Irish Lasses

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♣ ♣♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. St. Patrick's Day is the Irish version of Mardis Gras. 

The day is St. Patrick's religious feast day and the anniversary of his death. The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for 1,000s of years. On St. Patrick's Day Irish families would traditionally attend church in the morning and celebrate in the afternoon, with Lenten prohibitions waived.  The celebration would include dancing, drinking and feasting -- with the traditional meal of Corn Beef and Cabbage. 
The first official St. Patrick's Day parade was held in New York City in 1766. Today, over 100 U.S. cities hold Saint Patrick's Day parades.

HAVE A FUN AND SAFE ST. PATRICK'S DAY

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.
~ Old Irish Blessing

Somewhere over the Rainbow - Braddah IZ (cover) by Kingson Kaiyo Bedasto

Don't be a Crab

They say that when you put a bunch of crabs in a bucket to go to market, there is a very strange dynamic that happens. If one of the crabs starts to climb the side of the bucket to escape, the other crabs will pull that crab back down into the bucket with them. Sort of a one for all and all for one concept even in the face of doom.

My mother has done very well in her profession and is a national leader in her field. She has always told me - there are two kinds of women who rise to the top. One kind steps on other women to get there and the other pulls other women up with them as they go. She is the second kind of women and that is the kind of woman I have always aspired to be as well.

So what I say to women is Don't be a Crab.

There is not a limited amount of leadership positions or success slotted for women. We do not have to compete with each other for it. We do not have to put each other down, vie for attention, or sabotage each other to become a success. By doing so, we are just continuing to perpetuate the small leadership numbers and low morale among women in today's workforce.

Your success can be others success as well.

Set the pace. Pave the way. Be the first one to change the dynamic in one of your tense female coworker situations.

Fire Princess

As male dominated as policing still is in this country, firefighter is even more so.


The first known woman firefighter was Molly Williams, a slave in New York City who became a member of Oceanus Engine Company #11 in about 1815. During World War II, women volunteered and took the place of men at war. Many places had all women fire companies during that time. 


There have been volunteer women firefighters for hundreds of years in this country, but the first paid firefighter was Sandra Forcier in 1973 in Winston NC. 

With rigorous physical requirements, female job applicants and successful candidates are very limited. Most departments make requirements the same for women as they are for men, unlike police which have different physical entrance requirements for each. Of the successful applicants, less than half actually become firefighters - either they are not selected or don't finish the basic training.

According to The National Report Card on Women in Firefighting, Less than 4% of firefighters are female and only 31 fire departments have women as their top-level chief.

                                       

Ring of fire cover by Gaby Garcia

PoliceWoman101

In the late 1800's, Jail Matrons were common to help with incarcerated women and children in prisons and mental asylums. They had no arrest powers but were the forerunners to policewomen. 


On April 1, 1908, Lola Baldwin, was sworn in as a "female detective to perform police service" for the city of Portland, Oregon.¹ She was the first documented woman hired by a U.S. municipality to perform law enforcement duties. She was a commissioned officer with arrest powers but did not carry a firearm and mainly performed social work. 


In 1910, LA City Council passed an ordinance for LAPD to employ "one police officer who shall be a woman."⁵ Mrs. Alice Wells, a social worker, was hired and assigned to the juvenile division. 

Until the 1970s, women in police positions were used in social work and community service positions and largely only dealt with women and children. After Civil Rights legislation in the early '70s, patrol positions started opening up to females across the nation.  


Women Police now make up approximately 13-14 percent of all LE sworn personnel. Only about 1 percent (about 200 or so) of this nation's police chiefs and sheriffs are female.¹⁵ 

WOMEN SERVE A VALUABLE ROLE IN LAW ENFORCEMENT
Wind Beneath My Wings by Lucy Tops

Keep On Keeping On

It is hard when life throws us Challenges. The highs are so much funner than the lows but it is all part of a cycle. Adversity is a part of life. Learning to embrace it and accepting its momentariness helps us make it through the tough times.


One of my favorite books when I was young was The Little Engine That Could. In the story, a toy train breaks down and a little blue engine comes along and offers to help. Despite the engines small size; she perseveres, takes it slow, and believes in herself. She tells herself - "I think I can - I think I can - I think I can" - and sure enough she makes it up the mountain. 


Hold on tight during the tough ride up the steep hills of life because as soon as you get to the top, it's an easy ride back down the other side!

• NEVER GIVE UP •

Adversity is the diamond dust Heaven polishes its jewels with.

Thomas Carlyle

Miley Cyrus - The Climb ( Male Version ) by Feedourjewelrytothesea

Women of the Cloth

On March 12th in 1994, The Church of England ordained its first women priests. [Wouldn't that technically be a priestess] 


Protestant
Most Protestant denominations in the Unites States under the doctrine of,The Priesthood of All Believers, ordain women as a general practice, including Baptists. 

Only the very conservation divisions such as the Southern Baptist Convention, still do not. 


Catholic
Roman and other Catholic Sects strictly prohibit ordaining women. Pope John Paul II in the apostolic letter "Ordinatio sacerdotalis", state "that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful." In 2007, the Holy See issued a decree saying that the attempted ordination of women would result in automatic excommunication for the women and priests trying to ordain them.


Muslim
Muslims do not formally ordain religious leaders, they have imams that serve as spiritual leader and religious authority. There are women imams but it is controversial in general and can only serve a congregation of all women.  


Judaism
Orthodox still prohibit female Rabbis but the other sects of Judaism have women at the different levels. Rabbi Regina Jonas was the world's first female rabbi and was ordained in 1935. 

• Jehovah Witnesses ordain women 
• Mormons do NOT
• Buddhist do 
• Hindus have ordained women
• Mennonites do
• Unitarians do  
• Seventh Day Adventist in the US are given a designation equal to ordination but the international organization does not approve of ordaining women so they cannot be officially "ordained"

Due to separation of Church and State - inequalities may always exist. 

JJ Holland - Amazing Grace ( My Chains Are Gone) by JJ Holland

She was a King

MLK's widow, Coretta Scott King accomplished an amazing amount in her years and is considered one of the most significant advocates of civil rights.


Coretta Scott was a classically trained opera singer who married Martin Luther King Jr. in 1953. MLK was assassinated in 1968 and she took up his cause and had great success.

She has met with almost every president in her time to discuss civil rights. She worked in the USA and abroad to help end racism, including apartheid in South Africa, and also took up the fight for Gay Rights. 


In 1968, She founded The King Center which is a memorial dedicated to the advancement of the legacy and philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr.


She campaigned to make her husband's birthday a National Holiday and in 1983 she was present when President Reagan signed the bill that enacted it.


The world lost a great Leader in 2006 when Coretta Scott King passed away.


She held a graceful and unwavering determination in the fight to banish injustices.

♦ THE FIRST LADY OF CIVIL RIGHTS ♦

We Shall Overcome by Praiz