A lot of people over the past 2 days have told me they wish they'd had time to attend at least the rally part of the Unite Against the War on Women March and Rally and envied me for going.
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I'm not terribly sure they should envy me. It was hard, carving the time out of my life to attend the March and Rally. I had committed a year ago to helping at a local ethnic festival and the annual Arts Festival - last year; they were not on the same date, but for some reason, this year, the ethnic festival and the Arts Festival took place the same weekend. I made arrangements so my shifts didn't overlap at these 2 festivals, and then - the Rally came up and I had to attend. It was important that as many bodies and voices were present as possible.
So I arranged to make sure my shifts at the 2 festivals didn't conflict with the time I would spend on the March and the Rally and squeezed all 3 events into one day, plus working on seeking funds for OctopodiCon and doing paperwork, plus finding time to mow that ever-growing lawn, do dishes and laundry, sew Itzl's new summer carrier with the ice pockets (his other one wore out), work on Hector's training, and find time to play with Xoco.
But it was important to carve that 5 hours out of my day to spend at the Unite Against the War on Women March and Rally.
I showed up to help set up at the start point, arriving before the organizers. And when the organizers did show up, they didn't need help setting up after all. It was all - not organized, but also not terribly involved. They had a stack of chants and a route map to distribute and extra signs for people to carry who hadn't brought any. That was pretty much it.
So I and many of the others who arrived early took pictures of one another and the signs. For all the cameras out there, very few images have made it online as of yet. And for all the media there, very little of it made the local news. There was a brief pastiche of video on KOCO TV, a mention on the NEWSOK website, but not broadcast, a couple of inches in a college newspaper, and crickets chirping from all the other news stations and media that were there.
There were some awesome signs there:
Future POTUS:
Don't they get that this is important?
I marched and protested in the 60's to gain women's rights, following in the footsteps of the suffragettes who won for us the right to vote and to own property in our own names. They took the first steps, and my generation took the second steps, to win for us the right to plan when and how we would have families and to gain better pay in the workplace. And now, we're marching for the same things again?
Oklahoma itself has had an extremely long history of abusive legislation, what we call legislation through exclusion - excluding large segments of our society by setting them either outside of the law or making highly restrictive laws governing their behavior. These laws are generally made by people who are not part of the group they are legislating against, which means those groups have no representation, because not even their duly elected employees will speak up for them. The severely under-represented groups in Oklahoma include: women, children, non-white, disabled, differently gendered, and elderly. Laws are created to be punitive towards these groups.
Did you know Oklahoma has the highest incarceration rates for women of all 50 states, plus Puerto Rico? Did you know Oklahoma pays women less than any other state? Did you know domestic violence is on the rise in Oklahoma? Did you know Oklahoma has the highest pre-teen pregnancy rate - most of those children were raped by their fathers, uncles, or grandfathers and forced to carry the babies to term even though an abortion would be both safer and healthier for them? Did you know Oklahoma has the highest teen pregnancy rate - and it's on the rise, as high as 75% in some parts of the state? Did you know violence against women is rising in Oklahoma, not just domestic violence, but all violence? Women who live alone experience greater incidences of vandalism to their property, higher incidences of sexual harassment, and more intimidation by men.
There's a lot to protest in Oklahoma, from personhood bills to planned parenthood, from domestic violence laws to health care restriction laws.
One thing we have to change, not just in Oklahoma but elsewhere in our country is the action of our legislators to legislate by exclusion - they exclude huge portions of our society in the bills being introduced and the amendments attaching to otherwise tolerable bills and the laws being passed. No laws should be made that force large segments of our society to be legally unable to acquire the basics of life, from healthcare to adoption, from marital partners to living wages based upon their sex, gender, skin color, or age. We have to stop excluding Americans from America.
The few media sources that reported on the Unite Against the War on Women March and Rally said there were approximately 250 people there, but that's not true. That's the number of people who marched, who walked from the Unitarian Church to the State Capitol 1 3/4 miles away. We arrived at the Capitol to be greeted by several hundred more people who didn't march. I'm accustomed to estimating crowd size based on my decades of doing so for the OU Mediaval Fair. At its peak attendance, there were probably 500 - 550 people there who were not the organizers.
There were tables of groups representing women - NOW, League of Women Voters, Coalition for Reproductive Justice, Unite Women, ACLU, and more - there were at least 15 tables set up out there.
There was a table set up for people to write messages on photocopies of a Voter ID card to post on a bulletin board.
There were many good speakers. I wish I could remember who they all were and what they all said. I especially wish they'd had transcripts of the speeches available so those who were hearing impaired could have gotten more information about what was happening. Except for Itzl alerting on several instances of microphone feedback (he stopped after the second one, but I could tell by the winces that there were more), I could hardly hear them, and I sat up close so I could hear them without the microphone and see their faces. I still missed most of what they said. I know which speakers were the most well received - Senator Constance Johnson was one of them, and the radio personality from Tulsa whose name I can't remember even though we spoke before the march.
Senator Constance Johnson:
The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
A couple of other speakers:
I was kind of sad to see that the rally ended on a low note - by the time the last 3 speakers were up, most of the crowd had left. Partly this was because it was hot even though it was overcast, and partly because 3 hours of speeches without anyplace to sit is hard on people. A lot of people chose to sit on the steps (I was among them), but everyone else stood on hard concrete. That most of them lasted as long as they did speaks to how important these issues are.
If the rally had ended with Senator Constance Johnson's speech, I think people would have left invigorated instead of the exhausted trickle of people who seemed glad that the rally was finally over - and most of them faced another long walk back to their cars at the Unitarian Church 1 3/4 miles away.
Over the next few days, I'll be getting more in depth on this topic because it's too broad, everything that happened at this rally and all the reasons for it.
In the meantime, here are some Top Comments from around DKos, followed by Top Mojo and Top Photos (always my favorite part):
(brillig here: A warm welcome to Noddy on her inaugural Top Comments diary! ::wild cheers and applause:: I'll be your Tops provider tonight...)
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything
without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do
not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
From SottoVoce:
Love this comment by Radical Moderate in Meteor Blades' fp story about how Obama is tying green energy initiatives to the economy. Short, sharp and to the point!
From vacantlook:
This comment by AlyoshaKaramazov is bumper sticker worthy!
From Tamar:
Here's a great comment by Getreal124 that really describes the problem with Republican men's attacks on equal pay for equal work.
From BeninSC:
This comment from gchaucer2 expresses appreciation for the idea that the administration has not been ... as responsive as we would like, but the frustrations pale beforethe threat posed by a potential Romney presidency.
Found in an excellent Obama union visit diary by Laura Clawson.
Read the diary if you don't read the comment.
I know this comment (in Ojibwa's beautiful The Ravalli County Museum (Photos) diary) is far from Chrislove's best - I hope it does not embarrass him that I submitted it - but I liked it because of the bright, supportive, encouraging, nurturing spirit he ALWAYS projects in his contributions on this site. I think he makes a fine example and role model, and he is both of those to me. Being nice and reasonable and honorable isn't weak. On the contrary, it is strong, dignified and noble.
Finally, a diary rec! blueyedace2's first photo diary using the new camera!
From brillig:
Several from Kaili Joy Gray's Oklahoma Supreme Court strikes Personhood Amendment from ballot, calls it 'clearly unconstitutional' - roberta g's tax question brought this anecdote from mamamedusa, and ontheleftcoast ties it to global warming.
Brilliant little summary nugget by Something the Dog Said in his diary Calling BS on the "Privatization is More Efficient" Meme.
EDIT'cause I skipped this comment nom by mistake!
From Steveningen:
In Gary Norton's diary President Obama Could Hardly Keep A Straight Face, NMDad fires off a good one at ol' Flight Suit McGeorge's expense.
Top Mojo for yesterday, April 29th, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you
mik for the mojo magic!
1) this was good, if late; by kamarvt — 262
2) navajo and I are jointly contributing... by Meteor Blades — 155
3) First Nations News & Views ... by Meteor Blades — 147
4) Add another 100 by Denise Oliver Velez — 118
5) As usual, by Ojibwa — 105
6) It's happening faster than anyone predicted. by One Pissed Off Liberal — 103
7) I was wondering where she was by betson08 — 103
8) Of ALL the lovely, wonderful thing Aji is . . . by noweasels — 95
9) Tip'd, rec'd and donated...to help... by Glen The Plumber — 90
10) I want to share this... by SwedishJewfish — 89
11) A simple voter's guide: by Scott Wooledge — 86
12) I'm in too by betson08 — 86
13) Reid needs to pull his head out of his butt by pollwatcher — 86
14) I donated using paypal. by maggiejean — 85
15) I saw the show by the OTHER rasmussen — 84
16) So was I and they both handled themselves very by flatford39 — 83
17) paypal sent. n/t by Denise Oliver Velez — 82
18) Beautifully said. by ncarolinagirl — 81
19) my $0.02 by AlyoshaKaramazov — 80
20) Tipped, recommended, and going to by blue jersey mom — 78
21) Something will be coming from me, navajo by KelleyRN2 — 77
22) Been sending $50.00 a month for the last few by racheltracks — 77
23) Obama's been expected to clean up a pile of manure by Sirenus — 76
24) Another $100 Here by shanikka — 75
25) We seriously care about Aji and Wings. I just by nannyboz — 74
26) i am so very saddened by Avila — 73
27) Donation sent via paypal. by Joy of Fishes — 73
28) Migwitch by Ojibwa — 72
29) Tipped, Rec'd and will send a small check. by Ebby — 72
30) Donation sent by envwq — 70
Top Pictures for yesterday, April 29th. Click any image to be taken to the full comment. Thank you
jotter for the image magic!