Amanda (Mandy) Hiscocks

Awesome Woman of the Day for December 28th is Amanda (Mandy) Hiscocks. Her commitment, guts, integrity and focus inspire me. She has been an activist involved with environmental, poverty and social justice issues for most of her life. She works hard to build community and awareness, and lives by her principles in a way most people can't imagine. She fights for what she believes in, and is willing to face the consequences of her actions, not without a fight, but with full acceptance of whatever comes. I am honoured to consider her a friend.

Accused G20 ringleaders challenge bail conditions

www.thestar.com

Two alleged G20 riot ringleaders have launched a legal challenge of a bail condition barring them from participating in protests or public demonstrations.

The Rockettes

Today the WOD’s are the more than 3,000 women that have danced as Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall in New York, NY. On this day December 27, 1932 Radio City Music Hall opened at the height of the Great Depression. Thousands turned out for the opening of Radio City Music Hall, a magnificent Art Deco theater in New York City. Radio City Music Hall was designed as a palace for the people, a place of beauty where ordinary people could see high-quality entertainment. Since its 1932 opening, more than 300 million people have gone to Radio City to enjoy movies, stage shows, concerts, and special events.

The Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular, which debuted in 1933, draws more than a million people annually. The show features the high-kicking Rockettes, a precision dance troupe that has been a staple at Radio City since the 1930s.

The group first kicked to life in 1925 as the "Missouri Rockets" and made their show business debut in St. Louis, the realization of a long-time dream of their creator, Russell Markert.

At Radio City's opening night, on December 27, 1932, they did just that. The Rockettes, discovered and brought to New York by consummate showman S.L. (Roxy) Rothafel who first dubbed them the "Roxyettes," shared the stage with 17 diverse acts, among them the Flying Wallendas, Ray Bolger and Martha Graham.

They were an instant sensation! Markert had created the quintessential American chorus line - an exciting precision drill team with great style. Starting with just 16 women, the numbers grew over the years to what is now a 36-member Rockette kick line.

In 1933, Radio City featured a new movie and a lavish stage production every week starring the Rockettes. Russell Markert's stringent requirements never varied, and he continued to stage and choreograph productions at the Music Hall until his retirement in 1971. This concept of the dance line was to achieve absolute precision. The audience saw 36 Rockettes perform intricate routines, but always moving as "one dancer." Everything - the height, the costumes and steps - was kept completely identical. The illusion of uniform height is maintained to this day by putting the tallest dancers in the center, and gradually decreasing the height with the shortest women at either end. The Radio City Rockettes perform with a signature precision that perpetually delights every new audience. Indeed, these "dancing daughters" - as their founder, Russell Markert always referred to them - have not only persevered for more than 75 years, but are thriving now more than ever.

For more than three quarters of a century, the Radio City Rockettes, the world's most famous precision dance company, have been a legendary force in entertainment, with a rich history of skill and dedication to their craft. Under the supervision of their founder, Russell Markert, the Rockettes appeared at Radio City Music Hall in hundreds of stage spectaculars that accompanied premiere Hollywood films. The Rockettes performed 4 shows a day, 28 shows a week, 365 days a year for over 40 years. In addition to this phenomenal schedule, the Rockettes starred in USO Tours during WWII, won the grand prize at the "Paris Exposition de Dance" in 1936 and more recently performed their show-stopping high kicks at the "Super Bowl Halftime Show" in 1988, where they performed before a television audience of 150 million viewers. Each year the Rockettes are featured in the annual "Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade" and were a prominent feature at the "2001 Presidential Inauguration Ceremony". The Rockettes are a national treasure. Their annual starring role in the "The Radio City Spectacular" at Radio City Music Hall, and other cities across the United States, is seen by more people in one year than most other live shows in America - more than 2.1 million people annually. The New York Times corroborates their talent by saying, "But best of all, as always, are the miraculous Rockettes in their crisp costumes, smiling and tapping their way flawlessly everywhere…"

Today, the Rockettes play an integral role in many Radio City theatrical productions, special events and television productions. They star annually in The Radio City Christmas Spectacular in New York and around the country. They've tapped their way through the dreams of thousands of young girls, many of whom hope to add their own legs to that world-famous kick line.

Since 1932, more than 3,000 women have danced as Rockettes. Each year, in cities across America, hundreds of young women audition to be members of the internationally known troupe. Radio City Rockettes must be between 5'5" and 5'10" and must demonstrate proficiency in tap, jazz, ballet and modern dance. They must also display a radiant energy that will shine across the footlights to their audience. The Radio City Rockettes perform with a signature precision that perpetually delights every new audience. Indeed, these "dancing daughters" - as their founder, Russell Markert always referred to them - have not only persevered for more than 75 years, but are thriving now more than ever.

On a personal note, if you have never seen the Rockettes in action, I highly recommend that you do so, if you ever get the opportunity. I saw them when I was a little girl on a trip to the city with my Girl Scout Troop, it stuck with me. The beauty, the grace the precision was like magic. I had the opportunity to take my kids a few years ago and the look on their faces as they watched these young women in action was priceless. My daughter, a dancer, was in awe. “I want to do that” “I want to be one of them”. I imagine that was how each one of those 3,000 women felt as little girls.

Gertrude "Jessica" Claus

Today’s very special Awesome Woman is Gertrude “Jessica” Claus, most commonly known as Mrs. Claus. While Santa gets glory and the opportunity to be the face of Christmas generosity, it would not be possible without Jessica’s phenomenal organizational skills. She manages the elves, knowing what elf should be doing what at every moment of the year. Jessica is also responsible for reading all of the letters to Santa & is the keeper of the naughty/nice list. Luckily for children, she is deeply compassionate & frequently convinces Santa to move a child from the naughty list to the nice list. And like most working women, Jessica is also responsible for tending to their home and of course the one that makes sure Santa’s work uniform is in tip top shape for his busy night. And although no one has made mention of it, I would also guess that she is the one that coordinates the logistics of his Christmas journey, handlling how the gifts are packed for maximum efficiency and probably provides Santa with a detailed travel map complete with weather conditions! Today is Jessica’s only day of rest, so I hope she has a wonderful day!

For those of you who would like more historical info, Santa Claus in his current incarnation emerged in the 1820s from European folklore. Mrs. Claus was a literary creation by James Rees in 1849 and then popularized in the poem "Goody Santa Claus on a Sleigh Ride" by Katharine Lee Bates in 1889.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays! xoxo

http://www.tenterfieldstar.com.au/news/local/news/general/upclose-with-mrs-claus/2399305.aspx?storypage=0

http://www.northantset.co.uk/news/features/mrs_claus_spills_beans_on_santa_1_3355789

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs._Claus

http://vernon.patch.com/articles/the-many-roles-of-mrs-claus

Upclose: with Mrs Claus - Local News - News - General - Tenterfield Star

www.tenterfieldstar.com.au

IT’S not easy when your husband’s out all night making deliveries.

Ruby Bridges Hall

The awesome woman for December 21, 2011 is Ruby Bridges Hall, U.S. educational activist whose career began 51 years ago, at the age of six, when her parents signed her up to be the first African American child to attend a white school in the South.

Because she was only 6 years old, she had no clue what the fuss was about as four federal marshals escorted her to William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans on November 14, 1960. She thought it was Mardi Gras.

And when she got to school, the other parents had already rushed the building and removed their children. Ruby was put in the principal's office and told to just sit there. "I remember thinking, 'This school is easy,'" Bridges told AOL News. Id.

From PBS.org, Ms. Bridges (now known as Ruby Bridges Hall) writes: Later on I learned there had been protestors in front of the two integrated schools the whole day. They wanted to be sure white parents would boycott the school and not let their children attend. Groups of high school boys, joining the protestors, paraded up and down the street and sang new verses to old hymns. Their favorite was "Battle Hymn of the Republic," in which they changed the chorus to "Glory, glory, segregation, the South will rise again." Many of the boys carried signs and said awful things, but most of all I remember seeing a black doll in a coffin, which frightened me more than anything else.

The local teachers refused to have anything to do with teaching Ruby, so the school brought down Barbara Henry from Boston. Initially, Ruby was apprehensive about Ms. Henry:

"Before that day, being black, I was only accustomed to seeing black teachers -- not to mention that she looked exactly like all of the people outside who were screaming and yelling outside," Bridges says. "But soon after, she began to teach me, and I realized she was one of the nicest teachers I had ever had. She showed me her heart, and she was totally different from the people that were outside, angry and screaming. AOL News article, supra.

In spite of Ms. Henry's best efforts, the school year was a difficult one for Ruby. She had trouble eating and sleeping, and every morning one of the white parents protesting outside the school threatened to poison her.

Eventually, a few white kids came back to the school, and Ruby, who still knew nothing about racism or integration, was allowed to visit with them a couple of times. She writes: The light dawned one day when a little boy refused to play with me.

"I can't play with you," the boy said. "My mama said not to because you're a n-----."

At that moment, it all made sense to me. I finally realized that everything had happened because I was black. I remember feeling a little stunned. It was all about the color of my skin. I wasn't angry at the boy, because I understood. His mother had told him not to play with me, and he was obeying her. I would have done the same thing. If my mama said not to do something, I didn't do it.
Id.

Ruby's second grade year was far less dramatic. White students had returned to the school, and Ruby went to a regular classroom She walked to school by herself every day, and she finished grade school on schedule, later graduating from an integrated high school in New Orleans.

She worked as a travel agent, married, had children, and became a full-time stay-at-home mom to her four sons. But, in 1993, her youngest brother was murdered, and Ruby began taking care of his children, who went to William Frantz Elementary School, where Ruby became a parent-community liaison. Id.

At the same time, the adults who had been involved with Ruby's first year at William Frantz, began reconnecting with Ruby, who, in 1999, formed the Ruby Bridges Foundation, the purpose of which is to end racism and prejudice. The foundations motto is, "Racism is a grown-up disease. Let's stop using kids to spread it." Id.

For more information:
http://www.rubybridges.com/story.htm
http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112391/ruby_bridges.htm

Etta James

Today’s WOD is American blues, soul, R&B, rock and roll, gospel, and jazz singer. Etta James. Jamesetta Hawkins was born January 25, 1938 in Los Angeles, to Dorothy Hawkins, who was 14 years old at the time, and an unknown father, who was possibly white. James speculated that her father was the pool player, Rudolf "Minnesota Fats" Wanderone, and met him briefly in 1987. The young James was brought up by a series of caregivers, initially the owners of the boarding house where she lived, "Sarge" and "Mama" Lu, as her flirtatious mother spent little time at home raising her daughter, and was nicknamed by James, "the Mystery Lady".

As a child, Etta was a gospel prodigy, singing in her church choir and on the radio at the age of five. When she turned twelve, she moved north to San Francisco where she formed a trio and was soon working for bandleader Johnny Otis.

In 1954, she moved to Los Angeles to record "The Wallflower" (a tamer title for the then-risqué "Roll with Me Henry") with the Otis band. It was that year that the young singer became Etta James (an inverted version of her first name) and her vocal group was dubbed The Peaches (also Etta's nickname). Soon after, James launched her solo career with such hits as "Good Rockin' Daddy" in 1955.

After signing with Chicago's Chess Records in 1960, James' career began to soar. Chart toppers included duets with then-boyfriend Harvey Fuqua, the heart-breaking ballad "All I Could Do Was Cry," "At Last" and "Trust in Me." But James' talents weren't reserved for powerful ballads. She knew how to rock a house, and did so with such gospel-charged tunes as "Something's Got a Hold On Me" in 1962 and "In The Basement" in 1966. James continued to work with Chess throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. Sadly, heroin addiction affected both her personal and professional life, but in 1967 Chess took her to the Fame studios to record with the Muscle Shoals house band. The collaboration resulted in the triumphant Tell Mama album.

Despite her continued drug problems, she earned a Grammy nomination for her 1973 album Etta James. After completing her contract with Chess in 1977, James signed on with Warner Brothers Records. A renewed public profile followed her appearance at the opening ceremony of the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984. Subsequent albums, including Deep In The Night and Seven Year Itch received critical acclaim. She was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1993, prior to her signing a new recording contract with Private Records.

With suggestive stage antics and a sassy attitude, James continued to perform and record well into the 1990s. Always soulful, her extraordinary voice has been showcased to great effect on her recent private releases, including Blue Gardenia, which rose to the top of the Billboard jazz chart. In 2003, James underwent gastric bypass surgery and lost over 200 pounds. The dramatic weight loss had an impact on her voice, as she told Ebony magazine that year. "I can sing lower, higher and louder," James explained.

That same year, Etta James released Let's Roll, which won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album. Her sons, Donto and Sametto James served as producers on the recording along with Josh Sklair. This team regrouped for her next effort, Blues to the Bone (2004), which brought James her third Grammy Award—this time in the Best Traditional Blues Album category. In 2006, James released the album All the Way, which featured cover versions of songs by Prince, Marvin Gaye, and James Brown. She participated in a tribute album the following year for jazz great Ella Fitzgerald called We Love Ella.

The story of the early days of Chess Records was brought to the big screen as Cadillac Records in 2008, with singer Beyoncè Knowles playing Etta James in the film. Beyoncè also recorded her own version of James's signature song, "At Last" for the soundtrack.

While James publicly supported the film, she was reportedly miffed when Beyoncè sang the song at President Barack Obama's inaugural ball in January 2009. James allegedly told concert-goers in Seattle in February that Beyoncè "had no business ... singing my song that I been singing forever." Despite some media attention over her comments, James was unfazed by the incident and pressed on with her busy performing schedule.

Now in her 70s, Etta James is considered one of the most dynamic singers in music today.
On January 14, 2011, it was announced that James had been diagnosed with leukemia and was undergoing treatment. In May 2011, she was hospitalized with a urinary tract infection and the blood infection known as sepsis. On December 16, 2011, it was announced that she was under 24-hour care and is terminally ill from the cancer she has been battling throughout 2011. Her manager, Lupe De Leon, stated to the media that she is "in the final stages of leukemia", has been diagnosed with both dementia and Hepatitis C, has been placed on oxygen, is receiving constant care from her husband, and is being visited regularly by her sons. De Leon went on to say, "We're all very sad. We're just waiting..."

Diablo Cody

Monday’s Awesome Woman is Diablo Cody (born 1978, real name Brook Busey). Why her?


1. Her kickass pen name.


2. Her hilarious, though not for the timid of heart, memoir Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper. So very good. Go read it right this very instant. I’ll wait if you’d like.


3. Juno! She wrote the script and won an Academy Award for it. The magic of Juno, besides the interesting, cool, smart female lead, was that it was about the most controversial topic around--abortion--but somehow managed to be edgy while not making either side’s heads explode. Which is damned amazing.


4. She created United States of Tara, which I never actually saw, so I can’t really saw anything about it. Um, supposed to be good though.


5. Basically, a ballsy, daring, smart, funny, woman who is doing things the way she wants to do them. Like any good little AWUer.

If you’d like to read more about her, here’s an article she did with The A.V. Club: http://www.avclub.com/articles/diablo-cody,66267/.

Dame Raigh Roe

♥ ♥ ♥ Today's Awesome Woman of the day is Dame Raigh Roe (12 December 1922 - ) Raised in Western Australia, Roe was one of eight children whose mother had been deserted during the Depression. From her mother's courage and compassion Roe inherited her deep belief in the importance of the family and in self-reliance. Married to a farmer at 18 years of age, her neighbours invited her to join the Country Women's Association. Initially she went along for company but when she learned more about this international association of women working to improve life for their rural sisters all over the world she said: 'I was hooked'.

In 1977 Roe was elected World President of the Associated Country Women of the World, representing almost nine million women in 74 countries. Roe sees herself as an ordinary woman who set out to help people. Concerned at conditions on the local Aboriginal reserve, she encouraged the formation of Aboriginal troops of Girl Guides and Brownies, and, in 1969, started annual residential home maker schools for teenage girls and nutrition seminars for Aboriginal women. Roe is famous for her capacity for hard work, her efficiency, her toughness and her deep compassion for women everywhere.

Roe, Raigh Edith - Woman - The Australian Women's Register

www.womenaustralia.info

Roe, Raigh Edith - Woman - The Australian Women's Register, Australian Women's Archives Project is a biographical, bibliographical and archival database of Australian Women with links to related articles and images.

Anne Geddes

Today’s WOD is world famous Photographer Anne Geddes, She is known for her stylized depictions of babies and motherhood. Typical images show babies or young children dressed as fairies and fairytale creatures, flowers, or small animals. She has described herself as "a baby freak.”

Anne was born in Queensland, Australia, on September 13, 1956, the third daughter in the family. Anne was raised on a vast 26,000-acre beef cattle property in North Queensland, Australia with her four sisters.

Growing up, she pored over magazines such as National Geographic and Life (her favorite), with their high values placed on the strength and quality of their photography. She loved images of people and remembers being fascinated by the concept of a single still image capturing an exact moment in time that could never be repeated.

When Anne was 17 she worked for a chain of hotels in New Zealand which enabled her to travel oversees for the first time. She documented her adventures with hundreds of photos; she was honing her skills and learning to appreciate the different qualities of natural light. When she was 22 she took a job at a local TV Station in Brisbane where she met her future husband Kel Geddes, the station’s program director. They married in Hong Kong in 1983.

She started a portrait business in Hong Kong and when they moved back to Sydney, Australia two years later, they welcomed their first daughter in 1984. Anne started doing portraits from their home and eventually she opened her own studio.

In 1988, Anne’s image of Gemma, a little girl standing in a tutu, taken previously in her studio in Melbourne, became her first published photograph, appearing in a local magazine in Auckland. The magazine feature on Anne and her photography and this image of Gemma created an interest in what was at the time a very different style of portraiture. After a short (“harrowing” in her words) experience as a wedding photographer, Anne decided to specialize in children’s portraiture, working out of her tiny new studio, Especially Kids, in Auckland.

Anne’s portraiture business was thriving, and in 1990, she decided to take one day a month to explore her inspirations and create an image purely for herself. The first and second images from these personal shoots were “Joshua” and “Rhys and Grant,” twins who became known as her “Cabbage Kids”—one of her most recognized photographs around the world.

In 1992, Annes husband Kel left his highly successful career as Network President of Programming for Australia’s Channel 10 and became Anne’s business partner, and the first Anne Geddes card collection was introduced in New Zealand, becoming an instant success. Anne placed 1st in two sections at the AGFA Photokina in Germany, among other awards and accolades. It was this level of professional recognition, coupled with a request to help raise money for the prevention of child abuse, and the success of Anne’s greeting cards that led to thoughts of producing a calendar.

It was ten years between the time Anne first photographed friends’ babies in Hong Kong and the publication of the first Anne Geddes calendar, released in New Zealand in 1992. When she was approached about increasing awareness of the prevention of child abuse, Anne recalled the shadow of her own emotionally barren childhood; this first opportunity to reach a wider audience with her images went hand-in-hand with her desire to help others and support children, the most vulnerable in our society. Anne and Kel were unable to attract a publisher and distributor, so they sold the calendar door-to-door from the back of their car and in camera store outlets, collecting more than US $20,000 to help prevent child abuse and neglect. Their charitable giving formed the basis for what later became the nonprofit Geddes Philanthropic Trust.

Her artistry continued to develop and Anne explored new expressions of her deeply held belief that we must protect, nurture, and love all children. In 1998, she and Kel formally founded the Geddes Philanthropic Trust and inaugurated the first Geddes Fellowship, a program to fund a dedicated primary physician concentrating in the identification, treatment, and research of child abuse and neglect—in this instance at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead in Sydney, Australia.

Continuing their charitable giving, more than $83,400 from the Geddes Philanthropic Trust was donated in 2005 to the UNICEF South Asia Tsunami Relief Effort. Following Hurricane Katrina in the U.S., Anne and Kel provided more than 20,000 items of Anne Geddes Baby clothing to benefit the babies affected.

In May 2011, the Geddes Philanthropic Trust was presented with the prestigious Award of Founder by the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children to honor the significant impact the Trust continues to have on the lives of children with serious illnesses, and for donations to the Westmead Children’s Hospital through the Geddes Fellowship Program started in 1999. Anne and Kel are now adding to the Trust's scope by assisting in maternal welfare in the many countries where childbirth is still a major issue regarding the health and wellbeing of both mother and child.

Today, Anne's award-winning images have been published in 83 countries spanning North America, Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, South America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Her books have sold more than 18 million copies worldwide and have been translated into 24 languages.

Annes work is beautiful and just simply makes you smile but the fact that she has a passion for helping babies and mothers only makes her more awesome.

Natalie Angier

Awesome Woman of the Day is Natalie Angier. One of the two bits I'm doing for The Vagina Monologues is from her book Woman: An Intimate Geography. I was reminded what an amazing book that was, and decided to look into her a bit more. I think she fits in here.

Natalie Angier: The Story Of Nataliewww.natalieangier.com
Natalie Angier - Official Site.

Ane Pema Chodron

The awesome woman for Wednesday, December 7, 2011 is Pema Chodron, whose previous post was eaten by Facebook. Again, my apologies to whomever profiled her first. 

Ane Pema Chodron (1936 - present) was born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown in NYC, NY, USA, attended Miss Porter's School in CT and UC Berkely. She married, twice, and had children, and she taught elementary school.

It was after her second divorce that she traveled to the French Alps, met Lama Chime Rinpoche and began studying buddhism. In 1974, she became a novice nun, one of a very few western women to travel that path, becoming fully ordained in 1981.http://www.shambhala.org/teachers/pema/biography.php 1974 was also the year she began to work with her root guru, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, whom she met in 1972, id.

Ane Pema teaches much about fear, anger, and attachment, and she has been instrumental in helping to establish a buddhist monastic tradition in the west.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pema_Chödrön

Her work resonates with many people, particularly, I think with other women, maybe because she is so free with sharing her personal experiences with a more traditional life path and the feelings she had to confront in order to make changes.

Please see also: http://www.shambhala.org/teachers/pema/

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason/portraits_chodron.html

http://www.shambhala.com/html/learn/features/pema/

http://pemachodronfoundation.org/

Janice D. "Jan" Schakowsky

Today’s Woman of the day is Janice D. "Jan" Schakowsky (born May 26, 1944) is the U.S. Representative for Illinois's 9th congressional district, serving since 1999. Jan grew up in the 9th District and returns home every weekend to meet with individual constituents, business leaders, and groups large and small. 

Jan was elected to represent Illinois’ 9th Congressional District in 1998, after serving for 8 years in the Illinois General Assembly. She is in her 7th term, serving in the House Democratic leadership as a Chief Deputy Whip and as a member of the Steering and Policy Committee. She is member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence where she is Ranking Democrat on the Oversight Subcommittee.

As co-chair of the Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues, Schakowsky has been known for her support of women's issues while in Congress.

Jan Schakowsky has been a lifelong consumer advocate and a champion for, what she sees as, the disappearing middle class. After a brief teaching career, in 1969 Schakowsky was a young mother and consumer, frustrated by not knowing what items at the store were fresh. She organized the National Consumers Union (NCU). NCU members researched the meaning of the coded numbers on products, which were the only way to know the date something had been made, and thus its freshness. The group printed and sold 25,000 "code books", allowing shoppers to make sense of the numbers and buy fresh bread instead of days-old. When NBC's nightly Huntley-Brinkley newscast reported on the NCU's booklet, manufacturers were embarrassed into providing plain-English "use by" dates. 
 
From 1985 until 1990, Schakowsky was the Executive Director of the Illinois State Council for Senior Citizens. In 1989 she organized an old folks' protest against Congressman Dan Rostenkowski, who had supported a law that reduced the amount Medicare would shoulder for medications and catastrophic illnesses, leaving retired and often fixed-income seniors responsible for more of the costs. Due in part to the protests, the law was repealed.

Schakowsky is by some accounts the most Progressive member of the current US Congress. She is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. She frequently gains ratings of between 90 and 100 from liberal and progressive interest groups and lower ratings from conservative groups.

In 2008 the passage of legislation she helped write made children’s products and toys safe, Jan has worked to make life better for working and middle class Americans.

In April 2009 Schakowsky pointedly criticized the tax day Tea Party protests, asserting that they were "an effort to mislead the public about the Obama economic plan that cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans and creates 3.5 million jobs." Schakowsky added, "It's despicable that right-wing Republicans would attempt to cheapen a significant, honorable moment of American history with a shameful political stunt."

For decades, Jan identified her top priority as winning affordable, quality health care for all Americans. In 2009 and 2010, she played a leadership role in writing and passing the historic Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that finally established health care as a right and not a privilege in the United States. 

Working and middle class people see Jan out there fighting for their jobs and paychecks at a time when income inequality has reached record levels. In 2010, then Speaker Pelosi appointed Jan to the President Obama’s 18-member National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform where she bucked the majority and offered her own proposal to balance the budget without cutting Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid -- or further burdening struggling families. 
Jan is proudly pro-choice, favors marriage equality and comprehensive immigration reform. Jan was a founding member of the Out of Iraq Caucus in the U.S. House. She co-chairs the Democratic Senior Task Force which focuses on addressing the needs of older Americans.

We need more women like her in elected positions, someone who will fight for women, children and those who do not have voices. She is indeed an Awesome Woman!

Lisa Simpson

Lisa Simpson is Monday’s Awesome Woman. Why does Lisa Simpson, who happens to be fictional, animated and only 8 years old, merit a AW day?

1. She is so cool. Lisa is a feminist, an intellectual, a vegetarian since age 7, a Buddhist, a pacifist, a Mensa member, a saxophone player, an environmentalist, a gay rights advocate, and a staunch activist and supporter of many causes including the Free Tibet movement. Lisa provides the moral center for the show.

2. Her presence on such a popular, long-running show gives girls (or anyone) an excellent role model of a smart, committed, active citizen. Kudos to the Simpsons writers for respecting Lisa’s character by making her likable and human while not making fun of her sincerity or beliefs. (Compare this to the character of Meg on “Family Guy” who is treated horribly and disrespectfully. It’s so beyond hateful and misogynistic that I am compelled to share some of the ways she is treated: her family is mean and abusive to her, there are constant references to her “ugliness” and suggestions that she must surely then be a lesbian, a fellow student fires a staple gun into his own stomach to avoid going out with her, her brother calls her a “bitch,” and according to Wikipedia, when Meg is depressed, her mother “gives her a Sylvia Plath novel and a bottle of Ambien, and with a ‘Whatever happens, happens,’ leaves Meg to her misery.” WTF?!?!?!?)

3. Cartoon characters CAN make a difference. Check out this entry on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Simpson) on Lisa’s cultural influence:

Jonathan Gray, author of the book Watching The Simpsons, feels that Lisa "is probably the best and certainly longest-running feminist character that television has had. She's the heart of the show and she quite often questions the gender politics" but only her own. Christopher Borrelli of The Toledo Blade wrote, "Has there ever been a female TV character as complex, intelligent, and, ahem, as emotionally well-drawn as Lisa Simpson? Meet her once and she comes off priggish and one-note -- a know-it-all. Get to know her and Lisa is as well-rounded as anyone you may ever meet in the real world."

According to PETA, Lisa was one of the first vegetarian characters on primetime television. In 2004 the organization included Lisa on its list of the "Most Animal-Friendly TV Characters of All Time". In 2008, environmentalist website The Daily Green honored Lisa's role in The Simpsons Movie with one of its inaugural "Heart of Green" awards, which "recognize those who have helped green go mainstream." They wrote "young Lisa Simpson has inspired a generation to wear their hearts on their sleeves and get educated, and involved, about global issues, from justice to feminism and the environment." Japanese broadcasters reversed viewer dislike of the series by focusing marketing of the show on Lisa. Lisa's well-intended but ill-fated struggles to be a voice of reason and a force of good in her family and community struck a chord with Japanese audiences.Mario D'Amato, a specialist in Buddhist studies at Rollins College in Florida, described Lisa as "open-minded, reflective, ethical, and interested in improving herself in various ways, while still preserving a child-like sense of innocence. These are all excellent qualities, ones which are espoused by many Buddhist traditions."

Lisa and the rest of the Simpsons have had a significant influence on English-language idioms. The dismissive term "Meh", used by Lisa and popularized by the show,entered the Collins English Dictionary in 2008.In 1996, The New York Times published an article saying that Lisa was inspiring children, especially young girls, to learn to play the saxophone.

Rock on, Lisa! We love our little yellow spiky haired activist!

Lisa Simpson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen.wikipedia.org
Parents: Homer and MargeSiblings: Bart and MaggieGrandparents: Abraham Simpson, Mona Simpson, Jacqueline Bouvier and Clancy Bouvier

Margaret Mead

Today’s WOD is Margaret Mead, one of the world’s most renowned American anthropologists. (born December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978) Mead was born in Philadelphia in a household of social scientists with roots in the Midwest. Her father was a professor at the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce and founder of the university’s evening school. However, it was her mother, a sociologist, and her paternal grandmother, a child psychologist, who had the most profound influence on Mead’s young life. 

After graduating from high school in 1918, she went on to her father’s alma mater, DePauw University, but after spending a year there she transferred to Barnard College in Manhattan to experience city life.
Meads major at Barnard was psychology, but she went on to earn a doctorate at Columbia, studying with Franz Boas and Ruth Benedict. For her, anthropology was an urgent calling, a way to bring new understandings of human behavior to bear on the future. 

In 1925 she set out for American Samoa, where she did her first field work, focusing on adolescent girls. Her reports about the attitudes towards sex in South Pacific and Southeast Asian traditional cultures amply informed the 1960s sexual revolution. Mead was a champion of broadened sexual morals within a context of traditional western religious life. 
In 1929 she went, accompanied by her second husband, Reo Fortune, to Manus Island in New Guinea, where she studied the play and imaginations of younger children and the way they were shaped by adult society. When she returned to the United States, she wrote her first book, “Coming of Age in Samoa,” which both challenged the Western way of life and confirmed Franz Boas’ hypothesis that genes are not the cause for cultural differences, rather, it’s the environment in which people grow up. 

She did extensive cross-cultural work on issues including gender roles, environmental justice, education, race relations, child rearing and nutrition. Known as the “observer’s observer,” she successfully bridged the gap between social anthropology and ethnology as we know them today.

Margaret Mead died of cancer on November 16, 1978, hard at work until the day she died. According to Mead’s obituary, “She often gave the impression of being ubiquitous because she was rarely at rest in any one place for very long and because she could not permit a moment to pass unutilized,” and her unpredictability signified she was a “student of adaptation.” After her death, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter.
Throughout her lifetime, Margaret Mead wrote more than 44 books, and more than 1,000 articles that have been translated into a multitude of languages. She gave several television interviews, and held many influential positions, including curator emeritus of the American Museum of Natural History, Earth Day activist, director of research in contemporary culture at Barnard College, and head of the social science department and professor at the liberal arts college at Fordham University. An interesting fact about her as well, as an Anglican Christian, she played a considerable part in the drafting of the 1979 American Episcopal Book of Common Prayer.

Considered “mother to the world,” by many, and “a St. Paul,” by a few, her legacy is epitomized in her own words: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Zurana Horton

Today's awesome woman is Zurana Horton. She died using her body as a living shield to protect children. Not her children; just children who were in danger. But she was poor, black, on public assistance, and had many kids ... so for those sins she was scorned by the media and public more than she was lauded. I call bullshit. That woman was a hero and you are an asshat if you think otherwise.

Zurana Horton was a hero – she just didn't look like onewww.guardian.co.uk
Teresa Wiltz: This blameless woman died saving children from gunfire, yet that was not enough to save her from being judged

Nina Smith

The Awesome Woman for Today is Nina Smith, founder and executive director of Goodweave (http://goodweave.org/). Goodweave encourages handmade rug-weaving shops in South Asia to refrain from using child labor. Goodweave obtains a contractual agreement from shop owners to:
- Adhere to the no-child-labor standard and not employ any person under age 14
- Allow unannounced random inspections by local inspectors
- Endeavor to pay fair wages to adult workers, and
- Pay a licensing fee that helps support GoodWeave’s monitoring, inspections and education programs.

Exported Goodweave-certified rugs then carry the Goodweave label so that you know your rug purchase does not support exploitation of children. Non-Goodweave certified rugs might be made by children who kept locked inside dark shops, are not educated nor fed well, and some of whom are slaves who are not even paid. x

Goodweave also rescues children who have been sold into rug-making slavery, out of desperation, by their parents for amounts as small as $2.50. The rescued children are given refuge in a rehabilitation center where they also receive education, training and love. 

A fair trade advocate and marketing professional for over 15 years, Nina won the 2005 Skoll award for Social Entrepreneurship, acknowledging her work to employ market strategies for social change. Nina was formerly the executive director of The Crafts Center (1995–1999), a nonprofit organization providing marketing and technical assistance to indigenous artisans around the world and publisher of Crafts News. As president of the Fair Trade Federation (FTF) from 1996 to 1998, Nina raised funds for and launched FTF’s first consumer education campaign. Nina’s overseas experience includes a crafts export consultancy to the Tibetan Government-in-Exile in Dharamsala, India from 1994 to 1996, where she oversaw the development of new market-driven product lines, quality control mechanisms, and artisan training programs. Nina’s broad expertise includes nonprofit management, writing and publishing, marketing, public relations and small business development.

The Goodweave program has won The Best in America Seal, that is awarded to less than 1 percent of U.S. charities, and only after rigorous independent review has determined that the highest standards of public accountability, program effectiveness and cost effectiveness are met.

Full disclosure: Nina Smith also happens to be my super awesome first cousin.

Myriam Merlet

Today's Awesome Woman of Distinction is Myriam Merlet. I will be in February's Vagina Monologues, and our focus this year is Haiti. I've been reading about Myriam, and think she more than fits the bill.

In Memoriam: Haitian Feminist Leader and V-Day Activist Myriam Merlet, Eve on Democracy Now talking.www.vday.org
One year after the earthquake that changed Haiti forever, V-Day remembers those who were lost, and honors those who have worked tirelessly since the devastation to take care of their brothers and sisters and hold their communities together. We remember with love our sister and V-Day activist Myriam ...

Debra Winger

Today’s WOD is American Actress Debra Winger. Born Mary Debra Winger in Cleveland, OH on May 16, 1955, she was the daughter of meat packer Robert Winger (who named her after his favorite actress, Debra Paget) and mother Ruth Felder, an office manager. The family relocated to Southern California when Winger was five, where she showed an aptitude for schoolwork that resulted in her graduating from high school at just 15 years old. She also developed a passion for acting, but kept it a secret from her family. Reports were conflicted about her late teenage years, which found her traveling to Israel to spend time on a kibbutz or participate in a youth group that visited one. She also allegedly joined the Israeli army's youth program for a brief stint, but left after only a few months. Upon her return, she found work as a performer at a local amusement park, but was involved in a traumatic car accident that left her both blind and paralyzed for several months. During her recuperation, she made a personal vow that if she regained all of her facilities, she would dedicate her life to acting. After she recovered, she left her studies in criminology at California State University at Northridge and relocated to Los Angeles to try her hand in Hollywood.

Her fiercely committed and emotional performances in such popular and critically regarded films as "Urban Cowboy" (1980) and "An Officer and a Gentleman" (1982) solidified her as a leading performer with few peers. She went on to win an Academy Award for her work in “Terms of Endearment" (1983),

In 1995, Winger began her self-imposed exile from the film industry. Her attention shifted to the birth of her son Babe Ruth Howard, as well as to caring for her ailing parents. For six years, Winger kept her distance from acting - save for a semester as a teaching fellow at Harvard University. Her absence from films was soon cited by critics and fellow actresses alike as the unfair fate awaiting many female performers once they reached the age of 40. She became a symbol of the plight faced by Hollywood actresses of a certain age. This unfair, unspoken Hollywood mindset was chronicled in the documentary, "Searching for Debra Winger" - which was the first public exposure the actress had received in years. Perhaps it was this confrontation of the issue raised by many middle-aged actresses which helped turn the tide, causing Winger to slowly return to acting in the new millennium. Although she would never again reach her early Eighties peak, Winger's later performances in such features as "Rachel Getting Married" (2008) proved age had no bearing on the actress' timeless appeal

While her outstanding talent and body of work would probably be enough for her to be a WOD the reason I chose her today was for her support and involvement in the anti-fracking movement.

Energy companies are eager to drill in northeastern Pennsylvania's portions of the Marcellus Shale, a giant underground rock formation. Opponents say the method, known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, endangers drinking water. Its supporters say the drilling would not harm water supplies.

Debra has property in Pennsylvania and is genuinely concerned about the health aspects of such a dangerous energy extracting method. The consequences will affect the water supply and as a result the food supply for millions of residents in the Delaware River Basin are. The movement Debra is involved in floods lawmakers with phone calls and e-mails telling them to not vote for such energy extracting methods such as fracking. They also threaten to show up and protest the passage of legislation that would allow such methods to proceed

"I used to do (fundraising) for the most powerful people — presidential candidates, the biggest things I could find. But I discovered the grass roots is where it's at. "- Debra Winger
"Why is this even politicized?" "It's a public health issue."- Debra Winger


http://www.artistdirect.com/video/searching-for-debra-winger/66362

http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20111121/NJNEWS10/311210044/Fracking-rally-Trenton

Merrill Markoe

Merrill Markoe (1948-present) is Monday’s Awesome Woman of the Day, not only because her name is so pleasingly alliterative, but also because of her success a funny person who is also female. Which isn’t even necessary to mention, except that it *sigh* still is. (Recall, if you can bear it, that even today, people will ask--in all seriousness!--if women can be truly funny. I swear!)

Markoe is perhaps best known as the creator of the Stupid Pet Tricks and Viewer Mail segments for Late Night With David Letterman, but she also appeared on Michael Moore’s late, great TV Nation, has written several funny books (including It’s My F---ing Birthday) and occasionally does stand-up.

Here’s a link to an article in Jezebel in which Markoe discusses dogs, Late Night and being a female in comedy.

Merrill Markoe On Dave Letterman, Dick Jokes, & The Love Of A Good Dog

jezebel.com

Comedian and writer Merrill Markoe was one of the creators of the David Letterman Show. Now she writes books about talking dogs and makes funny short videos.

Georgia O'Keefe

American painter Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986). Georgia O’Keeffe is regarded as one of the great modernist painters of the 20th century and was a major figure in American art for more than 70 years.

From: Wikipedia: Born near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, O'Keeffe first came to the attention of the New York art community in 1916, several decades before women had gained access to art training in America’s colleges and universities, and before any of its women artists were well known or highly celebrated. Within a decade, she had distinguished herself as one of America's most important modern artists, a position she maintained throughout her life. As a result, O’Keeffe not only carved out a significant place for women painters in an area of the American art community that had been exclusive to and is still dominated by men, but also she had become one of America’s most celebrated cultural icons well before her death at age 98 in 1986.

Her abstract imagery of the 1910s and early 1920s is among the most innovative of any work produced in the period by American artists. She revolutionized the tradition of flower painting in the 1920s by making large-format paintings of enlarged blossoms, presenting them close up as if seen through a magnifying lens. And her depictions of New York buildings, most of which date from the same decade, have been recognized as among the most compelling of any paintings of the modern city. Beginning in 1929, when she first began working part of the year in Northern New Mexico—which she made her permanent home in 1949—O’Keeffe depicted subjects specific to that area. Through paintings of its unique landscape configurations, adobe churches, cultural objects, and the bones and rocks she collected from the desert floor, she ultimately laid claim to this area of the American Southwest, which earlier had been celebrated primarily by male artists; the area around where she worked and lived has become known as “O’Keeffe Country."

Barbara Grier

It's many a woman who felt wierd or alone until she read one or more lesbian publications from the Naiad Press, which Barbara Grier and her partner cofounded. We're sorry she died. She is our awesome woman of the day for friday.

Lesbian publishing house founder Grier dies at 78

www.pridesource.com

Barbara Grier, a founder of what once was the world's largest publishing house of literature about gays and lesbians, has died. She was 78.

Marian Wright Edelman

Good morning awesome ones. The awesome woman for November 16, 2011 is Marian Wright Edelman, the founder of the Children's Defense Fund, an advocacy group that works and lobbies on behalf of all U.S. children, but particularly on behalf of poor and disabled children. While some of the organization's work is fairly well-known (e.g., advocating for Head Start, children's healthcare, and child nutritional services), it cements its position on the side of the angels wrt its advocacy for children in delinquency, dependency, and neglect proceedings. The group has been critical in making sure that kids who end up in the system have their educational needs met, in addition to their needs for safety, love, and socialization.

Edelman was born on June 6, 1939. She graduated from Yale Law School in 1963 and is the first woman ever admitted to practice law in Mississippi. She started her legal career working for the NAACP, and within about five years while working for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Poor People's Project, she founded what became CDF in 1973. She has received numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award for her writings. See more here:

Children's Defense Fund (CDF) : Health Care Coverage for All of America's Children, Ending Child Pov

www.childrensdefense.org

The Children's Defense Fund Leave No Child Behind® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. Full Mission Statement »