Archived Radio Show

March 18, 2024

Original Radio Show  ID:
WSA240318

Listen to the Show on the Mp3 Player below

Duration 57 minutes

The Guest interview begins at 1 minutes.

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Featuring

Click the Name to access the Segment below

1. Commentary by Elaine B. Holtz,  Host of Women's Spaces 

2. Guest: Dr. Harriet Fraad, Author, Podcaster, Mental Health Counsellor

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1. Commentary by Elaine B. Holtz:  Joining me on the phone this morning will be Dr. Harriet Fraad. Dr. Fraad is a mental health counselor and hypnotherapist in practice in New York City. She is a well published author and writes about the pressures on families and the economics of the USA. She is also a regular guest of Dr. Richard Wolff and his show Economic Update on KBBF 89.1FM every Tuesday 11-12 pm.

For this show we will be talking about Women’s History Month and The Mother’s Day Proclamation. The reason I chose this bit of history is because women, many of them know little history about this proclamation and we also live in times where young women do not know about it and I thought it was an important topic. As mothers and fathers, we want our children to have a future and most parents want that no matter what country, religion or color. With all these wars, hate and lies being thrown around what future are we nurturing? In looking at this historic moment when the Mother’s Day Proclamation was written there was a vision that has yet to be actualized. We also see the damage.

The original Mothers' Day Proclamation, Julia Ward Howe, 1870:

Arise, then... women of this day!

Arise, all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be that of water or of tears! Say firmly: We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.

From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says: Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice. Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence vindicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of council.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them then solemnly take council with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after his own kind the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women, without limit of nationality, may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient, and at the earliest period consistent with its objects,

to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother's_Day_Proclamation

Here is a modern version done in 2019 by Rivera Sun, which I will discuss with Dr. Fraad:

We will also be discussing Lysistrata, a play by Aristophanes in 411 BC:

Lysistrata was the third and final of the peace plays written by the great Greek comic playwright Aristophanes (c. 445 - c. 386 BCE). Shown in 411 BCE at the Lenaea festival in Athens, it was written during the final years of the war between Athens and Sparta. The play is essentially a dream about peace.

Source: https://www.worldhistory.org/Lysistrata/

Yes, today is my birthday  I was born on March 18, 1940. My dear mother Betty had to have a cesarean birth and knew ahead of time. They first scheduled her for March 17, and she said, "No, my child will not be born on that day!" So the 18th it was. I want to wish my dear friend and neighbor, Harold Rogers, who feels like a brother to me, Happy Birthday to you. He was born on the 17th, St. Patrick’s Day. 

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2. Our Guest, Dr. Harriet Fraad, in response to Elaine’s question on the importance of National Women’s History Month, says that it chronicles the struggle of women to come from chattel as bondswomen, arrested on minor charges in England but promised freedom when they went to the American colonies to marry and work as a wife for seven years. 40% of the colonial women were bondswomen. The struggle continued as women noticed they were left out of the Constitution, and they rallied successfully to gain the right to vote. The right over their own bodies was the next fight, continuing to this day.

Dr. Fraad and other scholars believe women enjoyed more equality with men in earlier times before the invention of private property. Even in colonial times when women were kidnapped by the indigenous tribes, they often preferred to stay with those tribes.

When asked by Elaine about institutional trauma, Dr. Fraad gave the veterans of our wars as examples with their rates of suicide due to PTSD. In World War II 30 million Russians were killed, along with millions of disabled and Romani people. Yet the war profiteers continue to prosper. The trauma continues to be inflicted with the war in Gaza as the latest example.

Dr. Fraad recounts how her father’s talking about historical figures and the black-listed artists accused of being communists encouraged her and her sister to organize for women’s liberation in their locality. A lot of union successes have been achieved by women. In spite of this many women still belief in the superiority of men and are afraid to see they have been hoodwinked. In the book Depths of Despair by Anne Case and Angus Deaton, a troubling picture of the American Dream in decline is presented. 70% of divorces are now initiated by women, many of whom were upset by the “second shift” their husbands had them work when returning home after a full-time job.

-  report by Ken Norton, Co-Producer, Women's Spaces

About our Guest: Dr. Harriet Fraad is a Mental Health Counselor and Hypnotherapist in New York City. She is a longtime political activist initiating movements for better public education, free public childcare, and midwifery Rights in Childbirth. She is a founding mother of the Feminist Movement. She has the Podcast Capitalism Hits Home. Her regular radio program, Interpersonal Update appears on WBAI on Tuesday nights at 6:30 EST. Her work focuses on the mutual shaping of political, economic, and personal life. She is also a regular guest of Dr. Richard Wolff and his show Economic Update on KBBF 89.1FM every Tuesday 11-12pm.

Guest Link:

www.harrietfraad.com

Email Dr. Harriet Fraad: hfraad@gmail.com

Reference Link:

Depts of Despair by Anne Case and Angus Deaton: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691190785/deaths-of-despair-and-the-future-of-capitalism

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Our History Is Our Strength

Check out important dates to remember in Herstory at the National Women's History Alliance, where the date descriptions were sourced unless otherwise indicated.

Special thank you to the National Women’s History Alliance for making women’s history alive. Shout out to Co-Founder and Retiring Executive Director, Molly McGregor who will be on the show when we celebrate Women’s History Month in March for making the fabulous list of Women in History where I get most of the info I present in this Herstory segment.

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Herstory Birthdays:

March 18, 1970 - Queen Latifah is a New-Jersey born African American whose real name is Dana Elaine Owens. Born on March 18, 1970, she witnessed her parents’ divorce at the tender age of ten and when she was twenty-two her elder brother was killed in a car accident.

March 23, 1884 (1966) – Florence Ellinwood Allen, the first woman to serve on a state supreme court and one of the first two women to serve as a United States federal judge.

March 23, 1897 (1984) – Margaret Farrar, joined the New York World in 1921 with responsibility to get the crossword puzzle mistake-free, also edited Simon & Schuster puzzle books for 60 years, became crossword editor for the New York Times in February 1942.

March 23, 1905 (1977) – Joan Crawford, legendary actor, rose to star status in 1928 by dancing the Charleston in Our Dancing Daughters, 50 years later her last movie was What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

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Announcements

Monday, March 25, 2024 11 AM PT # repeats 11 PM PT, the show will feature our guest Andrea Hall, PhD, RN, Author.  Radio KBBF 89.1 FM, North SF Bay or live streaming at https://kbbf.org/live

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Wednesday, March 27, 2024, 11 AM PT, repeat of Monday's show that will feature our guest Andrea Hall, PhD, RN, Author.    Radio KPCA 103.3 FM, Petaluma, CA. https://petalumacommunityaccess.org/kpca 

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Wednesday, March 27, 2024 Peace and Justice Center issues new weekly list of events and links to community non-profit organizations: PJC website www.pjcsoco.org

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February and March 2024, Figures and Faces, Santa Rosa Arts Center, 312  South A St., Santa Rosa, CA. See poster below:

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Music Selections

The Opening and Closing Theme song The Woman in Your Life is You is done with permission of the Composer and Singer Alix Dobkin ((August 16, 1940 – May 19, 2021) Alix Dobkin death was just announced - Thank you for all you did for Lesbians to be recognized and Women to be honored. May you rest in peace. See our Interview with Alix Dobkin on 12/1/2014 and our Memorial to Alix Dobkin on 5/24/2021

The Woman in Your Life is You by Alix Dobkin from the album Living with Lavender Jane (2010 Women's Wax Works) - www.alixdobkin.com

For the Mothers, sung by Betsy Rose and the Women’s Choir from the album Welcome to the Circle (2006 Paper Crane Music).

This Is My Wish, sung by Voctave from the album The Spirit of Christmas (2021 Chubb44 Records)

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For music purchasing opportunity, supporting the artists: