About Me
- LadyoftheM
- Native Austinite. Well educated.. always learning in my own way. Strong-willed & opinionated. I believe in making a difference. I believe in making myself a better person.. in my own eyes, not the eyes of society.
Mainstream society, and the social mores it professes to hold as "normal," "average," etc. are all hogwash as far as I'm concerned. I am very much a "trail blazer" and I live my life that way.
If you want to know more.. ask me :)
to be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting. - e.e. cummings
15 July 2013
Open Letter to Daily Kos
I received a forwarded email from Carl. The message was a Daily Kos appeal to sign a petition.
With good reason I refused. Here's why:
______________________
To: Chris Bowers, Daily Kos <campaigns@dailykos.com>
Subj: Fwd: Texas tampon massacre
I read the email message below. I read the petition.
I totally, wholeheartedly agree person(s) responsible must be held accountable.
Unfortunately, due to final clause ("We demand a complete and open investigation as to who authorized this move, who is accountable for such conduct-and that all such parties be appropriately disciplined."), I will not sign the petition.
I will not sign it because it implies lack of knowledge. On the surface it "reads" as if Daily Kos didn't do its research. It is already well known Lt Gov David Dewhurst is responsible for the atrocity - it was made known Friday, in the middle of the mayhem. Dewhurst is the #1 person responsible for making said directive. Steve McCraw, DPS Director and others also need to be held accountable for acting on Dewhurst's misogynistic directive.
McCraw and others in DPS also need to be held accountable for the violent mistreatment of peaceful protesters. At least one had to seek services at Brackenridge.
Finally, I could be wrong, but based on the way it's written, demand for investigation appears to be addressed to: AG Greg Abbott, Lt Gov David Dewhurst, DPS Director Steve McCraw, DPS Highway Patrol Asst Chief Luis Gonzalez, and members of the Texas Lege. That's like asking a gang of bullies to discipline itself!
Investigation of public office holders is handled by the Travis County Public Integrity Unit - the very same defunded by Gov Perry. Travis County's PIU investigates "... public corruption, insurance fraud, and motor fuels tax fraud."
Rewrite the petition ...
Rewrite it addressing the correct investigative entity.
Rewrite it detailing who IS responsible for the directive, those carrying it out, etc.
Rewrite the petition and we'll talk.
Monica Guzman, M.A.
Community Relations Consultant
LULAC, Dist VII
_______________________________________________
to be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting. - e.e. cummings
NOTE: Email bounced when I sent it. Checked website for an email address-none found, only a "Contact Us" webform. Pity.
13 July 2013
Unsung Heroes ...
"The staff of our incredible coalition partners — Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, Annie’s List and The Lilith Fund for Reproductive Equity – were the unsung heroes of the incredible mobilization of Texas men and women over the past month. We have been proud to stand with them and with the women of Texas."
Heroes? I'm glad they exist to provide services, push for appropriate legislation, enable grand-scale PR. "Unsung" hereos? No.
The "unsung heroes" are those sitting in Travis Co jail, those on-site (outside) at TravCo jail, those who risked arrest/injury (job? other?) because they made themselves heard in/outside the state capitol building. Those who shared stories via testimony, news reports, social media, etc. Last, certainly not least, those who support them, whether online or off.
THEY are the *true* UNSUNG HEREOS!!
Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, in a sneering email to his supporters late last night, boasted about the state Senate’s passage of legislation that puts government between pregnant women and their doctors. This supposedly “small-government conservative” proudly declared that the Senate passed the bill“within earshot of a roaring mob” — meaning the thousands of concerned women and men who filled the Capitol and the steps outside."
Heroes? I'm glad they exist to provide services, push for appropriate legislation, enable grand-scale PR. "Unsung" hereos? No.
The "unsung heroes" are those sitting in Travis Co jail, those on-site (outside) at TravCo jail, those who risked arrest/injury (job? other?) because they made themselves heard in/outside the state capitol building. Those who shared stories via testimony, news reports, social media, etc. Last, certainly not least, those who support them, whether online or off.
THEY are the *true* UNSUNG HEREOS!!
Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, in a sneering email to his supporters late last night, boasted about the state Senate’s passage of legislation that puts government between pregnant women and their doctors. This supposedly “small-government conservative” proudly declared that the Senate passed the bill“within earshot of a roaring mob” — meaning the thousands of concerned women and men who filled the Capitol and the steps outside."
09 July 2013
At the Texas State Capitol: Testifying against SB1
 |
| In Capitol Extension, waiting for office to open, so can sign up. |
 |
| In line at north entrance to State Capitol wStacey Smith! Arrived about 6:15ish (AM) |
Testifying Against SB1
All this activity over Senate Bill 1 (SB1) - SB1 has been propagandized as a bill to protect/improve women's health. That's far from the truth! It's all about oppressing women, especially women of color and women surviving in impoverished conditions.
All this activity over Senate Bill 1 (SB1) - SB1 has been propagandized as a bill to protect/improve women's health. That's far from the truth! It's all about oppressing women, especially women of color and women surviving in impoverished conditions.
 |
| Testifying (around 6/6:15pm) |
I am Monica Guzmán - Native Austinite residing in East Austin. I am represented by Sen Judith Zaffirini and Rep Eddie Rodrigruez.
I am PRO-WOMEN &
PRO-WOMEN'S HEALTHCARE.
I oppose SB1 because I believe SB1 and its House companion are regarding anything BUT improving or protecting my or any other woman's health.
It is bullying from
legislative pulpits.
It is an attempt to force-feed religious
belief in violation of my Constitutional rights.
It is classist, racist,
bigoted, misogynistic legislative OPPRESSION - n o t h i n
g less.
SB1 & its House companion will
deprive many women-especially women existing at/near poverty
levels, women of color-of needed healthcare options.
Should this bill become law ...
- How many women will lack access to birth
control information and available options?
- How many women will lack access to prenatal
care?
Are you prepared to provide financial
support and transportation for needed healthcare or even abortions no longer
available because you closed existing facilities?
Are you prepared to provide financial
support for unwanted pregnancies carried to term yet given up for adoption,
left at churches & fire stations, or tragically abandoned on the streets?
As for unwanted pregnancies resulting
in cherished newborns ... Are you prepared to support them? Support them with
needed healthcare, food availability, safe homes, and public educations?
You go on about protecting the
innocent unborn. Yet, once born, you have no qualms abandoning the very same
children-especially children born into impoverished conditions-by way of budget
cuts to healthcare, social programs, and public education.
As for children already living
at/near poverty ... You left them at the curb long ago as dust settled on
legislative budget cuts and the ink dried on Gov Perry's signature for same.
Be it corporations or politicians, you
make decisions inevitably creating the very conditions you purport to abhor,
only serving to further marginalize an already marginalized population.
How is it Gov Perry can say, and I
quote, "Our views is that individuals and families can govern their
lives better than bureaucrats." yet has the audacity to DICTATE my
health, my body.
It is sheer HYPOCRISY!
On a personal note - In 1987 I was
raped, fortunately I never had to face a resulting pregnancy, never had to make
the decision to carry or terminate. Any woman facing such decision, regardless
the reason for pregnancy, it is HER decision. Not mine, certainly not yours.
I expect you to NOT support, NOT pass
SB1.
After all ...
MY life, MY body, MY decision
 |
| Getting some downtime at home while chillin' and CELEBRATING a job well done, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!! |
07 July 2013
Austin's racist attitudes .. more prevalent than you might think
"What did Bandera Road and Whiteway Drive teach me about Austin’s residential segregation? It helps foster an environment where we become fearful when someone who doesn’t look like us so much as walks down the street — even in a city many regard as a wellspring of progressivism."
TALES OF THE CITY: by JOHN SAVAGE
Mapping the color lines in a ‘progressive’ city by John Savage
In the summer of 2007 I bought a house on Bandera Road, four miles east of I-35, just off Martin Luther King Boulevard. Buying a house on Bandera Road was an important milestone, the fulfillment of an adolescent promise made a quarter-century ago.
On a sweltering Saturday morning I stuffed my Honda Civic with books, clothes and CDs, and lit out for my new digs. As I crossed the freeway, the neatly maintained homes and xeriscaped yards on the west side gave way to a different reality on the east. Houses began to sag and wilt, grass turned to dirt and street corners rustled with fast-food wrappers and Styrofoam cups.
I-35 has long delineated the two worlds of Austin — the haves on the west side with their charming Craftsman bungalows, crunchy organic co-op grocery and hip indie coffee shops, and the have-nots on the east side with paint peeling from their rickety frame houses, Church’s Fried Chicken franchises and Pay Day Lenders.
From house-hunting walks I knew I would be the only white person on Bandera Road. That, you see, was the point. Like many of you reading this, I grew up in a segregated community — a small town in North Carolina. At 12 years old, I grasped the fact that I lived in a segregated neighborhood. The youthful version of myself, lacking the cynicism of adulthood, made a solemn vow: One day I would live in a neighborhood where everyone didn’t look like me.
Segregated neighborhoods are part of the American experience. Not only across Texas but across the country, racially restrictive housing covenants were common during most of the 20th century. In Austin, the 1928 city plan locating municipal services for black citizens east of what was then East Avenue served to further concentrate the minority population there.
I wasn’t pondering racist housing policy the morning I moved into my 720-square-foot slice of the American dream. I was simply excited to be a homeowner. As I struggled to carry an armful of clothes and books, a group of teenage girls sashayed past my fixer-upper house. “Stupid white boy!” one of them yelled. Her friends laughed loudly.
My immediate neighbors, all of them elderly, greeted me warmly with smiles and handshakes. I often contemplated the decades of conspicuous racism they had endured, and marveled at their kindness in the face of that history. The teenagers on the block weren’t quite as affable — the “stupid white boy” comment wasn’t an isolated event.
After two years on Bandera Road, I married my girlfriend, sold my little house and moved west to the almost exclusively white Allandale neighborhood, to a street fittingly named Whiteway Drive. I rationalized the move because we would be close to my wife’s job.
Soon after, I joined the Allandale neighborhood listserv. Much like the 19th century West Texas frontier, neighborhood listservs can be uncouth places, and I found certain posts about “suspicious” blacks and Latinos spiritually wearying. Just two examples:
“There is a man distributing flyers on Nasco (Street). My wife became suspicious when he skipped our house where there is a car and lights on, but hit our neighbors’ houses who are not home. She described an African American male in baggy pants carrying a canvas bag. She is reporting him to 911 now … “ “There was a suspicious couple walking slowly up and down Daugherty Street this afternoon about 4:00 p.m. I did not see them going to any homes but they stopped for a long time at the corner of Albata and Daughtery and ‘seemed’ to be talking on cell phones and taking photos of homes. They were African-Americans and maybe in their later 20s or 30s […] Be on the lookout.”
That couple taking pictures of Allandale homes and talking on their cell phones — well, that sounds exactly like what my wife and I did when we were house hunting. As for calling 911 to report the flyer distributor who was just doing his thankless job, I was speechless. I still am. I like to think of myself as fairly thoughtful about issues of race and place — something I attribute, in part, to attending integrated schools. Unfortunately this is not an advantage afforded a child growing up on Bandera Road or Whiteway Drive.
Austin draws its school attendance zones so that children living on Bandera attend an elementary school that is 99 percent minority students; if they live on Whiteway Drive, their school’s student body is 80 percent Anglo. Both mirror their surrounding neighborhoods. In this way, our public schools, the bedrock of our democracy, tend to reinforce a lack of cultural understanding in Austin — an unpleasant reality not discussed often enough.
What did Bandera Road and Whiteway Drive teach me about Austin’s residential segregation? It helps foster an environment where we become fearful when someone who doesn’t look like us so much as walks down the street — even in a city many regard as a wellspring of progressivism. My wife and I have moved again. Our new neighborhood isn’t quite as diverse as it could be, but it’s no Whiteway Drive.
And thankfully, I haven’t had to abide any comments about suspicious-looking brown people or stupid white boys. Perhaps the day will someday come in our progressive city when no one else will have to, either.
TALES OF THE CITY: by JOHN SAVAGE
Mapping the color lines in a ‘progressive’ city by John Savage
In the summer of 2007 I bought a house on Bandera Road, four miles east of I-35, just off Martin Luther King Boulevard. Buying a house on Bandera Road was an important milestone, the fulfillment of an adolescent promise made a quarter-century ago.
On a sweltering Saturday morning I stuffed my Honda Civic with books, clothes and CDs, and lit out for my new digs. As I crossed the freeway, the neatly maintained homes and xeriscaped yards on the west side gave way to a different reality on the east. Houses began to sag and wilt, grass turned to dirt and street corners rustled with fast-food wrappers and Styrofoam cups.
I-35 has long delineated the two worlds of Austin — the haves on the west side with their charming Craftsman bungalows, crunchy organic co-op grocery and hip indie coffee shops, and the have-nots on the east side with paint peeling from their rickety frame houses, Church’s Fried Chicken franchises and Pay Day Lenders.
From house-hunting walks I knew I would be the only white person on Bandera Road. That, you see, was the point. Like many of you reading this, I grew up in a segregated community — a small town in North Carolina. At 12 years old, I grasped the fact that I lived in a segregated neighborhood. The youthful version of myself, lacking the cynicism of adulthood, made a solemn vow: One day I would live in a neighborhood where everyone didn’t look like me.
Segregated neighborhoods are part of the American experience. Not only across Texas but across the country, racially restrictive housing covenants were common during most of the 20th century. In Austin, the 1928 city plan locating municipal services for black citizens east of what was then East Avenue served to further concentrate the minority population there.
I wasn’t pondering racist housing policy the morning I moved into my 720-square-foot slice of the American dream. I was simply excited to be a homeowner. As I struggled to carry an armful of clothes and books, a group of teenage girls sashayed past my fixer-upper house. “Stupid white boy!” one of them yelled. Her friends laughed loudly.
My immediate neighbors, all of them elderly, greeted me warmly with smiles and handshakes. I often contemplated the decades of conspicuous racism they had endured, and marveled at their kindness in the face of that history. The teenagers on the block weren’t quite as affable — the “stupid white boy” comment wasn’t an isolated event.
After two years on Bandera Road, I married my girlfriend, sold my little house and moved west to the almost exclusively white Allandale neighborhood, to a street fittingly named Whiteway Drive. I rationalized the move because we would be close to my wife’s job.
Soon after, I joined the Allandale neighborhood listserv. Much like the 19th century West Texas frontier, neighborhood listservs can be uncouth places, and I found certain posts about “suspicious” blacks and Latinos spiritually wearying. Just two examples:
“There is a man distributing flyers on Nasco (Street). My wife became suspicious when he skipped our house where there is a car and lights on, but hit our neighbors’ houses who are not home. She described an African American male in baggy pants carrying a canvas bag. She is reporting him to 911 now … “ “There was a suspicious couple walking slowly up and down Daugherty Street this afternoon about 4:00 p.m. I did not see them going to any homes but they stopped for a long time at the corner of Albata and Daughtery and ‘seemed’ to be talking on cell phones and taking photos of homes. They were African-Americans and maybe in their later 20s or 30s […] Be on the lookout.”
That couple taking pictures of Allandale homes and talking on their cell phones — well, that sounds exactly like what my wife and I did when we were house hunting. As for calling 911 to report the flyer distributor who was just doing his thankless job, I was speechless. I still am. I like to think of myself as fairly thoughtful about issues of race and place — something I attribute, in part, to attending integrated schools. Unfortunately this is not an advantage afforded a child growing up on Bandera Road or Whiteway Drive.
Austin draws its school attendance zones so that children living on Bandera attend an elementary school that is 99 percent minority students; if they live on Whiteway Drive, their school’s student body is 80 percent Anglo. Both mirror their surrounding neighborhoods. In this way, our public schools, the bedrock of our democracy, tend to reinforce a lack of cultural understanding in Austin — an unpleasant reality not discussed often enough.
What did Bandera Road and Whiteway Drive teach me about Austin’s residential segregation? It helps foster an environment where we become fearful when someone who doesn’t look like us so much as walks down the street — even in a city many regard as a wellspring of progressivism. My wife and I have moved again. Our new neighborhood isn’t quite as diverse as it could be, but it’s no Whiteway Drive.
And thankfully, I haven’t had to abide any comments about suspicious-looking brown people or stupid white boys. Perhaps the day will someday come in our progressive city when no one else will have to, either.
Perry's holier-than-thou depravity knows no end ...
When they stoop to these levels of underhanded, corrupt, misogynistic (not to mention insensitive) tactics for passing law ... to what level(s) will they stoop when it comes to voting/elections?
This is a PERFECT example of why Sec 5 of VRA should NOT have been gutted!
This is a PERFECT example of why Sec 5 of VRA should NOT have been gutted!
05 July 2013
How dare Tonto not be sufficiently right-wing Christian (eyes rollin')
Tonto not Christian enough? Whatever.
When it comes to right-wing, uber-conservative "christians" (who need to read up on the Bible, not to mention a few history texts ... more on that later), there probably aren't many in this world who are "christian" enough. They're bigoted, racist, classist, misogynistic pigs who hide behind the Holy Bible to support their holier-than-thou views.
Granted, Bruckheimer & Disney are off track on what Lone Ranger was originally about - seriously doubt it has anything to do with religion (Christianity or otherwise). It's all about Hollywood and creative license, period. It's about sensationalizing, woo-ing the audience, and fattening the bottom line, period.
As for Dr Baeher ...
"Dr. Ted Baehr of the Christian Film and Television Coalition told the Post, “The government is bad – the army is killing Indians – the bad guy is a businessman, the military-industrial complex is bad.” However, he said, “the Christians are not always bad.” [Source: Raw Story "Christians upset over Depp’s ‘Tonto’ being too pagan in ‘Lone Ranger’]
Based on the quote, "Dr Baerh never studied US or world history, lives a sheltered life or is a right-wingnut. Why do I say this? Well, let's see .. let me dissect the quote:
1-"The government is bad – the army is killing Indians ...” Might I remind Dr Baerh about the Trail of Tears?
The Indian Removal Act, signed into law by President Andrew Jackson in 1830, enforced by President Van Buren, "... allowed Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Alabama an armed force of 7,000 made up of militia, regular army, and volunteers under General Winfield Scott to round up about 13,000 Cherokees into concentration camps at the U.S. Indian Agency near Cleveland, Tennessee before being sent to the West." [Source: "Trail of Tears" Legal Background]
That's pretty bad to me.
2-"... the bad guy is a businessman ...” Enron. Need I say more? I do? Okay, how 'bout Halliburton?
3-"...the military-industrial complex is bad.” Yes, it is, bad that is. All about capitalistic/corporate greed (See "Halliburton" or "KBR") Of course, even just the military is bad! (See Tears of Tears). I don't even need to supply linked posts, articles, news, etc. It's well known about sexism/sexual harassment and rape in armed forces.
4-"... the Christians are not always bad.” Okay, perhaps. Taking that (and immediately below) into consideration, still think "the Christians" aren't always bad? I know a few who are good eggs, but when it comes to faith/religion as a whole.. the more right-leaning, the more hypocritical.
* The Crusades - genocide all in the name of God
* Clergy pedophilia - Roman Catholic Church brushes it under the rug, hides/relocates offenders instead of seeking justice for the victims
* Hypocritical Christians - They're quick to pass judgement on those who are "not Christian" but where are they for those in need? As stated in linked blog and heard for countless years .. They're busy defunding programs vital to those in need.
Enough said.
When it comes to right-wing, uber-conservative "christians" (who need to read up on the Bible, not to mention a few history texts ... more on that later), there probably aren't many in this world who are "christian" enough. They're bigoted, racist, classist, misogynistic pigs who hide behind the Holy Bible to support their holier-than-thou views.
Granted, Bruckheimer & Disney are off track on what Lone Ranger was originally about - seriously doubt it has anything to do with religion (Christianity or otherwise). It's all about Hollywood and creative license, period. It's about sensationalizing, woo-ing the audience, and fattening the bottom line, period.
As for Dr Baeher ...
"Dr. Ted Baehr of the Christian Film and Television Coalition told the Post, “The government is bad – the army is killing Indians – the bad guy is a businessman, the military-industrial complex is bad.” However, he said, “the Christians are not always bad.” [Source: Raw Story "Christians upset over Depp’s ‘Tonto’ being too pagan in ‘Lone Ranger’]
Based on the quote, "Dr Baerh never studied US or world history, lives a sheltered life or is a right-wingnut. Why do I say this? Well, let's see .. let me dissect the quote:
1-"The government is bad – the army is killing Indians ...” Might I remind Dr Baerh about the Trail of Tears?
The Indian Removal Act, signed into law by President Andrew Jackson in 1830, enforced by President Van Buren, "... allowed Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Alabama an armed force of 7,000 made up of militia, regular army, and volunteers under General Winfield Scott to round up about 13,000 Cherokees into concentration camps at the U.S. Indian Agency near Cleveland, Tennessee before being sent to the West." [Source: "Trail of Tears" Legal Background]
That's pretty bad to me.
2-"... the bad guy is a businessman ...” Enron. Need I say more? I do? Okay, how 'bout Halliburton?
3-"...the military-industrial complex is bad.” Yes, it is, bad that is. All about capitalistic/corporate greed (See "Halliburton" or "KBR") Of course, even just the military is bad! (See Tears of Tears). I don't even need to supply linked posts, articles, news, etc. It's well known about sexism/sexual harassment and rape in armed forces.
4-"... the Christians are not always bad.” Okay, perhaps. Taking that (and immediately below) into consideration, still think "the Christians" aren't always bad? I know a few who are good eggs, but when it comes to faith/religion as a whole.. the more right-leaning, the more hypocritical.
* The Crusades - genocide all in the name of God
* Clergy pedophilia - Roman Catholic Church brushes it under the rug, hides/relocates offenders instead of seeking justice for the victims
* Hypocritical Christians - They're quick to pass judgement on those who are "not Christian" but where are they for those in need? As stated in linked blog and heard for countless years .. They're busy defunding programs vital to those in need.
Enough said.
Austin is snobby?
Snobby? Maybe, maybe not. If any aspect of Austin (my hometown) is going to land it on such a list, it should be due to the racist/classist attitudes, it should be due to the fact that governmental bodies continue with prejudicial practices of making sure the "haves" have more and the "have nots" have less.
That and that alone is perfect reason for being on a list of snobby cities.. I can think of a better list: Top Ten Racist Cities!
Related article: Come again? Austin lands on America's Snobbiest Cities list
That and that alone is perfect reason for being on a list of snobby cities.. I can think of a better list: Top Ten Racist Cities!
Related article: Come again? Austin lands on America's Snobbiest Cities list
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