Monday, March 14, 2022

Podcast Project

 



Welcome, and thank you for tuning in to The Women’s Media Project, February 2022 podcast. International events may touch people who are not personally threatened but who feel very much involved because of events in their own lives that have made it easier for them to empathize with victimized people they have never met. And this is how the headlines on February 24 wash over me like a tidal wave. Today we are covering a situation I call “How can he be allowed to do that? Who is going to stop this?” 

“Putin’s troops invade Ukraine and assault the capitol; Putin claims he is ridding Ukraine of the Nazis.” When I read this, a small sad voice in my head said, “Oh yes, I recognize this. My ex-husband, having abused me and our son, trampled on our rights and sent his lawyers and hate-spewing minions to overwhelm me and my few helpers so that he could declare victory, separate mother and child, and promulgate the assassination of my character, declaring that he was saving my son from abuse and neglect. When my ex-husband started the custody action against me I had faith that he would be prevented from his outrageous plan. I had evidence of abuse and there was no credible evidence of any maternal misdeeds on my part. I expected a civilized system to protect me and my child. A lawyer advised me to pretend there was no abuse, saying that I would lose if I spoke the truth in court. But as a religious person, a 27 year veteran of the Air Force and a committed patriot, I could not imagine turning a court procedure into a fraudulent playacting exercise. I told the truth and got thoroughly smashed, deprived of all my constitutional rights, impoverished, bankrupted, and slandered and my relationship with my son was crippled. The questions in my mind were “How can he be allowed to do that? Who is going to stop this?” 

I am not from Ukrainian background or ancestors. I have no more reason to feel horrified at Putin’s behavior than any other non-Ukrainian person, except for the fact that abusive acts of indefensible violence perpetrated against innocent disadvantaged people was completely reminiscent of the American family court war on battered mothers. All that a biological or legal father who is abusive needs to do is to make up some slander about the mother and run around screaming in indignation about how his rights are being slighted. Like Putin insisting he’s sending peace keepers into a Nazi snake pit, all that is needed to uphold an abuser’s dominance in court is some story he makes up to justify him doing exactly as he pleases. So Putin yells I’ll get rid of these Nazis for you while his tanks crush innocent civilians; and just so an abusive lawyered-up father can claim to be rescuing his children from a vindictive, crazy, narcissistic, over-enmeshed or otherwise defective mother. It is really the oldest story in the book. Slander your victim, scream and holler about your own imagined victimization, ignore the facts, turn the tables, and destroy anyone who gets in the way. 

As for the question how can he be allowed to do this, we mothers have had to deal with this question although it cannot be dealt with. Any judge at a family court level can simply write down the phrase “in the best interests of the child” and his decision is nearly unassailable. If a judge chooses not to believe the evidence, he can even prevent it from getting into the record. He can also choose to believe that any particular mother is “unfit”, just as Putin decided Zelensky was a Nazi. He needs no explanation of how he reached his obviously idiotic conclusion. It is so simple that the shock value seems to sweep away all rational considerations. So I, having been entrusted for years with the safety of hundreds of American Air Force crew members on C-5 cargo planes, having been sent all over the world with weapons and training defending American freedom and lives was then not to be trusted to care for my own son on the word of one judge who answered to no one. There is no good answer for why the judge was allowed to do this. Why was Putin allowed to invade Ukraine? Because he answered to no one. 

The next question, who will stop this? – this question remains to be answered. European countries are beginning to respond to President Zelensky’s dramatic plea for help. Russian citizens have hit the streets and hundreds have been arrested for anti-war protests, angering Putin. For twelve years I have been on the streets in Zion, Illinois, Springfield Massachusetts, Worcester Massachusetts, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Westwood, New Jersey, Albany, New York, Nyack, New York, Providence Rhode Island, Sacramento, California and year after year after year on Mothers’ Day in Washington DC. 

 Because the question remains open of who will stop Putin, it brings the struggle of me and other mothers into stark relief. I have no answer. But the question has become a lens through which I see not only the international atrocity of the Russian invasion, but all personal, political, national, and international acts of violence and victimization.

Wednesday, February 16, 2022

Photography - February 16th, 2022

Self-Introduction


February 16th, 2022. This pair has spent untold hours together in this Mac Lab. Photo Credit: Jesse Buckman, Alumni Class of 2020.


February 17, 2022. Nobody knows the Musher's Secret like Jesse the Wonder Dog at DAR State Park in Goshen, Massachusetts. Photo credit: Steve of the Dream Team


Personality/Character Photos


February 17, 2022.  Steve is former Marine Corps and on the Dream Team at All Out Adventures, DAR, Goshen Mass. Photo credit: Kathy Scholpp


February 17, 2022.  Tom in shorts this balmy winter day - next time - a Speedo!  Photo Credit: Kathy Scholpp

Landscape/Architechture


February 16th, 2022. The secret passageway to As Schools Match Wits freedom. Photo Credit: Kathy Scholpp. 

February 17, 2022. A slice of calm on frozen Highland Lake in the Daughters of the American Revolution State Park.  Photo credit: Kathy Scholpp

Good Company





February 16th, 2022. This pair has spent countless hours together on a train to Chicago. Photo Credit: Kathy Scholpp


February 17, 2022.  Adrian!!! Our All Out Adventures Guide with friends mushing through the DAR.

Wednesday, January 26, 2022

Bloggie Doggie

Mothers of Lost Children uses podcasts to extend their reach. It makes them an intermediary with power to filter establishment "patriarchal" messages. This social media supports marketing of organizational objectives such as raising awareness, exposing institutional maltreatment, whistle blowing, informing and educating listening audiences, gaining understanding, building trust between members of our real and virtual mother groups and also between sister organizations. 

This gives activists a reason and a direction for action and pricks the conscience of listeners. Obviously, the ERA must be ratified before women have a legal leg to stand on. 

Mothers of Lost Children is a sub-group of the California Protective Parents Association. They use images that effectively draw the eye.
The Women's Media Project answered the call to action, and dedicated a broadcast to Family Court Awareness Month, which is also advertised by the CPPA.

Ahoy! I Am A Pirate Who Lives With Her Mother

I am a pirate and I live with my mother! 

My name is Kathy Scholpp, and I have worked hard to earn two Bachelor's Degrees, the first in Political Science/Law and the second in Communication. My experience with my first degree taught me that the law doesn't work the same way for women, and I have dedicated my activism to gender equity. 

My first career was Air Force, my second was the Postal Service, and presently, my position is Activist.  The founder of Mother's of Lost Children calls me "the official videographer" of the Mothers Movement. Professor Preston has said about my work "That's nice archival footage!" and I replied "ARCHIVAL? I shot that yesterday!" She replied "You are going to have an aspect ratio problem!" And I said "Who knew!" 

Now I seek fellow film-makers who also want to change the world and stop the cemeteries from filling up with women and children. In my spare time, I am a DJ at WSKB, where I host the Women's Media Project. I recommend you listen to the January 26th episode, where I interviewed Westfield State President Dr. Linda Thompson! She really cares about students, and she has a LOT to say to you. 

(https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-ahdk2-118d6ba). 

 Check out the transcript of the interview published in the Westfield Voice: (https://thewestfieldvoice.com/2022/02/the-womens-media-project-january-26th-2022-with-guest-wsu-president-linda-thompson/)

I am caregiver for my dear Mom, who is 92 years old and has Alzheimer's Disease. As you can see in the photo, she is my "Shero!" Her name is Barb, but we call her Barbosa.

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Explanation for Holden



This explanation is taken directly (quoting, for 95% of it) from the work of Justin Aptaker, a highly qualified scholar in Biblical Greek Translation. He won the University of Tennessee award for his performance in a nationwide intercollegiate ancient Greek translation contest. All credit for this material goes to him.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8—the so-called 1 Corinthians "Love Verse"
New International Version (NIV) 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of
wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. . .
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What does the Bible mean when it says these things about Love? We have to look carefully at the meaning of the words.
Love Is Patient
“Patient”, in verse four, is a translation of

the Greek word “μακροθυμε” (Macrothumei), which, in the Greek, refers to what Love does, rather than what Love is. It is impossible to describe what God (Love) is, as God is infinite and our words are finite.
In fact, it is impossible to describe what anyone “is”, as any person’s real BEING is also infinite; we are not robots or artificial intelligence so we cannot just be described as a bunch of words. It is, however, possible to say what God (Love) does. God, like anyone else, is best known and understood by what He does. So the Greek passage actually says “love patients” using the word “patient” as a verb and not as an adjective. This will not make sense in the English language but it does make beautiful sense in Greek.
When further examined, the Greek word
“patient” (“Macrothumei”) can be broken down as follows: “Macro-” (“long”) + “thumos” (“heart/soul”). Literally, this Greek word means “to long-heart” and it is a verb. The Greek “thumos” can refer to the soul or spirit in the sense of one’s very life/essence. To take away “thumos", then, can mean to take away life. “Thumos” also refers to the “heart”, as both the seat of the emotions and of the will. Finally, “thumos” can mean the mind, as the seat of cognition (thoughts). So, when we get to the root of “being patient”, we see that it involves a commitment of all one’s life/essence, emotions, will, and thoughts. This is the kind of gut-wrenching, life-giving “patience” that God does t​ o all people, and that we must, therefore, show one another. Love, it would seem, does nothing half-heartedly. And this is the complete description of a Mother’s love for her child, which is always blessed by God, and it is the model for all human LOVE.
Love Is Kind
We continue to examine what it means

to say "love is kind". This is a translation of the Greek word
χρηστεύεται” (chresteuetai), another active verb. It comes from the adjective “chrestos”, which in turn comes from another verb, “chrao”. “Chrao” means “to furnish/provide what is needed” or to “fulfill”. From this comes the English word “charity.” To “do charity” is different from “to be charitable.” What a beautiful description of what God does for us, and expects us to do for each other. The adjective “chrestos” means “serviceable” or “useful”. When applied to people, it also means any or all of the following: good, honest, trustworthy, and kind.
I hope that by now it is apparent that, by looking deeper into the origins of words in this scripture, we may uncover a vast new world of meaning which was completely hidden before. So that, for example, “being kind” is shown to entail much more than kindness alone. It does mean to be kind, in our usual sense of the word, yes. But more than that, it involves providing people with what they need, being honest and dependable, being “useful/serviceable” to society, and being a good person in general. And so we should also be beginning to see why the 1 Corinthians "Love Verse" really does contain all the most important teachings of religion, as it tells us all the most important things for living a good life.
Love Does Not Envy, It Does Not Boast
Envy and pride/boasting are two sides of

the same coin. Both spring from a self-centered desire to somehow be better than other people. Envy is self-centeredness that becomes even more of a problem because the envious person wants to be better than others and then thinks he should have more than he has, because others may have more. Pride is self-centeredness also, because if we are proud, we want to see
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ourselves as better than other people. Love makes no such considerations, for it is complete in itself, and thus does not need to feel superior to anyone else in order to feel whole. If somebody loves you, they do not have to show you that they are better than anyone else. They do not have to insult anyone else.
Love Does Not Delight in Evil
This Verse says that Love does not “think

evil”. Some Bible translations say “keep a record of evil” or “keep track of wrongs.” To the contemporary mind, to “think evil” could mean a lot more than merely holding a grudge. Someone planning to rob a bank might be “thinking evil”—and this has nothing to do with keeping record of wrongs. In Greek the words are “ολογίζεται τὸ κακόν” (ou logizetai to kakon). Literally, this means, “does not take account of, or reckon, or calculate, the bad.” The word "bad” here can refer to badness or evil in general or it can mean a wrong or injury done to a person. I think that here, it clearly means the latter. This is because “λογίζεται” (logizetai) means “to take account of, to make a record of, to calculate, to count.” So if you are “thinking evil” and “calculating or keeping track of the badness” you are referring back to something you consider bad, and you will not give it up or let it go; you think about it and it festers and can start to make you feel less love.
And “the bad” also refers to evil in the general sense. If you're like me, you'll notice that there is a lot of suffering and evil in the world. It can feel overwhelming. However, the sort of Love described in this verse never loses hope because of it. From the perspective of a Love that never fails, evil is, ultimately, nothing to take account of. In the end, evil doesn't factor into the equation, because when there is great love in your heart, the evil cannot live there with it; the badness is evicted because of all the love.
Love Rejoices With the Truth
Love rejoices with the truth (verse 6). For

me, “truth” may be the only concept that even approaches “love” in its beauty and grandeur. In Greek, the word is even more beautiful: ληθεία (aletheia, pronounced “ah-leh-THAY-ah”). It is built from the noun “lethos”, which means “a forgetting," and the prefix “a-," which denotes a lack or absence. Thus, in one sense, “truth” means “that which is not forgotten.” To grasp yet a deeper meaning, we may consider that “lethos” comes from the verb “lanthano," which means “to go unnoticed or unseen.” Thus, since the prefix “a-” would reverse this concept, truth means something that is​ noticed. It is something that, even when it is absent, is still there, can still be felt, can still be strong. So love, even in absence, can still be the strongest thing in your life.
Truth, as it stands alone, is something obvious. It cannot go unnoticed. It will never
remain forgotten. It may be covered or warped in various ways, or battered, or hidden, or covered with many lies, or blocked by weapons and power, but in the end, truth is reality itself. As such, it is all there really is. Error and deception have no substance of their own. They melt away like the witch in the “Wizard of Oz” when the truth shows up and reminds us of LOVE. Lies and evil are ghosts that cannot live in the light. Truth is the One Reality, and so it will be the only thing that is remembered throughout time. Whatever is untrue will one day be forgotten. Just as a Mother will never forget her beloved child, just as God will never forget us, his beloved children.
"Quid est veritas?" English translation: "What is Truth?" Pontius Pilate asked Jesus this question in Latin when interrogating him. Of course, for each of us, in our life, this becomes a big question. And the answer is always: LOVE is the TRUTH.
Love Never Fails
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God is Love, and Love never fails. Because God is love, He loves every creature with an intense, never-ending love, so that eventually, if a person allows LOVE in their life, they will get what they need. And because Love will not fail, God/Love will eventually succeed in providing for every single individual the LOVE that they need, and all they have to do is accept it.
It is worth repeating: Love will utterly succeed. It is a fact as grand, beautiful, and inevitable as Truth itself.
LOVE CONQUERS ALL!
[Holden: That part was by the author; the rest, below, is written by the people who have helped your mother for all these years of absence and deprivation, to get you back. These people have all tried to manifest love so that your mother could one day return to you to give you the LOVE that you need and deserve. This is how they have been trying to show LOVE to you as well.]
So what does it mean to say that all these years of absence and sorrow and suffering, still your mother LOVED you every minute? It means this:
LOVE is PATIENT:
She tried every means to get you back to

her (she wrote to every organization and authority for help; she reached out to a thousand different sources to get someone to help her bring you home; by her getting recognition that keeping your mother separated from you was a human rights violation, ultimately she found the people who have been trying to help her return you). She never gave up. She patiently knocked on every door until finally one door might open. And this is why you can return, no matter when that happens.
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LOVE is KIND:
Your mother never believed one word

about you or from those who kept her away from you, other than goodness and mercy. She never gave up. She spoke of you to everyone as her precious child and the precious child of God who deserves everything good in life and never deserved any of the suffering or loneliness you felt. She understood how hard it was for you every day and she prayed every day for your health, and welfare, and strength, and that is the source of your resilience. She did not really believe that you did not want to get your mother back; she knew your soul and she knew that love was living in you until the day she could hug you again and tell you in person: I LOVE YOU.
Love does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
In all the years that your mother was fighting to have you returned to her, she did
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not emphasize how good she was, but said always how wonderful YOU were and that she was given the greatest gift from God to have you for her son. She was worried at all times that you did not have what you needed, rather than speaking about what SHE needed. She was worried because she did not want you exposed to violence or abused or neglected; she did not want you to be used as somebody’s pride or as a servant to make others feel superior. She was only concerned for your protection and your welfare because your goodness was so young and vulnerable when you were taken away.
Love does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Your mother did not use her time trying to do harm to the people who kept you away from her. She did not slander anybody although she was slandered; she did not violate the law or try to pay for illegal advantages; she did not bribe anyone or
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attack anyone. She made no false accusations even though she was falsely accused. She was steadfast and told the truth and did not exaggerate. She never tried to flee with you when you were only a baby, but she told the truth and she let your father keep a relationship with his son. All of this because she did not turn to evil even while evil was being done to her.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth
.
And this is why your Mother knows that the people who tell you that she never loved you and never wanted you are wrong, and will be shown to be wrong, and this is how she knows that you will see the truth in spite of what they are saying to you or have said to you, because they did not tell you these things from LOVE; they told you these things to turn you away from your mother’s love, for one reason: Because they knew that no matter what they did, your mother’s love for you would never fail and never stop and that she HAD TO WIN because LOVE WINS. So
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they tried to convince you that she did not HAVE that LOVE for you. The truth was not in them. But in spite of what they did and what they said and what they told you, she kept loving you and knew that in the end you would see the truth and know that she always loved you; in the end LOVE would WIN and you would realize the three golden things:
(1) You deserve LOVE;
(2) Your mother LOVES YOU; and
(3) This will never change and will always

WIN in the end. LOVE always protects:
Your mother was protecting you from violence and abuse from your birth until they took you away; after that she tried valiantly to get you back and prayed for your protection every day and extended the protection of spirit over your spirit with every breath and does this today and always will.
Love always trusts, always hopes, always
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perseveres.
The men and women who have helped

your mother over the many years of her struggle to have you returned to her will be able to tell you about all this when you are finally free and your mother is free, which can come soon. They never gave up hope; they helped her keep trying everything that she could do; they saw the trials and tribulations she went through for all these years and she never stopped trusting and hoping and persevering and this is why you will have that kind of strength all YOUR life. You will be this kind of success ultimately just as your Mother will, as she is now starting to succeed against all the forces against her, and she will win because of the faith, hope, trust and perseverance of LOVE. Love never fails. .
Holden, you are already part of the way home to your Mother and you will not fail to return because that is where the love is and where it has been since the moment you were born. It cannot fail; your Mother
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cannot fail; justice cannot fail; you cannot fail.