"Girl, you make me think"

There are two books that I have been reading for my Independent Study this summer that are really blowing my mind.  They are Tidal Wave by Sara Evans and Grassroots: A Field Guide to Activism by Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards.  These books have given me the history of activism in the feminist movements as well as the passion to start something here in Gainesville.  I want to shout out from the rooftops about feminism and activism.  I don't know what I am going to do get but I know I want to do something.  I want to change so many things, I want to inspire others about feminism and activism....I'm going to go think of something to do......

it's been a long time, i shouldn't have left you without a dope beat to step to.....

"...in an early meeing of New York Radical Women, several women described their experiences with illegal abortion.  For most it was the first time they had told anyone beyond a close friend or two.  A group of women, subsequent founders of Redstockings, then decided to disrupt a legislative hearing scheduled to hear testimony from fourteen men and one woman (a nun).  Claiming that women who had experienced abortion were the "real experts,"  they demanded to testify.  When the legislative committee refused to hear them, they held a public "speak-out" on March 21, 1969, drawing an audience of 300.  Thousands of women, hearing about such speakouts, joined in.  Journalist Gloria Steinem recalled that "For the first time, I understood that the abortion I had kept so shamefully quiet about for years was an experience I had probably shared with at least one out of four American women of every race and group."

pgs 46-47 Tidal Wave: How Women Changed America at Century's End by Sara M. Evans