Andree Peel, a remarkable heroine of WW II, died March 5, 2010 at age 105. She was in her 30s, and ran a beauty salon in Brest, when the Germans invaded. Her first act of resistance was to hide French soldiers and help them elude capture. As the occupation dragged on, Peel found herself becoming more and more involved with the resistance movement.
The U.K. Telegraph has a wonderful story on it. Here are some excerpts:
“When General de Gaulle declared in his famous broadcast of June 18 1940 that “France has lost a battle, but she has not lost the war,” Andrée and some friends got together to type out the message and slip copies through people’s letterboxes. She soon became involved in the Resistance, circulating the organisation’s clandestine newspaper. Within weeks she was made head of an under-section of the organisation, responsible for sending information to the Allies… “
“During her three years with the Resistance – during which she was known first as Agent X and then as Agent Rose – Andrée helped save the lives of more than 100 Allied pilots. Her team used torches to guide Allied planes to improvised landing strips and smuggled fugitive airmen aboard submarines and gunboats on remote parts of the coast, often feeling their way in the dark past German coastal shelters.
The work was extremely dangerous. Any family found harbouring an Allied airman risked being shot and in 1943 Andrée herself was forced to leave Brest after a comrade (who had been forced to watch his family being tortured by the Gestapo) informed on her… “
Andree “…fled to Paris and assumed another identity, but a week after D-Day she was again betrayed by a comrade, who confessed under torture. She was arrested and taken to Gestapo headquarters where she was stripped naked, interrogated and subjected to a series of tortures, including simulated drowning and being savagely beaten around the throat…”
She was taken to Ravensbruck, and marched in the gas chamber, but for some reason, her group was not gassed. She nearly died of meningitis, but recovered only to be sentenced to the gas chamber once again. A fellow inmate saved her by sliding the piece of paper with Andree’s number on it off the table.
She was transferred to Buchenwald, and in 1945, when the Allies were closing in, the Nazis were crazily trying to finish the genocide and clean up all traces. Andree and other prisoners were lined up against a wall to be shot, the Americans arrived to liberate the camp. She was spared.
“Andrée Peel was awarded the Croix de Guerre (with palm), the Croix de Guerre (silver star), the Cross of the Voluntary Fighter, the Medal of the Resistance, the Liberation Cross – all French awards – as well as the American Medal of Freedom, awarded by President Eisenhower, and the King’s Commendation for Brave Conduct, given by George VI.
After the war she received a personal letter from Winston Churchill congratulating her on her work. Much later, at age of 99, she was made a Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, France’s highest honour, receiving the award from her own brother, General Maurice Virot, a retired four-star general.”
Andree moved to Paris, where she met John Peel. She never intended to write a book about her experiences, but was urged to do so, and did, writing “Miracles Do Happen” in 1999.
“On her 100th birthday, she said: “I still feel like a woman of 50. I think that time has forgotten me.” The secret to a happy life, she observed, was a good companion – and eating the main meal of the day at lunchtime.”
Appearing on the T.V. show, “Britain’s Got Talent”, 47 year old Susan Boyle stepped on stage to fulfil a dream. The Youtube video shows the audience and judges seeming to laugh at her because of her age, her face, clothes, body – whatever – and she shut every one of them up when she began to sing, then opened every one of them up to joy.
It’s not just that her singing is beautiful (which it is), but the amazing effect it had on every single person in that audience and world wide. She broke the rules by daring to be amazing while simultaneously defying the social ideals of beauty. And she wasn’t quiet about it, she didn’t change herself, didn’t apologized for a thing, silenced their laughter, touched their hearts and changed them all.
What is more wild?
The video has gone viral. She sang live before 3,000, but millions have heard her sing, and been moved to her angelic voice.
And also by her other message – follow you dream. In fact, she sang a song called “I Dreamed a Dream”.
Susan is a llifetime resident of Blackburn, West Lothian, Scotland with her cat Pebbles.
“I wanted to fulfill a wish to my mother that I wanted to do something with my life. Not only that but I felt like I had a bit more to offer,” she said in a t.v. interview.
And true wild woman that she is, she remarked “They say that television makes you look fat and it certainly did. I looked like a garage.”
The world has not heard the last of Ms. Boyle, and we will all be the richer for it.
I was inspired when I read about eight year old Ellie Pattie of Burntisland in Fife (Scotland). Ellie has been faced with something many people of all ages have to deal with – watching where they walk because some dog owners fail to clean up after themselves. Ellie had been faced with this every morning on her way to school and her mother’s response to her complaints was to suggest she do something pro-active, rather than just complain.
I can’t decide which I love more – the fact that this mother gave her daughter the message that she had a right to speak up and speak out to local councillors, or the fact that Ellie took the suggestion on board and did just that.
When an eight year old girl is taking a political stance about her environment and being encouraged by parents and the response of the council, the future looks a little brighter, and perhaps a little cleaner!
With approval from the Congress Senate, the LIly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, was signed into law on January 29, 2009.
Lily Ledbetter was a 19 year employee of Goodyear, who found out that during much of her time there, men doing the same job as her were paid more than her. She file a discrimination suit against Goodyear, under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Pay Act of 1963.
She won her suit, but Goodyear appealed, and the U.S. Court of Appeals of the 11th Circuit sided with Goodyear, saying that, since she hadn’t sued within 180 days of receiving her first paycheck, the statue of limitations had run out!
Of course, she didn’t know THEN that she was being screwed over by Goodyear for being a woman. She described in an interview how she found out:
“The only way that I really knew was that someone left an anonymous note in my mailbox showing my pay and the pay for the three males who were doing the same job, just on different shifts. Until then, I had no proof.”
Discrimination has real world, long term effects:
“In my case, the money I should have been compensated hurt me, because my retirement was based on what I earned. So that was much lower. I’m like a second-class citizen for the rest of my life. I will never be compensated for my lower wages and my pension, and Social Security wages are much lower, because Goodyear paid me less.”
She appealed and the case was heard by the Supreme Court, who upheld the Appeals Court. Judge Ruth Ginsberg dissented (good for her!).
She has since retired, and is now 70 years old.
The Lily Ledbetter Fair pay Act allows those who are discriminated against in the workplace to file suit the discrimination is discovered, not when it happens.
Tha bill that had been stalled in Congress for an insultingly long time. The Republicans called it anti-business and tried to kill it. Bush threatened to veto it if it ever made it onto his desk.
Hillary Clinton is arguably the most famous woman politician in U.S. history. Today she gave her farewell speech in the Senate, as she prepares to take on the role of Secretary of State for the incoming administration.
She made history in 2008 during her run for the Democratic nomination for president of this country. No woman candidate had ever won a U.S. primary. She won the first one in New Hampshire, and went on to win 20 more.
She garnered half a million more votes than the selected nominee, but because of DNC machinations, the votes of two early primary states, Florida and MIchigan, were denied her, and with them the delegates that would have changed the face of the primary from male to female.
She ended the primary season with a wave of landslide primary wins, solidifying in the minds of millions the esteem that her supporters held her in.
She campaigned tirelessly for the nominee, including calling for a unanimous vote in favor of him on the floor of the Democratic Convention which ended the traditional roll call vote, giving up the right of the delegate votes cast for her to be read and recorded as they were legally meant to be. She did this in the name of party unity.
She gave a competent and confident performance in the Senate hearing two days ago as part of the process of confirming her as incoming Secretary of State. Senator Clinton will be the third female Secretary of State for the U.S. A.
Throughout her career, she has been a staunch advocate for women and children. As First Lady, she spoke in Beijing at the 4th World Conference on Women in 1995, where she said:
If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights once and for all. Let us not forget that among those rights are the right to speak freely — and the right to be heard.
As a New Yorker, I have been proud to have her represent my state in the U.S. Senate. I believe she will do a wonderful job representing this country on the international stage.
Uma Singh was cremated on Tuesday in Janakpur, Southern Nepal. Thousands of people turned out to mourn the 26 year old who was hacked to death on Sunday night by a group of fifteen men.
Uma Singh, 26, worked as a journalist in a region beset by violence as dozens of groups fight for regional autonomy. She had spoken out in the past about the death threats meted out to journalists by various factions if their stories were not given top priority. Her writings were often critical of gender and caste discrimination, especially the dowry system.
One witness, who heard the commotion form her apartment on Sunday night, quotes one of the killers as saying “This is for writing so much.”
Alice Paul was a major force in securing the right of U.S . women to vote. She planned and lead the campaign for passage of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. Borrowing techniques from British suffragettes, Paul and her friends began suffrage watches, picketing, parades, demonstrations, and strikes. These actions caught media attention and brought the issue of women’s suffrage onto the national stage.
She founded the National Women’s Party and staged the first political protest to picket at the White House. The “Silent Sentinels” picketed the White House from January until July 1917, when they were arrested for “obstructing traffic”. Paul and others were locked up in the Occoquan Workhouse and the D. C. Jail. At one time, during a hunger strike, Paul was force fed raw eggs.
All that for having the audacity to want to vote!
In 1918, Wilson finally decided women’s suffrage was needed as a “war measure’, and urged it be voted upon by Congress. It came down to one vote, that of the state of Tennessee, for the 19th Amendment to be ratified.
She drafted the Equal Rights Amendment in 1923, but an incarnation of it didn’t make it to the Senate until 1972. Unfortunately, approval by 38 states is required and it only received 35. Paul’s work remains unfinished in 2009.
Paul saw the danger of linking abortion with women’s rights, and refused to put abortion and birth control language into the ERA. She knew it was political suicide, and she said that even if women did want to do many things that she wished they would not do with their freedom, it was not her business to tell them what to do with it, but to see that they had it.”
You have to be a wild woman to even think about going on the CBS show “Survivor”. Susie Smith, a 47 year old hairdresser from Charles City, Iowa, came up one vote short of forcing a tie at the Survivor Gabon finale.
Susie played a low key game, and many underestimated her along the way. She was perceived as weak, as riding coat-tails, and of not being strategic. In reality, Susie made some of the key moves of the season. When fate, in the form of a tribe switch up, put her in the role of swing voter, she saw that she was far down the food chain in the main alliance from her original tribe. She could save one of those original tribe members, or cast her lot with a different group. She chose the latter, and it paid off.
Susie also won two individual immunities – the first and the last. She saved herself at times when she was most vulnerable.
Like any of us, Susie has her quirks, and at times, she couldn’t seem to keep her mouth shut. But she is a genuinely kind person, and seemed able to separate playing the game from hurting people on purpose – a mistake others (Corinne, for example, with her heartless comment about Sugar’s recently deceased father) make all too often.
I didn’t respect Susie’s game, as it was shown to us via the editing, but I do respect that she kept her eyes open, took chances, won two crucial immunities, and did a respectable job in front of the jury. Susie won second place, and $100,000. She proves that you can be true to yourself and succeed in navigating very treacherous social waters. Well done, Susie!
Much has been written about the Battle of Culloden ~ the Jacobite Uprising against government troops and the last battle to take place in Great Britain (the battle actually took place in 1746 but is known as the ‘45). Many of the tales talk of men – Bonnie Prince Charlie, warriors and troops… but there are tales to be told of the women of the ‘45 too.
One such woman is Isabel Haldane, wife of Charles Stewart of Ardsheal. Like many Scotswomen of the time, Isabel Haldane was a committed Jacobite and supported Bonnie Prince Charlie when he raised his standard at Glenfinnan. When Isabel realised that her husband was reluctant to lead the Stewarts of Appin to the battlefield for fear of the consequences, she took off her apron and handed it to him.
“Charles, if you are not willing to be commander of the Appin men, stay at home and take care of the house, and I will go and command them myself.”
It means that a woman strikes us as being in touch with her instinctual nature and being true to herself. That can look different on different women. They can be pot-stirrers and trouble-makers, and they can also be quietly elegant. They can be intellectuals. They might be back-to-nature buffs or certified city dwellers.
We would be arrogant indeed to judge a person "unwild" for her choices and actions, so we do not pass negative judgement of those mentioned here, or those who list them. We get enough of that kind of wet blanket fretting as it is!
The names and faces you will find here come from news accounts, stories, photos, and other sources, and are chosen by our members, as showing some quality of the instinctual wild nature that we all seek to reclaim and renew.
Wildish Words
Wildlife and the Wild Woman are both endangered species. Over time, we have seen the feminine instinctive nature looted, driven back, and overbuilt. For long periods it has been mismanaged like the wildlife and the wildlands… It’s not by accident that the pristine wilderness of our planet disappears as the understanding of our own inner wild nature fades. It is not so difficult to comprehend why old forests and old women are viewed as not very important resources. — Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Andree Peel, a remarkable heroine of WW II, died March 5, 2010 at age 105. She was in her 30s, and ran a beauty salon in Brest, when the Germans invaded. Her first act of resistance was to hide French soldiers and help them elude capture. As the occupation dragged on, Peel found herself becoming more and more involved with the resistance movement.
Appearing on the T.V. show, “Britain’s Got Talent”, 47 year old Susan Boyle stepped on stage to fulfil a dream. The Youtube video shows the audience and judges seeming to laugh at her because of her age, her face, clothes, body – whatever – and she shut every one of them up when she began to sing, then opened every one of them up to joy. 
With approval from the Congress Senate, the LIly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, was signed into law on January 29, 2009.
Alice Paul
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