When historical villains die, at least if they are white, male Americans, Conventional Wisdom and Miss Manners say one should simply move on neutrally, "not speaking ill of the dead." Or something.

I strongly disagree. Whereas I philosophically agree that there is no such thing as a totally evil person without contradictions, it is quite appropriate to draw a balance sheet on public figures who have greatly and directly impacted our lives ... in this case for ill.

Helms was such a voluble and prolific person, Rush-Limbaugh-cum-Senator-Claghorn, and his ascendance so felicitously intersected the rightward moving Zeitgeist, that his legacy of harm extends far and wide – from making overt racism politically acceptable in modernized ways, to eliminating civil liberties and the right to organize as workers, to restricting women's reproductive freedom domestically and around the world, to banning public support for art with any erotic or sexual content, to extending the HIV epidemic by forbidding any federal funds to be used on any materials that frankly portray and discuss sex and drug use.  read more »

The women’s Liberation movement of the 1960’s was undoubtedly a major contributor toward the achievement of women’s empowerment. As we feel our strength and recognize our worth as women we seize and create opportunities for ourselves and for the upliftment of all women. We mobilize to challenge systems and governments that could not, would not or that simply were not responding to our needs as women. We educate ourselves; we fight for our own causes: We build coalitions that strengthen our positions. Why we even run for president of the United States. We have become makers, shapers and writers of our own history and our own destinies. Now then, another page in Women’s History was written in San Francisco June 15, 2008. Twenty-five (25) bold, brave, beautiful HIV Positive Women held the 1^st ever convening for the establishment and solidification of what history will come to know as “The Positive Women’s  read more »