Sep
29
Motivating Moment – Patty Griffin Takes Us “Up to the Mountain”
Filed Under Motivating Moments | By Morgan J Curtis | 1 Comment
In a continued effort to bring you positive energy in addition to news which is often quite negative due to the nature of our work, we have instituted Monday Motivating Moments, a place to share motivating, refreshing, and/or cheerful things with you to help start your week off right. These moments will come in the form of songs, poetry, art, stories and more, so stay tuned!
I was at Austin City Limits Music Festival this weekend and had the treat of seeing some of my favorite artists perform, including Austin’s own Patty Griffin. Seeing Patty Griffin perform “Up to the Mountain” live is always an amazing experience, and I thought I would share it as this week’s motivating moment. The song is based on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech, delivered the day before his assassination. I think the song is relevant to anyone who is working for social justice.
Sep
24
Ruth Anne Koenick: Powerful Woman
Filed Under Powerful Women | By Morgan J Curtis | Leave a Comment
Usually I blog about incidents that have aggravated or frustrated me in some way, things that show how our culture is a runaway train headed in the wrong directions hurtling us all to our doom. I’m fairly comfortable in that space of doom and gloom. It’s an easy place to be in. However, today I am both pleased and surprised to bring a positive and inspiring message to you all.
A few weeks ago, Robert Jensen sent me an article he was working on based on an interview he conducted with Ruth Anne Koenick, a woman who had a profound impact on his work in the movement to end violence against women. The idea itself struck me as poignant and profound largely because this has become a time where we are honoring fewer and fewer of the women who have been doing this work long term but telling the stories of and giving voice to almost any man who speaks out against violence and sexism. We have stopped honoring women’s role in social change – both the changes that have happened and those that are still to come as we continue to work to dismantle rape culture. In the interview, Koenick has the following to say about how far the movement has come and the challenges we still face.
I think there are some things that are better, but only at a certain level. Yes, there are rape care programs, and there is state and federal funding for a small piece of those programs. Maybe the prosecutor and I know each other well enough to chat and have lunch, but does that mean that the criminal-justice system is any more likely to treat a survivor well, to take her seriously today than years ago? The language has changed — we can say “rape” out loud and teach about it in courses — but has that changed the underlying belief system? People don’t come out of the womb wanting to be rapists nor believing that they are to blame when they are victims, but that’s where so many end up. What does that say about the culture’s belief systems?
Sep
11
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott today launched Operation Safe Shelter, a new emergency service that will provide registered sex offender information to evacuation shelter personnel. With Hurricane Ike moving rapidly toward Texas, multiple counties have issued evacuation orders and shelters across the state are expected to provide refuge to thousands of fleeing Gulf Coast residents. To aid emergency shelters, raise awareness and protect evacuees, the Office of Attorney General has established a 24-hour a day, toll-free emergency hotline that will allow shelter personnel to inquire whether evacuees are registered sex offenders.
When evacuation shelters contact the Safe Shelter Hotline at (866) 385-0333, law enforcement officials with the Office of the Attorney General will access and share information from the state’s registered sex offender database. That information will help shelter personnel determine whether any of their evacuees are included on the Department of Public Safety’s sex offender registry. To ensure thorough database searches, callers need to provide evacuees’ names, addresses and dates of birth. Shelter managers can use this information as necessary to coordinate specialized housing arrangements or take other action as appropriate.
Effective immediately, the Safe Shelter Hotline will be operational 24 hours a day and will continue until emergency conditions subside. In addition to the telephone number listed above, emergency shelters will be provided an e-mail address and fax line that they can use to submit evacuee information to the OAG. Operation Safe Shelter reflects a cooperative effort between the OAG, Department of Public Safety, State Operations Center and Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw. More information can be found at www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/hurricane.
Sep
9
The Borderlands
Filed Under Uncategorized | By Eileen Kelley | Leave a Comment
I was reading an excerpt from an old book last night, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. For those interested in Chicana/Latina literature, the 1980s saw the emergence of voices such as Lorna Dee Cervantes, Denise Chavez, Gloria Anzaldua, Cherrie Moraga and Sandra Cisneros. These authors often wrote of being Chicana (their word) within an institutional white and/or male-dominated culture while reflecting the culture along the border of the U.S. and Mexico.
Until recently, most Americans didn’t think about the border unless they lived within its province. Now, with anti-immigrant sentiment being so high, we are again seeing the re-emergence of border issues as a subject of high national anxiety and concern.
The call for closing the borders has been widespread. What began as a national security fear after 9-11, escalated to an outcry to deport the estimated 12-20 million undocumented workers, targeting primarily those of Latino origin. Support for closing the borders and building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico has even more recently gained majority (mostly non-Hispanic) voter support. To this end, the United States must broaden its definition of national security. Like all developed nations, it must confront the fact that no country can be safe while poverty, illiteracy, violence, preventable diseases and environmental destruction wreak havoc on others. Read more