I have been a Mother’s Mentor and Conscious, nonviolent parenting coach since 2004. It is my passion to help mothers embrace their immeasurable value and to guide parents in learning nonviolent skills. This allows them to grow confident, caring children amidst digital media overload. The children are our now; they become our future. Our children inherit the world we create for them. When I look at the world these days, I think to myself, what are we passing on to them?
What is the definition of violence? Anything that hurts or harms the body, mind and spirit of another living being verbally, emotionally, physically, sexually, spiritually. We live in a predominantly power over patriarchal paradigm. The rise of the feminine cannot come too soon to balance what I see as the distorted masculine energies that have ravaged our beloved Mother Earth and most institutions of our modern world. The March on Washington, January 21, will be a massive demonstration of the unifying power of women. I sincerely hope that women, and men, of every shade, age, and persuasion link arms, whether in DC or other cities, and stand for unity and human rights. I’ll be in LA as I’m an Outreach Coordinator for Women’sMarchLA.
At the Golden Globes, the accomplished actress, Meryl Streep, who won the illustrious Cecil B. DeMille award, used her platform to speak to her dismay at the President-elect’s actions. In her speech, she invited unity and issued a call-to-action to those gathered and watching to support the press, our 4th branch of our government. I can’t say that she spoke out because her friend, Hillary Clinton, didn’t win the Presidential race. What I saw and heard was a woman, an artist, a concerned American, using her celebrity and privilege to enlist colleagues and citizens to stay awake and engage their power.
“It kind of broke my heart when I saw it and I still can’t get it out of my head because it wasn’t in a movie, it was real life,” Streep said.
“And this instinct to humiliate, when it’s modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody’s life, because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing. Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose.”
Streep added: “This brings me to the press. We need the principled press to hold power to account, to call them on the carpet for every outrage.That’s why our founders enshrined the press and its freedoms in our constitution. So I only ask the famously well-heeled Hollywood Foreign Press and all of us in our community to join me in supporting the committee to protect journalists. Because we’re going to need them going forward. And they’ll need us to safeguard the truth.”
I have observed press censorship, so I say, “Amen to that sister Meryl!”
The President-elect reacted by first diminishing her acting, and secondly, justifying his behavior. Actions speak louder than words. We cannot tell our young men not to disrespect and overpower women, to override someone’s no, and to communicate respectfully when we see the President-elect and his team doing the opposite. It’s inauthentic to tell our girls that they can be whatever they want to be when they see women being derided publicly without accountability.
As we move into the new administration, it is of concern to me as a woman, a mother, and a mother/parent’s coach, that the man who is taking the highest office in the United States, a husband, father and grandfather, defends his words and actions. The President-elect did imitate a physically challenged reporter; he did demean women when he insulted Megyn Kelly and kind of apologized, he has made racially inflammatory statements and he did make the infamous, “grab em by the P***y” statement. It wasn’t an ambush or a conspiracy, it was raw, unfiltered, and a peek into how Mr. Trump feels about his privilege and power over women. Unfortunately, his statement was justified as locker room banter. We need to change this kind of conversation.
As a practitioner of truth and nonviolence, what a powerful example it would be to witness people in high office apologizing and amending their behavior. A society where there is no conscience puts everyone at risk. The children are watching, they’re watching closely. What I hear our youth say is that when you’re rich, male, and white, you can do and say anything that you want and get away with it. That is not a sustainable model for a peaceful society that is composed of many different ethnicities nor does it provide empowerment to its citizens.
I have a vision for a world where loving-kindness is a guiding principle; where women, mamas and children are safe, fed, housed, clothed, loved, educated, celebrated, and healthy; for children to know that they matter just for being; where education inspires and engenders creative, original thinking and is available to all. I have a vision that boys are taught to honor their tenderness as well as their fierceness, and, to treat women with respect. I have a vision that all girls are educated and encouraged to embrace their brilliance, power and unique beauty; to be all that they can be. That a united, for the highest good, system replaces our power over political system; that there is racial, sexual, gender equality and health, medical, political and education freedoms; where unbiased, unagendacized truth is given to the public by media and governing agencies; where elected officials represent their constituents, not their donors. For humanity to be humane to one other; for justice to exist in the justice system; no more privatized prison cottage industries. I have a vision that parents receive the support they need to be the parents they would like to be. And, that women, especially mothers, are recognized as the untapped power of the world. Not just sometimes but all the time.
