Public Administration Career Roundup [infographic]
Working in the public sector can be extremely rewarding. Everyone wants to do as much good in the world as they can, which is why a lot of people look into careers as social advocates and with organizations doing good for the people within their communities.
Getting the right education is the first step you can take into getting into a career you can feel great about.
The infographic below shows how Anna Maria College can prepare you to work in a variety of public sectors, including grantmaking and giving services, as a civic officer, city manager, health care administrator, and more.
Via: Anna Maria College
Georgia O’Keeffe Loved Them, So Should You
In today’s day and age where a congressman can talk about “legitimate rape” and still have supporters (women supporters at that), sometimes we need to protect our last good nerve, take a deep breath and step back. What better a time than when we are annoyed at stupid conservatives who suppress and hurt our fellow sisters, to stand up and do something for womankind? And why not start with the women we owe everything to–our mothers. GlobalRose has Mother’s Day Flowers, and flowers to give mom on any occasion.
That Flower Looks Surprisingly Like A…
Flowers not only exist as examples of nature’s powerful and exquisite architectural talents, they are also nature’s vaginal symbols, as Alice Walker revealed in her Color Purple and as Georgia O’Keeffe revealed in her paintings. The flower is a symbol of a woman’s strength, and the place of her origin. In a dissertation published by Georgia State University, the graduate student reveals flowers as literary symbols in various works that showcased women’s artistry and rebellion. The author concludes by stating that a special connection exists between women and flowers, and that by better understanding these connections, one can better understand the contemporary social expectations, pressures and limitations that coincide with women and how they can use flowers in their concrete lives via the symbolic backdrop of literary projections. All in all, a flower represents a woman’s strengths.
Finding Mom the Right Flowers
As we know from the Victorians, flowers have their own language and each variety has a different message. If your mom lives far away you may want to give her a bouquet that features striped carnations, as their message is “sorry I can’t be with you,” or a grouping of pansies that represent “thinking of you.” Chrysanthemums convey love and truth, while gladiolas speak of strength and character. There are a number of Victorian study guides online that offer flower symbolisms and definitions. When crafting that flower arrangement for your mother, be sure to construct it based on the things about her you wish to honor and celebrate.
Be Creative
When you select mom’s flowers, consider making her a crafty little gift FROM the flowers—a deconstruction and repurposed project present will be completely unexpected and a great way for her to take in your creativity and passion to make it her own. For example, consider a flower arrangement that not only speaks the language of flowers, but that also contain blooms that are easy to work with. For example, making tea from dried flowers is an ideal gift, as is drying out the flowers to press into candles or other decorative arts. By taking some time to offer your mom a creative product based on flowers, you will be giving her the wonderful gift of sharing your womanly joys.
Photo by BuyiJet.com
The West Memphis Three are Free: An Amazing Day Laced in Absolute Tragedy
I have not blogged here in over three months, but I cannot think of a better day to start again than today.
Today is an amazing day. The West Memphis Three were released from prison. This is both extraordinary and incredibly tragic, as they have served 18 years–half of their lives–behind bars for a crime that they did not commit.
I slept in today. When I woke up, I took it easy, made coffee and took my time getting to my computer and settling in for the rest of the day to work–something I have not allowed myself to do in months. When I checked in on Facebook, I saw one single story pop up declaring that Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, Jr. were finally given the freedom that they have always been deserving of. I didn’t believe it. By the time I made it half-way through the first article, several others had been posted, assuring me that it really happened. I immediately started crying.
I have been following the story of the West Memphis Three for the past ten years. When I first heard about their case and watched the documentary Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, I was 14 years old. Like countless other people who have heard about the West Memphis Three, have seen the facts of their case and have long witnessed the corruption at work within an already incompetent justice system, as perpetrated by everyone who sought to convict them, I have developed a strong emotional connection to this case and to the three teenagers–now men–who had half of their lives literally stolen from them.
After they were tried and found guilty for the murder of three young, 8-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas, Damien Echols, who was 18 years old at the time, was sentenced to death and spent the past 18 years on death row; Jessie Misskelley, Jr., who was 17 years old, was sentenced to life imprisonment plus an additional forty years and Jason Baldwin, just 16 years old at the time, was sentenced to life imprisonment.
One of the factors that made me so emotional from the very first time I ever heard of the West Memphis Three is that I saw so much of my teenage-self in them; a feeling that a great deal of other supporters have acknowledged as well. When I was 13 and 14 years old, I was beyond fascinated by the Salem Witch Trials (still am), and I had begun learning about as many different religious beliefs as I possibly could, including Wicca. The practice of becoming educated on the many different religious affiliations and beliefs that are out there in the world is what predominantly led to my now strongly-held staunch atheist beliefs. But at the time, up until I was 17 years old, I was a black clothes and fishnets-wearing teenage girl with knee-length, ass-kicking black boots, arms that were filled with black jelly bracelets up to my elbows and more black eyeliner on my face than what many probably have in their makeup collections. If these three teenagers could face murder charges and be convicted based mostly on the fact that the system had labeled them as the “town freaks”, surely I could have gone through the same ordeal; as could anyone who illustrated the same qualities in their teenage years.
That these men are finally able to go home after 18 years is amazing, but how they were made able to walk out of those prison doors is disgraceful both to the state of Arkansas, as well as to the entire justice system.
In order for the West Memphis Three to be released today, they were practically forced into accepting an Alford plea deal, in which they all pled guilty while being able to continue to claim their innocence. For their guilty plea, they were sentenced to 18 years with credit for time served, as well as a Suspended Imposition of Sentence for 10 years. It is also stipulated that if they “re-offend”, they can be sent back to prison for 21 years.
I say that they were practically forced to take the Alford plea deal because firstly, DNA evidence that was finally tested in July 2011 concluded that the West Memphis Three are not guilty of the crime in which they have been serving time for. After serving 18 years in prison for a crime that they now have proof that they did not commit, the state of Arkansas would only give them the freedom that they are entitled to as long as the state could protect itself from one of the most corrupt acts that they are totally and completely guilty of. That is outrageously disgusting and an obscene abuse of power.
In response to the plea deal that was accepted, a press conference was conducted with the West Memphis Three (video below); here is what Jason Baldwin had to say about taking the plea deal:
“This was not justice. In the beginning we told nothing but the truth–that we were innocent and they sent us to prison for the rest of our lives for it. We had to come here and the only thing the state would do for us is say, ‘Hey we will let you go only if you admit guilt,’ and that is not justice any way you look at it. They’re not out there trying to find who really murdered those boys, and I did not want to take the deal from the get-go. However, they are trying to kill Damien, and sometimes you just got to bite the gun to save somebody.”
A portion of Damien Echols’ statement is below, you can read it in its entirety here.
I have now spent half my life on death row. It is a torturous environment that no human being should have to endure, and it needed to end. I am innocent, as are Jason and Jessie, but I made this decision because I did not want to spend another day of my life behind those bars. I want to live and to continue to fight for our innocence. Sometimes justice is neither pretty nor is it perfect, but it was important to take this opportunity to be free.
I am not alone as there are tens of thousand of men and women in this country who have been wrongfully convicted, forced into a false confession, sentenced to death or a lifetime in prison. I am hopeful that one day they too will be able stand with their friends and family to declare their innocence.
That last part is incredibly important. The West Memphis Three were lucky. They have an incredible amount of supporters and people who have dedicated so much of themselves to doing everything in their power to ensure that these three men would see the freedom that they deserved; including an entire film crew who have worked through the years to put out two documentaries on their case. These documentaries have reached an astounding number of people, making this case known around the world. Without the notoriety that these men received at the hands of their many high profile supporters, they would still be in prison and Damien Echols would have likely been executed years ago.
They were lucky, and yet there are so many people living right now behind bars who had never committed the crimes that they were found guilty of. So, with that in mind, check out The Innocence Project, a national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing and who strive to reform the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.
Here is a press conference conducted with Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, Jr.:
International Day of Compassion and Finding My Passion Again
Yesterday was International Day of Compassion, created as a blogging event by BlogCatalog and organized by its blogging activism website, Bloggers Unite. The day was created in honor of Dr. Patch Adams, a man who through great struggle in his life and after three hospitalizations in one year due to how suicidal he was after being relentlessly bullied in school, declared to himself that “you don’t kill yourself; you make revolution.” That is exactly what he has done throughout his life.
In 1971, Dr. Patch Adams founded the Gesundheit! Institute where each year, he organizes a group of volunteers from around the world to travel to various countries dressed as clowns in order to bring humor to people, patients and orphans of those countries. Everything Dr. Patch Adams does in his life is because of the compassion he has in his heart. I never saw the movie “Patch Adams” starring Robin Williams. Everything I know about Dr. Patch Adams is because International Day of Compassion was created in his honor and naturally, I did a bit of research on him. I can now say that I am truly and completely blown away by this man, especially, I must admit, because he is completely against insurance policies being used to dictate who is worthy of receiving the highest quality of medical care and in essence, who is worthy of living a happy, healthy life and who must suffer because of their lack of finances.
I took part in International Day of Compassion and wrote a post for my other blog, Woman Tribune, also known as my day job. While writing this post, I noticed that I was writing from a place I haven’t really touched on in months–the place within myself that oozes passion and heart and everything that has always bubbled within me and kept me blogging here on Menstrual Poetry for years.
Woman Tribune is my livelihood; it is the reason why I have a roof over my head and food in my refrigerator, but the reason why it pays is because it is all facts, fun and frivolous. It has a completely different tone than anything I have ever written here. At times, well, most of the time really, it lacks heart. When Woman Tribune took off and started receiving more attention and thus my bank account started seeing more action, Menstrual Poetry took the backseat in my daily life in a pretty extreme way. As a result of that, it has been over a year since I have blogged here more than two or three times a month.
It has been so long since I have written with the amount of heart that I wrote with last night and once I felt that vulnerable, excited and sort of anxious feeling in my gut–the same feeling I have had while writing every post on this blog–I knew that my passion had finally returned. And it is amazing.
And as for that post for International Day of Compassion…
There is so much in our world that needs to changed. It is possible and do not ever, not for a second, let anyone tell you that the world you envision living in isn’t possible or that you don’t have the power within yourself to initiate or contribute to lasting change in the world. Take the lead of Dr. Patch Adams and other revolutionaries throughout our history and every time you get knocked down, stand up again and declare your truth louder each time.
Compassion is what contributes to the greatness of humanity; if more people were to look inside themselves and exhibit compassion in everything they do, we would see so much less suffering in the world. We would see the world in the way we have always envisioned it to be–with less struggling, less hunger, less homelessness, less ignorance, less sickness, less silencing, and with more love, more understanding and more peace.
Blog for International Women’s Day 2011
International Women’s Day is exactly one week from today–Tuesday, March 8th. This is a day that first began in 1975 during International Women’s Year and was announced by the United Nations as a day to celebrate achievements and struggles of women all around the world.
Women have accomplished absolutely amazing things throughout history and we continue to do the same today. Without the diligent, shameless, kick ass and inspiring activism of women, we as a collective people would not be who we are today and our worlds, no matter how seemingly different in culture from one location to the next, would not be what it is today. And there is so much more to do.
There are countless women’s rights activists, feminists, womanists, humanists and socially-conscious people who participate in celebrating International Women’s Day every year. There are currently upwards of 1500 events taking place all over the world this year alone posted on the official International Women’s Day website. Bloggers have also come to celebrate this day through their blogs, such as the series of interviews the super amazing and fantastic Renee Martin of Womanist Musings conducted with bloggers who make up a good portion of the society and culture blogosphere in 2009. Then again, I could be biased since I was one of the women she interviewed, which you can still read here.
Gender Across Borders is urging more bloggers to step up and recognize and celebrate International Women’s Day with their second annual Blog for International Women’s Day (Blog for IWD for short). Each year, there is a running theme associated with International Women’s Day; this year’s theme is “Equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women.” Going along the vein of this theme, Gender Across Borders is asking bloggers to think about any of the following questions in regards to the U.N.’s theme for International Women’s Day:
- What does it mean to have equal access to education, training and science and technology for women, and how do we get there?
- Describe a particular organization or moment in history that helped to mobilize a meaningful change in equal access to education, training and science and technology for women.
If you plan to participate in Blog for International Women’s Day, add your blog to Gender Across Border’s link roundup of participating blogs and spread the word on Twitter using hashtag #BlogforIWD.
Sex-Positivity
I'm passionate about sex-positivity and believe every sexual being should have the freedom to explore their sexuality safely and without condemnation. I even lost my ad network after my refusal to censor myself after reviewing feminist porn.So if you're in the market for sex toys, porn, books, etc. take a look at the retailers below, all of which are feminist-friendly.
Out Campaign
The OUT Campaign allows individuals to let others know they are not alone. It can also be a nice way of opening a conversation and help to demolish the negative stereotypes of atheists. Let the world know that we are not about to go away and that we are not going to allow those that would condemn us to push us into the shadows.
