THE WOMEN'S MARCH HIJACKED

No one likes or wants to admit they were wrong, but confession is good for the soul or so they say.  This makes me angry, sad and feeling very foolish as well as duped.  I did not vet the Women's March as well as I should have before I participated.  Knowing what I know today, it was a sham that was perpetuated by Bernie Sanders' extreme supporters.

I was devastated when Hillary Clinton lost the election in November 2016 and sick that a narcissistic bully and predator had been elected as our president.  Seeing that a women's march was being organized, I jumped on  the bandwagon as a support mechanism to get me through the grieving process.   I enlisted my sister and we both embraced the march.  Having never been to a protest, it was exciting and exhilarating to be part of something so mind bogglingly big.

   

Please read my post of May, 29, 2017, "What is a Feminist?" which explains how, when and why I

began to see the writing on the wall regarding the Women's March.  It was at that point that I removed myself from their Facebook page.

Still on their email list, I received the notice of the Women's Convention around the middle of August which was going to be held in Detroit October 27-29, 2017 in Detroit.  The thought of being with like-minded women was intriguing, but I am always tied up at that time of year with family.  Every so often I received updates on the convention like the one stating that Maxine Waters was going to be one of the speakers.

Bombshell announcement from the Women's March came on Thursday, October 12, 2017.  Bernie Sanders was going to be the opening night speaker.  I was dumbfounded.  Opening night speaker is a male for a women's convention  and one who has never really embraced feminists and has a terrible history of sexist remarks and treatment who also wrote essays on rape and women in the 70's and has repeatedly spoken against identity politics.  He grudgingly gave a smidgen of support to Hillary Clinton so why would he be speaking to a group that began because of the outcome of the 2016 presidential election:  Hillary's loss and 45's winning.  What a slap in the face of HRC's supporters!

Suddenly, I was seeing all kinds of information relating to Bernie Sanders history as well as who the people were that were in charge of the Women's March.  I knew that a grandmother in Hawaii had initiated the idea, but professional organizers came on board when they saw the massive amount of support for the march.

Yes, I attended the march, but was not close enough to hear the speakers and if anything was handed out, I did not get anything.  I just learned this past week that Hillary Clinton was not one of the women who were honored at the march.  Are you kidding me?  There would never have been a march without Hillary Clinton.  Did you hear me?  THERE WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN A MARCH WITHOUT HILLARY CLINTON!   Below is part of the "official" Women's March agenda that lists the names of the women who were honored.  NO HILLARY CLINTON. 

Remember when Hillary declared at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China on September 8, 1995, "Human Rights are Women's Rights."  Guess what?  The Women's March tried to use this  quote without attributing it to Hillary Clinton until they were forced under pressure to back down.  I did not know this until the swell of the backlash from the announcement of Bernie Sanders as opening speaker.  Thanks to #MarchingOnward, a group that was organized immediately after the announcement of Sanders speaking at the convention and the many twitter replies I received, I have now been enlightened.

The enlightenment  continued when I found out who the co-chairs of the Women's March and convention  are.  Two of the co-chairs:  

• Linda Sarsour -- one of the 23 Sanders at-large delegates from New York.  Surrogate for Sanders in the "Sanders Cult" known as BernieBros, BernieBots and BernieCrats.  Known for a crude and cruel comment regarding the anti-Islamist feminist, Ayann Hirisi Ali, she is "not a real woman"  and confessing that she wishes she could take away Ms Ali's vagina--this about a woman who suffered genital mutilation as a girl in Somalia.  *Note Ms Sarsour is a hijab-wearing Palestinian-American.  Her spoiled brat attitude as well as the other members of the "Sanders Cult"  during the primary and convention was described in an article about the convention by Politico.  

• Tamika Malloy -- was sheltered by Fidel Castro in Cuba and posted after his death, "RIP Comandante!"  Your legacy lives on."  On November 20, she showed no respect for American police officers by posting "When you throw a brick in a pile of hogs, the one that hollers is the one you hit."  She is also a follower of Louis Farrakhan, notorious for his anti-Semitic comments.

The commonality of these two are that they are supporters of Bernie Sanders and they are extreme activists intent on overturning everything within the Democratic Party.  This group has an intense hatred of Hillary Clinton.  They refused to give her credit for all the work she has done for women's issues.

There is a constant ebb and flow on the list for the speakers at the convention, but one could argue that it is a "who's who" list of Sanders campaign, surrogates and supporters  and cohorts of his "Our Revolution."  The information I have used in this post comes from blogs, HuffPost, USA Today and Politico, but I urge you to do your own investigation.  The Women's March has a hidden agenda and there is quite a bit of smoke and mirrors.  Be wary, very wary.  Consider that one of the sponsors of the convention is Bernie Sanders' Our Revolution and Nina Turner, one of the speakers is the president of Our Revolution.

Bernie Sanders was never given a complete and thorough vetting by mainstream media.  He got a huge pass by almost all sources.  Below is a link and a guide to the vetting of Bernie from Huffington Post.  What he and his supporters want to do is pretty much what Steve Bannon and Breitbart want...revolution.

Knowing what I know now, I'm not sure I would have participated in the Women's March.  I think so, but...  The fact is the march would not have happened if Hillary had won the election.  No matter what the far left and the BernieBots say, it was more about Hillary's loss and Trump's win and what it meant for all women.

We are living in an era of "up is down and down is up."  It is scary and very frightening.




 

  

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-trouble-with-bernie-your-handy-vetting-guide_us_59cba33fe4b028e6bb0a6707

     

LILAC GIRLS

I did a book report on The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler by William L. Shirer when I was in junior high school.  The report was returned to me by my English teacher, Mrs. Lombard with a slash through the title and the words, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich  inserted as the "correct" title.  Yes, William L. Shirer  did write the more popular The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, but he also wrote "The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler in 1961.  Being extremely shy, I was loath to correct my teacher and to this day, I am still annoyed for not standing up for myself.  I still question whether she thought I really didn't read the book; I accidentally wrote the wrong title; she didn't care to check with the local library because obviously I, as the student had to be wrong.  History was one of my better subjects and I was fascinated with WWII, reading many books and watching all the many movies from that era.  

It seemed unfathomable that a country would become so enthralled with a madman like Adolf Hitler  that they would completely lose their moral compass; turn on their neighbors; watch as their friends and neighbors were forced out of their homes and led away by the Nazis; close their ears to the whispers of the injustices and cruelty that were leveled on their  fellow countrymen just seemed incomprehensible to me.  I have read many books detailing the atrocities that occurred during the war by the Nazis, but the story of the Ravensbruck "Rabbits" was not one I was familiar.  The book, Lilac Girls is a  historical novel that tells the story of three women, two are portraits of two real-life women; Caroline Ferriday and Herta Oberheuser.  The third, Kasia is a compilation of  two actual Ravensbruck  concentration survivors. 

Caroline Ferriday

Caroline was a New York socialite; a former Broadway actress; a staunch supporter of the French Resistance; philanthropist and "Godmother" to the Polish women who had been used in medical experiments by the Nazis at the Ravensbruck concentration camp.  This is a woman who used her position in society to help the displaced and needy during the war as well as to give some justice to the Polish women known as "lapins" or "rabbits."  She was able to bring the "rabbits" to  America for much needed medical treatment after the war.  Little had been known about these women who had been used in gruesome medical experiments by the Nazis.  Caroline worked to obtain financial compensation for the women from the West German government.  

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Herta Oberheuser

Herta Oberheuser was the only Nazi woman doctor who performed the atrocious and gruesome operations on the "Rabbits" at Ravensbruck, a concentration camp for women near Berlin.  The author tries to humanize her, but is very difficult to understand how anyone, let alone a woman who chooses the vocation of doctor could be so inhumane.  After the war, Herta is the only woman tried at Nuremberg.  She was given a 20 year term, but only served five years.   

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Kasia Kuzmerick is the third woman who is profiled in the book and is based on two of the actual "Rabbits."  Kasia became involved with the Polish underground resistance as a teenager when Hitler's army invaded Poland in September 1939.  After a courier assignment goes awry, she and  most of her family are sent to Ravensbruck.  The feeling of guilt knowing she was the one who brought this on her family is a tremendous burden and causes great mental anguish.

The lives of the three women intersect when Kasia meets Herta at Ravensbruck and becomes one of the Rabbits after she undergoes the egregious and gruesome sulfa experiments.  After the war, Caroline leads the crusade to bring the surviving "Rabbits" to the United States for much needed medical treatment.  And it is Caroline who upon learning that Herta, after serving only five years of her 20 year sentence has a medical practice in Germany, leads the charge to have Herta's medical license revoked.  

The book is quite a page turner and is full of well researched information and history.  It was difficult to put the book down, but there were times when it was just too disturbing to continue  reading.  I had to take a break.  I was not completely satisfied with the limited sketches of the women that the author provided, but it was after all a historical novel.  Real people were inserted into a fictional story and she may have wanted to be more accurate than assumptive.

After I read the book, I searched for book reviews and found the New York Times' May 27, 2016 review by Michael Callahan.  He was relentless in his condescension and criticism of the book.  The most negative aspect from his  perspective was with her characters saying Caroline came off as a "dilettante," Kasia, once a sort of "Joan of Arc" ends up as a "shrill, selfish brat."  How is it that a man can actually understand what is to be a woman?  Kasia spent years of physical and mental torture in a concentration camp so if she came out of it bitter, despondent and angry, would it be any wonder.  As for Caroline, I think one can be a great humanitarian, but still have character flaws.  The author gave her substance and complexity.  Apparently that was lost on Mr. Callahan.  I do agree with him on the portrait of Herta.  In the book she is shocked when she first arrives at Ravensbruck, not having any idea what the real purpose of the camp is.  In no time, she becomes  heartless and cruel, but we don't see the transformation occur.   How does a doctor become a monster?  

How does a man like Adolf Hitler rise to power?  Seeing Trump's supporters who refuse to see him for what he is, is  frightening and I am starting to understand.  We have narcissistic madman as our president and he is dividing us into tribes of hate...  Remember this from  the 2016 presidential campaign:    "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and not lose any voters."  

   

        Ravensbruck "Rabbits"

Survivors

1958 

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Notes:  

1. The author of The Lilac Girls has a blog with much more information on the "Rabbits,"  Caroline Ferriday and  Herta Oberheuser.  www.marthahallkelly.com
2. Without the help of a positive review from NYT, the book became a best seller.
3. Mrs. Lombard was a terrible teacher.  Wow, that felt good.