Touching An American Sky

Women's History Month : Zitkala-Sa aka Gertrude Simmons Bonnin

Fri, 5 Mar 2010 20:58:17 -0800

A wee child toddling in a wonder world.... I prefer to their dogma my excursions into the natural gardens where the voice of the Great Spirit is heard in the twittering of birds, the rippling of mighty waters, and the sweet breathing of flowers. If this is Paganism, then at present, at least, I am a Pagan.

Half of humanity cannot rise while the other half is in subjugation.

- Zitkala-Sa, Sioux Indian writer, editor, musician, teacher and activist

Zitkala-Sa, a.k.a. Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, was born in 1876 on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota to an indian mother and caucasian father. She spent much of her life between two cultures -- that of Caucasian and Native -- and lived on and off of her reservation for much of her life, ultimately not feeling a part of either world. Despite this, she went on to become a writer and activist of some repute, and even composed an opera -- titled The Sun Dance Opera -- with William F. Hanson of BYU.

Women's History Month: Mo Mowlam

Fri, 5 Mar 2010 20:40:57 -0800

Margorie "Mo" Mowlam, the straight-talking, no-nonsense Englishwoman who was instrumental in brokering a peace deal between the IRA, Sinn Féin, and other factions fighting in Northern Ireland died in 2005 of a cancer she kept concealed from most of her family, friends, PM Tony Blair, and the government agencies she worked for. While a scattered few felt burned by the revelation that Mo's cancer was malignant -- not benign like she originally told everyone -- almost everyone understood that she kept the secret so she would be left alone in peace to do the job she felt she'd been born to do: help ensure peace in Northern Ireland, which had been nothing but a dream to many until she took it up as her cause.

Women's History Month : Huda Shaarawi

Fri, 5 Mar 2010 19:46:05 -0800

Huda Shaarawi -- Egyptian feminist, Muslim, and author -- lived to tell the story of her people's struggle and triumph after leading the first women's march during the Egyptian Revolution of 1919, a revolution against British rule which ultimately took the lives of most of her male relatives and enabled Huda to fight openly for women's rights. She wrote an autobiography, called Harem Years: Memoirs of an Egyptian Feminist 1879-1924, which detailed the struggles of the Egyptian women's movement and the revolution for autonomy.

Women's History Month : Max Dashu's Supressed Herstories

Wed, 3 Mar 2010 19:55:20 -0800

For an amazing trip into forgotten women's history, scholar Max Dashu is a brilliant resource, a flash in the dark boredom of typical patriarchal history, and a world treasure. Suppressed Histories, her company dedicated to uncovering lost female stories and legends, offers lectures, film screenings, books and posters, and an in-depth look at those who hold up the other 1/2 of the sky. Her career spans 40 years, and in that time she has redefined womens' roles in history.

Women's History Month BEGINS : Agnodice

Wed, 3 Mar 2010 19:44:20 -0800

Agnodice is one of those women whom history is in dispute about, and I personally believe this is mostly because so many of us find it hard to fathom the life of the independent woman from another time, or even from our own time. Though I hate to make generalizations, it's usually been men who I hear disputing Marija Gimbutas (whose work is now being rediscovered), who scoff at Amazons being any more than myth (tell that to the bones of Boudicca or the female Scythian warriors being dug out of the ground!), and who like to make statements such as "Well, 200 years ago, you couldn't vote in the US, and women didn't care" (which doesn't make sense given the fight for Suffragete rights, which had to be born somewhere!), or that we've never had control in religion, or else to say one of the most inaccurate and annoying things I've ever heard: "Well, men have to invent everything because of the way they're wired, and that's why women are stuck in the home -- because they want to be!" Tell that to the thousands of female inventors -- including those who invented language, made the first cave paintings, and wrote the first books ever known to history -- scholars, scientists, feminists, and other foremothers who kicked ass simply because there was a need to do so at the time.

Personally, when I think of all of the millions of women over the last 3 millenia (when foreign warfare seriously began trumping all other values) held back by patriarchy -- women whose inventions, ideas, passions and brilliance was either held back or else stolen by the men in their lives -- I am that much more detemined to make sure we know who the women are whose contributions are documented for the world to see. There is no excuse for holding back women -- or anyone of great potential -- for any reason. Babies will still be born, households will still function, and dudes will still get laid if the ladies are given their due. On the other hand, the more we hold one another back, smother one another's light and otherwise poison the well of ideas, the more we all lose as a people.

With these thoughts, I am reminded of Agnodice, a Greek woman of Athens born in the 3rd Century BC), who is said to be the first historical midwife as documented by Hyginus. Because women and slaves during Agnodice's time were not supposed to practice medicine, she decided to disguise herself as a man in order to study gynecology. By the time she was discovered -- the men she worked with became suspicious of the fact that women preferred her services over their own -- she was already quite successful, and the wives of Agnodice's male peers campaigned for her freedom to practice medicine in the open. This case reopened the doors for other women to re-join medical ranks (they flourished in ancient Greece before the 4th century BC) and brought a certain amount of notoriety to Agnodice.

The dispute over Agnodice is over the fact that the only historical record of her existence is by a man who lived nearly two centuries after his heroine was said to have mastered the art of gynecology. Given the scant historical records kept on women of note -- there are only small fragments of Sappho's poetry, for instance, and Enheduanna's fabulous religious writings in Egypt were treated with similar respect by patriarchal forces -- then I think it's probable that Agnodice's story, like that of the Amazons and other strong women, is a true one. Just because we can't fathom women setting themselves apart during that time (despite the fact that women do it all the time, and have for millenia) doesn't mean it didn't happen. It just means we can't wrap our minds around the humanity of those in the past, especially the women. Maybe we've seen too many movies, or we've been damaged by too many dull, dinky high school history lessons. I'm not sure where we got the idea that women could or couldn't do something based on the time they lived in. Where there's a will, there's a way.

Over the millenia, the work of women (and their families, though sometimes to a lesser degree) has been co-opted, destroyed, ridiculed or made to feel unimportant by various patricarchal forces seeking control. (For instance, aside from Susan B. Anthony, can you even name a Suffragette?) Invaders burned libraries, destroyed art and artists, forbade native peoples to practice their religion or medical arts, wrecked temples and local systems of government, and subjugated people in the name of domination and cornball visions of manifest destiny. Of course it's likely that Agnodice -- like her forgotten sisters before and after her -- existed; we just need to remember the context in which the one man who did remember her wrote her history for all to see.

Black History Month - Quotes

Wed, 3 Mar 2010 17:40:45 -0800

If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive.

When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.

The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house.

- Audre Lorde

I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That's all I know.

I never had a chance to play with dolls like other kids. I started working when I was six years old.

I never hurt nobody but myself and that's nobody's business but my own.

If you copy, it means you're working without any real feeling. No two people on earth are alike, and it's got to be that way in music or it isn't music.

You've got to have something to eat and a little love in your life before you can hold still for any damn body's sermon on how to behave.

- Billie Holiday

As long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold the person down, so it means you cannot soar as you otherwise might.

I suppose I might insist on making issues of things. But that is not my nature, and I always bear in mind that my mission is to leave behind me the kind of impression that will make it easier for those who follow.

Leadership should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it.

There are many persons ready to do what is right because in their hearts they know it is right. But they hesitate, waiting for the other fellow to make the make the first move - and he, in turn, waits for you.

Fear is a disease that eats away at logic and makes man inhuman.

It is easy to look back, self-indulgently, feeling pleasantly sorry for oneself and saying I didn't have this and I didn't have that. But it is only the grown woman regretting the hardships of a little girl who never thought they were hardships at all. She had the things that really mattered.

When you stop having dreams and ideals - well, you might as well stop altogether.

- Marian Anderson

I don't know if I continue, even today, always liking myself. But what I learned to do many years ago was to forgive myself. It is very important for every human being to forgive herself or himself because if you live, you will make mistakes- it is inevitable. But once you do and you see the mistake, then you forgive yourself and say, 'well, if I'd known better I'd have done better,' that's all. So you say to people who you think you may have injured, 'I'm sorry,' and then you say to yourself, 'I'm sorry.' If we all hold on to the mistake, we can't see our own glory in the mirror because we have the mistake between our faces and the mirror; we can't see what we're capable of being. You can ask forgiveness of others, but in the end the real forgiveness is in one's own self. I think that young men and women are so caught by the way they see themselves. Now mind you. When a larger society sees them as unattractive, as threats, as too black or too white or too poor or too fat or too thin or too sexual or too asexual, that's rough. But you can overcome that. The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself. If we don't have that we never grow, we never learn, and sure as hell we should never teach.

- Maya Angelou

The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.

- Alice Walker

Black History Month - Pat Parker

Wed, 3 Mar 2010 17:10:35 -0800

I love the awesome Texas dyke scene; I had an amazing time roaming The Montrose as a youth, and had my tush saved on a couple of occasions while homeless because of the love and friendship offered by some great women (biological and otherwise) in my life. Reading the works of Pat Parker (born January 20th, 1944 in Houston) reminds me of some of the lovely women I've been fortunate enough to meet, and it also makes me think of my favorite things about Texas: strong, independent, no-bs women who shoot straight, carry a big stick, and only walk and talk as softly as a situation calls for.

Like me and a lot of my friends, Pat also left home at an early age to educate herself in the western side of the country, and also like us, Pat is unafraid of her own boldness. Though she had a short life, it was a productive and prolific one, and at every turn she made her mark. Though she died from breast cancer on June 19th of 1989, Pat's brave words live on.

"Every time we watched
a queer hassled in the 
streets and said nothing --
It was an act of perversion.

Everytime we lied about
the boyfriend or girlfriend
at coffee break --
It was an act of perversion.

Everytime we heard,
"I don't mind gays
but why must they
be blatent?" and said nothing --
It was an act of perversion.

Everytime we let a lesbian mother
lose her child and did not fill
the courtroom --
It was an act of perversion.

Everytime we let straights
make out in our bars while
we couldn't touch because
of laws --
It was an act of perversion.

Everytime we put on the proper
clothes to go to a family
wedding and left our lovers
at home --
It was an act of perversion.

Everytime we heard
"Who I go to bed with
is my personal choice --
It's personal not political"
and said nothing --
It was an act of perversion.

Everytime we let straight relatives
bury our dead and push our
lovers away --
It was an act of perversion."

- From Movement In Black, 1978

*photo

Black History Month - Shirley Ann Jackson

Wed, 3 Mar 2010 11:46:16 -0800

Quick quote from amazing physicist Shirley Ann Jackson (quoting her father): "Aim for the stars so that you can reach the treetops, and at least you'll get off the ground."

Shirley Ann Jackson -- the first black woman to earn a doctorate from MIT (1973) -- did far more than merely reach the treetops: she went to the heart of matter itself. Starting off at MIT in 1964 after graduating as Valedictorian of her high school earlier that year, Jackson decided to attend the famed institution rather than go to another one with a higher black population (she was accepted at Brown, U of Chicago and Harvard), saying she wanted to encourage other black students do the same.

Dr. Jackson has a lifetime of awards, distinctions and special qualifications, and is currently president of Renssealaer Polytechnic, and has served in both the Clinton and Obama administrations.

Black History Month - Bessie Blount Griffin

Wed, 3 Mar 2010 16:53:15 -0800

Inventor, forensics scientist and physical therapist Bessie Blount Griffin (born 11/24/1914) is a terrific example of how the world economy can better the lives of people rather than simply exploit them. Upon graduating from the Panzer College of Physical Education and Hygiene, she moved to Chicago to study physical therapy.

During her time working with wounded WW2 veterans, Bessie invented a machine that allowed amputees to feed themselves by biting down on a tube that released food one bite at a time. When the US government wasn't interested in buying the invention, she sold it to the French government instead.

Bessie worked as a physical therapist for the mother-in-law of Theodore Edison (son of Thomas Edison) and while caring for her, she invented the cardboard emesis basin -- which is a shallow basin with sloping walls used in the care of bedridden people -- but again, the US did not want the invention, so she sold it to Belgium instead. These days, emesis basins are a common sight in most care facilities, and Bessie is credited for the invention.

In the late 1960s, Bessie switched gears and decided to go to work in forensics, and in this field she also quickly excelled, becoming the Chief Document Examiner at the Vineland Police Department. She eventually outgrew the position, and in 1977 she studied with Scotland Yard (she was the first African-American woman to do so) in hopes of learning the latest techniques and improving her skill set. She ran her own forensics consultancy until the late 1990s, and spent her time verifying the authenticity of slave, Civil War, and Native American documents.

She was named as a Notable Woman by Virginia Women of History in 2005.

Black History Month - Katherine G. Johnson

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 22:04:02 -0800

Katherine G. Johnson, born on August 28th, 1918, spent her early childhood living in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia with her mother, Joylette, and her father, Joshua. Her mother was a teacher, and her father alternated between farm and janitorial work. When Katherine's local education ended -- the local school regrettably accomodated African American only children until 8th grade -- her father committed to driving her (and the rest of the kids in the family) 125 miles to a school in another city so she could continue learning.

A brilliant student, Katherine graduated from high school at age 14, and from college -- she attended West Virginia State University -- she went on to graduate school at West Virginia University, where she received her degree in math.

After teaching grade school for 17 years, she was recruited by Langley Research Center to work as a mathematician in 1953. In 1958, she went to NASA to be a part of the formerly all-male Flight Mechanics Branch, and later to the Spacecraft Controls Branch.

Among her accomplishments: calculated the trajectory for Alan Shepherd's space flight in 1959. 2) calculated Alan Shepherd's Project Mercury Mission in 1961. 3) plotted backup navigational charts 4) called upon to verify the computer's numbers for John Glenn's orbit around the earth 5) calculated trajectory for Apollo 11's flight to the moon.

Katherine retired from NASA in 1986 and she currently lives in Hampton, Virginia with her husband.