Summer, in the minds of many Americans, begins with Memorial Day and ends with Labor Day, with a nod to Flag Day in June and a great celebration of Independence Day in July. There’s nothing in August, although the 26th of that month marks the enfranchisement of women in all states.  Read More 

An interesting thing happened this legislative session that I know of only because of one e-mail; it got no attention from my several electronic news sources nor in print. (Not surprisingly, as our one daily newspaper is less and less informative.) But it seems that Planned Parenthood had more success in the recently concluded legislative session than Displaced Homemakers, which is a first ever in feminist causes. Some background:  Read More 

I remember when Earth Day began in 1970. We lived in Massachusetts, and it was common to see soap bubbles in waterways because few municipalities had sewage systems adequate to dissolve the excessive phosphate that manufacturers put into detergents back then. The previous year, petroleum pollution on Lake Erie was so bad that water near Cleveland literally caught on fire. Richard Nixon, who was president then, was a paranoid politician who played dirty tricks on his opponents and richly deserved his ultimate fate -- but he did have enough sense to establish the Environmental Protection Agency in response to those of us who protested on behalf of Mother Earth.  Read More