The Modern Venus Blog

Congratulations to the Winners

Congratulations to the winners of this year's New York City Marathon, Meb Keflezighi, 34, (who broke the tape in the 26.2-mile course with a personal best time of 2:09:15), and Derartu Tulu of Ethiopia, who sprinted to the finish with a time of 2:28:52.   I ran the NYC Marathon in the late 1990s and finished it in 4 hours, 4 minutes and 44 seconds, to be exact!   The weather that day was much like it was today, which were ideal for the 26-plus mile haul.   The video below takes me back to that race, the feelings of being in it, and the excitement (and exhaustion) for training for such an athletic quest. 

Congratulations as well to everyone who ran the race (whether or not they finished), they all have much to be proud of for the rest of their lives. 

Congratulations to Lance Armstrong

Lance Armstrong came in third in the 2009 Tour de France - an incredible victory.  He came in behind Alberto Contador of Spain and Andy Schleck of Luxembourg (congratulations to them, too! - this is Contador's second win).    The Tour is the most rigorous of any sports competition, and I am constantly moved (to tears, usually) at the inspiration that Lance Armstrong brings to anyone and everyone.   From cancer survivor to champion - I have dear friends battling various forms of cancer, and witnessing his repeated victories is immensely moving and, of course, inspiring.  Congratulations.

Here is an excerpt from yesterday's Sports Ilustrated online.

I chose this blurb because I love how Armstrong uses this "loss" (if you can call it one) as a great lesson for his kids:

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"Over nearly 3,500 kilometers and 21 stages of racing over three weeks, Contador repelled many challenges in the mountains, excelled in the two time-trials -- winning a pivotal race against the clock in the 18th stage -- and won the first Alpine stage.

Andy Schleck of Luxembourg, Contador's biggest rival among title contenders in the mountains, was second overall.

"I'm realistic, I did everything I could," Armstrong said before the final stage. "For me, and even more for my kids, it's probably a healthy thing for them to see, because they saw their dad that never lost, and the kids in their class (say) 'your dad never loses,' so it's good for them to see dad get third and still be cool with that and still be happy.'"

Michelle Obama: Inspiring Women all over the World

From Cnn.com, a really wonderful article about how Michelle Obama and her daughters are helping women of color all around the world overcome stigmas imposed upon them by their respective cultures:

CNN) -- Heather Ferreira works in the slums of Mumbai, India, where she has watched thousands of women live under a "curse."

The women she meets in the squalid streets where "Slumdog Millionaire" was filmed are often treated with contempt, she says. They're considered ugly if their skin and hair are too dark. They are deemed "cursed" if they only have daughters. Many would-be mothers even abort their children if they learn they're female.

Yet lately she says Indian women are getting another message from the emergence of another woman thousands of miles away. This woman has dark skin and hair. She walks next to her husband in public, not behind. And she has two daughters. But no one calls her cursed. They call her Michelle Obama, the first lady.

"She could be a new face for India," says Ferreira, program officer for an HIV-prevention program run by World Vision, an international humanitarian group. "She shows women that it's OK to have dark skin and to not have a son. She's quite real to us."

Those who focus on Michelle Obama's impact on America are underestimating her reach. The first lady is inspiring women of color around the globe to look at themselves, and America, in fresh ways.  Read on. . .

 

Martin Luther King Jr. - January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968

On this day 41 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee by James Earl Ray.                                               
Today Life Magazine published photos that were taken on that terrible day that have never been previously published.   View this slideshow to see pictures of Dr. King's compatriots as they began to absorb their loss, his briefcase as it looked at the motel upon whose balcony he was shot, and pictures of Ray's vantage-point in a derelict building across from the motel, and what those buildings must have looked like to Dr. King.  These photos are moving in that they capture the grief and the loss, and even some of the mundane details of what may be left after a love one passes.  It can be the smallest of those details after we lose a loved ones which can move us the most.  

Rest in peace, Dr. King. 

From the NYT: Things are Changing for Women in Iran

Today the New York Times published a fascinating article about the (very slowly) changing status of women in Iran, in part precipitated by women there who have access to the Internet and see how lucky we women in the West are.  Did you know that by law in Iran, women may inherit from their parents only half the shares of their brothers?  Their court testimony is worth half that of a man. Although the state has taken steps to discourage stoning, it remains in the penal code as the punishment for women who commit adultery. A woman who refuses to cover her hair faces jail and up to 80 lashes.   Women are now refusing to put up with this kind of treatment or, at least (and in the face of a lot of resistance, unfortunately), are trying to change it.

As reported:

TEHRAN — In a year of marriage, Razieh Qassemi, 19, says she was beaten repeatedly by her husband and his father. Her husband, she says, is addicted to methamphetamine and has threatened to marry another woman to “torture” her.

Rather than endure the abuse, Ms. Qassemi took a step that might never have occurred to an earlier generation of Iranian women: she filed for divorce.

Women’s rights advocates say Iranian women are displaying a growing determination to achieve equal status in this conservative Muslim theocracy, where male supremacy is still enscribed in the legal code. One in five marriages now end in divorce, according to government data, a fourfold increase in the past 15 years.

And it is not just women from the wealthy, Westernized elites. The family court building in Vanak Square here is filled with women, like Ms. Qassemi, who are not privileged. Women from lower classes and even the religious are among those marching up and down the stairs to fight for divorces and custody of their children.

Increasing educational levels and the information revolution have contributed to creating a generation of women determined to gain more control over their lives, rights advocates say.

Confronted with new cultural and legal restrictions after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, some young women turned to higher education as a way to get away from home, postpone marriage and earn social respect, advocates say. Religious women, who had refused to sit in classes with men, returned to universities after they were resegregated.

Today, more than 60 percent of university students are women, compared with just over 30 percent in 1982, even though classes are no longer segregated.    Read on . . .

Fascinating: Dr. King on the election an African-American President

Check out this video, unearthed by the BBC, containing Dr. King's prediction about the election of an African-American president.    

A Historic Day

I have been in tears all morning, as I have been profoundly moved and inspired by the inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th President of the United States.  I think of all the civil rights leaders who have worked so hard - even sacrificed their lives - to be present, even in spirit, to this auspicious day.  I am thrilled with the excitement of all the people watching this event all over the world.  May all higher powers bless President Obama, his beautiful family, our new government, all citizens of the United States, and everyone all over the world, and may we soon experience more peace, prosperity, and love, everywhere.

Here is part of the text of President Obama's (so fun to write that!) Inaugural Address:

"My fellow citizens:

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often, the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebearers, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet. " Read on . . .

Let's take a(nother) lesson from the French

Wouldn't it be amazing if the United States government (or our local governments) supported the arts in such a fashion (other than free admission to the Smithsonian, that is . . .)

NIMES, France (AFP) – All French youths under 25 are to get free entry to public museums and monuments, from the Louvre to the Chateau de Versailles, under measures unveiled by President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday.

In a New Year's address to the arts world, Sarkozy said under-25s and school teachers would be allowed in to all museums free of charge from April 4, in addition to under-18s who already enjoy free tickets.

The Musee D'Orsay

As part of a raft of announcements aimed at promoting French culture and the arts, Sarkozy said he planned to create a new national history museum, in a "symbolic" site, in a bid to reinforce France's identity.

France's annual national heritage budget will be boosted by 100 million euros, with priority given to preserving "emblematic great monuments, cathedrals, abbeys and small town monuments," he said.

Sarkozy also announced he would lift a partial freeze on state funding for the performing arts in 2009, and said he was committed to preserving France's special welfare regime for arts and entertainment workers.

French film producer Marin Karmitz was named head of a new arts council, co-chaired by Sarkozy and Culture Minister Christine Albanel, that will aim to "refocus" state subsidies to promote "excellence" in the arts.

And the president signalled a major push on arts education, with partnerships to be struck between French cultural bodies and all schools -- from kindergarten right through to university. 

The Louvre - with the somewhat controversial glass pyramid designed by the architect-icon I.M. Pei.  But did you know that the original designs of the Louvre dating back centuries actually included a pyramid? - M.T.

Drill, Drill, Drill

"Drill, Drill, Drill" by Eve Ensler:  here is a particularly interesting analysis of the Sarah Palin nomination by the feminist icon Eve Ensler.  I thought it was particularly interesting and thought-provoking; thus I am posting it here. 

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I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.

I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.

But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.

I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.

Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, "It was a task from God."

Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist's baby or not.

She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes.

Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.

Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.

Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.

I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.

If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, "Drill Drill Drill." I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.

Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?