Because women, by and large, are not the ones getting killed.

Why aren't women rising up about the fact that teen suicide is almost exclusively committed by boys? In today's San Francisco Chronicle, Joan Ryan writes: "It occurred to me that if 86 percent of adolescent suicides were girls, there would be a national commission to find out why. There'd be front-page stories and Oprah shows and nonprofit foundations throwing money at sociologists and psychologists to study female self-destruction. My feminist sisters and I would be asking, rightly, "What's wrong with a culture that drives girls, much more than boys, to take their own lives?""

Why aren't women rising up about entire generations of young black and latino men who are growing up without fathers, prospects, education or hope?

Why is breast cancer research so much better funded than prostate cancer research? Why aren't women rising up about losing their sons, husbands and friends?

Because it doesn't directly affect them.

Instead of attending yet another rally in Washington DC (where you might accidentally get mixed in with anti-abortion protesters), why don't you "antiwar women" chain yourselves to the entrances of the Tyson's Corner, Potomac Mills, or Pentagon City malls in the DC area, instead standing around on the National Mall? That way you could explain to the many well educated and affluent women voters who shop in those places that they need to drive their SUV home and park it permanently, so that our children won't have to go to a far away land to fight for the gasoline to fill it up or to deliver the truffles and leather furniture for sale in the stores there. Maybe if they had to suffer a little bit (like those sufferagettes, sweat shop workers, or Jim Crow era blacks); by not being able to shop at Neiman Marcus, or get a facial, or browse Pottery Barn, then you might see some consciousness raising! By making yet another scene on Capitol Hill, you will evoke the same yawns and eye rolling from the powers that be, that previous protests have drawn.

I can't believe Medea Benjamin, of all people, has the gall to ask this, considering she was a fixture in the same set of antiwar protests I marched in before the stupid war even started. At the time, our smirking President referred to the thousands of us marching around the world (men and women alike) as a "focus group," and then made some comment about how great it was that we all have the freedom to go out and show our disagreement (nice pat on the head, thanks). At the time, I was marching in San Francisco. There were also sizable groups in NYC and DC, as well as in London and cities all over Europe. And we were a "focus group."

Several reasons spring to mind.

For the most part, we in America no longer have any sense of community about where we live, or each other - it's all mememe - which does not lend itself to sacrifice for a cause, or working for larger goals.

We also buy in to frantic, overstuffed lifestyles that don't lend themselves to adding another demand on our time.

We tend to view what happens outside of our immediate area, let alone outside of our country, as something 'outside' of our lives; therefore not something that directly affects us enough to take action on.

An example of this would be the common reaction to news about undue restrictions on abortion in Alabama, or wacky creationists taking over the school board in Kansas - many say "It's just Kansas, who cares?" We can't even get worked up about what's happening in a neighboring state, let alone neighboring continents.

Because we have lost (thrown away) our larger solidarities, we forget the power for change they can represent. The hard right religious conservatives learned this lesson years ago - and look how pervasive and powerful they are now.

Dropping some of the mememe would be a start.

See you there, Sarah.

Medea Benjamin rocks.

I'm torn when I read this kind of thing. I'm a feminist and a pacifist, and I'm all for the underlying idea of this call for action. My first response is: rock on! I'm there! But my second response is: why the hell is this just a call to women? Sisterhood is powerful, oh yes. But why is it that when there's a big giant mess (made largely by men, likely as not) women are supposed to rush in with their righteous indignation and their nurturing ways and holler for justice and peace?

Until the next election the people in power are going to do what they want.

Yep, OK. Where are the women. Good question.

Know where I am?

I'm a few blocks from the White House, working a forty-plus-hour-a-week job as a corporate watchdog, trying really hard to get some really nasty corporate welfare recipients to play fair, trying to make enough money in this ironically apathetic overpriced city to keep a roof over my and my child's head, feed us, and pay for daycare. There are no other grownups in my damn house. I am a single mother divorced from another lefty anti-war political dude who got all the damn glory when he left town to work on the election while I stayed home and kept all the shit together for months. And believe me, I took the kid with me while I did the labor walks and phone banks and all that.

So no, I'm not going to chain myself to the Whitehouse in a carefully choreographed arrest demo and hang around in jail when my kid needs me to turn him into a peace-loving thoughtful compassionate grownup that day...and also needs me to make breakfast, wipe his butt, kiss the boo-boos, make the money, keep the lights on, and pay the landlord.

I suspect there may be more societal support for mothers of small children in the countries asking where I am. While lots of folks in my community have said some good things and done some good stuff about making the movement inclusive to folks like me and mine, I would hope to God there's childcare at the revolution.