:/

Feb. 8th, 2011 07:07 pm
xtremeroswellia: (DV: There is no excuse)
Got this in my email, and figured a lot of you would be interested in knowing this info, because...I was personally pretty horrified. :/


Valentine's Day, which accounts for 40% of fresh flower sales annually, is fast approaching.

If you're planning to order a bouquet from 1-800-Flowers -- the world's largest florist -- you should know where most of those flowers really come from.

At flower farms in Ecuador and Colombia -- the countries that export the most to the U.S. -- two-thirds of the workers are women. These women are routinely subjected to harassment and even rape from their male supervisors. They suffer eye infections and miscarriages from consistent contact with dangerous pesticides.

In the weeks leading up to Valentine's Day and Mother's Day, they're routinely forced to work 80-hour weeks with no overtime pay. Attempts to form a union are met with opposition by police and armed forces.

Many retailers -- such as Whole Foods and Stop & Shop -- have taken the important first step of offering Fair Trade flowers to consumers who want no part of these abuses. Fair Trade certified farms must adhere to strict standards for workers' rights, which prevents the abuses described above.

1-800-Flowers is the largest florist in the world. Yet they offer no Fair Trade flowers at all.

Tell 1-800-Flowers to join other major retailers in offering Fair Trade flowers.

1-800-Flowers uses a certifying agency called Florverde, which ensures that its flower farms measure up to certain environmental standards -- this is a good thing. But Florverde has almost no labor standards: A farm can be certified even if it uses forced labor.Indeed, Florverde is owned by the Association of Colombian Flower Exporters, so it has a financial incentive to keep wages low and suppress workers' rights.

This is the week before Valentine's Day -- more people will purchase flowers during the next seven days than any other week this year. This is our best opportunity to demand a promise from 1-800-Flowers to join its competitors in offering Fair Trade flowers. So after you sign the petition, please share this email widely and post on Facebook -- do everything you can to pressure 1-800-Flowers to show a little respect for the women who toil in unbearable circumstances. The women without whom they'd have no flowers to sell.

Click the link below to tell 1-800-Flowers to make a promise this Valentine's Day to sell Fair Trade flowers:

http://www.change.org/petitions/ask-1-800-flowers-to-offer-fair-trade-flowers-that-arent-picked-by-exploited-workers?alert_id=IiStMzHsCg_MJfYAirwKM&me=aa

Since this campaign began, the company has emailed to tell us that it will post more information on its website about the farms that supply their flowers. But this is a far cry from selling fair trade products -- and we have much more to do to make sure workers are protected. This is the week to do it.

Thanks for taking action,

Patrick and the Change.org team
xtremeroswellia: (DV: He Married Her)
Our state governor, Rod Blagojevich, is playing a really dangerous game with the state politics right now. And people are saying he can't make those cuts, but I'm here to say YES. Yes, he absolutely can and there is no doubt in my mind he'll do it. Why? Well, he did just that last year with the Cease Fire program.

I'm not going to pretend I understand the politics behind it all, but it seems to be to be over petty bullshit because he's power-hungry. And this isn't a good thing for anyone. If these cuts happen, our domestic violence program will lose $300,000 of its funding. One of our sister agencies Growing Strong will lose 90% of their funding, as will ALL sexual assault crisis centers in the state.

You know that that means? Growing Strong will shut down. Most of the sexual assault centers, if not ALL of them, will shut down. Because collectively for the 33 centers in Illinois, there will be a grand spanking total of $600,000 left in the budget. Which, if you do the math, equals less than $20,000 per program. That is not even enough to keep ONE person on staff.

I don't know how much it will effect our DV program if it happens. I'm picturing several staff members being cut and we're already strained and under-staffed now, frankly. I am trying my best NOT to panic, but inside my stomach is doing flips and going "Holy shit this is bad."

I forsee little sleep being had the next few days.
xtremeroswellia: (Made of Fail >:()
Supreme Court Rejects Death Penalty for Child Rape.

You know what I have to say to that?

What BULLSHIT.

"Still, Kennedy concluded that in cases of crimes against individuals — as opposed to treason, for example — "the death penalty should not be expanded to instances where the victim's life was not taken.""

So raping a child, or in MOST cases, MULTIPLE children, ruining their lives and destroying their ability to trust themselves or other people, and shattering their capability of EVER feeling TRULY safe is less of a crime than treason?

You know what, Supreme Court?

Go fuck yourselves.
xtremeroswellia: (Um)
In case you have no idea what I'm talking about check this out.

Originally came upon it via [livejournal.com profile] tapati and a couple days later, I am still utterly mind-boggled. I'm still forming my thoughts but I do fully intend to respond to this. Cause really, wtf?

And let me just say, I'm a pretty damn open-minded person, but this just crosses the line in SO many ways I don't know where to start.
xtremeroswellia: (Jake: NUTS)
WHAT THE FUCK?!?

Not just no. HELL NO.

If you're half as furious as I am, here's his address and phone number. Tell him how you feel.

Jeffre Cheuvront
575 S. 10th St.
Lincoln, NE 68508-2810

Phone: 402-441-7065

Ugh.

Apr. 8th, 2007 06:31 pm
xtremeroswellia: (Default)
So it's April which means it's sexual assault awareness and child abuse prevention month, and it's nearly the middle of the month and everything is hectic and I'm frustrated that I haven't made ANY posts regarding these issues until now.

Something I found on RAINN's website (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network): http://www.rainn.org/statistics/punishing-rapists.html

61% of rapes/sexual assaults are not reported to the police. Those rapists, of course, never serve a day in prison according to a statistical average of the past five years.

*If the rape is reported to police, there is a 50.8% chance that an arrest will be made.

*If an arrest is made, there is an 80% chance of prosecution.

*If there is a prosecution, there is a 58% chance of a felony conviction.

*If there is a felony conviction, there is a 69% chance the convict will spend time in jail.

*So, even in the 39% of attacks that are reported to police, there is only a 16.3% chance the rapist will end up in prison.

*Factoring in unreported rapes, about 6% of rapists — 1 out of 16 — will ever spend a day in jail. 15 out of 16 will walk free.


That's just infuriating.
xtremeroswellia: (Sam: Too Many Times Betrayed)
A friend of mine posted the following link on her journal: http://www.mapsexoffenders.com/ . You can type in your address and see how many sex offenders live near you. It pinpoints everyone that's registered in your area and when you click on the red pinpoints, it pulls up their name, address, and photograph. Be safe, everyone!

Edited to add a couple things:

1. This ONLY tracks *registered sex offenders.* And considering the majority are never caught, don't assume someone isn't a predator just because they're not on the map.

2. I think most of my flist knows this, but just in case someone doesn't, because I just encountered this elsewhere...there is a HUGE difference between sexual offenders and homosexuals. Not to pat myself on the back or anything, but I'm a very open-minded person who accepts people for who they are. And the majority of you people are the same way. Just for clarification.
xtremeroswellia: (Clark: Not Amused)
Perfectly calm Angie to screaming, raving lunatic bitch Angie...but the issue of rape/sexual assault is one that does.

So when the news mentioned the recent rape of a young woman at Duke University tonight, and Mom said it was her own fault for accepting an open-faced glass from strangers that likely contained a date rape drug, I lost it.

I don't care that the victim was a stripper. I don't care that she accepted an open face glass from strangers and drank it. I'm not saying that accepting a drink from people you don't know is SMART, BUT, it also doesn't mean it's okay to rape her either! Rape is not okay. EVER. And it is NEVER the victim's fault. The sole responsibility here lies with the men who chose to assault her, and you will never convince me otherwise.
xtremeroswellia: (Default)
Taken from [livejournal.com profile] robynadele0406

A lot has been said about how to prevent rape.
Women should learn self-defense.
Women should lock themselves in their houses after dark.
Women shouldn't have long hair and women shouldn't wear short skirts.
Women shouldn't leave drinks unattended. Fuck, they shouldn't dare to get drunk at all.

how about:

If a woman is drunk, don't rape her.
If a woman is walking alone at night, don't rape her.
If a women is drugged and unconscious, don't rape her.
If a woman is wearing a short skirt, don't rape her.
If a woman is jogging in a park at 5 a.m., don't rape her.
If a woman looks like your ex-girlfriend you're still hung up on, don't rape her.
If a woman is asleep in her bed, don't rape her.
If a woman is asleep in your bed, don't rape her.
If a woman is doing her laundry, don't rape her.
If a woman is in a coma, don't rape her.
If a woman changes her mind in the middle of or about a particular activity, don't rape her.
If a woman has repeatedly refused a certain activity, don't rape her.
If a woman is not yet a woman, but a child, don't rape her.
If your girlfriend or wife is not in the mood, don't rape her.
If your step-daughter is watching TV, don't rape her.
If you break into a house and find a woman there, don't rape her.
If your friend thinks it's okay to rape someone, tell him it's not, and that he's not your friend.
If your "friend" tells you he raped someone, report him to the police.
If your frat-brother or another guy at the party tells you there's an unconscious woman upstairs and it's your turn, don't rape her, call the police and report him as a rapist.
Tell your sons, god-sons, nephews, grandsons, and sons of friends that it's not okay to rape someone.

Don't just tell your women friends how to be safe and avoid rape.
Don't imply that she could have avoided it if she'd only done/not done x,y or z.
Don't imply that it's in any way her fault.
Don't let silence imply agreement when someone tells you he "got some" with the drunk girl.
Don't perpetuate a culture that tells you that you have no control over or responsibility for your actions. You can, too, help yourself.

If you agree, repost it. It's that important.
xtremeroswellia: (X and W: Where there is despair)
I was utterly furious. I'm not talking about a little bit of anger toward a stupid politician, I'm talking full out, near-hatred rage.

Let me explain the situation as best as I understand it. South Dakota recently banned abortion, something most of us have probably heard about by now. One of the South Dakota Republican State Senators, Bill Napoli (and it's taking much restraint on my part not to add several choice adjectives to describe him), feels there should be a clause for rape/incest victims to get an abortion. However, the following are his views of what is "real" and "violent" rape:

"A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl, could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life."

Let's take that one step at a time, shall we?

According to this man, whom the people of South Dakota elected to office...only virgins can really be rape victims.
According to this man...only RELIGIOUS virgins can really be rape victims.
According to this man...only religious virgins who are sodomized AND vaginally violated can really be rape victims.

So ladies, if you're not a religious virgin saving yourself for marriage and you're raped, well, it wasn't REAL rape.

Regardless of your views on abortion, there isn't one damn person in this country who shouldn't be OUTRAGED that an elected official is so utterly stupid and completely insensitive to survivors of sexual assault. Are these the kind of people you really want running our country? We live in a society where every two and a half minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted and one in six American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape, and 10% of sexual assault victims are men.

We no longer live in the Dark Ages, folks. And if we don't confront jerks like Bill Napoli when their views on something as insidious as rape are hideously wrong, well, then we're a part of the problem too.

Bill Napoli's Home Office address and email:

Senator William M. Napoli
Home Office
6170 South Highway 79
Rapid City, SD 57702
Phone: (605) 341-2370
Email: sen.napoli@state.sd.us

Related Articles:

http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/bill_napoli_is_spelled_a_s_s_h_a_t/
http://www.wonkette.com/politics/bill-napoli/bill-napoli-is-all-twisted-up-and-dead-inside-160381.php
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/03/07/ivins.abortion/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/voyageur/116820129/
http://ziamunshi.com/2006/03/09/who-is-bill-napoli/

Related Links:

http://www.rainn.org
http://www.nsvrc.org

I'm leaving this as a public post, so you may link to it if you are as angry about this as I am.

~The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it. --Albert Einstein

~All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing. --Edmund Burke
xtremeroswellia: (Default)
People make me sick. Who the hell would nominate a child molester for a music award?

OH, wait! The same people who allow a rapist to introduce Usher.
xtremeroswellia: (Default)
On a LJ community that I belong to (an anti-rape one), someone posted a link to a pedophile's website, expressing her outrage on his talk of "how to have sex with a child" where it's fun and safe for all involved, even if the child is NINE years old. NINE YEARS OLD? What the fuck? I'm so pissed right now I can't see straight. I'm going to write this sick fuck an email when I calm down, and then I'm going to find out how to report his sick fucking ass to authorities.
xtremeroswellia: (Default)
Ok. So I read this article: http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/216/oped/Issues_of_fairness_raised_on_rape_shield_+.shtml .

And honest to God, I was trying to be objective, I was. However, when I got to the last paragraph where the author of the article all but agrees with the 'New Jersey Supreme Court ruling which allows evidence of past sexual contact between the accuser and the accused to be used at trial', then I had a problem. A big one.

Why is that admissible in court? Just because a person has sex with someone once willingly, doesn't mean that they are from then on ALWAYS willing to have sex with that other person. If person A and person B have sex one time and it's completey consensual, great. If person A decides that since they've already had sex with person B once or even several times, that it's okay to have sex with person B without person B's consent, it's rape. It doesn't matter if they had a past sexual history. That proves NOTHING. End of story.
xtremeroswellia: (Default)
By some of the fucking morons in the world. I just came across supporting Kobe Bryant's "innocence." Which is fine in itself. But the message board/forum on that site are filled with the sickest, most stupid, fucking outrageous things I've ever heard in my -entire- life. People were talking about how the girl couldn't have been a victim because she didn't "act" like a rape victim.

Uh, and how exactly does one think a rape victim should act? Every survivor responds differently. Yes, some are hysterical, some don't tell anyone, others tell everyone -everything-. It depends on the person.

According to some on the site, a victim should also be very bruised and harmed and have 5 day long hospital days if it was a REAL rape. Very few rapes result in that type of bodily injury because most rapes are committed by acquaintances of the victim who use their relationship to gain power over her, not physical force. And if there is physical force involved, it tends to be minimal.

And according to fans on that site, Kobe just "doesn't seem like a rapist." And what, you know him personally? Most rapists don't seem like they should be rapists. They seem like regular, normal men. Many are married with children. The next door type. Not the skulky jump out of the bushes type.

And talking about what the girl looks like and was she pretty enough for Kobe to want to rape? WTF planet are you people from? First of all, rape isn't about sex, so if he raped her, it had nothing to do with her looks. It is about power and control. Secondly, that's just revolting.

*grumbles* I knew there was a good reason I wanted to go live completely alone in the mountains. Less STUPID people.
xtremeroswellia: (Default)
1. Kobe Bryant. My mom and I have a very different opinion on this bit of news. For those of you who haven't heard, Kobe Bryant, a basketball player for the L.A. Lakers, has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman in Colorado. My mom's immediate response was "there are a lot of gold-digging women out there." I frowned at her and said, "there are a lot of men who get away with rape, too." She told me I was assuming that the guy was guilty, and I pointed out she was assuming the victim was lying. Of course then she said "innocent until proven guilty."

Well, here's the problem with that: I'm not a defense attorney. I'm not on the jury. I'm also not a cop, or some power-hungry media person out to slander anyone. I am however, a volunteer advocate for victims of sexual assault/sexual abuse. Because of that, I'm -always- on the victim's side, whether I know the person or not. I believe the victim no matter what. That's just who I am.

2. Harry Potter. I've been hearing for the past like, 2 years alternating things about these books. There's the people who love them, find them incredibly entertaining and think they're great. Then there are the people who think that they are evil and lead children toward being evil because the stories are about wizards and witches. Generally the people who think this are the right-wing fundamentalist Christians. If any group of people frighten me, it is these people. Sorry if this offends anyone.

On with my point.

Obviously anyone who thinks that these books are -harmful- in any way have not actually READ the books, which I find very annoying. Why the hell would you make a statement without having any evidence or fact on which to base your opinion? It just makes you look like an idiot. Sorry, these books are good fantastical fun, plain and simple. People can't really fly around on broomsticks, or tele-transport themselves through a fire in their fireplace, and I'm pretty sure that owls don't deliver anyone's mail. It's called -fiction-. Get. Over. It.

3. People who think Wicca is an evil, devil-worshipping religion clearly know nothing about that, either. People who practice Wicca don't even -believe- in a devil. It's one of the calmest, most peaceful religions I've ever studied, and yes, I incorporate some of the practices and theories into my religious path, so I do know quite a bit about it.

4. This isn't a rant, it's more of a short, amusing tale. So I was at work today and I got a phone call from a guy named Mark Greene. As in like, Dr. Mark Greene from ER. I had the urge to exclaim, "You're alive!" but didn't. :)

Anyway. I'm done ranting for the moment. Peace out.
xtremeroswellia: (Default)
Speak: Recommended Reading

The following are a list of books/other materials that I recommend for survivors or significant others (meaning boyfriends, girlfriends, spouses, life partners, parents, relatives or friends) of survivors to read. I will be adding more books and materials to the list periodically. If time allows, I may eventually add reviews of each, but for right now we've got the basics.

*Reading certain parts of these books may trigger flashbacks or very strong emotions. If
you choose to read them, please take care of yourself and stop reading if you begin feeling
overwhelmed.

1. Beginning to Heal: First Steps for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse by Ellen Bass and Laura Davis

2. The Courage to Heal: A Guide For Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse by Ellen Bass and Laura Davis

3. The Courage to Heal Workbook by Laura Davis

4. I Never Told Anyone: Writings by Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse by Ellen Bass and Louise Thornton

5. After Silence: Rape and My Journey Back by Nancy Venable Raine

6. Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape by Susan Brownmiller

7. Safe At Last: A Handbook for Recovery from Abuse: Monster Therapy by David J.Schopick, M.D.
xtremeroswellia: (Amy Lee: been alone all along)
What is Speak?

I've wanted to create this section of 'Only Time' since I opened the site nearly two years ago. But I wasn't ready. Wasn't ready to be honest about my life.

But now I am. Or at least, I think I am.

Speak. )

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