TO JOIN HEAD TO http://calibodypolitix.ning.com/
This community-based network keeps young women of California (ages 16-25) informed about political and educational activity that affect their sexual and reproductive health and wellness. Through the CALIBODYPOLITIX network we hope to inspire, educate and empower more young women to become involved in protecting and advocating for issues/policy that keep California women of all ages safe and well. Please recruit your friends, partners and associates and urge them to join this network. Remember knowledge = power, so know what is happening in your community by becoming an active member of CALIBODYPOLITIX.

Dear Friends and WCC Family,
Our team was selected as one of ten teams nationally to receive a $10,000 Power in Numbers Grant from Do Something org and Mtn. Dew to fund our summer film program ImMEDIAte justice. The official winners are now posted at www.energizeyourcommunity.com. (ImMEDIAte justice is under the phase two winners.)
Read more about all the winners at http://www.dosomething.org/grants/power-numbers-winner
We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all of you who braved the registration process and long-haul of internet voting to support us. University of Southen California has offered us the use of their IML labs this summer, so we will use the grant money to lay the foundation for a long-term, mobile program in these communities. ImMEDIAte will weave together media literacy, mentorship, technical skills, and peer-to-peer sexual education.
Your support was crucial in making this happen. We will do our best to keep you all informed about the program and as soon as our films/web forum are completed, you will be able to view them online. For now, an easy way to follow ImMEDIAte justice is by joining our facebook group “ImMEDIAte Justice.”
sending love your way and thank you again for your support,
~Laney and WCC crew

visit their site to learn more about do something org!

Watch “Fidelity” and sign the letter to the state Supreme Court. Tell the Supreme Court to invalidate Prop 8, reject Ken Starr’s case, and let loving, committed couples marry:

http://www.couragecampaign.org/divorce

Saturday July 21, 2001 Many health researchers, doctors and others have come to believe that laughter is very good, if not always the best, medicine. Laughter is known to relax muscles, lower blood pressure and mitigate stress. These benefits would be quite enough to recommend it for the treatment of whatever ails one (in addition to other remedies, such as a splint for a broken leg and that sort of thing) but the list of alleged benefits of laughter goes on and on, including lowering levels of hormones that might suppress the immune system. William Fry, a psychiatrist with Stanford University and long one of the country’s most famed humor researchers and advocates for healing, has remarked that “laughter stimulates the production of hormones called catecholamines, which are thought to cause the brain to release endorphins, the same stress-reducers triggered by exercise.” On a down-to-earth level, it seems then that a good laugh will diffuse a stressful situation and reduce discomfort levels for everyone around. Next time you are in a high stress situation, think about how your favorite comedian might react in this situation. Humanist Tim Madigan claims, “Without laughter, life on our planet would be intolerable.” Humor is essential to our well-being. We live in a world with many problems, both natural and man-made. At its best, what laughter does is to put things in perspective. In addition to all those health benefits I listed a moment ago, consider that laughter also tends to bring down the walls of intolerance and improve the chances that doctrinaire positions can be reassessed more objectively. Laughter contributes to irreverence, which opens up new areas to explore by getting beyond a sense of awe that can impede critical thinking. Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote: “I would believe only in a god who could dance.” Madigan wrote that he would amend that to, “I would believe only in a god who could take a joke.” All of which leads to a most remarkable demonstration of the power of laughter I have ever encountered. In January of 2000, a doctoral thesis was accepted at Tel-Aviv University written by Chaya Ostrower entitled “Humor as a Defense Mechanism in the Holocaust.” The author demonstrated, on the basis of extensive interviews with survivors, that even in an historic stress situation like the Holocaust, humor was a stress reducer. Horrible situations were, for survival purposes, turned to laughter. Ostrower noted that self-humor and gallows humor fulfilled various functions, not least of which was a defense mechanism enabling victims to continue to try to survive a bit longer. Among the conclusions of the study were: · Individuals who had a sense of humor prior to the Holocaust, maintained it during and retained it after the Holocaust. · The use of humor during the Holocaust did not reduce the objective atrocity or horror; rather, it reduced them subjectively, and facilitated coping with them. · Humor was expressed in different modes during the Holocaust. In addition to humorous utterances and episode interpretations, there were also humorous songs, humorous reviews and cabarets, and caricature paintings and drawings. One survivor said to Ostrower: “Without humor we would all have committed suicide. We made fun of everything. What I’m actually saying is that laughter helped us remain human, even under hard conditions…I don’t think that it is possible for people in such situations not to have any humor and satire. This is impossible, it is a kind of defense mechanism…At the Ghetto we were looking under ground for things to laugh at, even when there weren’t any.” This research reminds us of the recent movie “Life is Beautiful”, a comedy about the Holocaust! To many, the idea seems perverse, in poor taste. Yet, as the film develops, it is clear that Roberto Benigni, the writer, director, and lead actor created a powerful film that manages to entertain, educate, and inspire with its potent combination of poignancy, and dignity framed in laughter!

Directed by Bryant Jow. Starring Clara Lee and James Tai.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=email_en&refer=muse&sid=aq.l988k3gOI

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eve-ensler-kavita-ramdas-and-zainab-salbi/open-letter-to-president_b_157705.html

On December 5, 2008, a few days before the 60th anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a group of global and domestic women’s organizations gathered in New York to frame a shared agenda for advancing global women’s rights. Determined to use their collective strength and expertise to work together to advance a global agenda for women’s freedom, safety and agency, they crafted the following open letter to President-elect Obama and committed to working together to see their vision come true in this century.

Dear President-Elect Obama,

As a group of women leaders who have given our lives to the transformation, protection and empowerment of women in the United States and globally, we want to begin by congratulating you. We are honored and proud to have you lead the nation during this historic time. We also welcome your call to action, reminding us of what we have always known — that as global citizens we cannot solely rely on any one administration’s ability to bring about change, but must be steadfast in pushing forward our own vision and agendas.

We represent a historic movement for change: millions of women across the globe with innovative ideas, influential constituencies and collaborative solutions. We are calling on you to ensure that women are equally represented in everything, from your administration’s infrastructure to its decision-making and solution building. We are calling on you to exercise leadership in dismantling the structures that perpetuate gender inequality, impede women’s full participation in society and thwart real progress for people around the world.

As war rages in Gaza, it is clear that the time has come to dismantle militarism as the dominant ideology in world politics. We must ensure that women take the lead in building lasting peace in the Middle East, ending genocide in Darfur, stopping femicide in the Democratic Republic of Congo, fighting the War on Terror in Afghanistan, and ending the war in Iraq.

Though the select-few women who hold leadership positions in this country’s political system inspire us; women represent more than 50% of the population and deserve more than marginal representation. We believe that in order for your vision of change to succeed, women must be in positions of power. While US women gained the right to vote 100 years ago, to date only 14% of the US Congress are women. This must change.

The major economic, security, governance and environmental challenges of our times cannot be solved without the equal participation of women at all levels of society — from the home to institutions of national and global governance. Women’s voices must be central in all major discussions including the economic crisis, overhauling our education system. Long-term investments in women’s education, health and leadership development are equally critical. Economic structures continue to marginalize women. Consider this: women represent two-thirds of the world’s labor yet we own less than 1% of the world’s assets.

In addition, more than 500,000 women die each year because of inadequate medical and reproductive care. Violence against women is a pandemic that determines women’s realities, impeding their access to education and economic self-sufficiency. This global epidemic is undermining the future of the world, as women are at the heart of all communities and families; we literally carry the future in our bodies.

Yet these are not “women’s issues.” In fact, such investments are vital to economic growth and the well-being of all individuals, communities, societies and nations. Consider India’s economic transformation of the past 15 years: The World Bank finds that states with the highest percentage of women in the labor force grew the fastest and had the largest reductions in poverty.

As policy makers, activists, researchers, and grant-makers we have spent our lives investing in women and know that these kinds of investments have immeasurable and fundamental impact for the better. Worldwide, women are uniquely positioned to bring innovative insights and creative solutions to global leadership forums. If we hope to improve existing economic, peace and security, and human development frameworks women must not only be included, but must be at the heart of the discussion.

We are calling on you to be the President who ushers in the time of women. Our vision of the future is one in which women and men are equal partners, standing shoulder to shoulder in confronting the world’s challenges. We welcome, with hope and anticipation, your shared commitment to this vision.

We represent more than half of the world’s human potential. And our time has come.

Sincerely,

Linda Basch, PhD
President, National Council for Research on Women

Mallika Dutt
Executive Director, Breakthrough: Building Human Rights Culture

Eve Ensler
Founder, V-Day

Adrienne Germain
President, International Women’s Health Coalition

Sara Gould
CEO, Ms. Foundation

Christine Grumm
CEO, Women’s Funding Network

Geeta Rao Gupta
President, International Center for Research on Women

Carolyn Makinson
Executive Director, Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children

Kavita Ramdas
CEO, Global Fund for Women

Zainab Salbi 
President, Women for Women International