Um, what?

So I just got this really random IM:

****

IronedCoho: You know, I'm a Christian and your recent post offended me! What if my children were on? I mean, it's all the rage to be edgy and everything but is it really necessary to use such prejudicing words like the N-word? Grow up and read your Bible.

me: who are you and what the hell are you talking about?

ironedcoho is offline.

****

This was an interesting moment for me because, other than the telling fact that I never used the N-word in any post, the truth is that this guy could totally be talking about a post I wrote. So I thought I'd comment on a statement made to somehow make me feel guilty: "What if my children were on?"

First of all, it is not my responsibility to ensure that your children don't see things you don't want them to or to ensure that your children can deal with and understand those things. First there is the the obvious fact that you children WILL inevitably see/hear/experience things that a parent deems inappropriate/wrong/whatever. This works both ways.

Somehow it seems that many people, especially evangelical Christians, seem to think that because they believe what they teach their children to believe and value are categorically right (and apparently are the only ones to believe the things they teach their children) that no one should ever do anything in front of the children that contradicts that. Here's a news flash: If I had children, I would not under any circumstances want them to be exposed to evangelical Christianity and it's beliefs. A good example would be the anti-abortion protesters who, along with their children, stand on the street and hold up "dead fetus" pictures. This is not something I want to see let alone have my children see. And yet, it's "ok" because they believe they are right.

The point is this: what I deem inappropriate and wrong for my (hypothetical) children, you deem inappropriate and right for your children. This leads us to the general conclusion that unless you want to live in a dictatorial, whatever brand of Christianity you subscribe to society then you need to move out of the US or get over yourself and teach your children that other people believe different things.

Conclusion: "What if my children see this?" is not a justification for anything. My answer: then you'll have to have a talk with your children. It's scary I know.


Also, what the hell does being a Christian or reading the bible have to do with using or not using the N-word. I will just briefly bring up another thing that pisses me off: Christians do not, in any reading of history, have any sort of exclusive claim (or arguably any claim at all) to morality or doing what's right.

As a side note, I'm pretty sure this dude doesn't have kids anyway. Based on this post, I think "IronedCoho" is actually this 23 year old pharmacy technician from Corning, NY. What a douche.

On the SD Abortion Ban ...

Feministing posted this news story on the new South Dakota Abortion Ban. Watch it, then read.

I want to point out a couple things:
- Of the two women from the anti-abortion group, both were motivated by regret for their own abortions.
- One of them said: "... most women do not weigh all of the true decisions that need to be made."
- Supreme Court Justice Kennedy, often considered a swing vote, was brought up. Some argue that he will vote in favor of overturning Roe v Wade by citing his brief in the late term abortion case in which he states "some women come to regret their decision."

All of these arguments effectively boil down to this: women cannot be trusted to make a responsible decision. I think this is incredibly condescending and offensive to all women not to mention fundamentally un-American.

Democracy is based on the premise that as a society we trust people to make well-thought out, responsible decisions about their lives as well as other people's lives and that this collective action will result in what is best for everyone. The Bill of Rights exists to protect people's fundamental rights despite majority opinoin. My point is this: By questioning women's ability to make decisions about their own lives and body, you are inherently question their ability to make any decisions and be political actors. We crossed this bridge when we gave me women the right to vote ... in 1919. Let's get over it.

Moreover, just because you made a bad choice for yourself doesn't mean that you have any right to make my decision for me. Even anti-abortion activists speak about abortion as a 'decision' and yet they are fighting to NOT make it a decision at all and to have a decision forced upon people by the government. I don't think they really realize what they are fighting for - the women in this news story seem to be fighting more out of their own regret than any sense of well-being for women or children.

Let's just say, for the sake of argument, that women don't think through "all the true decisions that need to be made." Does that mean we should make the decision for them? A lot of people regret decisions they've made: beginning smoking, dropping out of school. Yet we don't force them into a different decision.

Lastly, out lawing abortion will NOT stop abortions from happening. (Abortions happened before 1973.) All it will do is force women to have unsafe abortions and increase the likelihood that they will regret it (due to the unsafe conditions, medical complications etc). Thus the motivation of the South Dakota anti-abortionists is completley illogical.

Final thoughts (I swear!):
Ask yourself -

If the government has a right to interfere with my reproductive capacity by forcing me to have a child, can they also force me NOT to have a child by forcibily sterilize me for example (ps - this has happened)? If you say no, what's the difference? (Note: forcible sterilization cannot be construed as "killing" since you are stoping any egg - or sperm - from ever becoming viable)

If my body isn't considered private under the 4th amendent, what is? Do my house or purse get a privileged status under the law but my uterus doesn't?

Coat Hangers Happened

In case you think coat hanger abortions are all hype,i found - through feministing - a disturbing and graphic article in the New York Times today written by an OB who has been there, done that. He didn't actually perform abortions pre-Roe; he did, however, deal with the aftermath of illegal, unsafe abortion procedures. Read the graphic accounts of the risk these women put themselves in and think about the kind of desperation that would cause you to do such a thing. It is surely not a desperation that anyone in the US having grown up with birth control readily available and abortion somewhat available (although it's becoming less and less available) has truly felt.

I have volunteered as an abortion clinic escort for the past few years now. Basically, a clinic escort is there to counter-balance and sheild the woman - sometimes physically; often emotionally - from protesters.

I began escorting at the Hope Clinic in Illinois, outside of St. Louis. Hope Clinic began in the 70s just after Roe and has been constantly sieged with protesters ever since - including Operation Rescue. Protesters there were loud, offensive, and often pushed the boundaries of the law. Once, someone screamed that us "deathscorts" "ate babies." Protesters, and sometimes their children, would photograph or video tape the woman walking into the clinic as well as the escorts. As escorts, we tried to block the pictures - it was better for them to have our picture than the woman's. In fact, my pictures is up on one of the Organization's sites - along with lies about the clinic selling baby parts among other things. I knew that doctors, nurses, employees, and escorts had all been harassed by protesters. We weren't allowed to call another escort by name. It was intense, but, for perhaps the first time in my life, I felt like I was actually making a difference and standing up for something I believed in. There is something profoundly rewarding in that.

When I moved to New York, I immediately got in touch with the Brooklyn Pro-Choice Network about escorting. Although escorting in Brooklyn is far less exciting, there are still protesters, mostly from the Catholic Church next door, who show up everyday. When I tell people here that I escort at the abortion clinic, they are shocked to find out that in a liberal city like NYC there are protesters at an abortion clinic. People are often unaware of the siege currently going on against reproductive rights in America today - from increasing restrictions on abortion to clinics closing to protesters who show up every single day to harass woman as they make a profoundly personal and difficult choice.

This article by Dr. Fielding really puts what we are fighting for into perspective. His closing remarks some the issue up to a T:

It is important to remember that Roe v. Wade did not mean that abortions could be performed. They have always been done, dating from ancient Greek days.

What Roe said was that ending a pregnancy could be carried out by medical personnel, in a medically accepted setting, thus conferring on women, finally, the full rights of first-class citizens — and freeing their doctors to treat them as such.

it's worse than i thought ...

read this.


and let me just say, honestly without any giddy glee (in fact, it's more like horror) ...

i told you so.

Wayne's World

if you don't get feminist news like me, you may not know that a debate has been raging about the opening of a new Planned Parenthood in none other than my home state of Illinois in the town where Wayne and Garth lived. the city blocked the opening saying that planned parenthood did not obtain permits legally and anti-abortion groups rallied.

but so did pro-choicers ... and now the clinic, which i believe is the largest in the state, is open. hooray.

read the planned parenthood myspace blog here.

in other lame, anti-feminist moves, verizon decided to block NARAL's short code which allowed users to voluntarily sign up for news via text from NARAL. eventually, after thousands of customers wrote the ceo of verizon, he relented.

read some blogs about it on Huffington Post or where ever else you want.

which brings me to ....

drum roll please ....

capitalism and the importance of the following:

1. government regulation in capitalism. once upon a time, telephone companies (and gas and electric and other types of industries where a service was deemed essential and a monopoly deemed a necessary evil) were heavily regulated. the government told them that they couldn't take advantage of their decidedly un-capitalistic position of controlling our communications, heat, electricity, water, etc. They had to provide services to people. Good service. Unbigoted service. remember that time? me neither but it should be returned to none the less.

we assume that our sources of news are accurate and that we are being given information. news flash. we're not. no, we can't all spend all our time gaining all the itsy bit of info on everything that happens in this country. that's why we have journalists. journalists, who until recently, took seriously their ethical responsibility to be as fair as possible in their reporting, to protect whistle blowers, and to not bow to the powers that be. it's hard for reports to do this when their pay check comes from ... the powers that be.

plus my electric bill is outrageous.

2. consolidation of big business is anti-capitalistic. in fact, having only a handful of corporations operating in a single industry (or related industries) comes pretty damn close to monopoly. and monopoly is essentially the same as communism. that's right, communism. both involve one large, omnipotent entity controlling the production, pricing, and consumption of a product.

i don't how many people remember (or ever learned?) basic economics but adam smith, the "founder" of capitalism had this little theory of an "invisible hand." the idea being that all these small businesses compete in a market for customers and an invisible hand determines the price based on supply and demand. the key part here is small businesses. it's much like democracy. individuals make small decisions that collectively decided the direction of our government (baring violations of the bill of rights etc ... again importance of the role of government ...). nothing pisses me off more than small business owners who are fiscally conservative, which in today's political sphere is essentially pro-big business. which in turn, is anti-small business. perhaps you didn't notice but bush has consistently cut (and proposed further cuts) of the small business administration budget. not to mention he tax "cuts" which only benefit the rich and wealthy.

i saw the premiere of "An Unreasonable Man", the documentary about Ralph Nader. afterwards there was a Q & A with the film makers and someone asked a question about Ralph's support of capitalism. this girl was shocked to hear the Ralph was pro-capitalism and pro-small business (which in my head should ... and do go hand in hand).

when adam and i were first dating we would play a game where we'd ask each other random questions. once he or i asked what we most disagreed with about popular liberal politics. both our answer was that we felt that socialism was not the answer. i feel that this is another thing that the exceptional right wing pr machine has twisted: that all liberals are commies; that being anti-big business is equivalent to being anti-capitalism. i believe in entrepreneurship and supporting small businesses in america. i believe in capitalism. but i also believe in learning from history. a history that smacked us across our heads and told us that the government was an essential part of the economy and must regulate capitalism, i.e. the great depression.

so what can you do to support small business? i don't have all the answers but here are a few ideas:

buy handmade at etsy.com

buy things at locally owned stores

join a csa

choose to use a small business for things like: web sites/hosting/design/development, financial planning, real estate, insurance ...

yes, it might be a bit more work and a bit more expensive but think of it as moving towards a culture where walmart gets taxed more than you. which is really money in your pocket.

AND then there might be a real Wayne's World ... you know, locally produced media. it'd be awesome!

crazy idea vol. 1

so i am constantly coming up with ideas for various things that i am in no position to really make happen at this point. mostly they just keep my constantly racing mind from being bored. so here is one ...

compliation cd of songs about reproductive rights.

i know, i know. i'm a dork. but it was all inspired by ... myself. i recently finished a song sorta about my experience escorting at the hope clinic in illinois. it fucking rocks too but that's besides the point.

the comp would not be a bullshit rock against bush (actually i like those cds but ..). i'm talking lyrical content about the subject. perhaps it could spawn into a larger comps for change series but that rips of another idea's name i'll talk about later ...

anyway, i think it'd be cool. prooceeds could benefit orgs like naral, planned parenthood, or better yet, abortion access funds.

so in thinking about writting this post i did a little search for pro-choice songs.

my own first thoughts were these:

operation rescue - bad religion
ani difranco - i wasn't sure which song but i was 100% sure she had at least one song about abortion

and that was pretty much it. but here's a list i've compiled. many of the artists i don't even know and some of the songs i'd forgotten about. so here you go - a list of pro-choice songs about abortions:

bodies - the sex pistols
(who definitley DID NOT invent punk rock and are essentially the backstreet boys of punk but ... that doesn't take away from the fact that they wrote a song about abortion ... although due to this song, some douche listed them on a top 50 list of conservative rock songs which is just a bit wierd and laugable. here's the article if you are interested: http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NzZkNDU5MmViNzVjNzkzMDE3NzNlN2MyZjRjYTk4YjE=)
EDIT: the song is NOT pro-choice. lyrics here. fucking assholes.

brick - ben folds

the lost woman; birmingham - ani difranco

sally's pigeon - cyndi lauper

9 month blues; the judge's chair - peggy seeger

fight back; why oh why - holly near

behind the wall - try chapman

some boys; the boy/girl rap - alix dobkin

breaking silence - janis ian
(incidentally this is also the name of a character in mean girls ... is it sad that i know that? probably ...)

car with no brakes - erica wheeler

testimony - ferron

will the fetus be aborted? - dead kennedys
(oh jello ... how i love you ...)

what's it like - everlast

mary & child - born against

femme fatale - diggable planets

prodigal daughter - michelle shocked

sister, carry on - carolyn mcdad

* note: some of these were marked as "women's issues" so they might not actually be about abortion ... comment, additions, etc welcome.