Why haven't we elected a woman President in the U.S yet? by Sandy Semerad

 

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I have a woman president in my first novel, SEX, LOVE & MURDER, and I’m baffled as to why we in the United States haven’t elected a woman president yet. Other countries have elected about sixty-five female Presidents since 1940.

When I first wrote SEX, LOVE & MURDER, (previously called Mardi Gravestone, published in 2004), I felt certain we’d have a Madame President by now.

In 2007, when Hillary Rodham Clinton sought the nomination for the Democratic Party, she won the popular vote, but not the delegates.

Recently, she announced she’s running again. Almost every political commentator agrees she’ll be almost impossible to beat. But that’s what pundits said the last time she ran.

Back then, the media favored a young Barack Obama, and many studies have proven that the mass media gives more favorable coverage to male candidates, and I’m wondering why?

Did it start with Eve’s bad press? We all know the story. Eve was living with Adam in the Garden of Eden, and God told them they could enjoy all of the trees except one.  Satan spoke through a serpent and convinced Eve to disobey God and bite from an apple attached to the Tree of Life (or the tree of knowledge of good and evil). Eve then persuaded Adam to take a bite. God was angry and banished them from the Garden. They were pure until they disobeyed God and sinned.

Many theologians say the story of Adam and Eve is just a parable. Also, Geneticists believe females were the first homo sapiens on our planet, and therefore, a woman wasn’t created from the rib of Adam as the Bible story suggests.

However, we, as a Christian nation, have often depended upon male religious leaders to interpret the Bible for us, and according to former President Jimmy Carter, who is a born again Christian, the Bible has often been used incorrectly to subjugate women.

“Some of the words of Paul, who’s our chief religious theologian for Christians, can be interpreted either way,” Carter said. “If you’re a male religious leader, and you want to stay in unchallenged power and not have women challenge yours, then you can pick some of those things that Paul said.”

And according to Genesis, after Eve disobeys God, God says, “I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

Now granted this is the Old Testament. In the New Testament we learn that Jesus loved women, and his best friends appeared to be women. He even traveled with women.

However, Biblical Scholars claim that many of the writings of women were not included in the Bible, and it remains a predominantly male offering.  Some scholars have theorized that the men who loved Jesus may have been envious of the women in his life. Later, many religious leaders used the Bible to reinforce the idea of male dominance and female inferiority for their own benefit.

So I think we’re long overdue to have a woman in the oval office as president, and according to conservative writer Myra Adams, we will elect a woman in 2016, and she gives the following reasons why Hillary Clinton will be elected, which I've summarized:

1.  There’s a social movement to elect a Madame President, and it’s gathering hurricane strength.

2.  The media is now ready to crown a queen.

3.  Political pundits are saying, “It’s time.”

4.  In Hillary Clinton’s camp are “some top-notch Obama campaign talent, Jeremy Bird and Mitch Stewart, have already been hired to build an organization similar to President Obama’s two nearly flawless, state-of-the-art campaigns. It would be nearly impossible for the Republican presidential candidate to quickly build and match what will then be a huge national campaign organization with a three-year head start. For even the Republican challenger, it would appear as if Hillary were the incumbent,” wrote Adams.

5.  Hillary could easily raise more than a billion dollars before 2016.

6.  “The Electoral College is slanted toward Hillary and the Democrats,” Adams wrote.

7.  Hillary will have no real opposition in the Democratic primary and she and her team can focus on the general election.

8.  She should win the Hispanic vote.

9.  She should win the African-American and Asian vote.

Her popular, charitable husband will be one of her greatest assets on the campaign trail.

She could easily package herself to run for Bill Clinton’s “third term.”

“The Republicans have a weak bench with little star power,” wrote Adams.

10.              The lengthy GOP primary system will benefit her.

11.              She can make a strong case that she will be the only leader who can bring the country together and work with Republicans to solve problems.

12.              If Republican candidates imply Hillary is too old, they will be insulting a loyal base of supporters who fall in her age category.

13.              “GOP and the conservative media are using weak arguments against Hillary,” wrote Adams.

As for me, I have waited a long time for a Madame President, and I suppose that’s why I included one in my first novel SEX, LOVE & MURDER (below). I have written three novels. Along with SEX, LOVE & MURDER are HURRICANE HOUSE, and A MESSAGE IN THE ROSES.

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THE VINE THAT'S EATING THE SOUTH BY GINGER SIMPSON

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I was stirred to this topic by sharing a video with my husband about a dangerous plant that is overtaking Michigan.  Even touching it can cause blindness or  irritating and scarring skin lesions.  How scary is that? We have another problem in the South so we don't need a dangerous hogweed attacking us as well.  Seems like every state has its "pests."

 I recall when we first visited Tennessee, I was so impressed with the different colors of green, specifically the huge vines adhering everywhere.  I later learned that "vine" is called Kudzu.  I've done a little research...as much as a addle-brained mind can do in my state, and I want to share this interesting information with you.  I'm copying and pasting from Wikipedia, so I credit them with the content of this blog.

Kudzu (Pueraria lobata) is a serious invasive plant in the United States. It has been spreading in the southern U.S. at the rate of 150,000 acres (61,000 ha) annually, "easily outpacing the use of herbicide spraying and mowing, as well increasing the costs of these controls by $6 million annually."Its introduction has produced devastating environmental consequences. This has earned it the nickname, "The vine that ate the South."

The kudzu plant was introduced to the United States in 1876 at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Kudzu was introduced to the Southeast in 1883 at the New Orleans Exposition. The vine was widely marketed in the Southeast as an ornamental plant to be used to shade porches and in the first half of the 20th century, kudzu was distributed as a high-protein content cattle fodder and as a cover plant to prevent soil erosion. The Soil Erosion Service recommended the use of kudzu to help control erosion of slopes which led to the government-aided distribution of 85 million seedlings and government-funded plantings of kudzu which paid $19.75 per hectare. By 1946, it was estimated that 1,200,000 hectares (3,000,000 acres) of kudzu had been planted. When boll weevil infestations and the failure of cotton crops drove farmers to move from rural to urban districts, kudzu plantings were left unattended.

 The climate and environment of the Southeastern United States allowed the kudzu to grow virtually unchecked. In 1953 the United States Department of Agriculture removed kudzu from a list of suggested cover plants and listed it as a weed in 1970. By 1997, the vine was placed on the “Federal Noxious Weed List”. Today, kudzu is estimated to cover 3,000,000 hectares (7,400,000 acres) of land in the southeastern United States, mostly in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and Mississippi. It has been recorded in Nova Scotia, Canada, in Columbus, Ohio, and in all five boroughs of New York City.  NOTE From Ginger...let me tell you, it's everywhere in TN, too.

Kudzu is a perennial vine native to Southeast Asia, primarily subtropical and temperate regions of China, Japan, and Korea, with trifoliate leaves composed of three leaflets. Five species in the genus Pueraria (P. montana, P. lobata, P. edulis, P. phaseoloides and P. thomsoni) are closely related and kudzu populations in the United States seem to have ancestry from more than one of the species.^] Each leaflet is large and ovate with two to three lobes each and hair on the underside. The leaves have the ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen, which can supply up to 95% of leaf nitrogen to the plant in poor soils^] Along the vines are nodes, points at which stems or tendrils can propagate to increase support and attach to structures. As a twining vine, kudzu uses stems or tendrils that can extend from any node on the vine to attach to and climb most surfaces. In addition, the nodes of the kudzu vine have the ability to root when exposed to soil, further anchoring the vine to the ground. The roots are tuberous and are high in starch and water content, and the twining of the plant allows for less carbon concentration in the construction of woody stems and greater concentration in roots, which aids root growth. The roots can account for up to 40% of total plant biomass.

Kudzu’s primary method of reproduction is asexual vegetative spread (cloning) which is aided by the ability to root wherever a stem is exposed to soil^] For sexual reproduction, kudzu is entirely dependent on pollinators.

Although kudzu prefers forest regrowth and edge habitats with high sun exposure, the plant can survive in full sun or partial shade. These attributes of kudzu made it attractive as an ornamental plant for shading porches in the southeastern US, but they facilitated the growth of kudzu as it became a “structural parasite” of the South, enveloping entire structures when untreated and often referred to as “the vine that ate the south”.

Jonathon Van Buren

Not from Wikipedia:  As we've driven around looking at houses to buy, I noticed, during the winter besides all the leaves turning brown, the trees are also covered with dormant kudzu.  In places they look like giant spiderwebs.  I also discovered how many billions of dollars were spent to try to rid the southern states of this rapidly growing plant before it was put on a list of ornamentals to avoid.  It was earlier recommend in Georgia as a great growing vine, such as Ivy.  Who knew it would completely eat structures? At twelve inches a day, it's no wonder.  While you're writing a book, this could happen to your house.  :)

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How many is too many?? By Nancy M Bell

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How many is too many, now that is a question. I work with an animal rescue in Calgary, Alberta. Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society is a no kill organization who take amazing care of the animals that come through their doors. Not only do they take in dogs and cats, but rabbits, ferrets, lizards and turtles. I am proud to be a Cat Caregiver, a foster mom, and volunteer on the Medical Team as well. My husband is very forgiving, I think he is just happy that the latest creature I've brought home isn't a horse. Or there was a sheep once. Sheep stayed with us for a year until his people found a place they could have him with them.

Sheep didn't come through AARCS, neither did the horses that have found homes after staying with us for a bit. So really, what's a few dogs and cats, I ask you? When I started volunteering at AARCS I promised I would NOT foster, oh no. I would be good and just be a caregiver at the shelter. That lasted about two shifts as a Dog Caregiver. A very young, very pregnant dog came in and all the whelping foster homes were full. So I packed her up in the car at the end of the shift and settled her in to our converted chicken house where she could get used to being a people dog rather than a feral one and have her babies in privacy. Missy was so sweet, very happy to be clean and have food and water. When she came to us her hind end was so full of burrs her tail was stuck to her hind legs. She was given a shave to take care of that, but it took forever for her tail to get hair again. A week after I brought her home she delivered eleven puppies. None of which resembled her in the least. So now, instead of one extra dog, my poor husband had twelve of them. The weather turned cold at the end of October, so the puppies came into the house until they could go to their own foster homes to learn house training and manners. It was sad to see them go, but much less work. After eight weeks of catering to the little devils, it was time. Missy stayed with us until she found her forever home in January 2015.

This is Missy in her forever home (she's the one in the back) with her brother Patrick.

So, just after Missy went to her forever home, AARCS, working with the Alberta SPCA took in 104 dogs from a hoarding situation. On Christmas Eve, the first batch of the 201 dogs came to us. Since I had Missy at the time, I didn't push my luck and bring home another. But when the last batch came through I was doing a Cat Caregiver shift and ended up bringing home three Irish Wolf Hound puppies who were 5 weeks old. I kept them for their 10 day puppy quarantine, and then two of them went to regular foster. I kept the little one, known as MR94. They were seized from outside the town of Milk River and he was the 94th dog in that batch. I called him Luke and watched over him. Something wasn't right but no one could pin point what was wrong. Finally, an abscess showed up on his right hip. It was lanced and drained and he was put on antibiotics for 10 days. All seemed fine. Then it came back, showed up on the day he was to be neutered. So instead, he got it lanced and a drain put in. More antibiotics. All seemed well. He got neutered. Then another pocket developed. This time though it was a seratoma, no bacteria causing it, just a fluid buildup because the skin moves so much over the hip that the pocket didn't adhere as it should. So, another lancing and a drain. Now all seems to be okay, and he will have a meet and greet with potential adopters tomorrow. April 12, 2015. We'll miss the little guy when he goes, but if I kept them all , I couldn't help any others.

This is Luke. He is much bigger now, but still cute

This is Luke today. The dog beside him is Duffy. He also came from the same place as Luke. Duffy is 3 years old. This is how big little Luke will be. Holy small horse!

Sad and horrific as some of the stories of the rescue animals are, these are the lucky ones. They have it made. Food, shelter, whatever medical care they need, and love. When each foster leaves and takes a bit of my heart with them, I have to remind myself of the ones still out there fending for themselves. Some of them sick and injured. Some of them just hungry. I don't think it can ever be too many. Just not all at the same time. If there is an animal rescue near you please consider donating to them. No rescue can survive without the help of the community. It doesn't have to be time, or fostering. Any little donation goes a long way for a non-profit no kill shelter. We take animals that are on death row in local pounds and give them a second chance. For feral cats, AARCS has a Barn Buddy program. For farmers, or people who need an outside cat to take care of mice, this is the option. It gives the feral cats a stress free safe place to live with a heated area and food and water and provides the adopter with a very low maintenance cat who has no intention of living in a house with people.

My romance Storm's Rescue, is dedicated to all the people who rescue animals and all those who need rescuing. It is a subject near and dear to my heart. The dog in the story is called Storm and she does need rescuing. She is a mix of the many dogs I've had go through my house, and in particular, she is dedicated to the black momma dog with no name who didn't make it off in time.

This is the momma dog who Storm is named for. I also rescued another black dog, a lab cross who still lives with me and named her Storm as well. Sorry, I can't get the photo to turn the right way.

So now, you all know I'm a crazy lady who opens her home to all sorts of weirdness. If you'd like to read Storm's Refuge just click on the cover at the top of this blog.  Thanks for visiting with me. Until next month... Stay safe and enjoy the spring weather.