Gov. Schwarzenegger to award S.A.F.E. Director Melissa Donaldson

April 10, 2008 by PT Rothschild.

MAGGIE AND I WERE RIGHT, THE PRUDES WERE WRONG

Temecula, CA – I knew as soon as I read the March issue of Country Review, the slick local magazine that first broke the prudish sodbuster barrier with a full page color ad touting the Valley’s first run of Eve Ensler’s controversial 10 year old play, ‘The Vagina Monologues’, and saw how Maggie mused on about the play she attended in much the same curious vein as myself, that one day soon I’d have to visit this V-Day story once more.


So Maggie, just let me say that we were right in our assessment of ‘The Vagina Monologues’ and of the organization S.A.F.E. (Safe Alternatives For Everyone –and that includes prudes and Jehovah’s Witnesses children– see today’s PE, front page, local section) that benefited financially from it. I announce this because the Honorable Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has validated our view by awarding Melissa Donaldson, the Executive Director of S.A.F.E., with The Governor’s Crime Victims Services Award, which was established during Gov Pete Wilson’s administration but discontinued when Governor Gray Davis was in office.

The Governator has reestablished the issuance of this award in order to honor the efforts of those who exhibit great leadership in victim services in both the adult and juvenile systems. Ms. Donaldson will pick up her award in Sacramento on Tuesday, April 15, 2008. This award celebration will be part of the State’s various events acknowledging Victim’s Rights Week.

We here at The Review wish to congratulate Ms. Donaldson on this splendid recognition and hope that she brings the award with her the next time the organization applies for grant money from the city. We also hope she and her sisters will be attending the 10^th Anniversary celebration of V-Day to be held in New Orleans Arena on April 12^th, 2008. And maybe next year the Country Review will run something like the poster put out by a Fresno coalition of women’s resource centers, a line drawing of a pair of woman’s legs shown from a downward angle standing in front of a floor microphone with her panties pulled down to her ankles. Now that’s a monologue poster, Maggie!

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