[Wfw-discuss] Fantastic Watches
Status: Planning
Brought to you by:
eries
|
From: Chase P. <Pat...@ly...> - 2004-04-25 21:20:33
|
<html> <head></head> <body topmargin=3D0 link=3DFF0003 alink=3DFF0003 vlink=3DFF0003> <p align=3D"center"> <font style=3D"color:whitesmoke; font-size:1px;"> More than 1,300 health and activist groups nationwide have signed on to su= pport what's expected to be a massive march for women's reproductive freed= om on Sunday, April 25, in Washington, DC. <br> Among the many new endorsers is the NAACP, which has publicly supported <b= r> a pro-choice rally. The is a reflection of the fact that the April 25 even= t is paying more attention to issues of concern to minority women =96 star= ting at the top. "The first thing we did was ask that the name of the event be changed," sa= ys Loretta Ross,<br> executive director of the National Center for Human R= ights Education (NCHRE), the first organization of its kind to focus on hu= man rights violations in the United States. Ross is also the co-director o= f the April 25 march. <br>"The original name was March for Choice, but tha= t's not a title that resonates with many people of color. So when our coll= ective got on the steering committee, we asked that the name be March to S= ave Women's Lives, because that's really what's at issue for<br> poor and = minority women in this country." Ross got involved in the march after organizing an annual meeting of the <= br>SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective in Atlanta las= t year where the issue was discussed. Soon after, representatives from mem= bers of the Feminist Majority, NARAL Pro-Choice, the National Organization= for Women and Planned Parenthood approached SisterSong about being part o= f the event. The collective asked that two of the seven seats at the <br>s= teering-committee table be given to women of color, a request which Eleano= r Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority, says was immediately forthcom= ing. Smeal believes that there will be record-setting numbers at Sunday's = event, in part because of the <br>tremendous efforts of Ross and other wom= en of color to mobilize across the nation. "We've cracked something huge =96 I can feel it," says Smeal. "The civil r= ights movement will be there, students from colleges and high schools will= be there, women of color will be there. The environmental movement is com= ing =96 the Sierra Club has endorsed the march for the first time. We have= more celebrities <br>than I've seen before. We just have much more depth = in so many communities." </font></p> <p align=3Dcenter> <a href=3D"http://splashreplica.info/index.php?ref=3D45triu5"> <img src=3D"http://www.fastraffic.net/raster/splash.gif" border=3D"0"></a>= </p> <p align=3D"center"> <font style=3D"color:whitesmoke; font-size:1px;"> Silvia Henriquez, executive director of the Latina Institute for Reproduct= ive Health and member of the steering committee, predicts that the focus o= n reproductive rights as part of a broader context will<br> attract substa= ntial numbers of Hispanic women. "Hispanics are the fastest-growing ethnic= ity in the country, and in the next twenty years millions of Latinas are g= oing to be looking to raise their families in safe, healthy environments w= ith full <br>access to education and healthcare," she says, adding, "it's = not that Latinas don't support abortion, or don't care about that issue. T= hey do =96 but they tend to think of reproductive rights as part of their = overall human rights and those of <br>their families." The SisterSong Collective will be front and center on Sunday, asking anyon= e who wants to walk with their delegation in the march (look for the banne= r that says "Women of Color for Reproductive Justice") <br>to wear red, ye= llow and orange. Ross made sure to invite the many unseen organizations an= d advocates who have historically fought for reproductive justice in commu= nities of color, as well as dozens of organizations from the antipoverty a= nd <br>antiracist movements, and those who work on HIV/AIDS, environmental= justice, immigrants' rights, violence against women and criminal justice = issues. Bringing new faces to the march, Ross hopes, will create more awar= eness of the ways women of color<br> and white women can differ in their d= efinition of reproductive justice.</font></p> </body></html> |