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April 11
Jyotirao Phule and Johanna Elberskirchen
David Barnhart
April 11, 2025
The Coronation of the Virgin from an altarpiece from 1220. Bode Museum, 2022.
Jesus giving Mary a crown is a common theme in church art from this period. I like to call it, “Here’s your hat, Mom.” Own photo.
Today is the birthday, in 1827, of Jyotirao Phule, an educator and social reformer of India. He and his wife Savitribai started a school for girls’ education and worked to eliminate the caste system. He founded the “Society of Truth-Seekers” to lobby for rights for low-caste people.
Today is also the birthday, in 1864, of Johanna Elberskirchen, an early German advocate of feminism and the rights of gays and lesbians.
Today is World Parkinson’s Day for raising awareness and advocacy for the disease. Although the United States passed the National Plan to End Parkinson's Act in 2023, the fascist Trump regime cut its funding and fired its principal scientists last month.
Reflection:
If you educate a man, you educate an individual. But if you educate a woman, you educate an entire family.
Caste is a monster that crosses your path every step you take.
…woman is not weak, not inferior, not ‘physiologically feeble-minded,’ but woman is sick – she suffers too much under the domination of male sex.
Prayer: God who breaks down the dividing wall between and among human beings, break every barrier of oppression in this world. And break the will and the spirit of every political leader who promotes caste, division, disease, and needless suffering. Amen.