It's Time

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." 

It's been 244 years since this statement was published with unanimous consent in the Declaration Of Independence by the founders of our country. How much longer do we need to make this a reality for all?

A sure sign of a cycle of "mental illness" is when a people with a history of abuse then turn around and abuse other people. It's past time that we reckon with our history, our own personal experiences and the realities of our country and communities. Stop making excuses for the unacceptable. 

The time is now. The inflection point of this era is now. A pandemic, police brutality, racial inequality, social justice and human rights issues have brought us to our knees. We must rise in solidarity to a new normal that truly embraces equality and economic opportunities for all. It's past time. Let's go already!

--Nona O., Founder, womenatliberty.com

*Image Credit: Brattleboro Schools Raise Black Lives Matters Flag, 2018, Vermont Public Radio. Listen to story here:

http://ow.ly/eUiu30qWc2j

Happy Thanksgiving!

#HappyThanksgiving from @womenatliberty and #WomenMakingHistory!

Us vs. Them...@vnona

If you do the same things that they do, you are just like them. If you exclude people beause they don't think like you, you are a bigot. If you bully those who look different from you, then you are intolerant.

The end does not justify the means. You are just like them.

--Nona O.

Happy New Year!

from womenatliberty.com, #LeadershipTuesdays and #WomenMakingHistory!

#LeadershipTuesdays: Motivating People For Optimal Results...Cindy Holland

"How do they need to hear the input to get the best results out of them? In management, it’s about understanding how the person thinks and even figuring out the right choice of words that will help unlock their creativity and desire to do something."

--Cindy Holland, Vice President-Original Content, Netflix

Every other Tuesday, WOMEN AT LIBERTY provides a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage and strengthen women leaders. Today's Leadership Tuesdays feature is Cindy Holland. She is the Vice President for Original Content at Netflix, the company who provides on-demand streaming of television shows and movies via the internet and subscription-based rentals to more than 65 million subscribers in the U.S. and over 40 countries in North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Europe. Netflix has been an innovator in how people access entertainment and they have soared in popularity and revenue as traditional competitors in the space, like Blockbuster, has fallen by the wayside.
 
With shows like House of Cards and Orange Is The New Black, Netflix has made a name for itself in the original programming space. Ms. Holland, responsible for “greenlighting” original content, has been with the company for 13 years and assumed her current role in 2012. In a November 2015 article entitled "Learning To Lead On A Pair of Skis", she talked with Adam Bryant of the New York Times’ Corner Office column about her approach to leadership at a disruptive technology and entertainment company like Netflix.
 
The fun part of her job is saying “yes” to projects starring lesser known talent that may have been rejected by other networks. But at the same time she also has the unenviable task of saying “no” to projects that are attached to well-known names and talent that she feels is not right for her company. One of the things that Cindy talks about is how it can be challenging to give feedback in these circumstances and how a leader must think and what they have to know about people, the projects being presented, and the overall goals/objectives of the organization to get the best results for the team.
 
Click on the video below to see the Corner Office interview. To read a more in-depth article written by Adam Bryant, click here. For more information on Leadership Tuesdays or WOMEN AT LIBERTY, click here.

#LeadershipTuesdays: Women And The Media--Miss Representation?

Every other Tuesday, WOMEN AT LIBERTY provides a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage, and strengthen women leaders. Gloria Steinem said in a New York Times article that, "it's hard to think of anything except air, food and water that is more important than the media". Given the importance of the media, what do you believe that the images of women we see on television and in film are telling us about the value and worth of women in our society?

Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence of the 14th District of Michigan recently hosted a forum at the Congressional Black Caucus' 45th Annual Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. to discuss this topic. Entitled "Miss Representation: How Women Are Portrayed In The Media" (based on a documentary by Jennifer Siebel Newsom), panelists from the national and local media as well as women from national advocacy groups and public relations professionals led a discussion that helped the audience understand their power to change how women are currently being portrayed in the media.

Today's Leadership Tuesdays features a video commentary and interviews from the seminar as well as an excerpt from actress Viola Davis' acceptance speech at the 67th Emmy Awards where she made history by winning Best Actress In A Lead Role In A Drama Series.

Check out the video and leave a comment.
   

 

 

For more information about Leadership Tuesdays, go to WOMEN AT LIBERTY. To view the trailer from the documentary, click Miss Representation.

#LeadershipTuesdays: Majority Rules Are Not Always Best...Leo Tolstoy

“Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.”

― Leo Tolstoy, A Confession

Every other Tuesday, WOMEN AT LIBERTY provides a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage, and strengthen women leaders. Today's Leadership Tuesdays will focus on the subject of business ethics. Our news headlines are filled with stories of individuals who have made bad decisions because of lapses in judgement and gotten caught in criminal investigations that led to trials and jail time. Some of the people are prominent politicians, some are corporate executives, and some are everyday people like you and me. As the author of today's featured article intimated, learning business ethics or ethical practices is an ongoing process. It's not easy to always make the right decision. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.

However, when making any type of decision that may involve potential ethical violations, it helps to have a strong ethical foundation. Angelia White, the author of the blog, "5 Basic Business Ethics Tips", gives us a very practical definition of business ethics and great examples of how she approaches situations in the workplace as an employer, business owner, and leader. At the end of the article she gives advice on some tools that will help strengthen you in your practice of business ethics and help you protect yourself from those who would violate business ethics at your expense.

Angelia White is Publisher, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Hope for Women Magazine. Her passionate dedication towards the Magazine has been evolving for almost a decade. She has a background in publishing and is owner and president of Virtuous Publications, Inc., which serves as the Magazine’s publishing company. Angelia has over 20 years experience in business administration and is a business graduate of Ball State University.

To view today's article click here. For more information on Leadership Tuesdays or WOMEN AT LIBERTY, click here. 

Leadership Tuesdays: Millennial Leaders...We Got Next!

If we stand tall it is because we stand on the shoulders of many ancestors.

--Yoruba Proverb

Every other Tuesday, WOMEN AT LIBERTY provides a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage, and strengthen women leaders. Today's Leadership Tuesdays' blog recognizes a few young African American leaders of this generation. In 2012, I was impressed with the activism of four young ladies who, in a matter of days, organized a march in Washington, D.C. to bring attention to the untimely death of seventeen year old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida. Heather Rasberry, Megan Goffney, Maliaka Mealy along with Yolanda Carr, their friend from Florida, combined social media, the communications tools of millennials, with the proven tactics of non-violent resistance--marching and speeches--to spark activism in another generation of young people. One thing that should be applauded about their March 2012 rally is the support they received from local community leaders like Rev. Tony Lee who answered their call and used his platform to promote the work the young ladies were doing. For more information on what these young ladies accomplished, click here.

Maliaka Mealy, Heather Rasberry, and Megan Goffney

Another brilliant young woman leader who has risen to prominence in the wake of protests related to the shooting death of Mike Brown by police officer, Darren Wilson, in Ferguson, Missouri is Brittany Packnett. Ms Packnett is a native of St. Louis and the Executive Director of Teach For America in St. Louis, Missouri. A graduate of Washington University located in her home town, she has also spent time in Washington, D.C. earning a Master of Arts degree in Teaching at American University. She taught third graders in South East Washington, D.C. as a Teach For America Fellow while working on her Master's degree. This energetic young lady also worked on Capitol Hill for U.S. Representative Lacy Clay (D-Missouri) whose legislative district includes Ferguson which is a part of St. Louis County. Ms. Packnett moved back to St. Louis in 2012 to lead the local Teach For America organization. In November 2014, she accepted an appointment by Governor Jay Nixon to the Ferguson Commission that has been tasked with addressing the systemic racial and economic issues in Ferguson. Their report is due in September 2015. She was also appointed by President Barack Obama to the Task Force on 21st Century Policing. To read Ms. Packnett's biography and learn more about her organization, click here. You can follow her on Twitter at @MsPackyetti.

Brittany Packnett

For more information on Leadership Tuesdays or WOMEN AT LIBERTY, click here. 

Nona O.

#LeadershipTuesdays Motivational Moment: My Resolve and Expectations…Ava Duvernay

In an interview with Fresh Air, Terry Gross asked Ava Duvernay, ‘Where do you go next? You’re going to have a lot more clout now as a film director.'

"I don’t know if I’m going to have more clout. There’s really no precedent for someone like me gaining clout in the space that I’m in…a black woman directing films in Hollywood. You know, no precedent for there being a black woman director who's gained any clout. Black women directors that make amazing beautiful things? Yes. I can name 50. Black women directors that have attained that kind of clout to be able to answer that question from a place of the privilege of having lots of options: I’m not so sure. We’ll see. It’ll be nice. But regardless, I’m going to keep on telling my stories. I’d be absolutely happy to go back and make a smaller picture. I never want to be….my choices to be dictated by budget. That’s one of the reasons why I take so much pride in being able to make films for two dollars and a paper clip. Because I can always get my hand on two dollars and a paper clip. I never have to ask for permission for that. And so I don’t know what the next step is gonna be, but I know that I’ll be doing what I was doing for the six years before this moment: constantly making something. You can call me at any time and ask me what I’m doing? I’ll tell you I’m making this right now. It’s about momentum for me. It’s about that artistic energy and constantly having my hands on a project. So, I don’t know what it’ll be but it’ll be something."* 

--Ava Duvernay, Award-winning director of the movie, Selma.

http://www.avaduvernay.com

Every other Tuesday, WOMEN AT LIBERTY provides a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage, and strengthen women leaders. This month, in honor of Black History Month, we will highlight African American leaders who are making an impact or have made an impact in their respective fields. Today, Ava Duvernay, an award-winning director and film maker is featured. Last week, a courageous March 2014 TED talk on race by Mellody Hobson, President of Ariel Investments, was presented.

To view the video for last week's feature, click here. For more information on Leadership Tuesdays, click here. To hear the Fresh Air interview from which the above quote was taken, click the link below.

*The Sounds, Space and Spirit of Selma: A Director’s Take, AnInterview with Ava Duvernay by Terry Gross, Fresh Air, NPR, 1/08/2015

Leadership Tuesdays: The Numbers Do Not Lie..Mellody Hobson

"Now race is one of those topics in America that makes people extraordinarily uncomfortable. You bring it up at a dinner party or in a workplace environment, it is literally the conversational equivalent of touching the third rail. There is shock followed by a long silence.

Now, I know that there are people out there who'll say that the election of Barack Obama meant that it was the end of racial discrimination for all eternity, right? But I work in the investment business and we have a saying, 'the numbers do not lie.' ...There is significant quantifiable racial disparities that can not be ignored in household wealth, household income, job opportunities, health care. I [talk] about this issue of racial discrimination because I believe that it threatens to rob another generation of all the opportunities that all of us want for all of our children no matter what their color or where they come from. And I think it threatens to hold back businesses.

So, I think it's time for us to be comfortable with the uncomfortable conversation about race. Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, male, female, all of us. If we truly believe in equal rights and equal opportunity in America, I think we have to have real conversations about this issue. We can not afford to be color blind. We have to be color brave."*

-Mellody Hobson, President, Ariel Investments; Chairman of the Board, DreamWorks Animation SKG
*This quote is an excerpt from a TED Talk Mellody Hoboson gave on March 20, 2014

Every other Tuesday, WOMEN AT LIBERTY provides a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage, and strengthen women leaders. Today's Leadership Tuesdays' post is a courageous talk on race given by Mellody Hobson, President of Ariel Investments, at a TED Conference in March of 2014. Her eloquent discourse regarding an experience she had in 2006 of being mistaken for the "kitchen help" when she showed up with then Congressman Harold Ford (D-Tennessee) for a lunch meeting at the offices of a highly regarded New York publication will make you chuckle because it seems unbelievable. But, yet it is true. As one of only two African American Chairperson of a publicly traded companies (the other person is Ursula Burns of Xerox) she is less well known than a Beyonce or even Oprah Winfrey. However, Ms. Hobson is a highly accomplished, Princeton-educated young woman.

Her talk is both relatable and relevant. She makes a business case for businesses making diversity one of its core values and part of its competitive strategy. She also makes a human argument for why we can not wait for the next election or another year to confront the issues of race and racial discrimination in America.

To listen to today's feature, click here. For more information on Leadership Tuesdays, click here. 

Show What You Are Made Of...Jill Abramson

"And now I’m talking to anyone who’s been dumped! You bet! Not gotten the job you really wanted or received those horrible rejection letters from grad school. You know the sting of losing or not getting something you badly want. When that happens, show what you are made of. 

…it was the honor of my life to lead the newsroom."

--Jill Abramson, Executive Editor of the New York Times (2011 – 2014)

*You are invited to join WOMEN AT LIBERTY for a Twitter Chat (@womenatliberty) Friday, 5/23, 3-4 pm to discuss girls and women succeeding leadership.  #WWYD2H (What Would You Do To Help) We will also discuss why the Nigerian girls becoming "smartgirls" made them such a threat to terrorists in Nigeria.

Let's Stay Together...Happy Black Marriage Day!

Sharing 3/23/14's Motivational Moment in celebration of National Black Marriage Day!

I, I'm so in love with you

Whatever you want to do is all right with me

'Cause you make me feel so brand new

And I want to spend my life with you

Let me say that since, baby, since we've been together

Loving you forever is what I need

Oh let me be the one you come running to

I'll never be untrue

Oh let's, let's stay together...

_________________________________________________________________

Happy National Black Marriage Day!!

Dedication to all of the families who are doing
what it takes to stay and grow together!

Begin Again In A New Way...Happy New Year!!

Ends are not bad things, they just mean that something else is about to begin. And there are many things that don't really end, anyway, they just begin again in a new way.

--Unknown

Happy National Grandparents Day!!

Surely, two of the most satisfying experiences in life must be those of being a grandchild or a grandparent. 

--Donald A. Norberg

Today is National Grandparents Day! Are your grandparents special. Tell us in a blog or brief video why they are special to you and you could win FREE breakfast for them. See details below. 

Contact info@womenatliberty.com, @womenatliberty on Twitter, or Women Making History on Facebook.

For All Sacrifices Made...Happy Memorial Day!

For all sacrifices made, we honor you and those who sacrifice with you! A soldier never serves alone...

Happy Memorial Day 2013!!

Dear God...National Day of Prayer 2013

Dear God,

Sometimes our words fail to express what our soul really feels. But our God-given translator, the spirit within us, communicates with your Spirit who intercedes on our behalf!

Because of this, we are confident in your ability to see, hear, and help us in our time of need.  Thank you for everyday miracles and unexplained coincidences that assure us that you are present in our lives and listening to what we say and are unable to say.

Amen.

Motivational Moments

Need or want some daily motivation? Check out my "sister" blog "Motivational Moments" for daily inspirational quotes.

http://motivationalmoments-vwo.blogspot.com

True Costs of Freedom...@vnona

"We will never be able to fully quantify the real cost in lives and sacrifice of freedom."

--Nona O.

Underwater sculpture, in Grenada, in honor of our African Ancestors who were
 thrown overboard the slave ships during the Middle Passage of the African Holocaust.
  --Artist, Jason DeCaires Taylor

Image Source:  http://george-geder.blogspot.com/2012/06/real-african-american-genealogy-brick.html

Power To The Peaceful...Vanessa Hudgens

The Positive Use of Power...Katharine Jefferts Schori

"Power, as human beings exercise power, to me means the ability to change: the ability to change oneself, the ability to change one's community. And the positive use of power is transformation of self and community toward a higher ideal, toward a healed world."

--Katharine Jefferts Schori, 26th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States

Twice a month on Tuesdays, WOMEN AT LIBERTY provides a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage, and strengthen women leaders. This week Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is featured. She is the first woman to be elected as the chief bishop or the highest leader of the Anglican Church in U.S. She was elected in 2006.

Bishop Jefferts Schori is responsible for initiating and developing policy for the Episcopal Church and speaks on behalf of the church regarding the policies, strategies, and programs of the church. Before her calling to the priesthood and subsequent ordination in 1994, she was an oceanographer. She has a B.S. in biology from Stanford University, an M.S. and Ph.D. in oceanography from Oregon State University, an M.Div. from Church Divinity School of the Pacific.

In today's video, Bishop Jefferts Schori talks about managing change within her church denomination, how she dealt with discrimination within the church, and the positive use of power. To view the Leadership Tuesdays' feature, click here. For more information on Leadership Tuesdays, see here.