Taking action: Please take a moment to save this woman's life

© Bruce
CC Attrib. 2.0

A few weeks ago, I told you about Sakineh Mohammedie Ashtianii, the Iranian woman in danger of being stoned to death allegedly for committing adultery, a charge she denies. Ashtianii has already been flogged with ninety-nine lashes under Islamic law for this crime.
If you haven't signed the petition to save this mother's life, please take a moment to do so now. According to the Ms. blog, Ashtiani's execution is scheduled to take place this week. This despite a plea and offer of asylum from Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Due to public pressure, Ashtiani may not be stoned when she is executed, but twelve more women and three men also await stoning in Iran. Public opinion matters to the Iranians. They don't like being perceived as barbaric in their practices. Please sign the petition.

One Earth, one people, one love.
                          Alice Walker

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We make peace in a million small ways every day.

All text and images, unless otherwise noted, copyright L. Kathryn Grace. All rights reserved.

Obama Cares! We the People care!

Obama Cares!
Democrats Care!
We, the people, care.

Not one Republican voted to save lives and help pass the Health Care Reform Bill. Not one. Let's make ObamaCare our own. Add an "s." ObamaCares.
Spread the word.

We make peace in a million small ways every day.

All text and images, unless otherwise noted, copyright L. Kathryn Grace. All rights reserved.

Taking action: It is in our power to end poverty

 
People all over the world today celebrated International Women's Day. In keeping with the spirit of the day, the Women ONE2ONE campaign has a good idea. They're looking for one million women to take action and stop poverty cold.

There are so many ways we can help, one woman, one small action.

One is to write a post like this one. Another: Watch this heartwarming video about a darling little girl, Jeneba, who is alive and getting healthier every day because of women just like us.

There are a hundred and sixty-eight doctors in this country ... and it's a country of six-plus million.

Connie Britton, speaking to interviewer
on the need for health care workers
in Children and Health in Sierra Leone

Or you can call your Congressional representatives today and ask them to support the president's International Affairs Budget request. In fact, I'm encouraging mine to strengthen the spending on global immunizations--a small increase for a huge impact in saving lives.

► 70% of the world’s poor are women

► 75% of the civilians killed in war are women and children.

Women for Women International

We matter, you and I. We can make a difference. On this, the ninety-ninth celebration of International Women's Day, a national holiday in fifteen countries, let us remember our strength. Let us reach a hand to one woman. Let us reach in friendship, in love, in an offer of peace, and, if she seeks our help, in support.

This is how we build Ordinary.

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We make peace in a million small ways every day.

All text and images, unless otherwise noted, copyright L. Kathryn Grace. All rights reserved.

Taking action: An open letter to the Honorable Representative John Boehner

Honorable Representative Boehner:

You have one of the most unique opportunities in the history of Congress to assume a role so fine, so elevated, and so revered that your name will be on the lips of school children for a century or more.

You could be lauded as one of the finest statesmen ever to traverse the halls of the United States Congress.

Sir, I am writing to ask you to elevate yourself, with one small, very sincere gesture, to a place so prominent that your name will grace avenues and street signs and school buildings for centuries.

Why do I say that? Three words: Health care reform. Sir, the American people have suffered far too long with inadequate health care, despite paying more than any civilized country in the world.

I suspect you are a man of good heart who aches when you hear the stories of some of the 45,000 people who died in the first thirteen months that this nation debated the health care bill for one reason and one reason only. They had no health insurance.

As I am certain you are keenly aware, every day, good, solid citizens die because they either have no health insurance or because their carrier denied coverage for the life-saving procedures and medications they needed.

Sir, you have a unique opportunity to raise both yourself and your party to the political stature deserving of your roles in our government.

Listen to the people, Sir. It was not the Democrat's plan the people decried. It was what happened to the Democrat's plan as their leadership attempted to please you and your partners. The people want nothing of that watered down mess that appears only to give more power to Big Insurance, Big Pharma and Big Medico at the cost of their daughters, their sons, their beloved aunts and uncles who are still dying and going bankrupt every single day.

You, Sir, have the opportunity of a political lifetime. You could be so bold as to stare down the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies and to bring back a truly viable, truly life-saving, truly budget-happy public option.

Sir, the world would laud you for centuries as the man who took leadership when all others were attempting to appease and cajole.

Honorable Representative Boehner, school children would memorize your likeness and your name for a century or more, were you to take the role of bringing true health care reform, true life-saving, money-saving reform to the people of the United States of America. Not spin. Not hype. True, life-saving, money-saving reform.

We deserve no less. You, Sir, have a choice to go down in history as an obstructionist whose name will be long forgotten by all but the most entrenched ivory-tower scholars, OR to be remembered as the man who reached across the aisle with an olive branch and said, "My dear colleagues, it is time to give the people of this great country the health care they deserve. It is time for us to quit dithering. It is time for us to begin saving lives--the lives of our nieces and nephews, sisters and brothers, mothers and fathers--the lives of thousands we do not know and may never know. Let's write a fair, honest health care bill. Let's do it now."

Honorable Representative Boehner, can you hear the thunderous applause? Can you imagine the six-figure speaking engagements you will enjoy for the rest of your life, all expenses paid? Can you imagine the million dollar book deals? Can you see your photograph and your name prominently displayed in every social studies text book in the land for a century or more?

Sir, please consider the benefits to you, and also to your country, and to the people who work so hard every single day to be good citizens and to contribute to the well-being of our great country.

Reach out with that olive branch, Sir. Win yourself more than a footnote in history. Win the American people the health care we all deserve and yourself a place among the greatest statesmen ever to live.

Sincerely,
Kathryn Grace
San Francisco, California

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We make peace in a million small ways every day.

All text and images, unless otherwise noted, copyright L. Kathryn Grace. All rights reserved.

Conscious Living: Taking action is the Ordinary thing to do

• Food safety bill
• GMO contamination
• Toxic sludge
• Climate change
• Save the oceans/Save the whales
• Hunger/Poverty

Watching the headlines each day, it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the poverty, rage and violence in the world. Building a world that is fair and just, a world like Ordinary, takes attention and action, attention I don't always have at the end of the day when my brain feels like mush on a centrifuge.

Sure, I opt in to dozens of feeds from organizations I trust to monitor issues like the ones in the box above. The downside is that my inbox is filled with so many pleas for help that I cannot possibly address them all. So on the weekend, when my brain is high on exercise endorphins and rest, I pick one or two that have come to a head in state or federal government, sometimes at the local level too, research all sides till I think I understand them fairly well, make my decision, and call or write the appropriate lawmakers.

Today's Action: Protecting our food supply

There's a lot of buzz in my inbox about food safety, particularly getting Congress to act to protect you and me, the consumer, better while also protecting the small, local, organic farmer. Some time ago, the U.S. House passed a food safety reform bill. The Senate has one, too, The Sustainable Agriculture and FDA Food Safety Reform Bill (Senate Bill 510), but they're dragging their feet getting it to the floor for a vote.

This bill would give the FDA power and teeth to shut down a peanut plant, for example, that knowingly distributes contaminated peanut butter, before it kills nine people.

Congress intends to fund the program with fees, wherein lies much of the controversy. Small farmers, especially organic farmers, say the $500 annual fee, plus the additional record keeping and testing would put them out of business. To address this issue, Consumers Union advocates changing the fee structure from one size fits all (after all, Big Ag and Big Food can easily comply with a tiny $500 annual fee) to a sliding scale. CU also addresses the issue of small farms who sell directly to the consumer.

A sliding scale of fees with very large facilities being charged more than very small ones would be more fair to small facilities ... Food processing facilities that sell at least half their production direct to the consumer are already classified by FDA as retailers and so would not be covered by this legislation, which addresses farms and processors In addition, the House bill appropriately exempts food sold direct to the consumer (i.e., at a farm stand) or to a restaurant or grocery store from the tracing provisions. ... In fact the House bill calls on FDA "to take into consideration, consistent with ensuring enforceable public health protection, the impact on small scale and diversified farms, and on wildlife habitat, conservation practices, watershed protection efforts, and organic production methods."

Consumers Union

I used Consumers Union's Take Action page to send my message to Congress on SB 510. I hope to address one or two of the other issues on the list above before the weekend ends.

Of course, there are myriad ways to take action. Writing letters is just one. I'd love to hear how you are taking action this week. Doesn't matter how small a step it is, and if it's a doozie, let's hear that too!

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We make peace in a million small ways every day.

All text and images, unless otherwise noted, copyright L. Kathryn Grace. All rights reserved.