SUBSCRIBE »
Jul
4
The Hopeful Haven Project
When you think of homeless shelters, most people’s first thoughts leap to movies and what they’ve seen showcased on their television screens–Bland, cold, run down. Sadly, what people have seen for so many years on movies and television shows aren’t far from the truth in the least.
Terry Grahl visited a homeless shelter for women dealing with drug addictions and domestic violence, Grace Centers of Hope in Pontiac, MI. The women who live at Grace Centers of Hope have already had some very traumatic and life-shattering experiences and this shelter provides these women with shelter for them and their children for up to one year. Because of the experiences these women have already had, shelters such as Grace Centers of Hope and so many others across the country are there to lend these women a hand, to assure these women that their lives are not over and to relieve these women of their pasts and teach them to look forward towards a hopeful and promising future. While the mission of these shelters is amazing, the interior most often resembles the emotional deterioration of the women themselves; which is exactly what Terry Grahl thought when she visited Grace Centers of Hope.
As soon as Terry had seen the prison-like beds that these women slept in, the walls and carpets that looked as if they were part of an abandoned building that fell prey to a handful of high school kids wanting a place to party, she knew she had found a project to dedicate her time and talent to. Terry believed that these women deserved so much more, especially considering that Grace Centers of Hope is the “in between” place for these women to start to get on their own two feet and start to make sense of their lives. How were they to make sense of their lives while living in a space that lacked to inspire.
Luckily, not only Terry felt this way, but so did the women who ran this shelter as well as the people who had donated money to be used to revamp the center as well as those who had donated various items such as ceiling fans, air conditioners, washers and dryers, baby cribs, curtains, beauty products, homemade art and so much more. The community surrounding Grace Centers of Hope came together with Terry, the women who run this shelter and the women who find themselves in a shelter that once reminded them of how lost they were, but can now remind them to always have hope, to not look upon themselves as victims and to provide the best life they possibly can to their own children. The women of Grace Centers of Hope can now feel inspired, motivated and hopeful and their surroundings can now uplift them and hopefully, they will never feel the sorrow, loneliness, or feel victimized in any way for the rest of their lives.
To see what Terry and the women of Grace Centers of Hope and the people of Pontiac, MI did to transform this space for the women who live there, click the images below and you can also visit Terry’s website, Terry’s Enchanted Cottage, where she has dedicated a page to The Hopeful Haven Project.
Before Pictures:
After Pictures:
Jul
4
Share the Love
The Sharing the Love Blog Award, created by Memoirs of a Mommy Blog was started in honor of the organ donor who saved her son’s life. The award is meant to spread the word about how important organ donation is, and it really is.
I was given this award by The BoBo Files, whom I’ve guest posted for and that is simply all I am saying about him and his website, since he described me simply as a past feminist guest blogger and his web designer.
The rules to this award are to share the award with people whose blogs you love and those who receive it must link to this post, which is where the blog award started.
Thanks to The BoBo Files for giving me this award and I’m going to pass it along to Hops, the messiah of good humanity and to Ally, one of the most supportive and kind people I know.
Jun
17
Pro-Lifers Say No to Habitat for Humanity
We all know that “pro-lifers” want to destroy everything relating to reproductive health care and limit the types of reproductive health care women seek and are given. We also know that pro-lifers hate hate hate Planned Parenthood because they are “baby killers” (even though not all Planned Parenthood clinics perform abortions) and they distribute that evil poison-in-pill form known as birth control! Another widely known fact is that pro-lifers also do not give a damn about life after a person is born; no, they’re more interested in what goes on in the womb and they only care that that fetus gets out of the womb so they have more people in the world to fight with about reproductive health care and more people to tell off about how wrong they are when it comes to personal freedom and choice.
Yeah, the people actually alive and breathing on Earth right now really aren’t a concern to them, which can obviously be proven since they recently got a project for Habitat for Humanity shut down.
“An anti-abortion group has broken up a deal between Planned Parenthood and Habitat for Humanity by blasting out 10,000 e-mails to Habitat supporters.
Planned Parenthood is building a 23,000-square-foot regional headquarters on Central Avenue, and planned to sell Habitat the land next door for a token $10 to build three below-market-cost houses. The deal benefited Planned Parenthood because the city required the clinic to put up buildings as a buffer between its parking lot and Cohen Way.
“We could have put up any building we wanted,” said Barbara Zdravecky, president of Planned Parenthood. “We wanted to donate the land so Habitat could build more attainable housing.”
The email blast to 10,000 Habitat supporters started with James Sedlak, vice president of the American Life League, (Wow, a man, what a surprise…) who said it showed a cozy relationship between Habitat and Planned Parenthood. This “cozy relationship” was then compared to pushing pornography onto children, among other things.
The bottom line is that Planned Parenthood is a fabulous place, a great resource to women and whom have helped several women, including myself so I am speaking from first hand, personal experience here. The clinic needed builds to put up as a buffer against this type of ridiculousness and instead of selling the land for an enormous price to someone else, they decided to practically give it to Habitat for Humanity because they are in the same field–The field of helping people.
These groups, while they hide behind their cloaks of “We want to help people!” actually wind up hurting more and more people and this time, they targeted Habitat for Humanity because they feel as if accepting a space to build and to help other people, that means that they have a cozy relationship with Planned Parenthood. It is because of the hatred that these people have against something they do not understand that Habitat will not be able to build in a space that was donated to them and will not be able to help the people who need it.
Go here to contact Habitat for Humanity and let them know that they shouldn’t be bullied by people who want to stop them from helping low income families.
May
22
Recent Reproductive Rights Triumphs
There has been a lot of news on reproductive rights lately and sadly, I have not covered any of it. So here is all of the happy reproductive rights news I missed!
Canada has approved emergency contraception pill, Plan B, for over-the-counter sale. Emergency contraception sale in Canada was available over-the-counter in 2005, but only partially, as it was only available to women who had a medical consultation with a pharmacist.
If you’re curious as to what the status of emergency contraception sale in the US is, EC is available over-the-counter, however, women have had a hard time trying to actually obtain the pill due to pharmacists who should go and find a job that they can actually do, instead of punishing women because of their personal morals. Other things women have had to put up with trying to get Plan B are scare tactics, age limitations and conscience clause laws.
In other news:
- The UK has ruled 332 to 190 that they will not lower the abortion limit from 24 weeks to 20 weeks. A ruling trying to lower the abortion limit from 24 weeks to 22 weeks was opposed 304 votes to 233. Yay, UK!
- A law that would essentially criminalize all second trimester abortions in Virginia was struck down by a federal appeals court panel.
In a 2-to-1 decision, a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that the law was more restrictive than the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, which the United States Supreme Court upheld last year in Gonzales v. Carhart.
…”Unlike the federal act,” Judge Michael wrote, “the Virginia act subjects all doctors who perform” the more common procedure “to potential criminal liability, thereby imposing an unconstitutional burden on a woman’s right to choose.”
And lastly, here’s some reproductive rights activism via Feministing.
Susan Wicklund, an abortion provider living in Montana has recently written a memoir about her life as an abortion provider entitled This Common Secret. (Also note: I need this book!)
Dr. Wicklund is currently trying to open a new clinic in Montana where there are very few reproductive rights resources for women. However, like most of these cases, pressure from the anti-choice population is hindering her from being able to open the new clinic and building owners will not lease to her due to the pressure the anti-choicers are putting on them. So, to help Dr. Wicklund, a PayPal account has been opened in her name so she can most likely build a new building and open the new clinic.
If you would like to donate, please send an email to supportsuewicklund@gmail.com and ask for information on how to donate.
May
15
Bloggers Unite: Same-Sex Marriage
When the person you want to spend the rest of your life with ends up in the hospital in the intensive care unit and you are told that you are not allowed to see them because you aren’t “family” is unacceptable.
When the person you want to spend the rest of your life with gets in an accident and is killed and you are not made aware of this except for when their family tells you because you aren’t “family” is unacceptable.
When the person you shared your life with is gone and you are not consulted when planning their viewing, funeral, etc. because you aren’t “family” is unacceptable.
Not only are the three examples above unacceptable, they are also a direct violation of human rights.
Same-sex marriage has had a triumph recently. Today, as if it were planned for Bloggers Unite for Human Rights Day, California’s highest court ruled that denying same-sex couples the right to marry is unconstitutional.
This historic victory makes not only myself, but all human rights activists out there insanely happy. It is amazing that the country’s biggest state has opened their eyes and decided not to continue along with many other states out there who don’t believe that same-sex marriage should be legal and make marriage a universal right for everyone.
While same-sex marriage has had a triumph, this coming November opponents of marriage equality are pushing to get a constitutional amendment on California’s November ballot to ban same-sex marriage. If you would like to stand up for marriage equality, please consider signing this petition and pledge to vote no on any constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in California.
While this issue is one of many in the insanely large category of human rights, take a look over at the Bloggers Unite community and read what other bloggers are saying about human rights that mean the most of them–And if you have also participated in this day, go plug your post!
May
12
Bloggers Unite for Human Rights 2008
Bloggers Unite for Human Rights is taking place on May 15! This “blogging event” is being sponsored by Blog Catalog and they are urging all the bloggers out there to blog about human rights and draw attention to the challenges and successes of human rights issues.
For those of you out there (much like myself) who are thinking “This is a great event! However, human rights is a very broad topic, so what am I supposed to be blogging about?” Well, they have a few suggestions. Topics for Bloggers Unite may consist of the wrongful imprisonment of journalists covering assemblies, governments that ignore the plight of citizens (*ahem* Sound familiar?) and censorship of the Internet.
No matter what you write about, what is important is that on one day, thousands of bloggers will unite and share their unified support of human rights everywhere.
In order to participate, sign up for Bloggers Unite on their website, add one of their badges to your website’s sidebar and on May 15, share your human rights post with the Bloggers Unite community on Blog Catalog.
May
6
Happy International No Diet Day!
Today is International No Diet Day, which I think is a fabulous day to celebrate!
I believe that women should not be seen purely as sex symbols and that there is no such thing as a “perfect weight.” So often, when women are trying to reach their “perfect” weight by going on a diet, they become obsessed with weight loss and diets in general to the point where their perfect weight keeps getting lower and you fall victim to the evil life of anorexia or bulimia. People so often forget that there are physical and mental health risks when going on a crash diet that at first you swear is temporary.
The diet industry manipulates people into believing that they will never be seen as attractive or sexy unless they are a size two which is not only disgusting, but something that the diet industry should be of ashamed of themselves for. However, they do not feel ashamed or sorry for the amount of lives that they have ruined while reinforcing the idea of being the perfect size, specifically to women. Making billions of dollars per year, the industry understands the minds of women; they understand that if they make women believe that they aren’t skinny enough or that they aren’t beautiful, that they can ultimately cash in on other people’s self loathing and that is both terrifying and disgusting.
So today, in celebration of International Diet Day, I am urging people out there not only to break away from their diets today, but for good. It has been proven that diets do not work and if you lose weight at first, weight management is a bitch and more often than not, people not only gain their weight back, but they put on more weight from binge eating after starving themselves or not allowing their bodies the necessary nutrients that it needs to live.
If you are dieting to lose weight for health reasons, it is always wise to get the facts about diets or to consult your doctor and stress that you will not be taking pills, drinking weight loss beverages and etcetera and see if they have any other ideas as to how you can effectively lose weight and maintain your health.
Today would be a great day to strip down, maybe take a nice bubble bath, drink some wine and then afterward, look at yourself in the mirror–Yes, completely naked. While some may not like what they see, you must realize that your body is solely yours and putting it through hell will not make you feel better and ultimately will not make you look better. You are beautiful just the way you are and no one else has any right to tell you or lead you to believe any differently.
You may also want to check out a fabulous, fabulous post, A public service announcement from your body and also check out some fat acceptance blogs, such as the Big Fat Blog, Shapely Prose, or some others that are listed ideally on the Shapely Prose blog.
Apr
29
Report It on Angela Shelton Day
Happy Angela Shelton Day!
Today is the day where the Report It campaign, a campaign motivating survivors of sexual assault to report their cases via an online form at the Report It website, comes to a close with the biggest rally of unified sexual assault survivors taking place at various courthouses across the country! Today, on Angela Shelton Day, survivors are being asked to go to your local courthouses and say that the silence of sexual assault survivors has went on for far too long.
Sexual assault is the most under-reported crime in the world and it is also the least talked about. By being a survivor and living through your abuse and talking about your abuse, you are breaking the silence surrounding this pandemic. One person can change the world, so if you are able, please go to your local court house and speak up for the rights of survivors everywhere.
Here is the statement that is being read at rallies across the country:
“Sexual assault is the most underreported crime in the world. All too often victims do not report the crime to authorities for fear of not being believed, mistrust of the legal system, because they blame themselves for the crime or fear of retaliation. It’s time to address why this happens to sexual violence victims, while victims of other crimes, like robbery, don’t hesitate to seek justice. Victims of sexual violence deserve the equal protection of our laws. They deserve to be heard and validated. The Report IT Campaign is a first of its kind effort on behalf of all victims — an initiative designed to give hope to all victims that we can end the silence surrounding sexual violence. Our loud, unified voice today will be the first step in a multi-year effort to inspire much needed reforms and better access to justice for all victims.”
But this isn’t the end of the collaborative rally from Angela Shelton and PAVE. In fact, PAVE will be collecting reports from survivors for the next year, in 2009 this rally will run again just as it did this year but hopefully with even more people and in 2010, PAVE is taking this rally straight to Washington DC.
If you haven’t already, report your case today on Angela Shelton Day by filling out the online form. I filled mine out this morning and now it’s your turn!
If you need someone to talk to remember that you can always call RAINN. It’s safe and confidential. 1.800.656.HOPE or check out the online hotline.
Support
Support independent voices. Support feminist news and media. Support Menstrual Poetry. Advertise here.Show your support by putting a Menstrual Poetry banner on your website!
