Hand Made with Love

My family is full of crafty folks. My mom owned her own craft store (Virginia's Variety) in the 1980s, which was a great place to gather in our small town.

I'm crafty too - crochet and cross-stitch, mostly, but some minis and other things occasionally.

And I love to support crafty folks. That's why I'm taking the pledge!

www.buyhandmade.org

Let Them Stay!

Read more!


Have you sent your letter in support of the War Resisters Campaign? Time is running out for Kimberly Rivera and her family, due to be deported on Thursday, March 26. 2009.

The Hon. Jason Kenney
Minister of Citizenship and Immigration
House of Parliament
Ottawa, Ontario
minister@cic.gc.ca, Kennej@parl.gc.ca, kennej7@parl.gc.ca

Dear Mr. Kenney,

On June 3, 2008, the Parliament of Canada passed a motion calling on the government to stop all removal proceedings against U.S. Iraq war resisters, and to implement a program to allow them to apply to stay in Canada as permanent residents. As recently as February 12th of this year, the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration reaffirmed this motion.

This motion is supported by a majority of Canadians, including myself. Despite this nation-wide support, Stephen Harper and yourself, as Citizenship and Immigration Minister, have refused to implement this motion. Instead, the minority Conservative Government of Canada continues to deport war resisters, including the recent order that Kimberly Rivera and her family leave Canada by March 26, 2009, or face deportation.

Kimberly Rivera was the first woman U.S. soldier to seek refuge in Canada. She was deployed to Iraq and, while home on a leave, decided she could no longer participate in what she considered to be an illegal war. As a result, she came to Canada with her husband and two young children in January 2007, and their family was further blessed with a daughter born here in November 2008.

Although the Riveras had requested that their deportation date be postponed until June so the children can complete their school year, the Immigration Department has decided to ignore this plea. They have also refused to see the impact that sending Ms. Rivera back to the United States, where she will face certain imprisonment, will have on her husband and children. As a mother myself, I know it took incredible courage for Ms. Rivera to choose this path as the best option for her family. I would hope, as Canadians, we honour that courage by following the will of Parliament and allowing her to stay.

Sincerely,

Tracey Braun

cc: The Right Hon. Stephen Harper, pm@pm.gc.ca
The Hon. Jim Prentice (MP, Calgary Centre-North), Prentice.J@parl.gc.ca
Maurizio Bevilacqua (Liberal party immigration critic), BevilM@parl.gc.ca
Olivia Chow (NDP immigration critic), chowo@parl.gc.ca
Thierry St-Cyr (Bloc Québécois immigration critic), StCyrT@parl.gc.ca

Poetry for Brigid

It's that time again! Here's my entry for the Fourth Annual Brigad in the Blogosphere Poetry Slam. Happy Imbolc!

*****

Beatrice Cenci was a young Italian noblewoman executed in 1599 (with her stepmother and elder brother) by the Pope because she was involved in the murder of her father, who had imprisoned and abused them.

Alimitra David wrote a poem, Beatrice of the Cenci, that takes place on the eve of the execution. In it, Beatrice calls out to her mother (who died shortly after her birth). As it is a long poem, I am only sharing the first and last stanzas. The entire poem can be found in Impulse to Fly (1998).

*

I don't ask
that you
come to me here
to hold me and
cry as Lucretia and I
have done for
years I
don't ask you to
come and be as
we are a

voice against his
will like my
smallest finger
against the
stone gate of
the courtyard

Mother I don't
pray you back to
this place only
sing to me
strong
from wherever you are

oh sing to me Mother
I will climb your voice
hand over hand
high over these
robed men who
curse me

sing tonight
for tomorrow they
will cut me loose
at last to fly from this
motherless place
this place of
fathers and
fathers and
more fathers

*

Mother do you
love me do
you love me
broken as I am
do you love my
feet my hands
my face do you
love me when I
hear you and

do you love me
when I can't
listen when I
float
blind and deaf
in water with
no current was

it your voice in
my dream was it
mine calling names I
don't remember when
awake

this night will
become morning
I have heard
rumors of
morning of
sunrise and
figs ripening

Mother I call
to you not to
come to me here
only sing for me
strong
from
wherever you are

Visioning and Re-Visioning

Ms. Magazine has a list of quotes from prominent women, Vision for Change, about what they would like to see happen under an Obama administration. My favourite?

LET THE SURVIVORS LEAD. The violence-against women movement has to, once again, become a movement and not just a network of social-service providers. Violence will only end when survivors are seen as potential organizers on their own behalf, rather than simply clients of social workers, lawyers, judges or medical personnel. —ANDREA SMITH, PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN CULTURE AND WOMEN’S STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN; COFOUNDER, INCITE! WOMEN OF COLOR AGAINST VIOLENCE

There is so much change that needs to happen within the VAW movement. We need to reclaim the feminist analysis and address the root causes and systems that create, sustain and encourage violence against women!

Winter Solstice at Stonehenge

Hundreds celebrate shortest day