Intergenerational Feminist Conference

The National Conference for Women and Girls
Freedom on Our Terms: From Houston 1977 - NY 2007
Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the First National Women's Conference in Houston, Texas 1977
November 10th and 11th, 2007
Hunter College, 68th Street and Lexington Avenue, New York City

The Bella Abzug Leadership Institute is taking the lead, together with Girls Speak Out, in organizing the first major national intergenerational conference for women and girls to be held November 10th and 11th at Hunter College in New York City.

The conference will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the first National Women’s Conference held in Houston in 1977 and catapult the women's rights agenda forward into the 21st Century. Participants will examine the 26 planks that resulted in the original National Platform for Action established in Houston, which dealt with all aspects of women’s lives, boldly strategize to update the platform to the present, and identify and target goals for the future. At this national conference for girls and women of all ages, we hope to inspire and energize all women, and younger women in particular, regardless of race, color, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disabilities, religious, economic, social and cultural differences, to launch an all-out effort to achieve full equal rights for women and girls starting right at the conference! It is the conference's aim to have participants devise and spearhead action agendas implementing these efforts over the next five years.

For more information on the conference or to register, please look for the "Freedom on Our Terms Registration Form", e-mail BALI at info@abzuginstitute.org, call BALI at 212-650-3071 or visit Girls Speak Out.

Please note: We are trying to plan an pre-conference, opening night concert on Friday November 9th with several well known singers, girl/women bands and performers. Details of this concert event will be made available later on this site.

Roots and Shoots Halloween Tips

We (FSP) are members of Roots and Shoots, although we have not formally created a group, it is something for us to keep considering. Either way, some of the info, like this, is pretty inspiring:


EVERY APE COUNTS

The Somerville Roots and Shoots group invites everyone to join in the
second year of our Halloween project, "Every Ape Counts". We will be
dressing up as endangered primates and trick-or-treating for donations
to help them! It worked really well last year and now we hope to step it
up to a much larger scale. Pick a primate that is in danger from habitat
destruction, the bush meat trade, etc. -and this includes almost all of
them - and get going!

You will need:

A handout on the primate and the danger it is in, along with a little
speech you can give.

Printouts on the organization and project that the funds will be given to.

A Costume! Share tips on costume design, on bringing out your inner ape,
and nominate worthy projects benefiting particular primates by posting
on the Every Ape Counts topic on the Campaigns forum on the R&S bulletin
board. You may need a quick, free registration to get on the bulletin board.

Also feel free to contact our group directly, with email to
dh@danhull.com

See you out there!

Dan Hull
DAN@danhull.com
Celebrate Green Halloween!



Suggestions for a greener Halloween:

Instead of buying a costume, design your own, creating a costume from fabric, ribbon and other odds and ends that you find around your house.

Purchase your pumpkins (organic, if possible) from local farms or farmer's markets.

Instead of carving pumpkins, paint or decorate them. After Halloween, use the innards to make pumpkin soup. Leave the seeds in your birdfeeder as a special treat for blue jays and nuthatches.

Instead of buying luminaria, recycle some old tins cans. Create patterns of holes in the cans by using hammer and nails. Buy some petroleum free candles at your local green grocer and voila, spooky lighting!

Giving away organic candy is a great idea. But, if you choose to give away conventional Halloween treats, learn about the palm oil crisis. Find out which big name brand candies contain sustainably produced palm oil so that you can make informed choices.

Check out these websites for more creative suggestions:

Green Living

Green Halloween

Stop Global Warming

And, if you go out trick-or-treating, don't forget to bring your reusable canvas bag

Be safe and have fun,
Christine Ellersick

Boys and Media Images

The Children's Museum of Maine is offering a free lecture:

Media, Masculinity and the Boy Crisis

Thursday, November 1 from 7:00-8:30pm
Using a variety of examples from contemporary music, film, and television, Mark Tappan leads this workshop exploring the messages boys receive from the media about what it means to be a "real boy." The workshop provides insights into the relationship between "mediated messages" and boys' experiences in society and discusses strategies for encouraging boys to become critical consumers of contemporary media. A Colby College professor, Tappan received graduate degrees from the Ohio State University and Harvard University. The lecture is free but space is limited. To make a reservation, email: sheryl@kitetails.com or call:
828-1234, x 228.

Gender Equity in Maine Sports

This from Dads and Daughters:


STATE GENDER GAPS IN HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS
New Hampshire is the friendliest state for female high school athletes, while Alabama is the least, according to new data from the Women’s Sports Foundation. The report shows less than a 3 percent gap between girls’ enrollment and athletic participation at high schools in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Maine, Vermont and Minnesota. At the other end of the spectrum, the gap was over 15 percent in Alabama, Louisiana, the District of Columbia and Tennessee. Earlier WSF participation showed that, at an average higher education institution, the female share of undergraduates is 55.8% while the female share of athletes is 41.7%.

MCLU education events

The Maine Civil Liberties Union has two case studies promoting conversations about civil liberties for teachers to use (they don't specify grade level). They also will send teachers to speak in classrooms, and provide additional materials.

MCLU is also offering a number of public events including :

FORUM: Adoption for Same-Sex Couples in Maine
Thursday, October 25
6:30-8:30 pm
Law Offices of Bernstein Shur, Portland
For more info or to RSVP: 774-5444


Movie Night @ the North Star Cafe in Portland

And Human Rights Watch Film Festival
Special screening sponsored by the MCLU:
""
11/17, 7 pm
11/18, 3 pm
SPACE Gallery, Portland

Emotional Literacy and Happy Kids

The Greater Good Science Center, out of Berkeley, offers tools for raising happier kids. (A video presentation of their ideas is in the right-hand sidebar). It is a new site, so there isn't a ton of information, but it has promise.

Greater Good is also a magazine, and this edition features essays about the 21st century family. Although there is nothing directly written about peacemaking, there are progressive and provocative articles.

Webkinz

My almost-8 year old is a bit late to the world-of-webkinz and she's not even so sure about it, since she doesn't really know what it is, but it makes sense that she is curious and wants one since they are so coveted on the playground. As a parent prone to ranting and raving, I have probably added a bit of "forbidden fruit factor" to the mix. She knows I think they are dumb, and might be able to recite a few of my reasons but mostly she knows that mom won't buy them and that probably means they are fun. She's got resources in friends and extended family, so it is likely that she'll be a proud webkinz owner soon.

It is hard to know where to draw the line -- clearly webkinz are not dangerous and not worth a big fight. On the other hand, they are part of a larger force that entices kids online and into consumer culture without a lot of critical awareness. This article, from Commerical Free Childhood, explains my objections well. Yet I find the "what to do" ideas a little simplistic. It feels hard to engage my child in a conversation about the ethics of consumerism when she's still on the edge of early childhood and magical thinking. This is, of course, what makes them such a great product for marketers and so difficult for families -- when kids can sort-of believe that the pet lives or dies by the owner's web activity, the moral imperative to get online increases. When pretend play takes on all the reality of virtual technology the quality of that play changes. How can a young child navigate the border between pretend and real when that border is so blurred by new technology?

I'd love to hear the real-life strategies that other parents use.