Deb Berry is a writer. She is a loose cannon. She is full of hate and prejudice. She appears content to check her brain at the door and let other hateful people think for her. And she is proud of it. So proud that she presented her hatred, prejudice, and venemous zealotry for publication by the Orlando Weekly News.

Deb went to a recent event called by organizers the "March for Women's Lives," sponsored by people who self-flatteringly refer to themselves as "pro-choice America." But the America they represent is full of the worst this country has to offer: stereotyping worthy of the Ku Klux Klan, sloganeering worthy of a well-trained parrot.

Most people who call themselves "pro-choice" probably aren't hateful. Some of them are downright ambivalent: they wrestle with the abortion issue, they struggle with it, it gnaws at their consciences. Some base their opinions on erroneous information. Some have correct information but choose to defend abortion in spite of that information. Some don't really think about it at all.

But for others, like many who gathered in Washington recently, they aren't pro-abortion as much as they're anti-pro-life. They convince themselves of the very worst about pro-lifers, and then try to convince others too. Why do they do it? Maybe they can't really defend the position of abortion advocacy, so it feels better and more righteous to fight against the bogeymen (and bogeywomen, since most pro-life activists are women) they conjure up. When I used to speak on college campuses about pro-life feminism, I found that few things got up the dander of the most extreme abortion proponents more than information about fetal development lifted directly from medical text books. Usually such information was rebutted with accusations of my forcing my religious beliefs on other women. The incongruity was telling.

Abortion advocates are worried about the so-called "erosion of reproductive rights," but they ought to be more worried about the erosion of reason and the increasing shrillness of their own movement. As abortion opponents pursue the middle ground on which 80% of the public agrees—no to barbaric and late-term abortion procedures, yes to informed consent—their counterparts insist on moving farther from the mainstream and their rhetoric moves farther from reality. Regular Americans, many of whom feel compassion for women who are raped but not for those who were careless with their birth control last month, just aren't moved by people like Deb Berry whose response to someone she disagrees with is "Fuck you."

Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.

:)

Or girls, for that matter.

Who knew that the U.S. Department of Defense recognized April as Jazz Appreciation Month? Not I. But evidently it's part of our fine tradition of military bands.

My least-favorite talk radio personality in Boston has gone over the edge again. Jay Severin, afternoon drive-time host on WTKK-FM talk radio, is in trouble (but not nearly enough for my sensibilities) because of an on-air remark that he believes we should kill all Muslims.

The offensive remark was reportedly made live to a caller during last Thursday's program. Now, I stopped listening to Severin a long time ago, so I didn't hear the remark with my own ears. I first heard about it on the Dennis and Callahan morning show on WEEI-AM sports radio this past Monday, and I subsequently found several references to it online, including here and here.

Now Severin is defending himself. Anyone who has heard this guy should know it's a weak defense not backed up by his own history. I have heard him make other anti-Muslim/anti-Arab remarks, such as referring to certain male Arab head coverings as "a diaper with a fan belt wrapped around it." Yesterday afternoon, in a rare audio peek, I tuned in to his program just in time to hear him tell a caller that he thought we should drop a nuclear bomb on Fallujah, Iraq.

Frankly, I don't understand why this guy is still on the air or why people continue to listen to him. The conservative talk audience has a number of eminently more reasonable listening choices, my favorite of which is Laura Ingraham even though I am as likely as not to disagree with her on any given issue. Even if you believe, as Severin does, that it is an explicit goal of an organized group within the Islamic world to kill Americans, destroy western culture, and create a worldwide theocracy, you could have made the same sort of argument about communists without proposing that we kill them all. You want to fight an institution, a mindset, a movement? Go ahead. You want to kill terrorists before they kill us? Make your case. But to advocate killing all Muslims (which is what Severin said, not, as he now claims, killing only Muslim terrorists) is inexcusable.

Those who would like to express their opinions can e-mail Severin at ExtremeGames@969fmtalk.com or go here to contact WTKK's station management.

Y'all have to see this (hat tip to Andrew). Sure, the guy is a classless pig, but I'm willing to accept his contention that his ex-wife is too. Anyway, just read the ad. It's hysterical. I hope the guy sells the dress for a decent amount of money, though obviously he'll never see anything close to those bogus $500,000+ bids.

I wrote yesterday that in college, I pledged a local sorority named Kappa Phi, founded on April 27, 1982. Two and a half years after Kappa Phi was founded, it became a chapter of the first national women's fraternity, Pi Beta Phi.

Coincidentally, Founders' Days of the two groups are only a day apart. Well, a day and many, many years. I.C. Sorosis, which would later be re-named Pi Beta Phi, was founded at Monmouth College on April 28, 1867.

Unlike the founders of Kappa Phi, all of whom I had met and all but one of whom I knew well, the founders of Pi Beta Phi were dead long before I was born. Here's to their memories:

• Nancy Black
• Libbie Brook
• Clara Brownlee
• Emma Brownlee
• Ada Bruen
• Margaret Campbell
• Jennie Horne
• Rosa Moore
• Jennie Nicol
• Inez Smith
• Fannie Thomson
• Fannie Whitenack

I.C., ladies.

Twenty-two years ago today, a local sorority was approved by the Interfraternity Council and administration of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The eleven founders called it Kappa Phi.

I pledged Kappa Phi with the first pledge class in fall of 1982. After a long, complicated, on-and-off pledgeship, I was initiated in fall of 1984, the same semester our local affiliated with and was subsequently installed as a chapter of the Pi Beta Phi national women's fraternity.

Here's to Kappa Phi's founders:

• Randi Clawar
• Nancy Davis
• Catherine Gimourginas
• Meredith Hickman
• Evelyn Joerg
• Karen Koenig
• Diane Kozak
• Siena May
• Susan Murdock
• Yvette Ruiz
• Deborah Sheppers

"We persevere."

From Merriam-Webster OnLine:

Main Entry: den mother
Function: noun
: a female adult leader of a Cub Scout den; also : a person seen in the role of leader or protector of a group

Just thought I'd share that.

I saw this ad online almost a year ago, and I was just amazed. I knew it would never air here in the United States—it's too long (2 minutes) and the steering wheel is on the other side of the car. But it's worth watching online. After, read the story linked at the bottom of the page to get a full appreciation of how it was done.

The devastation from last week's train accident in Ryongchon, DPRK, has prompted North Korean officials to request international aid. In response, the International Red Cross/Red Crescent has issued an appeal for donations. Those who wish can make an online contribution by credit card.

It's been in the planning for at least a year (probably longer than that, though I only heard about it a year ago). The much-hyped "March for Women's Lives" took place in Washington yesterday. According to an article in the Boston Globe, "Organizers ... decided to broaden the theme from abortion rights to include other issues. Poor women's access to reproductive health care, getting insurance to cover birth control, expanded funding for family planning, and support for gay marriage were other themes yesterday."

The first thing I wondered when I read that was if they "broadened the theme" because support for legal abortion is waning. An analysis of abortion polling over the last few years by the Gallup organization shows that the public is virtually evenly split on whether they consider themselves "pro-life" or "pro-choice," but a significant majority believe abortion should be legal either in only a few circumstances (40%) or not at all (17%). And since 1990, just after the U.S. Supreme Court's Webster decision and just prior to the Casey decision, support for the legality of abortion has dipped more among those under age 49 than among those 50 and over, not a good sign for the future of the abortion advocacy movement. As for other trends, not since 1995 has the legality of abortion in all circumstances (the position upheld in the Roe case) been favored by more than 30% of the public. And support for abortion has always been far lower among those with lower incomes, the very constituency privileged and wealth abortion proponents claim to want to protect.

There is, of course, a "mushy middle" who would never think about going to Washington for a march for abortion but who might show up if they thought women's health in general were under attack. Perhaps that's why the organizers of last weekend's event decided to throw in reproductive health care and birth control, both of which large numbers of pro-life and pro-abortion people support. If people who are ambivalent about abortion think President Bush is going to try to make condoms illegal, they might get more riled up.

And that seems to be what the march organizers and speakers wanted us to believe. They cited Bush administration efforts to restrict U.S. funding to international "family planning" programs. But they failed to point out that organizations that support safe, non-abortifacient contraception, reproductive health care, and education are not restricted if they do not include abortion in their programs.

In any case, what you will never hear at a pro-abortion rally is advocacy for better safety regulation of abortion clinics (on par with what outpatient surgical centers face), tougher sanctions for abortionists who practice shoddy medicine ("front-alley butchers," we pro-life feminists call them), or more accuracy in reporting abortion-related injuries or deaths (the better to identify what the problems are so they can be addressed). The pre-Roe argument, that legal abortion could more easily be regulated for safety and quality of care, quickly disappeared upon legalization. For one thing, Roe carried no prohibition against "back-alley butchers" performing abortions once they were legal. And trade organizations like the National Abortion Federation, whose membership is comprised of abortionists, are loathe to self-regulate, especially in a field as financially lucrative as outpatient abortion.

The sad fact is that we really don't know how "safe" legal abortion is because abortion deaths no longer have to be reported as such. So a woman who bleeds to death after a botched abortion in which her uterus is perforated would most likely have her cause of death listed as "hemorrhage," not "abortion." Someone who bleeds to death as a result of a gunshot wound, on the other hand, must be reported as such—"hemorrhage" isn't sufficient.

Until those women, along with the women worldwide whose lives are marred by coerced abortion, are shown the same concern as the lives of the privileged women who insist on keeping abortion legal, events like the so-called "March for Women's Lives" will be seen for the hollow theatrical productions they are.

I published the following on February 1, 1999 on a feminist web site I used to run. I reproduce it here, even though many of the sites I originally linked to are no longer available. Rather than replace them, I'll just leave you with the sites that still exist.

I remained in treatment as described below until about mid-2000, at which time I was weaned off medication and continued with a therapist as needed. My depressive symptoms recurred and worsened over several months last year, so I'm back on medication (Lexapro 20mg) and in bi-weekly therapy. I feel better and am coming to terms with the probability that this will be a lifetime condition in need of ongoing treatment, akin to high cholesterol or diabetes.

This is my "coming out," of sorts. For the past 14 months, I have been in treatment for depression. Not only am I coming to terms with my own depressive condition, but I am also coming to realize that as a woman I was and am more susceptible to this form of mental illness.

I know this is an unusually long page. I have tried to include useful information. If you think you may be depressed, please hang in and read to the end!

My Story

I won't go into the gory details of my particular symptoms or the various depressive episodes I had. Everyone's experience with this illness is different and I don't want to appear to be making a statement about "what depression is." Let it suffice to say that it came on, and indeed worsened, so gradually that by the time it became a crisis I was too far gone to recognize it for what it was. I felt that the bad feelings would pass if only I could get more organized, if only I wasn't so lazy, if only I could make more money, if only, if only, if only...

In retrospect, the depression had been going on for years. In fact, hindsight being 20/20, I can fairly well identify the experience that started it: a bad job experience that lasted 3 years, stressed me out, and zapped my self-esteem. I will never know for certain whether that experience triggered my depression or whether depression hindered my ability to deal with the situation in a positive, healthy way. I do know that my reaction was not "normal" in a mental health sense.

The next 4 years had their ups and downs, with each depressive episode being followed by a "good" period. But as time went on, the depressive episodes lasted longer and the good times in between were shorter. The highs weren't as high and the lows got lower each time. My untreated illness was getting worse, as many illnesses will do in the absense of treatment.

Something told me that I needed to get help for what was, in my mind, stress management. But I had no health insurance and was barely making ends meet. More than once, usually late at night and overcome with desparation, I came close to calling the local crisis hotline. One night I almost called a nearby religious community with a 24-hour prayer line, feeling that only God could help me. I also considered setting up an appointment for counselling at a town social services agency that charges a sliding scale fee. Yet each time the worst would pass and I would convince myself that I would indeed snap out of it by myself.

Then I had an episode that brought home the severity of my situation. I was trying to do some household chores, and suddenly felt very overwhelmed by the tasks before me. Feeling I could no longer take it (whatever "it" was) I collapsed to the floor, curled up in a fetal position, and sobbed.

A short time later, after I had regained some composure, I called that social service agency and made an appointment. I didn't realize how that call would change my life. Again, I won't dwell too much on the particulars of my treatment, but it involved regular sessions with a therapist, an evaluation by a medical doctor, and a prescription for anti-depression medication. My treatment began 14 months ago, and I can tell you that it has been the most satisfying 14 months of my life because I am dealing with my depression.

Are You Depressed?

If any aspect of my story hits home with you, you may have depression. There are many reasons for and causes of depression. It is perfectly normal for someone to feel depressed over something like a death in the family or other difficulties of life, but unusually severe or lengthy periods of depression, or depression as a disproportionate response, is not normal. Whether depression is situational or clinical, counselling can help you identify the cause and begin finding a solution.

You can take the first step in identifying whether you may be depressed by taking a simple on-line quiz. The one that convinced me that I really was depressed is the Online Depression Screening Test from NYU Department of Psychiatry. It's simple, quick, and gives a good indication of your possible level of depression.

Another test, which gets to the "feelings" of depression quite well is the Depression Questionaire [page no longer available] from Mental Health Net.

Other Online Resources

The internet has a plethora of sites concerning depression. All the sites listed below are written by or for women. Some are very technical and scholarly, others are much more "user-friendly." Some of the best from an informational standpoint are presented by mental health organizations:

• Women and Depression [page no longer available], from the National Institutes of Health, is somewhat dry but has a good list of symptoms for both depression and mania. It points out that women are twice as likely as men to suffer from dysthymia (long-term low-level depression) and major (clinical) depression.
• Health Net's Depression in Women [page no longer available] is less dry and clinical. This site points out that the depression "gender gap" is greatest between ages 18-44, and over 65. Another interesting fact: an estimated 2% to 25% of women will suffer clinical depression at some time in their lives.
• The American Psychological Association site about Women and Depression [page no longer available] is a readable question-and-answer format with lots of information, including the disturbing fact that only one-fifth of women with depression get treatment.
• And for the more scholarly among you, Ellen Leibenluft, M.D. takes a more clinical look at the topic in a Scientific American article, "Why Are So Many Women Depressed?" [page no longer available]

Of course, what you may need more than information is the voice of experience. For this I recommend two excellent personal web sites by people who have battled depression:

• Deborah Deren's Wing of Madness, full of great information and personal experiences. This is the site that really empowered me to take control of my treatment.
• And for those who need more of an on-line friend, try Kerrie-Anne's depression page, a more personal page truly from the heart.

A few more quick notes about my experience. I didn't tell my family about my depression until I was several weeks into therapy and had begun medication. My son's typical adolescent response was, "Well, Mom, I knew you were a mental case." Ha! My brother and sister-in-law seemed not at all surprised and glad that I was getting treatment. My mother asked what I was depressed "about," taking some time to grasp that this was a clinical condition. My father expressed concern that I was getting proper medication. Indeed, family responses can vary widely. Ultimately, I have had tremendous support and it has helped.

I began medication with 10 mg Paxil, a specific type of depression/anxiety drug similar to Prozac. After the first week, I went up to 20 mg and have maintained that dose. I had some negative side effects for about 3 months, all of which were closely monitored by a medical doctor until they subsided. The only question mark at this point is how much longer I'll stay on the meds. We're playing that one by ear.

My therapy continues also. I learned that meds work best in conjunction with counselling, and I will maintain a relationship with my therapist until after I have been successfully weaned off the meds and feel comfortable that I'm back on track.

Wish me luck, as I wish luck to you.

What a heartbreaking story—a child dies in a tragic accident, one couple has to bury a child, and another couple will live with their guilt for the rest of their lives.

What complicates matters is that this incident happened at the home of the day care provider. I won't be at all surprised if some sort of charges arise from this incident, and if child services and day care regulation in Virginia are anything like they are here in Massachusetts, the sanctions will probably be worse than are really deserved. But there should be some kind of accountability in a case like this.

Sure, it could have happened at the child's home instead of at the babysitter's. But people who take on responsibility for others' children for pay need to be extra careful. And every adult should learn or re-learn a lesson that young children need to be under a watchful eye at all times.

Today is Earth Day, a trendy contemporary observance loosely modeled on Arbor Day, which dates back to the days when conservation and recycling and planting trees were things that ordinary country folks did because, after all, waste not want not. Nowadays, some communities celebrate Earth Day/Arbor Day as one event.

I'm old enough to have vague recollections or early Earth Days, but 1989 was the first time I actually participated in an Earth Day event. It was a large gathering at Institute Park in Worcester, Massachusetts, and I remember there was a table staffed by a Shaklee distributor who was marketing their cleaning products as biodegradable and environmentally responsible (which, as far as I've been able to tell, they are, and I used them for some time). There was also a table that had buttons and bumper stickers, many of which were pro-abortion, prompting me to inquire how it was good for the earth to kill its inhabitants. (The response I got was, "Many people here are pro-choice.")

Within a year or so, I was sporting a "Think Globally, Act Locally" sticker on the bumper of my sub-compact, 4-cylinder, manual transmission, fuel-economical car. I recycled and composted, began growing my own vegetables sans pesticides, installed a low-flow showerhead and a toilet dam, and reused grocery bags. To me, the planet's biggest environmental problems were local ones which, if replicated in enough places, would threaten the entire planet.

I was never as concerned about environmental problems that were purported to be global per se. The earth is an amazingly resilient ecosphere, after all, and the very worst we've thrown at it haven't impacted it on more than a regional level. So I have fallen away from the environmental movement because it seems to me that they have either magnified or created the illusion of widespread global environmental destruction at the expense of real, identifiable, and solvable local concerns.

• The hazardous waste dumps of Love Canal and the nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl sickened or killed made people sick and rendered large areas uninhabitable (as the region around Chernobyl remains to this day), but you don't have to go very far before the ill effects disappear.
• The unspeakable devastation from the atomic bombs dropped on Japan at the end of World War II was so localized as to be easily mapped afterward.
• The planet survived the Industrial Revolution, when factories operated without so much as a cheesecloth filter atop a smokestack, and over a hundred years and many technological improvements after, acid rain is a localized phenomenon attributable where it still occurs to specific and similarly local sources.
• That most of the earth's water is undrinkable isn't a crisis is due mostly to its natural salt content, and where the problem isn't natural, it's largely due to inadequate sanitation in a given locale.
• Global warming? There is an active and animated debate within the scientific community if such a phenomenon exists at all, and if it does, if it might not be due to natural factors. After all, if the earth is in fact a living system, then its conditions are not static even without the effects of human intervention.

It seems to me that the contemporary environmental movement has taken great pains to embrace as their signature issue something as unproven as global warming, globalize essentially local and regional concerns like acid rain and toxic waste, and virtually ignore local threats like the disappearance of open space and pollution of rivers and streams by runoff of road salt and organic wildlife waste. Perhaps the earth would be better served if we were to simply "think locally."

Tomorrow is Patriots Day here in Massachusetts. It's the day set aside to celebrate our Super Bowl Champion football team. Just kidding. It actually honors the original patriots, those colonists who faced British troops at Lexington and Concord in the first battles of the American Revolution. The state holiday is also celebrated in Maine, which during colonial times was a part of Massachusetts.

Even though Patriot's Day isn't really about football, it is nonetheless a distinctive day in Boston sports. The Boston Red Sox play at Fenway Park on that day every year, the only 11:00am start of the season for the Red Sox or, to my knowledge, any major league team. If the game runs a typical two and a half hours or so, departing fans can walk the two blocks to Kenmore Square and watch the leaders of the Boston Marathon go by.

I have tickets to tomorrow's Sox game against the division rival New York Yankees. Last week, the weather forecast was ominous—chilly, raw, and rainy. But now it's looking good, at least from a fan's perspective: partly sunny, mid '80s. The marathoners will hate it, though. Perhaps I'll be able to make my way through the crowds down to Beacon Street and watch the hopefully not overheated runners whiz by.

I don't know how long ago the Red Sox' Patriot's Day game tradition started, but it can't be as old as the Marathon, which was first run in 1897—four years before the American League and Boston's charter team came into being. This year will be my first time seeing either event in person.

I am not a newbie, however, to the revolutionary battle commemoration in Lexington. Unlike neighboring Concord, which always has their reenactment on April 19 at the bridge where the Redcoats first encountered colonial militia, Lexington's event takes place on the third Monday of April, the official observance of Patriot's Day. This year, the observance happens to fall on the actual date of the battles. I attended Lexington's reenactment once several years ago, and I was thinking about going again this year, until I decided that I didn't really want to get up that early on my day off. The first time, I arrived early enough to get a good spot on the edge of Lexington Battle Green. The preliminaries of that event begin at 5:30am, the mock-battle at 6:00. When it's over, many in attendance find somewhere nearby to have breakfast before setting out for the rest of the day's activities.

So while I'm off enjoying baseball and a foot race, I will leave you with a few excerpts from a famous poem about the original Patriot's Day, which began 229 years ago tonight. It's worth reading the whole thing, as well as an explanation of a few more the more historically accurate details of the event it memorializes.

Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

[...]

A hurry of hoofs in a village street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet;
That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,
Kindled the land into flame with its heat.
He has left the village and mounted the steep,
And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;
And under the alders that skirt its edge,
Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,
Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.

[...]

It was one by the village clock,
When he galloped into Lexington.
He saw the gilded weathercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed,
And the meeting-house windows, black and bare,
Gaze at him with a spectral glare,
As if they already stood aghast
At the bloody work they would look upon.

So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,---
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

"Paul Revere's Ride"
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

So my prediction of double wins for the Red Sox and Bruins was a little off. So Pedro, Bronson, and Andrew-the-wonder-goalie all got knocked around in the same night. Disappointing? Yes. Devastating? Not even close. The B's still have a 3-2 series lead, and the Sox still have more than 95% of their regular season games to play. So relax, everybody.

The one good thing that came out of last night was the Bruins fans' reaction to the playing of the Canadian national anthem. After their counterparts in Montreal showed the world what passes for class in Canada these days, Boston fans did it right. Could be that we're just better people down here.

I have great respect for our military and try to support them in several ways. I have adopted several service members, to whom I send letters of encouragement and periodic care packages. These people come from all walks of life and all backgrounds, and I believe that most of them are sensible and honorable.

It's probably inevitable that occasionally one of them does something foolish, as most of us do from time to time. Something we wish we hadn't done. I'd bet the rent that right about now this Marine is wishing he could go back in time and undo one little prank. Or at least take his name off the sign.

If you know me, you know I like sports. Mostly I'm a baseball fan; my Sox are Red. But when the Patriots or Bruins are in the playoffs, I'm right there on the bandwagon. (The Celtics have a way to go before I can get excited about them again.)

The B's are looking good so far, up 3-1 in the first round against Montreal and going into tonight's possibly deciding game hot off a thrilling double-overtime win on Tuesday.

I didn't follow them closely during the regular season, but I can make sense of statistics. I know that they had essentially one bad month and did really well for the others. And I know that whatever they're paying Andrew Raycroft, that boy deserves a raise. A quick check of goaltending stats on NHL.com shows he was tenth best in the entire league in goals against average during the regular season, and third best so far in the playoffs. Not bad for a rookie. Felix who?

If it's true in baseball that pitching wins championships, then the same can be said for goaltending in hockey. Which is a good thing for Boston, who don't seem to have multiple offensive powerhouses like some other teams. I see they had only one player (Joe Thornton) among the league's top 30 point scorers, compared to Tampa Bay with four and Colorado, Detroit, and Ottawa with three apiece. Likewise, only one Bruin (Glen Murray) cracked the top 30 in goals, compared to four Senators and three Lightning. Yet the Bruins finished with the fourth best record in the entire league, winning their division, despite ranking 15th in the league in goals scored.

All I can say is that my thumb will get a workout this evening, flipping the remote controller back and forth between the Bruins and the Red Sox. I see absolutely no reason why they can't both win.

The big^* news yesterday (briefly) was that outgoing Attorney General Janet Reno never mentioned Al Qaida in her transition briefing to incoming Attorney General John Ashcroft. From a transcript, sans commentary, on the Washington Post web site (registration required, and my emphasis added):

[Commission member Timothy] ROEMER: Let's stay on the topic of your relationship to the new attorney general. In the transition period, were you able to brief Attorney General Ashcroft as to your concerns on counterterrorism? And did Al Qaida come up in that briefing?

RENO: I don't know whether Al Qaida came up in the briefing or not. I cannot recall whether I specifically talked to him about Al Qaida. But what I did talk about was reflected in the memos which I gave him, which is: If we don't put the pieces together and connect the dots, there's going to be something that happens. And there is so much information out there, it is so important that we get this done." And that's the reason I brought the memos with me.

ROEMER: Do you recall -- and excuse me for pushing you on this -- but do you recall mentioning Al Qaida, Osama bin Laden, domestic cells of terrorists in the United States to the new attorney general?

RENO: No, I don't.

ROEMER: You don't recall that. Do you recall being briefed on that type of domestic threat by FBI personnel some time in the 1990s?

RENO: Cells -- what I was briefed on was what the bureau had under way. I don't recall a briefing on cells in the United States. ROEMER: So all throughout the 1990s, when you had people like Dale Watson or Director Freeh, your contacts with the National Security Council, they never briefed you on Al Qaida cells or a presences of Al Qaida in the United States -- '98, '99, 2000 -- some time in that period?

RENO: They briefed me on the presence of Al Qaida in the United States. But in terms of cells and where they were, I don't recall such a briefing.

ROEMER: And therefore, you had no specifics at that point, so you did not brief the new attorney general on something like that?

RENO: What I thought was important was with respect to all terrorism issues. I told him that it was, to me, one of the most important issues. And one of the things that is critically important, I never focused just on Al Qaida, because I stood there and watched the Murrah building in rubble just as we saw it -- the beginnings of the Oklahoma bombing on CNN, and tended to jump to conclusions. You can't jump to conclusions. You can't say that one thing is going to be our overriding issue.

I think one other recommendation I would make is we have got to be prepared for terrorism in any form. And a focus on one is going to make it difficult.

Sounds to me as if there wasn't the focus on Al Qaida by the Clinton Administration (at least within Justice and the FBI) that people like Richard Clarke have suggested. And that even now, with the benefit of hindsight, Ms. Reno doesn't think there should be such a focus. That non-focus was evidently passed on to their successors. At the very least, Reno's revelation would seem to neutralize partisan contentions that the Bush Administration dropped the ball, ignoring highlighted information passed on to them by their predecessors. Instead, it seems they never got the ball in the first place, evidently left to their own devices to identify and address a threat in less than eight months that the prior administration had neglected to focus on in eight years.

^* What? You didn't hear about this big news? It was front-page (with picture) on both CNN.com and FoxNews.com for a couple hours yesterday afternoon. But today, I can find nothing in articles on those web sites or those of the Boston Globe, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, or the Washington Post.

Just out of idle curiosity, I decided to self-Google this blog. The results included 13 entries with the following description:

Source of insight on all topics worth thinking about, tenders her opinion, analysis, and/or personal reflection on the subject of her choice.

I'm a source of insight. Hee hee...

CNN.com is reporting that a sorority member at the University of Missouri Columbia pressured her sisters to lie if necessary in order to give blood at a competitive campus blood drive.

In an e-mail sent last Tuesday to about 170 members of Gamma Phi Beta, Christie Key, the chapter's blood donation coordinator, wrote: "I dont care if you got a tattoo last week LIE. I dont care if you have a cold. Suck it up. We all do. LIE. Recent peircings? LIE."

In her e-mail, Key wrote: "We're not messing around. Punishment for not giving blood is going to be quite severe."

I sent the following e-mail to the president of the Alpha Delta chapter of Gamma Phi Beta sorority:

Ms. Wisniewski:

As a sorority woman, a former chapter officer, and an advocate for volunteer blood donation, I was shocked to read the story on CNN.com about a member of your chapter allegedly pressuring sisters to participate in a blood drive regardless of their health status.

The health screening guidelines for blood donors exist for the health of the donor, but more importantly for the safety of those who will receive blood components from that donor. Yes, the health of a sick or injured person IS more important than petty inter-fraternity squabbling.

One of the purposes of Greek life is to be of service to the community, not to win some meaningless contest. Yet your house has managed to reinforce the image of sorority women as spoiled, selfish brats who labor under the illusion that it's all about them, everyone else be damned.

Notwithstanding any sanctions the university may bring upon your chapter, you would do your sorority and the entire Greek community well to make amends by voluntarily withdrawing from next year's blood drive competition—and instead offer yourselves as volunteers to assist the Red Cross personnel. I hope you and your sisters will be woman enough to do so.

In sisterhood,
Kelly Jefferson
Pi Beta Phi, NY Epsilon chapter
http://kelly.jefferson.net/donateblood.htm

Anyone who would like to express similar sentiments can e-mail chapter president Shannon Wisniewski at smwkcc@mizzou.edu.

I've just been perusing the transcript of National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice's testimony before the 9/11 Commission last week. Whatever else this testimony revealed, it made perfectly clear that commission member and former U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey is a horse's ass.

His allotted ten minutes to question Rice doesn't get off to a great start. Which isn't surprising. Condescension isn't usually a good springboard when you're trying to be taken seriously.

BOB KERREY. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And thank you Dr. Rice. Let me say at the beginning I'm very impressed and ... I'd go as far as say moved by your story, the story of your life and what you've accomplished. It's quite extraordinary.

So he starts off by putting her in her place, something I doubt he would do if she were a white male. Does he really think she needs him to legitimize her considerable talents and accomplishments?

Perhaps his profession of admiration would seem more genuine if he doesn't shortly thereafter start calling her by the wrong name. But before long, he begins addressing her as "Dr. Clarke," evidently confusing her with former White House anti-terrorism advisor Richard Clarke whom they have begun discussing.

Anyone can be forgiven a mistake like that. But from then until the end of his ten minutes of questioning Rice, he refers to her by the wrong name seven times.

To her credit, she refrains from correcting him. Until the end.

KERREY. Dr. Clarke, and in the spirit of further declassification–

RICE. Sir, with all - I don't think I look like Dick Clarke.

KERREY. Dr. Rice, excuse me.

RICE. Thank you.

[Commisson Chairman Thomas] KEAN. This is the last question, senator.

I would like to think that Rice, a person much smarter than Bob Kerrey, was keeping her eye on the clock so as to time her rebuke to be the last thing she said to him. But whether it was planned or not, it was the perfect closing bookend to his patronizing opening. And to think this man wanted to be President.

After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary of Magdala came with Mary to inspect the tomb.

Suddenly, there was a severe earthquake, and an angel of God descended from heaven, rolled back the stone, and sat on it. The angel's appearance was like lightning, with garments white as snow. The guards shook with fear and fell down as though they were dead.

Then the angel spoke, addressing the women: "Don't be afraid. I know you are looking for Jesus the crucified, who is no longer here. Jesus has been raised, exactly as it was foretold. Come and see the burial place. Then go quickly and tell the disciples that Jesus has risen from the dead and now goes ahead of you to Galilee. You will see Jesus there. This is the message I have for you."

The women hurried away from the tomb with awe and great joy and ran to carry the good news to the disciples.

Suddenly Jesus stood before them and said, "Shalom!" The women came up, embraced Jesus' feet and worshiped. At this, Jesus said to them, "Don't be afraid! Go tell the disciples to go to Galilee, where they will see me."

—Matthew 28:1-10
from the Inclusive New Testament translated by Priests for Equality

Every year on Easter Sunday, I listen to a gospel account of the resurrection of Jesus. There are four gospels, but each account is essentially the same. Each refers to Mary of Magdala as being one of the group of women who are the first to be told of the resurrection by God's angel. In Matthew's, Mark's, and Luke's accounts, the women go to tell the male apostles, but the apostles do not believe them. John's gospel, inexplicably, omits the angel and her revelation to the women.

I wonder how many churchgoers hear the gospel accounts and home in on the name—Mary Magdalene—and think not "first to know of the risen Christ" but rather "prostitute." It is classic Christian legend, centuries old, that Mary was a prostitute. Yet the scriptues never say such a thing. She is described in Mark and Luke as a woman out of whom Jesus cast seven demons. But demonic possession is not understood in the Bible to mean immorality in general or sexual immorality in particular. Indeed, the gospels contain several accounts of people being healed of demons: Matthew 8:16 talks about Jesus casting out spirits and healing sickness. Demons were understood to make people ill.

There is, of course, one famous story in John's gospel account about the woman caught in adultery, who was to be stoned according to the law. But Jesus told the Pharisees that the one who was sinless should cast the first stone. Could this woman be Mary of Magdala?

It is unlikely. Unlike illness, which is described metaphorically in the scriptures as "demons" and "devils" and "spirits," sexual sin is dealt with by name. Adultery and fornication are mentioned explicitly dozens of times each in the old and new testaments. If Mary of Magdala had been a sexual sinner, she would not be referred to as having been freed of demons; she would be called a repentant sinner.

But it's comforting for misogynists, isn't it, to think of Mary of Magdala as an immoral woman, albeit a reformed one, because that image provides a convenient distraction from the fact that it was women, not men, who were selected by God to preach the gospel message of Jesus' resurrection. If Mary and the women with her hadn't told the apostles (who, notably, were not paying their respects at the tomb but rather were in hiding), neither they nor the rest of us would ever have known.

What the men of the early church should have done, rather than trying to delegitimze Mary of Magdala, was lift her up as an example of discipleship to be emulated by all believers. But if a woman were the model, well then, they would have had to give women positions of responsibility and ministry in the church. That would have meant giving up their place of superiority and control. So they chose to ignore God's message instead of embracing it.

For me as a feminist, there are two Easter messages: the first, the biblical message of the "good news" of God's love and our redemption by Jesus' death and resurrection, and the second, the "bad news" of a church heirarchy that has taken great pains to mold that message into a tool for the oppression of women. That is why I put my faith in God and not in the hierarchy of the church.

I grew up in a former small town that was becoming a big town. Not a city, nor really a suburb, but a very autonomous town, the largest in the immediate vicinity and the only one that no longer had the uniquely New England form of government known as Open Town Meeting (we had the representative form instead). Even when I was a kid, the town was big enough that we had just about everything we needed to live daily life except a hospital, but there were four of those within a 15-minute drive in the city just across the lake, five after the state came in and built the University teaching hospital. We had six Christian churches, seven when the Baptists built one, but no synagogues or mosques. Minority residents were not common, but they were widely accepted without controversy.

We thought of our community as a small town, even though at the time the population was probably about 15,000. An interstate highway ran through north-west corner of the town, a state route traversed the town from east to west, and a busy truck route ran across the south side. But the town center, with a typical New England common on which sat a fire station and the town's first church, was safe enough that kids could hang out on the corner and ride their bikes without getting hit. After school, those of us who walked home would stop in at the Center Dairy Bar and buy candy or teen magazines or baseball cards. Occasionally we'd sneak over to the town cemetery and smoke a cigarette.

The fire department was kept busy mostly with medical calls, and when a police cruiser flew down the street with lights blazing, it was more likely for a false burglar alarm than for an actual crime. Virtually all the kids at the public high school graduated. We weren't without our share of violent crime—a police officer was shot dead during a traffic stop when I was in the fifth grade—but such things were anomalies. Even years later, people still occasionally recalled the woman who was killed and mutilated in her own home, no sign of forced entry, two used coffee cups on living room table. The husband was cleared of any wrongdoing, and the murder would remain unsolved.

For a long time, we had a well-dressed loiterer take up his daily post in the town center. He was once a responsible member of the community, but mental illness took its toll so that even though he had a nice home several towns away, he chose instead to spend his days sitting in a lawn chair on the sidewalk, waiting for his ex-wife to drive by and decide that she really couldn't live without him after all. The only reason anyone was concerned by him was that he had once broken into her house, but we all knew he'd never hurt anyone. The staff of the public library occasionally had to kick out disruptive kids who congregated after half-days at school. There were infrequent break-ins and people locked their doors and cautioned their children to beware of strangers, but no one lived in fear. The rare homicide in town made the television news in Boston, 40 miles away.

Today, the town's population has mushroomed to over 35,000. The building that housed the Center Dairy Bar now contains offices. There is very little unbuilt land left and many more businesses, but the nearest hospital is still across the lake. We added a couple churches but still have no synagogues or mosques. The town has a blossoming Indian (Asian) population that has spawned an Indian foods market, three restaurants, and a cultural center, but we still have no ethnic conflict. Kids can still ride their bikes through the center; they just have to be more careful because of the increased traffic, which warranted an extra traffic light several years ago. Most of the fire department's calls are still medical calls, and the screaming police sirens are now more likely to be 911 hangups than anything serious. Most of our high schoolers still graduate and the school has never needed metal detectors, though there are more drug problems.

But murders are still rare and still shock us. We had one last week, a murder-suicide as it turns out. It was the first homicide in town since a troubled teenage girl bludgeoned her mother, a psychiatrist, to death with a hammer four years ago. This time, a man is believed to have killed his estranged wife at her home, then shut himself into his own garage with the car running. The woman's daughter called police when she couldn't find her, and detectives found the body in a closet. The town is still small enough that we know and remember the details of such things, and at Easter Sunday Mass, when the priest prayed for those in the community who had died in the past week, he included the woman and her killer.

It's sad when things like that happen. But it helps to know that they still shock us. Such is life in a small town, even if it isn't small anymore.

I'm struggling a bit with this entry. Usually I talk about issues or current news items, but what I want to do right now is make a statement about me.

I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is; I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.
—Rebecca West

I am a feminist. I didn't become a feminist one day, or even over a period of time. I always have been, like I have always been a female.

It's a revolutionary statement, "I am a feminist." By saying it I am taking my stand, making myself known. But the word itself is laden with other people's ideas of what it means. Depending on who I say it to, I am deemed a lesbian, a heroine, a witch, an abortion advocate, a man-hater, a superwoman, a rebel. I am none of those things.

To the people who saddle me with those prejudices, if I'm none of those things then I can't possibly be a feminist. But on the contrary, I can't possibly be any of those things and still be who I am. Being a feminist isn't all I am, but I can't be who I am without being a feminist.

That's my declaration.