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By Elizabeth Yuan

Not until 1983, more than 20 years later, did the United States send its first woman, Sally Ride, into space. Nearly half a century ago, 13 female pilots proved they were as fit to go into space as the men who became immortalized as America's first astronauts, the Mercury 7. The women underwent the same intensive medical tests, at the same Albuquerque, New Mexico, clinic, administered by the same staff, as the men did two years earlier.

"When you put them next to the men, they were as good," recalled Dr. Donald Kilgore, who helped test both the men and women between 1959 and 1961 at the Lovelace Clinic. What was the women's biggest obstacle? "Ovaries," said Kilgore. "The world just wasn't ready at that time."

On Saturday, the "Mercury 13" women received honorary Doctor of Science degrees from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh at its commencement. "While the Mercury 13 did not get their shot at space, at least not yet. They refused to let someone else trim their dreams. They fought for what they wanted, what they believed in, and spoke out against discrimination," said keynote speaker Martha Ackmann, author of "The Mercury 13: The Untold Story of Thirteen American Women and the Dream of Space Flight."

In recent years the women have been honored by the Adler Planetarium, women in Aviation International as well as their state aviation halls of fame. An exhibition about their tests is now on display at the International Women's Air and Space Museum in Cleveland, Ohio.

The 13 included Jerrie Cobb, Gene Nora Jessen, Wally Funk, Irene Leverton, Myrtle "K" Cagle, Jane Hart, Jerri Truhill, Rhea Hurrle Woltman, Sarah Ratley, Bernice "B" Steadman, Jean Hixson, Jan Dietrich and Marion Dietrich, Jan's twin. (Learn more about the Mercury 13). "We proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that women could do it," said Truhill, now 78. "It just took NASA 30 years." Her fellow "girls," as Truhill calls the pilots, range in age from late-60s to 85. Marion Dietrich and Jean Hixson have died.

It was Cobb, Truhill's friend from air races, who first attracted the interest of Dr. Randy Lovelace. By 1960, the 28-year-old Cobb had set four world aviation records for speed, distance and absolute altitude. Lovelace was chairman of NASA's Special Life Sciences Committee and had helped draw up the criteria for NASA's first astronaut candidates. He had heard that Russia was considering sending a woman into space. Women were physically smaller, lighter and would take up less oxygen than men. The question was: Could they withstand the psychological and physical stresses of space? In a private effort, Lovelace decided to put Cobb through all phases of the Mercury astronaut tests to find out how women held up. She so impressed Lovelace that he wanted to find out: Was she a fluke, or were women as viable as men to be space capsule candidates? With Cobb's help, Lovelace recruited another 25 female pilots to undergo the same tests. Twelve passed "with flying colors," said Kilgore. Cobb would refer to herself and the finalists of this first round of testing as FLATS, for "First Lady Astronaut Trainees."

Once the women were past the physical tests, they were invited to the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida, for flight tests. This second phase of testing would address NASA's requirement that an astronaut must be a military test pilot, and for the women it represented a taste of what was unattainable. A military test pilot had to have graduated from one of the test pilot schools, and enrollment of females into U.S. military academies was still nearly 15 years away. Days before reporting to Pensacola, the women received telegrams that their program had been canceled. Cagle recalls crying about the news: "My husband said, 'Honey, look how close you came. Look at who didn't make it.' "

Kilgore said that while there was no official intent to put women in the space program, Lovelace thought he could do the tests and prove the women qualified. His position with NASA "meant that he was in the position to send recommendations," Kilgore said. He never got that far; the Navy said no. Efforts by Cobb and Hart to get women included in NASA went as far as Capitol Hill in 1962, where they testified on behalf of the Mercury 13 women at congressional hearings. The efforts failed, and less than a year later, Russia launched Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space.

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Roses Are RedAnd So Am I

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Hindu widows are shunned from society when their husbands die, not for religious reasons, but because of tradition and because they're seen as a financial drain on their families. They cannot remarry. They must not wear jewelry. They are forced to shave their heads and typically wear white. Even their shadows are considered bad luck. Hindus have long believed that death in Vrindavan will free them from the cycle of life and death. For widows, they hope death will save them from being condemned to such a life again.

"Does it feel good?" says 70-year-old Rada Rani Biswas. "Now I have to loiter just for a bite to eat." Biswas speaks with a strong voice, but her spirit is broken. When her husband of 50 years died, she was instantly ostracized by all those she thought loved her, including her son. "My son tells me: 'You have grown old. Now who is going to feed you? Go away,' " she says, her eyes filling with tears. "What do I do? My pain had no limit." As she speaks, she squats in front of one of Vrindavan's temples, her life reduced to begging for scraps of food.

There are an estimated 40 million widows in India, many of them shunned and stripped of the life they lived when they were married. It's believed that 15,000 widows live on the streets of Vrindavan, a city of about 55,000 in northern India. "Widows don't have many social rights within the family," says Ranjana Kumari with the Center for Social Research, a group that works to empower women. The situation is much more extreme within India's rural community. "There, it is much more tradition-bound; in urban areas, there are more chances and possibilities to live a normal life." But the majority of India's 1.1 billion population is rural. "The government recognizes the problem," Kumari says. "It can do a lot, but it's not doing enough."

One woman, a widow herself, is working for change. Dr. Mohini Giri has formed an organization called the Guild of Service, which helps destitute women and children. Giri's mother was widowed when Giri was 9 years old, and she saw what a struggle it was. Then, Giri lost her husband when she was 50, enduring the social humiliation that comes with being a widow. At times, she was asked not to attend weddings because her presence was considered bad luck. "Generally all widows are ostracized," she says. "An educated woman may have money and independence, but even that is snatched away when she becomes a widow. We live in a patriarchal society. Men say that culturally as a widow you cannot do anything: You cannot grow your hair, you should not look beautiful." She adds, "It's the mind-set of society we need to change -- not the women." Seven years ago, Giri's organization set up a refuge called Amar Bari, or "My Home," in Vrindavan. It has become a refuge for about 120 of India's widows. Giri's organization is set to open a second home, one that will house another 500 widows. But as she says, "Mine is but a drop in the bucket."

At Amar Bari, most widows reject traditional white outfits and grow out their hair. Along the open air corridors that link the house's courtyard are green wooden doors, leading to dark tiny rooms, home for each widow. Bent over by osteoporosis, 85-year-old Promita Das meticulously and slowly sweeps the floor just outside her door and then carefully cleans her dishes. "I came here when I couldn't work anymore. I used to clean houses," she says. "Nobody looked after me, nobody loved me. I survived on my own." She married at 12 and was widowed at 15. Seventy years later, she finds herself at Amar Bari. "I used to live in front of a temple, but then I came here," she says. She carries with her not only the pain of a life without love, but also the loss of her only child. She gave birth at 14; her baby lived a year.


Another widow, Ranu Mukherjee, wearing a bright red-patterned sari, shows off her room at the home and wants to sing for her guests. The lyrics of her song are about a lost traveler. "When did you come here after losing your way?" she sings. "When I remember the days gone by I feel sad."

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Roses Are RedAnd So Am I

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LOL
I wrote this poem recently
and now I have a place to put it.
(still no good name for it)



Thankyou

when men hunted by the moon
and the giant aardvarks ate avocados and
and the women were worshipped
and the womb was holy
for all life came from it

and the men brought back the deer
and orgasmed from the protein
and then went to their smelly skin tents
and orgasmed again

and they woke to find fresh air
and clean water and
land unseen by sapient eyes
life was an orgasm
that men were birthed into.

thankyou women
thankyou for all the orgasms.

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Not all women are beautiful I can tell you that for a fact lol.

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