Welcome to the October 2008 edition of the Laconneau
Monthly Newsletter

IN THIS ISSUE

• Book of the Month
• Featured Article
• Upcoming Festival
• Regional Events & News
• Contact Laconneau


BOOK OF THE MONTH



Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries
By Naomi Wolf

As the practice of democracy becomes a lost art, Americans are increasingly
desperate for a restored nation. Many have a general sense that the "system" is in
disorder -- if not on the road to functional collapse. But though it is easy to
identify our political problems, the solutions are not always as clear. In Give Me
Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries, bestselling author Naomi
Wolf illustrates the breathtaking changes that can take place when ordinary
citizens engage in the democratic system the way the founders intended and tells
how to use that system, right now, to change your life, your community, and
ultimately, the nation.

FEATURED ARTICLE

From the Los Angeles Times
Opinion

Palin: wrong woman, wrong message
Sarah Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Hillary Clinton. She is Phyllis Schlafly,
only younger.
By Gloria Steinem

September 4, 2008

Here's the good news: Women have become so politically powerful that even the
anti-feminist right wing -- the folks with a headlock on the Republican Party --
are trying to appease the gender gap with a first-ever female vice president. We
owe this to women -- and to many men too -- who have picketed, gone on hunger
strikes or confronted violence at the polls so women can vote. We owe it to
Shirley Chisholm, who first took the "white-male-only" sign off the White House,
and to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who hung in there through ridicule and misogyny
to win 18 million votes.

But here is even better news: It won't work. This isn't the first time a boss has
picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes
everything most other women want and need. Feminism has never been about
getting a job for one woman. It's about making life more fair for women
everywhere. It's not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for
that. It's about baking a new pie.

Selecting Sarah Palin, who was touted all summer by Rush Limbaugh, is no way
to attract most women, including die-hard Clinton supporters. Palin shares
nothing but a chromosome with Clinton. Her down-home, divisive and deceptive
speech did nothing to cosmeticize a Republican convention that has more than
twice as many male delegates as female, a presidential candidate who is owned
and operated by the right wing and a platform that opposes pretty much
everything Clinton's candidacy stood for -- and that Barack Obama's still does. To
vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, "Somebody stole my shoes,
so I'll amputate my legs."

This is not to beat up on Palin. I defend her right to be wrong, even on issues that
matter most to me. I regret that people say she can't do the job because she has
children in need of care, especially if they wouldn't say the same about a father. I
get no pleasure from imagining her in the spotlight on national and foreign policy
issues about which she has zero background, with one month to learn to compete
with Sen. Joe Biden’s 37 years' experience. Palin has been honest about what she
doesn't know. When asked last month about the vice presidency, she said, "I still
can't answer that question until someone answers for me: What is it exactly that
the VP does every day?" When asked about Iraq, she said, "I haven't really
focused much on the war in Iraq."

She was elected governor largely because the incumbent was unpopular, and
she's won over Alaskans mostly by using unprecedented oil wealth to give a
$1,200 rebate to every resident. Now she is being praised by McCain's campaign
as a tax cutter, despite the fact that Alaska has no state income or sales tax.
Perhaps McCain has opposed affirmative action for so long that he doesn't know
it's about inviting more people to meet standards, not lowering them. Or perhaps
McCain is following the Bush administration habit, as in the Justice Department,
of putting a job candidate's views on "God, guns and gays" ahead of competence.
The difference is that McCain is filling a job one 72-year-old heartbeat away from
the presidency.

So let's be clear: The culprit is John McCain. He may have chosen Palin out of
change-envy, or a belief that women can't tell the difference between form and
content, but the main motive was to please right-wing ideologues; the same ones
who nixed anyone who is now or ever has been a supporter of reproductive
freedom. If that were not the case, McCain could have chosen a woman who
knows what a vice president does and who has thought about Iraq; someone like
Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison or Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine. McCain could
have taken a baby step away from right-wing patriarchs who determine his
actions, right down to opposing the Violence Against Women Act.

Palin's value to those patriarchs is clear: She opposes just about every issue that
women support by a majority or plurality. She believes that creationism should
be taught in public schools but disbelieves global warming; she opposes gun
control but supports government control of women's wombs; she opposes stem
cell research but approves "abstinence-only" programs, which increase unwanted
births, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions; she tried to use taxpayers'
millions for a state program to shoot wolves from the air but didn't spend enough
money to fix a state school system with the lowest high-school graduation rate in
the nation; she runs with a candidate who opposes the Fair Pay Act but supports
$500 million in subsidies for a natural gas pipeline across Alaska; she supports
drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, though even McCain has opted
for the lesser evil of offshore drilling. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.

I don't doubt her sincerity. As a lifetime member of the National Rifle Assn., she
doesn't just support killing animals from helicopters, she does it herself. She
doesn't just talk about increasing the use of fossil fuels but puts a coal-burning
power plant in her own small town. She doesn't just echo McCain's pledge to
criminalize abortion by overturning Roe vs. Wade, she says that if one of her
daughters were impregnated by rape or incest, she should bear the child. She not
only opposes reproductive freedom as a human right but implies that it dictates
abortion, without saying that it also protects the right to have a child.

So far, the major new McCain supporter that Palin has attracted is James Dobson
of Focus on the Family. Of course, for Dobson, "women are merely waiting for
their husbands to assume leadership," so he may be voting for Palin's husband.

Being a hope-a-holic, however, I can see two long-term bipartisan gains from this
contest.

Republicans may learn they can't appeal to right-wing patriarchs and most
women at the same time. A loss in November could cause the centrist majority of
Republicans to take back their party, which was the first to support the Equal
Rights Amendment and should be the last to want to invite government into the
wombs of women.

And American women, who suffer more because of having two full-time jobs than
from any other single injustice, finally have support on a national stage from
male leaders who know that women can't be equal outside the home until men
are equal in it. Barack Obama and Joe Biden are campaigning on their belief that
men should be, can be and want to be at home for their children.

This could be huge.

Gloria Steinem is an author, feminist organizer and co-founder of the Women's
Media Center. She supported Hillary Clinton and is now supporting Barack
Obama.


LACONNEAU AUTUMN FESTIVAL



Laconneau Autumn Festival
Friday, October 31 - Sunday, November 2, 2008
Artemis House, Greenville, NC

The Laconneau Autumn Festival is a rich and deeply meaningful time. It is a time
for remembering our history, which extends from the dimly lit shadows of the
early Christian era through the difficult and dangerous medieval centuries to this
modern age. Through this festival, we celebrate the One we serve as well as all
those women of courage, our sisters throughout the ages, whose courage and self-
sacrifice have allowed us to participate in this rich inheritance. We remember
them not in sorrow but in joy, for this is the time of the inward journey, the giving
up of the old life in the sure knowledge of rebirth.

In full awareness of the disturbing changes that are taking place on a daily basis
in the world around us, never in recent memory has there been a time when it has
been more vitally important for strong women everywhere to join together in an
attempt to find a real solution which truly reflects women’s values, and their
aspirations for the future.

This year, we will continue to hold the Autumn Festival in the old way and in full
accord with the principles of our Tradition. Come join us in Greenville, North
Carolina for this wonderful weekend of comradeship, discussion, feminine
spirituality and festivities. Lend your voice to the power and love of sisters such
as yourself who feel a burning need to see change in this troubled world.

More Information on the Autumn Festival
http://www.laconneau.org/FestivalFall1.html


GEORGIA: October Events



Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Meditation 6:30PM
North Decatur, GA

Saturday October 4, 2008
Fall Annual Yard Sale 9:00AM – 2:00PM
Marietta, GA

Monday, October 6, 2008
Meditation 7:30PM
Marietta, GA

Monday, October 13, 2008
Meditation 7:30PM
Marietta, GA

Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Women’s Circle 7:30PM
Gainesville, GA
For students who have completed the Level I Course

Sunday, October 19, 2008
Meditation 12:30PM
Northwest Gainesville, GA

Sunday, October 19, 2008
Meditation 5:30PM
East Decatur, GA

Monday, October 20, 2008
Meditation 7:30PM
Marietta, GA

Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Women’s Circle 7:30PM
Marietta, GA
For students who have completed the Level I Course

Friday, October 31 – Sunday, November 2, 2008
Autumn Festival
Artemis House
Greenville, NC
For students who have completed the Level I Course

Atlanta Calendar Online: http://www.laconneau.com/CalendarAtlantaGA.html

Atlanta Region Coordinator: Lorrie - georgia@laconneau.org


NORTH CAROLINA: October Events



Greenville