fight guns with girls

Here is another opinions piece from the New York Times about the treatment of Afghan women, written by a member of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. Read it.

Afghan women march, America turns away

I'm not usually one to groan about how the American media overlooks international crises in lieu of covering a YouTube "sensation" or a study that shows thinner people contribute less to global warming. But sometimes I just get to a point when the 24-hour news cycle could be used for so much more significant news. In years past, we could argue that newspapers had a limited amount of print space, and therefore had to focus on local issues in order to sell their product. Fine with me. But in a time of endless opportunities, when a story can run 18 pages and not cost any more than one of two sentences, why not spend the money to get to deeper and more substantial stories? Yes, the recent news of Taliban action against women has been covered, in some fashion, by FOX (at least they picked up the AP story, if that's "covering" something), The NYT, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, CNN, and others.

But, as the Times' column notes, "First, with the economic crisis and other domestic priorities, there is a sense in Washington that helping Afghanistan democratize is either a luxury American taxpayers cannot afford or a charitable cause they can delay."

This is terribly frustrating for me, especially because I have read several studies that show the education and advancement of women in a restrictive society, such as the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan, is an extremely effective way to fight terrorism. This was the attitude of Greg Mortenson, the subject of the runaway bestseller "Three Cups of Tea." He saw the education of women as fundamental to a stable and progressive society, and since has built over 78 schools in rural and often volatile regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan, which provide education to over 28,000 children, including 18,000 girls, according to the book's website.

As we face more than a trillion dollar defecit, a worldwide economic recession, and still fight a war on (at least) two fronts in the middle east, I would be much more supportive of a "war on terror" if it meant fighting the root causes of terrorism and hate, rather than just blowing them up.

(In other feminist rant news, check out this story from CNN about a case that reached the Supreme Court about a 13-year-old girl who was stripped searched at her school.)

a goal achieved

Whitworth's Relay for Life event was Friday evening. I surpassed my fund raising goal by $20, which is definitely a first for me in the world of raising money. I walked for a cumulative 3.5 hours, and was happy to take every step. Coincidentally, today is Spokane's Komen race for the cure, specifically focused on breast cancer awareness. In honor of the race, I woke up and put on my "I heart boobs" shirt. The back of the shirt says "If you don't check them, I will." And don't think I won't.

I wasn't the only one who noticed

Women in Afghanistan took to the streets Wednesday to protest the new Taliban-like restrictions on Afghani women, specifically in relation to marital sex and and sexual rights of women. I would have been honored to walk the three miles with them through mobs of of men calling them whores and attacking their vehicles. Check out this video of the march from the New York Times (sorry for the weird sizing):

we take what we get

I haven't gone on a serious feminist crusade in at least 5 posts, so it's high time to be outraged at something once again. Well it's actually not too terribly infuriating, just an interesting observation.

In a recent online Q&A from New York Times editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal, a reader asked this question: "I find it a bit peculiar that the two women columnists, Maureen Dowd and Gail Collins, are satirical and humorous. I adore their writing, and generally think they are spot on, but it is almost like you cannot get a "serious" woman columnist. Do you agree?"

Rosenthal responded by essentially saying he would be the "last person alive" to say either woman wasn't a serious columnist. GOOD FOR YOU. Though I admit I'm not as familiar with Collins' work, Maureen Dowd is usually my first stop if I'm perusing the NYT's editorial pages. (It used to be Nicholas Kristof, but for a while they were charging for his stuff online, so I got out of the habit cause I'm cheap.) So anyway, I just wanted to say I appreciate Rosenthal standing up for his staff, and would hope that in future queries, readers take a minute and think about the fact they would never criticize a paper for only having satirical male columnists.

In other woman rage, the NYT staff editorial today, titled "Women, extremism, and two key states," deals with the recent activity worldwide that shows us once again the high cost some of our world pays for being born with a vagina. In Afghanistan, marital rape is now essentially legally sanctioned. In Pakistan, a woman was publicly flogged for denying a marriage proposal. In Saudi Arabia, a judge refused to nullify the marriage of an 8-year-old girl to a man of 58.

Even though some steps are being taken globally in the right direction (example: 10 villages in Niger have officially denounced female circumcision, and the Pakistani chief justice rebuked the attorney general for allowing the flogging), we still aren't there. It's one thing to see the videos of starving children and say "oh, that's sad." But for most of those children, they aren't hungry because their country's religion or cultural heritage forbids them food.

Even in the states, the leading cause of death for most pregnant women is homicide, usually by a close intimate partner.

So stand up for the vaginas around the world. Religious, cultural, or otherwise, we all deserve to live a life of safety, especially from the government or power-holding group of any given society. Maybe Maureen Dowd can write a sarcastic column about it, since apparently that's the only style some readers feel is used by women. Oh wait, she already has:

Should Michelle cover up?
Sweet on Caroline
Boxers, briefs, or silks?
A Makeover with an ugly gloss

a little unorthodox

Sometimes I wish I could celebrate Yom Kippur instead of Good Friday. In Jewish tradition, this is the day of atonement, a day of repentance, prayer, the day our verdicts are sealed in the Book of God. For me, Good Friday is this sort of holiday. Easter, even after 21 years in the Protestant church, is not something I can yet wrap my mind around. I feel like something so incredibly holy took place on that day, that to go to church and sing "He's alive!" and smile at the daffodils outside the church doesn't even brush the surface of its magnitude. Even the concept of Passover is still a little out of my league.

Sin is much more of a realistic topic for me to work with.

So in the Easter weekend, I tend to focus on Good Friday. I try to think of those things I can do to make the nails thinner, the sun less intense as it beats down on the hilltop, the cries of the mothers less sorrowful. I think of the things in my life that are truly good, and those things that I can try to make good in the year to come. So today, may we all find forgiveness, and forgive others. Find the grace that we can't understand, but have to accept, and give thanks for it in the only way we can: by showing grace to others.

updated schedule

A lot of you have been asking about this, so here's my life, as far as I can tell, after I graduate:

Graduation: May 17

June 14, 10 a.m. : start of induction in Baltimore
June 18: hiring fair
June 19: last day of induction

June 28: training institute in Philadelphia
August 1: last day of training institute

August 4: orientation in Baltimore begins
August 10-14: new teacher induction in Baltimore
August 19: on-site training begins in my specific school
August 24: first day of school for teachers
August 26: Johns Hopkins classes start (at least according to their website. I don't know about specific classes, this is just when they have the school of education's semester starting)
August 31: first day with students

From what I can tell I possibly have breaks from June 19-28, and August 5-10 and 19-24, but again this is tentative. I also might have a place to live, depending on a roommate situation and financial stuff.

road trip

I leave before sunlight on Thursday morning to drive with seven other English students to the National Undergraduate Literature Conference at Weber State University. I submitted three entries, and was selected to present in the original fiction category for a one-act play I wrote. Check out the full schedule for the conference here. Keynote speakers are Michael Chabon, Maile Maloy, and Michael Sowder.

Pray for good roads and attentive drivers; it's about 11 hours one way.

happily ever never

We all grew up with it: fairy tale endings. Whether it was the princess getting swept off her feet, or the prince getting his throne, we all lived with the knowledge that "happily ever after" isn't feasible in the real world.

Naturally, someone created an organization to try and change all that.

The Happy Endings Foundation, created two years ago in the UK, demanded the authors of children's books create happier endings to their stories, and called for bonfires to burn books with less than sunny outcomes.

The organization was reported on worldwide, including the Belfast Telegraph, BBC, and The Independent (Canada). And recently, the blogosphere served us up another serving of investigative journalism: the organization was found to be a hoax.

Despite its lack of actual existence, I think the concept is an interesting one. If you think about it, most Oscar winners in the past 20 years or so have been dramas, tragedies, or at least very dark stories with less than apocalyptic finales. (The Departed, Crash, A Beautiful Mind, and Gladiator, to name a few). We are somehow drawn to the dark, to the mysterious, to to those who lives lives more plagued or convoluted than our own. Granted, I do see tremendous power of positive messages. (Just look at Where the Hell is Matt?.) But we see the push for negative news all the time: fires trump science fairs, and murder/suicides beat out a local farmer's market.

Was Orson Welles right to say that "The story that ends happily is a story that ended too soon."?

In this day and age, maybe.

Related articles: from the BBC: Why the obsession with happy endings?