We are living in a time when uncertainty has given way to anxiety, inhabiting our lives day and night. We wake up wondering what fresh assault will come next: whether the midterms will reject entrenched Republicans; whether Trump will deliver a nuclear bomb to Iran; where ICE will strike next; what new corruption among Trump’s cohorts [...]
Pat Taub
“I won’t back down,” Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestine territories, after being sanctioned by Rubio’s State Department. Albanese’s sanctions were triggered by taking positions at odds with US policy: advocating the ICC (International Criminal Court) try Israeli leaders for genocide, and [...]
Pat Taub
GUEST POST by JANET WEIL “You are not mature enough to tell it like it is. Even that burden you leave to us children.” – Greta Thunberg, Swedish climate activist In all my years of activism, I had never heard anything like it. A shiver of nervous excitement ran through me. The high, piercing voice of a girl on a megaphone demanded: [...]
Pat Taub
GUEST POST by JANET WEIL I was not in a good mood as my husband John and I exited the LA Metro station for the Extinction Rebellion rally. An hour and a half on the terrifying freeways driving west from Palm Springs, followed by nearly an hour on the crowded, noisy Metro from Azusa to downtown Los Angeles, may illustrate some of the reasons [...]
Pat Taub
Cecile Richards died on Monday, January 20, 2025. She was the courageous President of Planned Parenthood from 2006-2018, when the organization was under sharp attack by conservatives. She helped fend off attacks to cut its funding or to restrict access to abortions. In her memory, I’m reposting my WOW post about her from May, 2018 [...]
Pat Taub
In church this Sunday the progressive minister quoted the biblical passage: “To whom much is given, much is expected.” I squirmed in my seat reflecting on my white privileged lifestyle, feeling guilty about how little I’ve done to protest the Orange Monster’s wrecking machine. It’s not like I’m unfamiliar to activism. I was [...]
Pat Taub
As horrific as 2017 was, it offered a silver lining: successful women-led movements from the year’s opening DC Women’s March to the year’s end #metoo campaign bolster hope for 2018. A new emboldened sisterhood is emerging. Older women are part of this sisterhood, raising their voices to rail against ageism and sexism and to claim their [...]
Pat Taub
2017 was not a good year for racial justice, abortion rights, economic equality, the environment and peace, causing many to feel discouraged about the future. But if we adjust our lens, positive indicators for life getting better can be found among this year’s strong women-led efforts. Progressive women’s actions were on the ascendent [...]
Pat Taub
I haven’t been able to stop thinking about a YouTube video I watched over the weekend, “How to be a Palestinian Supermom.” It features the Palestinian mother Manal Tamimi, describing her determination to provide a loving home for her children in the face of unrelenting Israeli oppression. Like most Palestinian mothers Manal never knows [...]
Pat Taub
As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways that I could respond: either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course. —Martin Luther King, Jr. King’s words spoken some 50 years ago describe the crossroads facing [...]
Pat Taub