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In Case You Are Wondering If You Were Raped

Reading Time: 3 minutesMany of us grew up hearing a message about how to avoid “asking for it”.
Lots of us heard the messaging about “what she was wearing”. Too many women have been asked that question. While as adult women now, we know better than that, those attitudes are deeply rooted in our psyches. We may not be as far past the shame as we think we are.

For reasons that are very obvious, we need to get crystal clear, with ourselves right now.
No means no and there is no consent without choice.

Here are some things to remember:

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Amazing Women Aboard the Titanic

Reading Time: 6 minutes“The Amazing Women on Titanic” features women whose lives echo today’s headlines, as well as our own everyday dreams. There was Edith Chibnall, first-class passenger from England, who had marched with suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst in the famous “Black Friday” protest on Parliament in 1910; crew member Violet Jessup who survived this and another ship disaster to write a no-holds-barred book about a working woman’s life at sea; ground-breaking Mennonite missionary Annie Funk, second-class passenger from Pennsylvania who didn’t survive, had founded the first school for girls in Janjgir, India—later named in her memory; and Dorothy Gibson, famous model and pioneering American silent-film actress, the highest paid of her time.

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Contractor Steals a Family’s Dreams of Home Ownership but You Can Help

Reading Time: 2 minutesThis local contractor stole $25,000.00 from us leaving us with a total loss of $36,000.00. That is $25k to the contractor, $7k in closing cost, $3k of interest on the construction loan for over a year, and $1k for insurance on the vacant lot. We contacted several attorneys, reach out to the state and county for assistance and was not able to reach any resolution in recovering close to $40k we lose.

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Brett Kavanaugh: At Least He Didn’t Attempt to Rape Everyone When He was in High School

Reading Time: 4 minutesIn case you’re wondering why someone might wait thirty years to come forward after a sexual assault, you might want to consider how it felt to read that statement by those sixty-five women. Some of those women she undoubtedly knew. Statistics tell us that out of those sixty-five women who decided to publicly suggest Christine Blasey Ford is lying approximately eleven also been victims of sexual assault. One in six women are.

I am not going to suggest all sixty-five of those women are traitors to our gender but as a victim of sexual assault, it sure feels like it. Here’s what I know about the man who assaulted me – he most certainly didn’t rape every woman he encountered. I’m sure he could have come up with a list of women who could say nice things about him. Potentially even sixty-five women would say he isn’t a rapist. Maybe he didn’t rape every woman he went on a date with. That doesn’t mean he didn’t rape me.

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Brett Kavanaugh: Settled Law, Email Theft, and a Shaky Relationship with the Truth

Reading Time: 4 minutesWhen Judge Brett Kavanaugh met privately with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) ahead of his confirmation hearings, the conservative nominee realized he was talking to one of only a handful of pro-choice Republicans in Congress. So, he said what he needed to say in one of the most important 1 on 1 meetings he would have in the confirmation process. Kavanaugh told Collins he sees the Roe v. Wade debate as “settled as a precedent of the court” and “settled law.”

“Settled law” seems pretty self-contained. It seemed to be a solid answer to the questions that swirl around Roe v. Wade and the future of abortion rights. However, it may not have been true. Last week a Kavanaugh memo surfaced from 2003 insisting that Roe shouldn’t be seen as settled law. Seems like Kavanaugh likes the words, “settled law”. It also seems like he uses them in different contexts depending on who he’s talking to.

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Please Share: Emergency Preparedness for Voting

Reading Time: 3 minutesCheck Your Status, Make Your Plan, Help Your Neighbors
It’s not that far away. The 2018 midterms are rapidly approaching. I’m not going to spend too much time pontificating about the urgency and importance of these mid-term elections other than to say the fate of our democracy undoubtedly depends on it. We can’t sit this one out because it’s inconvenient – and depending on who you are or where you live it might be very inconvenient.

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LIKEABILITY OF WOMEN: The Suffragettes, Hillary Clinton, and the Age of Aquarius Can’t Get Here Fast Enough!

Reading Time: 8 minutesHillary Clinton and her directness in those First Lady days were a bit unsettling for me as well; nonetheless, the backlash felt unfair—in a double-standard sort of way—and whether I “liked” her or not wasn’t the point. I defended a woman’s rightful place to be smart and determined and capable and a leader! And yes, she, and many other women making their way in business or politics would be called “pushy” and “hard to work with” or much worse—as we saw and heard years later during the run-up to the 2016 election. “Brace yourself,” Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton’s director of communications during her presidential run, wrote in Dear Madam President, “nothing draws fire like a woman moving forward.”

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