2007-5 Wpsept-oct

October is Breast Cancer and Domestic Violence Awareness Month

SAVE THE DATES

October 18 is Love Your Body Day

Volume XXII, Number 5 September & October 2007 A Publication of the Women’s Community Center

Voices, Views and Visions of the Women of San Luis Obispo County

of San Luis Obispo County

3 Body and Soul

6 Women at Work

7

8 Wise Women

9 Women & Words

10 Local Perspectives

11 Voices Around the Table

12 National Organization for Women

13

Art by Jode Gilbert

Nothing Serious!

14 Community Bulletins

15 Resources for Women



Women’sPress

Women’s Press | September & October 2007 | [email protected]

Dear Readers, During the last five years as editor of the Women’s Press, whenever I have gotten discouraged or close to burn out, something has happened that has energized me or amazed me and sent a clear message to me that the Press is meant to survive. This past month has been one of those times. From the generous donation from the Cambria Women’s Resource Center (see article this page) to several new volunteers who signed up at Day With Creative Women to the successful first workshop in our spiritual workshop series, women in our community have shown their support and encouragement for the continued thriving of the Press. New Volunteers. One new volunteer, Barbara Baltimore, is going to help the Press and the Women’s Community Center create a database and expand our website. Angela Henderson of BuiltByMom.com is giving us a sweet deal on a new computer for the Center. We have volunteers who are offering their expertise on fundraising and event planning. Others are relieving my load for editing and proofreading. We still need more distributors. We still need to add to our sales team so we can count on a steady income stream. So come on board! We are a wise and inspirational group of women to work with. Come and meet them at our next staff meeting on September 13 at the Women’s Community Center office at 880 Industrial Way, SLO, at 6 PM. First Spiritual Workshop. Talking about wise women... 40 women were in attendance at our Spiritual Aging Workshop on Sunday, August 26. Heather Mendel and Beverly Engel offered all of us who sat in circle guidance on things to think about, things to do to enrich our lives as older women and embrace our roles as sages. We felt the power of the circle and the safety in it for sharing in a heartfelt way. Workshop Series. Even as our last issue was on the presses, the women on the committee to plan what was to be our August 26 One-Day Retreat Fundraiser realized that the end of summer is not an ideal time for volunteers to find the time and energy to plan a significant event. So we made the decision to have monthly workshops instead. After all, we already had enough workshop topics and presenters to last a year! Our first one was successful as you read in the paragraph above. Starting in October, we will hold a workshop on every third Thursday of each month. They will all be at Temple Beth David and they will all be from 7-9 PM. Cost will be a suggested donation of $20. Descriptions are on page 8. Mark your calendars! With thanks and optimism,

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK Thank to the CambriaYOU Women’s Resource YOUyou THANK THANK YOU Center for their generous contribution of THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK to the Women’s Press. THANK YOU YOU $1792 THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK

The Center closed over three years ago, but still had an inactive account with funds collected from various contributors. Founder Nancy Butz and volunteer Joy Davis decided to give it to the Women’s Press “for our good works.” Thanks to all of you in Cambria who supported the Cambria Women’s Resource Center. Your money will be used for operating expenses and event planning for the paper on the Central Coast that gives voice to the women here!

We need a distributor for South County!

Introducing Our New Board Members

Call Paula, 550-3846

Cover Artist Jode Gilbert My interest and excitement for the world of art began as a small child. I received my first award in the citywide Los Angeles Art Exhibit as a high school student. Over the years I have devoted my time to studying different art forms and found my niche in watercolors. The unpredictable, spontaneous medium of watercolors allows me to challenge myself and the medium. Three or four times each year I go down to Chino Farm in San Diego County, wake up early, and go into the fields and photograph the planting and harvesting. I paint from the photos and have a calendar made at Kinko’s that the Chinos sell at their stand and provide to Spago’s, which buys their produce from Chino’s. I am currently working on this year’s calendar and animal portraiture. I live in Cambria. You can reach me at 805-927-2276.

Earn some extra money!

B

e one of our sales reps and earn 20% on all advertising you sign up, as well as renewals and business profiles. You also earn a 10% one-time development bonus for new accounts. Set your own schedule. Prior experience is not necessary. Call Carol Dawn, 235-4960

Women’s Community Center Board Angie King, President Evelyn Adams Jennifer Alton Kathleen Deragon Sue Maisner Sonia Paz Robin Rinzler

MAILING ADDRESS: Women’s Press Women’s Community Center 880 Industrial Way San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 805.544.9313 Managing Editor: Kathleen Deragon [email protected] Layout & Design: Benjamin Lawless Photographer: Lynda Roeller Distribution Manager: Paula Sigman Advertising Team: Carol Dawn, Ben Lawless Subscriptions: [email protected] Ads: [email protected] (Put “ads” or “subscriptions” in subject line)

Submissions Welcomed!

Articles, essays, opinion pieces, letters, artwork, poetry wanted & appreciated. The Women’s Press reserves the right to edit all submissions for content, clarity & length. Contact [email protected] or call 805-544-9313. The opinions expressed in the Women’s Press are those of the authors & do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Women’s Community Center. The Women’s Community Center does not necessarily endorse products or services advertised in the Women’s Press.

Beverly Engel Jeanie Greensfelder Hilda Heifetz Charlene Huggins Laura Hyde Angie King Dianne Legro Evelyn Adams Barbara Atkinson Barbara Baltimore Dee Carroll Kate Czekala Joy Davis Bailey Drechsler Anne Dunbar Cynthia Fatzinger Angela Henderson Margaret Hennessy Susan Howe

Evelyn Adams Evelyn Adams has been an arts education specialist and advocate for thirty-five years. During her early 20’s to 30’s, she founded arts education programs in three states, including Washington, California and Hawaii. She introduced a range of arts from children’s theatre (including recycled puppetry and the Japanese Bunraku puppet art forms) to visual arts and dance education. Founder of the Santa Maria Theatre for Youth (SMiTY, “i” for involvement) in 1984, she sold it to the Santa Maria YMCA in 1986. Since 1992, Ms. Adams has been developing regional indigenous Brave New Wares to create functional arts options for women and youth at risk. Presently, she is raising funds for arts education in the community through BRAVE New Wares Development Group’s South County Arts Academy. She hopes to find ways that her work will help the Women’s Community Center reach mutual goals. Jennifer Alton      I recently read a quote a quote by Nora Ephron “Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.”   These words spoke to me in such a profound way.  It is the philosophy which I live by, it is the hope I have women all over the world, and it is the vision I have for women who seek the assistance of the Women’s Community Center (WCC) services. My commitment to WCC is to empower women to take the reins of their lives and indeed be the heroine of their own lives.  

Contributors

Heather Mendel Berta Parrish Adele Sommers Jill Turnbow Jacqueline Turner Marleen Walmsley Andrea Zeller

Volunteers

Roberta Youtan Kay Alyson Leblanc Shirley Kirkes Mar Elizabeth McGregor Francesca Nemko Mary Norby Anne Quinn Lynda Roeller Shana Ross Renee Sanpei Dawn Williams

I’m an attorney and volunteer every 4th

Tuesday of the month at the WCC’s ProPer clinic by providing legal advice on family law matters. I find the experience incredibly rewarding. Sue Maisner I joined the Board of the Women’s Community Center because I was new to the area and wanted to find an organization I could contribute my time and experience to.  As a lifelong feminist, I saw the contribution the Women’s Community Center was making through the Women’s Press and the legal programs and wanted to be part of expanding the activities into the community.  I look forward to being a part of the WCC in sponsoring programs and activities of interest to women.  Look for some fun and intriguing seminars coming up this year. Sonia Paz I have always felt a close relation to my sisters, in a global sense. I was raised in Chile. In high school, I  formed an “all-girls” music band called “ Las Nevadas,” and in college I volunteer during the summer months in the “literacy projects, going deep into the country side to teach women to read and write, cooking hygiene, basic  first aid, etc. As a woman, I worked with Amnesty International writing letters to women political prisoners, with NOW to protect women’s rights, and now as a grandmother I felt I could still work along local sisters in the Women’s Community Center, adding my experience to theirs. I invite all women, of all ages to join me in making this the year we join our talents to help each other.

ADVERTISING RATES for publication-ready ads: Business card:

$35/one issue 4" X 5": $75/one issue

Quarter page: $115/one issue

Half page:

$190/one issue Full page: $350/one issue Workshop Listings 3.5” x 2”

$150/year (6 issues) $350/year (6 issues) $525/year (6 issues) $850/year (6 issues) $1575/year (6 issues) $35 an issue logo $10 extra

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6000 free copies distributed in SLO County. Subscriptions by mail & by e-mail available.

Body&Soul

September & October 2007 | www.womenspress-slo.org | Women’s Press



Are You Paying Attention? By Laura Hyde

Waking dreams are the surreal moments when visuals suddenly flip and feelings become ethereal. When this happens, an important message is struggling to release itself from the unconscious. Learn to recognize these undercurrent messages.

Diana Kennedy Pike, Author of Life as a Waking Dream

The universe is always communicating with us. Coincidence, synchronicity, and waking dreams provide us with meaningful direction on our spiritual paths. Carl Jung, a pioneer psychiatrist, wrote: “Synchronicity is a causal principle of the universe, a law that operates to move human beings toward greater growth in consciousness.” If you could rise above this plane of consciousness, you would see the world as one molecule of energy, made of thoughts and feelings. You would see people’s thoughts manifesting around them. Beyond the earth plane there is no internal or external reality – it’s all one and begins within. Work-

ing with the outer realm, the synchronicity, or interpreting the waking dream, can help you awaken more quickly and decrease struggle and suffering. When you are ready to receive divine communication, insights, ideas, sleeping and waking dreams will open a portal in your mind. Synchronicity and waking dream symbols magnify what you already know. So when you see a strange happening, that means that the symbol is yours. It’s the external world talking to you. Taking time to understand the message can lead to breakthroughs in your relationships, finances, sexuality, health, and understanding life’s purpose. Recently my daughter, Alexis, while driving home from work, hit a frog. Upset, she called me to ask for help in interpreting the situation. The day before she had shared with me that she was feeling frustrated at work because she had a lot of responsibility with little authority. She had just written a performance review of a probationary employee. The employee had received several complaints from customers and was unapproachable by her fellow workers. For the first time, Alexis had rated an employee “unsatisfactory.” However, the Human Resources manager had told her

Honoring The Dark By Heather Mendel

Listen. What will you notice today? Pay attention to the signs around you. As you take time to observe daily situations, ask yourself, “What does this mean?” No one will meet exactly the same people that you will, hear exactly the same song lyrics, or observe the same billboards or other written material. Everything that occurs offers you wisdom. Laura V. Hyde is the Spiritual Leader of the Circle of Spiritual Enlightenment in San Luis Obispo, CA: www.spiritualcircle.org. Laura is also the author of the books Gifts of the Soul and The Intimate Soul, and the host of the show “Relationship Wisdom” on San Luis Obispo Public Access Television. Visit Laura at: www.laurahyde.com or call: (805) 748-7506

Attend Laura’s Upcoming Workshop Series “Understanding the Power of Your Waking Dreams” Grounded in Jungian psychology, in this workshop you will learn to: • Understand common dream symbols and archetypes. • Recognize a waking dream and what it represents to you, your soul growth and your life. • Use waking dreams for fulfilling goals, resolving issues, and changing your life. This workshop is valuable to individuals familiar with nighttime dream analysis

SpiritualityMatters

I have developed a personal celebration in keeping with the seasons but one that honors the mystery of life. After the Jewish festival of Sukkot, I plant, on my sunny kitchen window-sill, the seeds of the citron, that boldly yellow citrus fruit whose delightful perfume is both heady and sensual. Each day I lovingly attend the pot of dark earth, adding my love and good wishes as I water, waiting to observe the first signs of the quickening of those seeds to life. I take this annual opportunity to ponder the darkness, with its promise of life and new beginnings. The silence of that darkness seems to go on endlessly – from my impatient, contemporary perspective. Living in a world of instant everything we are so used to immediate results. We get impatient when the Internet does not open as soon as our fingers press the Enter key, or if, heaven forbid, an e-mail response takes more than a day to come back to us. Nature’s time is very different and cannot be hurried by human folly. With my annual planting of these seeds, I am reminded to curtail my angst and learn the art of patience that our ancestors, like those who are still in touch with the natural cycles, understand so well. Each morning I search for that first tiny spark of green that will assure me that all is well. Eventually I am rewarded and the day arrives when first one, then a few more shoots break the surface of the dark earth, which then seems to bubble with tiny, brave, joyful green stems, pushing through the dark night of their gestational solitude and silence, and into light, and life. This annual commemoration of the life force is my personal reminder to honor the darkness in our lives that births all possibilities and potentials. Rabbi Larry Kushner says, “Without the dark womb of sleep, there could be no sensation of light, emergence of consciousness, or place to which to return. In the darkness there is no arrangement of past and future, no self-reflection, no ego, no neurosis. . . all genuine creating must originate in the darkness. All transformation must commence during the night... you cannot predict what will happen in darkness.”

to change it. Alexis thought, “Why am I a manager if I’m not going to be supported in my decisions?” The next night, when she called about the frog incident, I asked her, “What were you thinking and feeling before you hit the frog?” She became quiet, then answered, “I was thinking that I am constantly jumping from task to task, and that I have a lot of responsibility with inadequate authority. Bingo! We discussed that frogs often live in ponds. “Are you feeling like you might be a small frog in a big pond?” “Yes,” she replied. “In fact, I am that frog!” By paying attention to the signs, Alexis took back her power. The next day she met with the store manager, who supported her decision. Instead of allowing the frustration to take over, she redirected her energies and spoke up for herself, something that has not always been easy for her. What a powerful lesson for a young woman. Are you facing a challenging situation? Are you looking for answers so you can make a wise conscious decision? Watch.

as well as for those who cannot remember their dreams (the Waking Dream process allows individuals to tap into the wisdom and insight of dream analysis). Times: Tuesdays: 6-8 PM, September 11th, 18th and 25th Cost: $75 (includes dream materials) Location: Meadow Park Building, San Luis Obispo Advanced registration required & available on-line: www.laurahyde.com or by calling: 805.995.1390

Where to find Women’s Press

The complexity and reality of our lives are lived in both the darkness and the light— yet we have been taught to fear the darkness. We are taught to be discomforted when we cannot see where we are going; when we sense we have lost our ‘illusion’ of control. Control? Are we ever in control of anything— other than our own responses to the multi-layered reality of our ongoing questions, challenges, and perplexities that confound us, and that are our lives? When we find ourselves cocooned in the mystery of darkness, we can choose to be discomforted, or release the illusion of being in charge and wait – wait for the sprouts of unimaginable change that will come. Life is not supposed to be totally understood, controlled, manipulated , and without surprise. How “dull” such an existence would be! The thrill and excitement of being alive comes from the “not knowing,” the continual possibility of the novel and the new, and the search for understanding and meaning. Not knowing may bring uncertainly and confusion; such spiritual confusion, Krista Tippet reminds us, makes theologians of us all. We are forced to make sense of the universe through our own experiences, and to determine for ourselves what the sacred, ultimate truths in life really are. This is a treat for those of us who are striving for authenticity and autonomy. Heather Mendel has focalized women’s spirituality groups for the past 15 years. She can be contacted through her website at www.wordartist.com, and also e-mailed at [email protected] or called at 544-4933.

All SLO County Libraries and the following exceptionally fine establishments! • NORTH COUNTY: Atascadero – The Coffee House and Deli, Starbuck’s at Von’s Plaza, Carlene’s Café, Green Goods, Player’s Pizza, Harvest Health Food Store, North County Connection, Senior Center, Women’s Resource Center/Shelter Office. Paso Robles – Cuesta College North Campus, Café Vio, Chelsea Bookshop/Café Novella, Curves, Old Mission Coffee House, DK Donuts, Panolivo French Cafe, NCI Village Thrift Shop, Paso Robles Health Foods; Templeton –  Magic Windows Coffee Café, Twin Cities Hospital, Templeton Market & Deli; Santa Margarita– Santa Margarita Mercantile. • NORTHERN COAST: Baywood – Coffee & Things; Cambria – Cambria Connection, Cambria Pines Lodge, Chamber of Commerce, Gym One, La Crema, 7 Sisters, Azevedo Chiropractic, Lilly’s, Alloco’s; Cayucos – Cayucos Super Market, Kelley’s Espresso & Dessert, Ocean Front Pizza, Chevron Station, Chamber of Commerce; Los Osos – Starbuck’s, Baywood Laundry, Cad’s, Carlock’s Bakery, Chamber of Commerce, Copa de Oro, Garden Café, Los Osos Deli, Valley Liquor, Volumes of Pleasure; Morro Bay – Backstage Salon, Coalesce Bookstore, Coffee Pot Restaurant, The Rock, Southern Port Traders, Sunshine Health Foods, Two Dogs Coffee, La Parisienne Bakery. • SAN LUIS OBISPO: Broad St. Laundry, Cool Cats Café, La Crepes, Edna Market, Froggie’s, Art Café, Booboo Records, Creekside Center, GALA, Marigold Nails, Palm Theatre, Susan Polk Insurance, Susan Rodriguez Insurance, Utopia Bakery, Unity Church, Zoe Wells, Naturopath, Cal Poly Library, Center for Alternatives to Violence, Chamber of Commerce, Cuesta College Library, EOC Health Services Clinic, HealthWorks, Healing Alternatives, Jamaica You, Karen Hale Chiropractic, Laguna Laundry, Linnaea’s, Monterey Express, Natural Foods Coop, New Frontiers, Nautical Bean, Outspoken Beverage Bistro, Phoenix Books, Planned Parenthood, Rudolph’s Coffee & Tea, San Luis Obispo Housing Authority Office, SARP, The Secret Garden, SLO Perk Coffee, Spirit Winds Therapy, The Studio Fitness for Women, Two Dogs Coffee, Uptown Cafe, Yoga Centre, Ahshe Hair Salon, Apropos Clothing, Soho Hair Salon, Tom-Mel Beauty Center, Hempshack, YMCA, KCBX, Fairchild Salon, Jaffa Café, Med Stop (Madonna Plaza), World Rhythm and Motion. • SOUTH COUNTY: Arroyo Grande – Natural Balance, Mongo’s, World Gym, Act II Boutique, Andreini’s, Central Coast Yoga, CJ’s Restaurant, Country Kitchen, CurvesAG, Cutting Edge, EOC Health Services Clinic, Family Chiropractic, Girls Restaurant, Grande Whole Foods, Hunter’s Landing, Kennedy Club Fitness; Avila Beach– Custom House, Sycamore Hot Springs, Inn at Avila, Avila Grocery; Grover Beach – World Gym, Back Door Deli, Cindi’s Wash House, Nan’s Pre-owned Books, Therapeutic Body Center, 30-minute Fitness; Halcyon – Halcyon Store; Nipomo – Anna’s Creekside Coffee House, Healing Touch Spa, Curves, La Placita Market, Healthy Inspirations, World Gym; Pismo Beach – HealthWorks, Honeymoon Café, Pismo Athletic Club, Zadok’s; Shell Beach – De Palo & Sons Deli, Seaside Cafe, Steaming Bean. • SANTA MARIA: Café Monet, Hunter’s Landing, Library, Marian Medical Center, Curves on Main and on Broadway, Lassen’s. • ORCUTT: Loading Dock.



Body&Soul

October 18 is Love Your Body Day

A New Approach to Celebrating Love Your Body Day By Samantha Hunt, Cal Poly Women’s Programs and Services

Love Your Body Day in the past has been celebrated as a day to reject the size 4 standard set by the media and pave a new road of acceptance for all body types. Supporters of the movement encourage women to love what they see in the mirror, not on TV or in magazines. The problem may be that such images are nearly impossible to ignore, as women’s bodies appear in commercials and ads for almost everything. Even Apple Computers, to advertise their newest model, has adopted the slogan “you can never be too thin.” Though the strongest woman may be able to reject each negative message and remain confident of her body, what about the millions of other women and girls who have just average self-

esteem? How can we ask today’s young girls to ignore such images and love their bodies, though they probably look very different than the women they are told are so sexy? It seems unlikely that media images of women will be supporting a more realistic body type any time soon. When Dove began their “Real Beauty” campaign, the support from American women was phenomenal, but we were slow to see other companies follow with similar ads. The simple fact is that the tiny body is the new media standard for beauty. If we are going to help women live happy and healthy lives, despite the constant encouragement to do otherwise, we may need to take a different

Of Female Bondage and Justice By Bailey Drechsler

Being white in America means that doors open for me; it means, whether I intend for it or not, I benefit from racism: such is a consequence of systemic oppression. When it comes to being a woman, doors open for me but for very different reasons. I can say without exaggeration that a day does not go by when I am not aware of my gender, my body, in particular. When out in public, I am conscious of the ubiquitous male gaze, sizing me up. If I have a strong reaction to something, if my speech turns fiery, I run the risk of being written off as “too emotional” or over-reactive (read: a silly twit). I do not mean to imply that men are inherently chauvinistic. Nor is it my intention to divide women from men or make the gap between us larger than it is already. I merely wish to point out that, as a member of the patriarchy, men benefit from sexism. For example, generally speaking, men are granted a certain degree of credibility before earning it; women will tell you they have to work extra hard to be taken seriously. Women’s turning on other women illustrates the insidious nature of sexism. To gain

a sense of power, women align themselves with patriarchal ideology, criticizing women for behaving outside of the traditional gender script and blaming the victim. Sadly, women turn on themselves. Although maturity and concerted effort have lessened the toll society’s unrealistic beauty standards take on my psyche, I am not completely immune to its impact. I compare myself to other women to affirm or refute my adequacy. I catch myself fretting about the fate of my already drooping eyelids (among my other drooping body parts). And I am ever aware of the thickness (and then some) around my belly. Admittedly, my dye job is a testament to my collusion and conformity to the relentless beauty norms. I am reminded of a study that asked highly accomplished women to compare the importance of weight loss to the importance of achieving professional goals. The exact statistics escape me but the import of the results has not: women not only obsess about body image, but it is the lens through which experience is viewed. Let me restate this: The variable with which women’s reality is assessed hinges upon our relationship

approach to teaching about health. Though there is no easy answer to the body image problem faced by women and girls, a combination of various lifestyle changes can be encouraged. Exercise and healthy eating should be taught, not as a way to stay thin, but as a way to improve mental clarity and self-confidence. Though physical activity is usually presented as a way to lose pounds, we can instead emphasize the countless alternative benefits to the body. I propose that this year, Love Your Body Day be celebrated as a day to empower women and girls to reject media images through healthy living. In order to supply the tools needed to accept and love their own individual bodies, we can teach a variety of skills. • Work physical activity of any kind into the weekly routine to improve all-over functioning. Exercise releases endor-

phins that make you feel happier and more energized. • Minimize the intake of junk and fast food to produce noticeable differences in energy and mood. • Stop buying magazines and material that support negative images of women. Taking such steps towards a healthier lifestyle requires self-discipline and deserves pride. Women who make such changes to their lives exude confidence and beauty. Though your body may look the same on the outside, you will not see the same person. Loving your body is not about looking like someone else, but loving what is on the inside so you can finally see the beauty outside.   For more information, go to http://studentlife.calpoly.edu/wps/

to our body. You know how this plays out. This fall semester, I will teach a course on the psychology of women. It’s one of my favorite courses to teach. I like it because sometimes I am witness to the proverbial light bulb turning on because a student sees for the first time some subtle manifestation of institutionalized sexism, some imposition or force of androcentrism at work. Some students (re)claim their inner voice. But teaching this course also has its downsides. Example: “Like, don’t you think sexism is a by-product of, like, bitter, angry women who just like to complain about everything?” a student asks, incredulity practically frothing at the corners of her mouth. Over the years I have gotten better at quelling my reactionary impulses, stifling my smartass retorts, but I am not always successful. Picture this: crossed eyes and an eruption of expletives that would give the worldliest sailor a run for his (or her) money, and you’ve got an image of my inner Ms. Hyde. Fortunately, sometimes I am able to provide a tamer response to such a question: “I’ll address your question if you can first tell me why such women are ‘bitter and angry’ to begin with.” As a feminist and academic (and a selfprofessed navel-gazer), the politics of living a gendered life compels me. I want to

understand the impact of gender on the psyche; I want to examine the ways in which it manifests in our lives; and I am forever mining my emotions surrounding these issues. Sometimes I find consolation in my musings, but violence against women and our sexist political system are never far from my consciousness. And so I continue to mull and muse in hopes of finding wisdom to inspire or quell my curious, sometimes downtrodden, heart. If I can understand what I/we am up against, I may find some truth of myself, some way to reconcile the unique challenges of being female. Because in the end, what we must do is turn to ourselves again and again, locating anew that place within which allows us to cultivate inner calm and aliveness while navigating the sometimes treacherous winding road. This being female requires special care. It requires us to nurture the many parts of ourselves— including our inner Ms. Hyde—parts that propel us forward, to survive and thrive in a world rife with injustices. Taking responsibility for living a just life is no small task, but it is what will see us through. Bailey Drechsler is a professor in the Human Development Department at Cuesta College. She may be contacted at [email protected].

The secrets of life are the secrets to good health

Cynic’sCorner

To Eat or Not to Eat – That Is the Question By Jackie Turner

Do you eat to live, or live to eat?  While having dinner with some friends the other night, the subject got around to that ageold question. Of course, I immediately proclaimed that I live to eat and I am proud of it! One of the girls at the table bragged that she ate only small amounts of food, in portion-controlled sizes, and felt completely satisfied for having eaten less. What I said was, “What a desirable and enviable thing– soooo healthy, self-controlled and soooo non-compulsive.” But, what I really thought was, “What a drag! Please– don’t invite me to eat with people who don’t relish food in hearty doses; people who don’t love the way food looks; people who don’t love the way food glides down their throats, and crunches, snaps, and melts in their mouths.  The mmmmm good of it!” I know, I know... too many people in our nation overeat, which leads to obesity, heart attacks, and other weight related injuries. Too many of us can no longer see our knees and long ago forgot what our tippy toes look like. Maybe we are a nation of sexually and emotionally starved people who crave food to balance out the defects and holes in our lives. But a lot of us crave food

Women’s Press | September & October 2007 | [email protected]

because it looks, smells, and tastes good and is also fun, often social, and feels good. My father was the most unique man alive because he sincerely ate to live! I have never met another living soul who can truly claim that. No eating disorder! No poor body image! No unmet cravings! He listened to his body’s signals and when they said, ‘OK, you’re full,’ he shut off his food supply without question and left the table. Food was no orgasmic experience for him… it was sustenance, and nothing more! For me, though… food is an activity and an experience that keeps on thrilling, and usually does not disappoint. I never had a bad M &M, or a bag of potato chips that let me down… they are true to their natures and you can count on them to be there every time. So, do I eat because I am filling a void in my life? Do I live to eat? Do I equate food with other things? Probably. Do I care? No, not today! Right now I have to meet some friends and get sushi. So please… live, eat and be well! Jackie Turner is an Intuitive Astrologer and can be reached at [email protected]

By Marleen Walmsley

It may be a job you hate. Or spending time with those who siphon your energy. Or in not being given permission to express your unique gifts and talents. Not having the time to just Be. Being disconnected with Nature. Any one of these things can physiologically manifest, among other things, as chronic fatigue, arthritis (stuck in a brittle world), depression, and sinusitis or bronchitis (the membranes are our interface with the world). Stuck emotions take up residence (among other places) in the fascia, the clear elastic coating surrounding each muscle and organ. After a while, its pattern-manifests as body armor. Ever notice that you can spot someone you know a block away by looking at their posture or body armor? It’s a body mapping thing. You can see their biography by how they hold themselves. You can see where they’re stuck. Around 200 years ago, the “job” was born. Before that, we were intimately in tune with the rhythms and relationship to Mother Earth for sustenance. Now we give around 90% of our energy to someone else during our waking hours in order to survive. If we were to draw a pie chart of what we do with our waking hours, what we expend ourselves on – doesn’t it have to do with maintenance, and most of the rest on stimulation and consumerism? Schools mostly pay attention to the left-brain stuff: math, science and practical

stuff. What happened to art, music, physical education, and dance for our kids’ spirits? By the time they grow up, they can be wind-up toys in body armor unless those who love them give them what they need. It’s a rules-based existence. When our bodies get sad, neglected, and broken, how much of the care we pay so dearly for is paying attention to what we really need? Let’s slow down long enough to listen to what it’s expressing. Take good care of your life and your body will be happy– without drugs, habits, devices, diversions, activity, dogma, and endless supplements. Express your emotions and gifts. Armor will melt away and the world will open itself up to you. “The aim of science is not to open the door to infinite wisdom, but to set a limit to infinite error.” — Bertolt Brecht (1939) Marleen Walmsley is a researching and teaching naturopath in Morro Bay and hostproducer of Healers Who Share, an educational TV program on Ch. 2. She can be reached at [email protected] or at 831 325 7483.

September & October 2007 | www.womenspress-slo.org | Women’s Press

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Transforming Anger Into Wisdom By Ruth Ann Angus

“Expect the unexpected,” they say. But nothing can prepare you for a phone call the day after a mammogram saying, “We need you to return for another screening and an ultrasound.” I said, “You’re scaring me.” “We often call people back for a second view,” she said. I thought, “I’ll bet they’ve found something!” She made an appointment for that very afternoon. This time the nurse really smooshed my defenseless left breast into the mammography machine. “Let me know when it hurts more than you can stand,” she cheerfully said. “She’s GOT to be kidding!” I thought. I yelped appropriately when my boob looked more like a pancake than a breast. Three views and it was over. Then we went to the ultrasound room. I saw an ominous dark spot the size of a plum on the screen. “There it is,” I said. The technician nodded. I would never have found it myself; I hadn’t felt it. Next I was escorted to the consultation room, furnished with a table, four chairs, and a box of Kleenex. The doctor entered, smiling pleasantly, helping to dispel my feeling of doom. I wasn’t worried so much about a possible diagnosis of cancer as I was concerned about how I would meet living expenses if I was unable to work for weeks. After he delivered the results I had already seen, he mentioned that the spot had not been in the mammogram taken the previous year. “It’s small,” he said. “I think we got it early.” “Small?” I questioned, looking at the ultrasound image.

He popped the mammogram x-rays up on a light box and pointed to the spot , the size of a garbanzo bean, about 1/2 inch in diameter. Obviously the ultrasound image exaggerated the true size. The doctor said that he thought a lumpectomy- removing the tumor- and radiation would be all that I would need if the lump proved to be cancerous. I could choose a complete mastectomy- removal of the breast- but he didn’t think that necessary. He said there was a 50% chance that it was not benign. He explained that they would do a “core biopsy,” taking three core samples with a special tool. The breast would be deadened with lidocaine and I should feel no pain. “I think we should do it tomorrow.” We discussed possible outcomes: what if there are other tumors? He replied that if the lump proved positive for cancer, he would order an MRI of the entire breast. I didn’t ask the question that was bothering me most: what if I can’t afford to be without income? I am self-employed. I made an appointment for the next day and went home. Then the anger set in. Suddenly my life was turned upside down. I wasn’t afraid; I was furious, but didn’t know where to direct my anger “I’m mad at the universe,” I told my male friend, “and I’m not going to accept this.” But what would I do? What COULD I do? I e-mailed to all my female friends, asking for prayers, meditation, positive vibes, for whatever they believed in to help me. The following day I went for the biopsy. Never believe a doctor when she or he says

that you will not feel anything! Sure, they numb the area and the needle stings. But then the technician puts a drilling instrument through the tissues of your breast. Starting from near the armpit, the instrument is wiggled around until it reaches the tumor, guided by a technician who is monitoring the ultrasound image. Having reached the site, someone turns on a machine that makes an unsettling noise and takes the core sample. This is repeated twice; it hurts! After an hour or so it is done. The doctor said I had a large hematoma, so I shouldn’t be surprised by the bruising. He pressed on the area to move blood back into the surrounding tissue. Then he applied a series of steri-strips and a protective bandage. The bruise was a beauty and I had not thought to tell anyone that I am allergic to surgical tape. In removing the bandage I also removed pieces of my skin! I not only had a bruise, but open sores on my skin. My peace of mind was gone and the wait for results seemed interminable. I was NOT going to have a mastectomy! I was angry with the universe. The Buddha taught that we must transform our anger into wisdom, transcending the situation at hand. Was this another of life’s little lessons? I didn’t have to wait five days. Someone called the same afternoon. “Benign.” Oh, that glorious word. “Have a nice weekend,” she added. Nice weekend? I had nine nice days. Then the world came crashing down again. I still don’t know what the error was, in the procedure or in the report, but now I was told that the 50% chance of cancer had become a 90% chance and that I should submit to another core biopsy. “No way!” I protested.

Body&Soul



The doctor said sarcastically, “Well, it’s your body.” I thought his comment extremely unprofessional. Rather than go through that torture again, I decided to consult a surgeon as soon as possible. My surgery date is, as I write, three days away. I don’t know the outcome; but I am no longer angry. It is my body; I’ll do whatever I can to keep it healthy. The tumor is an alien; it has to go. If it is malignant, I will face that fact with as much courage as I can muster. Breast cancer is particularly prevalent in older women. All the advice and ads you can see about being vigilant will not prepare you for discovering a lump, and possibly having it be incorrectly diagnosed. Those of us with severely limited incomes cannot seek medical care at UCLA Medical Clinic, or at Stanford or Scripps. We are limited in our choice of doctors because doctors in this county do not receive compensation commensurate with the cost of living here, so many choose to leave or not to move here initially. This affects the quality of health care we can access. Greedy insurance companies and Medicare approve only minimal payments for medical procedures. Yet we need quality care in diagnosis and treatment. We do not expect to be lied to or treated disrespectfully. Cancer is not equivalent to a head cold; it is the second most common killer of women. I am angry and, as the Buddha said, I must transform my anger into wisdom. Women, beware! Seek a second opinion; have more than one pathologist evaluate a tissue sample. Contact agencies for help and listen to your friends and acquaintances with experience about medical problems. I have found great support in these ways, I will fight this cancer, and I will win. That is my wisdom.

“I’m Going Upstairs to Put on My Hair” By Virginia Lasher

Breast Cancer Survivors: Enhancement, Inc. is pleased to announce that applications are now available for our CREATIVE HEALING RETREAT for breast cancer survivors to be held Friday evening, October 12 through Sunday noon, October 14, 2007, at the Inn at Morro Bay This retreat will provide survivors with coping skills to improve their quality of life as survivors. Art has been shown to benefit recovery and so, through different media, attendees will create collages, practice journaling and make music. Joanne Ruggles, retired Cal Poly art professor, nationally acclaimed artist and breast cancer survivor, will lead the collage/journal sessions; Marisa Waddell, well-known KCBX radio personality, will lead the percussion/drumming sessions; and Shoosh Crotzer, master

yoga teacher, will lead yoga classes. Attendees will also learn about lymphedema and ways to help prevent, diagnose. and manage it. They will learn the importance of exercise, what type is recommended, along with therapeutic routines and techniques to improve breathing and relaxation and reduce stress. The retreat is limited to 20 attendees and all applicants who are not chosen will be placed on a waiting list for future retreats. Newly diagnosed as well as long-term survivors are encouraged to apply. COST: $150 (scholarships available) Applications are available at www.enhancementinc.org or by calling 771-8640.

So one morning you run the comb through your hair, and it all falls out.  Those lovely locks that made men smile at you and teenaged boys wave from the back of school buses, are now spread all over you, the sink, and drifting across the floor.  Your head that looked like its old self a few minutes ago now resembles the aftermath of a forest fire; large bald spots with a few scruffy areas of brush (your remaining hairs).  You don’t want to believe what you see in the mirror, but you know it’s for real. Cheer up; you have options.  I know, because all of the above happened to me after my first encounter with chemotherapy.  It’s a devil’s brew and on its way to zap the cancer, it takes time out to zap your hair as well.  At least I still had my eyelashes.  OK, what to do. • Call a very close friend with sharp scissors to even out the leftovers. • Go bald. Your head has a beautiful shape and doesn’t need hair.  Remember that gorgeous Egyptian queen Nefertiti.  Hair would have spoiled her looks.  Now that you can really see your head, check for interesting knobs and bumps: a fun antidote for instant baldness.  If you’re going with Nefertiti, stock up on great earrings. • Go undercover.  A trench coat and slouch hat with attached curls would be nice.  Velcro them in place around the inside of the hat.  Bangs are good.  Wig shops have all colors and, more important, these snappy little hair additions come pre-Velcroed.

• Remember hats. They weren’t just for Easter, and we always felt special in felt and straw and wooly knits.  A wardrobe of hats makes your closet a lot more fun, and you will be totally stylish.  My friend Karen crocheted two lovely hats for me, one of which did go to church on Easter.  Both hats went all around, very smart. • Wear wigs.  Some people wear them for convenience.  I wore mine because without it I looked like a bald Viking; my tall thin head showing my Scandinavian roots.  Very bad pun!  My wig was the right color, no one knew it was a wig, and it let me go everywhere without embarrassment, until it fell off in the middle of Costco on a busy shopping day.  After picking it up off the floor, I nailed it down with twosided tape from then on.  I would have stayed hidden away a lot more without it.  • Get in touch with your Cancer Society. The one in San Luis is run by transplanted angels.  They loan wigs, scarves, hoods, and turbans.  With a turban you can act like a bit player in a forties movie.  These kind people will drive you when you can’t manage your car. I wrote this for women whose hair has deserted them.  Baldness isn’t forever.  Mine came back, first as groundcover and then as real cuttable hair.  In the meantime, here’s to looking good.  I’ll drink to that.



WomenatWork

Women’s Press | September & October 2007 | [email protected]

Affirmation - To Assert Positively By Dianne Legro

Positive affirmations have been considered the panacea within the self improvement industry for a long time. Most of the self improvement gurus teach it. But if affirmations were as effective as they are made out to be, then why are we all not wealthy? Popular? Harmonious? Creative? In loving relationships? Why? Because our conscious mind interacts and interprets information we are receiving, and filters “unrealistic” messages that contradict with our more deeply held views from our subconscious mind. That’s its job! In effect, affirmations for many people are actually reinforcing their fears and doubts. Holding Words of Power Process This process below is for when you want to achieve real success…without the roller coaster effect.  With the appropriate words of power, you can draw success to you directly from your highest source, not through your ego. Here is the process:: 1. Look again at the word “wealthy.” When using positive affirmations many of us have been saying to ourselves, “I am wealthy.” If you are not wealthy, right then you are setting up a conflict between your subconscious and conscious mind. Now change  the word wealthy into “wealth”. Now you are using  a Power Word. Now say to yourself, “I am wealth.”  You can feel the difference immediately. Repeat this several times. Your subconscious can agree with you now and will help your actions and words value who you are. Now you will more easily manifest the value you bring to the world and draw to you others who value you. 2. In quiet contemplation think about the concept of wealth and what it means to you. What kind of lifestyle changes

Threats to Success – Part 2 By Andrea Zeller

would you have if you had wealth. Where would you live, what would you drive, to what cause would you donate part of your wealth? By just thinking about the concept of wealth, you’re instructing your conscious mind to tell your subconscious mind to personalize what the word means to you. In agreement they can create this life to be easier for you. 3. Hold this word of power and fix your attention  with all your being on being happy, prosperous, and successful beyond your wildest dreams. Hold a single happy, clear unadulterated successful thought in your mind as you focus on this phrase “I am wealth” today. When you do this you are releasing the fears and blocks against allowing yourself to have prosperity in the first place.  This process will help you truly move forward in your life. You are now creating in your subconscious your reality of the word. You leave no doubt in your being as to what the word caries for YOU -without trying to fool your subconscious mind. Words enlighten the world. They are powerful tools of prosperity, healing, removing obstacles, and spiritual growth. You can create the energy to turn your dreams into reality by knowing what to say when you talk to yourself. -Shad Helmstetter Dianne Legro is a national speech coach to individuals and corporate groups. She is a keynote speaker and will help you to speak like a pro and increase your business. Contact her at [email protected].

Quality Lives in the Eye of the Beholder by Adele Sommers

Regardless of how good you believe your offerings are, your clients or customers will respond to “quality in perception” even more than “quality in fact.” Quality in perception refers to things like courtesies, special considerations, a caring and personalized attitude, and a host of other subtleties that can lead us to believe that we are receiving something above and beyond what we’re paying for. Those things speak just as loudly, if not more loudly, to our customers and clients than the actual quality in fact we provide through our products, services, or custom solutions. Effective quality in perception can help compensate for any gaps in quality in fact that could otherwise irritate or inconvenience consumers. People Perceive Quality in Many Forms. Some time ago, I was a volunteer mediator in the Small Claims Court system. Over a period of months, I was fascinated with the proportion of cases involving alleged wrongdoing or incompetence. People were suing businesses such as termite services and auto body painters, and even former best friends and health care providers over a variety of grievances. The suits often sought fairly small amounts of compensation, which meant that the monetary aspects were not the primary concern. What repeatedly emerged in the mediation sessions was that each plaintiff felt that the vendor, service provider, health care provider, or ex-friend had not listened to his or her concerns. The plaintiffs frequently believed that their complaints about shortcomings in services, products, or communications had simply been ignored. Had the defendants in these cases earlier offered something as simple as an apol-

Mind Your Business

ogy — and had they made a sincere effort to communicate while taking timely remedial action — I believe the resulting quality in perception could have prevented many of these lawsuits, even if the quality in fact still left much to be desired. Tips for Boosting Quality in Perception: To make sure you’re not overlooking opportunities to create quality in perception, consider: • Special courtesies that can set your offerings apart from your competitors’ • Your ability to listen to and handle complaints quickly and diplomatically • Your willingness to be honest with clients about problems and shortcomings Remember that quality in perception is not a substitute for quality in fact. But it can go a long way toward minimizing customer and client dissatisfaction, as well as powerfully reinforcing stellar quality when you ultimately deliver it. Adele Sommers, Ph.D. is a business performance consultant who helps entrepreneurs align their life passions with their business purpose. She also guides organizations through “tactical tune-ups” and “strategic makeovers” in individual or group sessions. Contact her today for a free initial consultation at Adele@ LearnShareProsper.com, or 805-462-2199.

The U. S. Small Business Administration (SBA) lists 10 important points for small business owners to be aware of. In the last Women’s Press Issue, we shared the first 5 points. In this issue we discuss the final 5 points. Sixth, “Trying To Go It Alone.” A common pitfall is for business owners to try to do everything themselves. Delegate to employees everything you can and don’t be reluctant to hire professionals to do work for your business. For example, don’t spend hours upon hours doing your business taxes when you can hire a tax expert! Hire human resource professionals, payroll processors, marketing professionals, accountants, bookkeepers, etc... and keep your best talents engaged where you can be most productive in your business. If you plan for cash flow (#3 from last edition) you’ll find you can plan for the cash needed to hire such help! Seventh, “Poor Communication Skills.” Communication and good relationships are everything to your business! It cannot survive if you cannot communicate. You need to be able to communicate the value of your products and/or services to your customers. You need to be able to communicate with other professionals that provide services to your business. And you need to communicate your vision, policies and procedures to your employees. Communication is critical. Eighth, “Failure To Recognize Your Own Weaknesses.” It is important to know

where your weaknesses are so that you can compensate for them. Hire people that are strong in the traits where you are weak. Hire professionals to do the work of marketing, bookkeeping, finance etc.. if those are areas where you are weak. Not paying attention to your weaknesses can get you into as much trouble as if you were “trying to go it alone” (#6 above). Ninth, “Growing Too Fast.” A lot of companies cannot digest their growth. A business can become vulnerable if it takes on more orders than it has working capital or inventory on hand to fulfill. This is another area where you must plan your cash flow carefully. You need to also be sure you have the appropriate internal structure, systems, funding, and trained personnel in place to handle the new growth. If these things are not in place, be sure you take time to strengthen your capacity before taking on any business expansions. And tenth on SBA’s list, “Failure To Innovate.” Change is the order of the day – our world, our customers, our technology, our competitors are continuously changing. Small businesses must be agile and responsive to change and be innovative to keep their products and services of high value in the market place. Review and ponder these threats to the success of small businesses. If you need help addressing any of these issues, be sure to call Women’s Business Partners for help! Andrea Zeller, Executive Director of Mission Community Services, coordinates Women’s Business Partners (WBP) to ensure all community resources are leveraged and optimized to support entrepreneurial women. WBP serves everyone interested in establishing selfsufficiency through small business ownership while primarily focusing assistance towards socially and economically disadvantaged women. MCSC is funded in part through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. All opinions, conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA. MCSC at 805 595-1357. Visit www.MCSCorp.org and www.SBA.gov Se Habla Español



Gather the Women: Sydney, Australia 2007

Gender Identity

By Beverly Engel

By Sarah Deragon

“When women come together something wonderful happens: an igniting of passion and possibility, hope rises, determination quickens and our bond as women deepens. In this experience we weave with the golden thread of the divine feminine.” Marilyn Nyborg, Co-Founder of Gather the Women, USA n the last issue of the Women’s Press, I outlined some of the actions women can take to break the cycle of violence. I was fortunate enough to be invited to share this information at the Gather the Women Congress in Sydney, Australia, at the beginning of July. The presentation was so well received, that the organizers of the congress have decided to create a conference on Violence Against Women and Children in May of 2008 in Sydney and have asked that I be the keynote speaker. Another reason for this decision was that the topic of violence against women and children came up so often in other presentations. While Gather the Women conferences are usually focused around the sacred feminine and female spirituality, women who had come from overseas reported on the violence against women that is still so prevalent in their countries and this shocked and moved the women at the conference. For those of you who do not know, Gather the Women is part of a global movement of diverse women joining together to celebrate our true worth. Here is their mission statement: “Our vision is to empower each other to make the changes within our own worlds, which will enhance our lives and the lives of all beings around us physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually, to bring about a peaceful and ethical world.”

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The Gather the Women initiative has been spreading from continent to continent since first organized in 2002. . It is GTW’s goal to co-create six Congresses on six continents, starting in 2006. Congresses have already been held in the U.S., Africa and now Australia. The next one is to be in South America. Sisters from the U.S., Canada and Africa came across oceans to join the women of Australia. Among the keynote speakers were the Honorable Linda Burney, the first indigenous woman to be elected into the New South Wales parliament, Australian Senator Lee Rhiannon, Greens member and Co-founder of AID/WATCH and Kathe Schaaf, co-founder and co-president of Gather the Women International USA. Numerous subjects were presented, everything from “Ecofeminism” to “Expressing the Divine Feminine,” “Immigrants and Refugees Speaking Out” to “Contemporary Iranian Women’s Rights,” and “The Coalition of Peace in Israel/Palestine” to “Lesbian Well Being.” Here is how one participant, Robyn Craig, described the conference: “The Australian Gather the Women Congress was three days of women sharing from the heart, women supporting each other in their wholeness, ... who have seen and experienced things we can only imagine, good and bad. We were women talking about women’s issues from a woman’s perspective and most of the time we could cut through the ‘bullshit’ and go straight to the essence, because that is what women can do when they are in a heart space. What unfolded was a tapestry of lives and experiences, similar and dissimilar but with the same underlying characteristic of the sacred feminine.” I intend to, in my own way, try to keep this energy moving. I hope that each and every woman reading this article will keep the energy going as well.

We Can Protect Our Children By Beverly Engel

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t the Day with Creative Women event in Mission Plaza on August 11, something happened that was both frightening and inspiring. Two young girls (I would guess around 9 or 10 years old) were riding their skateboards through the plaza when a man started staring at them and throwing kisses at them. Now this was not some loving grandfather type. By all descriptions he was a man in his thirties. The girls were bothered by the man’s attention and retreated to one of the booths. They told the lady at the booth about the man and that they were frightened. The lady stopped giving her demonstrations and told the girls to come behind the booth with her. The man was still standing close by, watching the girls so the lady stared him down and he left. The woman’s husband sat with the girls for quite awhile, acting as a barrier between the man and the girls at the back of the booth. The lady at the booth came over to the Women’s Community Center booth. She told us what had happened and asked us if there was a security guard around. I explained that I am a therapist who specializes in abuse and she and I walked back over to the booth. The girls were sitting outside of and behind the booth. A kind looking man was sitting talking to them. I introduced myself. The girls explained to me what had happened and described the man to me. I told the girls that they had done the right thing by coming to the booth for help and asked them if they were all right. One girl didn’t answer but the other said, “This kind of thing

happens to us all the time when we skateboard.” At that moment a boy who looked to be around their age skateboarded up to them. It was a friend of theirs. The man told the boy, “You watch out for these girls, okay?” and the boy nodded agreement. I asked the girls if they were still afraid. They said no, but they were thirsty. When I left the booth the girls had come forward and were tasting samples of the lady’s energy drink. They looked fine but I noticed they didn’t seem to be in a hurry to leave the company of the lady and gentleman who had so graciously helped them. I asked the lady for a more detailed description and walked around a bit to see if he was nearby. I looked for and asked if there was a security guard but was told there was only a policeman who walked through the plaza once in awhile. I then notified one of the organizers of the event and felt there was nothing more I could do. The reason I am sharing this experience with you is that it underscores what I have been saying: WE CAN ALL MAKE A DIFFERENCE WHEN IT COMES TO CHILD ABUSE. Bravo to those two smart girls who knew to ask for help—those two smart girls who were more concerned for their safety than what others thought of them. I am deeply touched that there are men who act like grown ups, who act like the protectors (the girls) deserve to have and who teach other males to be their protectors, too.

Janis Joplin By Jill Hoffmann Where are you Janis Joplin? Are you sitting here with me? Your songs roll through my memory I know you now are free

True freedom is a gift we get When we give away our fear When we practice looking at ourselves And keep our own street clear

In the song I like the best you said What freedom means to you It’s really nothing more or less Than nothing left to lose

I’m moved by simple details They happen every day I marvel in life’s pattern And hear a brand new way

Just like the drunk who sees the light He’s gone down all the way God mends his broken spirit And there’s nothing left to say

Just like you I’ve known some grief My pain has set me free Now I know I have a choice My life is up to me

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ow often do you think about your gender? What is your understanding of the differences between gender identity and sex identity? Are you (or do you know someone) who is a gender non-conformist, transgender, or transsexual? (How many of you just reached for your dictionaries or went online to Google transgender?) Have you thought about how gender is quickly becoming the newest civil rights struggle? For me, participating in activism around the trans/gender movement is an exciting place to be as it is attempting to displace the bipolar gender identity, but it is also an opportunity to raise awareness and save lives!   What do I mean by bipolar gender identity? The bipolar gender identity assumes that there are only two genders: male/female. What happens if you are born a woman, but your gender expression is male? What if you don’t fully identify as male or female? Have you ever thought about the daily difficulties for those who live outside of the bipolar gender identities? Some people experience: harassment, discrimination, segregation, feeling unsafe at school/on the street/at work, hearing negative comments, threats of and/or actual physical violence. I do not mean to sensationalize violent crimes against trans people, but this article is meant to raise your awareness, take steps to stand up, take notice, and examine more closely a minority within the larger LGBT community. Did you know that trans people are targets of violent crimes 16% more than non-trans people? Did you know it is reported that at least one person dies a month who is identified as transgender/transsexual? And finally, did you know that statistics on violent crimes again trans people are almost non-existent due to the gender identity discrimination in institutions such as the local police department or the FBI? I’m sure that you, as I did, are wondering what you can do to help! First step, do some research and find out what local groups in your area are fighting for the rights of trans people. These groups exist across the country and are fighting for legal protections, anti-harassment policies, equal employment opportunities, and access to healthcare, and they can always use the assistance of non-trans allies. Get out there and make a difference! Sarah is working on her Master’s degree in Cultural Anthropology at the California Institute of Integral Studies and is educating her mother about the issues in our society around gender and sexual identity.

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ome Definitions … Sex: Biological assignment of male or female at birth based on anatomy (and/or chromosomal alignment) Sexual identity: How one thinks of oneself in terms of whom one is sexually and romantically attracted to Gender identity: One’s sense of identity and expression as either masculine or feminine (socially constructed, a psychological gender role) Genderqueer: A gender-variant person whose gender identity is neither male nor female, is between or beyond the bipolar gender identities, or is some combination of genders. Trans: Someone whose gender identity is not congruent with their biological sex. Term is preferable to transgender or transsexual because it does not inherently assume surgical or hormonal status/desire. Transgender: Broadly speaking, anyone whose identity, appearance, or behavior falls outside of conventional gender norms can be described as transgender. However, not everyone whose appearance or behavior is gender-atypical will identify as a transgender person. Includes transsexuals, cross-dressers, drag queens or kings, androgynous, bigendered, and gender queer people. Transsexual: One who changes physical sexes through surgery and hormone therapy.



WiseWomen

Women’s Press | September & October 2007 | [email protected]

presents

A Monthly Series of Spiritual Workshops

Save the World Temple Beth David, 10180 Los Osos Valley Road, San Luis Obispo Third Thursdays, starting in October • 7-9 pm • $20 Contact [email protected] or (805) 541-6874 for more information.

Workshop Descriptions — October 2007 through February 2008 In The Heart Is a Well Thursday, October 18

Whether pursuing a career, nurturing a relationship, or raising kids, our busy lives seldom offer women the opportunity to journey to places within where we are able to source our deep inner wisdom. Through meditation we are able to fill ourselves and let the healing waters spill over and heal our earth. The workshop will offer basic instruction in meditation and explore through readings from many faith traditions how people have always known to go within for strength and care. Women will leave inspired to begin meditating even for a few minutes each day, and see how our personal care and inner work affects and cares for our Earth and all beings and the next real step towards peace. Rev. Nancy Ballinger, M.A., M. Div. has taught internationally for many years. She is an ordained interfaith minister and founder of the Awakening Interfaith Spiritual Community in Morro Bay. Rev. Ballinger has had a personal meditation practice for over 20 years and taught meditation for 10 years.

Changing the Story to Save the Earth Thursday, November 15

The poet Muriel Rukeyser says, “The universe is not made of atoms; it is made of stories.” The stories we tell ourselves, the stories we believe, the stories we live, the language, the sound, the images, the processes, the metaphors, all work together to create our reality. Right now most of us are telling ourselves and others a pretty

grim story—but times of great peril are also times of great possibility. Let’s change the story and change the world. This workshop will offer two tools for changing our own, our world’s, and perhaps, the earth’s story: the perspectus, a helmet that lets you see from the perspective of anyone or anything; and the gift of languages, which lets you understand the language of anyone, of anything. Eve Neuhaus is the author of Journey to Mythaca (WingSpan Press, 2006), a story about stories. She taught elementary and middle school for 23 years before completing a degree at Pacifica Graduate Institute in 2003. 

Honoring the Wise Woman Within Thursday, December 20

The Wise Woman archetype, the third stage of a woman’s life, isn’t valued in today’s youth-obsessed American culture. However, we can “see through” the limiting stereotypes and reclaim her inspiration, guidance, and vibrancy. By recognizing her in folktales and myths and by discovering our Wise Woman Within, we can embody her archetypal energy and serve our communities with purpose and passion. Berta Parrish, Ed.D. is a full-time instructor at Cuesta College with a strong background in Jungian and Archetypal Psychology. In addition to teaching and writing, she conducts Practical Jung, Dream Questing, Elder Tales and Myths Women Live By workshops. Her book, Wise Woman’s Way: A Guide to Growing Older with Purpose and Passion, has just been published.

When Chocolate is Not Enough Thursday, January 17

Why food works soooo well to take care of uncomfortable feelings and what you can do about healing your relationship with your body and food. Everybody has to eat, but how to eat with pleasure and experience your body with acceptance? What would happen if all the energy that women put into hating their bodies and worrying about what they eat were put to use in solving the earth’s problems? We will use education, guided imagery, art activities and discussion to help promote a healthy enjoyment and appreciation for food/life/our bodies. Bonita Zisla, MA, MFT - Bonita has a master’s degree in counseling and is a licensed marriage and family therapist. She has been practicing since 1976 and specializes in women’s issues, trauma recovery, and eating disorders. In addition to her private practice in Los Osos, she is the Clinical Director of the Women’s Shelter in San Luis Obispo. Susan Sharaga Swadener, PhD, RD Susan has a MS and PhD in nutrition from Cornell University and has been a registered dietitian since 1975. She has a private practice in Los Osos as a nutritionist and registered dietitian. She specializes in eating disorders, pediatric nutrition and developmental disabilities as well as works with clients with diabetes, cancer, high cholesterol, blood pressure, food allergies, sports nutrition and weight concerns. In addition to her private practice she is the Dietetic Internship Director at Cal Poly and teaches several classes.

UnsungHeroine

Pam Gillette: Celebrating Change By Berta Parrish

Bridges, crossroads, and doorways are significant symbols for Pam Gillette, who specializes in helping women during the necessary, and sometimes painful, transitions in life. Whether it’s an anticipated external change, such as divorce, widowhood, or retirement, or an unexpected internal shift in mood, meaning, and energy, she believes that people become stronger by going through difficult times. She has crossed several bridges herself since earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Child Development at Cal Poly in 1979. She taught preschool and was co-founder of the Cuesta Ridge Montessori School. Then she switched paths to earn a Master’s in Counseling to become a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in 1988. Later,

at a mid-life crossroads, Pam pondered the same questions she explores with clients: What do I love the most? What will I regret I didn’t try? The answers led to the creation of Transitional Guidance for Women. Although she continues to counsel some men and couples, Pam currently works primarily with women. She says, “It is so rewarding to help women tap into ways to authentically use their creativity and power.  What holds value and meaning for a woman often changes at different stages of life.  The process of knowing what is truly meaningful to a woman is often a challenge because women are wired to be caretakers. We juggle so many roles and tasks for others that we don’t pay enough attention to ourselves. So, we often feel confused, lost, or down, especially after a life-altering event.” With bridges and crossroads behind, what are some of the doorways ahead for Pam to walk through? She has identified three major goals to prepare her for several upcoming transitions. First, she strives to

better balance the “sandwich generation” roles of raising a pre-teen son while dealing with a father in the middle stages of dementia. Second, she plans to expand her practice by using hypnotherapy, tele-seminars, and online courses as well as by speaking engagements and workshops. Lastly, recognizing the importance of community, she wants to increase time with nurturing, supportive friends. By accomplishing these goals, she will be better equipped for the stresses of her changing personal, familial, and professional obligations. Sharing these challenges, she ironically asks, “Are we ever not in transition?” Pam lives her beliefs and practices what she preaches. She has become stronger and more competent by celebrating change rather than denying or delaying it. And she’s dedicated to sharing these insights and to helping others create a satisfying life. Indeed, like a bridge over troubled waters, she will ease your mind. For more information about Pam or transitions, visit www.transitionalguidance.com

Sarah and Hagar: Reaching Out Across the Great Divide Thursday, February 21

Removed as we are from the events described in religious texts of Islam and Judaism about how the Muslim and Jewish communities became separated, the two presenters share stories as a contemporary Muslim and Jewish woman in dialog about themselves, their families and their lives. Using the vehicle of faith and family as pathways to celebrate diversity, the presenters consider the influences of their respective traditional practices on their spiritual pathways. Discussing what they have in common and what is uniquely their own, they will encourage participants to share their own stories as way to nourish and heal the spiritual yearnings that may have been bruised by religious practice. Nisha Abdul Cader has resided on the Central Coast with her husband and children for over eight years. She is a member of the San Luis Obispo Interfaith Ministerial Association and has participated on numerous interfaith panels at Cal Poly, as well as throughout the greater San Luis Obispo community. She is also a pediatrician who specializes in services to children-at-risk, including abused children, incarcerated youth, and prenatally substance exposed children. Heather Mendel, spiritual director, artist and author of “Towards Freedom: a feminist haggada for men and women,” has facilitated women’s spirituality groups for the past 15 years. Keynote speaker of the First Annual Women’s Press Retreat, she lectures, conducts workshops, seminars and retreats, focused on kabbalah, spirituality and egalitarianism.

Women&Words

September & October 2007 | www.womenspress-slo.org | Women’s Press



The Value of the “F” Word By Charlene Huggins

I began reading Jessica Valenti’s book Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Women’s Guide To Why Feminism Matters, with an attitude of, “oh no… not again.” Haven’t most feminists heard all the issues and suffered through most of the rhetoric: pay discrepancies, raunch culture, abortion rights, rape, the beauty myths, etc.? I was taken aback by the sassy, easy breezy writing with many sentences ending with “ I shit you not.” But to read with my initial attitude was to miss Valenti’s point: we are not all feminists. As I adjusted to her writing style, she won me over and I became reinvigorated with the ideas of feminism from her fresh youthful outlook. Jessica Valenti seeks to dispel young women’s fear of identifying as a feminist and the tired, cliché caveat that many women open conversations with: “I’m not a feminist, but…” Valenti informs us as to why feminism is important and why it matters. Why does feminism matter? Because reproduction rights are slowly being diminished through federal and state legislation. Women still earn 76 cents to every man’s dollar. The new obsession with getting married for the sake of the “ big fat, expensive wedding day” or a “Beauty Culture” that encourages women to think they’re “ugly”

and to consider the “cure” that surgery and obsessive dieting will provide. She addresses the fact that in the last presidential election 20 million unmarried women didn’t vote. Why? They didn’t think it would affect their lives. The book summarizes many of the issues covered in Women’s Studies 101 without exploring any one topic in depth, but it does invite women to seek out the issues that may be important to them while introducing them to a myriad of problems facing young feminists today. The value of Valenti’s argument is her insistence that we challenge our behaviors and to understand why we wear make up, why we work or marry or have babies. Why is our sexuality controlled and legislated? Why may only hetero couples marry? Neither women nor men should follow cultural norms without understanding the impetus behind these norms. It’s difficult to challenge the dominant values of the culture, but Valenti points out that it can be fun and rewarding, and help create a more interesting freer society. While she sees the depressing nature of women’s plight today, she also offers an excellent amount of resources for women to engage in their own education and activism to help free us from our fear of the “F” word.

Yes, One Person Can Make a Difference Sharon Mehdi’s story of a story that is making a difference Interview by Kathleen Deragon

Imagine. To celebrate the birth of your granddaughter in late 2003, you write her a story – a child’s book for adults. It comes to you one day at a bookstore and you write it down on a napkin, a major inspiration being a comment made by a Native American elder you had met. The elder told you that men had taken us as far as they could – that it was up to the women to take us the rest of the way. Simply your story is about what happens in a small town when two grandmothers stand silently in the middle of a park. Only a five-year-old girl initially knows why: to save the world. You read the story to a friend, who is going to a UN conference on peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, who asks your permission to read it there. Orders come in. You create some booklets of it at Quik Print to send out, putting on the cover the graphic from a greeting card of a dozen ethnic grandmothers. The local bookstore asks you to read it there and then the host of an NPR radio show asks you to be a guest. You sell 500 copies over several weeks, so the owner of the local bookstore calls the US Sales Director for Penguin Publishing. Two days later, Viking Penguin makes you an offer. Three months later, in early 2004, the book is published with additional illustrations created by the artist who did the greeting card graphic you used on your original Quik Print booklet. You go on an 18-city book tour. Your story is being read around the world. Women around the world are standing together for peace.

Life imitates art. And the story isn’t over yet. In May 2007, the provost of Ohio State University, Deborah Ballam, is driving author Jean Shinoda Bolen to the airport after a speaking engagement when Ballam says there must be some way to save the world. Bolen gets out one of Mehdi’s original booklets and reads the story to her. Ballam goes back to campus and gathers colleagues together to tell them the story. They decide if it worked in a book, maybe it would work in real life. They created a YouTube video, developed a website with a synopsis of the story in 19 languages, printed 25,000 postcards inviting women (and men) to stand for five minutes at 1 o’clock their local time to save the world. Their idea is for women around the world to stand together for peace in groups silently for five minutes on Mother’s Day. 3,700 sites register on the website, including all states and 76 countries. The women stand. The book sells out. 47,000 copies so far. Such is the true story behind Sharon Mehdi’s book The Great Silent Grandmother Gathering. Come to the Book Festival on September 8 at Mission Plaza (booth is sponsored by CodePink - Women for Peace) and hear the author tell you more of the synchronistic details that are part of her book’s amazing story, more than I have space to print here.

Nurturing Environments  By Jeanie Greensfelder

HARRY FARMER A S T R O L O G E R

805. 927.2548 PO BOX 534 CAMBRIA CA 93428 [email protected] www.hfastrologer.com

I’d always wanted to write, but easily got disheartened with my lack of skills until I joined a writers group that encouraged my first drafts and later offered learning suggestions. I recalled the importance of that nurturing experience when I read Thoreau’s description of a farm couple having tea on an aged wooden table.  They heard a tiny scratching noise and soon an insect emerged from inside the oak table.  An egg, warmed by the teapot, had awak­ened.  Thoreau suggested that each of us harbor our own eggs that await the right circumstances to hatch,

inviting us to the winged life. D. W. Winnicott, a British psychoanalyst, taught that in­fants need a good holding environment to flourish.  A holding environment includes loving parents or friends who provide appreciation, stability, and reliability.  Those qualities promote growth into adulthood. I look for friends and groups who encourage mutual egg warming.  

What experiences warm your heart?

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LocalPerspectives

Women’s Press | September & October 2007 | [email protected]

Strengthening the Week

“Illegal”Aliens? Slavery on Our Shores

By Hilda Heifetz

By Dawn Williams

Like many of us, I have chosen to put off things throughout my life. Because I consider them high-priority intentions, they have a special place on my overcrowded shelf awaiting the perfect moment… which isn’t right now. I have been comforted by the guarantee that “It’s never too late!” Having just celebrated my 93rd birthday, I’m not feeling so reassured. Among other less promising aspects is the danger that I might no longer remember what it was I was going to do “someday.” All at once, glancing at the frequently used term by chronic procrastinators, I knew where to place the blame (other than on myself, of course). No wonder we lost track of these promises! All these years, our calendars were guilty of a crucial omission. They showed a week as having only seven days. When we schedule so many important commitments for “someday,” we know the week is supposed to be eight days long. Every reliable calendar should show: Someday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday (not necessarily in that order). Right?! Just think of all I’d have accomplished if only the calendar had alerted me! Taking dancing lessons, writing an autobiogra-

Where in the world are people locked away, starved, beaten, tortured, and even raped? Not in some underdeveloped Third World country, under the rule of a brutal dictator, but in our own country, the United States of America, land of the free. Thousands of people, mostly women and girls, are being held against their will and forced to work in factories, in office buildings as night shift cleaners, as servants in private homes, and in forced prostitution. No one is certain of their number; estimates range from 14,50017,000 (administration figures) to 50,000 (CIA estimates) to as many as 100,000 (from the Polaris Project, an international anti-trafficking group). Trafficking is the second largest criminal activity worldwide, just slightly less lucrative than the drug trade. Some victims are U.S. residents, but the majority come from Mexico, Central America, Asian countries, or any country where desperately poor people can easily be lured by the false promise of a better life in the U. S. It is believed that eighty percent of those recruited are female, only fifty percent of whom endure the horrors of prostitution. The balance may sew your clothes, clean office buildings, or work without pay as domestic servants. Deprived of their birth certificates and other I D papers, constantly watched, and locked in when not working, they have little chance of escape. Those who do escape are subject to deportation to their homeland where they can face retaliation against themselves or their families by their recruiters. U. S. law enforcement officers are poorly trained to recognize and to deal with possible cases of forced detention. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) was passed by Congress in 2001, creating a special “T-visa” that enables victims to remain in this country temporar-

phy, painting full-size renderings of quick miniature sketches, replacing the carpeting 17 years ago when I first moved into my Morro Bay home, reading the set of Great Books I won in an LA Times contest judged by Mortimer Adler. Being a full-time writer and columnist whose work stirred worldwide interest and led to a perfected world … just to name a few. It may be a little late for the corrected calendar to help me, but it can surely benefit those who come after. So I’ll call Hallmark to start publishing calendars with the eight-day week. Or maybe I should call Disney? Well, I’ll get to it without delay. Really I will! Someday, without fail!?

Common Interest Developments Submitted by Sara Horne

There is a little known but important new election law that literally hits many of us where we live: The county’s (and state’s) growing number of homeowner associations, condo associations, resident-owned mobile home parks, and gated communities – known as common interest developments. SENATE BILL 61 (SB61) Common Interest Developments -Elections. The following information is taken from the text of SB61. Senate Bill 61 is the 2005 law that changed the way some California condominium and other common interest development elections are held. If you live in a common interest development (common interest developments have common areas that are owned by the owners of the development—eg. roads, swimming pools, community centers used by those living in the development, tennis courts, etc.) you probably come under this bill. The law requires that common interest developments are run by an association. This bill requires that an association adopt rules, to provide equal access to various media as part of election campaigns, as and establish qualifications for candidates and voting. The law also requires that elections within a common interest development regarding assessments, selection of members of the association board of directors, amendments to the governing documents, or the grant of exclusive use of common area property be held by secret ballot. It also requires an independent third party as

the inspector of elections, who would be granted specific powers for these elections. Most of these developments have management companies that perform most of the jobs related to the common areas. Many times their contract also includes running the elections for the board of directors/association (owners who are elected to oversee and interact with the management company on behalf of the owners of the common interest development.) The new law (SB61) specifies that the inspector of elections cannot be employed or under contract to the association. It specifies the way that all parts of the election will be done, eg. Type of ballots, how they are mailed, counted and report presented, etc. This is written to give each of you who reside in a Common Interest Development a heads-up about the changes in the election process for your type of development. There are organizations in the community who will be happy to give your organization an estimate of the cost for your election and who will follow the law as written.

ily, if they agree to aid in investigating and prosecuting their traffickers. They become eligible for such benefits as health care, food stamps, housing and job training and even cash payments. But the program has been underfunded, while as much as six million dollars per year is funneled to aid agencies through such religious organizations as the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which requires that agencies receiving funds refrain from supplying condoms or abortion information. Funding is supplied to applicant agencies for only a few months at a time, so they must continually reapply and cannot make long-range plans for staffing, housing and other services. There are few shelters in the country for housing escaped victims. The provisions in the TVPA that would enable a victim to eventually become a permanent resident require enabling regulations. These rules have not yet been written, after nearly seven years. The Department of Homeland Security says the regulations remain in draft form and there is no pending date for their release or implementation. But first of all, the slave must escape, then she (or he) must deal with government officials and fear deportation and/or retaliation against herself (or himself ) or family members. Picture yourself in this situation, alone in a country where you do not understand either the language or the laws, have no friends or family, and fear the police and other governmental authorities. Trafficking in humans is a national disgrace. Remember this when you hear rhetoric about the threat posed by illegal aliens. Who is really illegal, the slave or the trafficker? For further information see the Summer 2007 issue of Ms. Magazine (pp. 38-45) or go to www.msmagazine.com.

Sara Horne is the 2nd VP of the League of Women Voters of San Luis Obispo and Voter Service Chair.

For more information about how you can help, including beach clean up sites, visit www.ecoslo.org or call us at (805) 544-1777

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Voices

September & October 2007 | www.womenspress-slo.org | Women’s Press

Voices Around the Table: Jill Turnbow My theatre company has finally found a home in Cambria!  Houselights Theatre will open a limited season Oct. 26th at TOGS, Theatre at the Old Grammar School. Anne Quinn I have made three new friends and accepted the changed relationship with two old friends. With the new friends, I found the courage to make a definite effort to get to know each of them better by extending them an invitation, such as to lunch or a concert. That provided time for conversation and learning new things about them. Soon, I’d see a book and realize they would love it (based on our conversation) and buy it for them or lend it to them or hear of something I bet they’d really be interested in and forward them information about it. In other words, I took an interest in them. The next step was the hardest for me. I honored every communication. Usually I’m just so busy both at work and home that friends come last, which is probably why I didn’t have any anymore. I’d be at work dealing with all sorts of emails, see one from them and be tempted to shine it on. I had always figured in the past that my friends of all people would understand if I couldn’t get to them, but because I constantly have a hectic life, I never got to them much and finally they stopped sending me anything! Now that I was starting over trying to make new women friends, I wasn’t going to make the same mistake, so I answered immediately, every time, whether it was “convenient” for me or not. And really it only took a few minutes! And the funny thing is, that I began to bless and even be happy whenever I heard from two old friends instead of worrying about how little I heard from them and why. I finally realized they really do like me, they just want to have a more limited relationship with me than maybe I wanted with them, but they do want to have a relationship and that’s what I should really  treasure. So I guess you could say I reached my goal by being grateful for what I have and taking joy in and having respect for the new things that are developing in my life. Berta Parrish My accomplished goal took much longer than a year to complete, so I’m particularly proud of my dedication to an inner calling to write Wise Woman’s Way, which brings that archetype to the attention of modern American women. It was “five

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What have you done this year that has brought a goal to fruition?

years in the making” because instead of creating stress, I wanted to live the principles and apply the practices that I was advocating. Now, that a published book is in my hands rather than in my head, excitement is accompanied by an unanticipated sense of loss! I miss the intensity of researching, synthesizing, and creating something new. One humongous goal met means that another one appears: marketing, which is definitely not as rewarding as writing. I’ll let you know next year how that one turns out. Dorothy Segovia I graduated from Antioch University, Santa Barbara, with my bachelor’s degree AND I started my Write Inside business! Anne R. Dunbar I have successfully gone back to school after 29 years and finished what I began way back then. As a girl I lived on my own, worked three jobs, and carried two majors in college. I did this for four years and grew up as well. In the last semester of my senior year the dean informed me that credit for classes taken and passed would not be forthcoming as the major was dropped and the classes were taken at another school. I ran from his office, quit college, and never looked back. I called the college 28 years later. Every Monday for six months I called long distance in an effort to unravel the facts. I was refused the same credit and requested a formal complaint form. I empathized with the student counselor and the registrar. I spoke of my feelings and needs and continued to call every week. Finally, they agreed to allow the credit for classes I took, paid for and passed so long ago. I had three more classes to take. It was arranged that I could take them here in California even though the initial school is in New York State. I took classes at Cal Poly and at Hancock College this past year. I was afraid, but everyone proved friendly and I enjoyed the whole experience! I have even discovered that I love computer work and I am good at it. I am attending classes this fall hoping to offer computer help to others. My graduation is in September. I will fly back to receive a BA in Psychology much longed for over the years. I look forward to my graduation party! This experience has brought healing for me. I blamed the college, my family, and myself for letting me down. I was angry all this time. I was disappointed in myself. Now, I see all the hard work my younger self did back then. I have a new apprecia-

tion for it and I am proud of that young woman who did so much all alone. There is a new me and I like her!!! Bailey Drechsler This past summer I traveled to Budapest and Timisoara, Romaina, the town in which my father lived out his youth.  Since childhood I have dreamed of one day getting a fuller taste of my Hungarian heritage, and roaming the streets my ancestors traversed for two generations.  The trip fulfilled my goal in more ways than I ever expected.     Dawn Williams My goal has been to find peace after the death of a dear friend. I have achieved significant progress toward that goal through volunteering as an advocate in court for a child through the organization Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA). The giving to someone who needs help is a great way to get help for yourself. My family members, children, grandchildren, and great grandcchildren are also healers with their love and appreciation. Roberta Youtan Kay I wrote my own Life Story with the help of an Emeritus Class through Cuesta College and a sbsequent writing group.  The members of this group, Maureen Sharon, Joan Fitzpatrick and Olivia Schloz were encouraging and enthusiastic throughout the entire project.  Thank you! Jeanie Greensfelder Over the years I’ve collected poems that speak to my soul. I wanted to gather my favorite poems to share them and to be introduced to poetry that was meaningful to others. When I mentioned the idea to friends it was greeted with enthusiasm. I offered the group at Hospice of San Luis Obispo and was pleased to bring a small goal to a rich fruition. During our gatherings the readings and discussions allowed us to connect with ourselves and with each other. Roger Housden describes what happened well in this quote: “A good poem gives voice to feelings, thoughts, and intuitions whose presence we may have sensed but never known how to say. This is poetry’s power; it summons the best, deepest of who we are, and captures it in language.”

1101 Laurel Lane - San Luis Obispo

541-1464

“We hold the keys to your car’s health” ANSWERS TO YOUR COMMON CAR QUESTIONS Q: I have my oil changed at a quick lube, but I’m not sure that my car is being inspected properly. A: At least once a year, your car should be professionally inspected by a master technician! This is a service that includes racking your vehicle, inspecting the tires,brakes,suspension, steering, exhaust system, fuel system, belts, hoses, and all safety and service items. Not only will this keep your car up to date on preventative maintenance, but it will also help you prevent possible future problems or breakdowns, and give you piece of mind that your car is safe and sound! Please call and ask us about our #I service! E-mail your car questions to [email protected]. Tune in to the Motormouths every Saturday morning from 8-9 am on KVEC 920 AM.

Rita Traner-McDermott I’ve always had trouble facing a salesperson across the counter and telling them that I’m not happy with how they’re handling our transaction.  My usual habit has been to shy away from any confrontation and go home unsatisfied, feeling tremendously disappointed in myself. This last year, I signed on as co-editor of the literary journal for my college, which turned out to be a huge project.  When we finally reached that all-important phase of waiting for the printer to get us the final product, we hit our first real snag: they weren’t taking our deadline seriously.  Needless to say, we were not happy.  That’s when my wonderful co-editor, Dorothy, sat me down and gave me the pep talk of a lifetime.  The next thing I knew, I was looking that salesman straight in the eye and telling him how it was going to be, on my terms. It’s a thrill to think about reaching that deceivingly simple goal of asking for what I needed, when I needed it!  I’m still proud that I was able to listen to Dorothy’s encouragement and talk to that salesman without a hint of fear or anger. A few days later, our journal was released – right on time – and was a great success.

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NOWNews

Women’s Press | September & October 2007 | [email protected]

This Page Presented by the

Coordinator’s Corner By Angie King

Where did the summer go? That was rhetorical – I know full well where it went – into activities and events and social gatherings where we commented to each other how aghast we are at the endless “war,” on the continuing fumbling by our government, by official wide spread corruption and greed, and by the destruction to our social and civic fabric that is going on – not even to mention the global ecological disaster of human over-consumption. But now it’s fall and time to renew our sense of a community, in preparation for the lo-o-ong electoral season ahead. The statement from the NOW PAC endorsing Hillary Clinton sets the tone. Whether you are for her or not, it allows us to debate our issues as part of the mainstream discussion of politics. Whether she wins or loses, that’s a gain and a good thing. The next time, women’s issues won’t be so easily dismissed. I rely heavily on the NOW.org web site and links from there to provide the factual background for this page; I encourage you to explore them for yourself. There’s so much information available that none of us really has an excuse not to be educated on issues. And, with the election primary moved up to February, the rhetoric will be coming fast and furious. Knowledge is power. Need I say more? September celebrates Labor; see the article on issues in women’s economic equity. An increase in the minimum wage is a very important first step in leveling the playing field among the very rich and the rest of us. But only a first step. As you can see, there is a still lot to do. In September 1994 at the International Women’s Conference in Beijing China, as at the 1975 First International Women’s Conference in Houston TX, the issue of affordable, safe, accessible child care, equal pay for equal jobs, an end to sexual harassment at work, affordable, complete reproductive health care, and all the other issues were on the table. They still are. October has traditionally been a health awareness month, and it is this year as well. Women are the beneficiaries of the Democratic-controlled House. Bills protecting women’s access to health care; service; and increased attention at a sub-cabinet level to women’s health issues in general, came about only because of the change in Congress. See the article on Women’s Health. And, one other thing – October is also the Morro Bay Harbor Festival which honors the local fishing industry so crucial to our agricultural economic well-being. The Festival asks non-profit groups to help them out by providing the “personpower” to handle all the many tasks necessary to put on a successful event and NOW has for many years participated. (Of course, the fact that they pay us for our work constitutes the largest single source of income for our chapter may have something to do with it). So, please contact NOW and volunteer to take a shift. See details in related article. See you in Morro Bay!

NOW Chapter # CA 565 PO Box 1306, SLO, CA 93406 SLONOW @ kcbx.net http://groups.myspace.com/~slonow

National Organization for Women

The purpose of NOW is to bring women into full participation in the mainstream of American society NOW !

Women’s Health October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and Breast Cancer Awareness Month, two major public health issues targeting only women as a rule. NOW reminds us that there are other women’s health issues out there as well, and some are actually gaining some attention. In keeping with NOW’s mission to take action to bring women into the mainstream of American society, here are a few women’s health related items to take action on during September and October: 1. Demand Accountability for Women’s Health at the FDA. Ask Lois Capps to CoSponsor HR 2503, the FDA Scientific Fairness for Women Act. H.R. 2503 would take politics out of women’s health decision-making at the FDA by: • Rescinding approval of silicone breast implants if the manufacturers cannot conclusively demonstrate their safety for the life of the implant; • Requiring the FDA to convene a workshop to review and evaluate current scientific data on the use of emergency contraception by young women under the age of 18; and • Elevating the Office of Women’s Health within the FDA so that the director reports directly to the Commissioner, instead of being buried two levels down from the Commissioner. We want these problems and others to be addressed effectively by elevating the Office of Women’s Health to be directly under the Commissioner’s office. What you can do: Call Lois Capp’s office to ask for her help. Go to NOW.org

and follow the link to send your own message by e-mail. 2. Support the Compassionate Care for Servicewomen Act (S.1800/H.R.2064), sponsored by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Representative Michael Michaud (D-Maine), which requires full access to emergency contraception for servicewomen at all U.S. military health care facilities around the world. Servicewomen deserve quality health care, including access to EC. Last year nearly 3,000 women reported sexual assault while on active duty. Part of the recommended regimen for treating survivors of assault is to inform them about and offer them emergency contraception, yet it is only sporadically available to servicewomen at their base pharmacies and medical facilities in the U.S. and overseas. In 2002, the Department of Defense initially added EC to its Basic Care Formulary, a list of over 200 medications required to be stocked at all military treatment facilities. Emergency contraception was quietly removed from the list weeks later, a result of ideological pressure from the Bush administration. Now, it is at the discretion of each health facility to decide whether or not to stock EC, and military women have no guarantee of universal access. No one questions the need for the highest grade and most reliable form of protective body armor for our troops at war. Yet our women in the armed services are often defenseless to prevent pregnancies resulting from rape because they are being denied information about and access to emergency contraception. What you can do: Tell Congressmember Capps to support this health care version of

Help NOW at Harbor Fest October 6-7, 2007 in Morro Bay The first full weekend in October is the Morro Bay Harbor Festival – honoring the fishing industry on the Central Coast. If you have not experienced a Harbor Fest, you are in for a treat. Enter the Festival, free, with your volunteer T-shirt from NOW, and enjoy and other offerings from the Central Coast’s best food purveyors; wine and micro-brew beer tasting; wonderful entertainment; dancing; and lots of sun and fun. Not only do you save money getting in, you help NOW raise funds to keep the chapter going.

How do you do all this? Contact us to volunteer for a shift. We need at least 3 people in the booth from 9:30 til 5:30 on both Saturday and Sunday. We sell the scrip people need to buy beer at the stand that’s near enough to the main entertainment stage that we can hear and see all the music. It’s not physically strenuous and the time flies by! Call us at [email protected] with the subject line Harbor Fest. We do have a list of regular volunteers, and slots fill up fast. Please call and sign up NOW!

Labor Day – Whose Labor? Women’s Economic Equity Gains a Round, Loses One On Labor Day, whose labor are we celebrating? Women who “just stay home” are not credited with the value of their work; their labor is not included in the gross domestic product of goods and services. Women who take time out of their working life to care for families earn less over their lifetimes than people who did not and thus have smaller pensions. In addition, for those women in the workforce, the pay scale is still imbalanced, as we earn only 77 cents to a man’s dollar. On this Labor Day, here are some facts to ponder – two steps forward, and… 1. Women gain retroactive pension benefits for pregnancy leave: Hulteen v. AT&T, a class action lawsuit, challenges discriminatory pension benefit practices at AT&T. AT&T continued to treat pregnancy-related disability leave taken by female employees prior to the 1979 Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) less favorably than leave taken by other employees who were disabled for any other reason during the same time period. The class

may include an estimated 15,000 women employed at AT&T and its various subsidiaries who took pregnancy-related disability leave before 1979. AT&T had repeatedly refused to adjust their calculation practices, even after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) concluded in 1998 that AT&T’s pension benefits calculation policies did not comply with the law. Congress passed the Pregnancy Discrimination Act after the Supreme Court ruled in 1976 that unequal treatment of pregnant employees did not constitute sex discrimination. Once the law took effect in 1979, AT&T granted pregnant employees full credit for time spent on leave, but did not equalize retirement credits for pre-1979 leaves. 2. House reinstates an on-going discovery window for bringing wage claims: Congress passed the “Ledbetter” Fair Pay Act in a close vote of 225 to 199, to overturn the Supreme Court decision in the case of Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., which dealt a near-fatal blow to underpaid

“body armor,” which will protect the reproductive health and human rights of women serving our country in the armed forces. 3. Congress Preserves Family Planning Funding; Birth Control Opponents Revealed Voting on an amendment to the Labor, Health, Human Services and Education Appropriations Bill, Number H.R.3043, members of the House of Representatives overwhelmingly defeated an attempt to deny family planning funding to Planned Parenthood. The vote, 231-189, fell largely along party lines. Had the amendment passed, it would have prevented Planned Parenthood health centers from receiving funding under Title X of the Public Health Services Act, which funds family planning programs. The amendment perpetuated the misconception that Planned Parenthood uses Title X money for abortions. In fact, the use of Title X funds is strictly limited to family planning and related preventative health programs that do not include abortion. While this vote is a clear victory for supporters of women’s reproductive health care, it’s also a stark reminder of just how conservative some members of Congress are when it comes to family planning. Fully 189 representatives -- that’s 45% of all members of Congress -- voted for this amendment to defund Planned Parenthood and oppose funding for birth control and preventative family planning health care. What you can do: Call Congressmember Capps’ office to thank her for supporting family planning funding to Planned Parenthood.

NOW Calendar Sept 1: • Birthday of Ann Richards, governor of Texas, 1933 Sept 4: • 1995 UN Conference on Women in Beijing, China Sept 3: • Labor Day, celebrating the gains of the organized labor movement Sept 9: • CA Admission Day, will we have a budget? Sept 10: • Birthday of Alice Davis, Seminole Indian chief, 1852 Sept 19: • NOW regular meeting, 6 PM October Is Sexual Education, Breast Cancer, and Domestic Violence Awareness Month Oct 6-7: • Harbor Fest, Morro Bay Oct 10: • California approves women voters, 1911 Oct 11: • Birthday of Eleanor Roosevelt, 1884 Oct 11: • National Coming Out Day Oct 16: • Margaret Sanger opens first birth control clinic in US, 1917 Oct 16: • Birthday Mae Jemison, first black woman astronaut, 1956 Oct 17: • NOW regular meeting, 6 PM Oct 18: • Love Your Body Day Oct 26: • Birthday of Hillary Clinton, 1947 workers’ ability to use the protections of civil rights laws to remedy pay discrimination. Lilly Ledbetter had worked at Goodyear for 19 years before she discovered she was being paid significantly less than every

Continued in Labor Day, p. 13

LocalPerspectives

September & October 2007 | www.womenspress-slo.org | Women’s Press

13

New Column: NothingSerious!

Stop Talking, Get Off the Couch, and Just Do It By Jill Turnbow

I don’t own a pair of Nike shoes, but I think they have the right idea. Just do it. No one ever found a cure for something, created great art, or discovered their true passion by lying on the couch with a remote in their hand. And believe me, I’ve read enough self-help books to give Dr. Phil a run for his money, but none of them provided me with anything more than lip service. It’s a lot of “dream this… vision that…blah, blah, blah.” But I do

LABOR DAY Continued from P. 12

single one of her male counterparts. A jury agreed that she had been paid unfairly, and awarded her $223,776 in back pay, and over $3 million in punitive damages, but a judge cut that to only $300,000 because of a 1991 law that limited a company’s liability for damages — even when found guilty of willful wage discrimination. In an “off with her head” moment, the U.S. Supreme Court took away every penny of the back pay and damages awarded to Lilly Ledbetter, saying incredibly that the 180-day filing limit had begun way back when the very first paycheck showed lesser pay. Eighteen years of continuing wage discrimination against Ledbetter by Goodyear held no sway with the Roberts court. The Ledbetter Fair Pay Act clarifies the law’s original intent of providing that claims may be brought within 180 days from the most recent discriminatory paycheck. Unfortunately, there are not enough votes to override a threatened veto, and the House still has much work to do to eliminate the systemic pay discrimination faced by women workers. And if this vote is a guide, the Republican leadership will be fighting it every step of the way. What you can do: Take a moment today to write to Representative Capps and thank her for her vote in support of women’s equal pay.

3. Adding Insult to Injury: Shame On You, Goodyear! After the Supreme Court denied Lilly Ledbetter’s claim of pay discrimination against Goodyear Tire Co. on a technicality and took away the $300,000 a court had awarded her, now Goodyear has the audacity to ask Ms. Ledbetter to cover their court costs! Let Goodyear know what you think of their outrageous demand! Call corporate headquarters: (330) 796-2121 or Fax: (330) 796-2222 4. Millions of Families Finally Get a Pay Raise: Millions of families in the United States will receive the first increase to the minimum wage in almost a decade, and for many families, it may be a start to lifting themselves out of poverty. The minimum wage is a women’s issue. Women are twice as likely as men to be working at minimum wage, and that rate is even higher for women of color. Almost 60 percent of the 13 million workers who would benefit from the minimum wage increase are women. In the last 10 years, while the minimum wage stayed the same, costs for a four-year public college rose 96 percent; health insurance rose 97 percent; and the price of regular gas climbed a whopping 149 percent. This raise is a start, but it is time to give hard-working families a living wage, so they can send their children to college, afford health care, and in turn, contribute to a growing economy.

give the authors kudos for at least writing the damn things. At least they DID something. They acted on their vision. They dreamed of making money and seeing their face on a book cover. And they did it. Good for them.  I find joy in the “doing.” Getting up, getting out…doing. Even if your biggest accomplishment of the day is the fact you got out, take pride in reaching that goal for the day. So many wonderful events have occurred in my life just because I showed up. I participated. I was present. You can’t let a little fear of failure keep you in the house flipping through game shows. Everyone fails. Everyone! Even George Clooney has made some rotten films and he’s perfect (editorial comment). So just do it. If you actually do fail then get up and try again, or try something else. They only way

you can truly fail is by not doing anything at all. Just thinking about it and its possible consequences doesn’t count. Risks are only risky if you believe they are. Think of a risk as just one more step towards getting what you want. And if you need even more clichéd platitudes, here are two. Life is short. Talk is cheap. I could probably think of a lot more, but I have to go. I have things to do. PS:  The above article was written while curled up on the couch with a cat and a laptop.    Jill Turnbow is a former standup comedienne and current Executive Director of Houselights Theatre in Cambria.  Comments or questions?  [email protected] or go to Houselightstheatre.org

14

CommunityBulletins

Women’sCommunityCenter

Women’s Press | September & October 2007 | [email protected]

Family Law Action Committee

Women’s Empowerment & Self-Defense Workshop

Dealing With Divorce

Our mission is: • TO maintain an accessible center to collect and exchange information of interest and concern to women • TO organize and facilttate workshops, clinics, seminars, classes and support groups on subjects of interest and need • TO engage in and facilitate interaction among local, state and national agencies and organizations working to benefit women

Do you have community service hours to fulfill? Call us!

Maximize your chances of avoiding a sexual assault! The Sexual Assault Recovery and Prevention Center proudly offers this fourhour workshop to help empower and protect the women in our community. This workshop will focus on improving your awareness and assertiveness skills, and will teach physical techniques that can help you escape a dangerous situation. Remember – your best weapon is yourself: your mind, your voice, and your body! This free class is open to women of all athletic abilities, ages 12 and up. Beginning and advanced classes are offered. Call 545-8888. For dates and times, please visit http://www.sarpcenter. org/services/defense.htm The Sexual Assault Recovery and Prevention (SARP) Center of San Luis Obispo County is offering a drop-in support group for female survivors of sexual abuse. It is held on Monday evenings from 6:00 to 7:30 pm and will be facilitated by Jill Doyle, MFT-I. For more information about this group or other services offered by the SARP Center call 545-8888 or visit www.sarpcenter.org.

3rd Wednesday of each month – 7 PM Upcoming: Sept 19, Oct 17 and Nov 21 Talk with other women who have been there, done that in a supportive, non-judgmental environment. $5 donation

Self-Represented Litigants’ Clinic 4th Tuesday of each month – 5:30 PM Upcoming: Sept 25, Oct 23 and Nov 27 Get family law advice from local attorneys and/or paralegals. Reservations required. $25 donation Call 544-9313 for information

Volunteers Needed Looking for a fun new volunteer opportunity? United Way is seeking volunteers to assist with clerical tasks in our downtown office several hours each week. Volunteers must be at least 18; days and times are flexible. Call 541-1234 or email [email protected] if interested

Volunteers Needed for the North County Women’s Shelter The North County Women’s Shelter is in need of volunteers to provide assistance to victims of domestic violence. Most critically needed are those willing to carry a phone on evenings and weekends and help women enter the shelter during non-business hours. Training is provided and volunteers are used only on an as-needed basis. Other volunteers needed are those than can provide transportation, court accompaniment, brochure distribution and fundraising. For information, please call 461-1338. And any victims in need of emergency shelter, counseling, restraining orders, or more information can also call 461-1338.

Two Women Launch SLO Green Pages SLO Green Pages was started about a year and a half ago by two local women: Rena Spooner and her friend Mary Lewis with the purpose of fostering sustainability in the County. They began their venture with a website, www.slogreenpages.com, with hopes that it would serve as a way for people to locate businesses in the area who are offering greener products or services. San Luis Obispo County has a multitude of businesses offering diverse sustainable products and services and you can find them at: www.slogreenpages.com. They are currently working on a printed version of their directory, which will also include local resources and other Green Goodies!

Correction In the last issue, we incorrectly identified Heather Mendel’s graphic as an image of Maya Angelou. It is not; it is the image of an unidentified woman.

17th Annual

Women’s Long Dance September 21, 22 & 23, 2007 Arroyo Grande Location

Send SASE for further information to: Church of Empowerment P.O. Box 76 Arroyo Grande, CA. 93421

Contact: Hua Anwa 805.481.0892 [email protected]

Free Women’s Support Group North of the Grade  A free, ongoing women’s support group is offered by the North County Women’s Shelter & Resource Center. The group meets on Tuesday evenings in Atascadero. Learn more about healthy relationships, signals for concern, and self-esteem. Please call 461-1338 for location and more information.   The North County Women’s Shelter maintains two 24-hour emergency shelters and a crisis intervention program for victims of domestic violence. The agency also helps victims obtain restraining orders against their abusers.   All those in need of a support group, lowcost counseling, emergency shelter, crisis intervention, or a restraining order may call the North County Women’s Shelter & Resource Center at 461-1338 during regular business hours. Those in need may also call SLO County Hotline at 1-800-549-8989 for services 24 hours a day.

Reach Out for a Helping Hand! Our lives are so full of challenges—every day seems to bring a new one. Whether world crises or personal crises, women are often the ones who are called on to stand tall, healing others along the way.  Now there is help! Community Counseling Center is forming several new support and therapy groups, as well as holding a one-time Holiday Blues workshop. Two of the groups are “women only;” the rest are co-ed. If one of these groups resonates with where you are in life, please call us right away. Action alleviates a large percentage of the stress we carry when we know we need a hand, but resist reaching out, and that action can be as simple as a phone call to Gina at CCC 543-7969 for more information, and to add your name to one of our lists. As soon as we get enough interest, you will be called by the group facilitator. Each group session is only $5/person/session. Now that’s a holiday gift to yourself that’s hard to resist! All groups will be held at Community Counseling Center; 1129 Marsh St.; SLO unless otherwise indicated. • Holiday Blues: Learn new coping mechanisms to avoid holiday burn-out! • Moving Through Divorce: Women’s Support Group for Divorce-Related Issues • Couples Group: Creating Loving, Intimate Relationships • Friends and Families of Military Personnel • Lesbian Support Group • Sunset Group: Adult Children • of Aging Parents

BRAVE New Wares’ New Galleria to Host Eco-Artisan Shows This Fall Brave New Wares’ (BNW) new 3,000 squarefoot Green Home Galleria at 1200 East Grand Avenue in Arroyo Grande features locally crafted eco-home furnishing accents, eco-arts and crafts, organic foods, and aromatherapy goods, all madeinsanluisobispo.com. Green by functional eco-art design, locally made BNW “social justice” products will create hope right here in SLO. Sales will benefit our homeless women and youth at risk, through funding of the FACES (Functional Arts Creative Enterprise Schools) and EDGY (Eco-Design Guild for Youth) Workshops. A portion of BNW eco-product sales proceeds (10%+) are pledged to CASA (Court-Appointed Special Advocates), now serving more than 110 SLO foster children. Receive Greeening SLO, The First Chronicles: e-mail [email protected] or call 481-4015.

Resources

September & October 2007 | www.womenspress-slo.org | Women’s Press

ABUSE

Talk/Listen - Emotional support

Caregivers of Stroke Survivors

Transformations Counseling Center

Women’s Support/Therapy v (general)

Adults Molested as Children Support Group (AMAC)



489.5481

Center for Alternatives to Domestic Violence



Free monthly workshops 541.7908

North County Women’s Shelter & Resource Center,

Consumer Credit Counseling Services



545.8888 781.6406



(inc. domestic violence support groups) 461.1338



545.8888



545.8888



545.8888



781.6400 www.womensshelterslo.org

Rape Survivors Support Group, SLO

SARP (Sexual Assault Recovery & Prevention) Support Group for Sexual Assault Survivors Women’s Shelter Program of SLO

ADDICTIONS AA Meeting

FINANCE/BUSINESS

800.540.2227



595.1356 www.mcscorp.org

Mission Community Services Corporation Women’s Business Partners



League of Women Voters

541.4252



438.3889



543.2220



Mostly socializing! Call 474.9405



[email protected]



http://www.slo.greens.org 544.1580



www.ywtf.org

PFLAG.Parents & Friends of Lesbians & Gays SOL (Single Older Lesbians)



534.9204



544.2266 and 434.1164



927.1654



782.8608



Women’s Recovery Home 481.8555

JOBS/CAREERS



546.1178

Cal Poly Foundation



781.4275 800.549.7730



541.3164



461.6084



929.1789



http://www.womenforsobriety.org 215.536.8026

SCA, SLAA & SAA (Sex, Love & Romance Addictions) TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) Women for Sobriety

CHILDREN & FAMILIES

Birth and Baby Resource Center



546.3755 www.bbrn.org

Childcare Resource Connection



541.2272 or 800.727.2272

Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA)

AIDS Bereavement Group (Hospice) Hospice of SLO County

Hospice Partners of the Central Coast

AARP 788.2643



Computer help: 489.6230



In-Home Support to the Elderly/Homemakers help with ADLs 781.1790 nursing help for the terminally ill 781.5540

Core Mediation Services



782.9200

District Attorney’s Office – Victim Witness Center



489.5481 [email protected]

Family Law Facilitator



free, trained in.home counseling for 60+ 547.7025 ext. 15

Lawyers Referral Services/Legal Aid Alternative

SPIRITUAL (OR NOT)

Mission Community Services Corporation Women’s Business Partners



595.1356 www.mcscorp.org



www.jobhunt.org 788.2601

Private Industry Council (PIC)

LEGAL

544.6334 [email protected]



544.9313

La Clinica De Tolosa 238.5334 La Leche League



543.5140



462.0726; ask for Barbara



489.9128

MEDICAL SUPPORT/SERVICES



544.4355 and 466.3444



227.4785



473. 2548



541.8666; ask for Beth



460.9016



534.9234 (LO); 547.3830 (SLO); 226.8669 (Templeton) Caregivers of Early-Stage Alzheimer’s 547.3830, 534.9234 (SLO/Los Osos)



781.1600



Paso Robles 238.9657



473.6507



541.9113

EMERGENCY/CRISIS



892.5556



www.slohotline.org 800.549.8989



Caregivers of Aging Parents

543.1481 ext. 3 for information



545.8888 or 800.656.HOPE (4673)



547.3830 (AG); 927.4290 (Cambria); 226.8669 (PR); 547.3830 (SLO)



226-9893



www.endometriosisassn.org



(for breast cancer survivors) 771.8640 www.enhancementinc.com



no or low cost reproductive health services 544.2478 (SLO); 489.4026 (Arroyo Grande)



434.2081 or 534.9234 or 800.443.1236



543.3764

http://SinC-CCC.blogspot.com

781.1790

Homeschooling in SLO County (HSC)







781.4058; ask for Susan Hughs

543.0388

549.9656; contact Shirley Powell

Sisters in Crime

549.3361



Alzheimer/Dementia Resource Center





788.2099



748-2676; contact Gloria

Nightwriters

www.slocareers.org 788.2631 or 788.2690

Department of Rehabilitation



A.D.A.P.T. (Aid in Divorce Adjustment Problems Today)





First 5: Children & Families Commission

EMOTIONAL SUPPORT

541-4219

Creative Writing Group

544.1414 (SLO); 748.9070 (Arroyo Grande); 434.2081 (Templeton); 927.4290 (Cambria)

546.3769

Temporary Restraining Order & Victim Witness Program 781.5821





The Creekside Career Center



Sexual & Rape Prevention (SARP)

Adult Literacy

http://www.cuesta.edu Jobline 546.3127

781.1847

Hotline

READERS/WRITERS





Support for Kids Coping with Domestic Violence

Younger Women’s Task Force

SENIORS

Children’s Services Network

Social Services

SLO Green Party

http://calpolyjobs.org 756.1533

Cuesta College

781.5821

Real F.A.C.T.S. (Forum on Abused Children)

NOW (National Organization for Women)





Partnership for Children

Democratic Women United

Jobline 756.7107

Cal Poly University

“A child’s voice in Court in SLO County” 541.6542

MOMS Club of South SLO county

Commission on Status of Women





Migrant Childcare Program

Code Pink

541.4252

544.2266

Overeaters Anonymous

POLITICAL



Gay and Lesbian Alliance of the Central Coast



Drug & Alcohol Services

544.4883

545.8412; Dawn Williams

498.2176

Compulsive eaters Anonymous, H.O.W.Concept







Casa Solana

534.1101

Women’s Healthcare Specialists

GAY & LESBIAN

HOSPICE

Cambria Connection (12 step support)



[email protected]

541.3211

Al-Anon

544.2266 (SLO)





Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA)



15

Pro Per Divorce Workshop Senior Legal Services

ALS Support Group (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) Alzheimer’s Support

American Cancer Society

Anorexia Nervosa & Bulimia Support Group Arthritis Foundation Cancer/ Breast Cancer Support Groups

Celiac Disease Support Group Endometriosis Association Enhancement, Inc.

Adult Day Care

Adult Protective Services Computerooters:

Department of Social Services:

Foster Grandparents.Senior Companions Senior Ballroom Dance club Senior Peer Counseling

Circle of Spiritual Enlightenment



995.1390; www.spiritualcircle.org



Sunday service, 10–11 AM; 772.0306



543.9452



Mondays, 7:30–8:30 PM; 772.0306



Every Sunday, Coalesce Bookstore, MB



Sunday Services 995-1599

Awakening Interfaith Spiritual Community Central Coast Jewish Historical Society Meditation Group

New Beginnings Church

Self-Realization Fellowship

WOMEN’S CENTERS/SHELTERS

Homeless Shelter



781-3993



543.4478



461.1338



786.0617



544.9313



549.8989 (crises), 781.6401 (business) www.womensshelterslo.org

Housing Authority North County Women’s Resource Center, Shelter Prado Day Center (for the homeless) Women’s Community Center, SLO Women’s Shelter Program of SLO

OTHER WOMEN’S ORGANIZATIONS

Altrusa International, Inc.



481.1039; Cici Wynn, President



781-0922; Karen

no or low cost reproductive health services 787.0100 (SLO); 773.4500 (Pismo); 610.8865 (Atascadero)



440.2723 www.campingwomen.org



543.9452



785.0132



546.3727 www.womenslo.org

2nd Monday, 4:00-5:00 pm 782-9300 for info

Central Coast Peace and Environmental Council

Eating Disorders Support Group



Safe and Sober Support Group



466.7226 (Atascadero/Templeton) 481.7424, 473.1714 (Arroyo Grande) 544.1342 (SLO)

Senior Peer Counseling



SLO 549.9446



471.8102 (SLO)

CALL–Concerned Agoraphobics Learning to Live Co-Dependents Anonymous (CoDA)



542.0577 (SLO) 481.5093 (Grover Beach) 927.1654 (Cambria) 466.8600 (North County)



543.7969



544-9313

Community Counseling Center Dealing With Divorce

Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance Group



927.3703



546-3774; free, meets weekly in SLO Hospice of SLO County (inc. miscarriage/stillbirth support) 544.2266 or 434.1164

473.6507

free, trained in-home counseling for 60+ 547.7025, ext. 15

EOC Health Services Clinics

Healthworks of the Central Coast

American Association of University Women Camping Women Hadassah.SLO

Long-term Care Ombudsman Services of SLO County

Women’s Network, SLO

Lymphedema Education & Support Group

OTHER GROUPS & GATHERINGS

Parkinson’s Support Groups

Planned Parenthood

Stroke Support Group



544.3399 or 783.2383



800.247.7421 or 458.5481

Compassion & Choices (or Final Exit)

Please send additions, corrections or deletions to: [email protected] or leave a message at the WCC: 805.544.9313. Last update 08/29/07.

Chairperson’s Letter

From Robin Werderits Chairperson, Day with Creative Women

Wet did it again!  Another great year of amazing creativity, great music, yummy food, and tons of fun as the Women’s Community Center held their annual fundraiser, Day With Creative Women, August 11th in Mission Plaza.  I’ve been planning this event for three years now, and I think each year it’s more spectacular than the year before!  This year we had a petting zoo for the first time ever!  Two miniature horses, one 31 inches high, the other 36 inches.  Children were able to brush and pet not only the horses, but many small goats, exotic chickens, and very cute bunnies. Vendors had a great time too; we had eighteen new vendors, and many of them commented that they have never had as much fun at an event as they did at the Day With Creative Women!  Our vendors are so diversified; from herbal potions, to dog photography, from decorative gourds, to handmade soaps and soy candles. Everyone’s unique creative style is absolutely amazing, and puts this show in a league of its own. The music is a whole other facet of the event. With entertainment scheduled all day long, we had African dancers, Hawaiian dancers, a comedian, and several wonderful musicians who contribute their time and talent to us every year. Come join us next August when it all happens again!

Entertainers Thanks and much gratitude to all the performers who donated their time and talents so we could all enjoy music and dance and mime at our sunny day at the Plaza:

Clockwise, from top left: Karen Tyler & Bruce Krumpnick, Jennifer Young & Travis Larson, Cheryl Aiona & The Motowners:  Romi & Frank West, Helen Edwards, Doug Frederickson, Sheri O, Wikólia & Na Mele o ke Kai (who thank their director and teacher Sandra Rodriguez), Jill Knight, Fran Dukehart & Triad. Not pictured: Marsha Butler and Highermove African dancers, Jenna Mitchell, comedian Vanda Mikoloski

Saturday September 8th 10am - 4pm

THANK YOU!

Celebrity Authors • Readings • Workshops Entertainment • Book Sales and Signings Kids’ storytime tent and SLO Symphony instrument “petting zoo”

Donors Thank you to all the businesses and individuals who offered goods or services to make our event a success:

Our sponsors: Wild Horse Winery, Mid-State Bank, Advantage Answering Plus, Altrusa Club of SLO, Digital West Networks, KVEC 920 AM, Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes, Sea Pines Golf Resort Net proceeds benefit the County-wide Children’s Summer Reading Program through the Foundation for SLO County Public Libraries

Call 546-1392 or go to www.ccbookfestival.org

• Von’s • Miner’s Ace Hardware, Los Osos, Andrew Ragian • Pacific Coast Home and Garden, SLO Ken Hayek • Subway, Paso Robles, Anita • Tiny Trotters, Donna Scarpa • AGP Video • Information Press • Gryphon Society women

• City of SLO Promotional Coordinating Committee • KYNS • KCBX • Core Mediation Services • Paul Rinzler • Angie King • Sue Maisner • Jan Potter

Thank you to all the vendors who came to show their wares!