On Thu, 27 Apr 1995, Bertina Miller wrote:
> I am a part of the lower class because I make just over the minimum
> yearly income. But I begin to wonder whether the definitions of classes are
> relative depending on the type of educational background as well as how much
> annual income one has.
> I think at times class does play a role in all aspects of life but
> luckily email is one chance in life there is a way for people to
> interact of all classes and backgrounds.
>
> My 2 cents-
> Bertina Miller
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
We are really lucky to have email, the internet, etc., and should be
thankful, but I think it is important to realize that email alone will
not get us in touch with people from all classes and backgrounds. There
are many people all over the world who probably do not even know what
e-mail is let alone who have the priveledged access to it. For so many
of these people the issues of the environment and class and gender aren't
just issues to discuss; they are survival issues. I feel strongly that
ecofeminism needs to connect with people. Real people with faces and
hands and bodies and hearts. Real people that are
struggling to survive against all those -isms. Many of those people
aren't going to be found on the internet. They are going to be found all
over the world, living lives that make the "poor" in the US and
other developed nations look like they are living the life of royalty.
On my "limited budget," I don't exactly know how I am supposed to do
that. I don't claim to have all the answers, but I know I want to try.
I believe our struggle needs the validation of those struggling even more
than those of us on the internet. We need to listen to them.
Thanks for letting me spout on a bit.
Gretchen :)
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fri Apr 28 13:15:22 MDT 1995
Date: Fri, 28 Apr 1995 12:15:53 -0700 (PDT)
From: Barbara Bliss <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: power
To: Michael Golden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> As a parent, I'm not so sure it is power I am using. I try to view
> it as guidance. I think of power in child rearing as making them do
> something YOU want them to do. Stopping them from running in the house
> with a knife(my two year-old last night) is stopping them to protect
> them...guidance. I'm not gaining something from stopping them from
> hurting themselves. If I forced them to do something they didn't want to
> do for my benefit, then that would be exhibiting power over them. Just
> because someone has artistic or intellectual
> talents isn't the same as saying they have power. Its what they do with
> those talents which makes the distinction for me.
Okay - point of clarification. I would say you did use your power - your
personal, nonphysical power to influence your child. That is bound up in
the love your child (we hope) has for you, AND INCLUDES the
materials dependence of your child (when your child is sixteen, running with a knife
in the
house, s/he won't listen) on you for care, protection, etc.
>Do they use it for the
> betterment of humanity, or to exploit humanity? Power vrs. contribution.>
I would say this is a question, simply, of how power is used. Everybody
has power. The old saying about women witholding sex from men when they
(women) were displeased exhibits the power women had *over* something men
wanted. Power is based in material realities, sometimes, and sometimes
is based in different things we value - like spirituality (not much used
here in USA). Power wielded by government is based on its material
ability to withold life, liberty, etc. from us. Power wielded in the
economy is based on the ability to withold wages, which translated into
survival issues for most of us - except the most wealthy who have those
needs met already.
> When one says that we need to give everyone the access to power, do we
> mean everyone should have an equal opportunity to potentially exploit
> others?
No, it means we need to give them power over their own survival issues.
Women in India should have the power over resources needed for survival
so they don't have to have their uteruses cut out or their female babies
aborted to survive. Families in Philadelphia should have the power over
the resources they need so they do not have to lose their homes when
corporations decide to go South. Hispanics in Whatcom County should have
the control over the resources they need to survive so their children can
go to school and get educated and not labor in the fields to eke out an
existence....That kind of power...
> I agree with you that not everyone is uniformally good-intentioned...But
> I think that is learned behavior. We exist in a society that tells us
> that competition amongst memers of society is not only good, its natural.
Our (American speaking here) nationally recognized value is money. If it
is not reduced to money it is not recognized.
> Thus we are rewarded for taking advantage of people (isn't that where
> profits come from for instance?).-If people were taught that cooperation
> was the value of society, would we have so many bad-intentioned people?
Yup. Sometimes this has been called "power through" as opposed to
"power over". We can have power, through cooperation and respecting one
anothers NEEDS (not wants - we don't need alot of things) instead of
being subject to others power over us.
Barbara Bliss
