Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Update city!

Only Wednesday and the week is already full of awesome NOW-ish stuff!

First thing, Sarah, Nikita, Julie, and Liz went to the play, Body and Sold this Monday. Whoa! It was definitely thought provoking. Basically, it was the story of 8 or 9 average people and how easily they fell/got trapped into a horrible cycle of prostitution, drug use, and abuse. Sad, but uplifting at times, too.

Also, some lucky ladies attended the discussion this Tuesday at Think Coffee! This is what Liz had to say when she filled me in:

The discussion at Think was really interesting; we stayed for the whole thing which was 3 speakers and then some Q and A.
They mainly focused on the Christian Right and how they've infiltrated our government since bush has been president. they
also highlighted some main things that need to be done THE MOMENT whoever comes in next starts the job; ie eliminating the
global gag rule that prohibits any country receiving us funds to not talk about family planning options, getting all of these "faith
based" sections of offices eliminated, especially from the oval office, stopping our torture practices, implementing
comprehenxive sex ed and eliminating the huge budget for abstinence only ed. personally i think that if we wanted to do
something on comprehensive sex ed, or make that a priority for next year, it would be great!
one of the other women specifically discussed this sect of christianity which is called the "quiverful movement"; basically their
core idea is to have as many children as possible because 1) chlldren are a blessing, 2) trying to avoid pregnancy is questioning
gods will which is a sin, and 3) as many good christian babies need to be born to counteract all of the secular atheists at home
and all of the muslims abroad. scary stuff...the goal is to have like 8 kids, which im sure you can imagine makes their
movement quickly growing haha.
the other woman talked about how this anti-abortion movement isnt really about abortion, which is proven by the fact that
anti-abortion believers also dont believe in contraception which is the only PROVEN method of decreasing the number of
abortions nationally. instead, its basically a war on the american lifestyle, which includes single people staying single longer,
gay people being together, and non-traditional family structures. and of course let's not forget, all those extra babies keep
women at home where they can stay out of trouble and stop questioning things...i mean a lot of what she was talking abotu
was SO conservative...although its hard for me to understand even being against contraception, so i guess im a biased judge of
insanity haha.
the Q and A was good--one kid asked about tips for getting comprehensive sex ed into his school district back in
nebraska...they were basically like UMMM GOOD LUCK haha but then they talked about how he's armed with the truth because
abstinence-only curriculum has been proven to correlate with higher teenage pregnancy rates and also higher rates of
STDS...since, surprise these kids dont know what theyre doing! one girl commented on how the movie Juno was anti-choice,
and Racheal (YAY!) commented back that really that movie focuses very much on THE CHOICE that she has to make and just
because she doesnt choose to have an abortion doesnt make her or the movie anti-choice. plus, at least theyre talkinig about
teenage pregnancy as a real problem that can effect all kids!
keri asked about the abortion pill (which i hadnt even heard of...good work liz haha) and what impact it would have, but
basically they said it hasnt increased access because apparently the same places that abortions are available are the only places
that the pill is available (ie not in low-income areas).

If anybody has any thoughts they'd like to share on either event for those of us who couldn't be there or for those of us who might not be at the next meeting to hear what yall have to say, LEAVE A COMMENT!

Also, if anyone is interested, this Monday, March 3rd is the kickoff event for Women's Herstory Month! A pretty cool looking female comedy show is being put on featuring Chicks and Giggles, "a stand up group featuring the best female comics in New York. You'll be totally vadged out." Vadged out?! I'm there. It's at Kimmel, 4th floor, doors open at 7, and tickets are FREE at Ticket Central! Could be fun! If a few girls are interested in going together, comment here, and get something worked out!

Thursday, February 21, 2008

We are famous!

The videos Liz, Julie, and Rachel made for Chris from College Dems are UP! No matter who you support, I think this is a pretty cool idea!

Click HERE to check us out!

Wednesday's Meeting

For those of you who haven't been reading your emails...

Wednesday's big highlights were falafel AND the inclusion of 3 boys (excuse me, men) into our meeting!

Duncan, from Students Creating Radical Change stopped by to talk about some of their work on getting more disclosure from NYU, specifically on budgetary issues! This affects all of us to the tune of many, many dollars, but also because of possible serious gendered discrepancies on salary! He's going to keep us updated on further events, but for all those interested in demanding more knowledge about the allocation of their tuition dollars, who would like to attend a meeting, they meet Tuesdays, at 7:15, in Kimmel, sooomewhere on the 8th floor.

Also, Chris, from College Democrats came in to record some people's thoughts about Hillary and the reasons why they support her. Liz, Julie, and Rachel all made brief videos, so look for a link to those very soon!

This Saturday is a day long Teach-In at Kimmel about our civil liberties and the ways in which many of them are being taken away. It's optional (of course), and people can stay as long as they want! A few people are interested in going, so keep your eyes open for more information on that as well!

Annnd, brief NOW/FilmAid film week update: We officially have one night reserved in Silver! Diana is working on getting us more! Collaboration with FilmAid is being worked on, and as soon as we have more dates secured, we can seriously get down to work on making this happen, and making this an event for all of us to be super proud of!

But don't forget! March is Women's Herstory Month! So, let's do something fun! It can even be something that's just for us! What do YOU want to do?! We'll hear some ideas on Tuesday ( I hope!).

Finally! Next week is a Tuesday meeting! I can't wait to have a reunion with our busy-on-Wednesday-nighters. Tuesday meetings are at 8 in the lobby, but there's a really interesting discussion at Think Coffee (on Mercer right below W. 4th) about women's bodies and their rights at 7 pm! So, the plan for right now is to meet there at 7, and, if it's too crazy, head over to Kimmel for our meeting at 8. If you can't make it at 7, give Liz a call around 8 to see if we'll be at Think or at our normal position in the 9th floor lobby.

Keep checking the website and your email for more fun and exciting things!

Welcome to our new website!

This is exciting!

Basically, this blog serves as sort of a go-to place for info on our upcoming events, plans in the works, pictures, and what goes on at meetings. This will be especially helpful for those of us who can't make it every other week to stay up to date! Also, how legit will we sound when people ask us about our website? "Do you have a website?" "Um, of couuuurse we do!" You can personalize that for yourself...I plan to brag about it.