Herland Sister Resources

Holiday shopping that supports social justice is the theme of the 17th annual Oklahoma City Fall Peace Festival. More than 50 organizations (including Herland) will have tables and booths offering such items as fair trade Guatemalan fabrics, Nicaraguan coffee, African carvings, woven baskets, handmade jewelry, art work, plants, books, calendars, and more.

Oklahoma City Fall Peace Festival
Date: Saturday, November 12
Location: Civic Center Hall of Mirrors, Downtown OKC
Time: 10 am-4 pm (come and go as you please)
Admission: Free

The all-day live entertainment features exceptional local musicians, including Mary Reynolds and Louise Goldberg and other local bands, and family-approved belly dancing. There is face-painting for children and a variety of refreshments will be available at various tables. Healthy sandwiches will be offered by the Backdoor Coffee House. Admission is free and parking at the street meters is free on weekends.

Participating organizations include Herland Sister Resources, Amnesty International, Sierra Club, United Nations Association, Bread for the World, Esperanza en Accion, Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Skyline Urban Ministry, OK Gay & Lesbian Political Caucus, Human Rights Alliance, Vegetarians of OKC, Conscientious Objectors Coalition, and more. Call the Peace House at (405) 524-5577 for more information.

Our annual Fall Retreat is right around the corner. Peggy Johnson and Nancy Scott are back to provide the entertainment, plus there will be indoor and outdoor game tournaments, pumpkin carving, a Halloween costume contest, and lots more.

Date: Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Oct 28-30
Location: Eufaula State Park Group Camp
Registration: Sliding scale $15-$60

Located conveniently 3 miles south of I-40 on SH 150, Eufaula is just 2 hours from OKC and even closer to Tulsa and Muskogee. Special activities planned will include the “ghosts of retreats past,” omelets for Saturday brunch, a drumming circle, and tie-dyeing. And remember, dogs are welcome but must be on a leash! Make this Fall something special to remember. Call Laura at 286-0079 to register today!

“We are not legislating, honorable members, for people far away and not known by us. We are enlarging the opportunity for happiness to our neighbors, our co-workers, our friends and, our families: at the same time we are making a more decent society, because a decent society is one that does not humiliate its members.

“Today, the Spanish society answers to a group of people who, during many years have been humiliated, whose rights have been ignored, whose dignity has been offended, their identity denied, and their liberty oppressed.

“Today the Spanish society grants them the respect they deserve, recognizes their rights, restores their dignity, affirms their identity, and restores their liberty. It is true that they are only a minority, but their triumph is everyone’s triumph. It is also the triumph of those who oppose this law, even though they do not know this yet: because it is the triumph of Liberty. Their victory makes all of us (even those who oppose the law) better people, it makes our society better.

“Honorable members, there is no damage to marriage or to the concept of family in allowing two people of the same sex to get married. To the contrary, what happens is this class of Spanish citizens get the potential to organize their lives with the rights and privileges of marriage and family. There is no danger to the institution of marriage, but precisely the opposite: this law enhances and respects marriage.

“Today, conscious that some people and institutions are in a profound disagreement with this change in our civil law, I wish to express that, like other reforms to the marriage code that preceded this one, this law will generate no evil, that its only consequence will be the avoiding of senseless suffering of decent human beings. A society that avoids senseless suffering of decent human beings is a better society. With the approval of this Bill, our country takes another step in the path of liberty and tolerance that was begun by the democratic change of government. Our children will look at us incredulously if we tell them that many years ago, our mothers had less rights than our fathers, or if we tell them that people had to stay married against their will even though they were unable to share their lives.

“Today we can offer them a beautiful lesson: every right gained, each access to liberty has been the result of the struggle and sacrifice of many people that deserve our recognition and praise. Today we demonstrate with this Bill that societies can better themselves and can cross barriers and create tolerance by putting a stop to the unhappiness and humiliation of some of our citizens.

The University of Central Oklahoma presents Women Who Eat Leaves, recent work by Asia, Abigail Chodosh, Elia Woods and Connie Seabourn, October 13 through November 13, 2006, at the Donna Nigh Gallery Exhibit Hall, Nigh University Center, College of Arts, Media & Design, University of Central Oklahoma.

These diversely talented artists will be showing works in metal sculpture, fiber art, painting, drawings, and natural dyed fibers. Featured works will include wire animal sculptures by Asia and watercolors, acrylics and handmade books from Seabourn. Woods will exhibit her award-winning quilts made with alternative photographic images along with other fiber art creations, and Chodosh will display colorful silk sheets made with natural dyes in vibrant colors, many of which will be hung from the ceiling.

The group members are all vegetarians, and include avid gardeners, former La Leche League Leaders, and a grandmother. They all have different reasons for being vegetarians - including health reasons, ethical issues, and ecological issues.

For more information, contact the UCO Galleries and Museums Office at (405) 974-2432.

The California Assembly voted in early September to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry, making the state’s legislature the first in the nation to deliberately approve same-sex marriages and handing a political hot potato to an already beleaguered Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R). The governor followed through on his promise and promptly vetoed the bill.

After a vehement floor debate in which legislators quoted the Pledge of Allegiance and accused each other of abusing moral principles, the state Assembly passed the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, which recasts the definition of marriage as between “two persons,” not between a man and a woman. The state Senate passed the bill last week.

Advocates of the bill, including Christine Chavez-Delgado, granddaughter of Cesar Chavez and an organizer of the United Farm Workers of America, and Willie L. Brown, former mayor of San Francisco, argued that the bill fit into California’s sense of itself as a trendsetter for the rest of the country. In 1948, California’s Supreme Court became the first state court to strike down a law prohibiting interracial marriage. And California in 1976 was among the first states to repeal sodomy statues.

Californians had passed a defense-of-marriage act defining marriage as between a man and a woman in 2000, and the state, which mixes freewheeling Marin County with culturally conservative Orange County, has emerged as a front line in the battle over the bedroom ever since.