I went to see the Swedish movie "Män som hatar kvinnor", based on the book "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson. I had read the book a year or so ago, and had heard about the film from co-workers, so I knew it was a disturbing and violent film.
I am not sure how I would have reacted if I had not read the book. I loved the film. What I liked most is that the film was gritty. Unlike American films the actors had flaws, they did not look plastic. Nor did the scenery. The buildings looked as if they actually existed warts and all. The movement of the characters looked real.
One effect of this reality was to portray the sexual violence as violent. To my sensibilities this film evoked the very disturbing nature of sexual violence. This film has a scene of sexual violence against a man. It is very graphic.
Watching that scene made me think about why men just don't grasp the reality of sexual violence aginst women. I realized that it is because most men do not experiance it. If you are a woman who is fortunate enough to have not been raped, assaulted or abused, you most likely know several women who have.
According to RAINN: The nation's largest anti-sexual assault organization.
1 in 6 women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime. (1 in 33 men)
Every 2 minutes someone in the US is sexually assaulted.
44% of sexual assault victims are under 18.
15% are under 12.
Only 6% of all rapists ever spend a day in jail.
See the film. Afterward, think about that scene. Look around you and think of 1 in every 6 guys you know having experienced something akin to that. Then think about how you would feel if women routinely sat around masturbating to those images. Then you will have a slight idea of what it means to be a woman in the US and trying to have a healthy relationship with sex.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Under the Flood
Water defines me in many ways. I am drawn to water like a magnet. Only common sense keeps me from jumping into open water in freezing temperatures, or when it runs in a torrent. I feel a connection with the rocks bravely shouldering the force of the current.
Each day I pass over a creek on my way to and from work. Most days it is a quickly moving but very shallow stream, the pebbles clearly visible. Ducks float on its surface. For a few short days of spring I can watch fish struggle upstream to spawn.
This week the stream has been a raging torrent of muddy water as the warm weather has melted the foot of snow we had piled up from the last snow storm. Even the larger rocks are hidden under the dark water.
This made me think of how we feel overwhelmed by circumstances in our life. We want to just give up because the fight seems so hard. But we musn't forget that we are making a difference. Those rocks are changing the course of the flow, even when the water is so deep we can't see it, and so are we.
Each day I pass over a creek on my way to and from work. Most days it is a quickly moving but very shallow stream, the pebbles clearly visible. Ducks float on its surface. For a few short days of spring I can watch fish struggle upstream to spawn.
This week the stream has been a raging torrent of muddy water as the warm weather has melted the foot of snow we had piled up from the last snow storm. Even the larger rocks are hidden under the dark water.
This made me think of how we feel overwhelmed by circumstances in our life. We want to just give up because the fight seems so hard. But we musn't forget that we are making a difference. Those rocks are changing the course of the flow, even when the water is so deep we can't see it, and so are we.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Porcine Concentration Camps
I love pork, and I love pigs. Pigs are wonderful creatures. They are smart like people, and expressive like people, they like to cuddle like people. I came upon this picture from a friend's Facebook post.After looking around the net I discovered that in many commercial industrial pig production facilities (I won't call them farms)sows are kept in crates like this most of their life.
Sows are put in farrowing crates when they have a litter. I knew about that. It helps to protect the baby pigs from crushing. They are artificially inseminated very soon after birth. When the piglets are weaned the sow goes into a crate like this. (previous practice had them go into pens w/ other sows, and they were not bred again until AFTER the piglets were weaned)
I will be carrying this picture with me. Every time I am tempted to eat bacon or sausage or a pork roast, I will look at this picture. If the pork is not verifiably from a farm that raises its pork in a compassionate, sane manner - I won't eat it.
Monday, January 4, 2010
No Profiling
I hate to admit I'm prejudiced -but-
This morning I was at the laundromat. It was just me and some redneck housepainter doing his wool socks, flannel shirts and overalls. He had a crewcut, looked like he knew his way around a beer bottle and was wearing a carhardt jacket.
I didn't have anything to read so I turned on the TV. One of the public access channels was broadcasting the audio of Democracy Now. I sat down to listen to Amy tell about the travesty of justice in the Blackwater scandal, and was sort of lost in thought when the redneck says, "You watchin' this?"
Immediately I expected him to start complaining about the show and how it was bullsh** and unpatriotic and could he change the channel.
Instead he says, " kinda depressing isn't it?".
Well for the next half hour we had a conversation about the economy, industrial farming, manufactured food products, etc. We agreed that the problems were so complex it was depressing because it was hard to figure out where to start cleaning up the mess.
One place I'm going to start is on myself. I know better to assume that a redneck (a working class rural white person actually) is necessarily not progressive thinking, intellectual or liberal. For crying out loud - I'm a rural working class white person!!! So are most of my friends and family!
From now on I'm going to join in conversation with folks. Get to know a few more people and learn from everyone.
This morning I was at the laundromat. It was just me and some redneck housepainter doing his wool socks, flannel shirts and overalls. He had a crewcut, looked like he knew his way around a beer bottle and was wearing a carhardt jacket.
I didn't have anything to read so I turned on the TV. One of the public access channels was broadcasting the audio of Democracy Now. I sat down to listen to Amy tell about the travesty of justice in the Blackwater scandal, and was sort of lost in thought when the redneck says, "You watchin' this?"
Immediately I expected him to start complaining about the show and how it was bullsh** and unpatriotic and could he change the channel.
Instead he says, " kinda depressing isn't it?".
Well for the next half hour we had a conversation about the economy, industrial farming, manufactured food products, etc. We agreed that the problems were so complex it was depressing because it was hard to figure out where to start cleaning up the mess.
One place I'm going to start is on myself. I know better to assume that a redneck (a working class rural white person actually) is necessarily not progressive thinking, intellectual or liberal. For crying out loud - I'm a rural working class white person!!! So are most of my friends and family!
From now on I'm going to join in conversation with folks. Get to know a few more people and learn from everyone.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
My Christmas wish
Many classic Christmas cards have a scene like this on the front. A peaceful countryside showing us the beauty of God's world leading us to be thankful for our many blessingsThere are those who want to change our rural landscape. Corporate interests who feed on the economic misfortune of those in rural America, promising financial gains at little or no cost.
They like to promise a lot. Money. That you'll be able to use your land for farming still. That they'll clean up after themselves.
What they don't tell you is what the process entails.
Huge drill sites where millions of gallons of water, sand and toxic chemicals will be injected into the ground under high pressure. Roads built across your property to allow access for trucks to travel in and out constantly. Lagoons to handle the toxic waste water that comes back out (some of it stays in the ground following fracture lines into the ground water.Noise 24/7 from drill rigs, compressor buildings, truck traffic, etc. Drill sites flooded with high intensity light disturbing the silent night.
They don't tell you that these rigs can be built anywhere on your property that they want to put them - including in your front yard.
They don't tell you they have intentions to decimate your entire region with thousands of these drill pads.
Please keep New York State a beautiful place to live.
A healthy place for us to raise our children and to grow healthy, safe food for your table.
Visit Shaleshock.org for more information and to find ways you can help. Write Gov. Paterson, your state Senator, Assembly person, Congress person and US Senator and ask them to ban drilling in the Marcellus shale.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Not Blind but Still I Cannot See
In "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" Annie Dillard cites "Space and Sight" by Marius von Senden. When safe cataract surgery was developed groups of doctors traveled the country performing the operation and giving people the gift of sight for the first time in their lives.
These doctors often kept notes on their patients experience of distance and depth both before and after the surgery. These people had to learn about sight as we did as infants and have long since forgotten. Infants cannot communicate their discoveries to us so we are left to guess what they are "seeing".
Patients had a difficult time with the perception of depth and distance. It was difficult for them to understand that the world took up space beyond their visual world. The idea that some thing could be behind another object was novel.
I think of a baby learning about it's hands. They often hit themselves in the face multiple times, then cry in outrage at the self-inflicted pain. I always thought that they were learning that the hand they saw was their own. It seems they also could be learning how far away that visible hand is.
The child I babysit is learning about Mom being away in stages. First he realized that when he saw me it meant Mom was going away. Then he learned that that the kitchen is where she disappeared. Now he knows that she will come back from there too.
Is it possible that some people cannot grasp the concept that we must keep our planet healthy because they lack a type of depth perception? They cannot see ahead to where their actions lead. They cannot see that their loved ones will be in that distant world. Perhaps their depth perception is so low that they cannot feel compassion or empathy.
These doctors often kept notes on their patients experience of distance and depth both before and after the surgery. These people had to learn about sight as we did as infants and have long since forgotten. Infants cannot communicate their discoveries to us so we are left to guess what they are "seeing".
Patients had a difficult time with the perception of depth and distance. It was difficult for them to understand that the world took up space beyond their visual world. The idea that some thing could be behind another object was novel.
I think of a baby learning about it's hands. They often hit themselves in the face multiple times, then cry in outrage at the self-inflicted pain. I always thought that they were learning that the hand they saw was their own. It seems they also could be learning how far away that visible hand is.
The child I babysit is learning about Mom being away in stages. First he realized that when he saw me it meant Mom was going away. Then he learned that that the kitchen is where she disappeared. Now he knows that she will come back from there too.
Is it possible that some people cannot grasp the concept that we must keep our planet healthy because they lack a type of depth perception? They cannot see ahead to where their actions lead. They cannot see that their loved ones will be in that distant world. Perhaps their depth perception is so low that they cannot feel compassion or empathy.
They are not blind but still they cannot see.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Fencing in the Who's
A few years ago I started asking why the government wanted us all to move to the city? All the TV shows are about folks living in big cities or the suburbs surrounding them. Kids and young people apparently all hate the country life and want to live in Manhattan or L.A. Family life is supposedly boring at best and unbearable most of the time. Have you noticed how many movies, books, TV shows are about avoiding or wanting to avoid the family on the holidays or vacation? Why is that?
Because people are easier to manage when they are herded into large groups. Does that sound odd to you? Doesn't that cause chaos and upset? Aren't crowds dangerous? Yes in some ways they are. But herded into disparate groups and continually stirred so that strong cohesive groups such as communities and families are difficult to form, keeps a people ill at ease. Give them fake news programs to keep them fearful and add in TV shows and Facebook to distract them, and you have a populace that goes to the slaughter willingly.
Think about movies you've seen about cattle being driven across the prairie or sheep being herded into pens. The trick is to keep them moving. Don't rile them to the point that they stampede. Don't make them so fearful they forget to eat or drink. Just keep them moving so they will go where you want them to and won't form a group that will turn around a face you off or go back home.
Put little fabrications (lies) out there that make people believe you have their best interests at heart or that they will profit somehow. This is like trying to get a horse or a few pigs back into a pen. You go out with a bucket with a little grain in the bottom or maybe even just a few stones to make it sound like something inviting. Keep just enough ahead of them so they don't figure out the pail is empty, and they will follow you back into captivity.
Of course some folks have to stay behind to do the dirty work of production for industries that are taking some natural resources for profit, while destroying other resources we will need long term. Ideally these will be immigrant populations that will be happy for low paying, benefit lacking jobs, and easily cowed by threats from immigration officials - even if they are legal immigrants. If not that then the "statistically insignificant" rural population. Keep this population poor and struggling to hold together the fabric of their communities.
Is there a reason that communities of faith feel under attack? Why does most media portray religious people as stupid or out of date or superstitious? Because faith communities have in the past been well springs of action to make change - think Martin Luther King.
I'm working with a group fighting gas companies who want to extract natural gas from shale formations. The leases may bring financial relief to rural landowners if they were able and had the foresight to negotiate good leases. The public awareness of the problems inherent in this process lag the leases by about 10 years. Media coverage of the problems caused by this type of drilling out west is almost non-existent (though we ALL heard about Brittany's panties). Knowledge of the process by local lawyers was negligible at the time we were being pressured to sign up.
Our politicians are often still pressing this as a good thing for our economy (especially if the Gas Co's contribute to their campaigns). The best success so far is to get people fired up about drinking water. Drilling in the NYC watershed is now questionable because of the millions of people who depend on those reservoirs. I have even heard concerns around the watershed for cities like Syracuse. Wait a minute! In rural NYS w have wells. Our small municipalities have wells. They are drilling in OUR WATERSHED! My drinking water is as important as your drinking water. The air I breathe is as important as yours. The crops and livestock you and I eat will be grown (if that's still possible) on this land with this water. What happens here is important to all of us.
Because people are easier to manage when they are herded into large groups. Does that sound odd to you? Doesn't that cause chaos and upset? Aren't crowds dangerous? Yes in some ways they are. But herded into disparate groups and continually stirred so that strong cohesive groups such as communities and families are difficult to form, keeps a people ill at ease. Give them fake news programs to keep them fearful and add in TV shows and Facebook to distract them, and you have a populace that goes to the slaughter willingly.
Think about movies you've seen about cattle being driven across the prairie or sheep being herded into pens. The trick is to keep them moving. Don't rile them to the point that they stampede. Don't make them so fearful they forget to eat or drink. Just keep them moving so they will go where you want them to and won't form a group that will turn around a face you off or go back home.
Put little fabrications (lies) out there that make people believe you have their best interests at heart or that they will profit somehow. This is like trying to get a horse or a few pigs back into a pen. You go out with a bucket with a little grain in the bottom or maybe even just a few stones to make it sound like something inviting. Keep just enough ahead of them so they don't figure out the pail is empty, and they will follow you back into captivity.
Of course some folks have to stay behind to do the dirty work of production for industries that are taking some natural resources for profit, while destroying other resources we will need long term. Ideally these will be immigrant populations that will be happy for low paying, benefit lacking jobs, and easily cowed by threats from immigration officials - even if they are legal immigrants. If not that then the "statistically insignificant" rural population. Keep this population poor and struggling to hold together the fabric of their communities.
Is there a reason that communities of faith feel under attack? Why does most media portray religious people as stupid or out of date or superstitious? Because faith communities have in the past been well springs of action to make change - think Martin Luther King.
I'm working with a group fighting gas companies who want to extract natural gas from shale formations. The leases may bring financial relief to rural landowners if they were able and had the foresight to negotiate good leases. The public awareness of the problems inherent in this process lag the leases by about 10 years. Media coverage of the problems caused by this type of drilling out west is almost non-existent (though we ALL heard about Brittany's panties). Knowledge of the process by local lawyers was negligible at the time we were being pressured to sign up.
Our politicians are often still pressing this as a good thing for our economy (especially if the Gas Co's contribute to their campaigns). The best success so far is to get people fired up about drinking water. Drilling in the NYC watershed is now questionable because of the millions of people who depend on those reservoirs. I have even heard concerns around the watershed for cities like Syracuse. Wait a minute! In rural NYS w have wells. Our small municipalities have wells. They are drilling in OUR WATERSHED! My drinking water is as important as your drinking water. The air I breathe is as important as yours. The crops and livestock you and I eat will be grown (if that's still possible) on this land with this water. What happens here is important to all of us.
Sometimes I feel like a Who from the Horton story.
We just need everyone in Whoville to yell at the same time.
Just one more voice to make us heard through the fog.
We just need everyone in Whoville to yell at the same time.
Just one more voice to make us heard through the fog.
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