Government & Policy

Why Would WOW Suddenly Be Against Title IX?

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“Just tell them you’re a girl if they ask you anything and they’ll leave you alone.” This is what my son’s soccer coach told him a couple of years ago when he was told to play on the girl’s soccer team a few times so that they wouldn’t forfeit. (Coaches stop at nothing to get a win.) My son didn’t want to disobey his coach so he went on the field with the girls. He reported to me, “It was so easy Mom. At first, it was fun to be so much better than them, but then it was boring, and felt like we were just being mean. I didn’t like it. And, after a bit, the coach told us not to score, but just set up the score by passing it to a girl for the point.” This is happening to our girls. No wonder so many girls are stopping sports.

Title IX, adopted in 1972, known for disallowing the discrimination of women based on sex in education programs and activities, has historically helped women have access to sports and was a reason for the creation of women-only sports teams and clubs. Over the years, the Worldwide Organization For Women [WOW] has referred many legislators and leaders to Title IX as a standard to follow for the non-discrimination of women in educational settings. So, why now, after 46 years as a women’s and girl’s advocacy organization, would WOW be against Title IX?

Even though Title IX isn’t perfect, in its current state it has been protecting women and girls from harassment and discrimination in educational settings. College campuses have Title IX offices to take complaints to and to help women and girls navigate social and academic situations that target their sex on campuses. However, now, under the Biden administration, Title IX has been attacked, thereby actually attacking women.

Proposed Changes 

In October, the Biden administration and the Department of Education are planning to make the following changes to Title IX.

“The proposed regulation would be in the Title IX regulations at section 106.41(b)(2):

If a recipient adopts or applies sex-related criteria that would limit or deny a student’s eligibility to participate on a male or female team consistent with their gender identity, such criteria must, for each sport, level of competition, and grade or education level: (i) be substantially related to the achievement of an important educational objective, and (ii) minimize harms to students whose opportunity to participate on a male or female team consistent with their gender identity would be limited or denied.” (ed.gov press release)

What is this saying?

This addition says that so long as a person says that they identify as a certain gender they can play on that gender’s school sports teams. This would include full participation involving locker room and restroom access for that specific gender. It says that the only way a student can be denied is if there is a reason related to an “important educational objective” and that students shouldn’t be denied based on gender. “Important educational objective” is a very subjective term that would be hard to prove in court.

These changes eliminate vital protections for women. Gender isn’t the same thing as sex. Previously Title IX protected women and girls because of their biological sex. Now, Title IX would protect people based on their declared gender. If this occurs, women and girls will no longer have safe spaces to engage in sports. Not only will men and boys feel it’s an easy way to poach the girls’ matches and get the win, but women and girls will get hurt and not make the teams they hope to make. Putting the emphasis on gender instead of sex excludes women from sports by forcing them to unfairly compete with biological males. These changes will be bad for the physical, emotional, and social health of women and girls.

The Department of Education [DOE] says that these changes need to be made to clear up “uncertainty” by coaches related to students of other genders playing sports. This is overreach! The states are tackling this issue independently of the DOE and feel good about their local laws. Federal control of education is unconstitutional, therefore mandating policy related to gender should be a state issue. Additionally, creating a Title IX gender mandate attempts to undermine laws that states have already made that disallow biological males in women’s school sports.

The DOE Is Behaving Unethically 

The creation of the DOE was unconstitutional, and the DOE has overstepped its bounds multiple times. WOW has historically opposed governmental overreach due to our desire to protect state sovereignty. So, it isn’t new that WOW would oppose the US national government on an educational issue. However, this time WOW feels that an attack on women and girls is not just overreach, but unethical conduct for a government department.

As the president of WOW I take women’s sports seriously. I know that without playing on volleyball, basketball, and softball teams in my youth, I wouldn’t be the woman that I am today. Thanks to the Title IX movement of 1972 I had no limitations to my sporting aspirations. Society empowered so many girls and women just like me as they supported equality in sports.

Now, women and girls are pulling away from sports again due to men and boys choosing to claim they are female and then poaching on the girls just like my son did in those unfair soccer games.

The changes to Title IX must be stopped soon. Put pressure on the DOE by sharing this article and posting your positive stories about Title IX or negative stories about the proposed changes to Title IX on social media.

If Title IX is corrupted with these proposed revisions, we will have no choice but to call for the abolition of the US Department of Education.

UN Global Day of Parents Is June 1st! — Why?

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Let’s Celebrate! June 1st, the Global Day of Parents, is dedicated to celebrating the impact that parents have on raising children. Not only is a parent required for the biological creation of a child, but parents are vital to the social, moral, emotional, and academic formation of the child as well. No influence is greater than that of parents on a child, even if the parent isn’t present in the child’s life. If a parent is missing, the child carries a scar and a longing to know their parent more and to bond with the unknown parent.

Parents give their children a sense of purpose, confidence, and well-being through the powerful force we call belonging/bonding. In the northern hemisphere, June means summer and family time. This is a great time, when children are home from school for the summer, to really put some deliberate effort into bonding with our children.

Go fishing, camping, and star-gazing. Create forts, gardens, clubhouses, summer businesses, and crafts. Invite discussion, tell stories, play games, learn new things, and make memories. Summer is the perfect time to fall in love with parenting again by looking forward to the adventures of each day with the children.

The global climate hinges on the dedication and condition of the heart of parents toward their children. When parents are ‘all in’ with their parenting, then their hearts open up more toward their children and they naturally teach the children the life lessons needed for confidence, safety, and purpose in life. This powerful impact of parents is worth some attention.

United Nations Says… 

In 2012, a few years after the United Nations decided to focus on family issues, the UN created a resolution to have a Global Day of Parents (A/RES/66/292).

“Universal Declaration, Article 26-3.43 “Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of

education that shall be given to their children.” Children’s Summit, 18.74 “The family has the

primary responsibility for the nurturing and protection of children from infancy to

adolescence. The introduction of children to the culture, values, and norms of their society

begins in the family… Accordingly, all institutions of society should respect and support the

efforts of parents.”

Even though the United Nations doesn’t always stay within its boundaries globally, and even sometimes influences states in ways they shouldn’t, some of its plans and focuses are worth some merit. Global Day of Parents is focused on what really determines the success of nations and societies; parents.

Celebrate with me by attending a virtual Global Day of Parents event on June 1st at 1:00 pm EST. This event is sponsored by the Universal Peace Federation and the permanent mission of the Sultanate of Oman to the United Nations. I’ll be one of the three speakers.

Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_vSWyd-qRRYCRAgV4yS__UA#/registration

Positive Online Posting Makes A Difference!

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Sometimes it’s nice to find out that something we’re doing is really working to bring about good
things. Positive online posting makes a big difference in our world, even if it doesn’t always
seem like there is time to do it.

This week a parent, who attends my weekly digital parenting support group, wanted advice for
how to balance the craziness of life. She concluded her questions, about her scheduling
conundrum, by saying, “One other issue is that I keep feeling that I need to start a blog/YouTube
channel to share the messages that God has put in my heart. My main mission is to care for my
family and raise my son up, but I keep sensing this inward push to reach other people…”
At first glance, a person may think that this mother needs to drop the idea of positively impacting
the world with a blog or channel because she has enough to do as a mom. I believe in priorities,
and that children and family should always top the list of priorities. And, this mother wants to use
this project to align with her priorities by inspiring people to love family, God, and parenting as
much as she does. She is feeling a call to do something, really wants to do it, and isn’t sure that
she can fit it in, but the important thing is that it is a call. She doesn’t want fame or power, but
she wants to do what God is impressing her to do. This project seems less like a hobby and
more like a purpose to me since God is making the call.

The Coordinated Effort

This week, at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women [CSW] conference, I
attended an event designed to be a strategy session to coordinate efforts against religious and
family groups. Since I lead a group that advocates for religious freedom and families, I was
interested to listen in. The panel of speakers mentioned that the religious and family advocates
are “very coordinated” and seem to be “dominating social media with misinformation and fear-
mongering.”

They began by honoring people in the room for being approved editors for wiki information,
search platforms that allow public editors, and then called for the importance of seeing religion
through a new social lens that they called, “a bio-diversity lens.” The panel’s enemies, who are
the “very coordinated, religious, anti-rights activists”, were made to sound covert when they
said, “They have a great understanding of social issues and how to instill fears.”

Ultimately, the calls to action were to get tech companies on their side by using Artificial
Intelligence and data collection measures to steer messaging and control outcomes, get more
funding, become coordinated, and to work on “reclaiming religious interpretation.” I think that my
biggest takeaway was that they were reading the coordination situation completely wrong.

The Real Coordination

During this meeting, my colleagues and I were amazed that we were getting credit for
something that we were definitely not doing. Someone else was coordinating efforts to cause
this much frustration. Not us.

After the meeting, a woman told me that God had been impressing her to do something to
strengthen and uplift mothers online. Then, some hours later, I read the question above from the other mother on my support group. These two women of different faiths were both feeling
impressed by God to give strength and uplift to mothers and families online. No person
coordinated it. God did. It suddenly hit me, that God is working his miracles to help families and
parents through many people online.

Simple posts about optimistic, real life principles, truths, experiences, and families are causing
anti-family, anti-religious groups to fear that they are losing ground. They are scrambling for
control as they try to get their people to coordinate and take action to stop all the good
messages happening online. The messages that are giving people hope or telling precious
truths that uplift, inspire or expose concerns.

Power In Numbers

There really is power in numbers of inspired people who want goodness. Hopper, the villain
grasshopper, from the movie A Bug’s Life taught this valuable lesson about the impact of one
good ant with these words, “One ant? You let one ant stand up to us, then they all might stand
up! Those puny little ants outnumber us a hundred to one and if they ever figure that out there
goes our way of life! It’s not about food, it’s about keeping those ants in line.”

So, what if we all just post something good each week? Don’t worry about the people who say
that it’s offensive to talk about how happy you are about your children or your faith. Those
people aren’t ready for the message yet. However, each person with an open heart who is
looking for more out of life or just some refreshing truth, who reads your message or sees your
photo or reel will stand up a little taller for one day and might even share that love and light with
someone else.

I know life’s busy. We all feel that we need more time. However, when the whole world could
change and evil could get turned on its head by a little bit of goodness and truth, it’s worth a little
bit of time. A self-governed approach to social media posting might be best for the truly time
challenged. Just schedule it. Tell yourself that you have 15 minutes before lunch on Tuesday to
make a post. Stick to the task so that you can justify the time. Add all those hearts and thumbs
another time. You’ll be in and out with a quick post, and the world war for our hearts, beliefs,
families, and souls finds more peace and truth with you in it.

Apparently, according to the recent meeting I attended at the United Nations, it really is that
simple. Positive online posting makes a big difference! Thank you all for taking the time to be
part of such an inspired coordinated effort for good!

Improve positivity in your heart and home by attending the next Parenting Mastery Training.

Is Technology Ruining Women’s Mental Health?

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Technology for women and girls was the hot topic at the United Nations this March. This year at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, WOW talked about the importance of acknowledging the negative mental health connection to technology usage in women and girls and turning the hearts of the children toward their parents as they navigate the technological world.

Nicholeen Peck spoke about the February 2023 CDC mental health study done on boys and girls that showed girls are at a higher risk for the negative impacts of social media. Girls use social media more than boys, and girls have increasingly poorer mental health scores over the 10-year study (2011 – 2021). She also gave evidence of the positive mental health effects of girls who navigate technology under the supervision of their parents, as well as made a case for using technology less for better mental health.

Amaka Ada Akudinobi spoke from an African perspective about how the focus in Africa needs to be on infrastructure to get people electricity and stable internet to be able to conduct business. She also mentioned the many programs that WOW Africa is doing to strengthen their societies and improve mental health.

Kimberly Ells, author of The Invincible Family, spoke about how the family should be the focus for women and girls, not more technology. She gave compelling examples and taught principles about the power mothers have to help keep their children safe in our current technological society.

WOW had a great turnout at the event and enjoyed all the conversations about technology and family that were had this year at the United Nations.

Remembering WOW’s Founder – Nina Palmer

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Obituary:

A joyous reunion was held on the other side of the veil when our mother and grandmother, Nina, peacefully crossed over on September 6, 2021 surrounded by loved ones. Although the last years of her life Nina struggled with Alzheimer’s and then cancer, during this difficult season of her final journey home, she did not let it diminish her spirit, her faith, or her fun laugh and positive outlook on life! She kept her sense of humor to the end!

Nina was always expressing her excitement about passing on to the next stage of her life…as she affectionately referred to it as “the ultimate trip”. For years Nina was always heard saying things such as “Oh, I have had such a wonderful life!” and “Every righteous desire of my heart has been granted me.” and “I can’t possibly think of anything else that I could have ever wanted!”.

Born in Orem, Utah during the Great Depression, Nina was the youngest of seven children born to Arthur V. Watkins and Andrea Rich Watkins. (Her older sister only lived a few short hours, but Nina always remembered her and counted her in with her siblings.) At the age of 15, Nina moved from Orem to Arlington, Virginia when her father was elected as U.S. Senator for Utah. Nina was very involved in high school and had many exciting adventures with her best friend, Shirley Crowther (Hardman). Nina was selected as Washington Lee High School Salutatorian from her large graduating class of 400 students. Nina then enrolled at George Washington University and later transferred to BYU where she graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Art and a minor in French.

During her college time at GWU, Nina met her true love (William) Martin Palmer who was a medical student, while on a blind date. When Nina transferred to BYU she and Martin had a long distance dating relationship for two years, and upon Nina’s graduation they were sealed for time and eternity in the Salt Lake Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Nina worked full time while Martin finished up his fourth year of medical school at the University of Maryland Medical School, they then applied to do his pediatric cardiology residency in the Bay Area and off they moved across the country from the East Coast to sunny Northern California for a new adventure!

Nina, Martin and their four children loved living in the Bay Area and thoroughly enjoyed many happy years in beautiful Northern California with life long friendships with the Billeter’s, Christensen’s, Wickel’s and Stephen’s. Nina loved going to the ocean (especially in the winter to enjoy the crashing waves) and enjoyed many trips with Martin to her favorite vacation spot, Carmel. Every year family vacation times were spent going down to San Diego to spend time with Martin’s sister and family “The Squire Gang” or driving to Utah to spend time with Nina’s siblings and their children, attending the famous “Corry Reunion” camping at Navajo Lake in Southern Utah or visiting other relatives. Nina instilled in her children the importance of extended family and having meaningful relationships with cousins. (For which we are so very grateful!).

In 1973 Nina and Martin decided to start another adventure when Martin left his private medical pediatric practice and accepted the position as the Medical Director at Primary Children’s Medical Center – so they left sunny California and moved their family to Salt Lake City, Utah to be near cousins and grandparents and learn to ski and enjoy the snow.

Nina was very involved over the years with many different organizations. Nina worked to get community groups organized and was involved as an original member of the Utah Federation for Drug Free Youth, was a member of the Governor’s Task Force on Youth Alcohol and Drug Use, and the Governor’s Council on Volunteerism. Nina started the Utah Association of Women in the late 1970’s in an informal caucus in her living room. Nina worked hard to get her women’s organization granted consultative status by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, and for many years she was heavily involved with traveling the world to participate in UN meetings and conferences. In 2000, she was also elected to the Board of Directors of the World Movement of Mothers and for years had the opportunity to go to Paris to attend their annual Board Meetings.

Nina was extremely proud of her pioneer ancestors and loved sharing the stories and journal entries of her ancestors. She raised her children and grandchildren on their stories and instilled her love for these ancestors to many other family members. Nina loved planning and organizing huge family reunions and as part of family vacations, insisted on visiting many cemeteries to see the grave markers of ancestors. Nina also loved history and served as a docent in the Oakland Museum while living in California. Because of the knowledge she gained while at the Museum, the family enjoyed many wonderful vacations planned by Nina as they went to gold rush sites, panned for gold and learned to love the stories of the old timers!

Nina was very politically active her entire life and as a daughter of a US Senator, she attended many events at the Senate Chambers, The White House and had many experiences not many young teenagers have the opportunity to enjoy.

Nina was a very detailed record keeper and put together over 100 large three ring binders on her life, her ancestors lives, her husband’s life and his ancestors. Nina was always trying to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, both at home and abroad and was never shy of sharing her testimony of and her belief in, her Savior, Jesus Christ. Nina was a devoted member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints throughout her life and enjoyed serving in many church callings.

As a widow, Nina sold the family home in Holladay, left the hustle and bustle of the Wasatch Front and followed her daughter and family out to Erda, to enjoy the beauty of Tooele County. Nina loved the openness of the country, the beautiful sunsets, the mountain views, the dark starry nights that Erda offered, and the friendly neighbors. Nina spent many hours sitting on her front porch enjoying the serenity of country life!

Nina loved spending time with all her “special nieces” and going out to lunch down in Orem at the Sizzler. She looked forward to these fun lunches with her niece, Carol and her wonderful daughters Diane, Janet and Andrea. She also loved going out to lunch with the “Bountiful Cousins”, Andrea, Mary Lee, Laurel and sometimes cousin Kent! Many happy memories and deep friendships were forged over the years with intergenerational get-togethers! Nina loved everything the color blue, dolls, reading, and all things historical!

Nina was preceded in death by her husband, Martin and their son, Art; as well as her parents, siblings and most of her dear friends. She is survived by her children: Marty (Dave) Wallace, Bill Palmer, Ginny (Mike) Vielstich as well as her grandchildren and great grandchildren. She will also be missed by many nieces, nephews, and neighbors.

Funeral services will be held at the Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park & Mortuary Chapel – 3401 South Highland Drive, SLC on Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021 at 11:00 am. Viewing to be held one hour prior. In an abundance of caution, the family respectfully requests that masks be worn. The funeral services can be viewed online at the Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park website by going to the “recent obituaries” and clicking on Nina’s name.

Deep gratitude is expressed for all those that shared their time over the years to make Nina’s life pleasant by stopping by to chat, making time for a phone call or sending a card, bringing over flowers or dropping off yummy cookies. Your kindness was always noticed, appreciated and for sure was recorded by the angels above! A special thank you to her granddaughter Hailey who spent countless hours with Grandma, listening to her stories and rendering compassionate care the last 1-½ years.

Endings here in mortality are not endings at all. They are merely interruptions—temporary pauses that one day will seem small compared to the eternities.

The obituary above was originally published on the Dignity Memorial website. (https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/salt-lake-city-ut/nina-palmer-10345572)

Scandal? Utah Uncovers Porn in School Databases and Tries to Stop The Porn Vendors

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When Utah Legislator, Rep. Travis Seegmiller, found out that his 5 year old’s school-supplied-tablet was pre-programmed with educational databases that easily linked his child to XXX pornography and live links to pedophilia hook-up websites he was shocked! Seegmiller decided that his “top priority” as a public official was to keep Utah’s children safe from these international vendors who were “exploiting children.” 

HB 38 School Technology Amendments, a bill by Seegmiller, met with overwhelming bi-partisan support from Utah legislators. During the bill process republicans and democrats alike spoke out in favor of holding the resource vendors accountable for hurting children. The bill was pre-approved during fall interim. In the main session, HB 38 unanimously passed the House and passed the Senate with only four “nay” votes. (democrat senators Riebe, Mayne, Kitchen, and Davis)

During an interim committee meeting in November, former Rep. Eric Hutchings said that he’d like to see even “stronger action” taken against companies who expose children to pornography in such a sly way. He said that “if we found out that someone was putting poison in the school lunch we would hunt them down…and it would make international news.” He went on to say, “We have to stop saying shoots-a-dang when we find out children are viewing porn through school resources. It shouldn’t be tolerated for a second!”  

The bill requires the well-known, international, conglomerate, school digital resource providers like EBSCO, GALE, Cengage, Explora, Pro-Quest, Inspire, and others to be free from obscenities if provided to Utah school children. It also allows the state to back out of contracts with the database vendors if the vendors are found to not be in compliance with state obscenity laws. Additionally the bill requires the Utah Education and Telehealth Network [UETN] to provide proof of digital vendor compliance to the legislature each year. 

As part of the Utah bill presentation school personnel and parents shared numerous stories about children seeing pornography for the first time in the school database and teachers not knowing how to stop the content from reaching the children. Because this issue hit so close to home, Utah lawmakers were inundated with complaints and pleas for them to take action and keep Utah’s children safe. The Utah PTA was also strongly supportive of the bill. 

In the fall of 2018 Nicholeen Peck, president of WOW and a mother and of 4, found out from a friend that sex toys were being advertised to children in the school database called EBSCO. She couldn’t believe that would happen in Utah and started doing some searching herself. After typing very innocuous terms into the state EBSCO database collections and finding multiple images, videos, and articles promoting risky and illegal sexual behavior Peck contacted Senator Todd Weiler, known for his Utah resolution declaring pornography “a public health crisis.” Weiler verified Peck’s findings and said that action needed to be taken. 

KUTV News did a story on the problem, and the EBSCO database was immediately disabled across the state. The UETN told EBSCO that they needed to clean up the database or they would get out of their contract. For a few weeks the EBSCO database was disabled for school children via school portals. Utah’s State Librarian, Colleen Eggett, spoke openly against disabling the  EBSCO database and said that it was up to the parents to keep their children safe from the harmful content. 

Parents in multiple states have noticed that the library associations repeatedly defend EBSCO and GALE, big businesses, and don’t protect the children from explicit content. Why? Some reasons might be that the American Library Association [ALA] has its own code of ethics about viewing content. The ALA Library Bill of Rights says that people of any age should be able to see anything they want, and the ALA also sued the US government in 2001 because they didn’t want to comply with the Child Internet Protection Act [CIPA]. The ALA lost that law suit.

After a few weeks of EBSCO scrubbing and enabling their own filters, the Utah EBSCO databases were enabled again and pronounced “clean.” But Peck was not satisfied. She said, “I can see they have done some clean up, but still within 15 minutes I was able to find live links to Penthouse magazine, multiple graphic nude images, and an article about a 6th grader having sex with his drama teacher. They are not giving us what we are paying for.” 

The database vendors market themselves as “the safe way to search.” No one questions these claims because anything that is put into a database has to be put there on purpose. Peck says, “It’s a kind of locked box on the web that a person has to have a login to access. This is why internet filters are not able to filter databases.” 

After the EBSCO shut-down didn’t really solve the problem, and some of the previously removed explicit content started appearing in the GALE database as well, Peck, other concerned parents, and a group of legislators started taking other action to see if the problem could be solved without a bill. The state auditor and the state Attorney General’s office were shown the problem, and a legislative audit was requested. They were all shocked by the blatant exploitation of children, but none of them solved the problem. 

At this point, Peck and the group of concerned legislators, including Seegmiller, knew that they had to run a bill just like Idaho did. Idaho’s 2020 bill caused EBSCO to create special databases for Idaho that are in compliance with their obscenity laws. 

EBSCO and GALE are major suppliers of K-12 online research tools across the country/world. EBSCO alone sells its school products to over 55,000 schools nationwide, supplying millions of children with products that may contain pornography. Multiple other states are now following Idaho’s example and working on protective bills too. 

In Colorado, where the dirty database problem was first uncovered, Robin Paterson, head of Pornography Is Not Education partnered with the Thomas More Law Society to bring a lawsuit against EBSCO and the Colorado Library Consortium. There have been good results of these Colorado efforts. Paterson reports, “EBSCO and certain GALE products were previously discontinued by several, large school districts in Colorado because of pornographic content.” 

After years of research, Peck, Paterson, and countless other parents around the nation now know that EBSCO’s business model exploits children. EBSCO gets paid by magazines and other media sources and sites to have their content be part of the databases for children. Then states and school districts pay millions of dollars annually for their subscriptions to the databases. The EBSCO promotional materials promise content providers that their listings in the databases will “reach your target audience,” “increase web traffic,”  and “grow your subscriptions.” These claims sound like the content providers are advertising to children, not giving them school materials. 

Schools and states unknowingly paying databases to dish up pornography to children. Media vendors pay to advertise to children through the databases. Children are being sold as the “target audience.” And, everyone seems convinced that this whole process is education. This is a good old fashioned scandal.

George Soros’ Open Society is a major EBSCO funder. 

EBSCO has been named to the “Dirty Dozen List” by the National center on Sexual Exploitation. 

The WOW database team as well as parents and clinicians all over the state of Utah worked really hard for this victory for Utah’s children. WOW calls upon other states and countries to protect their children from sexual exploitation through databases too by enacting bills that put the children first; not big tech companies like EBSCO and GALE.

Having Self-Government During Political Drama

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The political climate is pretty hot right now! Threats, scandals, verbal attacks, social unrest, corruption, and control tactics are all part of the current political scene. People are preparing for the worst no matter what the United States election turns out like. What preparations are the most effective? Preparing your own heart to be calm and focused on truth is the best way to prepare. Having self-government during times of political drama is what principled people do to stay calm. However, to have self-government a person must plan ahead.

Lessons Learned From The Last Presidential Election

Following the election four years ago, angry rioters took to the streets destroying property and making cities unsafe. Some US cities became hotbeds of hate; much like people are fearing might happen this election.

When I was at the United Nations in March of 2017, people even protested me, blocked hallways, and threatened to burn my pamphlets without even knowing who I was or what I would talk about.  I was going to talk about stopping child abuse. This group that attacked me and my colleagues spoke right before I did about rioting and protesting. They were planning, at the United Nations, to attack an office building in New York.

I suppose I was just a person in the wrong place at the wrong time. But, I learned something. This group of very intelligent people were so easily incited to anger. The speaker got them emotional, angry, and ready to do something irrational very quickly. And, because I was the next speaker, I got to taste of their freshly planted wrath.

As a side note, the security at the United Nations didn’t stop these angry mobs from attacking us either. They seemed to either be afraid or they wanted to allow the aggressive demonstration. Here I was, a woman trying to bring awareness to the hidden abuse of children and offering some solutions, and I was unexpectedly a “threat” to their cause. The lesson I learned was that angry people attack everyone, not just the people they think they are angry at. Spreading anger is always destructive.

No matter who wins the election, can we all decide that spreading hate only hurts people, because it doesn’t help? Self-governed people find solutions, they don’t spread rage and get people worked up to hate each other. Self-government means being calm and collected. It means thinking about your actions and the principles behind those actions before taking any action at all. And, the United States was created as a self-governing nation from its inception. We need to stay true to that.

Understanding Self-Government

Self-government is a principle that goes back to the beginning of time. If only Cain would have focused on having self-government, then maybe he would have spared the life of Abel. Humans can control themselves if they choose to. And, when they choose to, they are powerful and inspiring to others.

Every successful freedom-based society that has existed, including the ancient Israelites, Rome, England, and the United States, have had the principle of self-government at their core. The idea is that the person who is self-governing can solve most of their own problems calmly and without the help of the government. When free societies are healthy, they promote self-government by not micro-managing their citizens. This doesn’t mean there aren’t laws. It just means that they put their trust in the hearts of the people to follow the laws and live by principle because their hearts are in the right place.

The more people’s hearts fail them and they get caught up in the rush of drama, anger, and entitlement, the more their desire to self-govern is weakened. A self-governed person has a heart turned toward truth and goodness, and they analyze their behaviors and outcomes to continually make plans for how to become a better, more virtuous, version of themselves.

Self-government is being able to determine the cause and effect of any given situation and possessing a knowledge of your own behaviors so that you can control them.

Skills For Success During This Election

When I teach parents how to teach their children self-government, I tell them to teach their children the Four Basic Skills for self-government. The skills are: Following Instructions, Accepting “No” Answers & Criticism, Accepting Consequences, and Disagreeing Appropriately. Each one of these skills has a skill set. For this article I’ll discuss the two skill sets that will be of the greatest help to us all as we prepare for elections results.

Accepting “No Answers & Criticism:

  1. Look at the person (or situation)
  2. Keep a calm face, voice, and body
  3. Say “okay” or disagree appropriately
  4. Drop the subject

Disagreeing Appropriately:

  1. Look at the person (or situation)
  2. Keep a calm face, voice, and body
  3. Seek to understand the other person’s point of view (really care)
  4. Explain your point of view
  5. Listen to what they have to say
  6. Say “okay”
  7. Drop the subject

If your candidate doesn’t win the election, look at the situation as if someone just told you “no, you don’t get what you wanted.” Then, keep a calm face, voice, and body, say “okay” or disagree appropriately, and finally drop the subject.

Were the rioters after the last election accepting “no” answers or disagreeing appropriately? No, but they should have. Calmness is part of disagreeing appropriately. They were not accepting a “no” answer. The historical peaceful transfer of power in free countries is based on “the given” that people can have self-government and accept change calmly.

After a calm display of disappointment or warning, disagreeing appropriately was given to the proper people, then the person was disappointed by the election outcome would have to say “okay,” accept the decision of the people, and drop the subject. The drop the subject step is often the hardest for people because they must stop feeding their emotions and turn their actions over to their logical side.

The United States, who was founded on the principle of self-government, can change the emotional and social outcome of this coming election if they keep their hearts in the right place and focus on logically assessing and controlling themselves, instead of focusing on controlling political outcomes or each other. Please learn these skills and plan to accept “no” answers and criticism with a spirit of calmness this year. If action must be taken because of corruption, etc., I hope that it will be done with calmness and principle. That is how a person properly solves problems and disagrees appropriately when they are a self-governing person.

This FREE Calm Parenting Toolkit might help you on your journey to calmness and self-government.

Ivanka Trump Speaks At The Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Event

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The United States State Department hosted a great live stream event for women on August 11, 2020. The State Department seems to have created a very productive program that they are referring to as WGDP [Women’s Global Development and Prosperity]. The program is working closely with USAID, the US foreign aid arm, to truly empower women globally. 

This well designed program focuses on how the barriers to women’s participation in the economy can be removed. The program expands entrepreneurial influence by giving skills building and training. They’re also giving leadership training so that women can better navigate their local business climates. 

The initiative is a great platform to build and strengthen women where they are while still respecting their unique cultures and environments. This cultural respect has always been important to WOW. 

Ivanka Trump, advisor to the president, talked about how they have worked diligently to form partnerships with private and business sectors to fund this initiative. They have raised millions of dollars and have helped over 12 million women better succeed economically in the first year alone. Some of the contributors to WGDP are Wal-Mart, Discover Card, WeConnect, and Microsoft Corp, as well as over 400 other contributors. 

This initiative shows that the solution to women’s empowerment and economic success and equality doesn’t need to be an issue that wars are waged on or sexual or abortion services are applied to. This initiative shows so eloquently and simply that solutions for the economic empowerment of women have nothing to do with reproductive rights or abortion, and that global battles don’t need to be fought over the issue. Instead, people around the globe with good intentions can just come together and do something about it. 

During the question section of the broadcast the head of WGDP was asked why the initiative doesn’t include “reproductive rights” and “maternal rights.” These terms both mean abortion services in legal documents. The WGDP replied perfectly stating that the initiative is designed to do the most good for the most women with the least amount of money expended, and is also designed to be a program that all people can unite behind. 

Another questioner asked why the initiative wasn’t being more publicly talked about. It was clear from the answer to the question that the WGDP isn’t an initiative about getting attention or participating in activism wars, but it is an initiative that is meant to get things done and help people. 

This approach is so wise of the State Department. How refreshing it was for me to watch this broadcast that wasn’t selling a perspective on the needs of women, but was instead saying that they have noticed the following problems, women not having the same ability to own land or start business or have internet services in certain parts of the world, and that they are doing something about it. 

WOW Africa and WOW have worked tirelessly over the years at the United Nations and in meetings with national and local officials to bring attention to the problem of inheritance rights issues in many countries, and it seems someone has heard us at last and is really doing something valuable to take steps toward actually doing something about the problem. 

This seemingly productive initiative runs counter to what WOW has seen in years past from NGOs and UN officials who claim to be for empowering women around the world but only push one agenda. Many NGOs say they want women’s empowerment, but only push abortion services and test medical gadgets and drugs on our African sisters. Many NGOs say they are going to help women in African and Asian nations earn more money and get better education, and only try to recruit women to wave their abortion or sexual rights flags for them on their home soils. 

Women have been badly used by NGOs and UN agencies with agendas to push sexual and political ideologies for far too long. It seems that the US State Department under the Trump administration has cut through the politics and agendas at last to finally just do something good for women. 

WOW has not reviewed the entire program yet, but was very impressed at the intent expressed during the latest WGDP broadcast. WOW will watch the WGDP initiative with interest in the coming months and years, and hopes it stays the course it was started upon.

EARN IT Act of 2020 Is Worth Supporting!

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South Carolina senator, Lindsey Graham, seems to be one of those brave men we love here at WOW who isn’t afraid to take a stand for protecting children. S-3398 “Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act of 2020” or the “EARN IT Act of 2020” is being championed by her in the senate at US Capitol this summer.

Some people are critical of the EARN It Act of 2020 because they say it takes away important internet freedoms. WOW understands that perspective and has never been in favor of censoring or controlling people or taking rights away. In fact, we have vocally be in full support of all legal rights owed to citizens of the United States.

However, WOW fully acknowledges that while adults should have full internet freedoms, children should not. We know so much about the brain these days. Developmentally, children aren’t prepared to self-govern their choices fully until they are at the very least 18. Many brain experts are saying the pre-frontal cortex of the brain, that does all the logical problem solving for the person, isn’t fully developed until the person is between the ages of 18 and 26 years old now.

An undeveloped child brain is not capable of full discernment and can be too easily groomed (or led by others) to crave certain behaviors or have certain ideas. Also, chemically child brains are even more prone to addiction than adult brains. Dr. Jen Brown explains in this video.

The EARN IT Act of 2020 establishes a national commission on online child sexual exploitation prevention. This commission will, “develop recommended best practices that providers of interactive computer services may choose to implement to prevent, reduce, and respond to the online sexual exploitation of children, including the enticement, grooming, sex trafficking, and sexual abuse of children and the proliferation of online child sexual abuse material.”

This commission is a very positive move for the United States to make. So many children are sexually exploited in the Untied States through sources that are marketed as safe or are deceiving children every day like school and library databases. This act will take steps to protect some of the most vulnerable among us, the children!

The only reason WOW sees for this act not to be adopted is if adults in leadership in our country think children should be exploited, trafficked, and sexually violated by digital purveyors and businesses. We call upon all responsible citizens to reach out to their senators and representatives at the United States capitol to ask them to support the EARN IT Act of 2020. We must save the children!

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