This resulted in lawlessness seen in the personage of those known as outlaws-lawbreakers whose notorious reputations often exceeded their very person to mythical proportions. I was one such outlaw. From my association with outlaws such as Jesse James and the Younger brothers I reached a level of fantastic notoriety that today leaves the facts of my life not always distinguishable from the fiction. As a teenager during the Civil War I reported the positions of Union troops to Confederacy. One of my childhood friends in Missouri was Cole Younger, who served in Quantrill's guerillas with Jesse and Frank James. After the war these men turned to outlawry, primarily that of robbery of banks, trains, stagecoaches, and people. In their flights from lawmen they would sometimes hide out at my family's farm. I married in 1866. We had one daughter. My husband tried farming but shot in cold blood the man who accidentally shot his brother in a quarrel. Wanted by the law, he fled to California with Me. Two years later my husband again ran afoul of the law for passing counterfeit money and we fled with our two children to Texas. There I wore buckskins and moccasins or tight black jackets, black velvet skirts, high-topped boots, a man's Stetson hat with an ostrich plume, and twin holstered pistols. I spent much time in saloons, drinking and gambling at dice, cards, and roulette. At times I would ride my horse through the streets shooting off my pistols. This wild behavior was among the things that gave rise to my exaggerated image as a pistol-wielding outlaw. My husband was shot in Paris, Texas. As the young widow of an outlaw I left Texas, putting my children in the care of relatives. I immersed myself in outlawry: organizing, planning and fencing for the rustlers, horse thieves and bootleggers, as well as harboring them from the law. These enterprises proved lucrative enough for me to employ bribery to free my cohorts from the law whenever they were caught. When I was unable to buy off the lawmen I seduced them into looking the other way. The Hanging Judge became obsessed with bringing me to justice. I eluded him at every turn. Finally caught the judge sentenced my then husband and I to jail in Detroit. I was a model prisoner and won the respect of the prison matron. I was released but not reformed and said "I am a friend to any brave and gallant outlaw." I continued to be arrested for charges of robbery but often the hanging judge was forced to release me for lack of evidence. In 1889 while riding from the general store to my ranch I was killed by a shotgun blast to the back. My murderer was never identified. I was buried on my ranch with a marble headstone on which was engraved a bell, her horse, a star and the epitaph written by my daughter which reads:
"Shed not for her the bitter tear,
Nor give the heart to vain regret;
'Tis but the casket that lies here,
The gem that filled it sparkles yet."
Who Am I? Extra respect for the name I was born with.
800,000.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
May 18, 1980
The answer to yesterday's Who Am I was Sojourner Truth. Because I am heading out to a seminar and then spending the night at Mom's there just wasn't time for a Who Am I today.
Today is the thirtieth anniversary of the Mount St. Helens Eruption. Here are some statistics that were in yesterday's USA Today. It was in a sidebar to the following article:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/environment/2010-05-16-mtsthelens_N.htm
BY THE NUMBERS:
57: Number of people who died May 18, 1980, after the Mount St. Helens eruption.
600: Number of truckloads of salvaged timber retrieved each day during the summer after the blast.
3: Number of minutes it took for the near-supersonic lateral blast to blow down and scorch 230 square miles of forest.
19: Number of miles from the volcano with widespread destruction from the lateral blast.
80,000: Number of feet the plume of volcanic ash rose into the air.
15: Number of days the volcanic ash cloud took to encircle Earth.
17: Number of episodes from October 1980 to 1986 in which lava eruptions began filling the crater of the mountain to build a lava dome.
91: Surface temperature of Spirit Lake on day of eruption.
4: Number, in billions of feet, of saleable lumber damaged or destroyed in the blast.
200: Number of feet the water level in Spirit Lake rose as a result of landslide debris at the beginning of the eruption.
7,000: Number of deer, elk, bear and other animals that perished in the area most affected by the eruption.
I remember that day and watched from Washington Park in Portland. If memory serves me right it was a Sunday. There had been several small eruptions prior to that date, the first one being in March of that year. Those of us that were living in Portland were more effected by later ash eruptions. There were several of those. The ash was amazing it would cover the city. People wouldn't go out with out masks. I remember one night being out when there was an ash eruption and it took me almost two hours to get home on what was normally a fifteen minute trip. The windshield wipers could only do so much. I had to stop every five minutes and clean off the windows. Fortunately after one year there were no more eruptions. The Mountain now has made an amazing recovery and has served to teach scientists a ton. You can read what has gone on with the mountain during the last thirty years in either the article in the USA Today or the following article:
http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2010/05/30_years_after_mount_st_helens.html
Do you remember the eruption? Do remember where you were when the mountain blew its top? What do you think about the amazing recovery made by the Mountain?
Monday, May 17, 2010
Open Season
I was stunned by the information in Steve Duin's column in yesterday's Oregonian. You can read his column here:
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/steve_duin/index.ssf/2010/05/no_us_action_on_deaths_in_equa.html
According to the column it is open season on Americans living abroad. Americans are murdered and their deaths are never investigated. A government official is quoted in the article as saying:
"You can murder an American and nothing will be done about it. It's our national policy not to get involved when people die."
In another quote in the article, this one being from a state department employee:
"In cases of homicide not related to terrorism, the FBI or another investigative U.S. body may only become involved at the request of the host government."
I am to stunned for many words. I will just say the French have this one right, we have this one wrong. Comments are appreciated.
Today's Who Am I:
Born in 1797 in New York, I died in 1883 in Michigan. I was born into slavery to a Colonel. I wase was one of 13 children. I spoke only Dutch until I was sold from my family around the age of nine. Because of the cruel treatment I suffered at the hands of a later master, I learned to speak English quickly but with a Dutch accent. I was first sold around age 9 when my second master died,I was sold along with a herd of sheep for $100. It was during one beating when I began to find refuge in religion -- praying aloud when scared or hurt. Sometime around 1815 I fell in love with a fellow slave. His owner forbade the relationship because he did not want his slave having children with a slave he did not own. One night he visited me but was followed by his owner and son, who beat him savagely, bound him and dragged him away. He never returned. I had a daughter shortly thereafter. I was later forced by my owner to marry an older slave, we had four children. I escaped from an owner when he broke a promise to me. My infant daughter and I ended up with a nice couple that told me to call them by their names. I began devotedly attending the local Methodist church with a white teacher. I quickly became known as a remarkable preacher whose influence "was miraculous." I was wrongly accused of stealing eventually settling in New York. I had lost what savings and possessions I had. I resolved to leave and make my way as a traveling preacher. In 1843 I changed my name. That is the truth.
I settled with a grouo that were strongly anti-slavery, religiously tolerant, women's rights supporters, and pacifist in principles. While there I met Lloyd, Bill, and Frederick. I later became involved with the popular Spiritualism religious movement of the time, an offshoot of the Quakers. They believed in abolition, women's rights, non-violence, and communicating with spirits. During the Civil War I spoke on the Union's behalf, as well as for enlisting black troops for the cause and freeing slaves. In 1864 I worked among freed slaves at a government refugee camp on an island in Virginia and was employed by the National Freedman's Relief Association in Washington, D.C. I met President Abraham Lincoln in October. After the Civil War ended I continued working to help the newly freed slaves through the Freedman's Relief Association, then the Freedman's Hospital in Washington. In 1870 I began campaigning for the federal government to provide former slaves with land in the "new West." I pursued this for seven years, with little success. In 1879 I was delighted as many freed slaves began migrating west and north on their own, many settling in Kansas. I spent a year there helping refugees and speaking in white and black churches trying to gain support for the "Exodusters" as they tried to build new lives for themselves. This was my last mission. In 1890 Frances, who published the third edition of my narrative, became my traveling companion. A portion of a highway in Michigan is named after me. I was inducted in to the Woman's Hall Of Fame in 1981. I had a commemorative postage stamp in 1986. I am the First Black Woman Honored with a Bust in the U.S. Capitol (October, 2008). Who Am I?
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/steve_duin/index.ssf/2010/05/no_us_action_on_deaths_in_equa.html
According to the column it is open season on Americans living abroad. Americans are murdered and their deaths are never investigated. A government official is quoted in the article as saying:
"You can murder an American and nothing will be done about it. It's our national policy not to get involved when people die."
In another quote in the article, this one being from a state department employee:
"In cases of homicide not related to terrorism, the FBI or another investigative U.S. body may only become involved at the request of the host government."
I am to stunned for many words. I will just say the French have this one right, we have this one wrong. Comments are appreciated.
Today's Who Am I:
Born in 1797 in New York, I died in 1883 in Michigan. I was born into slavery to a Colonel. I wase was one of 13 children. I spoke only Dutch until I was sold from my family around the age of nine. Because of the cruel treatment I suffered at the hands of a later master, I learned to speak English quickly but with a Dutch accent. I was first sold around age 9 when my second master died,I was sold along with a herd of sheep for $100. It was during one beating when I began to find refuge in religion -- praying aloud when scared or hurt. Sometime around 1815 I fell in love with a fellow slave. His owner forbade the relationship because he did not want his slave having children with a slave he did not own. One night he visited me but was followed by his owner and son, who beat him savagely, bound him and dragged him away. He never returned. I had a daughter shortly thereafter. I was later forced by my owner to marry an older slave, we had four children. I escaped from an owner when he broke a promise to me. My infant daughter and I ended up with a nice couple that told me to call them by their names. I began devotedly attending the local Methodist church with a white teacher. I quickly became known as a remarkable preacher whose influence "was miraculous." I was wrongly accused of stealing eventually settling in New York. I had lost what savings and possessions I had. I resolved to leave and make my way as a traveling preacher. In 1843 I changed my name. That is the truth.
I settled with a grouo that were strongly anti-slavery, religiously tolerant, women's rights supporters, and pacifist in principles. While there I met Lloyd, Bill, and Frederick. I later became involved with the popular Spiritualism religious movement of the time, an offshoot of the Quakers. They believed in abolition, women's rights, non-violence, and communicating with spirits. During the Civil War I spoke on the Union's behalf, as well as for enlisting black troops for the cause and freeing slaves. In 1864 I worked among freed slaves at a government refugee camp on an island in Virginia and was employed by the National Freedman's Relief Association in Washington, D.C. I met President Abraham Lincoln in October. After the Civil War ended I continued working to help the newly freed slaves through the Freedman's Relief Association, then the Freedman's Hospital in Washington. In 1870 I began campaigning for the federal government to provide former slaves with land in the "new West." I pursued this for seven years, with little success. In 1879 I was delighted as many freed slaves began migrating west and north on their own, many settling in Kansas. I spent a year there helping refugees and speaking in white and black churches trying to gain support for the "Exodusters" as they tried to build new lives for themselves. This was my last mission. In 1890 Frances, who published the third edition of my narrative, became my traveling companion. A portion of a highway in Michigan is named after me. I was inducted in to the Woman's Hall Of Fame in 1981. I had a commemorative postage stamp in 1986. I am the First Black Woman Honored with a Bust in the U.S. Capitol (October, 2008). Who Am I?
Sunday, May 16, 2010
A Day Of Rest
There is no Who Am I today. It is Sunday, a day of rest. The answer to yesterday's Who Am I is the amazing and inspirational Alice Paul. You can read her complete biography here:
http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/paul-ali.htm
You all know what the drill is. Today is the day you give me your updates and tell me what is going on in your lives. The ups and downs. The joys and concerns. If you are new to the blog it would be great if you would introduce yourself and guess what? You might make some lifelong friends.
My last week:
As some of my Facebook friends know after avoiding it for a few weeks I did six loads of laundry on Thursday. Then I decided if I win the lottery I'm never doing laundry again. I'm just buying new clothes every week. By the way if anyone wants to friend me on Facebook I'm game. Go to:
http://www.facebook.com/
Then search William J Dahn. A guy can always use a few more friends.
On Friday I figured out what the noise was that was keeping me up at night. The grass was so long in the backyard that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was hiding back there and practicing at night. First, I took my machete to trim the yard a bit. Then, I took my environmentally correct battery operated mower and started the long task of cutting the grass down to size. Those battery operated mower don't do real well cutting down forests so there was a lot of stops and starts. Buzz. Turn over the mower, take the grass off the blades. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. I made it. What an accomplishment.
There were also two dinners and one lunch with Mom. My own grocery shopping and numerous other errands. I also had to fill out an employee satisfaction survey for the firm I just completed tax season with. They have already asked me back for next year. It is nice to be wanted.
Enough about me. The entertainment update. Kicked off of Celebrity Apprentice this week, thank God, was Cindy Lauper. Winners of the Amazing Race, double darn it, was the Brothers. The Cowboys finished second because the brothers cheated and crowded in line at the airport. Dancing With The Stars sent Nicey packing. I really liked Nicey because she was fun and it was fun to watch her dance. However, it was time for her to go home. This week is Chad's time. Top Chef starts in June and in Washington, D.C. I think the producers of Top Chef are afraid of Portland, Oregon. Shouldn't those clueless producers be interested in a city that has more restaurants per mile than any city in the United States?
The blog is now yours. Give it up. Tell your secrets. Introduce yourself. Vent. Share. Dream. Dona, if you are reading, we would love an update on The Shankster.
http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/paul-ali.htm
You all know what the drill is. Today is the day you give me your updates and tell me what is going on in your lives. The ups and downs. The joys and concerns. If you are new to the blog it would be great if you would introduce yourself and guess what? You might make some lifelong friends.
My last week:
As some of my Facebook friends know after avoiding it for a few weeks I did six loads of laundry on Thursday. Then I decided if I win the lottery I'm never doing laundry again. I'm just buying new clothes every week. By the way if anyone wants to friend me on Facebook I'm game. Go to:
http://www.facebook.com/
Then search William J Dahn. A guy can always use a few more friends.
On Friday I figured out what the noise was that was keeping me up at night. The grass was so long in the backyard that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was hiding back there and practicing at night. First, I took my machete to trim the yard a bit. Then, I took my environmentally correct battery operated mower and started the long task of cutting the grass down to size. Those battery operated mower don't do real well cutting down forests so there was a lot of stops and starts. Buzz. Turn over the mower, take the grass off the blades. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. I made it. What an accomplishment.
There were also two dinners and one lunch with Mom. My own grocery shopping and numerous other errands. I also had to fill out an employee satisfaction survey for the firm I just completed tax season with. They have already asked me back for next year. It is nice to be wanted.
Enough about me. The entertainment update. Kicked off of Celebrity Apprentice this week, thank God, was Cindy Lauper. Winners of the Amazing Race, double darn it, was the Brothers. The Cowboys finished second because the brothers cheated and crowded in line at the airport. Dancing With The Stars sent Nicey packing. I really liked Nicey because she was fun and it was fun to watch her dance. However, it was time for her to go home. This week is Chad's time. Top Chef starts in June and in Washington, D.C. I think the producers of Top Chef are afraid of Portland, Oregon. Shouldn't those clueless producers be interested in a city that has more restaurants per mile than any city in the United States?
The blog is now yours. Give it up. Tell your secrets. Introduce yourself. Vent. Share. Dream. Dona, if you are reading, we would love an update on The Shankster.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Inspiring Story, Inspiring Who Am I.
Not much today, just an inspirational story and what I think is an amazing woman featured in today's Who Am I? Here is the inspirational story:
http://highschoolsports.oregonlive.com/news/article/-844079563475605981/track-and-field-for-glencoes-alfredo-castaneda-a-new-season-and-new-challenges/
Comments are appreciated about either the above story or today's Who Am I. Remember when you comment on the later don't mention names.
Today's Who Am I?
Yesterday's was Helen (Nellie) Herron Taft. Can you guess today's, email answers to williamjdah@aol.com.
I was born in 1885 in New Jersey also dying there in 1977. I was the first born of four children to a banker dad. As Hixsite Quakers, our family believed in gender equality, education for women, and working for the betterment of society. My mom often brought me to suffrage meetings. I graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology in 1the age of 16. While at college my father contracted pneumonia and died suddenly. I conducted graduate work at the what is now Columbia University and received a Master of Arts degree in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania. That fall I went to England where I studied social work . I went back to the states and eventually received a PHD in sociology. When in England I met the founder of the British suffrage movement who advocated “taking the woman’s movement to the streets.” I participated in many radical protests for woman suffrage, including hunger strikes and even three prison terms. When both Lucy and I ended up in the states we approached the National American Woman Suffrage Association, having decided to join forces toward a constitutional amendment by directly lobbying congressmen. We were allowed to take over the NAWSA Congressional Committee in Washington, D.C., but had no office, no budget and few supporters. I was only 26 but drew on my England experiences and organized the largest parade ever seen -- a spectacle unparalleled in the nation's political capitol. It wasn the eve of President Wilson’s inauguration. About 8,000 college, professional, middle- and working-class women dressed in white suffragist costumes marched in units with banners and floats down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House. The goal was to gather at the Daughters of the American Revolution's Constitution Hall. The crowd was estimated at half a million people, with many verbally harassing us while police stood by. Troops finally had to be called to restore order and help us get to our destination. The parade generated more publicity than I hoped for. Newspapers carried articles for weeks, with politicians demanding investigations into police practices in Washington, and commentaries on the bystanders. The publicity opened the door for the Congressional Committee to lobby congressmen, and the president. This led to our meeting with President Wilson three times in a month. I established the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage (CUWS), sanctioned by NAWSA and dedicated to achieving the federal amendment. By June, the Senate Committee on Women's Suffrage reported favorably on the amendment and senators prepared to debate the issue for the first time since 1887. I founded the Woman's Party for women in western states who had the vote already. Then a merger led to the creation of the National Woman’s Party under my leadership. I called a halt to any more pleading for the right to vote -- instead mounting an even more militaristic political campaign demanding passage of the women's suffrage amendment, which I named the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. After a long picketing gig I was placed in solitary confinement for two weeks and immediately began a hunger strike. Unable to walk on my release from prison, I was taken to the prison hospital. Then the prison officials put me in the "psychopathic" ward, hoping to discredit me as insane. They deprived me of sleep -- I had an electric light, directed at my face, turned on briefly every hour, every night. And they continually threatened to transfer me to St. Elizabeth's Hospital, a notorious asylum in Washington, D.C., as suffering a "mania of persecution." The hell with them I said and refused to eat. During the last week of my 22-day hunger strike, the doctors brutally forced a tube into my nose and down my throat, pouring liquids into my stomach, three times a day for three weeks. Despite the pain and illness this caused, I refused to end the hunger strike. One physician reported: "[She has] a spirit like Joan of Arc, and it is useless to try to change it. She will die but she will never give up."
On what became known as the Night of Terror at the Workhouse, it was written:
"Under orders from the superintendent as many as forty guards with clubs went on a rampage, brutalizing thirty-three jailed women. They beat Lucy , chained her hands to the cell bars above her head, and left her there for the night. They hurled Dora into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed, and knocked her out cold. I was her cellmate and believed Dora Lewis to be dead, suffered a heart attack. According to affidavits, other
women were grabbed, dragged, beaten, choked, slammed, pinched, twisted, and kicked."
Newspapers across the country ran articles about the incident angering many and creating more support. With mounting public pressure, the government released all of us. I served five weeks. A Court of Appeals overturned all our convictions. Congress convened a week after the we were released and the House set a date to vote on the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. President Wilson announced his support of the amendment. The next day, the House of Representatives narrowly passed the amendment. The Senate didn't vote until October, and it failed by two votes. We kept pressure on the politicians with front-page news -- burning President Wilson's speeches at public monuments, and burning "watchfires" in front of the White House, Senate and other federal sites. Hundreds more women were arrested, conducting hunger strikes while incarcerated. The NWP urged women voters and male supporters to vote against anti-suffrage senators up for election that fall. The following election left Congress with mostly pro-suffrage members. The House reaffirmed its vote and the Senate passed the amendment by one vote. Women voted for the first time in the 1920 presidential election. The fight took 72 years -- spanning two centuries, 18 presidencies, and three wars. I went on to study law. I still had unfinished business, to "remove all remaining forms of the subjection of women." The following year I introduced the first Equal Rights Amendment: "Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction." I continued to re-introduce the ERA for many years -- finally getting it through Congress in 1970. When World War II broke out, in September 1939 in Europe, the headquarters of an organization I founded became a refuge for people escaping the Nazi terror. I helped them find American sponsors, get passports and travel safely to the U.S. I said that if women had helped to end the first World War, the second one would not have been necessary. I never married, committing to a life of causes. Who Am I?
http://highschoolsports.oregonlive.com/news/article/-844079563475605981/track-and-field-for-glencoes-alfredo-castaneda-a-new-season-and-new-challenges/
Comments are appreciated about either the above story or today's Who Am I. Remember when you comment on the later don't mention names.
Today's Who Am I?
Yesterday's was Helen (Nellie) Herron Taft. Can you guess today's, email answers to williamjdah@aol.com.
I was born in 1885 in New Jersey also dying there in 1977. I was the first born of four children to a banker dad. As Hixsite Quakers, our family believed in gender equality, education for women, and working for the betterment of society. My mom often brought me to suffrage meetings. I graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology in 1the age of 16. While at college my father contracted pneumonia and died suddenly. I conducted graduate work at the what is now Columbia University and received a Master of Arts degree in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania. That fall I went to England where I studied social work . I went back to the states and eventually received a PHD in sociology. When in England I met the founder of the British suffrage movement who advocated “taking the woman’s movement to the streets.” I participated in many radical protests for woman suffrage, including hunger strikes and even three prison terms. When both Lucy and I ended up in the states we approached the National American Woman Suffrage Association, having decided to join forces toward a constitutional amendment by directly lobbying congressmen. We were allowed to take over the NAWSA Congressional Committee in Washington, D.C., but had no office, no budget and few supporters. I was only 26 but drew on my England experiences and organized the largest parade ever seen -- a spectacle unparalleled in the nation's political capitol. It wasn the eve of President Wilson’s inauguration. About 8,000 college, professional, middle- and working-class women dressed in white suffragist costumes marched in units with banners and floats down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House. The goal was to gather at the Daughters of the American Revolution's Constitution Hall. The crowd was estimated at half a million people, with many verbally harassing us while police stood by. Troops finally had to be called to restore order and help us get to our destination. The parade generated more publicity than I hoped for. Newspapers carried articles for weeks, with politicians demanding investigations into police practices in Washington, and commentaries on the bystanders. The publicity opened the door for the Congressional Committee to lobby congressmen, and the president. This led to our meeting with President Wilson three times in a month. I established the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage (CUWS), sanctioned by NAWSA and dedicated to achieving the federal amendment. By June, the Senate Committee on Women's Suffrage reported favorably on the amendment and senators prepared to debate the issue for the first time since 1887. I founded the Woman's Party for women in western states who had the vote already. Then a merger led to the creation of the National Woman’s Party under my leadership. I called a halt to any more pleading for the right to vote -- instead mounting an even more militaristic political campaign demanding passage of the women's suffrage amendment, which I named the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. After a long picketing gig I was placed in solitary confinement for two weeks and immediately began a hunger strike. Unable to walk on my release from prison, I was taken to the prison hospital. Then the prison officials put me in the "psychopathic" ward, hoping to discredit me as insane. They deprived me of sleep -- I had an electric light, directed at my face, turned on briefly every hour, every night. And they continually threatened to transfer me to St. Elizabeth's Hospital, a notorious asylum in Washington, D.C., as suffering a "mania of persecution." The hell with them I said and refused to eat. During the last week of my 22-day hunger strike, the doctors brutally forced a tube into my nose and down my throat, pouring liquids into my stomach, three times a day for three weeks. Despite the pain and illness this caused, I refused to end the hunger strike. One physician reported: "[She has] a spirit like Joan of Arc, and it is useless to try to change it. She will die but she will never give up."
On what became known as the Night of Terror at the Workhouse, it was written:
"Under orders from the superintendent as many as forty guards with clubs went on a rampage, brutalizing thirty-three jailed women. They beat Lucy , chained her hands to the cell bars above her head, and left her there for the night. They hurled Dora into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed, and knocked her out cold. I was her cellmate and believed Dora Lewis to be dead, suffered a heart attack. According to affidavits, other
women were grabbed, dragged, beaten, choked, slammed, pinched, twisted, and kicked."
Newspapers across the country ran articles about the incident angering many and creating more support. With mounting public pressure, the government released all of us. I served five weeks. A Court of Appeals overturned all our convictions. Congress convened a week after the we were released and the House set a date to vote on the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. President Wilson announced his support of the amendment. The next day, the House of Representatives narrowly passed the amendment. The Senate didn't vote until October, and it failed by two votes. We kept pressure on the politicians with front-page news -- burning President Wilson's speeches at public monuments, and burning "watchfires" in front of the White House, Senate and other federal sites. Hundreds more women were arrested, conducting hunger strikes while incarcerated. The NWP urged women voters and male supporters to vote against anti-suffrage senators up for election that fall. The following election left Congress with mostly pro-suffrage members. The House reaffirmed its vote and the Senate passed the amendment by one vote. Women voted for the first time in the 1920 presidential election. The fight took 72 years -- spanning two centuries, 18 presidencies, and three wars. I went on to study law. I still had unfinished business, to "remove all remaining forms of the subjection of women." The following year I introduced the first Equal Rights Amendment: "Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction." I continued to re-introduce the ERA for many years -- finally getting it through Congress in 1970. When World War II broke out, in September 1939 in Europe, the headquarters of an organization I founded became a refuge for people escaping the Nazi terror. I helped them find American sponsors, get passports and travel safely to the U.S. I said that if women had helped to end the first World War, the second one would not have been necessary. I never married, committing to a life of causes. Who Am I?
Friday, May 14, 2010
Blame The Parents
A couple of months ago the school district in the City of Newberg, Oregon decided to fine parents if their children kept skipping school. Newberg is my neighboring city. Now I learn that the California legistlature is endorsing the arresting of parents at constantly truant students.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-05-13-truancy-parents_N.htm
What do you think of this trend? Frankly, I am kind of disturbed by it. I hate the idea of blaming everything on the parents. I skipped school once. I was so tired of hearing what a good kid I was (I got wild in college during my self-discovery period) so one day I did something that nobody would have ever thought I would do. Skipped school and forged the excuse note. I didn't really do that great of job on the forgery and the school called Mom. She was so stunned that it was me and not my brother that she told the school she had written the note. There was just no way I would do such a thing so Mom thought she wrote the note and forgot. However, had I been caught it should have been my allowance docked not my parents. And had anyone gone to jail over it, it should have been me. It frustrates me when I sometimes hear men and women in their fifties and sixties blaming their parents for their failures. Sure maybe they were some of the reason for the failoures but eventually you have to get over it. You also have to look in the mirror and accept some of the responsibility for your own failures. I am speaking from experience because I've failed a lot.
Do you think parents should be fined if their children continually skip school?
Today's Who Am 1?
Yesterday's was Harriett Tubman. Can you guess today's, email answers to williamjdah@aol.com.
I have a famous name but my husband is more well-known than I am. I am known for planting cherry trees but neither my husband or I cut one down. I was born in Ohio in 1861 and died in Washington D.C. in 1943. I was the fourth child of 11 children. My dad was the law partner of a Hayes. After I visited the White House for my Mom's christening I became enamored of the White House and my dream became to live there. In school I met the sister of my future husband. I loved music and studied it enthusiastically. I attended Miami University, studying German, literature, history and the sciences. I considered becoming a lawyer, but did not pursue it; although it did teach me an appreciation of logic, politics and presenting a strong argument. After school I started a Sunday afternoon literary salon and briefly taught at two schools. At a sledding party I met a young attorney, and invited him to the literary salon. It was a long and rocky courtship. He was ardent and proposed a few times but I turned him because I didn't think he valued my opinion. He eventually convinced me that I was smarter and prettier than any other woman he knew. We married in 1886. I designed our first home. We had three children. My husband became a judge and was appointed U.S. Solicitor General in the late 1800s. We moved to D.C. where we met Teddy and his wife. My husband at one point was appointed to a position that required us to live in the Philippines. I toured China and Japan with my children, then joined hubby in Manila. We lived there four years. I fell in love with the culture. I opened our palace to everyone and insisted my family learn Spanish. Teddy appointed my husband secretary of war so we had to return to the U.S. Capital. My husband was eventually elected president and my dream of living in the White House came true. I broke with inaugural tradition by accompanying my husband in the inaugural parade down Pennsylvania Avenue. Every First Lady since then has followed my example. I took on too many projects at the same time suffering a major stroke while on the presidential yacht, paralyzing my left side and leaving me unable to speak. The media was given little information about it and, for the next year, I was seen only occasionally. My daughter and sisters took over my duties. With my husband's patient help and my determined effort I regained my speech and ability to walk, both with difficulty. I was back in control when we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary at the White House. Despite my physical hardships, I was able to accomplish several things, one of which was enhancing the White House, Tidal Basin and Potomac Park with cherry trees. I was concerned that people had no place to listen to music or walk when the weather was good. Upon finding out that I was going to have Japanese cherry trees planted along the “speedway” (now Independence Avenue), a Japanese chemist and Japanese consul facilitated the donation of an additional 3,020 Japanese cherry trees from the mayor of Tokyo. After three years of planning and setbacks a wife of a Japanese Ambassador and I planted the first two cherry trees. After the ceremony I presented a bouquet of "American Beauty" roses to ambassador's wife. The two original trees still stand. Another accomplishment was making it easier for African-Americans to find employment at the White House. I was very versed in politics, often sitting in on important political discussions and accompanying my husband on political trips and golf outings. I was the first, First Lady to attend the nominating convention. I was also the first, First Lady to publish her autobiography. My husband was eventually appointed to his dream job, which was not president. I died in 1943 and was buried in Arlington Cemetery next to my husband – the first and only First Lady to be so, until Jackie Kennedy Onassis was buried beside John F. Kennedy. Who Am I?
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-05-13-truancy-parents_N.htm
What do you think of this trend? Frankly, I am kind of disturbed by it. I hate the idea of blaming everything on the parents. I skipped school once. I was so tired of hearing what a good kid I was (I got wild in college during my self-discovery period) so one day I did something that nobody would have ever thought I would do. Skipped school and forged the excuse note. I didn't really do that great of job on the forgery and the school called Mom. She was so stunned that it was me and not my brother that she told the school she had written the note. There was just no way I would do such a thing so Mom thought she wrote the note and forgot. However, had I been caught it should have been my allowance docked not my parents. And had anyone gone to jail over it, it should have been me. It frustrates me when I sometimes hear men and women in their fifties and sixties blaming their parents for their failures. Sure maybe they were some of the reason for the failoures but eventually you have to get over it. You also have to look in the mirror and accept some of the responsibility for your own failures. I am speaking from experience because I've failed a lot.
Do you think parents should be fined if their children continually skip school?
Today's Who Am 1?
Yesterday's was Harriett Tubman. Can you guess today's, email answers to williamjdah@aol.com.
I have a famous name but my husband is more well-known than I am. I am known for planting cherry trees but neither my husband or I cut one down. I was born in Ohio in 1861 and died in Washington D.C. in 1943. I was the fourth child of 11 children. My dad was the law partner of a Hayes. After I visited the White House for my Mom's christening I became enamored of the White House and my dream became to live there. In school I met the sister of my future husband. I loved music and studied it enthusiastically. I attended Miami University, studying German, literature, history and the sciences. I considered becoming a lawyer, but did not pursue it; although it did teach me an appreciation of logic, politics and presenting a strong argument. After school I started a Sunday afternoon literary salon and briefly taught at two schools. At a sledding party I met a young attorney, and invited him to the literary salon. It was a long and rocky courtship. He was ardent and proposed a few times but I turned him because I didn't think he valued my opinion. He eventually convinced me that I was smarter and prettier than any other woman he knew. We married in 1886. I designed our first home. We had three children. My husband became a judge and was appointed U.S. Solicitor General in the late 1800s. We moved to D.C. where we met Teddy and his wife. My husband at one point was appointed to a position that required us to live in the Philippines. I toured China and Japan with my children, then joined hubby in Manila. We lived there four years. I fell in love with the culture. I opened our palace to everyone and insisted my family learn Spanish. Teddy appointed my husband secretary of war so we had to return to the U.S. Capital. My husband was eventually elected president and my dream of living in the White House came true. I broke with inaugural tradition by accompanying my husband in the inaugural parade down Pennsylvania Avenue. Every First Lady since then has followed my example. I took on too many projects at the same time suffering a major stroke while on the presidential yacht, paralyzing my left side and leaving me unable to speak. The media was given little information about it and, for the next year, I was seen only occasionally. My daughter and sisters took over my duties. With my husband's patient help and my determined effort I regained my speech and ability to walk, both with difficulty. I was back in control when we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary at the White House. Despite my physical hardships, I was able to accomplish several things, one of which was enhancing the White House, Tidal Basin and Potomac Park with cherry trees. I was concerned that people had no place to listen to music or walk when the weather was good. Upon finding out that I was going to have Japanese cherry trees planted along the “speedway” (now Independence Avenue), a Japanese chemist and Japanese consul facilitated the donation of an additional 3,020 Japanese cherry trees from the mayor of Tokyo. After three years of planning and setbacks a wife of a Japanese Ambassador and I planted the first two cherry trees. After the ceremony I presented a bouquet of "American Beauty" roses to ambassador's wife. The two original trees still stand. Another accomplishment was making it easier for African-Americans to find employment at the White House. I was very versed in politics, often sitting in on important political discussions and accompanying my husband on political trips and golf outings. I was the first, First Lady to attend the nominating convention. I was also the first, First Lady to publish her autobiography. My husband was eventually appointed to his dream job, which was not president. I died in 1943 and was buried in Arlington Cemetery next to my husband – the first and only First Lady to be so, until Jackie Kennedy Onassis was buried beside John F. Kennedy. Who Am I?
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Stunning Statistics On The Health Of Children.
I forgot. Well I didn't but according to the following article 18.5 percent of doctors working in hospitals forgot to return to the task that they were working on.
http://health.yahoo.com/news/healthday/interruptionsmakedoctorslosetrackoftasks.html
I honestly don't find this surprising because doctors are people too. I know when I am interrupted it takes me a bit of time to get back to what I was doing. Sometimes never returning to the task at hand. However, my work would hardly be considered life saving while the doctors' would be.
Are you surprised by the article? How do you handle being interrupted?
I was stunned by some statistics in the following article:
http://health.yahoo.com/news/healthday/almosthalfofdeathsinkidsunder5occurin5countries.html
"Infectious diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and blood poisoning account for more than two-thirds of the 8.8 million annual deaths in kids under five years of age worldwide, a new report shows. Almost half of these deaths occurred in just five countries -- China, Nigeria, India, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Pakistan."
I am completely stunned that in today's world we are losing 8.8 million children under five per year. Wow have we ever failed.
What is your reaction to the article?
WHO AM I?
Yesterday's answer was the late great Mary Ludwig "Molly Pitcher" Hays. Although most people remember me as being underground I am more well known than most of The Dahn Report's Who Am Is. Because slave owners didn't record the birth of slaves the year of my birth is uncertain being either 1820 or 1821 in the great state of Maryland. I died in 1913 in Autumn, New York. My ancestors were brought to America from Africa in shackles. I began working at a young age first being sent away from home when I was five and loaned out to another plantation checking muskrat traps in icy cold rivers. I quickly became too sick to work and was returned, malnourished and suffering from the cold exposure. Once she recovered I was loaned out to another plantation, working as a nurse to the planter's infant child. By the age of 12 I was working as a field hand, plowing and hauling wood. At 13 because I defended a fellow slave who tried to run away, my overseer struck me in the head with a two-pound weight. This resulted in recurring narcoleptic seizures, or sleeping spells, that plagued me the rest of my life. In 1844 I married John, gaining permission to marry him from my owners. When I told my husband that my dream was to one day be free, he told me that I would never be free and if I tried running away, he would turn me in. On one of my first return visits to Maryland, I went to John's cabin in hopes of getting him to go north with me. I found that he had taken another wife. Later in 1869, I married again but never had any children. In the years before the Civil War I freed over 300 blacks from slavery in the South to freedom in the North. They nicknamed me Moses. In 1849 alone and on foot I ran away from the plantation in the middle of the night and followed the north star to free land in Pennsylvania. It came about after my master died and I heard rumors that I and two of my brothers were to be sold to a chain gang. my brothers left with me, but became scared, deciding not to take the risk, returning to the plantation. I had bravely won my freedom but realizing how alone I was I vowed that I would help my family and friends win their freedom. I found work cooking, laundering and scrubbing, and saved money to finance rescue trips. I became involved with the city's large and active abolitionist organizations and with organizers of the Underground Railroad, a secret network through which slaves were helped in escaping from bondage in the South to freedom in the North and Canada. I undertook some 20 hazardous missions in which I covertly journeyed down south, pinpointed slaves, and led them to freedom up north, at times going as far as Canada. In leading these flights, with a long rifle in hand, I warned my escapees that, if any of them even considered surrendering or returning, the penalty would be death. My persuasiveness was evident in that never on any of my missions did I lose a "passenger." My name quickly spread throughout the slave quarters and abolitionist societies, angering the Southern slaveholders, who offered $40,000 for my capture. I always avoided capture, even when my illiteracy nearly got me caught when I fell asleep under my own wanted poster. During the Civil War I served with the Union Army as a cook, laundress, nurse, scout, and spy. I continued helping others after the war. I raised money for freedmen's schools, helped destitute children and continued caring for my parents. In 1868 I transformed my family's home into the Home for Aged and Indigent Colored People. When I died in 1913 I was given a full military funeral and was buried in Fort Hill Cemetery. Who is this woman that in 1944, Eleanor Roosevelt christened the Liberty Ship after?
http://health.yahoo.com/news/healthday/interruptionsmakedoctorslosetrackoftasks.html
I honestly don't find this surprising because doctors are people too. I know when I am interrupted it takes me a bit of time to get back to what I was doing. Sometimes never returning to the task at hand. However, my work would hardly be considered life saving while the doctors' would be.
Are you surprised by the article? How do you handle being interrupted?
I was stunned by some statistics in the following article:
http://health.yahoo.com/news/healthday/almosthalfofdeathsinkidsunder5occurin5countries.html
"Infectious diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and blood poisoning account for more than two-thirds of the 8.8 million annual deaths in kids under five years of age worldwide, a new report shows. Almost half of these deaths occurred in just five countries -- China, Nigeria, India, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Pakistan."
I am completely stunned that in today's world we are losing 8.8 million children under five per year. Wow have we ever failed.
What is your reaction to the article?
WHO AM I?
Yesterday's answer was the late great Mary Ludwig "Molly Pitcher" Hays. Although most people remember me as being underground I am more well known than most of The Dahn Report's Who Am Is. Because slave owners didn't record the birth of slaves the year of my birth is uncertain being either 1820 or 1821 in the great state of Maryland. I died in 1913 in Autumn, New York. My ancestors were brought to America from Africa in shackles. I began working at a young age first being sent away from home when I was five and loaned out to another plantation checking muskrat traps in icy cold rivers. I quickly became too sick to work and was returned, malnourished and suffering from the cold exposure. Once she recovered I was loaned out to another plantation, working as a nurse to the planter's infant child. By the age of 12 I was working as a field hand, plowing and hauling wood. At 13 because I defended a fellow slave who tried to run away, my overseer struck me in the head with a two-pound weight. This resulted in recurring narcoleptic seizures, or sleeping spells, that plagued me the rest of my life. In 1844 I married John, gaining permission to marry him from my owners. When I told my husband that my dream was to one day be free, he told me that I would never be free and if I tried running away, he would turn me in. On one of my first return visits to Maryland, I went to John's cabin in hopes of getting him to go north with me. I found that he had taken another wife. Later in 1869, I married again but never had any children. In the years before the Civil War I freed over 300 blacks from slavery in the South to freedom in the North. They nicknamed me Moses. In 1849 alone and on foot I ran away from the plantation in the middle of the night and followed the north star to free land in Pennsylvania. It came about after my master died and I heard rumors that I and two of my brothers were to be sold to a chain gang. my brothers left with me, but became scared, deciding not to take the risk, returning to the plantation. I had bravely won my freedom but realizing how alone I was I vowed that I would help my family and friends win their freedom. I found work cooking, laundering and scrubbing, and saved money to finance rescue trips. I became involved with the city's large and active abolitionist organizations and with organizers of the Underground Railroad, a secret network through which slaves were helped in escaping from bondage in the South to freedom in the North and Canada. I undertook some 20 hazardous missions in which I covertly journeyed down south, pinpointed slaves, and led them to freedom up north, at times going as far as Canada. In leading these flights, with a long rifle in hand, I warned my escapees that, if any of them even considered surrendering or returning, the penalty would be death. My persuasiveness was evident in that never on any of my missions did I lose a "passenger." My name quickly spread throughout the slave quarters and abolitionist societies, angering the Southern slaveholders, who offered $40,000 for my capture. I always avoided capture, even when my illiteracy nearly got me caught when I fell asleep under my own wanted poster. During the Civil War I served with the Union Army as a cook, laundress, nurse, scout, and spy. I continued helping others after the war. I raised money for freedmen's schools, helped destitute children and continued caring for my parents. In 1868 I transformed my family's home into the Home for Aged and Indigent Colored People. When I died in 1913 I was given a full military funeral and was buried in Fort Hill Cemetery. Who is this woman that in 1944, Eleanor Roosevelt christened the Liberty Ship after?
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Creativity
Today is Maryanne day. I think this is the day she returns to the doctor for a follow-up visit about her hand. Sending some positive vibes, healing vibes, prayers and good thoughts her direction for a good report would be appreciated!
Tomorrow is Dona's husband's day. The day he has a procedure and gets results of blood tests. Rumor has it that he is a pretty hot dude. Although I am jealous of any guy hotter than I am I am still going to muster up good vibes, positive thoughts, healing vibes, and prayers his direction for a successful procedure and good reports. It would be appreciated if you would send your choice of energy his direction.
Not near as serious but I still would like some positive thoughts sent my niece's direction. Today my sister's daughter started casting for a proposed reality show that she came up with. It is called "Who Wants to Marry my Wife" Guys who are tired of paying alimony try to find a man for their ex-wives to marry. Send some good thoughts that she finds a good cast and the show gets picked by a television station. It wouldn't be my first pick of a reality show to watch but come on it is my lovely niece and I want her to be successful. If it finds a station I may even require the blog family to watch it.
Speaking of creativity there was an interesting article in The Oregonian this morning. The Oregonian obtained it from the New York Times News Service. You can read the article by Patricia Cohen here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/08/books/08creative.html
The beginning of the article asks you to set a timer for one minute and then list as many uses as you can for a brick. Ok, folks I am going to trust you. Set the timer and post the uses right her on the blog. I will post mine tomorrow. Also tell me what you thought of the article.
WHO AM I?
Margaret Skapes (Arhondula Skapetorahis) was the answer to yesterday's Who Am I. Today we go even further back in history. My Mom and dad arrived in Philadelphia aboard The Osgood in 1750. I was born in the city of brotherly love four years later. I married an Irishman in 1769. After his death I married at man that was most likely my first husband's brother, often the custom in those days. I was married at age 15. My husband enlisted in the Continental Army in 1777. I was reportedly with him his entire military career including being at Valley Forge from 12-1777 through 6-1778. During the battle of Monmouth, June 28th, 1778, with temperatures approaching 100 degrees, I carried water in a bucket to the soldiers and to cool the blazing cannons. Because of this they changed my name. During the battle my husband was struck down but not killed and the cannon was ordered to be withdrawn. I immediately seized the rammer and continued to assist in serving the cannon until the battle ended. My husband was eventually killed. In 1778 I appeared before the Orphans Court, to sell a portion of his land to support my son, and to pay taxes on said property. The Court approved this sale. I then married again to an irresponsible man that lead to my financial downfall. A bill passed both Houses of the Assembly granting me an annuity for services I rendered during the Revolutionary war. It appeared satisfactorily that I had braved the hardships of the camp and dangers of the field with my husband and the bill in my favor passed without a dissenting voice. At my death it was reported in the newspaper at the time that I "Died on Sunday last in this borough, at an advanced age. She lived during the days of the American Revolution, sharing its hardships, and witnessed many scenes of blood and carnage. To the sick and wounded she was an efficient aid and had one child, a son by her first marriage, who served as a soldier in the war of 1812." In 1984 the first woman was accepted into the Daughters Of The American Revolution by using me as her Patriot ancestor. I was born in 1754 and died in 1833. Who Am I?
Tomorrow is Dona's husband's day. The day he has a procedure and gets results of blood tests. Rumor has it that he is a pretty hot dude. Although I am jealous of any guy hotter than I am I am still going to muster up good vibes, positive thoughts, healing vibes, and prayers his direction for a successful procedure and good reports. It would be appreciated if you would send your choice of energy his direction.
Not near as serious but I still would like some positive thoughts sent my niece's direction. Today my sister's daughter started casting for a proposed reality show that she came up with. It is called "Who Wants to Marry my Wife" Guys who are tired of paying alimony try to find a man for their ex-wives to marry. Send some good thoughts that she finds a good cast and the show gets picked by a television station. It wouldn't be my first pick of a reality show to watch but come on it is my lovely niece and I want her to be successful. If it finds a station I may even require the blog family to watch it.
Speaking of creativity there was an interesting article in The Oregonian this morning. The Oregonian obtained it from the New York Times News Service. You can read the article by Patricia Cohen here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/08/books/08creative.html
The beginning of the article asks you to set a timer for one minute and then list as many uses as you can for a brick. Ok, folks I am going to trust you. Set the timer and post the uses right her on the blog. I will post mine tomorrow. Also tell me what you thought of the article.
WHO AM I?
Margaret Skapes (Arhondula Skapetorahis) was the answer to yesterday's Who Am I. Today we go even further back in history. My Mom and dad arrived in Philadelphia aboard The Osgood in 1750. I was born in the city of brotherly love four years later. I married an Irishman in 1769. After his death I married at man that was most likely my first husband's brother, often the custom in those days. I was married at age 15. My husband enlisted in the Continental Army in 1777. I was reportedly with him his entire military career including being at Valley Forge from 12-1777 through 6-1778. During the battle of Monmouth, June 28th, 1778, with temperatures approaching 100 degrees, I carried water in a bucket to the soldiers and to cool the blazing cannons. Because of this they changed my name. During the battle my husband was struck down but not killed and the cannon was ordered to be withdrawn. I immediately seized the rammer and continued to assist in serving the cannon until the battle ended. My husband was eventually killed. In 1778 I appeared before the Orphans Court, to sell a portion of his land to support my son, and to pay taxes on said property. The Court approved this sale. I then married again to an irresponsible man that lead to my financial downfall. A bill passed both Houses of the Assembly granting me an annuity for services I rendered during the Revolutionary war. It appeared satisfactorily that I had braved the hardships of the camp and dangers of the field with my husband and the bill in my favor passed without a dissenting voice. At my death it was reported in the newspaper at the time that I "Died on Sunday last in this borough, at an advanced age. She lived during the days of the American Revolution, sharing its hardships, and witnessed many scenes of blood and carnage. To the sick and wounded she was an efficient aid and had one child, a son by her first marriage, who served as a soldier in the war of 1812." In 1984 the first woman was accepted into the Daughters Of The American Revolution by using me as her Patriot ancestor. I was born in 1754 and died in 1833. Who Am I?
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Back To The Fifties
The article starts out: "Amid complaints about high taxes and calls for a smaller government, Americans paid their lowest level of taxes last year since Harry Truman's presidency, a USA TODAY analysis of federal data found." You can read the complete article here:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/taxes/2010-05-10-taxes_N.htm
Some the reasons given for the low taxes are the Stimulus Plan, Clinton & Bush tax cuts and Sales Tax. Sales tax collections are down because people are spending less.
My income tax is down but my property is up enough to make up for it. Sales Tax is a moot point for me because Oregon doesn't have a sales tax. What do you think? Are your taxes down?
WHO AM I?
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the woman featured in yesterday's Who Am I? Try out today's. Remember to not post the answer on the blog but to email me the answers at williamjdahn@aol.com
Born in Greece in 1892 I became a suffragette in the United States. While I attended five years of middle and high school in Greece I was taught to read and speak English in New York. My father was a successful Greek traveling tool salesman. There were five children, four daughters and a son. One of my sisters died in infancy. I was on a constant quest to find ways to escape my fate. The role of promised bride, obedient, uneducated and instant mother, subservient to the males of her family, and confined to the small-mindedness of her village, made me rebellious and a disgrace to Mom. I was determined that somehow, someday I would escape. My mom arranged a marriage for me to a family that would overlook my outspokenness for the right amount of dowry. When I found out I flew into a rage, but not before berating my mother and future mother-in-law. I even attempted to wound the would-be groom. I worked out a plan with my older brother to go to America as soon as my brother could send me a ticket. I secretly worked as a seamstress in the garment district of New York to save money to move on if I felt so inclined. While working I hired a woman to teach me how to read, write and speak English. I was determined not to be considered a "dumb foreigner." I also joined forces with the suffragettes in New York to work for the equality of women. I marched in their parades and protested wherever they needed me. When love entered my life and when I decided that the time had come to consider marriage I did two things. First, I told my beloved that I would not marry him until women got the right to vote. I wanted to be assured that I would have the backing of the laws of the United States of America in any actions that prior to the vote would not have been possible. Secondly, I designed a marriage contract that stipulated that I was to be my husband's full partner in any business ventures. The contract also stated, should I have any daughters, they too would be entitled to the same shares in the businesses as my sons, and that the girls would have a college education if they so desired. I became a leader in the Greek community in a major Ohio city. I helped found the first school to teach English to Greek immigrants. During the Depression I and my children organized the wealthy Greeks to donate food, money and clothing to the poor in the neighborhood. World War II saw me organize the Greek women into a volunteer force for the Red Cross. I taught myself how to drive by rolling the car out of the driveway in the dead of night, pushing it down the street and then starting its engine. This was one thing that my husband insisted I not attempt due to my small size (I was only 4 feet, 8 inches tall and weighed about 95 pounds). He truly feared that the cars would "strain" me. My fiery temperament may have been a factor he might have considered negative to driving etiquette. In any case, he should have known better than to tell me I could not do something. I became an American citizen long before my husband. I sent my daughter to college and encouraged her to take flying lessons in order to help the war effort. When I arrived in America, the immigration officers at Ellis Island gave me a new American name because they could not pronounce, let alone spell my Greek name. After my marriage I took on the anglicized form of my husband's name. I refused to be called by any other name the rest of my life. I died in Ohio in 1968 Who Am I?
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/taxes/2010-05-10-taxes_N.htm
Some the reasons given for the low taxes are the Stimulus Plan, Clinton & Bush tax cuts and Sales Tax. Sales tax collections are down because people are spending less.
My income tax is down but my property is up enough to make up for it. Sales Tax is a moot point for me because Oregon doesn't have a sales tax. What do you think? Are your taxes down?
WHO AM I?
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the woman featured in yesterday's Who Am I? Try out today's. Remember to not post the answer on the blog but to email me the answers at williamjdahn@aol.com
Born in Greece in 1892 I became a suffragette in the United States. While I attended five years of middle and high school in Greece I was taught to read and speak English in New York. My father was a successful Greek traveling tool salesman. There were five children, four daughters and a son. One of my sisters died in infancy. I was on a constant quest to find ways to escape my fate. The role of promised bride, obedient, uneducated and instant mother, subservient to the males of her family, and confined to the small-mindedness of her village, made me rebellious and a disgrace to Mom. I was determined that somehow, someday I would escape. My mom arranged a marriage for me to a family that would overlook my outspokenness for the right amount of dowry. When I found out I flew into a rage, but not before berating my mother and future mother-in-law. I even attempted to wound the would-be groom. I worked out a plan with my older brother to go to America as soon as my brother could send me a ticket. I secretly worked as a seamstress in the garment district of New York to save money to move on if I felt so inclined. While working I hired a woman to teach me how to read, write and speak English. I was determined not to be considered a "dumb foreigner." I also joined forces with the suffragettes in New York to work for the equality of women. I marched in their parades and protested wherever they needed me. When love entered my life and when I decided that the time had come to consider marriage I did two things. First, I told my beloved that I would not marry him until women got the right to vote. I wanted to be assured that I would have the backing of the laws of the United States of America in any actions that prior to the vote would not have been possible. Secondly, I designed a marriage contract that stipulated that I was to be my husband's full partner in any business ventures. The contract also stated, should I have any daughters, they too would be entitled to the same shares in the businesses as my sons, and that the girls would have a college education if they so desired. I became a leader in the Greek community in a major Ohio city. I helped found the first school to teach English to Greek immigrants. During the Depression I and my children organized the wealthy Greeks to donate food, money and clothing to the poor in the neighborhood. World War II saw me organize the Greek women into a volunteer force for the Red Cross. I taught myself how to drive by rolling the car out of the driveway in the dead of night, pushing it down the street and then starting its engine. This was one thing that my husband insisted I not attempt due to my small size (I was only 4 feet, 8 inches tall and weighed about 95 pounds). He truly feared that the cars would "strain" me. My fiery temperament may have been a factor he might have considered negative to driving etiquette. In any case, he should have known better than to tell me I could not do something. I became an American citizen long before my husband. I sent my daughter to college and encouraged her to take flying lessons in order to help the war effort. When I arrived in America, the immigration officers at Ellis Island gave me a new American name because they could not pronounce, let alone spell my Greek name. After my marriage I took on the anglicized form of my husband's name. I refused to be called by any other name the rest of my life. I died in Ohio in 1968 Who Am I?
Monday, May 10, 2010
Creativity & Technology
Yesterday President Obama in a commencment speech at Hampton University was quoted as saying:
"And meanwhile, you're coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don't always rank that high on the truth meter. And with iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations — none of which I know how to work — information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation. So all of this is not only putting pressure on you; it's putting new pressure on our country and on our democracy."
The quote has caused a stir in the tech community as they have translated those words into a slam of their products. Here are the questions of the day:
Do you think he is slamming Ipods, etc in the above quote?
Do you agree with his statement?
I don't think he was slamming technology, I think it was giving a realistic take on how technology has caused a lot of creativity to go away. When video games first came out I always thought that it took away the children's ability to be creative. Instead of going oustide and turning two tin cans into a way to communicate the kids stayed inside and played video games. In my humble opnion that was the start of the loss of many creative programs in schools. Cutting drama and arts, for example.
Is creativity a lost art?
Today's Who Am?
I'm hurt because a lot of women that followed me have been featured in the Who Am Is and I have not been. Born in 1815 my writings at the first women's rights convention are credited with initiating the first organized women's suffrage movement. Before being a suffrage I was an active abolitionist. When I moved on to suffrage besides the women's right to vote I took on many issues pertaining to women. My concerns included women's parental and custody rights, property rights, employment and income rights, divorce laws, the economic health of the family, and birth control. I was also an outspoken supporter of the temperance movement. My commitment to female suffrage caused a schism in the woman's rights movement when she I declined to support passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. I opposed giving added legal protection and voting rights to African American men while continuing to deny women, black and white, the same rights. I was the eighth of eleven children. Five of my siblings died in early childhood or infancy. A sixth sibling died at age 20. My father was a prominent attorney who served one term in the United States Congress and later became both a circuit court judge and a State Supreme Court justice. Dad introduced me to the law and planted the early seeds that grew into my activism. As a young girl I enjoyed perusing my father's law library and debating legal issues with his law clerks. My mother was a descendant of early Dutch settlers. Unlike many women of my era I was formally educated. I studied Latin, Greek and mathematics until the age of 16. I enjoyed being in co-educational classes where I could compete intellectually and academically with boys my age and older, which I did successfully, winning several academic awards and honors, including the award for Greek language. When my brother died I tried to comfort dad, telling him that I would try to be all my brother had been. My father's response: "Oh, my daughter, I wish you were a boy!" Upon graduation I received one of my first tastes of sexual discrimination. I watched with dismay as the young men graduating with me, many of whom I had surpassed academically went on to Union College which only took men as students. I went to a women's college and remember being strongly influenced by Preacher Finney. He made me feel damned. I credit my father and brother-in-law with convincing me to ignore Finney's warnings and after a rejuvenating trip to Niagara Falls, my reason and sense of balance were restored. I never returned to organized Christianity and, after this experience, amaintained that logic and a humane sense of ethics were the best guides to both thought and behavior. I was married in 1840 to a man who would go on to be a legal eagle. I requested that the phrase "promise to obey" be removed from the wedding vows. I wrote, "I obstinately refused to obey one with whom I supposed I was entering into an equal relation." We had seven children, the last born when I was 44. Throughout my marriage and widowhood I took my husband's surname as part of my own but refused to be addressed as Mrs. Our marriage lasted forty-seven years ending with his death. At the first suffrage convention I wrote a declaration modeled after the United States Declaration of Independence. My declaration proclaimed that men and women are created equal. At my death the great Susan B described me as forging the thunderbolts that she fired. Unlike many of my colleagues I believed organized Christianity relegated women to an unacceptable position in society. In my later years I wrote books, documents, and speeches of the women's rights movement. Among my most popular speeches were "Our Girls", "Our Boys", "Co-education", "Marriage and Divorce", "Prison Life", and "The Bible and Woman's Rights". I made an unsuccessful bid for a U.S. Congressional seat in 1868. I was the primary force behind passage of the "Woman's Property Bill" that was eventually passed by my state. After nearly five decades of fighting for female suffrage and women's rights my final appearance was before members of the United States Congress. I spoke of the central value of the individual, noting that value was not based on gender. I said "The isolation of every human soul and the necessity of self-dependence must give each individual the right to choose his own surroundings. The strongest reason for giving woman all the opportunities for higher education, for the full development of her faculties, her forces of mind and body; for giving her the most enlarged freedom of thought and action; a complete emancipation from all forms of bondage, of custom, dependence, superstition; from all the crippling influences of fear — is the solitude and personal responsibility of her own individual life. The strongest reason why we ask for woman a voice in the government under which she lives; in the religion she is asked to believe; equality in social life, where she is the chief factor; a place in the trades and professions, where she may earn her bread, is because of her birthright to self-sovereignty; because, as an individual, she must rely on herself" I died of heart failure in 1902, twenty years before women were allowed to vote. I was commemorated in the calendar of saints of the Episcopal Church . Who Am I?
"And meanwhile, you're coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don't always rank that high on the truth meter. And with iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations — none of which I know how to work — information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation. So all of this is not only putting pressure on you; it's putting new pressure on our country and on our democracy."
The quote has caused a stir in the tech community as they have translated those words into a slam of their products. Here are the questions of the day:
Do you think he is slamming Ipods, etc in the above quote?
Do you agree with his statement?
I don't think he was slamming technology, I think it was giving a realistic take on how technology has caused a lot of creativity to go away. When video games first came out I always thought that it took away the children's ability to be creative. Instead of going oustide and turning two tin cans into a way to communicate the kids stayed inside and played video games. In my humble opnion that was the start of the loss of many creative programs in schools. Cutting drama and arts, for example.
Is creativity a lost art?
Today's Who Am?
I'm hurt because a lot of women that followed me have been featured in the Who Am Is and I have not been. Born in 1815 my writings at the first women's rights convention are credited with initiating the first organized women's suffrage movement. Before being a suffrage I was an active abolitionist. When I moved on to suffrage besides the women's right to vote I took on many issues pertaining to women. My concerns included women's parental and custody rights, property rights, employment and income rights, divorce laws, the economic health of the family, and birth control. I was also an outspoken supporter of the temperance movement. My commitment to female suffrage caused a schism in the woman's rights movement when she I declined to support passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. I opposed giving added legal protection and voting rights to African American men while continuing to deny women, black and white, the same rights. I was the eighth of eleven children. Five of my siblings died in early childhood or infancy. A sixth sibling died at age 20. My father was a prominent attorney who served one term in the United States Congress and later became both a circuit court judge and a State Supreme Court justice. Dad introduced me to the law and planted the early seeds that grew into my activism. As a young girl I enjoyed perusing my father's law library and debating legal issues with his law clerks. My mother was a descendant of early Dutch settlers. Unlike many women of my era I was formally educated. I studied Latin, Greek and mathematics until the age of 16. I enjoyed being in co-educational classes where I could compete intellectually and academically with boys my age and older, which I did successfully, winning several academic awards and honors, including the award for Greek language. When my brother died I tried to comfort dad, telling him that I would try to be all my brother had been. My father's response: "Oh, my daughter, I wish you were a boy!" Upon graduation I received one of my first tastes of sexual discrimination. I watched with dismay as the young men graduating with me, many of whom I had surpassed academically went on to Union College which only took men as students. I went to a women's college and remember being strongly influenced by Preacher Finney. He made me feel damned. I credit my father and brother-in-law with convincing me to ignore Finney's warnings and after a rejuvenating trip to Niagara Falls, my reason and sense of balance were restored. I never returned to organized Christianity and, after this experience, amaintained that logic and a humane sense of ethics were the best guides to both thought and behavior. I was married in 1840 to a man who would go on to be a legal eagle. I requested that the phrase "promise to obey" be removed from the wedding vows. I wrote, "I obstinately refused to obey one with whom I supposed I was entering into an equal relation." We had seven children, the last born when I was 44. Throughout my marriage and widowhood I took my husband's surname as part of my own but refused to be addressed as Mrs. Our marriage lasted forty-seven years ending with his death. At the first suffrage convention I wrote a declaration modeled after the United States Declaration of Independence. My declaration proclaimed that men and women are created equal. At my death the great Susan B described me as forging the thunderbolts that she fired. Unlike many of my colleagues I believed organized Christianity relegated women to an unacceptable position in society. In my later years I wrote books, documents, and speeches of the women's rights movement. Among my most popular speeches were "Our Girls", "Our Boys", "Co-education", "Marriage and Divorce", "Prison Life", and "The Bible and Woman's Rights". I made an unsuccessful bid for a U.S. Congressional seat in 1868. I was the primary force behind passage of the "Woman's Property Bill" that was eventually passed by my state. After nearly five decades of fighting for female suffrage and women's rights my final appearance was before members of the United States Congress. I spoke of the central value of the individual, noting that value was not based on gender. I said "The isolation of every human soul and the necessity of self-dependence must give each individual the right to choose his own surroundings. The strongest reason for giving woman all the opportunities for higher education, for the full development of her faculties, her forces of mind and body; for giving her the most enlarged freedom of thought and action; a complete emancipation from all forms of bondage, of custom, dependence, superstition; from all the crippling influences of fear — is the solitude and personal responsibility of her own individual life. The strongest reason why we ask for woman a voice in the government under which she lives; in the religion she is asked to believe; equality in social life, where she is the chief factor; a place in the trades and professions, where she may earn her bread, is because of her birthright to self-sovereignty; because, as an individual, she must rely on herself" I died of heart failure in 1902, twenty years before women were allowed to vote. I was commemorated in the calendar of saints of the Episcopal Church . Who Am I?
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Happy Mothers' Day!!
Love you Mom!!!!!!
Thank you for not disowning me when at Kindergarten Bible School graduation the minister asked "What was the first thing that Noah did when he got off of the Ark?" and I answered "Get Drunk."
Thank you for teaching me that women are as good as and sometimes better than men.
Thank you for teaching me that the word acceptance is better than the word judgment.
Thanks for believing me and not the seventh grade teacher when the teacher told you that I was to stupid to learn. Thank you for forcing an IQ test the results of which ended up with me in the gifted program with a new teacher.
Thanks for teaching me that every living soul has good in them.
That you for teaching me that the heart of of a person means more than their sex, orientation, or color.
Thank you for teaching me one of life's greatest lessons. Put a band aid on it, it will get better.
Thanks for believing me and not the doctor when the doctor told you that your teenage son would be in a wheelchair all his life. We beat the odds and did it together.
Thank you for teaching me that if someone takes something from me that they needed it more than I did.
Thank you for all the chicken soup that seemed to cure everything.
Thank you for teaching me that my opinion mattered.
Thank you for listening to me, it taught me to listen to others.
Thank you for being liberated long before Women's lib and teaching me that I can be liberated too.
Thank you for standing behind me when I needed a gentle shove.
Thank you for standing beside me when I needed a friend.
Thank you for standing ahead of me when I needed direction.
Thank you for being you.
Thank you for making me the man I am today.
Thank you for being my Mom.
No Who Am I today, the answer to yesterday's puzzle was the great Elizabeth Van Lew.
Now tell me about your mother!! Remember too that it is Update Day so catch me up on your lives!!
Thank you for not disowning me when at Kindergarten Bible School graduation the minister asked "What was the first thing that Noah did when he got off of the Ark?" and I answered "Get Drunk."
Thank you for teaching me that women are as good as and sometimes better than men.
Thank you for teaching me that the word acceptance is better than the word judgment.
Thanks for believing me and not the seventh grade teacher when the teacher told you that I was to stupid to learn. Thank you for forcing an IQ test the results of which ended up with me in the gifted program with a new teacher.
Thanks for teaching me that every living soul has good in them.
That you for teaching me that the heart of of a person means more than their sex, orientation, or color.
Thank you for teaching me one of life's greatest lessons. Put a band aid on it, it will get better.
Thanks for believing me and not the doctor when the doctor told you that your teenage son would be in a wheelchair all his life. We beat the odds and did it together.
Thank you for teaching me that if someone takes something from me that they needed it more than I did.
Thank you for all the chicken soup that seemed to cure everything.
Thank you for teaching me that my opinion mattered.
Thank you for listening to me, it taught me to listen to others.
Thank you for being liberated long before Women's lib and teaching me that I can be liberated too.
Thank you for standing behind me when I needed a gentle shove.
Thank you for standing beside me when I needed a friend.
Thank you for standing ahead of me when I needed direction.
Thank you for being you.
Thank you for making me the man I am today.
Thank you for being my Mom.
No Who Am I today, the answer to yesterday's puzzle was the great Elizabeth Van Lew.
Now tell me about your mother!! Remember too that it is Update Day so catch me up on your lives!!
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Gift Suggestions
Before talking about gifts for Mothers Day some blog business.
An update about Maryanne and TJ and a some vibes for Dona:
DR wrote yesterday: "MA saw the hand specialist this AM and it appears she won't need reconstructive surgery. They're doing wet/dry bandages, no stitches for now, and he thinks it will largely heal itself. She's on tons of antibiotics and will see him weekly for two months. They found a place to stay - a bike place they visited last year was broken into a month ago. In return for them being there at night, as a "presence" (plus TJ's experience in security), they can park there as long as they need to stay in CSC. For today, good news all around!"
Way to go guys! Still keep Maryanne and TJ in your prayers, positive thoughts, good vibes until she is completely through this ordeal. Now we need to work magic for Dona, an important blog family member. I received this email from Dona yesterday. Just the highlights.
"Thanks for the wishes for the Shankster. Give you a bit of History, he has kidney stones. Lots of them like clockwork every 2 years. He has the worst pain with them too. I mean it is horrible. But in 2003 he got a couple really bad ones blasted and they failed to get one in the kidney. Since then, thank God, nothing. He has been in hospital, since Tuesday, as he is urinating blood clots. We first thought stone, but there is no pain. Very strange for him. Doc thought so too. Have had several tests/scans/blood work done and so far no kidney stones found, no infections or hernias in most of the plumbing area. We are awaiting tons of blood tests. But the scariest is this. Doc a bit worried about Bladder Cancer. No large tumors found there, but he wants to check the wall/lining of bladder to be sure as this peeing blood clots is a symptom. UGH. Doing this next Thursday. Keep him in your prayers please. You guys are my go to prayer/good wishes guys. I am counting on the power of prayer here. "
Get busy Blog family send everything that you can muster Dona's way! I am sending all my prayers, thoughts, positive vibes, white lights and anything with in a hundred miles Dona's husband's way and that the results will be no cancer.
Continuing the Mother Day's Theme here is a link for you guys out there. A list of gifts not to give your wife, mother, grandmother, significant other, or any woman in your life for Mothers'Day:
http://www.parentdish.com/2010/05/07/11-mothers-day-gifts-that-will-kill-your-sex-life-were-talkin/?icid=main|htmlws-sb-n|dl5|link4|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.parentdish.com%2F2010%2F05%2F07%2F11-mothers-day-gifts-that-will-kill-your-sex-life-were-talkin%2F
Do you agree with the list of bad gifts? Anything on the bad list that you would want? Are us guys really so stupid that we have to put scales on the list? I guess so. What would you like to get for Mothers' Day? Got some good gift suggestions? Post them here. Personally, I think there is nothing more treasured than taking a few moments and write a letter to your Mom telling what she has meant to you.
Who Am I?
The woman who lived yesterday's amazing story is Rossetta Wakeman.
Yesterday's woman of the day faked her gender to serve in the Civil War and I faked insanity to help free the slaves. Born in Virginia in 1818, dying there in 1900. I was the only child of a successful business man. At age 26 dad went to Richmond to start a commercial farm with a member of the well known Adams family. The farm failed. Dad turned failure in to success by beginning a hardware store. We lived in ar magnificent mansion of three and a half stories high that was across from the church in which Patrick Henry had called for liberty or death. I went school in Philadelphia. That is where I became an abolitionist being was influenced by her mother. I wrote in my diary: "From the time I knew right from wrong it was my sad privilege to differ in many things from the ... opinions and principles of my locality." I described myself as "uncompromising, ready to resent what seemed wrong, quick and passionate but not bad tempered or vicious. When I was 25 years old dad died and I began to act more on my principles. Mom and I freed all of the family's slaves even though most of them stayed on as paid servants. When I heard that the slaves' children or relatives were being sold by other owners I bought and freed them and wrote: "Slave power crushes freedom of speech and of opinion. Slave power degrades labor. Slave power is arrogant, is jealous and intrusive, is cruel, is despotic, not only over the slave but over the community, the state." When the war began I bemoaned the fate my beloved state and when Virginia seceded I felt it was a crime. After hearing of Union soldiers suffering at Libby Prison I connived my way to being a nurse to the soldiers -- Mom and I would buy and bring clothes, bedding, food and medicines to the prisoners. I even persuaded Confederate physicians to have some soldiers transferred to hospitals. In these seemingly humanitarian efforts I gleaned military information from the soldiers, as well as from the Confederate guards and soldiers at the prison, then passed the information on to Union agents. At various times I was restricted from talking to the soldiers. I then passed out books, and the soldiers passed them back with tiny pin-pricked messages. I would smuggle out letters from the soldiers and even helped several escape; hiding them in a secret space upstairs in my house. For protection I began to accentuate the oddity with which my Richmond neighbors already regarded me. I started walking the streets mumbling and humming to myself, with my head bent slightly, as if holding an imaginary conversation. I combed my hair less carefully and dressed in worn-out clothes. Passers by would look at each other and shake their heads. The prison guards nicknamed me "Crazy B." No one suspected me because they assumed spies would keep a low profile; I purposely called attention to myself. I persuaded one of my slaves to return and help. She became a house servant for Confederate President Jefferson Davis. She also feigned a dim-witted, slightly crazy demeanor, allowing her to listen in on conversations and read documents that were left out. The servant would memorize everything, word for word, then on occasion meet me at night near our farm and pass on the goods. Mom and I were constantly trailed by detectives. I helped prisoners following a major escape through a 60-foot tunnel dug under Libby Prison. I was almost caught as a spy several times but avoided it. On my last assignment, at the Confederate Capitol I searched among ashes for secret documents the Union might need. A special guard found me there; he had been sent by General Grant, knowing I would face danger that day. Later, the general paid me a visit drinking tea and talking politics on my porch. For the rest of my life I kept Grant's calling card. After the war I was appointed postmistress of Richmond. Because of my loyalty to the Union I was ostracized by the community. I wrote: "No one will walk with us on the street, no one will go with us anywhere; and it grows worse and worse as the years roll on." Since I had spent most of my family's wealth on wartime activities I lived in poverty in the mansion with my niece and 40 cats.
I lived only on an annuity from the family of a Union soldier I had helped. In my late 60s, I continued to fight for women's rights by protesting against paying taxes. I died at 81. Relatives of soldiers that I had helped donated my tombstone and wrote on it: "She risked everything that is dear to man -- friends, fortune, comfort, health, life itself, all for the one absorbing desire of her heart -- that slavery might be abolished and the Union preserved. This Boulder from the Capitol Hill in Boston is a tribute from Massachusetts friends." Who Am I?
An update about Maryanne and TJ and a some vibes for Dona:
DR wrote yesterday: "MA saw the hand specialist this AM and it appears she won't need reconstructive surgery. They're doing wet/dry bandages, no stitches for now, and he thinks it will largely heal itself. She's on tons of antibiotics and will see him weekly for two months. They found a place to stay - a bike place they visited last year was broken into a month ago. In return for them being there at night, as a "presence" (plus TJ's experience in security), they can park there as long as they need to stay in CSC. For today, good news all around!"
Way to go guys! Still keep Maryanne and TJ in your prayers, positive thoughts, good vibes until she is completely through this ordeal. Now we need to work magic for Dona, an important blog family member. I received this email from Dona yesterday. Just the highlights.
"Thanks for the wishes for the Shankster. Give you a bit of History, he has kidney stones. Lots of them like clockwork every 2 years. He has the worst pain with them too. I mean it is horrible. But in 2003 he got a couple really bad ones blasted and they failed to get one in the kidney. Since then, thank God, nothing. He has been in hospital, since Tuesday, as he is urinating blood clots. We first thought stone, but there is no pain. Very strange for him. Doc thought so too. Have had several tests/scans/blood work done and so far no kidney stones found, no infections or hernias in most of the plumbing area. We are awaiting tons of blood tests. But the scariest is this. Doc a bit worried about Bladder Cancer. No large tumors found there, but he wants to check the wall/lining of bladder to be sure as this peeing blood clots is a symptom. UGH. Doing this next Thursday. Keep him in your prayers please. You guys are my go to prayer/good wishes guys. I am counting on the power of prayer here. "
Get busy Blog family send everything that you can muster Dona's way! I am sending all my prayers, thoughts, positive vibes, white lights and anything with in a hundred miles Dona's husband's way and that the results will be no cancer.
Continuing the Mother Day's Theme here is a link for you guys out there. A list of gifts not to give your wife, mother, grandmother, significant other, or any woman in your life for Mothers'Day:
http://www.parentdish.com/2010/05/07/11-mothers-day-gifts-that-will-kill-your-sex-life-were-talkin/?icid=main|htmlws-sb-n|dl5|link4|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.parentdish.com%2F2010%2F05%2F07%2F11-mothers-day-gifts-that-will-kill-your-sex-life-were-talkin%2F
Do you agree with the list of bad gifts? Anything on the bad list that you would want? Are us guys really so stupid that we have to put scales on the list? I guess so. What would you like to get for Mothers' Day? Got some good gift suggestions? Post them here. Personally, I think there is nothing more treasured than taking a few moments and write a letter to your Mom telling what she has meant to you.
Who Am I?
The woman who lived yesterday's amazing story is Rossetta Wakeman.
Yesterday's woman of the day faked her gender to serve in the Civil War and I faked insanity to help free the slaves. Born in Virginia in 1818, dying there in 1900. I was the only child of a successful business man. At age 26 dad went to Richmond to start a commercial farm with a member of the well known Adams family. The farm failed. Dad turned failure in to success by beginning a hardware store. We lived in ar magnificent mansion of three and a half stories high that was across from the church in which Patrick Henry had called for liberty or death. I went school in Philadelphia. That is where I became an abolitionist being was influenced by her mother. I wrote in my diary: "From the time I knew right from wrong it was my sad privilege to differ in many things from the ... opinions and principles of my locality." I described myself as "uncompromising, ready to resent what seemed wrong, quick and passionate but not bad tempered or vicious. When I was 25 years old dad died and I began to act more on my principles. Mom and I freed all of the family's slaves even though most of them stayed on as paid servants. When I heard that the slaves' children or relatives were being sold by other owners I bought and freed them and wrote: "Slave power crushes freedom of speech and of opinion. Slave power degrades labor. Slave power is arrogant, is jealous and intrusive, is cruel, is despotic, not only over the slave but over the community, the state." When the war began I bemoaned the fate my beloved state and when Virginia seceded I felt it was a crime. After hearing of Union soldiers suffering at Libby Prison I connived my way to being a nurse to the soldiers -- Mom and I would buy and bring clothes, bedding, food and medicines to the prisoners. I even persuaded Confederate physicians to have some soldiers transferred to hospitals. In these seemingly humanitarian efforts I gleaned military information from the soldiers, as well as from the Confederate guards and soldiers at the prison, then passed the information on to Union agents. At various times I was restricted from talking to the soldiers. I then passed out books, and the soldiers passed them back with tiny pin-pricked messages. I would smuggle out letters from the soldiers and even helped several escape; hiding them in a secret space upstairs in my house. For protection I began to accentuate the oddity with which my Richmond neighbors already regarded me. I started walking the streets mumbling and humming to myself, with my head bent slightly, as if holding an imaginary conversation. I combed my hair less carefully and dressed in worn-out clothes. Passers by would look at each other and shake their heads. The prison guards nicknamed me "Crazy B." No one suspected me because they assumed spies would keep a low profile; I purposely called attention to myself. I persuaded one of my slaves to return and help. She became a house servant for Confederate President Jefferson Davis. She also feigned a dim-witted, slightly crazy demeanor, allowing her to listen in on conversations and read documents that were left out. The servant would memorize everything, word for word, then on occasion meet me at night near our farm and pass on the goods. Mom and I were constantly trailed by detectives. I helped prisoners following a major escape through a 60-foot tunnel dug under Libby Prison. I was almost caught as a spy several times but avoided it. On my last assignment, at the Confederate Capitol I searched among ashes for secret documents the Union might need. A special guard found me there; he had been sent by General Grant, knowing I would face danger that day. Later, the general paid me a visit drinking tea and talking politics on my porch. For the rest of my life I kept Grant's calling card. After the war I was appointed postmistress of Richmond. Because of my loyalty to the Union I was ostracized by the community. I wrote: "No one will walk with us on the street, no one will go with us anywhere; and it grows worse and worse as the years roll on." Since I had spent most of my family's wealth on wartime activities I lived in poverty in the mansion with my niece and 40 cats.
I lived only on an annuity from the family of a Union soldier I had helped. In my late 60s, I continued to fight for women's rights by protesting against paying taxes. I died at 81. Relatives of soldiers that I had helped donated my tombstone and wrote on it: "She risked everything that is dear to man -- friends, fortune, comfort, health, life itself, all for the one absorbing desire of her heart -- that slavery might be abolished and the Union preserved. This Boulder from the Capitol Hill in Boston is a tribute from Massachusetts friends." Who Am I?
Friday, May 7, 2010
Amazing Women
In honor of the beginning of Mothers' Day weekend today's post will be about some amazing women that I had the unique pleasure of spending Wednesday afternoon with.
Some churches have preachers. They preach on Sunday with a lot of fervor and then after the sermon disappear into their own little world not ministering to their flock the rest of the week. Other churches have ministers that enjoy the time going out into the world helping their flock but may not do all that well with preaching from the pulpit. Our church is really lucky to have one that embraces both. She gives great sermons and she relishes the aspect of going out in to the world to minister to her flock. She knows that my Mom has a really hard time getting around and ready for the church so she on occasion visits my Mom. Can't be easy for Janine to get around. See she is blind. She called me last week and asked if I would get her and take her to see Mom. When she called I made the blunder of the year by saying "my Mom warned me you were going to call." Oops. I immediately apologized for my poor choice of words. I think she accepted it but it was hard to tell among the laughter. Wednesday afternoon was the day we determined was the best day for both of us. One in the afternoon. I read somewhere that when a person loses one sense all their other five senses become extraordinary. To prepare for the afternoon to combat that I took two showers instead of one and was easy on the cologne. Didn't think it would be a good start the afternoon by killing our minister with body odor or the overwhelming smell of cologne. I picked her up. I really didn't know how to help, so I asked her. She told me to walk in front of her and she would hold on to me. That's what we did. I was amazed how extremely easy she got in and out of the car. We got to Mom's about a quarter after one.
There is another amazing woman. My mom. How many women in their nineties still play a mean game of Scrabble, reads for to five books a week, and still cooks with the best of them? That's mom. Another thing I admire about her is how people react to her, she must give out the air of openness because whenever we are out people flock to her. She really is kind of a babe magnet. I cannot tell you how many times we are out somewhere when someone comes up to Mom and tells her how beautiful she is. Then they are stunned when Mom tells them her age. Mom usually tells them it is because she has a damn good son. Of course I readily agree with that statement.
It was such a pleasure to watch Mom and the Minister interact. They talked about everything but very little about religion. Family, politics, love, hate, books, movies, were all in there somewhere. That's why I love the minister, not only is she an amazing woman, she didn't give a rip about religion that afternoon she just very simply wanted to get to know Mom. After the almost three hour social event of my week I took the minister back to the parsonage. I know my life had been enriched that afternoon by two amazing women.
One of the things that came out of the discussion was the mention of the book Three Cups Of Tea. That is now one of the Mothers' Day gifts that I bought for Mom. You can read about the book here:
http://www.threecupsoftea.com/about-the-book/
A couple of questions today. Any amazing women in your life? Personally, I think all the women that post and read my blog are amazing but would love to know about the women in your social circles or the women that impacted your life. In addition I would like to know if you sometimes change your behavior (like taking two showers before meeting the blind) when you are around those that have physical disabilities.
Speaking of Amazing Women here is one featured in today's Who Am I? Remember now to email your answers to williamjdahn@aol.com instead of posting them on the blog. If you are new to the blog please trust that your email address will be kept in the strictest of confidences and be used only for the purpose of the Who Am I's.
I was born in New York in 1843 and died in 1864. I was the first of nine children. My dad was town constable and I worked on his dairy farm to help support the family and help my dad who was deeply in debt. Before I was 18 I discovered that I could earn more money if I disguised myself as man. I left home to work as a coal handler on a canal boat dressed like a guy and sent most my earnings back home. I enlisted in a famous war in 1862 under a man's name and by hiding my female attributes. I served in a New York regiment. I had learned from some soldiers that I could get a $152 signing bonus and thirteen bucks a month if I enlisted in the army. Recruiters assumed I was a dude and asked me to join. I lied not only about my gender but also about my age so I could join. The description on my enlistment papers said that I was five feet tall, fair-skinned, with blue eyes. Our regiment was sent to Washington DC where we remained for nine months, defending the nation's capital against rebel advances. I wrote home saying, "I can drill as good as any man in my regiment." I wrote home to mend family fences. In thoser letters I expressed strong religious faith, the pride I felt at being a good soldier, and my strong desire to be financially independent. I was outspoken, independent, and hoped to buy a farm after the war. Our unit was later sent to Louisiana to take part in General Nathaniel Banks' Red River Campaign. I experienced battle up close for the first time. After one famous battle I wrote of the deceased soldiers "sometimes in heaps and in rows… with distorted features, among mangled and dead horses, trampled in mud, and thrown in all conceivable sorts of places. You can distinctly hear, over the whole field, the hum and hissing of decomposition." Near the end of the Red River Campaign, drinking water became scarce, and I and my fellow soldiers drank from streams that were poisoned by the rotting flesh of dead animals. The connection between contamination and infection wasn't understood at the time. The Union soldiers were stricken by chronic diarrhea and died by the thousands. I fell sick and was admitted to the regimental hospital at Alexandria, Louisiana. When my condition worsened I was transferred again to a Federal hospital in New Orleans. By the time I reached my destination I was in the acute phase of dysentery. I died shortly after arriving. If the nurses or doctors discovered my true gender, they didn’t report it. I was buried as a soldier at the Chalmette National Cemetery in New Orleans as a male soldier. Years later my letters were discovered by a relative in the attic of the farmhouse where I grew up. They were published in 1994. It wasn't until then that the military discovered I was a woman. Who Am I?
Some churches have preachers. They preach on Sunday with a lot of fervor and then after the sermon disappear into their own little world not ministering to their flock the rest of the week. Other churches have ministers that enjoy the time going out into the world helping their flock but may not do all that well with preaching from the pulpit. Our church is really lucky to have one that embraces both. She gives great sermons and she relishes the aspect of going out in to the world to minister to her flock. She knows that my Mom has a really hard time getting around and ready for the church so she on occasion visits my Mom. Can't be easy for Janine to get around. See she is blind. She called me last week and asked if I would get her and take her to see Mom. When she called I made the blunder of the year by saying "my Mom warned me you were going to call." Oops. I immediately apologized for my poor choice of words. I think she accepted it but it was hard to tell among the laughter. Wednesday afternoon was the day we determined was the best day for both of us. One in the afternoon. I read somewhere that when a person loses one sense all their other five senses become extraordinary. To prepare for the afternoon to combat that I took two showers instead of one and was easy on the cologne. Didn't think it would be a good start the afternoon by killing our minister with body odor or the overwhelming smell of cologne. I picked her up. I really didn't know how to help, so I asked her. She told me to walk in front of her and she would hold on to me. That's what we did. I was amazed how extremely easy she got in and out of the car. We got to Mom's about a quarter after one.
There is another amazing woman. My mom. How many women in their nineties still play a mean game of Scrabble, reads for to five books a week, and still cooks with the best of them? That's mom. Another thing I admire about her is how people react to her, she must give out the air of openness because whenever we are out people flock to her. She really is kind of a babe magnet. I cannot tell you how many times we are out somewhere when someone comes up to Mom and tells her how beautiful she is. Then they are stunned when Mom tells them her age. Mom usually tells them it is because she has a damn good son. Of course I readily agree with that statement.
It was such a pleasure to watch Mom and the Minister interact. They talked about everything but very little about religion. Family, politics, love, hate, books, movies, were all in there somewhere. That's why I love the minister, not only is she an amazing woman, she didn't give a rip about religion that afternoon she just very simply wanted to get to know Mom. After the almost three hour social event of my week I took the minister back to the parsonage. I know my life had been enriched that afternoon by two amazing women.
One of the things that came out of the discussion was the mention of the book Three Cups Of Tea. That is now one of the Mothers' Day gifts that I bought for Mom. You can read about the book here:
http://www.threecupsoftea.com/about-the-book/
A couple of questions today. Any amazing women in your life? Personally, I think all the women that post and read my blog are amazing but would love to know about the women in your social circles or the women that impacted your life. In addition I would like to know if you sometimes change your behavior (like taking two showers before meeting the blind) when you are around those that have physical disabilities.
Speaking of Amazing Women here is one featured in today's Who Am I? Remember now to email your answers to williamjdahn@aol.com instead of posting them on the blog. If you are new to the blog please trust that your email address will be kept in the strictest of confidences and be used only for the purpose of the Who Am I's.
I was born in New York in 1843 and died in 1864. I was the first of nine children. My dad was town constable and I worked on his dairy farm to help support the family and help my dad who was deeply in debt. Before I was 18 I discovered that I could earn more money if I disguised myself as man. I left home to work as a coal handler on a canal boat dressed like a guy and sent most my earnings back home. I enlisted in a famous war in 1862 under a man's name and by hiding my female attributes. I served in a New York regiment. I had learned from some soldiers that I could get a $152 signing bonus and thirteen bucks a month if I enlisted in the army. Recruiters assumed I was a dude and asked me to join. I lied not only about my gender but also about my age so I could join. The description on my enlistment papers said that I was five feet tall, fair-skinned, with blue eyes. Our regiment was sent to Washington DC where we remained for nine months, defending the nation's capital against rebel advances. I wrote home saying, "I can drill as good as any man in my regiment." I wrote home to mend family fences. In thoser letters I expressed strong religious faith, the pride I felt at being a good soldier, and my strong desire to be financially independent. I was outspoken, independent, and hoped to buy a farm after the war. Our unit was later sent to Louisiana to take part in General Nathaniel Banks' Red River Campaign. I experienced battle up close for the first time. After one famous battle I wrote of the deceased soldiers "sometimes in heaps and in rows… with distorted features, among mangled and dead horses, trampled in mud, and thrown in all conceivable sorts of places. You can distinctly hear, over the whole field, the hum and hissing of decomposition." Near the end of the Red River Campaign, drinking water became scarce, and I and my fellow soldiers drank from streams that were poisoned by the rotting flesh of dead animals. The connection between contamination and infection wasn't understood at the time. The Union soldiers were stricken by chronic diarrhea and died by the thousands. I fell sick and was admitted to the regimental hospital at Alexandria, Louisiana. When my condition worsened I was transferred again to a Federal hospital in New Orleans. By the time I reached my destination I was in the acute phase of dysentery. I died shortly after arriving. If the nurses or doctors discovered my true gender, they didn’t report it. I was buried as a soldier at the Chalmette National Cemetery in New Orleans as a male soldier. Years later my letters were discovered by a relative in the attic of the farmhouse where I grew up. They were published in 1994. It wasn't until then that the military discovered I was a woman. Who Am I?
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Women & Money
Before today's post group we need positive thoughts, healing vibes, and prayers for our friend Maryanne and her husband, TJ. Maryanne got in between one of her dogs fighting with her son's dog. Maryanne's left hand is pretty much ripped apart. To make matters worse she has a history of a certain type of bacterial infection. The hand specialist told the doctors not to do any stitching until they could be sure there's no danger of infection from the dog bites. They have no medical insurance. Please include in your prayers a request they can get the financial assistance they need. In addition to the prayers and good thoughts does anyone have any knowledge of Medicaid or anything that can help them that we can pass on to TJ? Since they are in Colorado if there is anyone out there with the knowledge of Colorado programs it would be appreciated to pass that knowledge on to us. I know all my thoughts and prayers are with Maryanne and TJ for recovered health, financial aid, and for the loss they are going to suffer because they have to put their dog down.
On another blog family note. I checked Mary Z's blog because I was worried about the floods in Tennessee. Her and her husband are fine and getting ready to go on a trip.
The answer to yesterday's Who Am I was Mother Jones. No who I am today, just a test to see how much you know about women and money. Answer either true or false to the following four statements. You can also put your answers in the comment section of the blog.
Women focus on non-financial household roles while men deal with the finances.
Women are emotional about money.
Women are impulsive shoppers and equally impulsive with financial decisions.
Women don't have the math skills necessary to make successful financial decisions.
You can find all the answers in the following article:
http://www.aolnews.com/money/article/fed-governor-duke-debunks-4-money-myths-that-sell-women-short/19462417?icid=main|htmlws-main-n|dl7|link5|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aolnews.com%2Fmoney%2Farticle%2Ffed-governor-duke-debunks-4-money-myths-that-sell-women-short%2F19462417
Are surprised by the results?
On another blog family note. I checked Mary Z's blog because I was worried about the floods in Tennessee. Her and her husband are fine and getting ready to go on a trip.
The answer to yesterday's Who Am I was Mother Jones. No who I am today, just a test to see how much you know about women and money. Answer either true or false to the following four statements. You can also put your answers in the comment section of the blog.
Women focus on non-financial household roles while men deal with the finances.
Women are emotional about money.
Women are impulsive shoppers and equally impulsive with financial decisions.
Women don't have the math skills necessary to make successful financial decisions.
You can find all the answers in the following article:
http://www.aolnews.com/money/article/fed-governor-duke-debunks-4-money-myths-that-sell-women-short/19462417?icid=main|htmlws-main-n|dl7|link5|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aolnews.com%2Fmoney%2Farticle%2Ffed-governor-duke-debunks-4-money-myths-that-sell-women-short%2F19462417
Are surprised by the results?
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
A Give Away
Did you know that May 15 is give your stuff away day? You put what you don't want at your curb and someone will take it. It is amazing the things you can learn by reading The Final Word by Craig Wilson in the USA Today:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/columnist/finalword/2010-05-05-final05_ST_N.htm
According to the column you can also go to:
http://giveyourstuffaway.com/
What are you giving away? I've got an extra vaccum cleaner, an extra microwave, some clothes that I haven't worn since George Washington was president, and numerous toys and games. What do you have?
Today's Who Am I.
Yesterday's answer was the amazing women behind President Warren G. Harding's success, Florence Kling Harding.
I was born in Ireland in 1830 or 1837 and died in Maryland in 1930. During my early childhood it was common in Ireland to see British soldiers marching through the streets with the heads of Irish freedom fighters stuck on their bayonets. My paternal grandfather was hanged by the British for being a freedom fighter. My father, also a freedom fighter, after gramps was hanged he was forced to flee Ireland with our family. I attended public schools in Canada and graduated normal school at 17. The next year I began working as a private tutor in Maine. I received a teaching certificate in Michigan at 20. I only taught for about eight months, moving to Chicago to work as a dressmaker. From there I moved to Tennessee to teach school again. In 1861 I met and married a staunch and prominent member of the Iron Molders' Union. I traveled with my hubby in his union organizing. Through him I learned about unions and the psychology of working men. I would advise women that the wife must care for what the husband cares for if he is to remain resolute. We had four children in quick succession. In 1867 my husband and all four children died of yellow fever within a week of each other. I stayed in Memphis nursing other victims until the fever epidemic waned. I moved back to Chicago, working as a dressmaker again. Tragedy soon followed when I lost everything I owned in my home and seamstress shop in the great Chicago fire. It was then that I embarked upon the path that made my name synonymous with social justice. Probably the seeds were sown earlier, while sewing in the homes of wealthy Chicago families. I was quoted as saying: "Often while sewing for lords and barons who lived in magnificent houses on the Lake Shore Drive, I would look out of the plate glass windows and see the poor, shivering wretches, jobless and hungry, walking alongside the frozen lake front.... The contrast of their condition with that of the tropical comfort of the people for whom I sewed was painful to me. My employers seemed neither to notice nor to care."
I began to attend meetings of the newly formed Knights of Labor. I continued to work in Chicago as a seamstress even though I had no fixed home. I began volunteering with the Knights of Labor as an organizer traveling back and forth across the country. I lived with the workers in tent colonies and shantytowns near the mills. In essence I adopted the hard workers of America and they called me 'Mother.' When they asked where I lived I told them that my address was like my shoes it travels with me and that I abide where there is a fight against wrong. I would travel to wherever there was a strike organizing and helping the workers. I would hold educational meetingst. Often I was at odds with union leaders. Because at one of the strikes I attended in Chicago policed fired into the crowd of peaceful strikers I am said to have changed my birth date to 1830 in honor of the strike for an eight-hour work day when the shootings took place. At only five feet tall and dressed in black with just a touch of lace at her throat and wrists I was the perfect picture of a grandmother. Yet when I spoke I was dynamic, energetic and enthusiastic often bringing my audiences to tears, applause and laughter. I was a gifted storyteller with a brilliant sense of humor. Two of my most famous quotes were: "I'm not a humanitarian. I'm a hell-raiser!" and "Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living." I joined the coal miners' fight becoming an organizer for the United Mine Workers of America. I knew the gruesome conditions and hazards of their work, and even went into the mines during strikes to convince scabs to quit and support their fellow workers. In 1902 at a rally in West Virginia I was arrested. When I was told my jail would be a hotel I demanded to be put in jail with the other miners. During my career I was arrested or escorted out of town many times only to return again and again. I started to fight for children, saying the following: "Little girls and boys, barefooted, walked up and down between the endless rows of spindles, reaching their little hands into the machinery to repair snapped threads. They crawled under machinery to oil it. They replaced spindles all day long, all day long; all night through. Tiny babies six years old with faces of sixty did an eight hour shift for ten cents a day." In 1903 to dramatize the need to abolish child labor I led a caravan of striking children from the textile mills in Pennsylvania to President Roosevelt's home in New York. We carried banners saying "We want time to play!" and "We want to go to school!" The president refused to meet with us but the "Children's Crusade" caught the public's attention. I helped found the Social Democratic Party. Later I was convicted by a military court of conspiring to commit murder and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. It created such a fervor that the U.S. Senate ordered a committee to investigate conditions in the coalfields. Before the investigations began he governor set me free. In 1924 I was sued for libel, slander and sedition. The publisher of the Chicago Times won a shocking $350,000 judgment against me. Earlier that year I was attacked by a couple of thugs while staying at a friend's house. I fought them off, causing one to flee and seriously injuring the other. My last public appearance was at my 100th birthday party. I was honored throughout the 1930s by labor activists and a Gene Autry recording. The popular children's song "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain" is believed to have been inspired by me. Who Am I?
http://www.usatoday.com/life/columnist/finalword/2010-05-05-final05_ST_N.htm
According to the column you can also go to:
http://giveyourstuffaway.com/
What are you giving away? I've got an extra vaccum cleaner, an extra microwave, some clothes that I haven't worn since George Washington was president, and numerous toys and games. What do you have?
Today's Who Am I.
Yesterday's answer was the amazing women behind President Warren G. Harding's success, Florence Kling Harding.
I was born in Ireland in 1830 or 1837 and died in Maryland in 1930. During my early childhood it was common in Ireland to see British soldiers marching through the streets with the heads of Irish freedom fighters stuck on their bayonets. My paternal grandfather was hanged by the British for being a freedom fighter. My father, also a freedom fighter, after gramps was hanged he was forced to flee Ireland with our family. I attended public schools in Canada and graduated normal school at 17. The next year I began working as a private tutor in Maine. I received a teaching certificate in Michigan at 20. I only taught for about eight months, moving to Chicago to work as a dressmaker. From there I moved to Tennessee to teach school again. In 1861 I met and married a staunch and prominent member of the Iron Molders' Union. I traveled with my hubby in his union organizing. Through him I learned about unions and the psychology of working men. I would advise women that the wife must care for what the husband cares for if he is to remain resolute. We had four children in quick succession. In 1867 my husband and all four children died of yellow fever within a week of each other. I stayed in Memphis nursing other victims until the fever epidemic waned. I moved back to Chicago, working as a dressmaker again. Tragedy soon followed when I lost everything I owned in my home and seamstress shop in the great Chicago fire. It was then that I embarked upon the path that made my name synonymous with social justice. Probably the seeds were sown earlier, while sewing in the homes of wealthy Chicago families. I was quoted as saying: "Often while sewing for lords and barons who lived in magnificent houses on the Lake Shore Drive, I would look out of the plate glass windows and see the poor, shivering wretches, jobless and hungry, walking alongside the frozen lake front.... The contrast of their condition with that of the tropical comfort of the people for whom I sewed was painful to me. My employers seemed neither to notice nor to care."
I began to attend meetings of the newly formed Knights of Labor. I continued to work in Chicago as a seamstress even though I had no fixed home. I began volunteering with the Knights of Labor as an organizer traveling back and forth across the country. I lived with the workers in tent colonies and shantytowns near the mills. In essence I adopted the hard workers of America and they called me 'Mother.' When they asked where I lived I told them that my address was like my shoes it travels with me and that I abide where there is a fight against wrong. I would travel to wherever there was a strike organizing and helping the workers. I would hold educational meetingst. Often I was at odds with union leaders. Because at one of the strikes I attended in Chicago policed fired into the crowd of peaceful strikers I am said to have changed my birth date to 1830 in honor of the strike for an eight-hour work day when the shootings took place. At only five feet tall and dressed in black with just a touch of lace at her throat and wrists I was the perfect picture of a grandmother. Yet when I spoke I was dynamic, energetic and enthusiastic often bringing my audiences to tears, applause and laughter. I was a gifted storyteller with a brilliant sense of humor. Two of my most famous quotes were: "I'm not a humanitarian. I'm a hell-raiser!" and "Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living." I joined the coal miners' fight becoming an organizer for the United Mine Workers of America. I knew the gruesome conditions and hazards of their work, and even went into the mines during strikes to convince scabs to quit and support their fellow workers. In 1902 at a rally in West Virginia I was arrested. When I was told my jail would be a hotel I demanded to be put in jail with the other miners. During my career I was arrested or escorted out of town many times only to return again and again. I started to fight for children, saying the following: "Little girls and boys, barefooted, walked up and down between the endless rows of spindles, reaching their little hands into the machinery to repair snapped threads. They crawled under machinery to oil it. They replaced spindles all day long, all day long; all night through. Tiny babies six years old with faces of sixty did an eight hour shift for ten cents a day." In 1903 to dramatize the need to abolish child labor I led a caravan of striking children from the textile mills in Pennsylvania to President Roosevelt's home in New York. We carried banners saying "We want time to play!" and "We want to go to school!" The president refused to meet with us but the "Children's Crusade" caught the public's attention. I helped found the Social Democratic Party. Later I was convicted by a military court of conspiring to commit murder and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. It created such a fervor that the U.S. Senate ordered a committee to investigate conditions in the coalfields. Before the investigations began he governor set me free. In 1924 I was sued for libel, slander and sedition. The publisher of the Chicago Times won a shocking $350,000 judgment against me. Earlier that year I was attacked by a couple of thugs while staying at a friend's house. I fought them off, causing one to flee and seriously injuring the other. My last public appearance was at my 100th birthday party. I was honored throughout the 1930s by labor activists and a Gene Autry recording. The popular children's song "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain" is believed to have been inspired by me. Who Am I?
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
May 4, 1970
It was the day the United States expanded the war in Vietnam by invading Cambodia.
In a picture that is embedded in the minds of many of those that were alive at the time 14 year-old runaway Mary Ann Vecchio is crying as she kneels over the body of a fatally wounded student.
On that site now is a granite memorial. When it was dedicated in 1990 a daffodil was planted for every soldier killed in Vietnam. A May 4 archive includes a student shirt with a bullet hole through it and a spent MI shell casings.
The Governor at the time called the protesters "the worst type of people that we harbor in America. We are going to eradicate the problem. We are not going to treat the symptoms."
In 12.53 seconds, 28 Guardsman fired 61 shots. The young runaway in the picture has spent her life trying to out run that picture.
The incident is said to be one of the reasons that there is no longer a draft. Forty years later it still gets front page treatment in the USA Today. For those that were alive at the time the following article will bring back memories. For those that weren't alive then the article tells of an important event in history. Today is the fortieth anniversary of the event. Here is the article:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-05-03-kent-state_N.htm
Do you remember the day? Are protestors the worst type of people we harbor? Like the girl in the picture has there been an event in your life that you are still trying to run from?
Today's Who Am I
Born in Ohio in 1860 and died, also in Ohio in 1924
I was the eldest child of three children. Dad owned a hardware store, which led to his owning other businesses and banks, making him the wealthiest man in the city of my birth. Father was extremely tyrannical and my mother was depressed and submissive. At the age of 19 I became pregnant by my boyfriend. I did it to escape my father. We eloped in 1880 and moved to another city. I gave birth to a son. My new husband turned out to be a spendthrift and a heavy drinker and left me in 1882. I refused to ask father for help. I rented a room and began giving piano lessons. After two years of this dad finally asked me to move back them suggesting that my son and I take his name. I refused. In 1884 I filed for separation. Dad then proposed another offer. He would not support me raising my son but he would take his grandson as his own, easing her financial hardship. I agreed. I was divorced in 1886. From the ordeal I developed a lifelong empathy for people struggling against society's expectations and refused to judge the choices people made. The seeds of feminism were also planted; developing strong beliefs about the rights and abilities of women to determine their own futures without male interference. "No man, father, brother, lover or husband can ruin my life," I was quoted as saying. "I claim the right to live the life the good Lord gave me, myself." Before eloping I worked in my father's hardware store from the time I could walk. I was a skilled horsewoman, was physically strong, and skilled in the arts of needlepoint and housekeeping. After graduating from high school in 1876, and having great musical talent I attended the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. Dad ordered me back home within the first year. In the 1880's I met a man five years my junior. I relentlessly pursued him even though he had a girlfriend. Dad did not want me with him and circulated rumors that his family was of mixed blood. In spite of my father's acrimony I married him in 1891. We did not have any children. Unlike other women of the time my own career helped establish my husband's success. I became the driving force behind the growth and establishment of his newspaper. I stopped teaching piano after and began going to work with my husband, looking at the accounting, whereupon he put me in charge of circulation. I organized local boys as news carriers, even spanking them when necessary, and devised the city's first home delivery service. I was the confidante big sister and boss to the boys, even sending them baskets and a top doctor when they were ill. I boosted their self-esteem, and organized a social club and a value system with awards for achievements and demerits for bad work. I increased the paper's revenue immediately and consistently. In 1894 my husband checked into a Sanitarium for the second time. While he was gone our business manager quit. I took over and never left. I went down there intending to help out for a few days, and stayed fourteen years. When hubby returned to the paper fulltime he was amazed at my success. At home I nursed him, trying to prevent another relapse. Hubby named me "The Duchess." When he ran for head honcho I enthusiastically backed him. Secretly I was concerned that his extramarital affairs would be exposed. He had had many affairs, including a 15-year relationship with one of my childhood friends. She became the only known mistress in U.S. history to blackmail the head guy. During hubby's run for the races I was concerned about my age and health. I had had a kidney removed in 1905 and was prone to debilitating infections. I put all my concerns aside and campaigned vigorously, even fostering the first use of Hollywood movie stars in a presidential race. The people, weary from The Great War, responded to my hubby's campaign slogan, "Back to Normalcy," and elected him in a landslide victory. I became the first wife of a head honcho to vote for my husband. The previous honcho had closed the big house. I delighted in opening the house to the public again. I held garden parties for veterans and group tours. I also visited injured veterans in the hospital. I always maintained my independence proving to be one of the great feminists of the day. I was my husband's key advisor, was involved in many charities, and crusaded for women's rights. I was the first wife of the main man to fly in an airplane. I made sure the pilot was a woman. At The House I invited other active women scholars, minds and athletes. In one letter to a women's group I commented about the partnership between a husband and a wife and their careers:
"If the career is the husband's, the wife can merge her own with it. If it is to be the wife's, as it undoubtedly will be in an increasing proportion of cases, then the husband may with no sacrifice of self-respect or of recognition, ... permit himself to be the less prominent and distinguished member of the combination."
During my husband's reign there were many scandals including one titled after a whistling kettle and about a lease to a private oil companies in Wyoming. On a tour to fight the scandals my husband became ill and died in San Francisco in 1923. Some rumors said I poisoned him. Others said he died of a heart attack or a stroke or anxiety about all the scandals. The official listing is a stroke. I returned to Washington by train with my husband's body. The public, still unaware of the expanse of the impending scandals greeted the funeral procession in droves. After my husband's death I tried to preserve reputations by burning every personal paper I could find. I returned to Ohio, where I died of kidney disease fifteen months after hubby's death. Who Am I?
In a picture that is embedded in the minds of many of those that were alive at the time 14 year-old runaway Mary Ann Vecchio is crying as she kneels over the body of a fatally wounded student.
On that site now is a granite memorial. When it was dedicated in 1990 a daffodil was planted for every soldier killed in Vietnam. A May 4 archive includes a student shirt with a bullet hole through it and a spent MI shell casings.
The Governor at the time called the protesters "the worst type of people that we harbor in America. We are going to eradicate the problem. We are not going to treat the symptoms."
In 12.53 seconds, 28 Guardsman fired 61 shots. The young runaway in the picture has spent her life trying to out run that picture.
The incident is said to be one of the reasons that there is no longer a draft. Forty years later it still gets front page treatment in the USA Today. For those that were alive at the time the following article will bring back memories. For those that weren't alive then the article tells of an important event in history. Today is the fortieth anniversary of the event. Here is the article:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-05-03-kent-state_N.htm
Do you remember the day? Are protestors the worst type of people we harbor? Like the girl in the picture has there been an event in your life that you are still trying to run from?
Today's Who Am I
Born in Ohio in 1860 and died, also in Ohio in 1924
I was the eldest child of three children. Dad owned a hardware store, which led to his owning other businesses and banks, making him the wealthiest man in the city of my birth. Father was extremely tyrannical and my mother was depressed and submissive. At the age of 19 I became pregnant by my boyfriend. I did it to escape my father. We eloped in 1880 and moved to another city. I gave birth to a son. My new husband turned out to be a spendthrift and a heavy drinker and left me in 1882. I refused to ask father for help. I rented a room and began giving piano lessons. After two years of this dad finally asked me to move back them suggesting that my son and I take his name. I refused. In 1884 I filed for separation. Dad then proposed another offer. He would not support me raising my son but he would take his grandson as his own, easing her financial hardship. I agreed. I was divorced in 1886. From the ordeal I developed a lifelong empathy for people struggling against society's expectations and refused to judge the choices people made. The seeds of feminism were also planted; developing strong beliefs about the rights and abilities of women to determine their own futures without male interference. "No man, father, brother, lover or husband can ruin my life," I was quoted as saying. "I claim the right to live the life the good Lord gave me, myself." Before eloping I worked in my father's hardware store from the time I could walk. I was a skilled horsewoman, was physically strong, and skilled in the arts of needlepoint and housekeeping. After graduating from high school in 1876, and having great musical talent I attended the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. Dad ordered me back home within the first year. In the 1880's I met a man five years my junior. I relentlessly pursued him even though he had a girlfriend. Dad did not want me with him and circulated rumors that his family was of mixed blood. In spite of my father's acrimony I married him in 1891. We did not have any children. Unlike other women of the time my own career helped establish my husband's success. I became the driving force behind the growth and establishment of his newspaper. I stopped teaching piano after and began going to work with my husband, looking at the accounting, whereupon he put me in charge of circulation. I organized local boys as news carriers, even spanking them when necessary, and devised the city's first home delivery service. I was the confidante big sister and boss to the boys, even sending them baskets and a top doctor when they were ill. I boosted their self-esteem, and organized a social club and a value system with awards for achievements and demerits for bad work. I increased the paper's revenue immediately and consistently. In 1894 my husband checked into a Sanitarium for the second time. While he was gone our business manager quit. I took over and never left. I went down there intending to help out for a few days, and stayed fourteen years. When hubby returned to the paper fulltime he was amazed at my success. At home I nursed him, trying to prevent another relapse. Hubby named me "The Duchess." When he ran for head honcho I enthusiastically backed him. Secretly I was concerned that his extramarital affairs would be exposed. He had had many affairs, including a 15-year relationship with one of my childhood friends. She became the only known mistress in U.S. history to blackmail the head guy. During hubby's run for the races I was concerned about my age and health. I had had a kidney removed in 1905 and was prone to debilitating infections. I put all my concerns aside and campaigned vigorously, even fostering the first use of Hollywood movie stars in a presidential race. The people, weary from The Great War, responded to my hubby's campaign slogan, "Back to Normalcy," and elected him in a landslide victory. I became the first wife of a head honcho to vote for my husband. The previous honcho had closed the big house. I delighted in opening the house to the public again. I held garden parties for veterans and group tours. I also visited injured veterans in the hospital. I always maintained my independence proving to be one of the great feminists of the day. I was my husband's key advisor, was involved in many charities, and crusaded for women's rights. I was the first wife of the main man to fly in an airplane. I made sure the pilot was a woman. At The House I invited other active women scholars, minds and athletes. In one letter to a women's group I commented about the partnership between a husband and a wife and their careers:
"If the career is the husband's, the wife can merge her own with it. If it is to be the wife's, as it undoubtedly will be in an increasing proportion of cases, then the husband may with no sacrifice of self-respect or of recognition, ... permit himself to be the less prominent and distinguished member of the combination."
During my husband's reign there were many scandals including one titled after a whistling kettle and about a lease to a private oil companies in Wyoming. On a tour to fight the scandals my husband became ill and died in San Francisco in 1923. Some rumors said I poisoned him. Others said he died of a heart attack or a stroke or anxiety about all the scandals. The official listing is a stroke. I returned to Washington by train with my husband's body. The public, still unaware of the expanse of the impending scandals greeted the funeral procession in droves. After my husband's death I tried to preserve reputations by burning every personal paper I could find. I returned to Ohio, where I died of kidney disease fifteen months after hubby's death. Who Am I?
Monday, May 3, 2010
Surviving The Recession
What are you doing to survive the recession? What creative things are you doing to cust costs until the economy comes back? This is what one woman did:
http://www.stylelist.com/2010/04/29/how-to-wear-the-same-dress-for-an-entire-year/?icid=main|htmlws-main-n|dl4|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stylelist.com%2F2010%2F04%2F29%2Fhow-to-wear-the-same-dress-for-an-entire-year%2F
I really admire the woman. I couldn't tell from the pictures that she was wearing the same dress!
The main thing I am doing to cut costs until the economy turns around is clipping coupons. Watching for sales and using coupons combined with double off coupons I've been able to reduce my grocery bill by about thirty per-cent. I've also did more free types of entertainment. Walking, museums, etc. The entertainment that I do that costs I've been fortunate enough to have been given gift cards for.
I do think the economy is turning around. I have two small tests that I do. Traffic and want ads. More traffic and more want ads means we are starting the economic turn around. There is definitely more traffic, a lot more. In this week's Sunday's paper there were thee pages of want ads. Three weeks ago their were only three columns of want ads.
The questions for the day are what creative ways are you surviving the recession? Do you think the economic turn around has started?
Today's Who Am I?
I was born in Missouri in 1826 and died in Washington D.C. in 1902. I was the fifth of eight children of a plantation owner. I was raised as a Methodist. My mother was raied in a cultured, educated manner so she made sure all eight of us kids were educated as well. In 1848 I married a man that one day would be president whom I met at West Point when I visited my brother. The first four years of our marriage were spent in Detroit and New York. The marriage was rough. I was separated from my husband when he was sent out West to command an infantry division. He was forced to resign for insubordination. He returned home in 1854 and failed at everything he tried. Everything changed when a war started. Experienced officers were in short supply so he was sent to make a disciplined fighting unit out of a rebellious volunteer regiment in Illinois. He went on to trap the enemy army in Richmond and became the most revered man in the army. During the war I tended wounded soldiers and sewed uniforms. I also joined my husband as often as was safe and took enormous pride in his accomplishments. Unlike many officers my husband insisted that I be with him. My steady nature, cheerfulness, and common sense helped him stay focused. He often would succumb to doubts, depression and alcoholism (which became a problem when he was out West) and I helped buoy his spirits. After the honest man appointed my husband commander during the battle of the river the President would send me to my husband knowing I was a good influence. I also became the center of attention and grew to love being the focus. When my husband was elected head honcho I transferred the famous shabby House into one of elegance and warmth, welcoming visitors with grace and compassion. I was described by many as unpretentious and friendly. The media wrote of my "propriety and dignity." I opened The House on Tuesday afternoons with receptions for "any and all" -- even saying, "Admit all," when asked about colored visitors. However, my staff denied entrance to such visitors without me knowing it. Knowing how much I loved the house my husband kept secret that he wasn't going to run for another term. When my husband was diagnosed with incurable throat cancer he wanted to leave me financially supported. Racing against time, bundled in blankets and wracked with pain, he wrote his memoirs, hoping its sale would support me. He finished it just days before his death with me remaining by his side throughout. I was so overcome I couldn't attend his funeral. I was lost, frightened and severely depressed for quite some time. My husband memoirs -- prompted and arranged by the most famous Mark of the time -- were a huge success, enabling me to move back to Washington, D.C. Living in comfort as a sort of "Grand Dame." I supported Susan B. Anthony and the suffragists. Over time my mental state improved enough to write my memoirs. I was the first woman that held a position to write memoirs. In 1902 I died at the age of 76. I was laid alongside her husband in a national monument. Who Am I?
http://www.stylelist.com/2010/04/29/how-to-wear-the-same-dress-for-an-entire-year/?icid=main|htmlws-main-n|dl4|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stylelist.com%2F2010%2F04%2F29%2Fhow-to-wear-the-same-dress-for-an-entire-year%2F
I really admire the woman. I couldn't tell from the pictures that she was wearing the same dress!
The main thing I am doing to cut costs until the economy turns around is clipping coupons. Watching for sales and using coupons combined with double off coupons I've been able to reduce my grocery bill by about thirty per-cent. I've also did more free types of entertainment. Walking, museums, etc. The entertainment that I do that costs I've been fortunate enough to have been given gift cards for.
I do think the economy is turning around. I have two small tests that I do. Traffic and want ads. More traffic and more want ads means we are starting the economic turn around. There is definitely more traffic, a lot more. In this week's Sunday's paper there were thee pages of want ads. Three weeks ago their were only three columns of want ads.
The questions for the day are what creative ways are you surviving the recession? Do you think the economic turn around has started?
Today's Who Am I?
I was born in Missouri in 1826 and died in Washington D.C. in 1902. I was the fifth of eight children of a plantation owner. I was raised as a Methodist. My mother was raied in a cultured, educated manner so she made sure all eight of us kids were educated as well. In 1848 I married a man that one day would be president whom I met at West Point when I visited my brother. The first four years of our marriage were spent in Detroit and New York. The marriage was rough. I was separated from my husband when he was sent out West to command an infantry division. He was forced to resign for insubordination. He returned home in 1854 and failed at everything he tried. Everything changed when a war started. Experienced officers were in short supply so he was sent to make a disciplined fighting unit out of a rebellious volunteer regiment in Illinois. He went on to trap the enemy army in Richmond and became the most revered man in the army. During the war I tended wounded soldiers and sewed uniforms. I also joined my husband as often as was safe and took enormous pride in his accomplishments. Unlike many officers my husband insisted that I be with him. My steady nature, cheerfulness, and common sense helped him stay focused. He often would succumb to doubts, depression and alcoholism (which became a problem when he was out West) and I helped buoy his spirits. After the honest man appointed my husband commander during the battle of the river the President would send me to my husband knowing I was a good influence. I also became the center of attention and grew to love being the focus. When my husband was elected head honcho I transferred the famous shabby House into one of elegance and warmth, welcoming visitors with grace and compassion. I was described by many as unpretentious and friendly. The media wrote of my "propriety and dignity." I opened The House on Tuesday afternoons with receptions for "any and all" -- even saying, "Admit all," when asked about colored visitors. However, my staff denied entrance to such visitors without me knowing it. Knowing how much I loved the house my husband kept secret that he wasn't going to run for another term. When my husband was diagnosed with incurable throat cancer he wanted to leave me financially supported. Racing against time, bundled in blankets and wracked with pain, he wrote his memoirs, hoping its sale would support me. He finished it just days before his death with me remaining by his side throughout. I was so overcome I couldn't attend his funeral. I was lost, frightened and severely depressed for quite some time. My husband memoirs -- prompted and arranged by the most famous Mark of the time -- were a huge success, enabling me to move back to Washington, D.C. Living in comfort as a sort of "Grand Dame." I supported Susan B. Anthony and the suffragists. Over time my mental state improved enough to write my memoirs. I was the first woman that held a position to write memoirs. In 1902 I died at the age of 76. I was laid alongside her husband in a national monument. Who Am I?
Sunday, May 2, 2010
I'm Catherine The Great
Hope this will be a leisurely and great day for all of you. The biggest news for me of the last week is that I had my annual physical on Wednesday. I still haven't received the results of the blood tests. It is a good sign though that the doctor hasn't billed me yet. He must think I am going to live for a while.
Next week the only thing on the agenda is to pickup our minister and take her to Mom's for a visit. Remember our minister is a blind woman that obviously doesn't drive. She really is an amazing woman. I enjoy spending time with her so for a couple of hours Wednesday afternoon I will be in the company of two amazing women, the minister and my Mom.
On to the entertainment update. Saw a couple of movies. The Bounty Hunter, ugh, terrible movie. Backup Plan, not awful. The Amazing Race didn't eliminate anyone last week. I'm still rooting for the Cowboys. They just seem nice and they are having fun. The also seem to fight through obstacles in good spirits. On The Celebrity Apprentice they didn't eliminate anyone either. The two teams did so well with their challenge that the Trumpster kept them all for another week. On Dancing With The Stars sadly they eliminated the bachelor. It should have been Niecy.
OK, before asking about your lives I thought this might be a fun thing to do. Find out what historical figure you are:
http://www.quizgalaxy.com/quizzes/what-historical-figure-are-you/
Here is my answer:
You are Catherine the Great! You are very intelligent and a socialist. It is very important to you that all people be treated equally in a society. You are able to fully comprehend social problems and you are outspoken when it comes to dealing with them.
Now it is your turn. Let me know what went on in your life last week. How everyone in your circle is doing. Friends, relatives, and strangers. Let me know what is on the agenda for next week. I always love to hear what you are up to. If you are new to blog I would absolutely love it if you would introduce yourself. And don't forget to tell me what historical figure you are!
Next week the only thing on the agenda is to pickup our minister and take her to Mom's for a visit. Remember our minister is a blind woman that obviously doesn't drive. She really is an amazing woman. I enjoy spending time with her so for a couple of hours Wednesday afternoon I will be in the company of two amazing women, the minister and my Mom.
On to the entertainment update. Saw a couple of movies. The Bounty Hunter, ugh, terrible movie. Backup Plan, not awful. The Amazing Race didn't eliminate anyone last week. I'm still rooting for the Cowboys. They just seem nice and they are having fun. The also seem to fight through obstacles in good spirits. On The Celebrity Apprentice they didn't eliminate anyone either. The two teams did so well with their challenge that the Trumpster kept them all for another week. On Dancing With The Stars sadly they eliminated the bachelor. It should have been Niecy.
OK, before asking about your lives I thought this might be a fun thing to do. Find out what historical figure you are:
http://www.quizgalaxy.com/quizzes/what-historical-figure-are-you/
Here is my answer:
You are Catherine the Great! You are very intelligent and a socialist. It is very important to you that all people be treated equally in a society. You are able to fully comprehend social problems and you are outspoken when it comes to dealing with them.
Now it is your turn. Let me know what went on in your life last week. How everyone in your circle is doing. Friends, relatives, and strangers. Let me know what is on the agenda for next week. I always love to hear what you are up to. If you are new to blog I would absolutely love it if you would introduce yourself. And don't forget to tell me what historical figure you are!
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Saving Seattle
A relaxing Saturday deserves a fun, good, and touching story. A huge shout out to the City of Seattle. The world is a safer place because of Super Hero, Electron Boy:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011740342_electronboy30m.html
Have you ever wanted to be a super hero? What special power would you possess if you had the choice? I would love to be a super hero, just don't know which one. The power that would like to have is X-Ray vision.
Off to mow the lawn. May this be a great day for you and may you use your super powers to help others and make this world a better place!
PS
The answer to yesterday's Who Am I was Isadora Duncan. The next Who Am I will be Monday.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011740342_electronboy30m.html
Have you ever wanted to be a super hero? What special power would you possess if you had the choice? I would love to be a super hero, just don't know which one. The power that would like to have is X-Ray vision.
Off to mow the lawn. May this be a great day for you and may you use your super powers to help others and make this world a better place!
PS
The answer to yesterday's Who Am I was Isadora Duncan. The next Who Am I will be Monday.
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