If you would like host an event at your college or alma mater, please contact us at editor@thenewagenda.net.

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To view the full press release, please visit here.

NEW YORK, NY –The New Agenda, a national pro-women advocacy group, today announced a new “Mentor Exchange” spearheaded by 20 standout women in their careers. Young women professionals logging onto the new online social media hub (http://www.thementorexchange.org) will benefit from the experience and savvy of “Pioneer Mentors” such as Fox & Friends Co-Host Gretchen Carlson, New Jersey’s first woman Senate Majority Leader Barbara Buono, Gurwitch Product’s CEO Claudia Poccia, former Goldman Sachs partner and philanthropic leader Jacki Zehner, internationally recognized author-filmmaker Jean Kilbourne, Washington Supreme Court Justice Faith Ireland (Ret.), former White House domestic policy advisor Terrell Halaska, and award-winning journalist and television host Bonnie Erbe. (For a full list of Pioneer Mentors:http://www.thenewagenda.net/pioneer-mentors/). Watch this introductory video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PO0b_Zo_JQ

Investing in women is a good investment – here are some reasons why.

True, women account for more than 50% of college students. But not in the workplace. In fields like corporate management and politics, men still occupy roughly 83% of leadership roles!

What can we do? We asked college and young women.

Solution #1: Young Women Need Mentoring and Networks!

Today, TNA is proud to launch The Mentor Exchange. We’re harnessing the tools of social media to help women reach their full potential. The Mentor Exchange is an inclusive, multi-faceted approach to Work that Network!: get guidance – give advice – visit our industry forums – share experiences with women your age.

Click to sign up today! Forward this to every woman you know!

We are also working to raise awareness of the media’s role in diminishing young women and discouraging them from pursuing careers which offer economic empowerment.

We hope you will join us in our continuing endeavor to cultivate and empower tomorrow’s women leaders.

October 26, 2011

The New Agenda, a national organization dedicated to achieving safety and opportunity for all women, launched an online petition to have a New Jersey county prosecutor who made victim-blaming statements about the NY Friedlander family murders terminated or re-assigned for his statements.  On Oct. 18 Amy Friedlander and her two children were brutally murdered by husband and father Sam Friedlander.

The petition addressed to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Attorney General Paula Dow, and Passaic County prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes, notes that Senior Assistant Passaic County Prosecutor David Pine called the murders the “result of continued emotional torment in that household.” He is also quoted in news coverage that he “knew something would happen in that household.”

“These statements reflect a reckless disregard for the laws Mr. Pine is charged with administering. Clearly the public he serves cannot be confident in his abilities to serve in a role of prosecuting attorney,” said The New Agenda President Amy Siskind, who is also a family friend of Amy Friedlander and her two children.  “We are calling on Governor Christie and Attorney General Dow to reassign or terminate Pine to send a clear message about offender accountability.”

Siskind is also asking Passaic County prosecutor Camelia Valdes for a meeting to discuss the issue. The N.J. Code of Ethics for County Prosecutors recognizes the inherent impropriety in comments like of this type being made by prosecutors. The Code specifically provides,”No county prosecutor or employee of a county prosecutor shall voluntarily testify as a character or reputation witness on behalf of any person accused of a criminal offense…”  The ethics code “recognizes the importance of public confidence in the administration of criminal justice and provides for the general supervision of the county prosecutors by the Attorney General as chief law enforcement officer of the State.  This Code has been endorsed by each county prosecutor on behalf of his or her office.”

To sign the petition, go here.

Siskind noted that the fact that a prosecuting attorney would make those statements just shows how prevalent victim blaming is.  “New York has one of the strongest laws for court ordered treatment in the nation and New Jerseys has recently been improved, but we can’t take advantage of it with a continued focus on victim blaming,” said Siskind. “Until we address domestic violence and mental health issues as public health and safety issues and not private, family affairs – I fear we will only have more senseless tragedies like my friend Amy’s. To honor her memory and dedication to her children, The New Agenda will not let this go until those who blame victims are held accountable.”

To help raise awareness about domestic violence and harmful stereotypes about women involved in them, The New Agenda is promoting a valuable resource from New York Governor Cuomo’s office, here.

On October 18, 2011, Sam Friedlander bludgeoned his wife Amy to death with a table leg, shot his two children in their beds, then went down to the basement and shot himself.   Beginning on October 19 and continuing for several days, two of Sam Friedlander’s law school classmates, attorneys David Pine and Michael Borg, were quoted in numerous media outlets defending Sam and blaming Amy.

David Pine currently serves as Senior Assistant Prosecutor, Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office.

We the undersigned believe that David Pine should be removed from his current position as a country prosecutor, effectively immediately, for the following reasons:

I) County Prosecutor David Pine has damaged public confidence in the administration of criminal justice by defending and seeking to justify the murderous actions of his friend, Sam Friedlander.

In response to reports that Sam Friedlander brutally murdered his wife and two children, David Pine voluntarily offered testimony to the media in defense of the mass murderer’s character and actions.^[1] His comments aimed to justify the brutal murders by blaming the victim wife for the killer’s actions.

On October 19, 2011, David Pine was quoted in The Journal News:

“I saw a guy emotionally abused over time,” Pine said. “We always hear of domestic violence against women, but there’s also emotional domestic violence against men. He was showing all the classic signs of being emotionally abused.” …

In fact, Pine went so far as to state that the children’s murders were caused by wife Amy’s “years of emotional torment” of his friend.

“I can’t put a handle on why he would take the lives of his kids,” he continued, “but whatever it was was a result of years of emotional torment that he must have (gone) through in that household.”

Because prosecutors have discretion regarding whether or not to prosecute a case, the public must have confidence that they will do so in a professional and unbiased manner.   David Pine’s comments – which blame heinous crimes of domestic violence on the victim rather than the perpetrator – have stripped citizens of and visitors to the State of New Jersey of confidence in the integrity of the State’s criminal justice system.

II)  County Prosecutor David Pine failed to report his knowledge of the likelihood of a future crime, and failed to act although he believed that  Sam Friedlander posed a danger to his family.

On October 20, 2011, David Pine was quoted in The New York Post (emphasis added)

David Pine, another Western New England College Law School pal of Friedlander, said Sam “was exhibiting signs of being emotionally abused.”

“He said to me, ‘They [Amy and her immediate family] want to take me down,’ meaning destroy him financially, destroy him emotionally and have him out of the kids’ lives,” Pine said. “I knew that an incident would happen in that household.”

As a person charged with the administration of criminal justice, David Pine had an obligation to attempt to prevent the “incident” he knew “would happen in that household.”   His options included reporting his concerns to authorities or seeking court-ordered treatment for his friend.

On October 19, 2011, David Pines was quoted in The New York Times:

Another friend, David Pine, said that Mr. Friedlander, who was usually neatly groomed, had recently begun to appear disheveled and stopped returning his phone calls. “He went into his own cocoon,” Mr. Pine said.

As a county prosecutor with belief that the household was in danger, Mr. Pine was obligated to ensure that his friend receive treatment.  Knowledge that both NY and NJ laws allow for court-ordered treatment when an individual is considered dangers must be imputed to David Pine.

Although he claims to have recognized symptoms and danger in Sam Friedlander, he chose to focus on blaming the wife rather than acting to prevent the tragedy.

Sign the petition here.

Groups concerned with domestic violence are staging a rally Monday in White Plains to express outrage at the “victim blaming” since Tuesday’s Friedlander triple murder-suicide; and to offer support to victims who have not yet found a way to reach out for help.Sam Friedlander, 50, bludgeoned his wife Amy, 46, to death with a broken piece of furniture and murdered both his children—Gregory, 8, and Molly, 10—with a 12-gauge shotgun before turning the weapon on himself in their Cross River, NY home.

The rally begins at noon in front of the Westchester County Courthouse, 111 Dr. Martin Luther King Blvd. That’s also the location of the Family Justice Center, opened in 2010 by 12 agencies and staffed with people who can help victims with counseling, safety plans, legal advice, spiritual support, shelter and assistance.

On Friday, September 23rd, Bill Maher said this during his HBO show:
“Sarah Palin Would ‘F–k’ Rick Perry If He Was Black.”

This statement is yet another example of Bill Maher’s misogyny. Maher has employed terms such as: ‘dumb twat’, ‘bimbos’, and ‘cunt’ in reference to women leaders including Sec. Hillary Clinton, Rep. Michele Bachmann and Gov. Sarah Palin (read here)….

The petition received close to 1,000 signatures and 1,000 likes on Facebook.

We forwarded the petition to the board of directors of Time Warner, owner of HBO.

TNA’s Amy Siskind also had telephone dialogue with Jeff Cusson, SVP of Corporate Affairs at HBO, to express our continued displeasure with Bill Maher’s misogyny, and our desire, as stated in the petition, that he be fired.

We received the following response in the mail.  We welcome your thoughts and input.

And know that we do have further action planned – stay tuned!

With a focus on Bosnia, Afghanistan, Colombia, and Liberia, the documentary shows remarkable women affecting serious change in their respective countries with regard to injustice and abuse towards female civilians. The five-part PBS series, narrated by Matt Damon, Tilda Swinton, Alfre Woodard, and Geena Davis, is a groundbreaking look at women bonding together to fight rape, broker peace, and forge new international laws governing conflict.

If you visit the Features section of the PBS site for “Women War & Peace,” you can see more trailers from each episode — which airs on five consecutive Tuesday evenings at 10pm EST: October 11, 18, and 25 and November 1 and 8, 2011.

Among the videos you can see is the particularly interesting “Why Should Men Care?” featuring Matt Damon: