Washington Women: Real Smart or Real Dumb

Whoopee, all these beautiful, brave women telling on Herman Cain. I do so love it!

Of course, I believe the charges about Herman Cain. I do hope they drive him away. And, quickly as all this “sexual misconduct” stuff is so incredibly tedious, if nothing else. For me, Washington men, particularly those with political aspirations are guilty as accused until proven otherwise. My little flip on Constitutional rights. Too bad, too bad. Call me a bitch or undemocratic.

I also believe that Occupy Wall Street can only go so far unless and until we Occupy Congress and all those, men, the ones aspiring to do just that; occupy Congress etc. etc., get called on their games. How about our male protestors? Women’s lib was not particularly honored at those civil rights and anti-war demonstrations.

Is Occupy Wall Street truly different when it comes to sexual misconduct? I’ll bet there will be some gender tensions in those parks when the sun goes down, tonight and every night. Though women today are a whole lot smarter than we women were back in those bygone hippie days, that game still does go on.

I’ve got some stories from way back then. Bet you do too, if the world of Washington has ever been your turf.

The "little" mis-step of Mr. Cain sent me digging into my own memorabilia. Sifting through my photos of long ago yesterdays, right off I found what I was looking for; a “Smile and your beautiful,” posed shot of myself and the Senator; the one that pursued me, until I got really scared to say no, at least to have lunch. And a bit crazy, too when he began groping his way up my leg at a fancy Capitol Hill restaurant. Those were the days, weren’t they? The same as now with the exception that we women have come a long way; we’ve got sisterhood now; yeah for that woman power!

Nonetheless, it never has been easy, as you no doubt realize, to know what to do when you get phone calls from Capitol Hill, telling you to “Hold on please for Senator …..He will be on the line in just one moment.

My first husband and I came to Washington's Camelot for the light. Here I got sexually abused by that husband until finally I left. And, Camelot just kept getting darker and darker.

I started out real dumb. But I got smart. And as the years moved on, I left the fast track behind and I got onto that Washington game. Now I love it when women call the shots that’s how smart I am.

Bravo. Maybe tomorrow I’ll even scan that old picture to post here. Women's power can be so much fun.

Bravo For The Power Of A Woman, Speaking Her Truth

Our campaigning politicians are truly being vetted now, sooner rather than later, as well they should be.

Women Power,
from the ancients to the now!
Bravo!

I wish Mr. Cain no more than he deserves but let us stand by our democratic process to know what is true before we spend any further air time – and tax payers’ money to find out. Pu-leese!

Statements like the ones below make the past decades, fighting for women’s rights, all worthwhile. I wish I had a dollar for every Washington, D.C. fast track, “sexual misconduct” of my own experience. This one reminds me of the story about Senator etc. etc.

I know many other women who are cheering with me. A victory for one goddess is a win for us all.

I love it!

Cain faces new claim of sexual misconduct

From CNN, Monday, November 7, 2011

“Sharon Bialek, who worked at the restaurant group's education foundation until shortly before the alleged groping incident, said Cain unexpectedly put his hand on her leg beneath her skirt "toward my genitals." She also said he pushed her head toward his crotch.

Cain stopped when she protested, Bialek told a news conference.

Looking into the television cameras, Bialek said: "I want you, Mr. Cain, to come clean. Just admit what you did."
.
From the same CNN article, Monday, November 7, 2011

“On Sunday, one of Cain's rivals called for keeping the issue alive, saying the necessary scrutiny of presidential candidates requires Cain to answer all questions about what happened.”

This is democracy working! Bravo!

Alignment With Our Principles, Part II

It is easy to not see what sits right in front of us. We all experience challenges, at times, in grasping full reality at its highest level. Full and total reality must, by its very nature, remain in the realm of mystery. Not because we are especially flawed, but simply because of what it means to be human, biologically and otherwise. So it comes down to the dark and the light sides of being human; how best to see what there is to see. And, then, to know what to do with what one sees. 

When negativity arises, as it does, of course, on a daily basis in the greater world via the internet and our other high tech communication capabilites, people often become outraged, or at least frustrated. “What to do. What to do.” is one lamentation. There are untold others.

Wise Elders offer us the guidance we desperately need with their words; wisdom born of the ages and sages, as relevant today as ever it was. Respected Elders everywhere illuminate our paths that we may find our way out of disquieting episodes.. If we want peace on this earth, one of the central paths to that peace is that we “build territories or zones of peace where violence and deceit won’t be used.” (Mahatma Gandhi.) A simple solution, more easily said than done. (New Horizons Small “Zones Of Peace” Project, obviously, is a strong proponent of this idea.)

If not only violence, but deceit, such as our politicians and politics have degenerated into, is not acceptable for the fabric of our lives, how about protestors simply confronting that issue across the board? Not only on Wall Street, but in Congress and campaigns etc. etc.?

Bill Clinton, Anthony Weiner, Strauss-Kahn, Herman Cain, etc. etc., whomever the person may be, if not functioning with complete integrity, do they really belong in a leadership capacity in this country? We are called, I believe, to investigate why we accept deceit. Why lying is such a difficult concept to confront. Everybody “seems” to be against it in others. Yet in practice, we allow it to go by, as if it were nothing.

The essential ingredients that generate and sustain peace and well-being in a family and/or a community are consistently accepted as universal practicalities, regardless of religion. They are, also, readily activated, if we choose to make them our priorities. The seeds of the potential for peace and unity already exist in the individual, the family, the community, the nation and the world. If our innate human capacities for kindness, generosity, honesty, courage and so forth are activated and nurtured, abundance on earth can be established wherein violence and deceit become obsolete because they have become unnecessary.

This potential begins with you and I. Is that really so difficult to see? It does not really take a protest, congressional approval or legislation in order to act with caring, compassion and integrity..

Of course, I am unlikely to live long enough, at least, in this lifetime to experience such a state of conditions. Yet, it gives me comfort that I know this potential to be so. In doing the interviews for our new Possible Human, Possible Society Study, others are telling me that they see it this way too; deceit does not need to be an accepted way of life in America. Expecting honesty and integrity from others, as well as ourselves, is simply an arm’s length away, if we proclaim it to be our way.

Interviewing participants started right off as an almost magical experience for me. Although I hold these values that I am here expressing, enough to stake my life on them, I had not anticipated how close to the hearts and ethical practises of many others were they, also, being held. Then I started listening to personal stories about values and standards. Interviews soon became storytelling in the ninety days plus since August 1, when the study, officially began, I have already been given, personally, more than I could have imagined;

Already in these early days of the study, I am being privileged to discover an enhanced viewpoint of both the head and the deepest yearnings of the heart. As well as the heart behind the distress people are experiencing under current political circumstances. The heart part, expressed in detail, in these one-on-one interviews, has been particularly profound. There is nothing like storytelling to expand one's consciousness and our human connectedness.

The internet cannot give us this sense of full-bodied personhood, person-to-person. No matter how advanced it becomes. There is something one receives in close proximity to another that high tech cannot replace; the flesh, the facial expression and the voice tone are parts of that “something.” But there is more, a subtle human vibration.

Right from the study’s start in early August, it prompted so much interest I wasn't sure we could manage it all. I believe, this was because many people are eager to speak the deepest truths of their hearts, as well as their mind, if there is hope that it can make a difference. For our parts, now, a few months into the study, we are beginning to accrue a decent enough flow. And, our every success with the project seems relatively assured, as much as anything can be predicted in these days of turbulence.

The fire in my soul has been ignited.

More to come.

Alignment With Our Principles

The Fire In My Soul

Passion and determination are such vital next steps in moving through frustration and anger into fruitful peace-building action. You may recall (I will help you out here with the related links) that early on this year I wrote several articles about my passion.

• “A Passion For Truth” (March 28, 2011) has some focus on the subject of lying;
• “The Fire In My Soul” (January 29, 2011) took up the subject of the mediocrity of our masses,

More recently I offered my perspectives on accountability and responsibility in:

• “Of The People, By The People And...." August 11, 2011
• "The Games On You, Mr. President" August 13, 2011

Today the perspectives I offered in those four pieces were, again, aroused in me by the handling by various interest groups of our current brouhaha regarding allegations of sexual harassment charges against Herman Cain.

Come on, folks, if we truly want integrity from our representative leaders; transparency, accountability and all that good stuff, seems to me we need to pay attention to the fact that our democratic system does not have much in the way of a serviceable ethics system with definite consequences for non-ethical behavior.

It was one thing that we were just coming of age – and made our discoveries way after the fact about JFK’s womanizing. And, to some extent, I believe, we can even forgive those who were too naïve to believe John Dean’s testimony about Nixon’s role in Watergate. That is until Nixon’s culpability slapped them in the face.

By the time Bill Clinton offered his notorious Map Room con, there was, at least, a consensus, more or less, that our Mr. President had not acted in a very seemly fashion, particularly in the prime of his occupancy in the White House, the scene, no less, of his misbehavior. But that was already more than a decade ago. Time moves on, we grow, we mature. And, at some point we really do need to clarify our values and back up our beliefs with relevant actions, particularly about the role of genuine transparency in public life. .

Not just rely on another media frenzy to shame offenders, or apparent offenders, into just going away. That seems like a cop out to me; a cop out of our voting public not truly expecting transparency. Our proclivity to feed off of scandal takes an inordinate amount of time and energy to clear up. And, the voting public not taking a clearly defined position on things like this is like letting someone else (in this case the media) be called out for naming what one might be too cowardly to speak of oneself.

So what’s it gonna be? Can’t somebody big and bold create a movement that speaks to what we, the not so mediocre masses, believe about even needing to deal with scandals in the first place like the Herman Cain news of today? Instead of there being more room for another round of predictable polarization dramas upon which to feed.

Rather than their being a viewpoint favoring the Republican camp (“Can’t we just please return out attentions to our blazing campaign agendas such as making the other guys look bad about the economy?”), I propose that potential political candidates have expected conduct standards to follow before they start taking up our air time. We sure do spend an inordinate amount of time making noise about all kinds of off the point situations. Yet all that gets accomplished is talk and more talk. Is that all we need and want?

Tell me true, if you know, what are our collective standards of conduct for our politicians to be? If we continue to allow whatever is behind scandals of this nature to come up, hijack our time and attention, and, then, be pushed under the rug, how can we possibly, with personal integrity, continue to complain about the lack thereof in our leaders? We have not taken the time to truly clarify where we stand with our values and standards on transparency. Or, would that demand too much of us when we honestly can’t be counted on to live up to this standard ourselves?

Or, maybe it suffices that the media hype game will be, as with New York’s Anthony Weiner, enough to just make an offender simply go away in shame. On the other hand, gossip and scandal exact such a price, if that is what Mr. Cain is facing. It does seem we could do a bit better in offsetting such problems before they get started. I don’t know how we would accomplish this. However, scandal and its accompanying media frenzy sure  waste valuable human resources.

Putting our money where our mouths are on August 1,. 2011, my beloved New Horizons,' non-profit organization, launched a four year study, the Possible Human, Possible Society Study. A further project, already emerging out of the study is our new Possible Society In Motion Think Tank.

If you live within the one hundred miles of the Washington, D.C. White House and would like to be a participant in our study, please visit New Horizons blog where all kinds of activity related to this project are posted  For details, specificaly, on the study see multiple links on top of our home page. Contact information for the study is at the bottom of the study description page posted.

The Platform Is Bigger Than The Man

A pause that refreshes

Complaints about our president and his politics seem to have obscured the fact that along with electing Obama, we also bought into his platform, consciously or not. While the man, himself, may fade in his celebrity, perhaps, what may remain could be the platform he brought us; a president’s legacy already in the making. For a change, a message that is potentially bigger than the man! Memorable in the same way as John F. Kennedy’s words, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”

Doesn’t this message of JFK’s that moved an entire generation suggest that maybe we should stop bitching and moaning? We are to be working for the man; the good of our president, rather then Obama for us. Reciprocity would be the ideal but so what? Isn’t that what JFK meant for us to do, sooner or later?

Or, perhaps, all that is happening here is just another way of looking at our collective karma.

No matter, take a moment for a pause that might possibly refresh. What does “refresh” mean anyway these days, if not clicking on an icon that prompts the opening of a new page when the old one is stale and stuck? Hasn’t Obama led us to do just that? Haven’t we now clicked on the Obama icon that’s stuck and gotten ourselves a new page?

Here’s my take; a refreshing viewpoint, I would hope. I suggest that we, at least, take a moment and applaud Obama’s election for what it has brought us. Here I offer a brighter look than the run-of-the mill we have been taking up as our recent daily fare. After all, with all the attention, these days, on the love and light supposed to save us, how about a little of that on behalf of our president?

Who said we need a Messiah in the White House anyway. How about spreading that love and light on over to the White House? How about sending the intention for caring, compassion and forgiveness to Pennsylvania Avenue? Take a look at that idea of sending love as an option for sharing and caring and seeing those higher truths and clarity so often expounded these days by those with lesser jobs.

If we take a fresh look, we can even see that we Americans might actually be winning just when we are caught up complaining about all that we’ve lost. Hold onto this one as a part of your new paradigm thinking. By electing Barak Obama as our president, we also did elect his platform. Those of us who are idealists should particularly note this point, lest we become too cocksure and righteous with our judgments and blame, as the wisdom of our finally growing up takes hold.

Obama has, perhaps, ushered in a new image of Americans, akin to the power and the significance of an Arab Spring, if we, ambitiously want to carry it that far. We can see that with a bit of gratitude, can’t we?

My memory picture of Obama’s election win was that his platform called on America’s grassroots to become much more active in making a better America. That included the silent majority and middle America, didn’t it? Doesn’t that same segment of the population now include those who are offering their two cents, if not their sleeping bags, in support of one night or more on a chilly park ground in the service of protest?

With his election, Obama lifted the spirits of a nation, already disheartened by the economy, terrorism and various military involvements in the Middle East, asking us to expand our activism on our own behalf. So that WE could, once again, do great things that would make us stand up and be proud of ourselves. This is an action role that demands courage and perseverance. Who has the guts now to really walk that walk? Truly be a part of the solution, rather than just talking about our problems?

Well, come on, now. Aren’t some Americans doing just that; being an active part of the solution, with the Occupy Wall Street protests? This is a grassroots movement if there ever was one. Maybe people need to stand back, take a pause and refresh. We elected a platform that is bigger than the man. America 2008 seemed ready for grassroots action. And, now we’ve got it.

Maybe we are disappointed and don’t like the messenger any more than we did before. Perhaps, even a good deal less. (That fits for me who never bought into the "Obama as icon" thing in the first place. Nor do I know for certain my to-be-held viewpoint on Occupy Wall Street right now.)

In the meantime, how about taking a pause to refresh and spending, at least, one moment celebrating the message? Perhaps we do have cause to rejoice these days. For a change we signed on to a platform that was bigger than a man. Bravo. Our democracy works!

As for me, personally, I am still a long ways away from knowing who will get my vote next year at this time.

All-Hallows Eve

Another Anastasia Reflection On Washington, D.C. and Me

, 1961 – 2011

October has come and gone, leaving me wondering what it has all been about.  A flooded lower level, along with various other plumbing problems at our retreat center, currently in remodeling phase two, that took the better part of two weeks was my initiation into the month.  Then the demands of a New Horizons’ event that I strongly opposed, given a serious medical emergency in the family of Sue deVeer, my right arm and program collaborator, imposed on my time,  Finally, the past three days without electricity or phone service due to an unseasonably early snowstorm rounded out this month of mishaps. Or, should I better call these challenges the turbulence of a universe on accelerated spin? 

Today, the day of the Great Pumpkin, is, not only All-Hallows Eve, but also the ushering in of November, 2011, a stark reminder that Election Day, 2012 is not far off.  Oh my, oh my, the U.S.A. is in for an interesting year ahead as our part of this universal gyration.  Where we will land is anybody’s guess.

For my own particular contribution to the mix of what’s happening next, I designed a study, the Possible Human, Possible Society Study, to carry our organization from now through the next presidential election and then some. Sponsored by New Horizons, the study, officially launched August 1, 2011, seeks to discover (and share) some “truths” about our individual and collective yearnings for an evolving society with the intention of offering whatever we are able to social betterment. Visit our New Horizons Small “Zones of Peace” Project blog to keep pace of that adventure as it unfolds.

Bringing the "possible" back to the present, however, allow me to comment on my more current musings on a day when lack of electricity, phone service and defrosting food from my non-operating frig has me visiting friends after a very chilly weekend. Being a used book devotee, both out of interest and money management, I passed my just above freezing days and nights huddled under no less than three down comforters. Reading that which, by candlelight or flashlight, dim access to my bookshelves illuminated to help me pass my time in the cold, was not without its charm.  To my surprise, what did I find during the time but one more tome of the many in my collection of prominent Washington Woman of days past.

A particular memoir invited my perusal of the intrigues of a woman named Barbara Howar whose name chimed a bell in my mental archives of yore. A great deal more could be said here that I will save for another time on what this reading evoked in me. Suffice it to say that my reactions were intense and acutely negative. Thus on this day of the approaching All-Hallows Eve, Barbara Howar’s autobiography, a tale of a certain female power-addict, (Has Ms. Howar reformed these many years later or not? Google was unable to tell me.) sparked an idea. 

The Possible Human, Possible Society Study will need to explore the attitudes of prominent Washington Women in order to fulfill its mission. We will not be complete without it. And, in the case of some such as Ms. Howar’s autobiography suggested, perhaps, even consider this particular group, the Witches of Washington, of both the good and the evil.  

What magic hath they created; the wise and/or the wicked women of Washington; the power-addicted and the users, side-by-side with those that have woven their spells of dignity, inspiration and respect such as Katherine Graham of the Washington Post.

For now, let me leave you guessing as to what shall unfold here in this realm while wishing you a be-witching trick or treat night.  Or, that you find your way to joining our predictors of the future with a night of scrying in your own personal crystal ball as to what the coming twelve months holds on this earth for the U.S.A., give or take a week or so.

How To Begin

Rosh Hoshana, 5772

Birthday Lillies
They bloom almost ever year
for my birthday

Rosh Hoshana came at a bad time for me this year. Of course, it was not my call. But the lower level of the dwelling I inhabit as property manager for the New Horizons’ Harpers Ferry Retreat Center flooded just in time for the beginning of the Jewish New Year. The remedy took four visits from the plumber and a mopping, sopping, wet vac-ing of many more hours than I care to remember. Together Sue and I cleared away more than one hundred gallons of water.

How blessed is New Horizons’ that Sue, my right arm, was in there pulling with me! Horrors, if it had been only up to myself and the cat.

Our flood had nothing to really merit any significance though it did have more than its share of challenges. Unlike that which Noah and those on his Ark endured, it was relatively short-lived. And disturbed no one, other than the few of us most closely involved with it, particularly me. It was, nonetheless, a humbling experience that I would hope to not repeat any time in the near future. Actually, I would not like to ever repeat it at all!

Today, however, the sun is, at last, shining and the mopping and sopping up is adequately completed. After weeks of rain that seemed almost ceaseless, along with our “nothing much earthquake” of a few weeks ago, it ought to be easy to right side things up again. And, at last, to turn attention to the “Ten Days of Awe;” the annual time of Jewish tradition and rituals for repentance.

Now I am faced with the reality that officially the High Holy days will likely be finished with me before I am finished with them. I need these set-aside ten days, annually, to examine the limitations of my ways and how to right them. As it was, however, before the flood waters announced themselves, I hadn’t yet quite figured out how I might even begin my personal, spiritual progression through this time.

One thing of my own did occur to me, nonetheless. It might be a worthy endeavor in my personal preparing for this year’s pilgrimage, if I took a look at my blog postings of one year ago. Having set out last year and having accomplished at the Jewish High Holidays, my pledge to write one blog article per day for each day of the ten days, a contemplation of how this had benefited me or anyone else this past year could be useful for me somehow this year as I set out to, again, clean up my proverbial act.

Outfitted with my Mazur, the official High Holiday prayer book, the five thousand years plus of Jewish tradition I’ve inherited, my friends, my family and my memories of those honored traditions upheld by my loved ones in bygone years, from here forth, for the next little while, I set my attentions to the “Days of Awe.”

Checking back on those blogs to see what writing them and living through another year has taught me won’t be a bad thing. And, hopefully, the Powers That Be, will not find fault with my good intentions, if I need to grant myself an extension, if need be.

Allow me to, officially begin with this, the traditional greeting from one Jew to another during the “Days of Awe.”

"Le' shana tova tikatevu ve' tikhatemu."
"May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year."

To Jew and non-Jew alike.