~ April-May 2007 Supplemental Page~

Fingerprint Cards for Mother’s Day
by Amanda Formaro

What You Need

Construction paper
Acrylic paints
Crayon or marker
Small paint brush

What you do

For smaller cards, cut construction paper in half. For larger cards, leave as is. Fold construction paper in half to create a card.

Flower Card
• Use acrylic craft paints to paint a child’s pointing finger. Use this for the center dot of each flower. We used pink, blue and purple for our centers.
• To make the petals, paint the thumb first, apply it to the paper. Next paint the pointing finger and apply it to the paper. Repeat this process for each finger so that there is a different finger for each petal. Repeat for each flower
• Use a small paint brush to add the stem, then use child’s thumb to create the leaves.

Heart card
• To make the heart card, begin by very lightly drawing a simple heart onto the construction paper.
• Next, squirt out some paint onto newspaper or paper plate. Have child dip the tips of their fingers into the paint and press onto construction paper following the heart shape. Use a contrasting color to fill in the heart.
• Use crayon or marker to write “Happy Mother’s Day” on the card.

Love card
• For the “love” card, have child hold their right hand in the shape of an “L”. Be sure it is their right hand and not the left. Paint the “L” shape portion of their hand and help them to press it onto the paper.
• Have the child make an “O” shape with their hand, paint it, then press to the paper.
• Paint the child’s pointing and middle finger for the “V” and press onto the paper.
• Using the child’s pointing finger, paint then press to the paper for the long side of the “E”. Paint the top part of their pointing finger to add the horizontal lines of the “E”.
• Use a crayon or marker to write “Mom is” above the word “Love”.

Helpful hints

• Have a damp washcloth handy to wipe off excess paint from child’s hands when changing colors. When finished with this project, have child wash hands with soap and water.
• Get creative and use whatever colors you like. Just remember to use colors that contrast with your construction paper to be sure it shows up well.
• You may want to have the child write their personal message inside the card before starting the paint process. It can be done afterward, but if done before there’s no risk of accidentally messing up these cute creations.
 

One of Our Own

Continued. . . I studied every Fred Astaire and Elvis Presley movie and practiced constantly until they finally let me in, and I'm still dancing and singing for God/Goddess. I have an album coming out in May that covers a number of genres and reflects my spiritual journey so far in music and words.

What do you feel are the primary reasons for your becoming an entertainer?
As a child, I moved into theatre and then began a radio and TV career at 17 that took me to Dallas where I was part of Celestial Celebrations and put on Solstice and Equinox events that brought in from 300 to 1000 people (in Texas no less!). I'm so grateful to Xia for her devotion in creating the Temple of the Goddess and for including me in her incredible rituals. I was obsessed from 2nd grade with the mythologies of all the countries of the world and it's so wonderful to be performing those stories right where I started - at the altar of our church.

When did you discover your personal philosophy concerning spirituality?
I love the quote that "Spirituality is about having a personal relationship with the Divine and Religion is for crowd control". I had a hard time with most of the concepts in organized religion because so many of them are based on fear. Fear still keeps me far away from the Creator's presence, and joy and celebration bring me closer. I found those in performing and it's probably why I became an entertainer for a career. I became a national air personality and a radio talk show host to convey this message and hope to find a home for it now that Progressives are finding a place on the air again. The environment and healing the planet have been a major focus of my work on the air because that's where I've always found peace and my own heart. The reckoning for the damage we've done to our world is becoming apparent every day and we have to reclaim our connection to Mother Earth if we are to survive as a species.

What prompted you to not just speak out about it, but take an active role in having the recent movie billboard removed, and what did that involve?
I'm a big believer that our beliefs are rarely so evident by what we say than by what we do. It's why I recently took a stand on a horrific billboard campaign that was plastered 30 foot high all over Los Angeles. We have developed such a tolerance for violence and cruelty but there is a time when we have to stand up as happened in the Don Imus situation and say, "We've had enough". The billboards for a movie thriller showed a woman being graphically tortured and then killed. I would have been appalled if it had shown a man, but I couldn't stand that women and children would be looking at this for the next two months. Even worse, other film makers would look at this and think, "How can I top that?" So I called Steve Lopez at the LA Times and began a campaign that would eventually have all the billboards taken down both here and in New York City a mere week after they were put up. The best part was a quote from the Studio President who said, "This can't happen again". As long as we're paying attention, as long as we believe we can do something (which I actually first thought I couldn't), as long as we're willing to try, it's a good chance that something will happen.

What are your dreams for the future; for yourself and for your community?
Besides being an entertainer, I'm also a speaker, writer, journalist, and poet and had a self help book published by Harper Collins. I truly believe that learning how to communicate what we need in a healthy way could revolutionize the world. I'm working on a TV show and a book on feminine sexuality that I hope to have finished this year. I'm a certified Theta Healer and my dream is to use all of my skills to convey these vital messages: that We have value, that we must value our planet and that there are only two choices: fear or love. Which one are we choosing right now?
 

Billboard's 'Captivity' Audience Disgusted
by Steve Lopez
Los Angeles Times Metro Section, March 18, 2007

Continued. . .Her sister Rachel, 11, was in agreement, as were their friends.

"There's kids who walk around here," said Taylor Shaw, 13, who didn't think kids should be subjected to such images on their way home from school.

"I think it's scary," said Cameron Olivas, 12.

Across the busy intersection of Overland and Venice was one of 30 billboards in the Los Angeles area promoting the May 18 release of the film "Captivity." The ad consisted of four panels:

Abduction, in which a terrified young blond woman has either a gloved or black hand over her face, as if she's being kidnapped.

Confinement, in which she's behind a chain-link fence and appears to be poking a bloody thumb through the fence.

Torture, in which she is flat on her back, her face in a white cast, with red tubes that resemble jumper cables running into her nostrils.

And Termination, in which her head dangles over the edge of a table, the murder complete.

Hooray for Hollywood.

I thought about ordering up a photo of the billboard for this column, but trust me, you don't want to see it. I felt like I needed to take a shower just from having been within a hundred feet of it.

On the upside, it's so insultingly violent and gratuitous, maybe people will be disgusted enough to stay home.

"I would not want to watch it," said Jonathon Orosco, a 15-year-old Hamilton High student who walked by.

Lora Cain and Roberta Raye seconded that idea. A Venice actress and comedian, Cain had alerted me to the same billboard at a different location — La Brea and Washington — and agreed to meet me there with her friend Raye.

"For any woman, it's flat out abusive to be forced to look at while we're trying to drive in this city," Cain had said in an e-mail.

As we stared at the billboard, Raye noted that you don't quite catch the meaning of it in one take, because of the progressive panels.

So you follow the story, naturally curious, only to end up feeling as though you're part of a savage exploitation.

"It's the kind of thing that goes straight into your subconscious," said Raye, who was determined to find out where all the other billboards were, so she could make sure her 11-year-old daughter would be spared the horrific imagery.
The message is that this is what you do with women," Cain said. "You kidnap then, you confine them, you torture them and you kill them."

Peter Wilkes, a Lionsgate executive, told me the studio had nothing to do with the ads that bear its name. Lionsgate partnered with After Dark Films. So I talked to Courtney Solomon, who runs After Dark. He said the billboards were a mistake. That ad was one of 50 or 60 concepts under consideration, he said, and before any were approved, this one ended up at a printing plant and up on billboards in L.A., as well as on New York taxicabs.

"To be honest with you, I don't know where the confusion happened and who's responsible," Solomon said.

I'm having trouble believing that two movie studios had not a clue that ads for their movie would be all over Los Angeles and New York, but Solomon said he ordered them all taken down after he received the first complaint and drove to see one of the billboards. He said he knew of at least 10 complaints forwarded to him by Lionsgate.

The billboards should all be down by Tuesday, Solomon said, carping a bit about how much it would cost him to have the ads removed. He apologized to those who were offended and said he hoped people don't get the wrong idea about "Captivity." It's not a slasher movie, he said. "It's about something that happens to 850,000 people in this country a year."

I told him I was unaware of 850,000 people being abducted, tortured with cables stuck up their noses and murdered.

"This movie is about a story of what happened to one person who is abducted," he said.

I guess that means there could be 849,999 sequels.

Can't wait.
 

Wiccan Symbol OK for Soldiers' Graves

Continued . . . I am glad this has ended in success in time to get markers for Memorial Day," Fox said.

The VA sought the settlement in the interest of the families involved and to save taxpayers the expense of further litigation, VA spokesman Matt Burns said. The agency also agreed to pay $225,000 in attorneys' fees and costs.

The pentacle has been added to 38 symbols the VA already permits on gravestones. They include commonly recognized symbols for Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and Judaism, as well as those for smaller religions such as Sufism Reoriented, Eckankar and the Japanese faith Seicho-No-Ie.

"This settlement has forced the Bush Administration into acknowledging that there are no second class religions in America, including among our nation's veterans," said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which represented the Wiccans in the lawsuit.

The American Civil Liberties Union said the agreement also settles a similar lawsuit it filed last year against the VA. In that case, the ACLU represented two other Wiccan churches and three individuals.

VA-issued headstones, markers and plaques can be used in any cemetery, whether it is a national one such as Arlington or a private burial ground like that on Circle Sanctuary's property.

Wicca is a nature-based religion based on respect for the earth, nature and the cycle of the seasons. Variations of the pentacle not accepted by Wiccans have been used in horror movies as a sign of the devil.
 

Irish Village Gets Its Harlot Back

Continued . . . In a statement Sunday, he said the Placenames Commission had confirmed its view that "An Dun" was the appropriate Irish version but that the alternative "Dun Bleisce" also had an "attested historical basis".

With both options available, Mr O Cuiv said he had published a draft order to change the village's name back, pending final public approval.

"Assuming no strong objections are received, I propose to make the order in four weeks' time," he said.

Local councillor Mary Jackman said she was absolutely delighted.

"I am really thrilled. Signposts had always been Dun Bleisce and I think it was bureaucracy or a little glitch in interpretation that changed it," she told AFP.

'Woman of substance'

Ms Jackman said the literal translation of the word may be 'harlot' but the woman who the village was named after in ancient times may not have been a harlot in the sense of the term today.

"I believe that blesc was not a derogatory term in those days. It would have meant she was a strong or powerful woman in the locality. No one knows anything about her really," she said.

According to historical evidence provided by the commission, the first mention of the name Dun Bleisce was in 774.

"She would have been a woman of substance. There was a strong sense of feminism in rural areas in those days," Ms Jackman said.

"The name was the Dun of Bleisce, or the dwelling or fort of this lassie, and she is quite entitled to have her pedigree embedded in the place name.

"Nobody has any problem locally with the word. It is the old authentic name."

Gaelic was Ireland's predominant language but was overwhelmed after British colonisation when English became the sole language of government.

Mr O Cuiv has been making thousands of orders reversing mainly anglicised place names.

However, he is also at loggerheads with another Irish town, Dingle, as a result of its name being changed to the Gaelic "Daingean".

One of Ireland's most famous tourist destinations, Dingle, on Ireland's west coast, voted in a plebiscite overwhelmingly against the government edict and demanded another change to "Dingle Daingean Ui Chuis", mixing both English and Irish.

Mr O Cuiv says the law does not allow that. Dingle is in a gaeltacht area - a district where Irish is specially promoted to try to save the language from extinction.

ABC News Online


Riane Eisler New Book Release

Continued. . . "My work has been moving more and more toward practical solutions," said Eisler. "Present economic systems, both capitalist and socialist, aren't solving our problems - from chronic poverty and environmental devastation, to the loss of good jobs in the US and the stress put on families by the absence of decent parental leave. We have to start with basics: that the real wealth of nations isn't financial; it's the contributions of people and nature."

The Real Wealth of Nations details a new strategy for an economic system that gives visibility and value to the most essential human work: the life-sustaining work of caring and caregiving whether it's done in the home or the workplace. Eisler cites powerful statistics regarding the real value of the unpaid work in households. A 2004 Swiss government survey reported the value of this work at 162 billion Euros or 190 billion dollars (US) - 70 percent of Switzerland's reported gross domestic product. Salary.com estimated that a fair wage for a typical stay-at-home parent would be $134,471 (US) a year. But while this is compelling, Eisler says that there is much more that we have to pay attention to.

In The Real Wealth of Nations, Eisler provides examples of how the current economic system in the US is achieving negative results: In its 2004 Global Competitiveness Report, the World Economic Forum found that the US trailed the much smaller Finland in economic competitiveness, which Eisler shows is largely due to the fact that Nordic nations, where women have higher status, invest in their human capital, starting in early childhood and the US does not. According to a 2006 CIA report, the US ranked 42nd in child mortality, behind Cuba and many other poorer nations because money is allocated for prisons, weapons, and wars, and not healthcare, childcare, and other caring activities.

Eisler provides in her book a structure for business leaders and politicians to transform our economic system into one that values human effort and nature and leads to improved levels of health and education among people of all socioeconomic strata, reduced employee turnover and absenteeism, environmental health, and greater productivity for businesses and our country. She provides hard evidence to show that companies with caring policies achieve a higher return on their investment for shareholders. For example, one study showed that offering employees childcare yielded a return on investment of 521 percent in four years.

Eisler, who as a child fled Austria with her family during Nazi occupation, has been on a lifelong quest to probe the human condition, examine the root causes of many of society's challenges, and provide solutions for them. Her other books include the award-winning The Power of Partnership and Tomorrow's Children, Sacred Pleasure, a reexamination of sexuality and spirituality, and Women, Men, and the Global Quality of Life, which documents the key role of the status of women in a nation's general quality of life.

Eisler holds degrees in sociology and law from the University of California, taught pioneering classes on women and the law at UCLA, and is a founding member of the General Evolution Research Group (GERG), a fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science and World Business Academy, and a commissioner of the World Commission on Global Consciousness and Spirituality, along with the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and other spiritual leaders. She is co-founder of the Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence (SAIV), www.saiv.net and president of the Center for Partnership Studies, www.partnershipway.org, dedicated to research and education. She is also the author of over 200 essays for both popular and academic publications.

The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics is now available at major booksellers everywhere. Click here to purchase through Temple of the Goddess at Amazon.com.