“I wrote The Feminine Mistake: Are We Giving Up Too Much? because the typical reporting on the job-versus-family issue was so biased and incomplete. The media gave lots of coverage to women who quit the labor force to become full-time mothers, but they treated this decision as if it were simply a lifestyle choice. They never seemed to mention the risks of economic dependency — or the myriad benefits of work. As a result, women were being lulled into a dangerous sense of complacency about relinquishing their financial autonomy. Why wasn’t anyone telling the truth about how much they were sacrificing — or what the consequences could be?

When I researched the subject myself, my findings made it all too clear how false that sense of security really is. Over time, most stay-at-home wives are likely to face major hardships as a result of divorce, widowhood, a spouse’s unemployment or illness, or any number of other challenges. Women who abandon their careers and become financially dependent on their husbands often look back on that decision as the biggest mistake of their lives — even women in stable, enduring marriages. I interviewed women all over the country, of every age, socio-economic level and background, but many used the exact same words to ask an angry question: “Why didn’t anybody tell me what a mistake this was?””

And man, isn’t our society lucky to have such a sage in Leslie Benetts, that she is here to let us know how big of a mistake we are making when we marry and become financially dependent on our men.
A few thoughts….I have not read this womans book, just her piece at Huff Po, so maybe it is wrong to even comment on her piece without her full argument being reviewed.
That being said, the very title of her essay, calling this choice to become dependent on our husbands a MISTAKE, sets the tone of the debate.
I suppose in Ms.Benetts ideal world all women attend college until they are 32, then accept a job from some “empowered” she-male, and then gets artificially inseminated to give birth to one child, you know, just for the experience, and because that time clock is ticking, and the second the baby turns four weeks old, shoves it into the care of someone else while momma stays “independent and financially stable”, and thus saves herself the trouble of having to ask that ANGRY and hopeless question….”Why didn’t anybody tell me what a mistake this was???”
In Ms. Benetts ideal world womyn have no need to mess with the rather untidy life of the stay at home mother, and no worries about the future. Momma as breadwinner means womyn will never have to bow down to any patriarchal system, and can stay nice and healthy, financially and otherwise, and never ever have any problems, whatsoever. Because everyone knows that the only women who have problems are those who get married young and rely on a man to provide their food, clothing, and shelter.
Sorry Ms. Benett, your whole premise stinks.
I am completely aware of how dependent I am on my husband. I like to think of us an an interdependent team. However, I choose not to wallow in “what iffing” about the future. Should some unforseen situation present itself where I am the sole breadwinner for my family, I trust that as a smart, intelligent woman, I have the capacity to take care of the children who would then be dependent on me for the basics to survive.
I don’t have a degree. Outside of stints working as an actor, waitress, medical assistant, maid at a hotel, house cleaner, health club dance instructor, and various network marketing businesses, as well as childbirth teacher, I have never had what others would term an ideal “career”.
I have spent the past ten years writing books that few people are interested in reading, promoting natural childbirth in an epidural world, and blogging about natural family living. Endeavors that are not exactly tied to financial freedom.
I suppose if I wanted to make some money at blogging, I could promote sickness on my Blog and then the various sick culture big money machines would come calling, but for now promotion of healthy family life is not a cash cow for our family budget.
Truth be known, without my husbands support I could never have written my E-books, set up my web sites, or even considered blogging. As a computer genius specializing in web connections and fire walls, Paul has been most supportive of my Blogging adventures. Perhaps it would have been better for me to hire a web expert, just so I could say that I was an independent womyn not guilty of making any goofball feminine mistakes like depending on my husbands generousity of spirit while helping me blog.
He installed Movable Type on my site and has helped me in a thousand different ways to be a better online writer. As my in house “free” tech support, he has been the reason I’ve been able to share my words, pictures, and videos on the web. Perhaps your next book should be titled – “The Male Mistake; hard realities for the husband whose wife spend every spare second blogging.”
I am fully aware of the difficulties that COULD happen if my husband were unable to work for some reason. Yet I continue to take my children to the park, spend my time cooking, cleaning, and raising our five children, and call myself most blessed among women for the luxury of this amazing lifestyle where I have the freedom to be queen of my own little castle.
And, I get to choose how I will schedule my free time without worrying about providing food, clothing, and shelter for our brood.
Every time we go out into the sunshine to play, I feel this overwhelming gratefullness in my heart for a man who is willing to work hard every day to provide for me and our children. And I trust and have complete faith that should my husband be called home to heaven, that a kind FATHER In Heaven, the ultimate Patriarch, will be as aware of me as the Lilies of the field, and will help me to know how to feed, shelter, and clothe my family as a single woman.
Don’t call my life choice a mistake.
And don’t assume that I am some idiot who has no ability to prepare for the future, or understand that my husband being gone will mean major adjustments to our lifestyle. I am well aware of how quickly things could change, but that does not mean I am going to put my children into the care of someone else and go start working on a career.
I am engaged in the most fulfilling career any woman could desire…..writing living epistles as we partner with God in the creation of something eternal and holy….A Family.
As I read this essay I was reminded of the play Pippen, which I performed over forty times during summer stock theatre in 1987. The main character in the play is a young man who wants to find meaning in his life, and so he experiments with a variety of lifestyle choices, running from war to politics to womanizing to family life in search of the ultimate happiness and fulfillment. At the end of this musical, he learns that being committed to a family is what will bring him the most fulfillment, and admits that he is “trapped, but happy”.
Here is a clip from the final performance of the cast of 87 in West Yellowstone Montana at the Playmill Theatre. I included our curtain call, as well as the tradition of “street greeting” that we did after the final show of the evening. This particular audience was made up of many friends, family members as well as members of our church congregation in town and former players from previous casts. So alot of hugging was going on as we said our goodbyes.
I am dressed in light blue, and show up here and there in the clip.

Sometime in the future I will share a bunch of clips from this play, it is a profound and wonderful commentary about what brings true happiness and fulfillment in life.
Jenny Hatch

Michelle Malkin: threats in the Blogosphere

March 28, 2007Jenny Marie Hatch

Michelle Has a message for the technoblogging elites: Go Here (Strong Language alert)
These past ten months I have had to seriously think about this topic of threats and being harmed by what I say. I have also had to question how much of our life I put on this blog, and how much of my time will be devoted to blogging endeavors.
I decided long ago that I would not take counsel from my fears, in any sphere of my life. And have attempted to walk the talk each day fearless of what life might send my way in terms of being attacked for my lifestyle, political views, and activism.
Malkin has some good insights, and I completely agree with her that we have to be fearless.
She Said:

“My response to this and other endless slurs and threats–most empty, some serious–has been two-fold:

1) Report the serious threats to law enforcement.

2) Keep blogging.

As I have said before: “There is a time to be tolerant and there is a time to draw lines. If you don’t draw those lines, bullies will be emboldened.”

That is my unsolicited advice to those now cowering in the face of anonymous commenters and assorted nutballs who will never go away.

Keep blogging. Don’t cut and run.”

I agree with her in theory, but after you have been attacked, sometimes it is important to just take a break, simply because you are ill and need to physically heal, and also need some space to recharge your freedom loving batteries. It might also be important to take stock of your life and decide if this is the cause that you are willing to put it all on the line for. Knowing deep in your heart that at any time and in any place you could be murdered or maimed for your political views.
Last week before the Gathering of Eagles event, I had some nightmares. My subconcious was dealing with my fears in a very real way during my dreams, and I felt some panic and fear. I also wondered if this was going to be a solo demonstration, and if I would be physically attacked by those on the other side. I figured even if I was hit I would probably live and would only die if I was shot by someone up on the hill. No Fear, No Fear….
On the thursday before the rally my visiting teachers came to visit, and I shared with them some of what I was planning to do with the Gathering of Eagles, and mentioned that I was having nightmares etc and then asked if they would pray for me. I joked that I was not afraid of getting hurt, just as long as I did not get shot. Ben was playing with the two little daughters of my friend and I did not realize that he was listening to our conversation. When I walked in the door after the anti war rally the first thing he said to me in a tone of excited exclamation was “You did not get shot!”. I wondered then how much my little guy had worried for his mom.
When Dale Lanham and I walked in the door after the bake sale, Paul jokingly said “you didn’t get shot! or arrested!!” He was only half joking. He had been really concerned that if we got too in your face with the Daily Camera people, they might call the police.
Jenny%20after%20the%20attack.jpg
Here is a picture of me shortly after some toxic chemical was thrown in my face. I have struggled with my health for months since this attack. I reported it to the police, but they did not believe my story, and could not comprehend why someone would want to kill a blogging mother. I have released myself from the need to get justice around this attack, but it did change my life and my outlook on Freedom.
When one is attacked for political reasons, it can be truly devastating. You may feel guilt for putting your children in an unsafe situation, and you might feel damaged emotionally, because the bottom line is that it just feels terrible to be hurt for your beliefs.
That being said, after the attack, a freedom of expression and life comes into ones heart. At least for me, life after attack has felt liberating. I have absolutely no fear of death. I walked to deaths door, knocked on it, I think Jesus even opened the door, told me it was not my time, and I walked back into life completely changed. I also had a near death experience after the birth of my fourth child, and while similar elements were involved in terms of a change in perspective, life after the attack was the most liberating for me as a blogger.
It recharged my liberty loving batteries. It filled me with a purpose and a focus that has never waned. I feel absolutely fearless. I should qualify that by saying that in my concious moments I feel fearless, in my subconcious some fear has shown up in my dreams, as my mind has tried to reconcile things.
Life after attack has motivated me to make some changes in our day to day life. I bought the puppy I had been promising my children. I enjoy sunsets, sunrises, and flowers much more, and if I feel like dancing or singing, I do it.
I cut people out of my life who were making me ill just being in contact with them, and I invited others into my life who brought joy to my heart.
I joined a choir and I am enjoying performance again.
I have absolute faith and confidence that if my life is in the balance again, because of another attack, that Heavenly Father will preserve my life and protect me from evil. And I trust that if it is my time to die, that I will be welcomed home safely into the arms of my Savior.
It sounds like the blogger Michelle wrote about has decided that she cannot live with those fears of being attacked. I wish I had the ability to communicate to her that when you are attacked for your heart felt views, it can be the life changing, empowerment moment that gives you the courage to live one more day, year, lifetime, to its fullest.
I know my words sometimes convey this grandiose, majestic, over the top view of life, politics, freedom, and slavery. But it is difficult for me to harness my words, pull them back into a restrained elitist moderated voice. I have decided that the granduer of this cause of freedom is no delusion. I spend quality time talking to the Master of the Universe every day. I know he is listening. Some days, during quiet moments of prayer, in conversation with my Father in Heaven, the very specific guidance I have felt from his Holy Spirit showing me in word pictures what to write, what to say, what to do, has let me know in a very real and specific way that He is interested in what I am doing with this blog.
When one feels that the work they are doing every day is blessed by Heaven, that God himself takes an interest in what is said, what is written, and what is done, then yeah, one can understand why satanic forces, people, and ideas would have a major problem with one freedom loving momma in Colorado.
And, yes, Michelle Malkin is profoundly right that we bloggers cannot allow threats, real or imagined to compel us to stop. Peace through strength is my mantra. Some very evil forces in our world need to be confronted again and again and again, boldly, in full view of the public, and fearlessly by those who love freedom.
If we don’t do it, who will?
Jenny Hatch

PBS Frontline: News War

March 1, 2007Jenny Marie Hatch

I watched the documentary News War on PBS the other night. I know, I know, I vowed never to watch them again, but I had heard about this show on the Conservative Blogs and I wanted to watch what they were saying about the internet and blogging in particular.

I decided to comment on a clip from John Carroll (Click here for the whole interview), and was amazed that not only did he completely miss the point of Blogging and the self correcting mechanisms that are in place, but he was so absolutely depressed, contemplating the loss of his gatekeeper roll, and completely at a loss to know what to think and what to do.
THE NEWS:
His big question…
Who is going to pay for it?
With video phones at every event in the world (Including Sadaams Hanging), I think we can safely say that citizen journalists have got things covered in terms of men and women on the “street”. As for the ability of the average dolt to figure out what those You Tube videos mean, for John C, he figures that unless some socialist with a journalism degree from Harvard is analyzing and spoon feeding the context of that news to us plebians who make up the great unwashed masses of America and the world, we just don’t have the brains to figure it out for ourselves.
He really does not understand the power of the web, or the fact that newspapers were not serving the Capitalist and Conservative half of the population in America for decades. The fact that the publishing world collectively promotes Marxism is indisputable. Except for a few journals, magazines, a little big of conservative press, and the Conservative Chronicle, for decades the socialists in our society ruled the day.
In the video I talk about Cleon Skousens book The Naked Communist. Here is a link to the complete list, of which I outlined just a few points related to the press and student activism.
I have an idea for John and his reporter friends, editors, and editorialists. As print media winds down, we the people are still going to have a need for newspapers.
You know… to line our bird cages, help train our puppies, and to use to start fires when camping. Because of this great need, I would like to suggest that John start a new American Paper.
He could call it something catchy…like Pravda, and all the die hards in the journalism world who are in deep shock and mourning that the newspapers are dying, could write for it, and they could make it a non-profit, and sell it to people who need that paper to use as a pooper scooper for their dogs.
Happy Trails!
Jenny Hatch