According to the far right, Barack Obama is a total radical.  Ummm……I WISH!  Actual radicals (and progressives who fear the term) find this assertion both laughable and ignorant. From financial reform to health care—from same-sex marriage to global warming, President Obama is a middle-of-the-road, moderate Democrat, straddling the center of the political line: his weight shifted left, his eyes looking right.

And now, Obama has once again tossed women to the curb.  You may remember that back in March, when he signed the new health-care legislation, Obama also conceded to the opposition by signing an Executive Order which forbade any federal money to be spent on abortion.  Reproductive freedom activists were furious at yet another loss in this increasingly conservative climate.  Obama painted a narrative that the agreement to take away choice from women who desperately needed assistance was a necessary evil to get the entire legislation passed.  Yet Obama only appeased anti-choice representatives such as Bart Stupak in order to allow other representatives to vote ‘no’ on the bill.  Reason?  These gents (and a few congresswomen) are facing reelection in the fall.  In other words: hurt millions of women to save a few seats in Congress.

In any case, quite a fuss was made when Obama made the deal with the devil. Continue reading →

Recently, NPR asked hundreds of women who work as musicians to fill out a questionnaire about aspects of being women in the music business today.  They’ve published their complete answers online and will be airing a series of pieces on women in music in the coming months.  You can check out everyone’s answers here.

They are currently still accepting answers to the questionnaire, which can be found here.  There are other ways to participate in the conversation, so visit their site for more information!

Have any of you ever thought what it would take to completely end sexual violence? If someone asked you what it would take or what the world would look like after, how would you respond? Asking these questions and working towards the answers is exactly the work of the three neighborhood based coalitions that comprise Project Envision. Each coalition works in concert with the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault, local rape crisis programs and community activists passionate about ending sexual violence.

Of course the need for crisis and counseling services for survivors of sexual violence and intimate partner violence still exists. Project Envision’s work comes out of a lack of work towards primary prevention, that is a change is the social conditions that permit and promote sexual violence. To this end each coalition, the Lower East Side, Williamsburg and the South Bronx, conducted a participatory action research study to determine what folks in their neighborhood thought would be the most effective route to prevention. For their results please click here.

Despite the need for prevention, as is made especially clear by recent findings that the New York City police department regularly downgrading charges of sexual violence, the New York City Council elected to cut prevention services in their budget for fiscal year 2010 -11. Although I agree that the burden for supporting such programming should not fall solely on a city council, this does send the message that programming aimed at larger social change is not as important as programs for those who have already experienced violence. Should we not all be invested in working towards a world in which violence is not as accepted in the first place.

If you would like to find out more about Project Envision, their history as well as present and future work please attend the Lower East Side coalition’s open house this Thursday from 5:30 – 7:30 at the 6th Street Community Center. Further, to support the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault in the wake of City Council budget cuts please go here.