Saturday: Women’s Rights, America’s Infrastructure, and Hillary’s Red Coat

Morning, news junkies…so are you ready for the gazillionth end of the world or what? I have to say, even after reading the FAQ at that link, I’m still a little unclear on the rules here in Texas. Do pregnant women have to get a sonogram before they can get raptured?

This Day in History (May 21)

• 92 years ago today, the US House of Representatives passed the Nineteeth Amendment, paving the way for Ann Coulter to renounce it.

• The painting to the right is by New Deal/WPA-era artist Jerry Bywaters. Bywaters was born on this day in 1906, in Paris, TX, and died in 1989. Via the Blanton, at the Univ. of Texas:

In Oil Field Girls, Bywaters used a somber palette to describe the bleak and thinly populated west Texas landscape. With its economically depressed vistas, the town (if it can be called that) is clearly godforsaken. By contrast, the women poised to hitch a ride out of those sad environs are vivid and forceful; although they are most likely working as prostitutes, Bywaters made no apparent judgment of them, instead vesting them with a vitality, even ambition, that offers the picture’s only hope. A canny mixture of reportage and editorial commentary, Oil Field Girls is a history painting that captures a surprisingly humane narrative of a specific time and place.

I chose Oil Field Girls for the spotlight this Saturday because it reflects my mood lately, especially here in Texas. As I look at it, I’m visualizing all of us brazen little hussies at the grassroots hitching a ride out of our politically regressive environs. Something’s gotta give. The headlines, which I’ll get to in a moment, are that dreary.

First, a quick tidbit from Francine Carraro’s Jerry Bywaters: a life in art…

For Bywaters the major contribution of the New Deal art project was the nationwide advancement of art and the decentralization of the art world. The golden age of American art could come for Bywaters only with the developing of “original art of the provinces . . . [rather] than provincial imitations of New York or European art.”

If your interest is piqued by any of the above, you might enjoy a virtual mini-tour of Bywaters’ WPA murals housed in the Paris public library, via someone who was kind enough to put them up on flickr. I especially recommend Paris Fire of 1916 and Rebuilding for the story they tell. Note the young boy at the lower right corner on the first. Bywaters was ten years old at the time of the Paris fire.

And, now for the week-in-review…

Women’s Rights: Texas

I’m going to focus on a bit of what’s been going on in my state. I hope some of you chime in with what’s going on in yours.

The forced sonogram has already gotten ink, so I’m going to try to draw out some of the other angles of abortion politics in the Lone Star state. This item is from the Austin American-Statesman the other day — Abortion fight derails women’s health initiative. If you haven’t been following this development, the article at the link gives a good overview of the dynamics at play.

Also see the Houston Chronicle — Texas House approves key Medicaid funding overhaul:

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas House voted late Thursday to strip state funding to all hospitals and clinics that perform abortions or even “abortion-related services,” endorsing an obscure amendment tacked onto an already convoluted overhaul of Medicaid funding and disbursements.

It’s despicable enough that, in a state where one in four people are uninsured no less, Rick Perry and his American Taliban flank have fast-tracked their anti-abortion agenda as an emergency legislative priority to “save lives” and this week made forced sonograms and Choose Life propaganda license plate options the law of the land in Texas while sending us on our way to stripping all state-funding from hospitals that provide abortion and abortion-related services. On top of that they’re jeopardizing the healthcare of thousands of low-income mothers and daughters. If the Women’s Health Program is not renewed, not only will it cut access to contraceptives but to screening for cancer, diabetes, blood pressure, anemia, and STDs. Unconscionable.

The control freaks can’t stand that 46% of women who access the program do it through Planned Parenthood, so women’s health be damned. State officials say the Women’s Health Program saved the state $21.4 million in 2008 by cutting back the number of births financed by Medicaid, but the state budget and taxpayer be damned too. Neither fiscally sound nor morally acceptable…but there they are, the Republican “family values” on display.

We already saw how PP’s lawsuit in Indiana went nowhere, but for what it’s worth this is what Planned Parenthood –Gulf Coast has to say:

Planned Parenthood will never back down from providing Texas women affordable reproductive health care. We have delivered a letter to Senator Deuell clarifying that if his bill passes the Senate, Planned Parenthood will pursue litigation on behalf of low-income Texas women who choose Planned Parenthood health centers for their health care.

We need your help. Please call your State Senator today and tell them to vote NO on SB 1854.

This is a freaking mess here in the “Don’t Mess with…” state. Meanwhile, the peanut gallery tried to “draft Rick Perry” again. Even Perry sorta yawned this time, with Perry adviser Dave Carney laying it on extra thick and saying Guv Goodhair “doesn’t have the fire to be president.“ Well, he sure does have the the fire to gut women’s health and health coverage in general apparently.

A few more notes out of Texas…

• Check out this wild little extended metaphor/thought experiment from E.R. Bills in Fort Worth, via Dissident Voice — We Have Bigger Abbortive Problems Than Abortion. That’s all you’re going to get in the way of a teaser. If I excerpted, it would ruin the fun.

• In “Spongebob is gay, and the Girl Scouts are pinko commies” news… Texas teens join the campaign against the Girl Scouts through website targeting the organization for its “pro-abortion mindset.” These two young women are sisters, one just about to become a freshman in high school and the other a soon-to-be sophomore. They are also Abby Johnson acolytes, complete with a “What Does Abby Say” section on their site. Their conversion story sounds like Abby Johnson redux, too.

Maryland abortion provider under attack

Just a quick link on this, but it’s important. The American Independent has the scoop on “Summer of Mercy 2.0” — Radical anti-choice group targeting new abortion provider, previously went after George Tiller.

American Dystopia: News and Views

I’ve got a lot to cover so I’m not going to quote extensively from BAR this weekend, but I do want to point you to Bruce A. Dixon’s report this week, which echoes what I have long maintained about Obama being more of a “Don’t make ME do it” president than a “Make me do it” one like FDR.

Speaking of things Obama doesn’t want any of us to make him do too much about… Scripps Howard columnist Ann McFeatters on America’s Crumbling Infrastructure:

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has been trying to raise the alert, filming short TV commercials in front of such monuments to government efficiency as the Hoover Dam. Individuals, corporations, cities and states do not build such things, she rightly notes; only nations can do it.

For 30 years, the United States has defied the need to repair and upgrade its infrastructure, spending the money on war, on defense, on entitlements — everything but making sure the roof wouldn’t leak. Leaks are appearing.

Of course if the oligarchy can keep the populace regularly fed on urban myths and religious claptrap about how we are all going to be buried under earthquake rubble or some other such hocus pocus within a matter of hours, I suppose they think we won’t disturb our beautiful minds too much over such leaks increasingly appearing in our infrastructure.

McFeatters references the 2011 Infrastructure report from the Urban Land Institute which warns that we will reach a breaking point in 5-10 years.

She ends her editorial with the grim picture of where we are headed:

If we do not act, which looks likely because of the determination in Washington to cut spending — Congress consistently refuses to pass a surface transportation planning act, this is what will happen:

Americans will spend an ever-greater portion of their incomes on services such as tap water, some of which will be undrinkable. There will be new tolls on highway driving and bridges and existing tolls will dramatically increase. Gasoline prices will soar, pushed by higher federal gas taxes.

Some cash-strapped cities will simply stop providing basic services, letting private companies take them over. Road maintenance in rural areas will become problematic. Bridges will collapse and not be rebuilt.

The badly needed new national electric grid to save energy will not be developed. A state-of-the-art satellite air traffic control system will not be built.

In 30 years, there will be almost 100 million more people living in the United States, but the infrastructure will not support 400 million Americans.

The really sad and disturbing part for me is that this seems like the oligarchy’s plan. An entire generation will be left behind so that no profit will.

Next up, a must-read essay in the American Chronicle by Gary Ater — ARE WE TODAY FAILING THE EFFORTS OF OUR PARENTS AND GRANDPARENTS? Ater goes through the New Deal Alphabet Soup listing several projects that would have never been built without these government agencies and calling it “one of the greatest infrastructure legacies of anything that could ever have been passed on to its inheritors,” and then asks:

But how are we inheritors treating that legacy today?

Well, as an example, due to a lack of maintenance, thousands of our nation´s bridges, built by our parents and grandparents decades ago, are in the position today to replicate the 2007 collapse of the Interstate 35 bridge in Minnesota. That bridge was listed as being in serious trouble, but it was still allowed to carry 140,000 cars every day until the day it collapsed. This situation could easily be replicated across the country with other federal buildings, hydroelectric dams, coal burning and nuclear power plants, schools, hospitals, libraries, airports, rail stations, levees, canals, tunnels and roads and highways. At any time, any of these old 1930 to 1960 structures, roads, bridges or past projects could go the way of Minnesota´s I-35 bridge.

And as it was in the 1930´s, the conservatives are once again saying, “America cannot afford to spend tax-payers revenue on its critical infrastructure situation”.

I say, as it was back then, in today´s down economy, we can´t afford NOT to invest in American workers and their ability to restore, or build new, all that we have inherited over the past decades.

Ater goes on to say that we need to replace everyone who doesn’t want to rebuild America with everyone who does. Unfortunately, at the end of a piece that was otherwise astute, he seems to suggest that we can do that by making a choice between Republicans and Democrats in 2012. I’d argue that the American people already made that choice in 2008 and look where it got us. It’s not as simple as who we pick on election day.

For a contrast, and since the wingnuts will just reflexively and mindlessly yell “socialist!” at anyone not in their tribe anyway, I would like to take a look at what actual socialists are saying and put it out there for discussion. This is a recent opinion piece in the WSWS by the SEP’s National Secretary Joseph Kishore — The social counterrevolution in America and the tasks of the working class:

The general strikes in Toledo, San Francisco and Minneapolis in 1934, followed by the great sit-down strikes in Michigan in 1936 and 1937, propelled the reforms of the New Deal, including Social Security, and the gains of manufacturing workers throughout the country. Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s were the byproduct of the mass mobilization of workers in the civil rights movement, combined with the militant labor struggles of the post-war period.

For the last 40 years, these gains have been under persistent attack. Vast sums of wealth were transferred upwards, into the hands of the financial and corporate elite, fueling the stock market mania of the 1990s and 2000s.

Now under the Obama administration, this scorched earth policy is entering a new phase. The first step was taken last year under the guise of “health care reform,” a drive to reduce corporate and government spending under the fraudulent slogan of “universal coverage.” Now, there is little attempt to hide the fact that what the administration is seeking is a sharp reduction in access to health care and other social programs.

This assault takes place at the same time as the sums of money controlled by the wealthy reach record highs. Corporate profits in the first quarter of this year are expected to break the record set the previous quarter of $1.68 trillion at an annualized rate. CEO pay for 2010 exceeded the previous record levels set prior to the crash. The combined net wealth of just the 400 richest Americans is, at last count, $1.37 trillion—approximately the same amount that would be saved over an entire decade through cuts in Medicaid that will threaten the lives and health of millions of people.

Another view from the WSWS (which picks up where Dakinikat’s “Who are they protecting…?“ expose left off last weekend) — Victims of Mississippi flood must be made whole:

The Obama administration has allocated only a minimal amount in grants for temporary housing and other emergency needs. It is urging those affected—most of whom have no flood insurance or means of rebuilding—to apply for federal disaster and other government loans. In addition to having to pay interest, those who qualify for federal disaster loans are compelled to buy flood insurance to qualify for future assistance.

Like the Bush administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina, the Obama administration has shown callousness and indifference to the plight of the workers and poor families hit by the latest disaster.

The diversion of floodwaters helps ExxonMobil and other big oil companies operating refineries along the Mississippi River, but the administration has never raised that these corporations—rolling in cash from skyrocketing gas prices—should in any way help compensate those being flooded out of their homes and farms.

I don’t want to end on such a miserable note, so let’s turn to our Energizer Secretary.

Hillaryland

As Obama pointed out this week, Hillary is approaching her one million frequent flier mark. In honor of Hill’s globetrotting, here’s my choice for pic of the month… Hillary wheeling down in Greenland on May 12th, in a cheerful red coat:

A couple more Hillary items from this week, briefly:

• Of course there was Katie Couric’s last broadcast/interview with Hillary.

• Good As You on Hillary’s I.D.A.H.O. remarks… Madam Secretary to world: ‘Turn the tide of inequality and discrimination against the LGBT community’.

On Hillary’s agenda next week: London and Paris…

Mr Toner said Ms Clinton will also deliver keynote remarks in support of the launch of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) Global Partnership for Girls’ and Women’s Education.

The Global Partnership will bring together companies, non-governmental organisations, and governments to develop innovative programmes to deliver education to women and girls, he said.

Well, now we’re full circle from where I started at the beginning of this post…as Bill Clinton (no doubt influenced by Hillary) said in an interview to Slate’s DoubleX a couple years ago, putting all the girls in the world in school is the only proven stragety to slowing the birthrate (hence less abortions) and raising per capita income.

Sheros on the Screen

A few super quick links to wrap things up:

• Roseanne Barr’s piece in NY Mag: “And I Should Know.”

• RH Reality Check on why Bridesmaids is striking a chord. Obviously portraying women as human beings is a good start, if in fact that’s what Bridesmaids does. I still would like to judge for myself. I’ll probably go see it this weekend or next.

• Anyone else following Top Chef Masters right now think they’re dropping the anvils all over the place about a woman actually winning this season? I’m thinking it will come down to Naomi and Traci.

The End! What’s on your blogging list?

[originally posted at Let Them Listen; crossposted at Taylor Marsh and Liberal Rapture]

Saturday: Self-governance

Anthony and Stanton

Morning, news (& history!) junkies.

My weekend roundup is going to be more heavy on history this Saturday (though there will be news sprinkled in too), because “what is past is prologue,” and that applies very much to the present-day rollback of women’s fundamental rights to govern themselves.

On This Day in History (May 14)

In 1863, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton suspended work on women’s suffrage to form the Women’s National Loyal League, which held its first convention on May 14, 1863, at the Church of the Puritans, NYNY. I’ll let you decide how much of a history lesson you want on a Saturday morning–if yes, click over and view the leaflet calling for a meeting of “loyal women of the nation” to discuss the Civil war, along with a transcription of a letter on the second leaf, from Susan B. Anthony to Amy Post. But, I do want to highlight one particular excerpt from what Anthony said at the convention:

SUSAN B. ANTHONY: This resolution brings in no question, no ism. It merely makes the assertion that in a true democracy, in a genuine republic, every citizen who lives under, the government must have the right of representation. You remember the maxim, ” Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.” This is the fundamental principle of democracy; and before our Government can be a true democracy- before our republic can be placed upon lasting and enduring foundations -the civil and political rights of every citizen must, be practically established. This is the assertion of the resolution. It Is a philosophical statement. It is Dot because women suffer, it is Dot because slaves suffer, it is not because of any individual rights or wrongs it is the simple assertion of the great fundamental truth of democracy that was proclaimed by our Revolutionary fathers. I hope the discussion will no longer be continued as to the comparative rights or wrongs of one class or another. The question before us is: Is it possible that peace and union shall be established in this country ; is it possible for this Government to be a true democracy, a genuine republic, while one-sixth or one-half of the people are disfranchised?

Conservative women’s groups have tried to subvert feminism and reappropriate this feminist pioneer as one of their own in their crusade against the autonomy, privacy, and equity of all women, but Susan B. Anthony shared a mutual admiration with the socialist movement and was a suffragist, abolitionist, and practitioner of civil disobedience for which she was brought to trial. As evidenced in the passage above, what drove her tireless championing of civil rights for both women and blacks was a core belief in the inalienable right to self-governance.

Last Year…This Year

A year ago today, Sarah Palin gave her address to the conservative and so-called “Susan B. Anthony List,” and a week later, history of women historians Ann Gordon and Lynn Sherr debunked the “feminists for life” mythology that Susan B. Anthony was a pro-life activist. Naturally this didn’t convince the FFL and SBA-List crowd any more than Obama releasing his long-form birth certificate convinced Orly ” it says African, not Negro” Taitz.

This is a screenshot I took of the SBA-List homepage on Thursday morning of this week:

Here is an FFL news bulletin from February 2011 that shows you what they were up to on SBA’s birthday and throughout Women’s History Month in March:

New Campaign Beginning on Susan B. Anthony’s Birthday

February 2011

To make holistic, woman-centered solutions a reality and effect lasting change, Feminists for Life members need information and tools. To effectively advocate for women and systematically eliminate the root causes that drive women to abortion, Feminists for Life needs members.

On Susan B. Anthony’s birthday, February 15th, Feminists for Life will launch a new campaign lasting through the end of Women’s History Month in March. Together we will celebrate our rich feminist history and reach out to educate others, encouraging them to join us in creating practical resources and support for pregnant women and parents.

Well, “practical resources and support for pregnant women and parents” sounds great and all, but if one of your sister groups has given top priority to defunding Planned Parenthood in Susan B. Anthony’s name and your Grizzly-go-tos are going to make vacuous remarks like “Hells no. I would not vote to increase that debt ceiling,” that really shows, on so many levels, how fake this call for practical resources for women is. If you want to defund planned parenthood and cut public spending on everything but the neverending war machine, then you’re not interested in helping anyone…other than the oligarchy, that is.

As I said last summer: Sarah Palin is neither the problem, nor the solution.

At the time I asked people to consider that tearing Palin down by calling her a bimbostein (etc. etc.) will do nothing to make the war on women stop.

Yes, she’s complicit in that war and as Madeleine Albright once said, there’s a place in hell reserved for that kind of thing. However, Palin is not in power. She has a megaphone she uses irresponsibly, but in a town where Barack Obama and Paul Ryan are declared to be the smartest suits amongst a sea of suits, the war on women was going to happen with or without the help of Palin, Bachmann, et al.

They’ve got less control combined than Barack Obama, who lest anyone forget signed an executive order that segregated women’s health care. It wasn’t a Speaker Palin who brought Stupak to a vote.

It was Speaker Pelosi… who Obama hung out to dry in 2010.

Women hold less than 20% of elected representation and make up 3% of Fortune 500 CEOs. At the rate we’re going, it will take 500 years for American women to achieve gender parity.

With or without Pelosi, Palin, and any other woman who sells the rest of her sisters out in politics, the rightwing rollback of women’s rights would be happening.

It is baffling watch them sell us out. Especially when they propagate garbage like the following…

From Diana Furchtgott-Roth’s How Obama’s Gender Policies Undermine America:

In other words, contrary to what feminist lobbyists would have Congress believe, girls and women are doing well. […] Policymakers should require that government contractors hire men to bring down their 10 percent unemployment rate. Health reform bills should feature Offices of Men’s Health to help men live to the same age as women. Unfortunately, the reverse is occurring. Both Congress and President Obama continue to advocate policies that favor women over men.

Dakinikat gave an apt description of Furchtgott the other day in the comments at Sky Dancing: “Schlafly as an economist.”

I’ll let a recent survey and Ms. Foundation’s Anika Rahman take care of responding to Diana Fuhgettaboutwomen’s thesis… New Poll: Economic Crisis Still Affects Majority of Americans, Impact on Women Especially Severe (via Reuters)…

The 2011 Community Voices for the Economy survey of 1,515 adults nationwide was conducted from March 15-24, 2011. It revisited key questions from a January 2010 survey.

“Last year Americans, and especially women, said they were profoundly affected by the recession,” says Anika Rahman, President and CEO of the Ms. Foundation for Women. “This year, the impact continues virtually unabated, and in some cases is far worse, especially for low-income women and women of color. The so-called economic recovery is not reaching women or others in need — not by a long stretch.”

In a key indicator of economic security, the percentage of Americans who report living paycheck to paycheck all or most of the time was up five points over 2010 to 49 percent. But the increase among low-income women is especially staggering: 77 percent report living paycheck to paycheck, a 17-point jump from last year.

More highlights (or rather lowlights) on how women, men, and families are struggling in this economy:

* Seventy-one percent of women and 65 percent of men say the economic downturn had some or a great deal of impact on their families.
* Nearly half of Americans (46 percent) remain concerned that they or someone in their household could be out of a job in the next 12 months.
* Low-income women continue to feel the greatest impact from the downturn, with 80 percent saying it has had some or a great deal of impact compared with 73 percent of low-income men. Other groups experiencing a particularly strong impact are: Latinas (74 percent); single mothers (73 percent); and women without a college degree (74 percent).

Rahman describes the “triple blow” of the womancession:

“Women are losing jobs faster than men because of drastic cuts in areas like education and health care where they make up the majority of the workforce. As the majority of state and local public-sector workers, women are affected most by attacks on public-sector unions. And women suffer most from cuts to social services because they’re more likely to be poor and care for children and the elderly.”

That’s not all the 2011 Community Voices polling uncovered. Most women and most Americans aren’t sounding like they would say “hells no” to raising the debt ceiling:

In a particularly notable finding, the survey revealed that women — and a robust majority of the American public — want the government to take a stronger role in fixing the economy and creating jobs, even if it means increasing the deficit in the short-term. In fact, a significant majority of Americans are concerned that deficit cuts will come at the expense of families and children.

Until we have equal representation in government, until we have more Anika Rahmans and Liz Warrens shaping the economic debate, until we have more women’s voices invited to the Sunday morning panels, what we need to be focusing the bulk of our energies on is not Furchtgott and her ilk. They deserve pushabck in due measure, but the war on women didn’t begin with them and it won’t end with them.

What we need to be doing to fight back the war on women is shoring up women who make good in politics — women like Kirsten Gillibrand.

From Robin Marty, via Care2.com… Gillibrand: Childcare IS a Jobs Agenda…

“Childcare is part of a jobs agenda,” Gillibrand said in the live chat, hosted by the women’s political organization committed to supporting pro-choice candidates, voicing her frustration at a expense that has become a significant burden to numerous families with both parents in the workforce.

As a result of the rising cost of childcare, Gillibrand is proposing legislation that will help to reduce the ballooning cost of care. “In this difficult economy, parents cannot afford the rising cost of child care. Families’ incomes are just not keeping pace,” Senator Gillibrand said. “I speak with parents all over New York State, who tell me that something must be done. In addition to making child care more affordable for parents who work and go to school, my plan will provide special assistance to businesses that help their employees with the tremendous costs.”

Gillibrand’s proposal includes increasing the Dependent and Child Care tax credit to $6000, giving larger tax breaks to businesses that offer on site child care services, getting more workers into the child care industry and encouraging businesses to allow more telecommuting — a proposal that wouldn’t just cut the amount of money needed to be spent on childcare, but would also reduce road congestion, fuel consumption, and business expenditures for keeping employees in an office.

If the Susan B. Anthony List and Feminists for Life actually cared so much about mothers and children, they’d be working on a childcare agenda, instead of trying to police pregnancy.

The Kirsten Gillibrands are our way to play offense in this war on women. They capitalize on where the rightwing is weak–which is basically on everything since their solution to everything is no government–and they fight back by offering an actual alternative, showing how government *can* work for women, men, and families. That’s an alternative that most Americans want.

Here’s what else Gillibrand is doing–fighting for Kathy Hochul in NY-26, where Rove is spending big money trying to prevent an upset by a Demcoratic woman in a district where Dems never win. Two women fighting like…Democrats!

Go, Kathy, Go!

Kirsten Gillibrand for President!

Puts to shame this from earlier in the week, which is pretty much the byline of 44 and his male-dominated Congress:

It’s unclear for now how much resistance Democratic lawmakers will put up to the Republican proposal.

BTW, take a look at what ThinkProgress has reported on one of Kathy Hochul’s opponents. Via ThinkProgress… Jane Corwin Voted To Allow Women To Be Shackled During Childbirth.

Like Madeleine said. Place in hell. It’s reserved.

Let’s return to inspiring women in politics…Mayor Lake Lady with her first “Post Card from the Edge of Municipal Governing.”

It’s an exciting read and look from the inside of government. Give it a look if you haven’t already.

Hillaryland

A few quick links on that other woman who’s been making good in politics for two decades now… h/t Stacy at SecyClintonBlog on the first two.

Slideshow (49 pics): Hillary wining and dining in Italy…

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dines at Pierluigi restaurant in Rome with Tony Blinken and other colleagues. Hillary seems in good spirits, drinking wine and chatting with her team as they dined alfresco. The Secretary of State is in Italy to discuss Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s frozen assets and reportedly release the money to aid Libyans caught in the country’s conflict.
(May 6, 2011 – Photo by PacificCoastNews.com)

Youtube: raw footage of Hillary attracting a crowd–as she often does on her travels–this time on an unannounced visit she made to a shopping district while she was in Italy (2 minutes).

Reminded me instantly of this youtube of her from October 2009, in the streets of Dublin (1 minute)

“A woman who triggered a revolution in women’s health care”

I’ll close with this series of tribute to Barbara Seaman from On The Issues magazine:

Seaman lived in New York City near her three children and four grandchildren. “I didn’t start out to be a muckraker,” Seaman once said. “My goal was simply to try and give women plain facts that would help them to make their own decisions, so they wouldn’t have to rely on authority figures.“

[originally posted at Let Them Listen; crossposted at Taylor Marsh and Liberal Rapture]

Thursday Reads: Hate Groups, Child Abuse, and Murder

Jeff Hall

Good Morning! I’m going to focus on just one news story this morning, but it’s a story that encompasses several important issues that we have discussed here at Sky Dancing.

It happened in the early morning hours of Sunday May 1, 2011 in Riverside, CA. A ten-year-old boy shot his father in the chest and killed him.

Before I get started, I want to note that parents injure and kill their children every day of the week–so often that these incidents generally don’t become high profile cases unless there is something unique or unusual about them. On the other hand, when children kill their parents there is usually a great deal of news coverage and public outrage, because these events are extremely rare–especially when a child as young as 10 is involved. But this case has many more unusual elements than the age of the perpetrator.

I’ve been following this case since the beginning. Here are the basic facts, drawn from a number of different news stories. Police were called to the home of Jeff Hall because of shots fired. They arrived at 4:04AM to find 32-year-old Jeff Hall on his couch with a serious gunshot wound. Paramedics tried but were unable to revive him, and he died.

Hall’s 10-year-old son, his eldest child, was arrested for murder. The boy admitted to killing his father, and police now say they believe he did it intentionally, but no motive has yet been revealed. The other four children were put in protective custody, according to the LA Times.

Hall was a plumber and also a leader of the largest Neo-Nazi group in the U.S., the National Socialist Movement. Interestingly, on the NSM memorial page, there is no mention of the fact that Hall was killed by his own son. In fact it says he “was a dedicated Father, his children were his life.” According to a comment on a white supremacist website, he home schooled his five young children.

Hall also used his home as headquarters for the regional branch of the NSM, of which he was the leader. He held meetings in his living room and allowed his children to watch and listen. By coincidence, a New York Times reporter has been present at a number of NSM meetings and events recently and was present at a group meeting the night of the murder.

Over the last two months, The New York Times attended and documented a series of events held by Mr. Hall and the National Socialist Movement, or N.S.M., including virulent, hate-filled rallies as well as barbecues and baby showers in the backyard of his Southern California home.

According to reporter Jesse McKinley,

The day before he allegedly shot his father, the sandy-haired 10-year-old boy showed off a prized possession to a visitor. It was a thin leather belt emblazoned with a silver insignia of the Nazi SS.

“Look what my dad got me,” the boy said shyly, perched on the living room stairs, one of the few quiet spots in a house with five children.

That night after the meeting,

The boy sat nearby on the steps. Was he having a good time? a reporter asked. Yes, he said, though he was annoyed by his four younger sisters. But he was the eldest, he added, and a boy. “And boys are more important,” he said.

McKinley also recalls a video that Hall made that ends with the Battle Hymn of the Republic, but with altered lyrics, including “The white man marches on!” One of Hall’s daughters said, “I love that song, Daddy.” As the NYT headline says, these children were apparently “steeped in” Hall’s racist, xenophobic ideology. Furthermore, Hall was training his son to use night-vision goggles and handle firearms.

Neighbors said they felt intimidated by the family. One went into some detail.

“Honestly, I feel like it’s over,” said Juan Trejo, who lives across the street from Hall’s home. “It was scary here. Hopefully we’ll never see any of them again.”

Trejo described a Halloween party at the home last year, when Hall flew a swastika flag from the home and guests wore KKK hoods. Trejo said Hall lived there with his wife and several children, one of whom called his son a “beaner” when the boy skateboarded near the Hall home.

On Wednesday, May 4, Hall’s son was charged with murder and gun possession.

During his appearance in Riverside Juvenile Court on Wednesday, the shaggy blond-haired boy sat at an attorney’s table in shackles, wearing an orange Juvenile Hall uniform. The small, skinny, baby-faced boy was slouched in a chair, dwarfed by his attorney.

His stepmother, aunt and grandmother sat behind the boy. His biological mother sat on the opposite side of the courtroom.

The boy’s mother, Leticia Neal, had not been part of his or his sister’s life since 2004, when Jeff Hall won custody of the two children from his first marriage. Neal and Hall had been fighting over custody of their two children for a decade, with each partner accusing the other of abuse, including an accusation by Hall that Neal had sexually abused their son. Earlier this year Neal had gone to court again to argue that Hall’s racist ideology and activities could be harmful to the children, but the judge decided she could not see the children without a therapist present. According to the LA Times,

In a Nov. 8 court filing opposing Neal’s request, Hall stated that his son and daughter had not seen Neal for more than six years, and “not so much as received a phone call, card, birthday present” from their mother during that time. Hall also described his son’s troubled past, saying he was just getting back on track.

His son “was removed from several schools for his wild and sometimes violent actions. Both [children] … struggled socially and academically when they were first placed with me,” Hall stated.

Hall apparently devoted most of his time to the Neo-Nazi cause, taking trips to Arizona to patrol the border, organizing rallies, and even running for office as the Nazi candidate for a seat on the water board. During his campaign he

called for water conservation and affirmed his belief that all non-whites should be deported.

“I want a white nation,” he said. “I don’t hide what I am, and I don’t water that down.”

Hall has been campaigning by handing out business cards, he said, but turned down an invitation to a candidate forum because it was sponsored by the League of Women Voters and a Latino community group.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC),

NSM ideology mirrors that of the original American Nazi Party. The group openly idolizes Adolf Hitler, described in NSM propaganda as, “Our Fuhrer, the beloved Holy Father of our age … a visionary in every respect.” NSM says only heterosexual “pure-blood whites” should be allowed U.S. citizenship and that all nonwhites should be deported, regardless of legal status. As Schoep put it: “The Constitution was written by white men alone. Therefore, it was intended for whites alone.”

The NSM is probably best known for carefully staged protests, carried out in full-blown Nazi uniforms and swastika armbands, that have managed to win substantial news coverage for the group. The best example of the NSM’s provocative rallies came on Dec. 10, 2005, when the group made international news after a planned march through a black neighborhood in Toledo, Ohio, sparked rioting by residents and counter-protesters. The riots cost the city more than $336,000, though the NSM members escaped the violence and were not liable for any of the destruction. “The Negro beasts proved our point for us,” [Jeff] Schoep [national leader of the NSM] crowed after the rally.

Here is one of Schoep’s famous quotes, from the SPLC website:

“When … you take a German Shepherd and mix him with a Golden Retriever you have a worthless animal that nobody wants and that isn’t worth anything if you’re trying to breed him or sell him. … [T]hese degenerates that allow their children to race mix and this sort of thing, they’re destroying the bloodlines of both races.”
— NSM leader Jeff Schoep, July 25, 2007, interview

So we have a young boy who probably has Post-traumatic Stress Disorder from years of abuse by both parents, from being separated from his mother, and from being exposed to hate-filled rhetoric at Neo-Nazi meetings and probably from his father. It’s like something out of American History X. How could a judge allow children to live in a home like that? To me, exposing young children to racist, anti-semitic, and anti-immigrant vitriol is in itself abuse.

Since the boy is under the age of 14, he cannot be tried as an adult and will likely be put in a youth offender facility. According to the articles I read, he will probably get out when he is 25 years old. By that time, he’ll most likely be a hardened criminal.

I looked at several studies of young children’s understanding of death. A ten-year-old has barely begun to comprehend the irreversibility of death. His brain development has not reached a point where he has good impulse control or the ability to manage strong emotions well. This story makes me heartsick. I haven’t shared even a tenth of what I’ve read about the NSM–the group that Jeff Hall was a leader in. Can you believe they even have a youth organization? I’ll continue to follow the case and post about it again when I learn more.

I’m going to end with an op-ed that Dakinikat sent me earlier today. It is written by a well known researcher on trauma, Bessel A. van der Kolk of Boston University.

Rather than being subjected to bullets and bombs, children are victimized by those who are meant to care for them. These are children like a 3-year-old girl in Anchorage who was found by a police officer in her crib, hungry, underweight and covered in her own feces; an 11-year-old boy in New York City who has had violent outbursts since he was sexually molested, and whose terror of being alone makes him a subject of ridicule by his classmates; or a 14-year-old girl in Boston who set fire to a church and repeatedly attempted suicide after being beaten at home. The Pew Charitable Trusts estimates that the annual cost of childhood maltreatment like this is $103.8 billion.

Inspired by the work of the National Center for PTSD, Congress authorized the establishment of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network in 2001 to evaluate and develop treatments for traumatized children nationwide, with a budget that is now $40 million — about the cost of keeping 40 soldiers fighting in Afghanistan for one year.

President Obama’s 2012 budget has proposed a 70 percent reduction in financing for the network. That would be devastating for these children. The network has knitted together 130 clinics and universities in 38 states that specialize in helping traumatized children and adolescents. It has allowed the members to develop treatment programs and to hire and educate the staff to run them, enabling 322,000 children nationwide to get treatment from July 2002 to September 2009.

According to the latest figures available, 2.9 million children were mistreated in 2006, many of whom manifested serious behavioral and psychological problems. The network has started to document how trauma affects developing brains differently from those of adults exposed to wartime violence.

Thanks to this administration and the deficit-obsessed GOP, we are likely to see more children acting out violently and then being sent to facilities in which they are irreversibly damaged. It’s a crying shame.