Category: Activists

This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism by Ashton Applewhite (2019): “Make noise about this!”

This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism by Ashton Applewhite (2019): “Make noise about this!”

Posted by | May 4, 2021 | ,

In 2019 one of my sisters gave me a copy of the book This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism, by Ashton Applewhite. Perhaps it’s because I’m creeping closer to turning 60 that I finally decided to read it, or perhaps it’s because I’m creeping closer to 60 that I kept it at bay for so long, collecting dust on a shelf for the better part of a year. Either way, I’m elated that I finally read it and I’m ready to make noise about this! Ageism, like other forms of discrimination, becomes more noticeable and intolerable once it’s...

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Alicia Garza: The Dynamics of Power 

Alicia Garza: The Dynamics of Power 

Posted by | Apr 27, 2021 |

Let’s begin by saying that movements are not started with hashtags and there is a lot more to creating real change than promoting a social media platform. And then let’s talk about Power, about addressing very intently and purposefully the power dynamic of white supremacy and patriarchy and changing that power dynamic. Then let’s talk about what happens when you openly address that invisible power dynamic and the shadows that stirs up in every corner of our culture. Then let’s talk about how that power dynamic tries to shut you down. Then let’s expose that we are talking about...

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Vera (Atkins) Rosenberg: A Romanian Jewish Woman Spy Who Fought the Nazis with Everything She Had (1908-2000)

Vera (Atkins) Rosenberg: A Romanian Jewish Woman Spy Who Fought the Nazis with Everything She Had (1908-2000)

Posted by | Mar 23, 2021 |

I was unaware that women were sent behind enemy lines by the Allied powers as spies and “guerrilla” fighters in WWII. But they were. Thirty-nine out of the 400 agents who were sent to German occupied France by Britain in preparation for the D-Day invasion, were women. All 400 were sent there by a woman named Vera Atkins who worked under Lieut.-Col. Maurice Buckmaster.  In 1941 Atkins was recruited by the London office of Britain’s newest secret service: The Special Operations Executive or SOE. “SOE was to develop a secret war: building up, organizing, and arming a resistance army...

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Truth Be Told! Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America’s Concentration Camps by Michi (Nishiura) Weglyn (1926-1999)

Truth Be Told! Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America’s Concentration Camps by Michi (Nishiura) Weglyn (1926-1999)

Posted by | Feb 16, 2021 | ,

The article 5 Japanese-American Women Your History Book Ignored by journalist Nina Wallace piqued my interest. Wallace leads off: “From African American activists critical to the 1963 March on Washington to the Japanese American women among the 120,000 wrongly imprisoned by a panic-stricken and – let’s be honest – racist United States government after Pearl Harbor, history has a nasty tendency of suppressing the role women played in major social movements throughout the 20th century. “As an antidote to this historical stifling of strong female voices, here’s a little herstory lesson about five women whose World War II incarceration...

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Carol Ruckdeschel: “Tireless defender of sea turtles” (American b. 1941)

Carol Ruckdeschel: “Tireless defender of sea turtles” (American b. 1941)

Posted by | Feb 2, 2021 |

I happened to catch a January 13, 2021 For the Wild podcast titled Carol Ruckdeschel on Keeping Cumberland Island Wild. In this interview, Ruckdeschel describes the ongoing fragmentation of the wilderness protections she and others have fought so hard to establish over the years to protect Georgia’s most biologically diverse barrier islands. But the biggest risk for these islands and their inhabitants is the looming development of Spaceport Camden, a proposed rocket launch site in Camden County, Georgia. I urge you to listen to the podcast and scroll to the bottom of this For the Wild page to the Take Action section...

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