Belva Lockwood, The Woman Who Would Be President

admin — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 12:23:00 +0000

In a moment of autobiographical reflection, Belva Lockwood once stated that while her work as an equal rights activist had failed to raise the dead, it had “awakened the living.” Jill Norgren’s biography of Lockwood, a little known but extremely important historical figure should and could awaken all of us to live a life of conviction and activism.

At 232 pages long, Norgren eloquently and succinctly educates the reader on the story of the first woman to ever be allowed to argue before the United Supreme Court, as well as the first woman to ever launch two full scale bids for this country’s presidency. Lockwood’s place in history is far less prominent than many of her contemporaries, such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, but her contributions were significant and seem all the more important for study today as we witness a very legitimate bid by another woman for the United States presidency. As a woman who was deeply concerned with advocating for democracy, pacifism and equal rights, Belva Lockwood led a life defined by fighting for the causes she believed in and worked hard not only to further said causes, but at the same time had to support herself as a single widow of a young daughter. Lockwood turned her tragedy into an opportunity to exercise freedom and possibility with education and her voice. While little remains of Lockwood’s personal writing and documents, she used the power of the pen tirelessly during her life and much of her writing was published and documented.

Norgren’s writing is engaging and her narrative is accessible yet rich with fact. Like her other book The Cherokee Cases, which makes difficult United States Supreme Court case studies accessible and engaging; Norgren could inspire all of us to become avid readers of historical biographies. Jill Norgren took an obscure historical figure who left few personal papers behind, and gave us a portrait of a political hero. At a time when heroism in politics is scarce, one can’t help but read this book and recommend that we use Lockwood as an example that could awaken us to the possibilities and expectations we should have for those who desire to be a leader in this country.

Written by: Anna Utevsky, July 12th 2007

Plum Sculpture Lash Mascara

admin — Sat, 12 May 2007 11:14:00 +0000

By Bésame Cosmetics

The mission statement of Bésame Cosmetics is “Effortless Beauty and Elegant Style,” and upon opening my package of plum colored Sculpture Lash Mascara, which was my first experience with the company, the packaging alone delivers on their intent.

Sculpture Lash Mascara is their latest product, and it comes in two shades, plum and black. The etched, gold case is eye catching and would add elegant style to even the most fashionable of make-up bags. As for effortless? Over the course of a few weeks, I was able to have a fairly good cry, take some very sweaty classes at the gym and walk in the pouring rain all without any streaking, and very few pauses to reapply.

Bésame is a young, Los Angeles-based company that is going global at a rapid rate. Unfortunately, one detail they seem to have overlooked was putting enough preservatives into their mascara formula. After only two weeks of use, just opening the tube of mascara allowed an extremely unpleasant odor to emanate, and I certainly would not apply it to my lashes. Most of their other products have experienced great reviews, and perhaps the recipe just needs a bit of tweaking, but at $25 a tube, the alterations are necessary. They say the average shelf life of mascara is four months; I would have liked at least one month in order to become a repeat customer.

Written by: Anna Utevsky, May 12th 2007