CocoGarcia

Take Back Pro-Life in All Things!

From birth to gun control, conservation and environmentalism, clean air, safe food, children's health and education, healthcare. I could go on and on inspired by Thomas Friedman's piece in today's NYT. Let's take back Pro-Life and own it! Pro-Life encompasses everything we hold dear for ourselves and one another.

http://nyti.ms/TgMLUt

NYTimes: Why I Am Pro-Life

If you respect the sanctity of life, then it shouldn’t be limited solely to the issue of abortion.

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Women Hold Up Half the Sky

Today I am inspired.  By Anita Caspary who recently died at 95 after waging years of struggle, that should not have been necessary, making way for women in the Catholic Church.  By the new Skirball exhibit Women Hold Up Half the Sky, the mere idea of which simply brings me to tears.  Why is it still necessary to even have this conversation?  Thank you Skirball Center for bringing if front and center.  And by the brave story of Keris Myrick who has stepped out on the front page of today's NYT to share things most of us would find unbearable to reveal, in the hope of helping others conquer mental illness. Her strategies ring true to me; a demanding job doing something that matters, therapeutic and medical treatment, feedback and support from friends-family-colleagues, the unconditional love of a dog and an ocassional stay at a luxury hotel.  This Sunday morning these three stories simply take my breath away.   

The Loving Story Documentary

In 1958 Richard and Mildred Loving marry in the state of Virginia. Within months they were arrested in their home at 4am by their local sheriff and jailed to await trial for breaking the state law against interracial marriage. Once convicted their sentences are suspended in exchange for their leaving the state. After five years of sneaking home to visit their families risking arrest every time, Mildred, at the suggestion of a friend, writes then Secretary of State Bobby Kennedy about their desire to live in married peace near their families in the place they met and both grew up. The Civil Liberties Union steps in to handle this momentous case that goes all the way to the Supreme Court and results in a 1967 ruling finally outlawing anti-miscegenation laws all states, affirming people's right to marry without state interference. State law changed in 16 states although it was 2000 before the final state of Alabama caved. Only within the last year or two a justice of the peace in Louisiana refused to marry a couple because he objected to their interracial marriage.
In our lifetime freedom to marry and live within one's family and community is still at stake. Where do you stand? What are you doing about it?

The Women of Dagenham

This film opened the Traverse City Film Festival last night. A reminder of how the equal pay battle still rages and the outrage of its recency as a battle at all. The film tells the story of a work stoppage in 1968 by women working as machinists at a Ford plant in Dagenham, England. The action of 187 women forced Ford and others to raise wages to gender parity for women throughout the industrialized world. I was a teenager in 1968, aware of the women's movement but with no memory of Dagenham news. What an eye opener. Do not miss it. Take your sons and daughters. Lest we all take for granted these hard fought and earned rights.

Festival Embodiment of Free Speech

On Saturday young Cuban filmmaker Ian Padron wept at the sight of his long-censored documentary screened for the first time in an actual theater before a live audience.  Five years of censorship in Cuba has driven his film about Cuban baseball Los Industrialistas de La Habana (Dreaming in Blue) to such a prized pirated status that it was finally allowed for show to a foreign audience outside of Cuba.  It was hard for the Traverse City Film Festival audience to even fathom the constraints on artistic and public expression in the panel that followed the showing.  One of four Cuban filmmakers at the festival as part of a vibrant cultural exchange, Ian Padron embodies the struggle for freedom of expression and the triumph of peace and love over international politics.  A poignant moment met with a standing ovation.  The audience clapped for as long as he needed to compose himself and then some more.  A moment of deep connection between Cubans and Americans.  Bit by bit relations between our countries will normalize, the embargo wall will come down as more Americans understand that it no longer makes any sense for anybody.  As one young man said in Sunday's documentary showing of 11/4/08 chronicling around the world the day that the U.S. elected its first black president, "things are getting better."

We are the World for Haiti, Still

We are the world for Haiti.  Still.  For a long time to come.  Don't forget.  Please continue giving your attention and your resources.  Their need is far from over.  The NYTimes editorial this morning said it all.

Speak Up on International Women's Day!

  Don't miss Daily Beast coverage of International Women's Day.  It concerns us all!  Usually I'm most taken by the plight of children and our inability to protect these most innocent beings.  Today I'm provoked by the status of women worldwide.  How is this still possible that millions of us face such repeated violence?  Zainab Salbi calls on us to break our silence, unite and invest..."this year 2010 marks the 10 year anniversary of the UN Millenium Development Goals (MDGs); commitments the world made to eliminate poverty, to empower women and girls as equals to men and boys, and to boost global health and ensure education for us all."   She invites women everywhere to be the bridge to peace.  Take some time today and Join us on the bridge!

Help Haiti However You Can

Text your $10 to 90999, make an online donation to UNICEF, the Red Cross, Oxfam, and any organization of your choice that is helping the Haitian people amidst this devastation.  Check out wowOwow for ideas on how to help.  Go to the Huffington Post for information on donating clothing and shoes.  You can make a difference.  Please don't look away.

Help Haiti. Make Your Donation Now!

Please take a moment today and make a donation to the American Red Cross, UNICEF, or the organization of your choice helping earthquake victims in Haiti.  Nothing else you do today will make as much of a difference. 

Stop the Obscenity of Destroying Clothes

Catch Jim Dwyer's NYT article Where Unsold Clothes Meet the People Who Need Them and think again about what happens to all your unused clothes.  Pass them on!  Urge labels and stores you patronize to donate their unsold goods.  Did you know that many labels destroy, as in shred, their unused inventory rather than donate perfectly good clothes to people who need them?  Apparently companies are concerned about who may wear the clothes and how that affects their brand.  Shocking!  I invite you to make a stink about such miserly conduct.  The Clothing Bank of New York City distributes NEW clothes to people in need and has flourished as the result of people nudging the apparel industry.  Why?  Sustainability.  Common sense.  Sharing.  Kindness.