American Women that Professor Chaos Admires
(In no Particular Order)
Harriet Tubman: Risked her own life and freedom again and again to lead others to freedom.
Jane Addams: The first woman to win a Nobel Prize, Suffragist, pacifist, and president of the Woman's International League for Peace and Freedom.
Mary Harris "Mother" Jones: Legendary labor organizer and all-around agitator. Known as "the most dangerous woman in America."
Annie Oakley: Star of Buffalo Bill's Wild west Show. Using a .22 caliber rifle at 90 feet (27 m), Oakley reputedly could split a playing card edge-on and put five or six more holes in it before it touched the ground.
Rosa Parks: Stood up for justice by sitting down.
Joan Jett: Rocked when girls weren't supposed to rock. Never gave a damn about her reputation. Became a role model for bands like Bikini Kill and Bratmobile. proved that women could rock as hard as any man.
Amy Goodman: Investigative journalist and host of Pacifica radio's "Democracy Now!"
Absolutely fearless journalist and advocate for progressive values.
Cindy Sheehan: At a time when the war and the president were both extremely popular, Cindy Sheehan stood up and asked "why?" Vilified in the press and subject to death threats, she never b
acked down.The Dixie Chicks: Besi
des being very talented musicians, they took an anti-war message to probably the most hostile audience possible--country music fans. Despite having their music banned by most stations and receiving serious death threats, refused to apologize or recant.Molly Ivins: Newspaper writer and Author. Credited with giving the nickname "Shrub" to George W. Bush. Muckracker and hell-raiser extrordinaire, and always ma
naged to inject humor into all her work.Eleanor Roosevelt: Civil rights advocate, Co-founder of Freedom House, she chaired the UN Comittee that drafted the
Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights.And of Course, the perpetually awesome,
Mrs. Chaos.
admittedly, this is an incomplete list, but there is only so much time in the day.
tomorrow, we will return to irritating and annoying things and hopefully try to be funny.
Thank you for including Eleanor Roosevelt! Usually I am sort of casual about cynical Gore Vidal, but I always remembered his admiration for and story about Mrs. Roosevelt. He said that one very dark, very icy winter's night they found themselves alone outside in Harlem, at 2 a.m., on the street, after a long civil rights meeting, looking for a taxi. He asked himself why this white, wealthy, aged aristocrat would knowingly, at her age, put herself into difficult and even dangerous situations like this. He knew that the only answer was that she believed so strongly in social justice, she considered it her absolute duty. She walked like she talked, and age and infirmity could not slow her down. What an incredible woman.
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