Be Careful Prince Harry

The day after the British Government announces partial withdrawl from Iraq, they've just announced that prince Harry's regiment will be going to Basra.

I have often gone on tangent to my friends about the fact that American battles are fought by the poor and uneducated while the upper class benefits - I've notice many more people pissed about my "Draft Jenna Bush" button than my ITMFA button (probably because they don't know what that one means).

I pray that Harry will be safe in his tour of duty, just like I pray for all the soldiers, but I'm glad to see that someone in the upper crust is stepping up like few in the public eye in this country seem to.

Free Speach Under Fire

I thought this was an important story for bloggers, and others, about what some people will pay for their words:

Egypt blogger jailed for 'insult'

Nabil was arrested for his "insulting" blog posts in November

An Egyptian court has sentenced an internet blogger to four years' prison for insulting Islam and the president.

Abdel Kareem Soliman's trial was the first time that a blogger had been prosecuted in Egypt.

He had used his weblog to criticise the country's top Islamic institution, the al-Azhar university and President Hosni Mubarak, whom he called a dictator.

A human rights group called the verdict "very tough" and a "strong message" to Egypt's thousands of bloggers.

Mr Soliman, 22, was tried in his native city of Alexandria. He blogs under the name Kareem Amer.

A former student at al-Azhar, he called the institution "the university of terrorism" and accused it of suppressing free thought.

The university expelled him in 2006 and pressed prosecutors to put him on trial.

During the five-minute court session the judge said Soliman was guilty and would serve three years for insulting Islam and inciting sedition, and one year for insulting Mr Mubarak.

I'm not sure if you caught that...but he was on trial for 5 minutes.

What else don't we know?

This morning my husband and I were eating cereal & going through our morning routine of checking e-mail at our desks that are next to each other, and he turns to me and says "Did you know there was an assassination attempt on Bush?". I already knew he was reading an article about ways Bush as exaggerated his past, so my reply was "when?".
"umm...2005"
"huh?"

That's right, our reactions are the same. I consider myself to be relatively well informed...some major things fall through the cracks, but most of the time those things are brought to my attention soon by either my husband or my father-in-law. But 2 years later I didn't know that someone had lobbed a hand grenade at "my" "president".

U.S. officials are investigating a report that an apparent hand grenade landed about 100 feet from where President Bush was speaking Tuesday in Tblisi, the capital of Georgia, a Secret Service spokesman said.

So not only did someone lob a hand grenade at him, but they did it in another country. Is our media sleeping? I find this to be very relevant. Perhaps they didn't want us to know just how mad at us the rest of the world was 2 years ago - that way we couldn't stop it from getting worse.

Democrat Party

Just a quick note -
It's been a long time since I listened to the President speak, mostly because I couldn't stand to put myself through the emotional stress and the raise in blood pressure it inevitable caused, but yesterday I heard his press conference. And I noticed something...and it drove me CRAZY! He says 'the Democrat party' whenever he refers to the Democratic party. So I did a quick search, and I never knew before but apparently Republicans say that as a slur or insult to the left. I find that funny because it makes Georgie sound really stupid, like he can't remember the -ic.

Happy V-Day

Happy V-Day Everyone

So yesterday was a rant....today is a celebration!
Every year there is a V-Day Focus, and this year's V-Day focus is "Reclaiming Peace". Every year Eve Ensler writes a new piece for the show about that years issue, and a letter to all involved to support that years focus. Past focuses have been the plight of Native women, the women missing in Juarez, Mexico, and the abuse and isolation that trans gendered people can feel.

Here is an excerpt from this years letter

This year we are Reclaiming Peace. We are taking back the word, the concept, the possibility. We are saying that making Peace must be the first option, that communication, respect, dialogue, compassion, kindness, generosity is the hard work, the necessary work and the priority. We are asking men and women to join in this discourse. To ask what happened to Peace? To ask what Peace is?

We are saying that there is a new way, a way that is not forced or exploded open with bombs and guns and machetes, but instead it is melted open, invited in with strategy, wisdom, care and a deep regard for the future of life. We stand with our sisters from Beirut to Baghdad, Kandahar to Darfur. We know their suffering is our suffering.

We know that if the human species is to survive, the time of war must end.

It is a desperate need in our global society that peace be reclaimed. It can no longer been looked at as a corny Miss America statement..."World Peace"...(we've all seen Miss Congeniality, right?).

Every year I feel right away the desperate needs of the focus monologue's subject. I have had the honor to perform a number of focus monologues (and it is an honor - you are charged with the task of giving voice to people who have none, many of whom have been killed or forcibly silenced. It is a GREAT honor!) But this year the focus feels even more desperate, even more immediate.

As Americans we are often held up and away from the violence of the world. 9/11 shook that lofty detachment, but it did not break it. In some places in this world 9/11 happens every day. We can do better - we can demand peace. (As my father-in-law pointed out yesterday, Vermont has) And me must. Not just for the improvement of this country and those like it, but for the safety and advancement of the world. The more global our economy and impact becomes the more one fact becomes clear to me: We're all in this together!

Today I'd like to salute Eve Ensler for her vision and her courage and ask that we all take a page from her book. If each of us has only 1/100th of her strength and stands up for our belief in peace then we can force change. Whether you're active in the impeachment movement, or you write letters to your representatives, donate to a cause you believe in, volunteer your time, or just make a pledge to yourself that you will personally resolve your conflicts with respect and coexistence in mind. It has to start somewhere.

Go support your local V-Day movement. *search for your local event here* And try to make every day a pledge to end the violence in this world.

The WHAT monologues!?!

For those who don't know, I am an actress - I'm also an activist - and for the last 4 years I have been somehow involved in the V-Day Movement through productions of the Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler. For those who don't know, V-day is a movement to end violence against women through awareness, advocacy, and raising money for anti-violence organizations - but also through celebration of the wonders of all things female, including but not limited too the powers of the Vagina. (Say it will me now, I promise that you'll feel better....Va-Gine-ah...see, told you)

So, you can imagine how pissed off I am (me...pissed off...NEVER!) by this little story: The Atlantic Theater in Atlantic Beach, Florida has changed the name on there Marquee from Vagina to "Hoohaa" because a driver called and complained that her niece saw it. She was angry that she had to answer questions about it. Now, for those who have never seen the show, part of the point is that you get comfortable with the word VAGINA and eventually grow to embrace the word VAGINA and no longer associate it with all of the negatives that come from calling it cutesy words like 'ooky' and 'pooky' and 'HOOHAA'!

I'm not mad at the woman who complained - that's her deal...and I'm sure he niece has heard a lot worse on prime time television or from farting around on the internet - I'm much more aggravated with the women who are putting on the show and backing off of their guns (by the way, the rep who spoke to the papers for the Atlantic Theatre - it's a man, baby. Why didn't the women in the show stand up for their production!?! Anyhoo) ...I'd also be interested to hear what Eve Ensler has to say about the garbling of her message (and the copyright law involved...hmmm).

The heart of it? I love this play. It's so much more than a play to me! It's been a doorway to accepting every facet of myself - every time I've performed it I have embodied a different woman's experience (each of the stories is based on a different woman or set of women) and thereby have known myself better and loved myself more. The V-day movement took a sappy, stupid, popular-girl holiday and made it something that I can look forward to every year. It's given voice to the next-gen of feminists and something for us to rally around when so many in my generation have trouble giving a shit about anything but the next PS2 (PS3?) game and sales at Abercrombie. I just hate to see something so powerful be watered down by some morons who don't get it.

Final note: Go see your local V-Day performance of the Vagina Monologues- you can search for an event here - even if they don't have the courage to put it on a sign - because the Vag you might learn to love could be your own ;)