(The hunt for the Higgs boson can be traced back to Noether's insight on symmetries. https://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/rmcM8i9waOXBFdweDzHgY9AHjDs=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/3529274/147756618.0.jpg)


Emmy Noether revolutionized mathematics — and still faced sexism all her life


https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/bYFrpsY3NK7LabGYg3sp_AntXsI=/0x251:1500x1251/639x426/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/45960930/15012416233_062efe29b6_o.0.0.jpg
Painting of Emmy Noether by Jennifer Mondfrans from her series, "At Least I Have You, To Remember Me" (Maia Weinstock/Flickr)

Emmy Noether was one of the most brilliant and important mathematicians of the 20th century. She altered the course of modern physics. Einstein called her a genius. Yet today, almost nobody knows who she is. In 1915, Noether uncovered one of science's most extraordinary ideas, proving that every symmetry found in nature has a corresponding law of conservation. So, for example, the fact that physical laws work the same today as they did yesterday turns out to be related to the notion that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Noether's theorem is a deep insight that underpins much of modern-day physics and things like the search for the Higgs boson.

"Despite her brilliance, universities didn't want to hire a woman"

Even so, as one of the very few female mathematicians working in Germany in her day, Noether faced rampant sexism. As a young woman, she wasn't allowed to formally attend university. Even after she proved herself a first-rate mathematician, male faculties were reluctant to hire her. If that wasn't enough, in 1933, the Nazis ousted her for being Jewish. Even today, she remains all too obscure.

That should change. So it’s welcome news that Google is honoring Noether today with a Google Doodle on her 133rd birthday. To celebrate, here's an introduction to the life and work of a woman Albert Einstein once called "the most significant creative mathematical genius thus far produced."
Noether was brilliant — yet universities wouldn't hire her

(<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noether%27s_theorem#/media/File:Noether.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a>



. . . .

Her work got noticed, and in 1915, the renowned mathematician David Hilbert lobbied for the University of Göttingen to hire her. But other male faculty members blocked the move, with one arguing: "What will our soldiers think when they return to the university and find that they are required to learn at the feet of a woman?" So Hilbert had to take Noether on as a guest lecturer for four years. She wasn't paid, and her lectures were often billed under Hilbert's name. She didn't get a full-time position until 1919.

That didn't stop Noether from doing trailblazing work in a number of areas, especially abstract algebra. Rather than focusing on real numbers and polynomials — the algebraic equations we learn in high school — Noether was interested in abstract structures, like rings or groups, that obey certain rules. Abstract algebra was one of the big mathematical innovations of the 20th century, and Noether was hugely influential in shaping it.
. . . . .

The hunt for the Higgs boson can be traced back to Noether's insight on symmetries. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images)

To put it very simply, what Noether's theorems show is that anytime there’s a continuous symmetry in a physical system, there’s a related law of conservation.**

Here's an example: Let's say we conduct a scientific experiment today. If we then conduct the exact same experiment tomorrow, we'd expect the laws of physics to behave in exactly the same way. This is "time symmetry." Noether showed that if a system has time symmetry, then energy can't be created or destroyed in that system — we get the law of conservation of energy.

"Noether had linked together concepts as different as energy and time"

Likewise, if we do an experiment, and then do the exact same experiment again 20 miles to the east, that shouldn't make any difference — the laws of physics should work the exact same way in both places. This is known as "translation symmetry." Noether showed that translation symmetry leads to the law of conservation of momentum.

. . . . .

http://www.vox.com/2015/3/23/8274777/emmy-noether


EMMY NOETHER
Born: Erlangen, Germany, March 23, 1882
Died: Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, April 14, 1935
Creative Mathematical Genius



. . . .


Noether worked at the Mathematical Institute of Erlangen, without pay or title, from 1908 to 1915. It was during this time that she collaborated with the algebraist Ernst Otto Fischer and started work on the more general, theoretical algebra for which she would later be recognized. She also worked with the prominent mathematicians Hermann Minkowski, Felix Klein, and David Hilbert, whom she had met at Göttingen. In 1915 she joined the Mathematical Institute in Göttingen and started working with Klein and Hilbert on Einstein's general relativity theory. In 1918 she proved two theorems that were basic for both general relativity and elementary particle physics. One is still known as "Noether's Theorem."

But she still could not join the faculty at Göttingen University because of her gender. Noether was only allowed to lecture under Hilbert's name, as his assistant. Hilbert and Albert Einstein interceded for her, and in 1919 she obtained her permission to lecture, although still without a salary. In 1922 she became an "associate professor without tenure" and began to receive a small salary. Her status did not change while she remained at Göttingen, owing not only to prejudices against women, but also because she was a Jew, a Social Democrat, and a pacifist.*

During the 1920s Noether did foundational work on abstract algebra, working in group theory, ring theory, group representations, and number theory. Her mathematics would be very useful for physicists and crystallographers, but it was controversial then. There was debate whether mathematics should be conceptual and abstract (intuitionist) or more physically based and applied (constructionist). Noether's conceptual approach to algebra led to a body of principles unifying algebra, geometry, linear algebra, topology, and logic.

In 1928-29 she was a visiting professor at the University of Moscow. In 1930, she taught at Frankfurt. The International Mathematical Congress in Zurich asked her to give a plenary lecture in 1932, and in the same year she was awarded the prestigious Ackermann-Teubner Memorial Prize in mathematics.

. . . .

https://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/noether.html

. . . .

The Mighty Mathematician You’ve Never Heard Of
.. . .
In 1915 Einstein published his general theory of relativity. The Göttingen math department fell “head over ear” with it, in the words of one observer, and Noether began applying her invariance work to some of the complexities of the theory. That exercise eventually inspired her to formulate what is now called Noether’s theorem, an expression of the deep tie between the underlying geometry of the universe and the behavior of the mass and energy that call the universe home.

What the revolutionary theorem says, in cartoon essence, is the following: Wherever you find some sort of symmetry in nature, some predictability or homogeneity of parts, you’ll find lurking in the background a corresponding conservation — of momentum, electric charge, energy or the like. If a bicycle wheel is radially symmetric, if you can spin it on its axis and it still looks the same in all directions, well, then, that symmetric translation must yield a corresponding conservation. By applying the principles and calculations embodied in Noether’s theorem, you’ll see that it is angular momentum, the Newtonian impulse that keeps bicyclists upright and on the move.

Some of the relationships to pop out of the theorem are startling, the most profound one linking time and energy. Noether’s theorem shows that a symmetry of time — like the fact that whether you throw a ball in the air tomorrow or make the same toss next week will have no effect on the ball’s trajectory — is directly related to the conservation of energy, our old homily that energy can be neither created nor destroyed but merely changes form.

The connections that Noether forged are “critical” to modern physics, said Lisa Randall, a professor of theoretical particle physics and cosmology at Harvard. “Energy, momentum and other quantities we take for granted gain meaning and even greater value when we understand how these quantities follow from symmetry in time and space.”

. . . .



http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/science/emmy-noether-the-most-significant-mathematician-youve-never-heard-of.html?_r=0

April 12
This Day in Women's History


1229 - Queen Blanche of Castile & earl Raymond VII van Toulouse sign peace

1555 – Joanna of Castile (b. 1479)

1834: Harriet Burbank Rogers born (educator, pioneer in instruction for deaf)

1841: Jennie Maria Drinkwater born (author)

1844: Mollie Evelyn Moore Davis born (poet and editor)

1866 – Princess Viktoria of Prussia (d. 1929)

1868 – Ella Gaunt Smith, Innovative American doll manufacturer (d. 1932)

1883: Imogen Cunningham born (photographer)

1898: Eleanor Touroff Glueck born (social worker, criminologist, studied juvenile offenders)

1904: Lily Pons born (sopranio, actress)

1908 – Ida Pollock, British writer (d. 2013)

1912 – Clara Barton, American nurse and humanitarian, founded the American Red Cross (b. 1821)

1917 – Helen Forrest, American singer (d. 1999)

1923 – Ann Miller, American actress, singer, and dancer (d. 2004)

1929 – Elspet Gray, Scottish actress (d. 2013)

1933 – Montserrat Caballé, Spanish soprano

1935 – Wendy Savage, English gynaecologist and campaigner

1944 – Lisa Jardine, English historian

1948 – Lois Reeves, American singer (Martha and the Vandellas)

1961 – Lisa Gerrard, Australian singer-songwriter (Dead Can Dance)

1961 – Magda Szubanski, English-Australian actress

1963 – Lydia Cacho, Mexican journalist

1964 – Amy Ray, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Indigo Girls)

1967 – Sarah Cracknell, English singer-songwriter (Saint Etienne)

1968 – Alicia Coppola, American actress

1971 – Shannen Doherty, American actress, producer, and director

1973 – Claudia Jordan, American model and actress

1973 – Christina Moore, American actress

1974 – Belinda Emmett, Australian actress and singer (d. 2006)

1974 – Marley Shelton, American actress

1975 – Josephine Baker, American-French actress, singer, and dancer (b. 1906)

1977 – Sarah Jane Morris, American actress

1977 – Jordana Spiro, American actress

1979 – Claire Danes, American actress

1979 – Jennifer Morrison, American actress and producer

1979 – Elena Grosheva, Russian gymnast

1985 – Anna-Katharina Samsel, German actress

1985 – Olga Seryabkina, Russian singer-songwriter (Serebro)

1985 – Hitomi Yoshizawa, Japanese singer (Morning Musume, Dream Morning Musume, and Hangry & Angry)

1986 – Lorena, Spanish singer

1988 – Colette Deréal, French actress and singer (b. 1927)

1989 – Kaitlyn Weaver, Canadian-American ice dancer

1990 – Francesca Halsall, English swimmer

1993 – Katelyn Pippy, American actress

1994 – Isabelle Drummond, Brazilian actress

1994 – Saoirse Ronan, American-Irish actress

1994 – Airi Suzuki, Japanese actress and singer (Aa!, Cute, and Buono!)

1996 – Elizaveta Kulichkova, Russian tennis player

1997 – Katelyn Ohashi, American gymnast

2000 – Suzanna von Nathusius, Polish actress

2002 – A female suicide bomber blows herself up at the entrance to Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda open-air market, killing 7 and wounding 104.

2008 – Cecilia Colledge, English figure skater (b. 1920)



http://womenshistory.about.com/od/04calendar/a/0412calendar.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_12

http://www.historyorb.com/events/april/12

April 5
This Day in Women's History

1170 – Isabella of Hainault (d. 1190)

1472 – Bianca Maria Sforza, Italian wife of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1510)

1566 - 200 Brussels nobles offer Margaretha of Parma a petition

1614 – In Virginia, Native American Pocahontas marries English colonist John Rolfe.

1692 – Adrienne Lecouvreur, French actress (d. 1730)

1693 – Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier (b. 1627)

1758: Mary Jemison ("White Woman of the Genesee" captured by French soldiers and Shawnee Indians, later sold to the Senecas who adopted her

1761: Sybil Ludington born, female "paul revere" (rode twice as far!) and revolutionary war
messenger

1825: Mary Jane Hawes Holmes born (author of 39 novels and numerous short stories)

1863 – Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine (d. 1950)

1871 (or 75) - Jeanne Bougeois, [La Mistinguette], artist (French revue) (1956)

1873: Nellie Neilson born (medievalist)

1876: Mary Elizabeth Bass born (one of first female physicians on tulane medical school staff)

1885?: Fania (or Fannia or Fanny) Mary Cohn born (pioneer in worker education, labor movement)

1887 - Anne Sullivan teaches "water" to Helen Keller

1890 - Fie Carelsen, Dutch actress (Malle Gervallen)

1899 – Elsie Thompson, American super-centenarian (d. 2013)

1901: Hattie Elizabeth Alexander born (pediatrician, microbiologist, one of the first to study antibiotic resistance)

1908 - (Ruth Elizabeth) Bette Davis, Lowell Mass, US actress (Of Human Bondage, Jezebel) (d. 1989)

1908 – Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, American author (d. 2006)

1916 - Baroness Delacourt-Smith of Alteryn [Margaret Rosalind Delacourt-Smith], British Labour politician

1921 - Lady Fisher, founder (British Women Caring Trust)

1922 - Gale Storm, Bloomington Tx, actr (My Little Margie, Gale Storm Show) (d. 2009)

1922 – The American Birth Control League, forerunner of Planned Parenthood, is incorporated.

1933 – Barbara Holland, American author (d. 2010)

1938 – Nancy Holt, American sculptor and painter (d. 2014)

1940 - Aliza Kashi, Israel, actress/singer (Merv Griffin regular)

1944 - Ann [Elizabeth] Maxwell, US, sci-fi author (Jaws of Menx)

1946 - Jane Asher, actress (Deep End) and girlfriend of Paul McCartney

1946 - Jennifer Penney, ballerina

1947 – Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Filipino politician, 14th President of the Philippines

1949 – Judith Resnik, American engineer and astronaut (d. 1986 (challenger disaster)

1950 – Ann C. Crispin, American author (d. 2013)

1950 – Agnetha Fältskog, Swedish singer-songwriter and producer (ABBA)

1950 - Mildred Douglas, Surinames/Dutch singer (Mai Tai)

1951 – Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are sentenced to death for spying for the Soviet Union.

1955 – Charlotte de Turckheim, French actress, producer, and screenwriter

1955 – Janice Long, English radio host

1955 - Charlotte de Turckheim, French actress

1956 – Dame Susan Catherine (Suzi) Leather, British public administrator

1958 - Cammie Lusko, Los Angeles California, Guinness' World Strongest Woman

1961 – Lisa Zane, American actress and singer

1962 – Lana Clarkson, American actress (d. 2003)

1964 – Princess Erika, French singer-songwriter and actress

1968 – Gianna Amore, American model and actress

1968 – Paula Cole, American singer-songwriter

1970 – Thea Gill, Canadian actress

1971 – Krista Allen, American actress

1971 - Fran Phipps is 1st woman to reach North Pole

1972 – Isabel Jewell, American actress (b. 1907)

1973 – Élodie Bouchez, French-American actress

1975 – Sarah Baldock, English organist and choral conductor.

1975 – Caitlin Moran, English broadcaster and newspaper columnist

1977 – Stella Creasy, English politician

1980 – Mary Katharine Ham, American journalist

1982 – Hayley Atwell, English actress

1984 – Shin Min-a, South Korean model and actress

1986 – Anna Sophia Berglund, American model and actress

1989 – María Cristina Gómez, Salvadoran educator (b. 1938)

1989: March for Women's Lives held in DC (over 600,000 in attendance)

1990 – Sophia Papamichalopoulou, Cypriot skier

1993 – Divya Bharti, Indian actress (b. 1974)

1999 – Sharlene San Pedro, Filipino actress

2007 – Maria Gripe, Swedish author (b. 1923)

2007 – Leela Majumdar, Indian author (b. 1908)

2013 – Regina Bianchi, Italian actress (b. 1921)


http://womenshistory.about.com/od/04calendar/a/0405calendar.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_5

http://www.historyorb.com/day/april/5

March 17
This Day in Women's History

659 - Gertrude of Nivelles, Belgian abbess, patron saint of travellers, dies at about 32

1665 – Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, French harpsichordist and composer (d. 1729)

1798: Abigail Powers Fillmore born: First Lady, married to US President Millard Fillmore

1820 – Jean Ingelow, English poet, novelist (d. 1897)

1841: Emily Sartain born: painter, engraver, principal of the Philadelphia School of Design for Women

1846: Kate Greenaway born: illustrator and watercolorist

1847 (or 1846 or 1848): Clara Morris born: actress

1849: Cornelia Maria Clapp born: taught biology, natural history and gymnastics at Mount Holyoke College

1862: Martha Platt Falconer born: social reformer, especially working with delinquent girls

1863: Anna Wessels Williams born: bacteriologist, worked on antitoxin for diphtheria

1869: Corra Harris born: writer

1873 - Margaret Bondfield, Brit Labour leader/1st woman cabinet member

1878: Helen Gardner born: art historian

1886: Princess Patricia of Connaught (Lady Patricia Ramsay) born: granddaughter of Queen Victoria, gave up royal title on marrying commoner Alexander Ramsay

1898: Ella Winter born: journalist

1903: Radie Britain born: composer, teacher

1905: Anna Eleanor Roosevelt married Franklin Delano Roosevelt

1906 - Brigitte Helm [Gisele Eve von Kuenheim], Berlin, actr (Gloria, Gold) (d. 1996)

1906 - Tamara Geva, dancer

1911: Camp Fire Girls founded

1918 - Mercedes McCambridge, Joliet Ill, actress (All the King's Men)

1922 - Megan Bull, British head mistress (Holloway Jail)

1923 - Margaret Bondfield, 1st woman chairperson (Trades Union Congress)

1926 – Marjory Shedd, Canadian badminton player (d. 2008)

1930: Betty Allen born: singer; executive director, Harlem School of the Arts

1931 - Eunice Gayson, London England, actress (Dr No, From Russia With Love)

1933: Myrlie Evers-William born: civil rights activist, journalist; widow of murdered civil rights activist Medgar Evers (1963); first woman and first layperson to deliver an invocation for a presidential inauguration, 2013

1933 – Penelope Lively, British author

1936 – Patty Maloney, American actress

1937 – Galina Samsova, Russian ballet dancer

1938 – Zola Taylor, American singer (The Platters) (d. 2007)

1941 - Marguerite Nichols, American actress (b. 1895)

1944 - Pattie Boyd, English photographer, model, and author (Mrs George Harrison/Mrs Eric Clapton)

1952 – Susie Allanson, American singer and actress

1954 - Lesley-Anne Down, London, actress and singer (A Little Night Music, Moonraker)

1954 - Rena Jones, rock vocalist

1955 – Cynthia McKinney, American educator and politician

1956 – Irène Joliot-Curie, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1897)

1960 – Rebeca Arthur, American actress

1960 – Vicki Lewis, American actress and singer

1961 – Dana Reeve, American actress, singer, and activist (d. 2006)

1961 - Susanna Salter, 1st US female mayor/temperance leader, dies at 101

1962 – Clare Grogan, Scottish singer and actress (Altered Images)

1962 - Janet Patricia Gardner, Juneau Alaska, rocker (Vixen-Rev It Up)

1962 - Roxy Dora Petrucci, Rochester Minn, rock drummer (Vixen-Rev It Up)

1963 - Elizabeth Ann Seton of NY beatified (canonized in 1975)

1963 - Rebeca Arthur, actress (Mary Anne-Perf Strangers, Opposites Attract)

1969: Golda Meir becomes the first woman Prime Minister of Israel; served 1969 - 1974

1972: Mia Hamm born: professional soccer player, author

1972 – Melissa Auf der Maur, Canadian-American singer-songwriter and bass player (Hole, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Tinker)

1973 – Caroline Corr, Irish singer and drummer (The Corrs)

1973 - Amelia Weatherly, actress (Stephanie Brewster-Loving/The City)

1973 – Amelia Heinle, American actress

1973 - Geertruida M W "Truus" Bakker, Dutch actress (2 Orphans), dies at 81

1974 - Carroll Nye, actress (Lawless Woman), dies at 72

1974 - Marisa Coughlan, American actress

1975 – Gina Holden, Canadian actress

1975 – Natalie Zea, American actress

1976 – Brittany Daniel, American actress

1976 – Cynthia Daniel, American actress and photographer

1977 – Tamar Braxton, American singer-songwriter and actress (The Braxtons)

1979 – Coco Austin, American model and actress

1979 – Stormy Daniels, American porn actress and director

1981 – Eva Fislová, Slovak tennis player

1989 - Dorothy Cudahy is 1st female grand marshal of St Patrick Day Parade

1990 - Capucine, French actress and fashion model (The Pink Panther), dies of suicide at 62

1991 - Irish Lesbians & Gays march in St Patrick Day parade

1992 – Eliza Bennett, English actress and singer

1992 - Grace Stafford Lantz, actress, cartoon voice (Woody Woodpecker), dies at 87

1993 – Helen Hayes, American actress (b. 1900)

1994 – Mai Zetterling, Swedish-English actress and director (b. 1925)

1997 - Gail Davis, actress (Annie Oakley), dies at 71

2002 – Rosetta LeNoire, American actress and producer (b. 1911)

2005 – Andre Alice Norton, American author (b. 1912)

2012 – Margaret Whitlam, Australian swimmer and author (b. 1919)

2013 – Rosine Delamare, French costume designer (b. 1911)



http://womenshistory.about.com/od/03calendar/a/0317calendar.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_17

http://www.historyorb.com/day/march/17

How Many of These Early Black Feminists Do You Know?

Though black feminists have wielded social media to make willful strides into public consciousness, black feminism is nothing new. The challenge of being doubly oppressed as a black woman has always colored feminist conversations, and minority women rarely have the luxury of fighting solely on behalf of their gender. The question of intersectionality predates hashtags and Twitter feminism and goes all the way back to impasses such as the one between black journalist Ida B. Wells and white suffragist Frances Willard. Wells implored Willard to acknowledge the evil of lynching, while Willard, blinded by her race and class privileges, believed black men to be deserving targets.

Though not always recognized, black women have always made forays into the feminist dialogue to ensure black women and girls don’t remain an afterthought. In celebration of Black History Month, here are 11 early black feminists, in no particular order—some you’ve learned about and some you probably haven’t.


Anna Julia Cooper (1858-1964)



One of the most prominent black scholars in American history, Cooper was the fourth African American woman to earn a PhD when she graduated from University of Paris-Sorbonne in 1924. Having been born in slavery in Raleigh, N.C., Cooper used both her lived experience with racism and her scholastic ability to pen her first book in 1892, A Voice from the South: By a Woman from the South. The book, in which Cooper argued for the self-determination of black women, is considered the first volume of black feminist thought in the U.S.

Sojourner Truth (1797-1883)



An abolitionist and women’s rights activist, Truth was also born into slavery, but escaped with her young daughter. She later went to court to obtain freedom for her son, becoming the first black woman to win such a case. Her famous speech on gender inequity, “Ain’t I a Woman” was delivered in 1851 at a women’s rights convention in Akron, OH, and has endured as a raw and powerful utterance of the tribulations and burdens black women shoulder.
Amy Jacques Garvey


Amy Jacques Garvey (1895-1973)



Garvey, the second wife of black nationalist Marcus Garvey, was a daunting intellectual and social activist in her own right. A gifted journalist, she worked as a columnist for Negro World in Harlem and often discussed the intersectionality of race, gender and class as it pertained to black women. She wrote once in an essay, “The [black men] will more readily sing the praises of white women than their own; yet who is more deserving of admiration than the black woman, she who has borne the rigors of slavery, the deprivations consequent on a pauperized race, and the indignities heaped upon a weak and defenseless people? Yet she has suffered all with fortitude, and stands ever ready to help in the onward march to freedom and power.”

Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954)

An activist for civil rights and suffrage, Terrell was one of the first African American women to earn a college degree when she graduated from Oberlin College in 1884. A close of acquaintance of Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington, she campaigned for racial equality, becoming a well-known activist in Washington, D.C. A writer and the first president of of the National Association of Colored Women, many of her works, including “A Plea for the White South by a Colored Woman” and “A Colored Woman in a White World,” focused on the status of black women in society. Terrell was also a founding member of the NAACP and helped organize the black sorority Delta Sigma Theta.

. . . .

http://msmagazine.com/blog/2014/02/19/how-many-of-these-early-black-feminists-do-you-know/

on this night of endings and beginnings, please take time to hug your loved ones close. a very dear friend called this evening to tell me that her 27 year old son has just died (autopsy report not in yet, but apparently a brain aneurysm). No warning--just gone. so please, cherish your loved ones, cherish the time you have. and let us all hope that this coming year (because this is, indeed, our new year) is a damned sight better than this last.

thank you, mike, for posting that lovely samhain tribute.

blessed samhain, merry meet and merry part.

on 27 November 1980 (Thanksgiving Day) Priscilla Joyce Ford drove her lincoln continental up the sidewalk on virginia street in reno, killing 6 people and wounding 23. (I was there, had just pulled into my parking lot seconds before her rampage, but saw the horror of what she did)

. . . .

It takes another minute for the Lincoln to make its way to 100 feet south of the southeast corner of Second and Virginia streets. At 2:59 p.m., the Lincoln jumps the curb and careens down the sidewalk. It hits the curb at about 20 miles an hour, a speed not likely to blow the tires. The car rapidly accelerates to as high as 40 miles an hour, driving 100 feet down the sidewalk, witnesses will later say. It crosses the Second Street crosswalk and continues another 322 feet down the sidewalk in front of the bank, in front of Harrah’s, Nevada Club and Harold’s Club. Then it’s back on Virginia Street, crossing to the southbound lane and stopping two blocks later behind traffic at the Fifth Street traffic light. The light is red.

Destruction follows the car’s path like an indictment. Five people are killed immediately, and 24 are injured. Fourteen people will be sent to Washoe Medical Center; the remaining 10 to St. Mary’s. Street signs, body parts, clothing and the wounded and dead lie on the sidewalk and in the gutter like victims of a natural disaster. But this is an entirely unnatural disaster.

It takes only a few seconds for Ford to drive that five-block total. For the victims, every second following the attack is an eternity, waiting for help to arrive, for family members to come, for the news of survivors and casualties. But the longest wait, some will later say, is for justice.

The two daily newspapers, the Nevada State Journal and the Reno Evening Gazette, contain chilling accounts of the killings in progress.
“It looked as though someone had gone through the streets with a lawnmower, mowing people down,” a woman from Canada who’d witnessed the massacre from the Onslow Hotel-Casino tells the Gazette. “It looked like a battlefield—there were bodies all over the place.”

. . . .

http://www.newsreview.com/reno/day-terror-came-downtown/content?oid=20584

that is rarely discussed is, not just the effect it had on the people who served, but on their families.

My spouse was a ptsd/agent orange vet, with all that that implied for our lives. As I used to observe, the man I gave them was not the man they sent back to me. I woke up twice with hands around my throat--but I was lucky, because I did, in fact, wake up. I dealt with the anger issues, the bad dreams, the tempers, and the damage done by agent orange to a formerly healthy person.

I counselled at vets' centers, so I got to see the damage on a very large scale (and prayed i would never have to do so again) Many of our friends were vets, so I got to see it up close and personal at home as well. Luckily, we did not have children, so the destruction of agent orange was not passed on, nor were there children to witness, and be affected by, less-than-optimally functioning parents.

The families of those service members are just as much collateral damage as the civilians in Vietnam, and with even less attention paid.

Is it important to talk about it? As long as this country's government keeps sending our people to be wounded or die in wars of lies and occupation, we cannot lose the lessons of that war.

time magazine used to publish, every few years or so, an article entitled (with a great deal of hope, apparently) "is feminism dead?" to which my response has always been, "not so long as I draw breath"

I subscribe to rebecca west's view "feminism is the radical notion that women are people", or, as I have occasionally put it "feminism is the idea that women are entitled to all the sames rights, privileges and responsibilities as men."

I remember very clearly the day I became a feminist. I was about 5 or 6, and in the toy section of a department store at christmas time. there were rows and rows of things for boys, and only about two for girls--and most of the stuff was pink (a colour I despise to this day unless it is a flower) that pissed me off big time.

later, in school, as an "egghead", "brain" ,etc., I was basically shunned by classmates for not only having, but not hiding, my brain. the standard brainwashing that women of my generation got somehow never sank in with me. I didn't know, or care, that I was supposed to hide being smart, caring about things other than boys, etc. and, the older I got, the less inclined I was to play any sort of games.

I have worked for the ERA, for women's issues, been assaulted by the woman-hating anti-choicers, gotten death threats for working for choice, and used to believe that we would, in my lifetime, see a more equal world. Now I watch the reichwing fundies in their frenzy to destroy women, and wonder why we are still having to fight these battles in the 21st century. But I do not give up.

so, yes, I am, proudly, loudly, unabashedly, and unapologetically, a FEMINIST.