Women’s Rights ManifestoNational Organization for Women
Because woman's work is never done and is underpaid or unpaid or boring or repetitious and we're the first to get fired and what we look like is more important than what we do and if we get raped it's our fault and if we get beaten we must have provoked it and if we raise our voices we're nagging bitches and if we enjoy sex we're nymphos and if we don't we're frigid and if we love women it's because we can't get a "real" man and if we ask our doctor too many questions we're neurotic and/or pushy and if we expect childcare we're selfish and if we stand up for our rights we're aggressive and "unfeminine" and if we don't we're typical weak females and if we want to get married we're out to trap a man and if we don't we're unnatural and because we still can't get an adequate safe contraceptive but men can walk on the moon and if we can't cope or don't want a pregnancy we're made to feel guilty about abortion and...for lots and lots of other reasons we are part of the women's liberation movement.
Max Ehrmann (Desiderata: A Poem for a Way of Life)
"Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly, and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story. Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love – for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment is it perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you from misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labours and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world."
THE PROHIBITION.by John Donne
TAKE heed of loving me ;At least remember, I forbade it thee ;Not that I shall repair my unthrifty wasteOf breath and blood, upon thy sighs and tears,By being to thee then what to me thou wast ;But so great joy our life at once outwears.Then, lest thy love by my death frustrate be,If thou love me, take heed of loving me.
Take heed of hating me,Or too much triumph in the victory ;Not that I shall be mine own officer,And hate with hate again retaliate ;But thou wilt lose the style of conqueror,If I, thy conquest, perish by thy hate.Then, lest my being nothing lessen thee,If thou hate me, take heed of hating me.
Yet love and hate me too ;So these extremes shall ne'er their office do ;Love me, that I may die the gentler way ;Hate me, because thy love's too great for me ;Or let these two, themselves, not me, decay ;So shall I live thy stage, not triumph be.Lest thou thy love and hate, and me undo,O let me live, yet love and hate me too.
