Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls
woman in black shirt holding red lipstick
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Happy Women’s Day!

The United Nations global theme for 2026 International Women’s Day is:

“Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls.”

This theme focuses on strengthening access to justice for all women and girls. It calls for dismantling discriminatory laws, strengthening legal protections, addressing structural barriers, and ensuring that justice systems work for women and girls in practice.

Wouldn’t that be nice?

The first Women’s Day was held in 1911 and in 1914 March 8th became the official International Women’s Day.  In 1917 the women of Russia staged a protest for “Bread and Peace” in response to the death of over 2 million Russian soldiers. They protested for four days until the Czar abdicated and the provisional government granted them the right to vote. Their protest started on March 8th. Women in the 1970’s again rose and fought for women’s rights and equality. In the West much was accomplished and women entered the workforce and gained more equality and legislative rights.

Over the years the movement grew and today about 27 countries around the world celebrate March 8thas an official holiday, and many more as an unofficial holiday. 

However, there is still considerable inequality. Women do not have equal rights or equal pay. Many women around the world are still dealing with forced marriages, slavery and horrible working conditions. In the USA rights are being taken away, not added. 

Celebrate who we are and what we have. But don’t settle.

“Countries with more gender equality have better economic growth. Companies with more women leaders perform better. Peace agreements that include women are more durable. Parliaments with more women enact more legislation on key social issues such as health, education, anti-discrimination and child support. The evidence is clear: equality for women means progress for all.” — Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (2014)

Postcards from Paris

La Sainte-Chapelle (Paris)
Commissioned by King Louis IX, and consecrated April, 1248. Gothic Architecture.

Place de la Concorde, Paris

Paris et ses Merveilles – Les parterres et le palais du Louvre (1973)

L’eglise de la Madelaine (1806) a droite, les grands boulevards.

Centre National D’Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou

Montmartre

Notre Dame

National Center of Art and Culture Georges Pompidou

L’Arc de Triomphe illumine

Montmartre

Searching for Home in Tibet

I was originally drawn to this book for two reasons. One, Tibet is on my bucket list and I am determined to go there. Second, the tag line, A Journey in Search of Home made me think it had something to do with being a Third Culture Kid. TCK’s never know where home is.

This book is not about Tibet or TCK’s. Haha. Laughs on me. However, it is an amazing book!

Several years ago I had explored taking a trip to the Upper Mustang Region of Nepal. It is a remote place on the Tibetan border. Upper Mustang was a restricted area and forbidden to outsiders until 1992. Even today one needs special permits to go there and there is a limit of 1000 permits per year. It was formerly known as the Kingdom of Lo and became a dependency of Nepal from 1795 to 2008, when it ceased to exist. The capital was the ancient walled city of Lo-Manthang. It is known for its rich Tibetan culture and history.

Rose Lane, an Australian, discovered her family home was going to be sold. She hadn’t lived there in years but when she heard this it hit her hard. She felt loss and grief. As she travels on horseback through this very remote area, she reflects on what that house meant to her and the important moments she lived through growing up in that house.

It is a journey of self discovery but also a real journey. She carries with her a copy of Michael Piessel’s book, Mustang: A Lost Tibetan Kingdom, which was published in 1967. He was one of the first if not the first person from the West to travel to and write about the area. Rose notices garbage along the way, motorcycles, things he would not have seen. There is now a semblance of a road that allows people to travel on four-wheel drive jeeps to the area but mostly people still go as trekkers or on horseback. She imagined herself as Freya Stark or Alexandra David-Neel, a fearless woman explorer.

Rose takes us through vast areas of empty mountain deserts. I wished there were photos because it sounded like it was breathtaking. The trip was not easy, it was rugged. No hot water, squat toilet outhouses, milky tea and noodles, and very high altitudes but amazing sights. Monasteries, palaces, prayer flags. All worn and many destroyed from the recent earthquake.

I was enthralled by it all.

At one point she says she would like to go to Timbuktu but it is impossible to get there these days. She contacted a friend about going there and he told her that she could try stowing away in a boat and go up the river. And here is my favorite quote of the book:

“There’s fearless and then there’s stupid.”

February Books

I recently read a couple of books on the Lost Generation. Gertrude Stein An Afterlife by Francesca Wade was excellent. If you are a Gertrude fan, like I am. This book covers her life but also tells us what happened after her death. Where all her writing went, what happened to Alice. Gertrude was pretty much a nut but she had a very interesting life. I found out that in December 1970, long after she and most of her family were dead, the MOMA in New York City put on an exhibit of all the paintings they purchased. They were able to gather them up from various owners around the world and put on a show called Four Americans in Paris featuring the collected art purchased by Gertrude, her brothers Leo and Michael and Michael’s wife, Sarah.

Gertrude and her two brothers, Leo and Michael

I managed to find the brochure from the MOMA website. The exhibit is impressive with about 100 Picasso’s alone, along with Matisse, Manet, Laurencin, Gris, Cezanne and many others.

I also read The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. It is a novel based on Hemingway’s first wife, Hadley Richardson. Of course Gertrude is in it as well as Fitzgerald, Pound and others. It was an easy and interesting read. I learned a lot about Hemingway and the others. I got the impression that Hadley was his one and only true love. It made me want to learn more about Hemingway. He was another character.

I read one other book that had nothing to do with Paris. It came with all kinds of recommendations from celebrities and is on lots of “lists”. This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel. It is a novel about a family with five boys except the youngest wants to be a girl. To be honest I thought this book was pretty ridiculous. But since it was presented as a novel, I read the whole thing. What topped it off for me was the Author’s Note at the end where the author spends three pages telling us about her transgender child and that this book has nothing to do with her personal story. Why? Who cares? There is no way I could ever believe this story was true. It was totally unrealistic. No reason to tell me it was not true and no reason to spend three pages doing it. Ugh.

Yes, the subject is real but the way this family handled it was truly unbelievable. My opinion.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Breakfast in Minnesota

It is 7 below zero F today. We are on a warming trend.
Never mind things have been boiling hot for weeks.

It is a sad day

We aren’t terrorists.
Domestic or otherwise.
We are mothers and fathers
We are sisters and brothers

Poets and authors
Dancers and singers
Teachers and nurses

We are you
We are the faces of America
We love our country
We believe in our laws
We cherish our rights

What is wrong with us?
Are we the only ones to see?

1965
On March 7, 1965, an estimated 525 to 600 civil rights marchers headed southeast out of Selma. The protest went according to plan until the marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where they encountered a wall of state troopers and county posse waiting for them on the other side.
The county sheriff had issued an order for all white men in Dallas County over the age of twenty-one to report to the courthouse that morning to be deputized. Commanding officer John Cloud told the demonstrators to disband at once and go home. Rev. Hosea Williams tried to speak to the officer, but Cloud curtly informed him there was nothing to discuss. Seconds later, the troopers began shoving the demonstrators, knocking many to the ground and beating them with nightsticks. Another detachment of troopers fired tear gas, and mounted troopers charged the crowd on horseback.

1970
Four unarmed college students were killed and nine wounded by the Ohio National Guard on May 4, 1970.
The shootings triggered immediate and massive outrage on campuses around the country. It increased participation in the student strike that began on May 1. Ultimately, more than 4 million students participated in organized walk-outs at hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools. The shootings and the strike affected public opinion at an already socially contentious time over the role of the United States in the Vietnam War.
Eight of the shooters were charged with depriving the student of their civil rights but were acquitted in a bench trial. The trial judge stated, “It is vital that state and National Guard officials not regard this decision as authorizing or approving the use of force against demonstrators, whatever the occasion of the issue involved. Such use of force is, and was, deplorable.”

This is our history.
We have been here before.

Have we become so fat and happy
Are we so detached
We don’t believe our own eyes?

It is a sad day.
Say their names
Rene Good – Poet, mother of three
Alex Pretti – VA ICU Nurse

Shame Shame Shame

Postcards from Hawaii

Honolulu 1978. “Concrete Necklace” that seems to continually grow, but will never obliviate – majestic Diamond Head.

March 1990

Aloha
We hovered over this in an helicopter in 1986 and it’s still going! We are not going this year – but that’s about the only thing that has not changed. Some changes breaking the heart. Sigred and I are “up Kula” – very like our old home – chilly. No newspapers – no TV – so just hope the rest of the world is ok.
Aloha, Katherine

Lava rom Kilauea Volcano meets the sea at Kupaahu, not far from Kalapana Black Sand Beach, on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Kihel, Island of Maui

January 1967. Waikiki Beach and Diamond Head – Waikiki Beach is the hub of Hawaii’s vacationland and Diamond Head is her most famous landmark.

This beautiful waterfall took its name from many rainbows seen when the sun catches the mist below the falls. It is located in the Wailuku River State Park Hilo.

1990
Blow holes in Hawaii can be found on Oahu, Maui, Hawaii and Kauai. Huge ocean swells crash against the shoreline and surge into a lava bubble with a hole in its roof, crating huge geysers. They can be very dangerous. Photo: Carl Shaneff 

The Parking Ramp Hater
black and white indoor parking garage scene
Photo by Haberdoedas Photography on Pexels.com

I was going to meet a friend in the parking ramp. She was giving me a ride to a Friday night event. She was late. I was standing inside by the elevators and I watched a guy drive by in a white van and park in a space that was not a parking space. It was just off to the side by some pillars. People have parked there before and blocked my space and I had trouble getting my car out or could not get it out. He got out of his car and walked towards the elevators. When he tried the door, he found it locked but he had a fob and was able to gain entry. 

When he came in I said, “Just so you know, that is not a parking space. It could block my way.”

He seemed confused and said it was guest parking. 

“No, it is not a space. If you have guest parking, you should have a space number to park in. All the spaces have numbers.”

He fumbled around and then called somebody on his phone and that person was clueless as well. Then he went back outside. When he came back in he said,

“I’m not blocking anybody. I’m not blocking you. You are just a complainer. You just love to complain. I bet all you do is complain. You f**king b**ch. What a f**king b**ch. Complain complain. B**ch You f**king b**ch”

At first I tried to explain to him what I was talking about but he was having none of it.

“F**king b**ch you are a f**king b**ch all you do is complain, complain”

“Yep, I just complain. Complain.”

Then he really started to get riled up. He was carrying a very old mangey tiny dog that looked like it was on its last legs. This big guy with a big mouth and a tiny sad dog. I refrained from commenting on that. Thought better of it.

He got right up in my face, “f**king b**ch, you are a f**king b**ch, what a f**king b**ch” and on and on. 

I finally looked him right in the eyes and said, “Are you going to hit me?”

I thought he was going to hit me, he was so riled up. Practically foaming at the mouth.

There was a split second flicker in his eyes, an almost undiscernible pause. He stepped back.

“I’m not going to hit you. You stupid f**king b**ch. What a stupid f**king b**ch.”

“Yeah, and you are nasty”

“I’m nasty? You are a nasty f**king b**ch. What a f**king stupid b**ch …” this went on for a while longer and I just looked away and ignored him without making further contact of any kind.

Eventually he went back outside and called his friend on his phone and I could hear him telling the person what a f**king b**ch I was.

I gave up on meeting my friend and went back to my apartment. I was shaken. I just wanted to get someplace safe. Away from the crazies.

I thought maybe I should have tried to film him or take his picture or take a picture of his van. But after seeing how the ICE agents react to that behavior it was probably not a good idea. Who knows how he would have reacted to that. 

An hour a later a friend checked and his van was gone. After all of that, he moved his van.

It was strange that he didn’t seem in any hurry to leave. I thought he would just get on the elevator and go see his friend. But he didn’t. He just stayed in the parking ramp. Why? What was he really doing? 

I’ve come across some crazies in my time. I go into survival mode. I try to calm them down. But the vitriol hate this guy was spewing was something new to me. He was truly a hater.

Over a parking space?

Postcards from Montana

Magnificent Mt. Gould and the Garden Wall are the backdrop for Lake Josephine. Less than one mile hike, or a short boat ride, take the visitor to the beautiful lake, one of 250 in Glacier National Park. The unique flower, Beargrass, is a member of the Lily family, and can be found in nearly all areas of the park.

Jackson Glacier. Visible from “Going to the Sun Highway” – the glacier was once part of the ice area of famous Blackfoot Glacier. It lies between Blackfoot Mountain and Mt. Jackson (10,023 ft). Sixty such glaciers still exist in the park

Built more than a century ago, Glacier Park Lodge is located on the east side, just inside the boundary of the park. Sixty immense timbers which were probably 500 to 800 years old when cut, were used in the construction of this imposing lodge. the huge 40-foot long timbers supporting the lobby are Douglas Fir, while those used to support the verandas are cedar. At the time these enormous timbers were set in place with their original bark still intact, the Indians dubbed Glacier Park Lodge, ‘Oom-Coo-La-Mush-Taw” The big Tree Lodge.
Artwprl bu Barbara Mitchell

Lewis and Clark Trails in Montana. In 1805-06, Lewis and Clark’s ‘Corp of Discovery’ went through present day Montana with the primary objective of finding a waterway from the East to the Pacific, and along the way documenting flora and fauna, and meeting area inhabitants.

Postcards from Indonesia

Indonesian Batik patterns

The main figures of Ramayana Dance.

Djanger Dance is such interesting that some of the tourists returned with a group Djanger dancers to perform in their country.

This Balinese bridesmaid was photographed shortly after her sister was married during a ceremony held in Tahanan on Bali’s West coast.

The Balinese Barong is a mythological symbol of the forces of good in the universe.