Introducing the OK CodePINK Photo Album

I've started an OK CodePINK photo album at the OKIMC Gallery. Anyone can register there and upload photos (remember to put CodePINK related photos in the CodePINK album). The advantage of this album over those in the Yahoo Groups is that the photos are viewable by anyone who goes to that site and they can be posted on this blog (or any other web site for that matter) via an image tag. Yahoo blocks such usage.

To make an image tag to display in your post use the following code:
<img src="http://okimc.org/photos/albums/userpics/filename.jpg">. Just replace the URL here with the actual URL of your image.

CodePINK at the Peace Rally, 3/19/05

Writing letters to lobby gov't

Think that writing letters to government officials doesn't work, won't be effective, is a waste of time? You are SO astoundingly wrong, as this blog post from Jeff Jarvis demonstrates.

I'm as guilty as anybody in thinking that such letters aren't worth the effort, a feeling that has intensified since coming to conservative Oklahoma.

But when an issue comes up that makes me think about writing to, say an Oklahoma republican Senator, to say "vote no" but I don't, then that Senator brags that he only got letters that said "vote yes" I cringe with shame. I have allowed him -- and now the media and the public -- to solidify the belief that the opinion is unanimous.

We should never allow them to make such a statement. We have to start demonstrating that there is an opposition to insanity, however small.

Report on the status of women in Oklahoma

The report on the status of Oklahoma women(PDF) is not all bad.

* Women hold four of eleven statewide elected offices.
* Although women in Oklahoma have relatively low earnings, their wage ratio with men ranks in the top half of all states.
* Oklahoma women report the lowest number of days per month of poor mental health in the country.
* Oklahoma allows women access to abortion without a mandatory waiting period.
But then again:
* As of July 2004, there were no women in Oklahoma’s congressional delegation, and less than 13 percent of state legislators were women.
* Women in Oklahoma are less likely to work in professional or managerial positions than women in all but six other states.
* Women in Oklahoma are among the least likely to have health insurance or a college education, and the most likely to live in poverty.
* Oklahoma does not require insurance companies to cover contraception or infertility treatments, important resources in women’s reproductive lives.
* Oklahoma has among the highest rates of mortality from heart disease, and Oklahoma women experience more days of activity limitations due to health than most women in the nation

(found on Okiedoke blog)

Our missions

This is DeAnn's list, posted to the OKC CodePINK listserv. It's pretty good, so why not post it again?

Peacemaking and militarism

Supporting the International Occupation Watch Center in Baghdad

Peace delegations to Israel-Palestine, North & South Korea, Burma,
and Iraq

Life-affirming economic priorities

Books not Bombs in support of local libraries

Civil liberties

Education and advocacy of grassroots efforts to prevent passage of
Patriot Act II

Environmental sustainability

Advocacy of more fuel efficient cars

Support efforts to close Indian Point nuclear power plant in New York

Responsible Media and Reporting

Preserve diversity, localism, and competition

Work to stop the implementation of the FCC ownership rulings

Elections and Voter Registration

Encourage women and other minorities to register to vote