The surprising way gun violence is dividing America
On average, there are 276 gun homicides a week in America. There are 439 gun suicides. All told, there are, on average, nearly 1,200 incidents involving gun violence, every week, in America.
This landscape of gun violence — suicides, homicides, mass shootings, accidents — is not evenly distributed. Instead, it plays out over geographic and political dividing lines — and these may help explain why individual Americans see the issue so differently. Continue reading
The child-free life: Why so many American women are deciding not to have kids
By Petula Dvorak Washington, D.C.
Oh, come on, millennial women. Just look at us.
Frantic and apologizing, overwhelmed between staff meetings and gymnastics, shamed for bottle-feeding, booted for breast-feeding, passed over for promotions, denied on the day-care list — isn’t this what you’ve always dreamed of?
No thanks, they’re saying, to today’s lovely vision of motherhood. And in huge numbers.
Call the NC General Assembly! “Please support this non-partisan effort when the bill is introduced in 2019”
Call the NC General Assembly!
Sample call script:
“Hello. My name is _____ and I’m a voter in Western North Carolina. I am calling you to urge your support for North Carolina’s ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.
The making of Meghan Markle
Bookmark the New Buncombe County Library Website & Events Calendar
It’s long overdue, but Dewey (get it?) have news for you! You’re going to want to check out the new Buncombe County Public Library website.
Politicians Spit on Veterans
By Bruce Macdonald
We have all heard stories of troops returning from Vietnam being spat upon. Whether fact or urban legend, the message was that, having participated in an unpopular war, the public did not honor or respect their service. When my brother returned from Vietnam, he told of immediately changing into civilian clothes upon landing in Seattle, undoubtedly to avoid the wrath of the anti-war public that he had heard about.
ON BEING PROJECT expanded in 2018 to meet tender, tumultuous moments
Friends, listeners, and comrades; beloved community,
I am happy to announce that as of next Saturday (May 12, 2018, the weekly email offering from On Being will be back.
We’ve been quiet these last few months while investing inside – moving out of start-up mode in our young organization and building the organizational depth we’ve needed to meet a tender, tumultuous moment. We are now the On Being Project. And I’m thrilled to introduce you to the beautiful, expanded On Being team.
WNC LEGACY: WRITING, LITERATURE, ENVIRONMENTALIST Wilma Dykeman – help preserve a legacy
Women Firefighters in a Predominantly Male Culture
Women Firefighters Say Abuse is Rife but Men Go Unpunished – The Guardian News May, 2018
and an historic perspective…
Fighting Forest Fires is Filthy Work – Lake Chelan, Washington State 1977
By Deidre Duffy – Asheville, North Carolina
Fighting forest fires is filthy work. Grit and grime, soot and smoke get in every nook and cranny, every orifice of your body. It doesn’t bother you much while you are digging fire line, dragging hoses or busting up smoldering logs.
Welcome to the Western Carolina Medical Society PROJECT ACCESS
About Project Access®
Project Access® is a ground-breaking physician volunteer initiative providing access to comprehensive medical care for low-income uninsured Buncombe County residents since 1996. More than 2,500 low-income individuals in Buncombe County receive healthcare through Project Access® annually.
Campaign for Southern Equality Statement on U.S. Supreme Court Ruling in Masterpiece Cake v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission
Asheville, N.C. (June 4, 2018) – Today’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Masterpiece Cake v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission represents a narrow response to the facts of this Colorado case and departs from longstanding precedent by granting a single Colorado business the right to discriminate. The Court did not rule that there is a right to discriminate: this ruling does not apply to businesses in other states and does not invalidate non-discrimination laws that protect LGBTQ people.
NC Women’s Nonprofit Creates First-of-its-Kind Statewide Leadership Model
Raleigh, NC – Women AdvaNCe – a nonpartisan, nonprofit dedicated to connecting, informing, and engaging the women of the state – is embarking on a unique leadership model as the organization enters into its sixth year.
Announcing the Empower Coalition of youth activists and allies!
Youth Empower is so excited to announce the launch of the Empower Coalition!
The Empower Coalition aims to empower youth to register and turn out to vote in the Midterm Elections in numbers too great to ignore. But that’s just the beginning: We’re coming together to advocate for legislation at the local, statewide, and national level that will create positive change for youth.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Dissenting For Democracy
in People For the American Way
In the dismal 2013-14 Supreme Court Term in which the conservative majority wiped out aggregate campaign contribution limits (McCutcheon v. FEC), undercut the power of unions (Harris v. Quinn), and approved lopsided sectarian religious invocations in public meetings (Town of Greece v. Galloway), one big consolation was Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s devastating indictment of the majority in her seething dissenting opinion from perhaps the worst decision of the Term, Burwell v. Hobby Lobby.
Pisgah Legal Services – #Now is the time to help our immigrant neighbors
Fear, uncertainty and isolation. Many of our immigrant neighbors face extraordinary fear, uncertainty and isolation in the midst of a changing approach to immigration policy in our country. Parents are anxious. Children are terrified.
Pisgah Legal Services assists immigrants in WNC through our “Justice For All Project,”– helping eligible immigrants secure work authorization and legal status. We also help immigrants secure food, housing, and safety from abuse.
Examples of Cases Involving Women’s Rights Statutes that were Not Upheld
Examples of Cases Involving Women’s Rights Statutes that were Not Upheld
Preface: Because there has not been effective constitutional protection by the 14th Amendment for many forms of sex discrimination and because there is no Equal Rights Amendment, there have been many efforts to target federal legislation to try to close the gaps, generally relying on the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. The Equal Pay Act of 1963; Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Act of 1972, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, and the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 are just a few of these laws. While they have significantly helped women, these federal laws are not comprehensive, many are not fully inclusive, and one has been partially struck down by the Supreme Court for lack of a constitutional foundation. Most critically, none of these laws has the force of a constitutional amendment. That means they do not cover everyone and they can be rolled back at any time by a simple congressional vote. *
*Excerpts from Equal Means Equal by Jessica Neuwirth, 2015
Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw on Race, Gender and Intersectionality
Three black teens are finalists in a NASA competition. Hackers spewing racism tried to ruin their odds.
By Perry Stein in the Washington Post
The three D.C. students couldn’t believe the news. They’d developed a method to purify lead-contaminated water in school drinking fountains, and NASA announced last month that they were finalists in the agency’s prestigious high school competition — the only all-black, female team to make it that far. Continue reading
A standing ovation for the Starbucks CEO who confronted the truth about racism in America
By Leonard Pitts in the Miami Herald
Racism is a white problem.
I know that many white people will instinctively and emphatically resist that observation. They’ll note the self-evident truth that prejudice is confined to no one culture or color. Having known more than a few African-American bigots, homophobes and anti-Semites, I’ll be happy to concede the point. Continue reading
Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity and Lowe’s NATIONAL WOMEN BUILD WEEK 2018
Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity and Lowe’s call on women across Buncombe County to get involved in their community during National Women Build Week 2018
More than 18,000 women construction volunteers unite nationwide to build up their communities with Habitat homeowners