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Remember Gumby, that little green guy?
Can you name:
1) the bad guys?
2) Gumby's best pal (horse)?
Great post today at Huffington Post about Gumby: Gumby is Meaning of Life
Answers: 1) the Blockheads, 2) Pokey
I regret to inform you that you're a victim of your own
success: As a result of mothers across the country expressing their outrage at wage discrimination, we have not one, but two (yes, two!) major pieces of legislation moving in Congress to protect women and people of color from discrimination in the workplace.
Last week your voices were heard by Senators as you supported the Lilly
Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, and?
...we just found out that a vote is
scheduled TOMORROW in the U.S. House on another great bill, the Paycheck
Fairness Act! We have huge chance to make a difference today by letting our U.S. Representatives know that moms are all for fair pay, and that we're tired
of making only 77 cents to every $1 made by men!
So flex your pointer finger for another
mighty click to send a second letter on wage discrimination to
Congress at: Moms Rising
Quite simply,
the Paycheck Fairness Act is the granddaughter of the Equal Pay Act of
1963-the original "equal pay for equal work law" that was so pivotal
to building economic security for mothers and families. The House of
Representatives plans to vote tomorrow on the Paycheck Fairness Act, which
would update and strengthen that Act. It would close loopholes and improved
the law's effectiveness in many ways, including:
Improving Equal Pay Act Remedies by
putting gender-based wage discrimination on an equal footing with
wage discrimination based on race or ethnicity, for which full
compensatory and punitive damages are already available.
Improving Collection of Pay Information
to enhance the detection of violations of law and improve
enforcement of the laws against pay discrimination.
Prohibiting Employer Retaliation by
prohibiting employers from punishing employees for sharing salary information
with their coworkers, which currently happens on a regular basis.
Closing a Loophole in the Employer
Defense by excusing a pay differential for men and women only
where the employer can show that the differential is truly caused by
something other than sex and is related to job performance.
Eliminating the
"Establishment" Requirement by clarifying that a pay comparison need not be between employees
in the same physical place of business.
Since the vote is happening within the
next day, please take a moment now to urge friends,
family, neighbors, moms groups, and more, so they can take action too.
We need to have as many moms as
possible contacting their U.S.
Representatives to let them know that we
expect them to vote YES on the Paycheck
Fairness Act.
Here's that link again, in case you need
it:
http://www.momsrising.org/PaycheckFairnessAct
The National Women's Law Center has a terrific factsheet that you
can see here:
Factsheet
Why do we need both the Lilly
Ledbetter Fair Pay Act AND the
Paycheck Fairness Act? The Lilly
Ledbetter Fair Pay Act refers
specifically to closing a loophole
created by the Supreme Court, which
makes it more difficult for people to
sue for pay discrimination. The
Paycheck Fairness Act is the granddaughter
of the Equal Pay Act of
1963-the original "equal pay for
equal work law" that was so pivotal to
building economic security for mothers
and families. It would close
loopholes and improved the law's
effectiveness in many ways, including the
bulleted items above.
The Olympics are almost upon us and they've made me think again of my years in China, adopting my daughter and doing research...as well as my sagging boobs and butt! Those may be sagging, but my spirits are reFIREING big time with the advent soon-August 8, 2008--of Vaboomer Viosks, a Suite of Viosks (virtual kiosks) of Boomer reFIREE created art, books, music, nostalgia, education and support.
I turned 50 in 1995, while conducting research (and living mainly in Beijing 1994-1996) on China's first non-government women's organizations-- a women's research institute, and its two project organizations, a women's hotline, national in scope, and a social club for highly educated singles. Social Club
I was studying social change in post-Mao China.
And one of the most extraordinary moments of social change was the emergence of these organizations that were all volunteer and all self-funded. That was what made them non-government.(You'll have to read my dissertation, REorganizing Women: Gender, Non-government Organizations and Contemporary Change in China to get the full scoop on what was going on in the 1990s. And my book, Sex, Tenderness and Discrimination: Chinese Women in the Great Global Market Revolution will be out soon.See my book The Dragon's Daughters Return --www.thimbleberrypress.com for the the story.of middle school aged daughters returning to visit China with their adoptive parents.)
The biggest change I underwent was becoming a mom while going through menopause.Those were corkers, I can tell you. A triple threat challenge--mom, menopausee, and researcher all in one whack! Hummmm...how do you have a baby while getting into your juicy green goddess years?? You adopt.
And China was, and is as far as I am concerned, the best of the best in international adoption. http://www.fwcc.org/ (Despite our bending over backward efforts to adopt domestically we were mostly told we were too old nearly 50 and 53, and too poor--being teachers--well I wasn't even a teacher, just a grad student! Our failed attempt to adopt an older child ended for all of us in tears and despair.)
My Life Changes - Adoption
I remember so clearly the moment my darling--then just a few days short of 5 months--was placed into my arms, Oh, this is the moment fantasized about, written about with glory and fulfillment...family is born, satisfaction is claimed, dreams are realized.
She burst out in loud wails of terror--never having seen a blue-eyed (reddish, too, with little sleep), blondish (Oh, ok, sort of blondish with a lot of grey) person. Oh, sh**t, I thought, what have I gone and done!? My Ex dandled her--he had dark hair and eyes--and she calmed right down. And then in a few minutes she was cradled on my shoulder--all 16 kilos of her. She was a solid little thing with chicken fluff brown hair and big round cheeks. And the most laughing eyes.
I think I was such an inept mom
...never a person to make over babies, I hated baby sitting--tried it once and that was that!
I had to gain experience to keep my patience, slow down to play, turn my attention from exacting and demanding research to poop and socks.
It wasn't a whole lot of fun at the beginning. I was just way too exhausted, but I can say moming has grown on me over the years. I
think that is probably true for everyone, but the ideals of mom and moming are so powerful in this country that few women have the courage to say they don't know what the heck they are doing and that even if they did, they don't particularly care for it. The tasks of parenting are not the most exciting in the world, but the way those tasks bind you to that little squirming slippery bundle of baby--I used to call her my sack of baby--is indisputable.
All these years later--she is taller than I and loves to gloat over me and I am in my juicy green goddess years for real with droooo
ooooping boobs and butt. Do I care?? about her--you bet your life! About my boobs and butt--not a whit!!
