If you live alone, if your family is scattered far and wide, if you recently lost a partner or spouse, if you can’t afford the plane...
Activism10
Where Did Feminism Go?
Feminism has always been in my blood. Growing up I sensed something was wrong with the ways my mother easily succumbed to my father’s demands. In my college classes I had to endure the ridicule of male students when I uttered an insightful comment. I learned to stuff my anger to get along, until the women’s movement erupted, validating [...]
Pat Taub
Rethinking Climate Change
GUEST POST by LINDA CREE Climate change is on everyone’s mind. The media, scientists, and policy-makers talk a great deal about it, and each day seems to bring a news story about melting glaciers or rising sea levels. Politicians are pushing solar, wind – even nuclear power – to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Addressing climate [...]
Pat Taub
We Won’t Go Back!
Friday morning, I was driving with the car radio on, blissfully contemplating my summer weekend when my reverie was interrupted by a news flash that the Supreme Court had declared Roe v. Wade unconstitutional. I screamed in outrage before erupting into tears, crying for college friends who had back-alley abortions when abortions were illegal. [...]
Pat Taub
Abortion Rights, Buffalo Shootings, A Treasured Novel & More!
Abortion Rights Thanks to a leaked report, it’s now almost certain that the Supreme Court will reverse Roe v. Wade this June. Abortion advocates have been demonstrating across the country, but is this enough? In a recent interview with Chris Hedges, V, formerly known as Eve Ensler, the playwright, author, and political activist, called [...]
Pat Taub
Women Who Restore My Faith in Humanity
Last Friday I attended a memorial service for 96-year-old Joanne Booth, who never failed to brighten my day when we met up. Joanne’s infectious, slightly mischievous smile, was contagious, as was her love of life. As I listened to her four daughters deliver their warm, loving accounts of their mother’s full life, my mind wandered to [...]
Pat Taub
Aging, the Gift that (Hopefully) Keeps on Giving
GUEST POST by LISA SAVAGE I hit 65 this year which is a milestone that brought many gifts: Medicare, a family party outdoors with my same-month birthday sisters, and permission to be officially old. I already had arthritic hands, an inflamed sacroiliac joint, and cataracts so bad I gave up night driving years ago. When I wake up in the morning, [...]
Pat Taub
The Week I Plunged into Despair
Last week was not a good news week for me. It left me full of despair. I agonized over the Biden’s administration failure to advance their social programs designed to help those in need, while increasing oil drilling in defiance of climate change. To make matters worse the saber rattling over Putin’s troops on the Ukraine border, kept [...]
Pat Taub
Abortion Nightmare
Thursday morning I woke up to the news of the new Texas abortion law, which denies abortions to the 7,000,000 women of child-bearing age in Texas. I was stunned and terrified. As I sipped my coffee, I reflected on my own abortion in the late 1970’s. I was married with two young children and had just taken a job as Director of Counseling [...]
Pat Taub
Flexible Problem Solving in the Age of Covid
GUEST POST by LISA SAVAGE As the mother of three grown children, I’ve had occasion to reflect on what I taught them that might be especially useful for weathering an ongoing public health crisis and the recession it caused. I became a public school teacher halfway through their childhood but even before that I was an “education mama” [...]
Pat Taub
Texas Storm, Molly Ivins, Granddaughter Jane & More
Storm-Wrecked Texas Looking at photos of Texans, standing in the bitter cold, huddled under blankets, forming long lines for water and food, left me furious and heartsick. Have we become a third world country, where only the privileged are taken care of? The one redeeming factor to the Texas storm tragedy is that Ted Cruz was caught flying [...]
Pat Taub