Thanks to those who are asking about my impending move. Not to worry, though, this blog will automatically redirect you to my new site.

Change is afoot!

I hate when I ask for reader’s opinion. Mostly because it reads like I cannot make up my mind. I mean, never mind that that IS the truth, but I usually hide it real well. In the closet: I am indecisive.

So a new website is underway (do you HEAR the archangles singing in the sky?) and I am deliciously excited to unveil it and start FRESH, with more authentic, funny, candid, meaningful, frequent writing. Ah, I feel like I’m about to go in for a makeover. I’ll smell all glorious and everyone will turn and sniff in my direction, “What…who was THAT?” Yes, friends, that is the smell of my new website called…called…

And that’s why I need your help.

MY ECDYSIS was reformed from A WOMYN’S ECDYSIS. The word “ecdysis” basically means shedding an outer layer. It’s a biologist’s term. I’ve got history with it. It makes sense.

It’s also confusing, people misspell it like it’s their PAID JOB not to look up how to spell it correctly, and, truthfully, NO ONE KNOWS HOW TO PRONOUNCE IT. I think I’ve spent more time correcting spelling and annunciation ECDYSIS than I have about kyriarchy, feminism, or any other issue I’ve written about.

So, I am at a crossroads.

How do you know when to change? Has “ECDYSIS” ecdysis-ed itself? I’m a big proponent of continuity, especially on the internets, but I’m itching to find a replacement. With no success.

I cannot think of anything that is more appropriate for me than My Ecdysis, and yet, I want something new.

Oh, the cyber tug of internal war continues.

And so, my dear readers, those who are loyal enough to email or leave your thoughts in the comments section — what do you think?

Taking suggestions, feedback, criticism, thoughts. Anything but profanity.

If ignoring the controversial Columbus Day holiday is not what we should do, then what is?

If the Columbus voyage is compared to a modern day voyage to Mars, then what do we make of the European colonization that took place subsequent to Columbus’ “discovery?”

What do we make of the wiping out of the Native Americans who were here, and HAD been here for so long? How do we recoin a holiday when the basis of the “discovery” was actually theft? And brutality?

What do we do when we know that truth? What happens after truth-telling? Has anything changed? Instead of moving the holiday around to create longer 4 day weekends in November, what do we DO with the knowledge that the history textbooks document Columbus day from the victor’s side? Has that knowledge changed your perception of this federal holiday?

The least we can do is make today a day of truth-telling. If we want to tell the story of a man who went on a really brave, long trip; if we want to tell the story of the violent genocide inflicted upon the Native Americans; if we want our children to have a day off of school for these reasons and, for some, receive a paid holiday, the least we can do is press upon the truth, if only for one day.

In the customary USA-bootlicking rhetoric that has become a signature of the corrupt Philippine government, President Gloria Arroyo defended the government’s actions when it received harsh criticism of its slow efforts and rescue pace after a typhoon settled over the Philippines Saturday and dropped a record amount of rain in one day, saying more rain fell on Manila and surrounding areas in Saturday’s deluge than on New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit there in 2005.

I’ve grown accustome to Philippine presidents, especially Arroyo, making comparative statements between the Philippines and the United States, as if trying to solidify a positive, allied relationship. After buying a stamp in the Philippines with the image of George W. Bush, I learned political leaders side with the US, identify with the US, and see no sacrifice as to large in striving to be the Robin to the US’s Batman. So much so, the Philippine government pushes English in the schools and keeps Tagalog at home. It encourages and honors workers to leave their families, their country to work overseas and send home their paychecks to keep the economy “moving.”

But if there is one similarity between the Philippines and the United States that reveals itself most clearly in times of natural disaster, both countries are ill-prepared, slow in response, and give preferential treatment to the rich.

What is the state of Katrina four years later? How has the city rebuilt itself? Have we forgotten already how many lost their lives, families, and homes?

And the Philippines shows similar characteristics – leaving the poor to fend for themselves as the skies drop a month’s worth of rain in 9 hours and displacing millions as another storm moves in and is expected to arrive Friday.

As for recovery efforts, the US pitched in $100,000, a military helicopter, five rubber boats, and 20 service people.

With that kind of response to the worst typhoon the Philppines has seen in 40 years, the Philippine government needs to learn something about its relationship to the US which is eerily similar to the lesson it is teaching its own citizens: when disaster strikes, you’re on your own.

Remembering.