Ulyssa's Blog

I confess! I am a certified arm chair historian. Wondering if there are any other arm chair historians out there? I just posted on the discussion board to a teacher re; the fact that women's history is all but ignored in our educational system. This, ignoring women's history, is a terrible loss, because women make up half the world's population, and so we are losing half of our human history.

I noticed her plea for help in finding good sources for teaching her students women's history had been posted about a year ago, and no one had responded. How sad. I hold our educational system responsible. I learned more about Washington cutting down that cherry tree, something that never happened, than I ever learned about women's contributions. How can we blame our kids for not knowing the history of women when so little of it is taught in schools? We need to wake up our schools to this oversight, and tell them that our kids need to learn about what women accomplished as men.

I strongly believe that our daughters, as well as our sons, would gain a whole different perspective on the world if they were educated about what women have contributed. Girls could gain a new sense of pride if they learned about how many amazing women have come before them, and be inspired to reach higher in their life goals.

Boys would gain respect for girls as they learned about the courage and determination that women, and men, have shown throughout our history to get us to where we are today. A place that women of just a century ago could scarcely have dreamed of. They didn't even have the right to vote in 1910. Today, we wonder which of the many woman politicians out there, or still rising, will be our inevitable first woman president.

This month, March, is Women's History Month, yet we don't tend to see any recognition of this in our schools. We need to something to fix this. If you have kids in school, you might want to check and see in any effort is being made to shed some light on the accomplishments and biographies of women during our month. Or at all. If the schools want a place where they can get a lot of information easily, one really great internet site I have come across is newsletters@about.com

If they, or you, go to this site, and look under the heading of "women's history A-Z," you can sign up for a regular email newsletter. I get them and enjoy reading them. Each one will focus on the bio of a woman of note in history. I also signed up for the Ancient Women's History at the same site. Not trying to sell anything, just letting people know these things are out there and make it really easy to learn about women of the past.

If you don't feel that enough is being done to teach our kids about women's history, don't be afraid to speak out, and possibly suggest that sites like this site be used to educate not only our kids, but our teachers, about women's history as well.

You can even just send a letter to the school administration if that's easier for you. I wouldn't feel to intimidated about seeing the administration face to face though. Last time I spoke to one, the parent ahead of me was accusing a teacher of being a witch and demanding that she be fired and arrested. No doubt this woman had a stake ready somewhere to burn said teacher at as well. It was comical. I felt as though I'd been transported back to the Salem witch hunt era. So a rational request might be most welcome to our school administration.

If there are any other history buffs out there, feel welcome to send me a message and let's get to know one another. It's not easy to find many people who like to discuss history, and even more rare to find people who enjoy women's history.
Blessings on you and yours
Ulyssa

Much to my disappointment, Hillary Clinton said nothing specifically, in public at least, about the ongoing abductions, rapes and murders of women that have been going on since 1993 in Juarez Mexico and surrounding cities, and are now moving into the bordertowns in the United States.

OR maybe the mainstream news media just didn't report anything she said about the murders. Our mainstream news seems not to care at all about the ever increasing number of dead and missing women there. The exact death count varies wildly. There have been more than 4000 complaints regarding missing women and girls. I have no idea if this includes the murder victims who have been found

Many news stories I find on this say that there have been around 400 or 500 murders. That's odd, since these murders have been going on since 1993, and the number of murdered women in 2002, when I first learned of this atrocity, was estimated to be around 300.

That was eight years ago, and the murders have been going on on a regular basis, yet the number of dead is still around 400 to 500?

Their has been almost no real response from the authorities
( although they have gotten some "confessions," under torture.
Including one American woman, who confessed to having committed the murders, while under torture from electric shocks. It's so sordid it's almost laughable. Almost.)

Secretary Clinton did visit the holy site of "Our Lady of Guadalupe," which, IMO, was a statement about the importance of women of Mexican culture, and possibly to highlight the disparity between the honoring of the Virgin Mary and the treatment of women in that nation. Still, I would have liked to hear her speak out against the terrible femicide in Mexico.

Why didn't she?

My guess is that Secretary Clinton's hands are tied by "diplomatic niceties." The Mexican government has been sued by a group of human right's organizations for failing to deal with the human rights violations this femicide constitutes.

Bringing up these murders might make things "awkward" for the Mexican government, which the Obama administration is attempting to work with. It's important to keep in mind that Secretary Clinton must follow the orders of the president, and is not a free agent here.

I suppose it is more important to work to end all the violence in Juarez and other towns where the femicide is taking place, in the hopes of ending the femicide and the very likely human trafficking involved. Or at least make it easier to focus on the femicide and human trafficking specifically.

Secretary Clinton did state that the US plays a part of the problems in bodertowns like Juarez, by being consumers of the drugs supplied by drug cartels, and so must be a part of the solution. That's a pretty bold statement for a diplomat to make, IMO.

There has been talk of sending military help, though this is framed as a means to fight the drug cartels, not the woman killers.

It is possible the cartels are involved in the femicides, or in human trafficking. There is also evidence that powerful and wealthy people in Juarez are involved, and that the US factories who moved across the border for cheap labor may be involved as well. In any case, they refuse to provide their workers with any sort of security. Why? They're getting rich enough off the cheap labor.

With so many women dead or missing, any or all may be involved. Clearly, the murders of countless poor women in Mexico are not considered important, so they are easy prey.
Now they are branching out into US cities. All along our southern border.

Knowing what I know about Hillary Clinton's devotion to women's issues, I believe that the femicide in Juarez is very much on her mind as she speaks. She must be disgusted by the knowledge that the Mexican government has blamed the victims of these murders for having dressed "provocatively."

Odd, since so many of the victims are abducted while going to or from work, wearing smock uniforms.

I am in awe of Secretary Clinton and all she has accomplished in her life. She was the first "First Lady" to have been elected to the Senate, and when she ran for president, she was . .
THE FIRST WOMAN TO HAVE WON EVEN ONE SINGLE STATE IN A PRIMARY PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN!

If the Democrats would have counted the votes of Florida and Mich., Hillary Clinton would have been the first woman to win the presidential nomination in a major party. But the DMC, by three votes from Super Delegates, decided to leave out the voters of two states. Something that still rankles with me, and always will.

Regardless of whether or not you like Hillary Clinton, you have to admit, she has accomplished tremendous things in her lifetime.
Clinton has already stated that she will not serve a second term as Secretary of State should Obama be re-elected, and will not run for president again. Unfortunately.

Instead, she plans to focus her considerable energies on working to improve the lives of women and girls around the world, much as Al Gore did with environmental issues. As Secretary of State, she will certainly be well informed on the issues of women around the world. I hope I am around to be a part of that effort. She is clearly a force to be reckoned with. I wish her the best of luck.

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Edited by Ulyssa at Mar 23, 2010 8:59 PM EDT