Herland Sister Resources

As you may have heard, this year’s Spring Retreat will be at Roman Nose State Park, May 16 – 18.  The retreat lasts from 5pm Friday until noon on Sunday.  Your registration includes lodging in a cabin for Friday and Saturday nights, a light dinner on Friday, scrumptious breakfasts on Saturday and Sunday mornings, Saturday night Potluck Dinner (bring or plan on making your favorite culinary dish to share), all workshops and group camp activities, and the Saturday night concert.
The concert will feature the band Covert Union, with members Peggy Johnson, Wendy Allyn, and Nancy Nesser.  The band is planning to play their first set in the main dining hall, and take the second set to the campfire, where they will play a more intimate set, with some requested favorites.
This retreat promises to be extra special, with several awesome and highly-accredited women stepping up to lead workshops, including Green Earth Spirituality, Self Esteem & Body Image, a Nature Walk, and a Vigorous Hike!
You are encouraged to bring any sporting equipment, games or crafts, that you would like to share with others.  The greatest thing about the retreat is that you can do as few or as many of the planned activities as you choose.
In addition to all the Herland Retreat activities, the state park offers horseback riding and a golf course (additional fees), biking trails, two lakes for fishing, and lots of nature to explore.  With so many fun activities planned, and time to just relax if that’s what you need, we hope you’ll come for the entire weekend.  If the entire weekend is not possible, consider coming for the day Saturday, or even for the concert.  We will start the concert a little earlier (7:30pm) for those heading home afterwards.
If you haven’t already, please send in your registration.  It is very helpful for planning and buying food when you pre-register.  Also – you get a free raffle ticket just for pre-registering!  After we receive your registration, we will mail you a packet which has the retreat schedule, a list of things you may want to bring, details about the weekend, and a map to Roman Nose State Park.  If you have any questions, please call Herland at (405) 521-9696.  Leave a message and someone will call you back.

The Justice Department’s inspector general confirmed that he is looking into whether a department lawyer was dismissed over a rumor that she is a lesbian. Assistant U.S. Attorney Leslie A. Hagen was informed in 2006 that her contract working in the Justice Department’s Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys would not be renewed for a second year — despite receiving the highest possible performance reviews. When NPR first reported Hagen’s case earlier this month, Sen. Patrick Leahy and Sen. Arlen Specter asked the Inspector General’s Office and the Office of Professional Responsibility to confirm that they were looking into Hagen’s case. Leahy and Specter — the top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee — received their response Monday night. In a letter dated April 14, Glenn Fine of the Inspector General’s Office and H. Marshall Jarrett of the Office of Professional Responsibility said they are looking into whether Hagen was “discriminated against in employment decisions on the basis of alleged sexual orientation or other improper factors.”

Sunday, April 27, 3 pm
Mayflower Church
NW 63 & Portland
Sunday, May 18, 6 pm
Crown Heights Church
NW 40 & Western
At the Death House Door is a personal and intimate look at the death penalty through the eyes of Pastor Carroll Pickett, who served 15 years as the death house chaplain to the infamous “Walls” prison unit in Huntsville, Texas. During Pickett’s remarkable career journey, he presided over 95 executions, including the world’s first lethal injection. After each execution, Pickett recorded an audiotape account of his trip to the death chamber. Donations will be invited.

No, not Ms. Hallmark.  It was, actually, the formidable American poet and women’s leader Julia Ward Howe who called for the establishment of the holiday and in 1870 wrote the moving poem printed below.  It was written in the wake of the Civil War, as a powerful feminist call against war.
Arise, then, women of this day!  Arise all women who have hearts,
Whether your baptism be that of water or of tears Say firmly:  “We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies, Our husbands shall not come to us reeking of carnage, For caresses and applause.  Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.  We women of one country Will be too tender of those of another country To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.  From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with Our own. It says, “Disarm, Disarm!”  The sword of murder is not the balance of justice!  Blood does not wipe out dishonor Nor violence indicate possession.  As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war.  Let women now leave all that may be left of home For a great and earnest day of counsel.  Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.  Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means Whereby the great human family can live in peace, Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, But of God.  In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask That a general congress of women without limit of nationality May be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient And at the earliest period consistent with its objects To promote the alliance of the different nationalities, The amicable settlement of international questions.  The great and general interests of peace.