I Want to Help. What Can I Do?
November 5, 2008
by The New Agenda
|22 Comments
To our Dear and Devoted Members:
We are reading your comments. Our Join box is full with new members and suggestions. Many of you are ready for action and asking how you can help.
In the short-term (meaning today), here is what you can do to help:
- Spread the word about The New Agenda. Ultimately, our strength comes from our members. We need as many women and like minded men around the country to join as possible. Send an email to your address book, or your friends on Facebook. Talk about The New Agenda at work, at the school yard, or at the supermarket.
- Sign up as a member to receive action alerts at JoinTheNewAgenda@yahoo.com (our first action item will be coming in the next 24 hours)
- Consider becoming a Team Captain as we set up our grass roots organization around the country. More to come on this later.
- Send our your thoughts and suggestions – we are reading them all.
- Offer up your talents: if you have a specific talent that you would like to donate, let us know (e.g. artistic design, writing action alerts, etc.)
- Help us come up with designs for bumper stickers and pins.
Later today, we will be posting a blog piece titled “Reintroducing The New Agenda” which will discuss our goals and how we were formed. This piece will be a primer for those of you new to our site. It will also be a piece that you can send to potential members in your community.
I plan to post this to every blog I frequent so if you run across this again, excuse me but
THIS MUST BE SAID:
I WANT AN OATH FROM EVERY WOMAN AND MAN ON THIS PAGE (WOMEN ESPECIALLY) THAT WE WILL LEARN TO TREAT EACH OTHER WITH RESPECT, DIGNITY AND HONOR. WE WILL NOT HOLD EACH OTHER DOWN. WE WILL NOT FOCUS ON PETTY GRIEVANCES. WE WILL FIGHT. WE WILL UNITE. WE WILL STAY STRONG. WE WILL ELECT A WOMAN PRESIDENT OF THESE UNITED STATES IN THE NEXT 4 YEARS.
Feel free to add on and repost. Or make up your own. It has to be done. I’m tired of this
If it is “historic” to elect a man who comes from a group that represents 13% of the population, imagine how historic it will be when we finally elect a woman — she would be coming from a group that represents 50% of our national population.
–
“SHADOW” now . . . and “SHADOW” forever!
“Stop Humiliation And Disparagement Of Women”
I don’t have a problem with some kind of oath/pledge – it might be even more meaningful if said oath were signed and a financial contribution attached as well…..clearly there is an abundance of talent for some concise, meaningful statement to be made available based on the principles and ideology of the New Agenda in which people commit themselves to honor and to conduct themselves with integrity and fairness.
xax,
that is certainly a long-term goal and will require a certain amount of re-engineering of the way women (and men) think. that is our work together. this organization will certainly work towards that goal!
Unfortunately, most of my friends have been making “Sarah Palin is a bimbo” jokes for the past several months and probably wouldn’t relate to the New Agenda. But I do know a few like-minded people. I have already let them know…
Ali – Anyone who thinks a Woman Governor in charge of a 6+ billion dollar state budget and with high approval ratings is a bimbo shouldn’t be joining the New Agenda to begin with – it’s not for them, they are content with the status of women accorded by men.
I look forward to doing everything/anything I can to help.
Thank you for everything you’ve done.
WOMEN FIRST
Ali,
I have been facing much of the same. My prediction – in the months to come they will come around and likely be quite embarrassed by their behavior. For now, give them time and space to come to that conclusion in their own way. The history books in my view will look at this as a national shame for women on women attacks.
Any women who joined in telling Palin “bimbo” stories have psychological problems that are beyond my poor skills to alleviate or cure.
No one handed the Alaska governorship to Sarah Palin, nor did she “inherit” some political sheen from a male realative; she EARNED that office on her own.
And she did it in a state that is commonly considered a “man’s” state — a place for “real he-men.”
Until the media goons went to work on her, she had an 80% approval rating up there, for her reform accomplishments and for her smarts.
She took on the bad guys in her own Republican Party and the bad guys wherever she encountered them — and she beat them at their own game.
Gov. Palin is smart, honest, hard-working, honorable, dedicated and ACCOMPLISHED — which is MORE than can be said for MOST politicians.
Phooey on anyone who thinks it appropriate to make obnoxious remarks about Palin.
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” — Mahatma Gandhi
–
“SHADOW” now . . . and “SHADOW” forever!
“Stop Humiliation And Disparagement Of Women”
The paint her as “stupid” meme was right out of the Obama campaign. As much as the “paint her as a witch and OLD” meme was directed at Hillary. It wasn’t just countering against issues. It was a character assasination using traditional anti woman attacks.
Since Obama is now the president elect, I am hoping we will be watching and holding his feet to the fire since he has said he will address womens issues. Perhaps we can start with asking him about his campaign working with the likes of Larry Summers as this is not a show of good faith at all.
There are so many things I would like to see changed. Young women and men need to understand the history of women’s rights. They need to know what really happened here and why it was so harmful. There are high school events and classes on the history of the civil rights movement. I do not recall any school running “Iron Jawed Angels” as an exercise much less offering up any information about domestic violence or other womens’ issues in a serious way. If the topic is not approached as meaningful and serious it is no wonder so many young people see our rights as less than.
At this point ANY action alerts will make a difference because i personally feel as if the women’s movement has been blasted to the stone age. Or maybe we were always there? We have a new opportunity here. I’m hopeful about that. There is no where to go but, up!
I love this site! I’ve wanted to get involved in an organization like this that is supporting women in a non-partisan way. Glad to be involved with all of you.
This election has been a real eye opener for me and I’m glad. I realized that much of my thinking and outlook was based on partisanship and not as much on principle. I guess it’s good to continually question yourself and your motives.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to getting involved.
FYI
Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research congratulates its client, Women’s Voices. Women Vote, on focusing attention on a critical—and until last night—unheralded group of voters. Last night unmarried women supported Barack Obama by a stunning 70 to 29 percent margin according to calculations based on the Edison/Mitofsky National Election Pool published by CNN.
If not for the overwhelming support of unmarried women, John McCain would have won the women’s vote and with it, the White House.
I think WVWV is crowing a bit too much — I think the college student mobilization is probably the principle factor.
I find it really interesting that Women’s Media Center’s so-called “Blog” doesn’t allow comments anymore. I also find it interesting that the WMC couldn’t call out homophobia on the part of Barack and now act like Proposition 8 didn’t go through in California.
We need New Agenda.
We need to clear the brush.
Great site, and I am signing up today.
Just one thing — in your photo on your home page, not one of the women pictured appears to be more than thirty years old! How about including a few grandmas? I can assure you that we’re feisty, fired-up, and funny (well, sometimes).
Thanks for being here! I intend to visit often and contribute in any way I can.
Actually there are two women in their 50s in the picture. But I do wish we had more older women in there.
just posted an article on my blog about the NA. I don’t have a big readership but hopefully a few more people will be directed to the site.
I also have a daughter and a niece who are already interested in joining, so will get info out to them and other family/friends as well.
I am a retired educator. One of the things that I think we should do is to prepare some really great curriculum guides along with materials to support them that would make it easy for teachers to include women’s history in their social studies curriculum beginning in elementary school. A package of free, non-copyrighted, materials that could be used to celebrate women’s history already mapped to national curriculum standards. Then put on on the internet and get the word out that it is there. “Build it, and they will come” – especially of there is no admission charge.
Where I live (New York), Women’s History Month is in March and it is required that teachers teach lessons about important historical women. Sadly the teaching materials are dated. Posters show politicians like Golda and Eleanor, and athletes like Chris Everett and Wilman Rudolph.
Amy,
I think our mission is at least two-pronged. We need to work to change things right now, and we need to work to educate our young people so that the future looks different. I was an engineer for many years, worked on some cool stuff, but I left it in 1990 to become a teacher because I wanted to see more women in the field. I am much prouder of my female students who are engineers, doctors, airplane pilots, architects, and yes, plumbers and electricians than I am of anything I ever did myself. (Yes, I’m proud of the boys I taught, too, and they thought it was cool that their physics teacher was a “chick”.) I’m getting older. I don’t think I have another march on Washington in me. I’ve knocked down (literally) as many doors as I have in me. However, this is something I can help with. I have been a curriculum coordinator for an international online school. With all of the members of the “women’s studies set” that will be drawn to our group, the resources to put some kickass curriculum materials out there should be easy to come by. This should be a priority for us.
Samanthasmom,
Totally agree. We have as one of our long-term goals to set up a group that will be devoted to empowering young girls. If you would like to be involved, stay tuned.
Hi, everyone
Just a shout-out to Rosella re: grandmas—-I’ll be 60 on Dec.6! Hooray for 6 decades of living, loving and laughing—well, and other stuff. I can’t tell you how cool I think it is to be entering my 7th decade and I’m especially excited to have the New Agenda as part of my new life agenda.
Our faces may not be represented in great numbers on the site just yet. but I’m sure our voices are represented here. As for me, I find this a great site to hear the voices of women of all ages and I love reading the comments of those I know are younger because of their references to young children. It’s so good to read how you are seeing and dealing with all of this—and it’s so good to know how the same issues are bringing all of us together, regardless and because of our ages.
So, to quote Rosella, “we’re feisty, fired up and funny” and I will also add, fed up, sick-of-it, and ready to get going!
Great site, great conversation, great women.
Love to all of you!
Leave your Response Want an avatar? Get a gravatar!
Community Room
February 6, 2012 at 4:25 pm
January 30, 2012 at 2:36 pm
January 26, 2012 at 4:38 pm
January 23, 2012 at 1:04 pm
January 15, 2012 at 11:37 am
January 9, 2012 at 6:36 pm
January 7, 2012 at 10:10 pm
January 5, 2012 at 9:31 am
BUILD your NETWORK
Our Network of College Women
Protecting our Teenage Girls
We’re in the Media »
Click to see our latest stories in the media
More Stories »Recent Comments
The Latest from our Blog
Archives
Pioneer Mentors
Blogroll
Find us Online
Subscribe Entries (RSS) | Comments (RSS)
The New Agenda is a 501(c)(4) organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls by bringing about systemic change in the media, at the workplace, at school and at home. More...