Jaki Jean & the NSA

So, the government is listening.

This probably should upset me, but it doesn’t.

I have always known that the powers that be were collecting & analyzing information on citizens of the republic.

I am, however, relieved that my beloved Blackberry died & I had to replace it.  It kept spontaneously switching to Arabic & I wondered if that put me on a list.

Even if the government is listening to my cell phone calls, I am quite sure the listeners are bored.   

I have known for a long day now that if I wanted to have a private conversation, it probably would not take place on a cell phone or a Facebook message or in an email.

Or even in a restaurant.

Since I am neither a terrorist nor an enemy combatant nor a radical planning to wreck havoc on the country, the NSA & all related agencies are welcome to listen in to my conversations.

I would be happy to share with them a really great recipe for baked eggplant parmesan.  Or better yet, chipotle hummus or orgasmic turkey burgers or fabulous crab cakes or amazing bolognaise.  Or a link to the coupon diva website.   

I am happy to share my thoughts with the people responsible for gathering information to protect the population of the country.

But I have a suspicion that the NSA has other things to do than track my conversations.

Nothing that is going on is new – the technology is new.  And, perhaps, necessary.  A different world, a different threat.  

It does baffle me, my reaction to this.

Jaki Jean & Edith Bunker

When I read Jean Stapleton’s obituary, I learned something I never knew about her.

I knew she was an accomplished actress, that her career spanned more than her time as Edith Bunker on “All in the Family.”

What I did not know about Jean Stapleton until she died was that she & I once shared a moment in space & time.  

The year was 1977. 

Jean Stapleton was one of 45 International Women’s Year commissioners to attend the National Women’s Conference in Houston.  She shared that stage with other fierce women:  Maya Angelou, Roslyn Carter, Betty Frieden, Betty Ford, Gloria Steinem, Lady Bird Johnson, Bella Azbug, Ann Richards, Sissy Farenthold, Coretta Scott King.  And over 2,000 delegates from the 50 states.

The Conference is embedded in my memory, not for the 25 resolutions passed, all of which addressed issues important to women not just in 1977 or 2013, but throughout the ages.  

 

Arts and humanities, Battered women, Business, Child Abuse, Child Care, Credit, Disabled Women, Education, Elective & Appointed Offices, Employment, Equal Rights Amendment, Health, Homemakers, Insurance, International Affairs, Media, Minority Women, Offenders, Older Women, Rape, Reproductive Freedom,  Rural Women, Sexual Preference, Statistics, Women Welfare & Poverty . . .

In 1977, I did not know that the National Women’s Conference existed.  And I sure as hell did not know it was going on in downtown Houston.  I was walking from a building that no longer exists, down Lamar Street to McKinney & the Julia Ideson Library.

It was November & the city was filled with birds.  Birds on lines, birds in trees, birds on buildings.  Birds singing, birds talking, birds vying fir attention.

And the streets of downtown Houston were filled with nests of women.

Women talking, women debating, women supporting, women vying for attention.

As I walked to the Julia Ideson Library, I was struck by the sounds of the birds & the women.

Oblivious to the existence or the importance of the National Women's Conference, I knew something important was happening.  If only to me.

Because at that moment, listening to the birds & the women, I knew I had a voice & that I could soar.

After Jean Stapelton left her role as Edith Bunker, she told the Asoociated Press in 1979:

I am not constituted as an actress to remain in the same role.  

That day in 1977, I knew I was not constituted as a woman to remain in the same role for all time.  

I understood that my roles could, & should, change as I explored & learned & grew.  

All these days & years later, I am still changing, exploring, learning & growing.  

Because one day, in 1977, I listened to the voices of the birds & women around me, telling me to

Soar.