A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power covers some tough to read subjects such as Female Circumcision and trafficking of slaves. Many of the atrocities brought up in this book have been in the news, but not to the degree that is talked about in this book. Jimmy Carter brings focus to human trafficking, rape, prison issues, health issues, and more, in the US and other countries. He addresses all countries, all religion, all cultures. He does not "pussy foot" around any subject, and includes issues that still exist in the USA today.
Jimmy Carter, a devout Christian, looks at quotes from the bible that have been misinterpreted or "selectively" interpreted. He, also, looks at Hindu, Jewish, and Muslim interpretations. One thing I did learn, despite his strong faith and ties to the Southern Baptist Denomination, he chose to leave it due to discrimination practices he saw being practiced.
His strong faith, human rights activism, and humanitarian work have allowed him to make a strong argument for taking action against discrimination and the many traumatic activities that come out of that discrimination.

This book is a tough read, but is a MUST READ.

This is taken from "Blogging for Dummies" by Amy Lupold Blair and Susannah Gardner.

 

I thought it might supplement a lot of what people were saying when speaking out against Anne Rice's petition to Amazon about adopting an all "real name" policy.

 

Everyone has the right to privacy, and everyone has the right to choose whether they want to have a penname or not.  Regardless of their particular role or background.

 

It doesn't make sense to deny the rights of a person in one area over another.  Equal protections are key, and that's what makes this petition by Rice so troubling, among other notations.

In 2013, it seems a little dated, until you remember that one or two wrong turns in elections and all the gains are at risk. If you don't think a study and awareness of the reasons for gay rights is still necessary, look at all the years the government spent spying on gays and lesbians for no other reason than they were gays and lesbians. Knowledge, vigilance, and voting equals freedom.

Woo hoo! This is me in my happy place!

 

Senate Approves Ban on Antigay Bias in Workplace

The Senate on Thursday approved a ban on discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation and gender identity, voting 64 to 32 in a bipartisan show of support that is rare for any social issue. It was the first time in the institution’s history that it had voted to include gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in the country’s nondiscrimination law.

Despite initial wariness among many Republicans about the bill, 10 of them voted with 54 members of the Democratic majority to approve the measure.

Winner! First person on goodreads to read this book. Is there some irony in the fact that I'm not a woman, and that I'm from Utah where they voted against ERA? (We were fed such propaganda: like that ERA would force everyone's mothers into the draft and send them to Vietnam. On page 43 the ratification map shows my area of the West in the same colors as the Deep South. Good company for civil rights.)

This book is piled deep with information, and Gelletly is family with one of the movement's founders which is a great recommendation for her personal investment in the test. This thick text does not shy away from lengthy descriptions of legislative process and piles of dates and names--yay! But it is one-stop shopping for someone doing research on the topic and needing basic answers. The book focused exclusively on the movement, and not on the cultural rhetoric that worked actively to justify the inequalities. That was a choice of focus, but also a shortcoming in terms of depth.

Copious source notes make it easy to trace quotations back to original sources. It would be nice if this extended beyond just the quoted material. Timeline, books for further study, and a handful of Internet resources round things out. Just by the good source notes alone, this book does what most info books should do in helping people go to the originals.

Does this book duplicate what anyone could find on the net? The wikipedia article is serious competition. This book wins by bulking up with relevant photos and cultural artifacts, but you could get to these quickly with google images or by following links within the wikipedia article, so maybe a draw?