Mary Ellen Withrow. 40th Treasurer of the US, under Bill Clinton. She is my neighbor & sounding board. She is (I believe) 94 years young and very active. She was the first (& I still believe only) person to hold the position of Treasurer at the local, state, and federal levels of government. She was part of the redesign of the monetary notes in the 90’s with her signature. She has broken glass ceilings & is an incredible inspiration.
A current Firestarter - Emma Bates, CEO of startup Diem.
As she describes it "Diem is a search engine that feels like you're asking questions in a girl's bathroom at 1am.". Sounds like she's building a great platform to provide kindling for new firestarters.
My Mom, Gina. A white immigrant from Canada. Who in 1961 allowed me to have my kindergarten friend over to my house for a play date. My friend was the only black child in my school, and to my knowledge, in my town. His Dad was stationed at a nearby Air Force Base. My Mom “educated” some upset neighbors, and although I wasn’t privy to the details of their conversations, I could discern by some raised voices, that it was confrontational. This was during the height of the Civil Rights struggles. We had many more play dates, and I shared my new friend with my old neighborhood friends. She also educated me, during this turbulent time, of the broader Civil Rights struggles, about the righteousness of the cause, and the horrors of Medgar Evan’s, MLK, Malcolm X, JFK, RFK, Cheney, Schwerner, & Goodman, and the Birmingham Church bombing murders and violence, in the struggle for voting rights, and equal treatment under the law, for ALL citizens. She instilled in me many of our founders ideals, and germinated the integrity, decency, patriotism, and empathy, this proud Veteran carries with his Democratic ethos, across my decades to today. God rest her soul. And Godspeed to all Women.
This is about Dorsey Lawson who passed away last year at age 95. The innovations she and her chapter developed have been used by thousands of activists in groups like Citizens' Climate Lobby, RESULTS, and the Quaker Lobby FCNL.
Dorsey Lawson died recently at age 95. A giant in the early days of RESULTS, Lawson and the team of volunteers she built around her in Pasadena, California in the 1980s were our research and development department.
They developed the laser talk —a short statement about a problem, examples of solutions, and a call to take specific action—that advocates use in meetings with members of Congress, media, and others they want to mobilize.
Lawson and her 4th grade English as a Second Language class devised the process for teaching the laser talk—delivering the talk, then asking leading questions and having the group shout out the answers to see what they remember, and then asking the questions again and having them just think the answers to themselves. Learning and using laser talks is a key strategy in the work of effective grassroots advocacy organizations including RESULTS and Citizens’ Climate Lobby.
RESULTS’ pioneering work around building a relationship with a member of Congress who opposes a global poverty bill you are advocating for and bringing them on board as a supporter also came from Lawson and her team of volunteers starting more than 40 years ago with their Congressman Carlos Moorhead (R-CA).
The commitment to encouraging breakthroughs, encouraging volunteer activists to move out of their comfort zone was given voice by Lawson too.
While I was on one of my 21-city trips to start RESULTS groups in 1984, Lawson—writing in her role as Assistant Executive Director of RESULTS—described one volunteer’s splitting headache and another’s feeling of nausea while completing op-eds they’d been invited to write.
“If you’re scared to do this kind of stuff, know that we are too,” Lawson wrote. “….I felt flushed and feverish driving off to a reception for forty people with Rep. Matthew Martinez (D-CA). If you don’t have any discomfort, look at what would be a stretch for you. RESULTS is people breaking through the thought, ‘I don’t make a difference,’ to emerge as community leaders. Those who have pressed themselves to new heights of participation know the joy of this. What’s next for you?”
As always, she signed the letter, “Love, Dorsey.”
Lawson knew that joy followed the discomfort. She knew that it mattered to make big asks of volunteers—it mattered to the issue they cared about, and it mattered to the volunteers themselves.
When Lawson’s group developed the laser talk in 1984, UNICEF reported that 40,000 children around the world were dying every day from malnutrition and preventable disease, things like measles coupled with malnutrition. RESULTS volunteers have lobbied on these issues every year for the last forty years. Over that period, the latest figures show a 66 percent decline in global child deaths, a greater than 90 percent decline in deaths from dehydration and an 80 percent decline in child deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases.
Lucy Burns was one of the “militant” suffragists. She spent more time in jail than any other suffragist, endured forced feedings and survived “the night of terror” in which jailed suffragists were beaten. She was a literal “fire starter” and led demonstrations where she burned Woodrow Wilson’s words. She trained lobbyists, traveled the country to organize for the 19th Amendment and was editor of the National Woman’s Party newspaper. She was also brilliant and studied at Vassar, Yale, Columbia, Oxford and Universities in Germany.
Peace Pilgrim, an amazing woman who crossed the United States multiple times on foot, as an advocate for peace. She was a huge inspiration to my mom who also marched for peace and even joined the Great Peace March for Global nuclear disarmament in the 1980s, a cross-country walk for peace. Check out this interview with Peace Pilgrim. https://youtu.be/vF9rTwFciyM?si=UH4pB6U0i3DlgtGT
Joan Ericksen, Founder of the Sun Foundation, an organization that advances the environmental sciences and the arts in Central Illinois. She’s dedicated over 50 years of her life bringing together children from all backgrounds to learn from professional artists and scientists. She developed the Clean Water Celebration model now used internationally, and she has impacted the lives of millions of children through the foundations’ annual programs, including my favorite, the Art and Science in the Woods summer camp.
African American woman Harriett Alleyne Rice graduated from Wellesley College in 1887, earned a medical degree from Women’s Medical School of the New York Infirmary, and served as a medical assistant for the French Government in World War I. She never married. Instead, she received bronze medal of Reconnaissance Française for her “immense services” and for “her devotion and ability in caring for the French wounded”.
Maria Ereni Dampman is a current firestarter. She is writing a series that depicts a post-orange-guy US, à la Handmaid's Tale and Hunger Games. The books released so far are The Governor's Daughter, The Prodigal Daughter, and The Sentinel's Daughter. She uses her voice to sound the alarm about what could come if we don't resist now. Keep up the good work!
Maggie Walker of Virginia! She was the first black woman to charter a bank and serve as bank president. She's been immortalized with other foremothers at the Virginia Women's Monument at the state Capitol: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Women%27s_Monument
(More Americans should absolutely know about Viola Liuzzo, thank you for listing her.)
Mary Ellen Withrow. 40th Treasurer of the US, under Bill Clinton. She is my neighbor & sounding board. She is (I believe) 94 years young and very active. She was the first (& I still believe only) person to hold the position of Treasurer at the local, state, and federal levels of government. She was part of the redesign of the monetary notes in the 90’s with her signature. She has broken glass ceilings & is an incredible inspiration.
Definitely an inspiration!
A current Firestarter - Emma Bates, CEO of startup Diem.
As she describes it "Diem is a search engine that feels like you're asking questions in a girl's bathroom at 1am.". Sounds like she's building a great platform to provide kindling for new firestarters.
This sounds amazing!
My Mom, Gina. A white immigrant from Canada. Who in 1961 allowed me to have my kindergarten friend over to my house for a play date. My friend was the only black child in my school, and to my knowledge, in my town. His Dad was stationed at a nearby Air Force Base. My Mom “educated” some upset neighbors, and although I wasn’t privy to the details of their conversations, I could discern by some raised voices, that it was confrontational. This was during the height of the Civil Rights struggles. We had many more play dates, and I shared my new friend with my old neighborhood friends. She also educated me, during this turbulent time, of the broader Civil Rights struggles, about the righteousness of the cause, and the horrors of Medgar Evan’s, MLK, Malcolm X, JFK, RFK, Cheney, Schwerner, & Goodman, and the Birmingham Church bombing murders and violence, in the struggle for voting rights, and equal treatment under the law, for ALL citizens. She instilled in me many of our founders ideals, and germinated the integrity, decency, patriotism, and empathy, this proud Veteran carries with his Democratic ethos, across my decades to today. God rest her soul. And Godspeed to all Women.
She sounds amazing!
This is about Dorsey Lawson who passed away last year at age 95. The innovations she and her chapter developed have been used by thousands of activists in groups like Citizens' Climate Lobby, RESULTS, and the Quaker Lobby FCNL.
Dorsey Lawson died recently at age 95. A giant in the early days of RESULTS, Lawson and the team of volunteers she built around her in Pasadena, California in the 1980s were our research and development department.
They developed the laser talk —a short statement about a problem, examples of solutions, and a call to take specific action—that advocates use in meetings with members of Congress, media, and others they want to mobilize.
Lawson and her 4th grade English as a Second Language class devised the process for teaching the laser talk—delivering the talk, then asking leading questions and having the group shout out the answers to see what they remember, and then asking the questions again and having them just think the answers to themselves. Learning and using laser talks is a key strategy in the work of effective grassroots advocacy organizations including RESULTS and Citizens’ Climate Lobby.
RESULTS’ pioneering work around building a relationship with a member of Congress who opposes a global poverty bill you are advocating for and bringing them on board as a supporter also came from Lawson and her team of volunteers starting more than 40 years ago with their Congressman Carlos Moorhead (R-CA).
The commitment to encouraging breakthroughs, encouraging volunteer activists to move out of their comfort zone was given voice by Lawson too.
While I was on one of my 21-city trips to start RESULTS groups in 1984, Lawson—writing in her role as Assistant Executive Director of RESULTS—described one volunteer’s splitting headache and another’s feeling of nausea while completing op-eds they’d been invited to write.
“If you’re scared to do this kind of stuff, know that we are too,” Lawson wrote. “….I felt flushed and feverish driving off to a reception for forty people with Rep. Matthew Martinez (D-CA). If you don’t have any discomfort, look at what would be a stretch for you. RESULTS is people breaking through the thought, ‘I don’t make a difference,’ to emerge as community leaders. Those who have pressed themselves to new heights of participation know the joy of this. What’s next for you?”
As always, she signed the letter, “Love, Dorsey.”
Lawson knew that joy followed the discomfort. She knew that it mattered to make big asks of volunteers—it mattered to the issue they cared about, and it mattered to the volunteers themselves.
When Lawson’s group developed the laser talk in 1984, UNICEF reported that 40,000 children around the world were dying every day from malnutrition and preventable disease, things like measles coupled with malnutrition. RESULTS volunteers have lobbied on these issues every year for the last forty years. Over that period, the latest figures show a 66 percent decline in global child deaths, a greater than 90 percent decline in deaths from dehydration and an 80 percent decline in child deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases.
Full article here:
https://thefulcrum.us/ethics-leadership/more-grassroots-leaders
Thank you for sharing!
Lucy Burns was one of the “militant” suffragists. She spent more time in jail than any other suffragist, endured forced feedings and survived “the night of terror” in which jailed suffragists were beaten. She was a literal “fire starter” and led demonstrations where she burned Woodrow Wilson’s words. She trained lobbyists, traveled the country to organize for the 19th Amendment and was editor of the National Woman’s Party newspaper. She was also brilliant and studied at Vassar, Yale, Columbia, Oxford and Universities in Germany.
Love this!
Peace Pilgrim, an amazing woman who crossed the United States multiple times on foot, as an advocate for peace. She was a huge inspiration to my mom who also marched for peace and even joined the Great Peace March for Global nuclear disarmament in the 1980s, a cross-country walk for peace. Check out this interview with Peace Pilgrim. https://youtu.be/vF9rTwFciyM?si=UH4pB6U0i3DlgtGT
Thank you for sharing!!
I am reminded of the Judy Chicago art exhibit called The Dinner Party. It featured place settings to honor famous women.
This is great!
Joan Ericksen, Founder of the Sun Foundation, an organization that advances the environmental sciences and the arts in Central Illinois. She’s dedicated over 50 years of her life bringing together children from all backgrounds to learn from professional artists and scientists. She developed the Clean Water Celebration model now used internationally, and she has impacted the lives of millions of children through the foundations’ annual programs, including my favorite, the Art and Science in the Woods summer camp.
I love it!
African American woman Harriett Alleyne Rice graduated from Wellesley College in 1887, earned a medical degree from Women’s Medical School of the New York Infirmary, and served as a medical assistant for the French Government in World War I. She never married. Instead, she received bronze medal of Reconnaissance Française for her “immense services” and for “her devotion and ability in caring for the French wounded”.
Love!!
Maria Ereni Dampman is a current firestarter. She is writing a series that depicts a post-orange-guy US, à la Handmaid's Tale and Hunger Games. The books released so far are The Governor's Daughter, The Prodigal Daughter, and The Sentinel's Daughter. She uses her voice to sound the alarm about what could come if we don't resist now. Keep up the good work!
Love this!
Maggie Walker of Virginia! She was the first black woman to charter a bank and serve as bank president. She's been immortalized with other foremothers at the Virginia Women's Monument at the state Capitol: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Women%27s_Monument
(More Americans should absolutely know about Viola Liuzzo, thank you for listing her.)
Love it!
Eye mama project community ! Sharing an eye on care and motherhood in photography. We can’t empower the invisible xx and empathy is a superpower !
👏👏👏👏
Maud Malone: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maud_Malone
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_R._Sabin
A current Firestarter - Ann Muno. Her first book is coming out next month: "Powerful Girls - Raising Strong, Just and Compassionate Young Women"
I preordered my book a few days ago but would have loved the BOGO to give to my daughter. Any chance we can show receipt to get the 2nd book?
Hi! We're going to be picking 100 people to gift a second copy of the book to!