In the weeks since the January 12th earthquake that rocked the island of Haiti, there has been a tremendous increase in adoption inquiries.  As the rest of the world watches, we cannot help but hurt and hope and desperately seek ways to help.  Pictures of orphans and news stories of destruction cause us all to want to grab a passport and come home with as many children possible.It is normal.Yet, it is not practical.  At this point in time, it is also not best. 

A few weeks ago, my husband Michael forwarded me the NY Times article, "Therapists Report Increase in Green Disputes" As awareness of environmental concerns has grown, therapists say they are seeing a rise in bickering between couples and family members over the extent to which they should change their lives to save the planet.

I swear that I will one day get over the miserableness that was the previous ensuing decade, but for now I will continue to harp on yet another failure of the previous decade. In January 2009, President Obama started the year off right by signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law. The Act righted a serious offense committed by the Supreme Court, which had ruled that discriminating against women by paying them less than men for doing the same (or even better work) was perfectly fine as long as companies kept it secret for a really long time.

Fashion Delivers Foundation was created in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita with a goal to organize the collection and distribution of new clothing and home items to hurricane victims.The group was able to collect and give over $4.5 million dollars worth of men's and women's clothing directly to people in the devastated areas.  

Is director James Cameron's "Avatar" a visually stunning film that's not to be taken more seriously than an afternoon's entertainment at your local multiplex, or is it another in a long line of films illustrating Hollywood's racial insensitivity?Let me get back to that.

How do we know the truth of what is happening in Haiti - especially those of us who are in the global north and west, our perceptions shaped by a tragic history, largely unknown, in which our governments have often been complicit? As the immediate rescue effort becomes a sustained task of recovery how do we know when ideology and naked self-interest warp news accounts and recovery efforts? 

Last week in my post, Keeping Your Balance While Helping Haiti, I suggested that you research organizations working in Haiti that you would like to support by donating, volunteering, or helping in some other way throughout 2010.  We need to support the people of Haiti now, but also in the future, when the hard work of rebuilding begins.

Howard Zinn, progressive, radical, teacher, activist and historian, has died at age 88. Zinn is widely published but perhaps best known for his work A People's History of the United States. This book changed the way people viewed American history, unmasking the founding fathers as slaveholders and pointing to the post-occupation history of America as the history of groups rising up for change -- from early labor movements to sharecroppers' uprisings.

I have to admit, I felt sick to my stomach when I read this quote from Queen Latifah:

At the end of 2009, I breathed a sigh of relief. I was too young in the 1980s to experience the wrath of the backlash against feminist achievements, but the revival (and worse, implementation) of Reagan-era policies and ideas in the first decade of the 21st century shattered my faith in humanity. I know that the arrival of a new decade and political cycle doesn't mean that progress is back in terms of feminism and gender (history is a pretty good indication that another anti-woman, anti-gender equality shit storm will hit again), but at least the attack on women's rights and gender issues is not relentless right now.

Last Friday, Jan. 22, 2010, marked the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, when the Supreme Court legalized abortion across the United States. This is not to say that abortion was not legal at all before Roe - it was legal in 1/3 of states before Roe, and it was legal in the US before the Victorians more or less ruined everything with their horrid morality issues. But don't get me started on the Victorians...

PROFAMIL Haiti has provided sexual and reproductive health services in Haiti since 1984. This organization is part of a 40 member organization network called International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region (IPPF/WHR). The program in Haiti has three clinics, but the ones in Port-au-Prince, and Jacmel were completely destroyed by the earthquake as you can see by the photo below.