Betty Friedan

Betty Friedan, Women's Movement Pioneer, Dead at 85

I find myself surprised at my reaction to the death of Betty Friedan. As a radical feminist and a Lesbian who lived through some of the ups and downs of the feminist movement in the seventies, I remember being very impressed with her revolutionary ideas in her Feminine Mystique book but soon after my sense of her was diminished when I heard that some Lesbians were being forced to leave NOW, The National Organization of Women, which she co-founded. It appears by 1977, Friedan had somewhat softened her ideas about Lesbians and Feminists who were less mainstream in their thoughts about what to do in relation to men and the patriarchal system. She came to accept it all and by then was less homophobic and them moved on to the study of aging which is my field. I knew none of this really until I read one of the obituaries on her life.

To go back to the beginning, in spite of the negative information I contained in my head about Betty Friedan from the past, I was saddened immensely by her death. Friedan represented a class and generation of women who really needed her fresh way of looking at their reality. My Mother who would be in her mid nineties today certainly was one of them and I think she too benefited greatly from the work of Friedan and others that came from her frame of reference. And I benefited too and very much so from the fact that Friedan could put a face on the reality of our discontent, in my case, an affirmation that it was okay not to have children or marriage. It was okay to not be involved in a system that was clearly not good for women and in a sense not good for men either.

It wasn't until I read Friedan' account of her own Mother's life in one of the obituary accounts that I realized how similar my own Mother's life and reactions to her life were like Betty Friedan's Mother. The Mother felt less discontent as her husband grew weaker and her Mother was able to take on his job selling jewelry. This feeling and perception Friedan called the "feminine mystique" came out of her Mother's life as well as her own. The limited channels these women had available for true expression of their deepest desires and feeling as an individual was the problem Friedan so brilliantly clarified. And it may well be that Friedan did not go far enough in her conception of what could be for women. Strangely enough, she did go in a more alternative direction in her study of aging when she published a major work titled Fountain of Age. She broke the stereotyped thinking gerontologists and medical people often promote that make the old feel less than and devalued. In addition, she spelled out ways the traps of aging could end which was for old people to take charge of their lives and create new communities that met their own needs not those of their children.

Sharon Raphael

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thenewswire/#a014637

See article above in Huffington Post on global warming about scientist from NASA who says the scales are tipping to the danger point. Bush attempts to silence the expert.

Betty Berzon 1928-2006

link is http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/01/24/state/n171930S03.DTL

Activist Writer Betty Berzon Dies at 78

After struggling half her life to accept her sexuality, Betty Berzon spent the rest of it helping others. Among her accomplishments: the books "Permanent Partners" and "The Intimacy Dance", co-founding the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center and convincing the American Psychiatric Association that we're not crazy after all.

from post at LNewsEditor at 10:02 AM  1/25/06

Saved Man and his Hero Dogs

The following is an amazing dog saving human story. In this case, it is dogs saving a human. How on earth did the black Lab
know to pick up the flashlight and wave in the direction of the road? Once again it appears, Homo Sapiens appear to underestimate the intelligence of animals. I was reading a book called Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin. Dr. Grandin who is an animal behaviorist states that animals like dogs focus on detail and and are much more aware of their surroundings than the average human. Their extra intense hearing and smell also helps. So what do you think about this dog story and how did the dog get the idea to grab the flashlight with his mouth and teeth? Or was it pure instinct? Are dogs able to think faster than humans in emergency situations? The lighter colored and older dog was no slouch either. He kept the man warm with his body. Both dogs had male names.

Dogs Alert Deputy; Help Save Collapsed Owner's Life

UPDATED: 7:57 am CST January 18, 2006
CENTERTON, Ind. -- A sheriff's deputy who found a diabetic man who had collapsed in a cornfield said the man's dogs are a major reason why he survived.
Morgan County, Ind., sheriff's Deputy Steve Hoffman said he had just finished with a traffic stop on a rural road in Centerton, Ind., one evening recently when he noticed something odd coming from a cornfield.
"I noticed what appeared to be an illumination or a light that was flickering and facing my direction," Hoffman said.
Hoffman said he went toward the light, where he found an unconscious Bill Burns and Burns' two dogs. The light was coming from a flashlight, which one of the dogs was holding in its mouth.
The other dog was lying on Burns as if to keep him warm, Hoffman said.
Hoffman said he saw Burns was wearing a bracelet that indicated he was a diabetic. Burns was taken to a hospital, where he spent four days before being released.
Burns had been walking with the dogs when he collapsed. He said he doesn't remember the ordeal, but he believes that Hoffman seeing Burns' flashlight in the mouth of one of the dogs is remarkable.
"It's got to be just fate or faith, one or the other," Burns said.
Hoffman said the dogs "definitely are the heroes in the story."
"Had he not had the dogs with him that evening, I think the outcome would have been a lot worse," Hoffman said.
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