I'm blazing hot! :-(
I have never signed a petition so fast and written my comments so quickly as I just did a few minutes ago.
This morning, I got an email from AlterNet.org:
Just three weeks ago, the Bush administration issued a rule that would limit the rights of patients to receive complete and accurate reproductive health information when they visit the doctor. It's more of the Bush administration's bad medicine, and we need your help to stop it.
This new rule could allow individual health care providers to redefine abortion to include the most common forms of birth control -- and then refuse to provide them. A woman's ability to manage her own health care is at risk of being compromised by politics and ideology. We have until September 25 to voice our opposition. Please, click here to help Planned Parenthood fight back by sending your comments to the Department of Health and Human Services:
And they give you a link to sign at the Planned Parenthood Action Center.
I have a few issues with Planned Parenthood, but this is too great for me to ignore. This is the template letter that the public can send to the Department of Health and Human Services:
I am writing to oppose the so-called "conscience" rule recently submitted by Secretary Leavitt. This regulation poses a serious threat to women's health care by limiting the rights of patients to receive complete and accurate health information and services.
At a time when more and more families are uninsured and under economic assault, we find our health care system is in crisis and our president taking steps to deny access to basic care. Women's ability to manage their own health care is at risk of being compromised by politics and ideology.
I was, and am, so outraged, I had to add my own thoughts:
And religion. This is like the Taliban: totally disrespectful of women. Think about the women in YOUR family for a moment. This rule has no "conscience"; it has no regard for the health of half of humanity. Some women need birth control for health reasons not related to preventing births but directly related to reproductive health. Would YOU deny something to your SONS, BROTHERS, FATHERS, and HUSBANDS if they needed something necessary for health maintenance? You certainly didn't turn a blind eye away from Viagra.
Don't be two-faced. Women are human beings, as worthy as men, not some commodity to be controlled by the religious and political ideologies of a few.
If the concern is abortion, banning access to contraceptives is not the answer. That is nothing but denying women their dignity and their health. It is INSULTING your mother, grandmother and ALL the women who came before them, and after them.
I haven't written this fast since the day I accidentally erased something off an ancient computer 20 years ago on the job and the executive director needed what I had just erased for a meeting she was attending. She needed it about 10 minutes. I re-produced the document it in 12 (not a bad memory, eh?), but when she left, my back was wet with sweat! %-0
I think I need to write more so I'll be a better writer. Be a better activist. Be better all-around.
There's always room for improvement. ;-)
Friday, September 19, 2008
Saturday, September 13, 2008
I Need a Magic Wand
Where's my fairy godmother?!
I'm supposed to be packing my belongings, but the past few days, I've had no desire to. I just wanna wave a sparkly magic wand across our apartment, where lots of twinkly stars and glitter will appear, like in a cartoon, and then, voila! (sorry, too lazy to find out how to make the accent mark above the letter!) EVERYTHING is packed and ready to go! Yay!
Nay.
Shucks. Everyday our apartment is looking like an obstacle course. Squeeze between these boxes. Step over those boxes. Re-arrange this box. Open that box and take stuff out. Throw out that clutter!
Oooh! Clutter. We're bad with paper clutter. But we also hate waste. The trick is to try and keep paper piles in NEAT piles! All it takes is the wind from the open window to ruin a pile!
The other night, I told my mom we threw out some stuff (but didn't tell her what we threw out.) In her usual "heh heh" motherly tone of voice, she said, "Well, if I were there, honey, I'd help you save some things."
I got a little loud. Right, Mom! That's how you never get rid of anything! ("I know, I know!") How you have food 20 years old lying around that you forgot about! (silence. oops!)
I come from a family of pack rats. I married a pack rat whose father is a pack rat. I can't say I'm not a pack rat...I reeaaallly try hard not to be one because too much stuff and clutter around does unnerve me (unless it's in other people's homes!). And it's our fault. But sometimes I feel like I'm being sucked into a sort of pack rat vaccuum. A pack rat black hole!
I have to remind myself it's only temporary. I do know myself enough to realize that I am a last-minute packer. This is, after all, the sixth time we've moved since we've been married. I should be a pro at packing, right? Think again...!
The problem is, the longer you've been with someone, the more you accumulate. Do I throw this thing out that we haven't used forever and hardly works? Why the heck did hubby save these ink pens that barely work: did he think ink would magically come out again? (Shh...I threw them out!)
Why so much scrap paper? So we won't waste paper! %-0 Paper is WEIGHT. Just think of books. My man is the one who does almost all the physical moving. Ideally, you want to distribute the weight, so you lessen the chances of injuring yourself--specifically, your back. Previously, I kept books with books, bathroom stuff with bathroom stuff, etc. Don't have everything scattered in twenty different boxes. Don't mess with MY organizing system! Hear me out, he implored: it makes better sense to distribute the weight, especially with heavy items like books.
I resisted at first: I'M the organizer here, dude! I don't want to be hunting for everything when we settle down in the new place! :-( So I said to him, as long as you label every box and try to keep kitchen stuff together, and bedroom stuff together, it should be okay. I don't want a roomful of "mystery boxes"! ;-0 He agreed to label everything, and only mess with his stuff, not mine. ;-)
I try to think of packing as a search and destroy mission: what archeological treasures will I find? (I found my expired passport during our last move!) What should I throw out, or give away to the Salvation Army--or drop off in the Planet Aid bin across the street from us? My favorite black dress shoes? They're twenty something years old! Scratched up and really, little support! (I have to think about posture issues, y'know, being a licensed massage therapist!). I mostly wore those shoes for formal ocassions: weddings or funerals. Am I waiting for someone to get married? To die? How morbid! Well, they're going out; I've got my money's worth out of them!
Same thing with clothes: some things I've never worn or once or twice. Too much clothes! So why do I always look at clothes in the clearance section of a store, and take clothes from my big sister and cousins?! For change! Sometimes, you have to throw nostaglia out the window! %-0
Search and destroy! Find it! Throw it out! Keep it! Keep moving through your stuff like a time bomb was going to go off so you can get back to doing what you'd really like to do, which is anything but packing!
Recently, a longtime friend of mine asked me why I did I move so often? There were valid reasons, I told her, beginning with: when I moved to another city to go to college, move out at the year's end, move to a cottage with a friend, move out because of a nasty asshole boyfriend, move to a bedroom in a family home, move out again because of the nasty asshole boyfriend, move to uncle's apartment building, move out when hubby transferred to a new college, move out from student housing when hubby dropped out and move to the east coast and live with his parents, younger bro and sil all under one roof. Then move into our own home for nearly a decade, then move upstate so hubby could finish his degree. And now, back down to the sticks, to be near family again.
Did you get all that? All told, it's about ten times total for me for the last 22 years. So to the friend who asked me that, that's why I moved so many times.
Is it a such a bad thing? Some people ask me that question in a very patronizing way, as if moving were a character flaw or a felony. :-( What about military families? They often move a lot don't they?
I think it all depends on how open minded, flexible, and adaptable you are. I try to see it as a challenge to become more adaptable. I certainly think I benefitted, by getting to know a greater diversity of people, becoming aware of my own biases, and becoming more tolerant and open minded towards other peoples' views.
Yes, moving is a pain in the butt. No doubt about that! But it's only a temporary process. The more organized you are, the less painful life will seem! ;-0 Right now, I have periods of highs and lows, regarding our packing process. Part of me wants to leave it until the last week. The other part of me says get off your bee-hind! I thought I had tried to resolve that issue by doing a little bit each day, since we came upon the sudden decision to move last month. It worked pretty well, but maybe because the moving out date is getting ever closer, my time to spend with my close friends here and the proximity to them is coming to a close--is weighing on my mind. :-(
Leaving behind friends and activities that I was involved in the last five years isn't the easiest thing. Easier for hubby, since he's a homebody. But moving was my decision also. I'll miss them terribly. And yet I am looking forward to a new start. A new lease on life. A new adventure in an area we're not familiar with, and know no one but his parents, who only live there half the year, off and on.
I just need a magic wand to make everything look neat, clean, and pretty again in the apartment so I don't have to stumble over our own mess!
Fairy godmother! Do you exist? Where art thou?! :-0
I'm supposed to be packing my belongings, but the past few days, I've had no desire to. I just wanna wave a sparkly magic wand across our apartment, where lots of twinkly stars and glitter will appear, like in a cartoon, and then, voila! (sorry, too lazy to find out how to make the accent mark above the letter!) EVERYTHING is packed and ready to go! Yay!
Nay.
Shucks. Everyday our apartment is looking like an obstacle course. Squeeze between these boxes. Step over those boxes. Re-arrange this box. Open that box and take stuff out. Throw out that clutter!
Oooh! Clutter. We're bad with paper clutter. But we also hate waste. The trick is to try and keep paper piles in NEAT piles! All it takes is the wind from the open window to ruin a pile!
The other night, I told my mom we threw out some stuff (but didn't tell her what we threw out.) In her usual "heh heh" motherly tone of voice, she said, "Well, if I were there, honey, I'd help you save some things."
I got a little loud. Right, Mom! That's how you never get rid of anything! ("I know, I know!") How you have food 20 years old lying around that you forgot about! (silence. oops!)
I come from a family of pack rats. I married a pack rat whose father is a pack rat. I can't say I'm not a pack rat...I reeaaallly try hard not to be one because too much stuff and clutter around does unnerve me (unless it's in other people's homes!). And it's our fault. But sometimes I feel like I'm being sucked into a sort of pack rat vaccuum. A pack rat black hole!
I have to remind myself it's only temporary. I do know myself enough to realize that I am a last-minute packer. This is, after all, the sixth time we've moved since we've been married. I should be a pro at packing, right? Think again...!
The problem is, the longer you've been with someone, the more you accumulate. Do I throw this thing out that we haven't used forever and hardly works? Why the heck did hubby save these ink pens that barely work: did he think ink would magically come out again? (Shh...I threw them out!)
Why so much scrap paper? So we won't waste paper! %-0 Paper is WEIGHT. Just think of books. My man is the one who does almost all the physical moving. Ideally, you want to distribute the weight, so you lessen the chances of injuring yourself--specifically, your back. Previously, I kept books with books, bathroom stuff with bathroom stuff, etc. Don't have everything scattered in twenty different boxes. Don't mess with MY organizing system! Hear me out, he implored: it makes better sense to distribute the weight, especially with heavy items like books.
I resisted at first: I'M the organizer here, dude! I don't want to be hunting for everything when we settle down in the new place! :-( So I said to him, as long as you label every box and try to keep kitchen stuff together, and bedroom stuff together, it should be okay. I don't want a roomful of "mystery boxes"! ;-0 He agreed to label everything, and only mess with his stuff, not mine. ;-)
I try to think of packing as a search and destroy mission: what archeological treasures will I find? (I found my expired passport during our last move!) What should I throw out, or give away to the Salvation Army--or drop off in the Planet Aid bin across the street from us? My favorite black dress shoes? They're twenty something years old! Scratched up and really, little support! (I have to think about posture issues, y'know, being a licensed massage therapist!). I mostly wore those shoes for formal ocassions: weddings or funerals. Am I waiting for someone to get married? To die? How morbid! Well, they're going out; I've got my money's worth out of them!
Same thing with clothes: some things I've never worn or once or twice. Too much clothes! So why do I always look at clothes in the clearance section of a store, and take clothes from my big sister and cousins?! For change! Sometimes, you have to throw nostaglia out the window! %-0
Search and destroy! Find it! Throw it out! Keep it! Keep moving through your stuff like a time bomb was going to go off so you can get back to doing what you'd really like to do, which is anything but packing!
Recently, a longtime friend of mine asked me why I did I move so often? There were valid reasons, I told her, beginning with: when I moved to another city to go to college, move out at the year's end, move to a cottage with a friend, move out because of a nasty asshole boyfriend, move to a bedroom in a family home, move out again because of the nasty asshole boyfriend, move to uncle's apartment building, move out when hubby transferred to a new college, move out from student housing when hubby dropped out and move to the east coast and live with his parents, younger bro and sil all under one roof. Then move into our own home for nearly a decade, then move upstate so hubby could finish his degree. And now, back down to the sticks, to be near family again.
Did you get all that? All told, it's about ten times total for me for the last 22 years. So to the friend who asked me that, that's why I moved so many times.
Is it a such a bad thing? Some people ask me that question in a very patronizing way, as if moving were a character flaw or a felony. :-( What about military families? They often move a lot don't they?
I think it all depends on how open minded, flexible, and adaptable you are. I try to see it as a challenge to become more adaptable. I certainly think I benefitted, by getting to know a greater diversity of people, becoming aware of my own biases, and becoming more tolerant and open minded towards other peoples' views.
Yes, moving is a pain in the butt. No doubt about that! But it's only a temporary process. The more organized you are, the less painful life will seem! ;-0 Right now, I have periods of highs and lows, regarding our packing process. Part of me wants to leave it until the last week. The other part of me says get off your bee-hind! I thought I had tried to resolve that issue by doing a little bit each day, since we came upon the sudden decision to move last month. It worked pretty well, but maybe because the moving out date is getting ever closer, my time to spend with my close friends here and the proximity to them is coming to a close--is weighing on my mind. :-(
Leaving behind friends and activities that I was involved in the last five years isn't the easiest thing. Easier for hubby, since he's a homebody. But moving was my decision also. I'll miss them terribly. And yet I am looking forward to a new start. A new lease on life. A new adventure in an area we're not familiar with, and know no one but his parents, who only live there half the year, off and on.
I just need a magic wand to make everything look neat, clean, and pretty again in the apartment so I don't have to stumble over our own mess!
Fairy godmother! Do you exist? Where art thou?! :-0
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Burning Up!
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
--Amendment I, Bill of Rights
I should be a pile of ashes from all the things that have been burning me up lately.
Things like independent journalists being brutally treated by police outside the Republican National Convention (and, I'm sure, the Democratic National Convention last week). Are they criminals? I don't think so! :-( Just listen to Democracy Now! and get a glimpse of the real world outside the political conventions.
The comments from the veteran groups (Iraq & Afghanistan, Vietnam) have been the most stirring...and shocking, in their sharing of their experiences.
I can't believe that last week, and likely, this week, protesters were confined to a caged area, like animals. Their area was designated as the "free speech area"! It all sounds like something that would be happening in a country like Myanmar/Burma, or some other developing country where human rights are ignored and scoffed at.
Police roughed up, detained, and arrested Democracy Now! staff and other journalists in the past few days, invading the places they were staying at (presumably without a warrant), and taking some of their equipment and/or taking the batteries out of their equipment. :-(( The NSA (National Security Adminstration) personnel stripped the journalists of their media passes into the RNC building. Literally ripped them off their necks. Is someone or some governing or corporate entity trying to hide something so as to prevent news from reaching people outside the convention? Interesting how the journalists and protesters are open and willing to speak the truth, and the opposing forces are brutal and secretive by not telling why their press passes are being taken or even if they will be returned or not.
All this excessive police force is very chilling, and counter-productive to what I thought they were supposed to do: maintain law and order. That sort of behavior will sow mistrust between law enforcement and the citizens on a regular everyday basis. Why go after journalists whose job is to report what is going on, and hopefully, bring the truth to the citizens?
I hope the protests will become increasingly LOUDER as the week goes on, and all the way to election day in November!
Normally, I don't care a fig for politics, though one might think I ought to since political science was my minor, and communication (with emphasis in print journalism) was my major in college. But this year, it's hard to avoid! And with my increasing interest in women's issues and everything related to it, I feel it is my responsibility to pay attention to what elected representatives are going to say because it is my future and everyone else's they're talking about!
I absolutely do not want an anti-women, war-mongering president in our White House. Not at all.
Last night, I read a New York Times article on the G.O.P.'s stance on abortion: they do not even allow exceptions for rape, incest, or the mother's health! So it won't bother them to have thousands of women die from back-alley abortions as in the decades (centuries?) before Roe vs. Wade?
Women are human beings, not pieces of property whose sole duty is supposedly to pump out puppies. It's THEIR choice how to live their lives. Uncle Sam should not enter a woman's womb, especially if he does not intend to go after the guy who fucked her up in the first place, literally and figuratively. :-(
Why is the burden always placed on the woman? Why is it only her fault for becoming pregnant? Is she really responsible for his uncontrollable, raging hormones?!
Between hearing about women-unfriendly stances by one party and the excessive police force against innocent journalists and peaceful protesters, I feel like we really are living in an Orwellian police state. 1984 was the scariest novel I've ever read, and I've read it more than once. In recent years, some unsuspecting citizens have found that if you say or write something criticizing Uncle Sam, or even participate in a peaceful protest, you could find yourself on the government's No Fly List.
All in the name of security? What about our civil liberties? When has might ever made right? I wonder if the people in charge ever heard of Ben Franklin, who wrote:
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
My wish is to live and prosper in a free, progressive country, not a regressive, police-state-like one! If my name were ever to show up on some godforsaken list, I would be even more determined to defend my civil liberties and those of my fellow citizens. Tooth and nail.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
--Amendment IV, Bill of Rights
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