Colleen Rowley

Hi!! Today's Awesome Woman of the Day is a woman some of you are friends with on Facebook (and I would be too if I could but she is over her maximum). She's someone I have a great deal of respect for because she stood up for what's right as a whistleblower in the FBI. In 2002 she wrote what was intended to be a private memo to then-director Robert Mueller about the misrepresentation and mishandling of facts regarding the time leading up to the events surrounding 9/11. Her memo quickly garnered public attention and became known as The Bombshell Memo by Time magazine http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020603/memo.html. Although stating her true opinion was a dangerous thing for her to do, it never occurred to her that it might not be the right thing to do as she felt that "speaking truth to power" always made sense and its that degree of integrity that really impresses me. As a result, She jointly held the [I]TIME[/] "Person of the Year" award in 2002 with two other women credited as whistleblowers: Sherron Watkins from Enron and Cynthia Cooper of WorldCom. She also received the Sam Adams Award for 2002.[[I]citation needed[/]]She became a special agent of the FBI in 1984 and was stationed at several posts both domestic and overseasuntil she came ato Minneapolis as their chief legal advisor.After the September 11, 2001, attacks, Rowley wrote a paper for FBI Director Robert Mueller documenting how FBI HQ personnel inWashington, D.C., had mishandled and failed to take action on information provided by the Minneapolis, Minnesota Field Office regarding its investigation of suspected terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui. This individual had been suspected of being involved in preparations for a suicide-hijacking similar to the December 1994 "Eiffel Tower" hijacking of Air France 8969. Failures identified by Rowley may have left the U.S. vulnerable to the September 11, 2001, attacks. Rowley was one of many agents frustrated by the events that led up to the attacks, writing:During the early aftermath of September 11th, when I happened to be recounting the pre–September 11th events concerning the Moussaoui investigation to other FBI personnel in other divisions or in FBIHQ, almost everyone's first question was "Why?--Why would an FBI agent(s) deliberately sabotage a case? (I know I shouldn't be flippant about this, but jokes were actually made that the key FBI HQ personnel had to be spies or moles, like [Robert Hanssen], who were actually working for Osama Bin Laden to have so undercut Minneapolis' effort.) [2][3]Rowley testified in front of the Senate and for the 9/11 Commission about the FBI's internal organization and mishandling of information related to the September 11, 2001, attacks. Mueller and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) pushed for and got a major reorganization, focused on creation of the new Office of Intelligence at the FBI. This reorganization was supported with a significant expansion of FBI personnel with counterterrorism and language skills.[[I]citation needed[/]]For Americans watching this odd display, the message was clear: This mid-level lawyer ata field office in the Midwest had higher expectations for the FBI than its top leaders. The bureau could be great, was her message, if only it put the goal of protecting Americans above the goal of protecting itself, if only agents were not rewarded for sitting still. In short,she made the Congressmen look like interns on the set of the Coleen Rowley show. Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1003988,00.html#ixzz1MohY8TSBRowley retired from the FBI in 2004 after 24 years with the agency.After this experience, she became much more politically active and later ran for US representative as member of the Democratic Farm Labor party against John Kline but lost due to some questionable circumstances involving a cash contribution and picture that mysteriously was posted on her website portraying her opponent as Col Klink of Hogan's Heroes. She also protested outside GW Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas requesting that Bush meet with Cindy Sheehan and answer some of her questions.

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Frances Perkins

Frances Perkins was the first woman cabinet member in the United States. She was also the longest serving labor secretary, to date. She was an activist and early feminist and suffragette. All these are impressive, and yet are far from completely describing the woman she was.

She came from a middle class family in Massachusetts, and became a Democrat after reading Jacob Reis' "How The Other Half Lives". After graduation from Mount Holyoke she worked at Hull House as a social worker. From there she moved to New York and became active in the suffragette and early civil rights movement. She witnessed the Triangle Shirtwaist fire and that event changed the direction of her life.

From that point, Frances became a tireless worker for labor rights and worker safety. She worked first in city governments and for several administrations in both New York City and the state.

Ms. Perkins eventually became a cabinet member of FDR's administration when he was governor. He had to persuade her to join his administration when he was elected president. She gave him a list of what she wanted before she agreed to work for him in Washington. The list contained, Social Security, Unemployment Insurance and universal healthcare. He agreed! She went on to become perhaps the most influential Labor Secretary in history.

All this was accomplished despite opposition on every front. She was fought tooth and nail by almost every politician and labor leader of the day. She was wickedly clever and was able to outsmart them all.

Obstacles at work were only part of her struggle. She had a husband who spent years in mental facilities, (he probably suffered from a bi-polar disorder) as well as a daughter to raise. Financial difficulties were always a problem for her.

Sadly, these days when you mention Frances Perkins, most people have no idea who she was. And yet she is the woman we have to thank for Social Security, Unemployment Insurance, and many of the workplace regulations we now take for granted. She fought for safe working conditions, sick pay. the 40 hour week, and many more. She also wanted a universal health care plan, and if we ever get single payer, perhaps we should name it for her.


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Christy Turlington Burns

Todays WOD is Christy Turlington Burns (born January 2, 1969) an American model best known for representing Calvin Klein from 1987 to 2007. An ex-smoker whose father died of lung cancer, Turlington is also an anti-smoking activist and an ambassador for CARE. In 2005. She began working with the international humanitarian organization CARE and has since become their Advocate for Maternal Health. She has also been an Ambassador for (RED) since their launch in 2006. Her work on behalf of CARE and (RED) inspired her to pursue a Masters in Public Health at Columbia University’s Mailman School. In 2008, Turlington began working on a documentary film, No Woman, No Cry, profiling the status of maternal health worldwide. The film, Turlington's directorial debut, tells the stories of at-risk pregnant women in four parts of the world, including a remote Maasai tribe in Tanzania, a slum of Bangladesh, a post-abortion care ward in Guatemala, and a prenatal clinic in the United States. No Woman, No Cry made its world premiere at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. Concurrent with the debut of her documentary, Turlington launched Every Mother Counts, an advocacy and mobilization campaign to increase education and support for maternal and child health.

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Florence Nightingale

In light of my current situation, I thought it appropriate to make Today’s AWU WOD Florence Nightingale (May 2, 1820 – August 13,1910). She was a celebrated English nurse, writer and statistician. An Anglican, Nightingale believed that God had called her to be a nurse. She came to prominence for her pioneering work in nursing during the Crimean War, where she tended to wounded soldiers. She was dubbed "The Lady with the Lamp" after her habit of making rounds at night.
Florence refused to marry several suitors, and at the age of twenty-five told her parents she wanted to become a nurse. Her parents were totally opposed to the idea as nursing was associated with working class women.

Florence's desire to have a career in medicine was reinforced when she met Elizabeth Blackwell at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London. Blackwell was the first woman to qualify as a doctor in the United States. Blackwell, who had to overcome considerable prejudice to achieve her ambition, encouraged her to keep trying and in 1851 Florence's father gave her permission to train as a nurse.
Nightingale laid the foundation of professional nursing with the establishment, in 1860, of her nursing school at St Thomas' Hospital in London, the first secular nursing school in the world, now part of King's College London. The Nightingale Pledge taken by new nurses was named in her honour, and the annual International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world on her birthday.

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Phyllis Rodriguez & Aicha el-Wafi

It is Mother's Day many countries around the world. As a bonus, today we honor TWO AWESOME WOMEN OF THE DAY, Phyllis Rodriguez, whose son was killed in the World Trade Center on 9/11, and Aicha el-Wafi, the mother of Zacarias Moussaoui, accused, tried and convicted by the United States of being the missing "20th hijacker".

Women can bridge vast rifts. Women can heal the world. Only women. Happy Mother's Day to all of you. Regardless of how many children you do or don't have, your powers of love and care and action and courage are what the world needs now. ♥



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Sabrina Artel

Today's awesome woman is Sabrina Artel, who travels around the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York in her 1965 Beeline RV, evangelizing against fracking. She does this by bringing "Sabrina Artel's Trailer Talk" -- a combination live performance, community event and radio broadcast -- to local communities who are being wooed by drilling companies who pay out big lease money in order to frack on the property owner's land. See http://trailertalk.net/

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Judi Bari

Today’s WOD is Judi Bari was Born in Baltimore MD, U.S., on Nov. 7,1949. She was a leading US environmental activist, human rights activist and feminist until her death from breast cancer on March 2, 1997. She was one of the principal organizes of the group 'Earth First'. Judi Bari published one book called "Timber Wars."

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