I am so happy to be reminded and informed by the NPR recent reviews of the women's liberation movement both in Utah and across the nation. I recall the day of the Utah Womens Conference I was making a presentation at the University of Utah where I was then attending class. After I finished, a board member of the Utah Division of Alcoholism and Drugs(where I worked) approached me and enquired as to whether I was going downtown to the womens conference which was being held at the Salt Palace. When I said yes she said I might want to reconsider because there was going to be a huge confrontation as bus loads of women were being sent in from all over the state to confront the push for ERA. I was surprised and somewhat shocked. I knew and had worked with some of my colleagues who were in the planning stages. My own role was simply to talk about the growing and unusual rates of Utah women's use of over-the-counter and prescribed drugs.
As I walked to the doors of the conference hall I observed gatherings of women, lists on paper which I assumed had something to do with the agenda, and occasionally men who stood amongst the women discussing the various subjects. My own small group presentation was filled and the women were respectful and had many questions. Most of their worried concerns were to object to family therapy which they believed could be destructive. My goal had been to get them to consider their own independent thinking with regard to purchasing, selecting and depending on drugs and to talk to their physicians more about the reasons and the effects of those prescribed. The up-side down result was that they seemed to blame the physicians for the existence of their drug problem. If he or she prescribed then that was obviously what they should do and they were not to blame. Whatever.........
Well I don't know what Beverly White, Karen Shepherd and some of the other great women are doing who faced off during those times are all doing to day. Still working I hope. My daughter and my granddaughters and my great granddaughter I hope will and have benefited from those efforts. My husband was surprised to think that after all these years ERA has never been passed. I never marched, I never threw away my bras. I think I read the Feminine Mystique.
Soon to be an Octogenerian, I told Ed that I should name my blog, Octopussy. He said that has already been taken. I am so behind the times. So many years, so many tears. I said to one of my dearest friends, I hope, in 2016, to vote for Hillary Clinton. I would not have voted for her before but I am reading a book about her by Bernstein, and it has changed my mind. I will vote and I would like you to think about it.
Her comment. _" I don't think I will be here in 2016 to vote." Our generation is passing. Hopefully we have passed on attributes to our kinswomen that they can be what they want to be, Senators, Mothers, Housewives, Lesbians. Marines; and that they and all women contribute immensely to this life we live.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Friday, February 22, 2013
February 22, 2013 GUN CONTROL?
Something about this month or this season comes out of the clouds. Maybe the legislature on Capitol Hill. Been thinking of a letter to write on gun control which they could think over as they push on those bills. Difficult for me emotionally and professionally. Sometimes I think our USA has been conquered by terrorism. Imagine wanting to own a gun army caliber and force in part because you are afraid our government will require insurrection. Do these people vote I wonder! The constitution gave that right as well. And registration and background checks? God forbid that they should be a senior asked to take a day each year to relicense as a driver, to prove you have been a native law abiding citizen in this country since the day that you were born. Also please get your annual medical statement from your doctor to assure your physical/mental capacity to remain a safe driver. And get that car, that means of destruction on our 80 mph freeways, inspected each year to assure its drive-ability.
My sadness: A background as a teacher, a mental health therapist, and a governmental employee convinces me that there are reasonable and necessary reasons for guns. But there are excesses and dangers because of purposes of intended use, whether their use and care and safety precautions are kept, whether mental and physical health of the owners doesn't need to be reviewed periodically. From my professional perspective I would want to ask the person buying the assault rifle or heavy magazines of bullets why these purchases interest him. Am I violating his privacy or is he violating mine. I am pleased that my neighbor is a retired police officer who knows how to use guns. I don't own one and I have not had one in the house since my only son was killed in a hunting accident at age 22, the fall before he would have graduated from Weber State College. He was the only grandson of George Francis LaTullipe who served on the Salt Lake City Police Force. A career officer who saved his own life and that of a fellow officer when he shot and killed a most wanted felon from Canada being taken in for questioning on a minor offense. So Mark was raised as a toddler that knew his grandfather had guns, wore hostlers, he knew dangers and he was a boy who excelled in many activities including hunting and survival training. But accidents happen and forgetting to safety the pistol before it is handed to another and is dropped resulted in his immediate fatality. I was relieved he died quickly from a severed aorta and bled out in minutes.
When my son was 4 and his sister 2, I removed them from a neigbors yard in Roy, Utah. I had been able to observe them from my own home but we needed to drive to Salt Lake City that morning. My neighbor was sad to see them leave her kids and requested another little girl to come to play. Less than a half an hour later we heard there was a shooting in Roy, Utah in which a 7 year old boy carrying his father's pistol out the front door discharged the gun and the bullet ricocheted through the car port killing the new playmate who had just celebrated her 5th birthday a week or so before. Tragedy follows guns.
As does money and politics. Our country militarized quickly for WWII. From peaceful manufacturing to support heavy military support. The world has changed, as have we, as have companies. NRA has changed. Corporate lobbying includes the gun and ammunition industries. And a sinking economy torn between building a peaceful loving nation and continuing in world leadership and growth presents monumental needs for cautious, thoughtful government. I have great respect for those women and men who serve and are assuming these tasks. Yet.....I would not visit a legislator on the floor of the Utah senate or house if I knew he or she was packing. I always felt armed guards at the Capitol Building were competent and trustworthy in the past. I would not have become a teacher or have carried a gun into a school room. I loved my students. And as a therapist I became aware of patients who used guns, colllected guns and I knew of patients who had shot at therapists. But As The World Changes is no longer a daytime soap. We have changed. Perhaps we have met the enemy and it is us.
Sorry to burden with this lengthy spillout of thoughts and emotions. I am sure you have your own thoughts as well. But isn't that what blogs are for?
Something about this month or this season comes out of the clouds. Maybe the legislature on Capitol Hill. Been thinking of a letter to write on gun control which they could think over as they push on those bills. Difficult for me emotionally and professionally. Sometimes I think our USA has been conquered by terrorism. Imagine wanting to own a gun army caliber and force in part because you are afraid our government will require insurrection. Do these people vote I wonder! The constitution gave that right as well. And registration and background checks? God forbid that they should be a senior asked to take a day each year to relicense as a driver, to prove you have been a native law abiding citizen in this country since the day that you were born. Also please get your annual medical statement from your doctor to assure your physical/mental capacity to remain a safe driver. And get that car, that means of destruction on our 80 mph freeways, inspected each year to assure its drive-ability.
My sadness: A background as a teacher, a mental health therapist, and a governmental employee convinces me that there are reasonable and necessary reasons for guns. But there are excesses and dangers because of purposes of intended use, whether their use and care and safety precautions are kept, whether mental and physical health of the owners doesn't need to be reviewed periodically. From my professional perspective I would want to ask the person buying the assault rifle or heavy magazines of bullets why these purchases interest him. Am I violating his privacy or is he violating mine. I am pleased that my neighbor is a retired police officer who knows how to use guns. I don't own one and I have not had one in the house since my only son was killed in a hunting accident at age 22, the fall before he would have graduated from Weber State College. He was the only grandson of George Francis LaTullipe who served on the Salt Lake City Police Force. A career officer who saved his own life and that of a fellow officer when he shot and killed a most wanted felon from Canada being taken in for questioning on a minor offense. So Mark was raised as a toddler that knew his grandfather had guns, wore hostlers, he knew dangers and he was a boy who excelled in many activities including hunting and survival training. But accidents happen and forgetting to safety the pistol before it is handed to another and is dropped resulted in his immediate fatality. I was relieved he died quickly from a severed aorta and bled out in minutes.
When my son was 4 and his sister 2, I removed them from a neigbors yard in Roy, Utah. I had been able to observe them from my own home but we needed to drive to Salt Lake City that morning. My neighbor was sad to see them leave her kids and requested another little girl to come to play. Less than a half an hour later we heard there was a shooting in Roy, Utah in which a 7 year old boy carrying his father's pistol out the front door discharged the gun and the bullet ricocheted through the car port killing the new playmate who had just celebrated her 5th birthday a week or so before. Tragedy follows guns.
As does money and politics. Our country militarized quickly for WWII. From peaceful manufacturing to support heavy military support. The world has changed, as have we, as have companies. NRA has changed. Corporate lobbying includes the gun and ammunition industries. And a sinking economy torn between building a peaceful loving nation and continuing in world leadership and growth presents monumental needs for cautious, thoughtful government. I have great respect for those women and men who serve and are assuming these tasks. Yet.....I would not visit a legislator on the floor of the Utah senate or house if I knew he or she was packing. I always felt armed guards at the Capitol Building were competent and trustworthy in the past. I would not have become a teacher or have carried a gun into a school room. I loved my students. And as a therapist I became aware of patients who used guns, colllected guns and I knew of patients who had shot at therapists. But As The World Changes is no longer a daytime soap. We have changed. Perhaps we have met the enemy and it is us.
Sorry to burden with this lengthy spillout of thoughts and emotions. I am sure you have your own thoughts as well. But isn't that what blogs are for?
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