Iran and the Released Sailors

Scaredy-cats

Today in my school's newspaper I read about the US sailors who were taken into custody and detained by the government of Iran when they sailed into Iranian waters. They were released within 18 hours, and were fed, given blankets, and not beaten or tortured in any way. They did make them apologize for trespassing and film it, then broadcasting it around the country, but honestly... that didn't hurt anything more than their pride.

And yet republican senators are taking this opportunity to tell us all how the Iran Deal has failed, how we must immediately start a war with them to show them who's boss.

What i'd like to know is what the US republicans would have done if the situation were reversed? Or what they think the Iranian government should have done instead? Should they have let a foreign nation's military vessel just sail on through their waters, should they have scooted over in a boat and offered them danish pastries and coffee and provided a welcome committee? Of course not. Now, I'm not saying they handled it properly, but what do I know about foreign politics...

All I can say is that I don't understand why everyone is so surprised. It's not like the US and Iran have been on the best terms for the last 10 years or so... You can't expect a nation that has been virtually threatened with being obliterated with nuclear bombs if they try to construct their own to suddenly trust that the USA has their best interests at heart. 

There are decades of bad will and history between the two nations and they are not about to become best buds just because they've agreed to try and work together for the first time. The fact that they detained military personnel is not a crime, especially as they were treated well and were returned promptly and without harm.

I'm just disgusted by the way the republican party constantly tries to not only demonize everything that Obama does internationally, but also continues to incite fear and hatred of foreign people and nations. 

The Republican Lineup of Candidates for Presidency

The terrifyingly insane people that might just become president...

So this country is facing a big change in 2016... A new president. Now this isn't like the usual race by each party to get a member of their side elected as leader of the USA. No, this race has transcended sanity and is now becoming a bloodbath for the people of this country. In the past whichever party won the election would change some policies and make things cushy for their party, but they wouldn't alter the very structure of the country and throw us all into war. But all that changed when the republicans elected George Bush instead of Al Gore in 2001.

Republican Candidates for 2016 Election

1. Jeb Bush, Former Governor of Florida 
2. Ben Carson, Former Neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital
3. Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey
4. Ted Cruz, United States Senator from Texas
5. Carly Fiorina, Former CEO of Hewlett-Packard
6. Jim Gilmore, Former Governor of Virginia
7. Lindsey Graham, United States Senator from South Carolina
8. Mike Huckabee, Former Governor of Arkansas
9. Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana
10. John Kasich, Governor of Ohio
11. George Pataki, Former Governor of New York
12. Rand Paul, United States Senator from Kentucky
13. Marco Rubio, United States Senator from Florida
14. Rick Santorum, Former United States Senator from Pennsylvania
15. Donald Trump, CEO of The Trump Organization

Now I'm not going to go into what each candidate stands for, because that would take forever and be fairly repetitive. I may do a later post about that for the frontrunners, however this time I want to talk about the grand picture of what these people represent...

The Republican Platform in 2016

The main things that seem to be the foot this party is standing on is as follows (in no particular order of importance):

• Religious "freedoms"
• allowing homophobia in the workplace and elsewhere
• Islamaphobic policies and preaching
• Seeding fear of immigrants, particularly hispanics from Mexico
• Demonizing Planned Parenthood and repealing the right to abortions
• Cutting taxes for the top 1% even more
• Destroying public healthcare
• Cutting public funding for infrastructure like roads, bridges, damns etc...
• Halting trade relations with other countries
• Destroying cooperation btw the US and Iran, possibly starting another war
• Defunding and cutting budgets for education
• Bring back big oil and forget about climate change because it's not real
• Lower the minimum wage

Just to name a few...

Now, let us discuss these issues because they scare the hell out of any sane american, scare the world because if one of these people gets into power we're likely to start WWIII with nukes, scare women because they're going to become objects and property again, scare anyone who is not a white, heterosexual man...

Religious "freedoms" & Homophobia

What is a religious freedom? Well, to most people it would be the definition in the constitution of this country which specifies a separation of church and state. 

The exact wording of the First Amendment is:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

This gives people the right to believe in whatever religion (or lack thereof) they wish, and it allows them to practice their religion providing it does not harm another person. This last bit is what seems to be forgotten by the religious right in this country. They are allowed to pray wherever and whenever they please, they can wear crosses, they can carry their bible around with them, they can converse about their religion, they can do whatever they want to show their beliefs as long as it does not harm another person. But they do harm other people. There is rampant homophobia in this country. They don't want to employ a person if they happen to like people of the same sex, they don't want to provide services or speak or have anything to do with them. They are outraged that same-sex marriage is legal now, they are outraged that they have to hand out marriage licenses and "participate" in such a sinful celebration, even though they really don't have to. The term "religious freedom" is now used to persecute same-sex couples, homosexual people, LGBTQ groups and people, and more... 

I don't quite understand where these people get off thinking they can push their religion down our throats. I don't understand how they think it's okay to be rude, say cruel and unkind things, deny basic services, and treat them as lesser human or even animals simply because they choose to like people of the same sex as themselves. I cannot understand how they justify their vicious behaviour saying that it's the "will of god". Are they god? Do they know exactly what god thinks about these people? Are they themselves the omniscient creator of the world they worship so stridently? No. Their book of "morals" tells them first and foremost to "love thy neighbor as thyself", and "let he who is without sin throw the first stone", and yet this is forgotten in the storm of hatred hurled at anyone who is different to them. They feel so entitled to "practice their religion" that they don't see why it is wrong to use their religion to persecute and profile and attack other people. 

This is what we are in for if a republican wins this election. We are in for blatant homophobia and that whole "separation of  church and state" will go right out the window faster than you can blink. Anyone who isn't a blessed christian is going to be fodder for all sorts of hatred and hate crimes and no one will do a thing about it. 

Islamaphobic Policies and Preaching

Ever since 9/11 there has beed an outpouring of hate and mistrust against anyone who even looks a little bit middle-eastern. If they are muslim and practice islam, it seems to be generally accepted in this country that they are definitely a terrorist in the making. Doesn't matter if they are actually a greek catholic, to the uninformed and overly-suspicious republican, they are a bomber waiting to happen. 

There are entire rallies specifically to sow distrust and hatred towards muslim people that practice the religion of Islam. The truth is that there is a very small portion of muslims that make up the dangerous group of extremists, and sadly those few give the entire religion a bad reputation. It would be like looking at just the Popes and Cardinals of olden-times and claiming that every single catholic was a child molester. Happily, that is not the case with either catholics or muslims. Most of them are wonderful people who live simple lives and just want to be left in peace and safety to raise children and live out their lives doing jobs that they love. 

But ever since 9/11 people, and republicans in particular, have been claiming that Islam is a dangerous religion and condones mass murder and terrorist attacks when it does no such thing. Christianity condoned mass murder when it came to the crusades. Catholicism condoned mass murder and genocide when their explorers "found" the New World and "claimed" the uncivilized continent for their rulers, killing all the native people as they spread across the land like a plague of locusts. These are religions that have condoned such violence and actions as being "the will of god". Not by fringe-groups of extremists, but by the leaders of those nations, the Kings and Queens that ruled them, the Pope's that were their religious leaders, their priests and missionaries and preachers. No religions have inflicted such widespread harm and murder as Christianity and Catholicism, and yet those same people choose to spend most of their time telling everyone how Islam is the most potent danger to the future of this country and the world. 

The republican candidates are no exception. Claiming to be all virtuous and perfect, they push all the evils in the world on Muslims and the religion of Islam and have a hate and smear campaign that is specifically designed to make people fearful of foreigners, fearful of non-white people, fearful or people who talk in a different language or practice a different religion, or wear different clothes. And these are the people who might one day lead this country... 

I ask you, what is more scary than that?

The Fear of Immigration

Something that I find very interesting about this election and what the republicans seem to be running on is the fear of illegal immigrants. Now we've heard for years about how terrible the Mexicans are, how they constantly just hop over the border with no problem and spread diseases that we US citizens are just not equipped to handle.

It's like they are trying to re-invent history and make themselves the Native Americans dealing with the Spanish Conquests... Not only is that offensive to the peoples that actually did have to suffer through that, but it's also highly inaccurate. Whatever diseases we have here in Texas, they probably have down in Mexico too, and vice versa. Why that is even mentioned in the debate to restrict illegal immigration is a mystery to me.

What I really don't understand is how, the moment Donald Trump said that all Mexican immigrants are rapists and thieves, the whole republican party jumped on board and started saying we need to build a wall. Then, smart guy that he is, Scott Walker (republican Senator of New Hampshire) suggested that what we really need is a wall (a really big one) dividing us from Canada, and protecting us from all the terrorists that come into the US from there. Now, I think a wall between the US and Mexico is insane enough in itself. But blocking out Canada because of "terrorists" is not just stupid and irrational, I personally do not understand how this guy hasn't been committed to a secure insane asylum yet. Not only that, but he actually has a place in government and the rules that we must all live by. If you don't find that scary then I have nothing more to say to you.

The fear of immigrants to the US was ramped up the minute the attacks in Paris happened in late 2015. Before that people were scared, and talked about how we'd be letting in all the terrorists, but it wasn't until the Paris attacks that the situation really exploded (no pun intended). Suddenly people were saying how every single muslim was a terrorist and how even letting in orphaned children was a risk, because they would obviously grow up to be terrorists too...

The amount of hatred you must feel towards a culture in order to condemn orphaned children to death is pretty huge. There are so many people out there who are facing horrific circumstances, whose houses have been bombed, who have watched their loved ones - parents, life partners, children - be blown to bits, who have abandoned every worldly possession they own to escape real terror and find a safe place to live. That's what really baffles me. They are the ones who truly experience Terroism. Here in our safe little country bad things do sometimes happen. The Boston bombings were no small matter, and 9/11 was a pretty tragic event, but we know nothing of living in constant fear. Of seeing a stranger outside your house and wondering if your parents are going to dragged away and tortured, of nearly starving to death every day because there's not enough food... That is THEIR reality, what they have to face every single day. And here we sit in our nice and cozy homes, with our TV's and cars, and safety and the surety that we are not going to have our house explode around us.

And yet we are the ones talking about how we DESERVE to keep out people in need. Our government OWES it to us to close the borders and look out for itself. The whole Iraq War began because our government "supposedly" wanted to help the Iraqi people escape tyranny by their government and local terrorist groups... And yet when a group of people are ACTUALLY in danger and dying by the thousands every day, we decide to hide and leave them to their own devices...  That to me is so disgusting. And yet, that is happening right now. The combination of misinformation and hate speech by the republican party has got the conservative right of this country in fits of the vapors and demanding that we "test" the religion of anyone who wants to enter this country. If that doesn't violate the freedom of religion clause in the Constitution they supposedly hold so dear then I don't know what does...

Demonizing Planned Parenthood

I've already talked about this one in so many other blog posts, it might be a bit of a waste of time to reiterate everything i've already said, so I'll simply say this...

Planned Parenthood helps millions of women across the US remain safe and healthy. It provides a multitude of services:

• pre-natal vitamins to ensure babies are born healthy
• breast cancer exams
• STD testing
• colon cancer screenings
• ultrasounds for pregnant women
• birth control consultations and prescriptions
• condoms
• urinary tract infection treatments
• adoption agency referrals
• safe sex education
• HPV vaccines
• female & male sterilization
• abortion services.

In fact, 41% of all services provided to people in 2015 were related to Sexually Transmitted Disease screenings and treatments, 34% was contraception advice and prescriptions, and <3% were abortion related... <3%, and yet their facilities are heckled, bombed, and defaced because of uneducated, despicable domestic terrorists that hide behind the idea that they are "Good Christians" and pro-life...

A quote that stuck with me was this: "I do not believe that just because you're opposed to abortion, that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think that in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. And why would I think that you don't? Because you don't want any tax money to go there. That's not pro-live. That's pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is." ~Sister Joan Chittister

That is exactly how I feel about it. These people don't even deserve the term "Pro-life" because they couldn't care less what happens to that tiny human after it's born. If it is so addicted to heroin because it's mother was a drug addict, even if it is adopted by a loving family, its going to have severe developmental and health defects, and even physical deformities, for the rest of it's life. How do I know this? Because my mother is a labour and delivery nurse, and she sees children born every single day to people who have so abused their bodies and their fetus that even when it is born it struggles to live beyond a few moments. She has to nurse preemies who die within hours of birth, or are sent off to a foster care home with little chance of a good life. She sees the horrific side of childbirth every day. You would think that as a nurse who delivers babies she would be pro-life too, but she knows the reality of these children's lives. She knows the struggle they face and she has to be the one to watch them die. She says that it is crueler to subject these poor little beings to hours of pain and suffering when they'll die shortly afterwards, or struggle their entire lives to find a place in society. Those people out there holding pickets outside abortion clinics have no idea what the reality is like, and yet they think they stand on the moral high-ground simply because they want to force women to give birth to lots of babies.

The War on Christmas

How the Atheists stole Christmas...

Christmas time is the time of the year when carols are played through stores, tinsel adorns everything, twinkley lights cover trees instead of snow, and people have lots of silly accidents falling off of ladders. Its a time when every church has a nativity scene outside, and inflatable blow up Santas start appearing everywhere. Its a time when family gets together and celebrates the year they have just had, eat good food, and exchange gifts. 

However, around December, we also have people who do not embrace the spirit of this holiday. What is ironic, is that these angry, argumentative people who do nothing but glare at others and complain are the very ones claiming there is a "war on christmas". They become purple in the face because someone says "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas". They boycott stores because their winter displays do not specifically say "Christmas Display", and they make poor Starbucks employees call them "Merry Christmas" as a way to "get back at" the store for daring to have an undecorated red holiday cup. 

I can't count the number of people I have heard complaining about how we need to "put the Christ back in Christmas" and how this country is becoming so very "un-christian"... Honestly, it's a little embarrassing to even be near these people when they start ranting about the lack of snowmen and reindeer in stores. And really, when was the last time a snowman was present at the birth of Jesus... Oh yeah, never. Because Jesus was born in the middle east, in the summer, and the only Artiodactyl animal present was a Camel, not a Reindeer... 

The world as a whole, and not just America, has been making a shift away from obsessing about Christmas and trying to be more inclusive by remembering that there are other celebrations around the month of December as well as Christmas. Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Ramadan, St. Lucia Day, Boxing Day, and Yule celebrations are just some of the many holiday celebrations that occur in December. There's more than 10 different celebrations that take place in December, some of which are based in religions like Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Other holidays are more general and non-religious, celebrating the rebirth of the year, the coming to a close of the old one, and the joy of a new time ahead. Most of these holidays center around a gift-giving, family time, and a mysterious person sneaking around giving out coal to naughty children. 

It is a harmless conglomeration of holidays that we all enjoy, and yet somehow the very fact that people are now recognizing more than just Christmas is offensive to some Christians. I love how they say that we are commercializing Christmas for profit and corrupting the spirit of the holiday in one breath, and then complain that people don't have enormous banners across their stores or TV adds that say Merry Christmas in the next. The hypocrisy is real. 

The celebration of Christmas was adapted from the pagan holiday of the winter solstice to begin with. Christians took bits and pieces from other people's and religion's version of the holiday such as gift giving, naughty vs nice, decorated trees, socks filled with little gifts, etc... None of that has anything to do with the birth of Jesus. It all came from other people's holidays and the Christians just appropriated it. Now I have no problem with that, but they can't get upset when others don't feel like following their celebrations. They can't force everyone else to do what they do, and they have no right to try.

I also find it interesting how Santa Clause has somehow become synonymous with what Christians like to call "their" holiday... I mean really, what does Santa, reindeer, snow, gift-giving, and decorated fir trees have to do with Jesus? And how does a move away from only recognizing the holiday with the fat bearded man in red have to do with a war on Christianity? 

I really want to know how on earth any sane person could ever believe there is a "War on Christmas"... Really, all I have to say to those people is: Get over yourselves and grow the fuck up.

Growing up Unconventionally

To be born to Immigrant Parents

To begin, I'll go over my background a little bit. My parents are foreign in that they were not born, nor did they grow up in the US. My father was born in England to Polish parents and grew up jointly in England and Poland, and lived much of his adult life in South Africa. My mother was born in South Africa, grew up there, and lived most of her young adult life there. My older sister was born in South Africa and grew up there until the age of six. My parents moved to the United States in 1995 because they were concerned at the rising rates of violence, particularly against white women, and did not want my sister and I (though I had yet to be born) to become a rape statistic. At the time, 1 in 3 white women were raped in their lifetime in South Africa, and they wanted their children to avoid such a fate. And so they moved to the United States, and I was born that same year.

Now I may have been born and grown up in the USA, but I was not raised as such. My parents did not raise me to be an American. They raised me to be a worldly person and they raised me as they were raised, understandably. When other kids were watching American cartoons like Spongebob Squarepants, Kim Possible, and the Powerpuff Girls, I was watching British programs like The Animals of Farthing Wood or National Geographic animal documentaries. When other parents were playing Elvis Presley music in the house, my parents were playing the Beatles, Queen, and classical orchestral pieces. When other parents were watching old western movies and war movies with John Wayne in them, My parents were watching things that were popular in England and South Africa at the time.

Up until I began kindergarten, I had a very strong South African accent, because that is what I was around. I lost that most of that accent gradually when I started school and was exposed to other American children. However, I was still not exposed to much "American Culture". When I made my first friend, she was English. Her parents were from England, and she and her older sister had been born there. She was in the same boat as me, growing up the child of immigrant parents in a country of - what to us were - foreigners. Since were were 6 or 7, we have been friends, and for a very long time Best Friends until geographic separation disrupted that.

At the end of 4th grade, my parents removed me from school and began homeschooling me because they knew they could do a good, if not better job of it than the school system. We followed the requirements of the homeschooling association and so I did learn many things that American children did, however me mainly focused on what my parents had learned growing up. I learned world history, the Greeks and Romans, the Egyptians, and the French and English. When I learned about the World Wars, I didn't just hear about how heroic America was for joining at the last minute and helping end it.  I learned about how the European Allied Forces struggled for years to keep afloat, to prevent the spread of Hitler's armies. I learned about the contribution of various countries and how the war affected Europe and Europeans who were closest to the conflict zones. I didn't learn endlessly about how brave and selfless America was and how the housewives suffered endlessly because their men were not there to help them. I did learn about it, but the focus was on the grand scheme of things, not just on America's contribution. When we studied geography, I learned about WORLD geography, and did not have to memorize the capital cities of each and every state. My parents didn't think it was as useful to know about the capital of Mississippi, a place I would likely never go, whereas knowing that there were countries out there called Australia, Japan, and Madagascar was probably going to be more helpful in my future. Knowing the difference between Australia and Austria, Sweden and Switzerland, and learning about the various languages, cultures, and people in those areas was important to my future and my world knowledge.

I had a very rounded education, but not much interaction with pop culture, american music, american tv cartoons or tv shows popular at the time. My parents listened to NPR on the radio constantly, they watched BBC world news, and so that is what I listened to and watched. I had a thoroughly foreign upbringing. And I am endlessly grateful for that. I know more about the world, and world views and issues than many of my "peers". I understand more about foreign politics and issues that go beyond the borders of the country I live in than even many adults I meet. I understand the consequences that the government that I live with will have upon the world. I can think beyond myself and my country, and for that I am grateful.

And yet I have always been picked on or bullied or teased about where I come from and what I know. When I was younger it was about music and the fact that I didn't know what "Fall Out Boy" was. When I lived in Australia, I was teased about my "American" accent. When I came to college, it was about the TV shows that I didn't know, or the Actors that I had never heard of, like John Wayne.

And I am sick and tired of having people criticize me for my lack of knowledge of all things American and wonderful, when they cannot take it in return. I am always astounded that people don't know about Maggie Smith, or Dame Judy Dench... Of British TV shows like Miss Marple, Midsommer Murders, and Masterpiece Theater... Of movies like Keeping Mum and Death At a Funeral (the original, not the horrible American remake). And yet, if I dare to voice how astounded I am, all I get is... "Well it's not American so why should we know it?"

The world does not begin and end with the blessed USA. There is more out there than the portion of the continent of North America that houses the United States. There is more land, more political arrangements, more music and culture and film and literature, more human beings out there. And yet I am always the odd one out, the less knowledgeable, the less aware simply because my specialties and likes and dislikes and humour is not American.

In the past I have had to deal with this type of ostracism because I do not have the same likes as my peers, and in the past I have ignored it and moved on and been the bigger person for the most part (excluding my obsession with proper pronunciation). But the past is not now and I am not the same little girl that had to deal with people being mean to her.

Why do my tastes have to be wrong. Why does my knowledge have to be irrelevent. Why does what I like have to always take a backseat to those around me. Why does no one ever ask if I could show them what I like and let them decide if they like it too. Why, oh god fucking why am I always the one who is weird when I act surprised that those around me don't know some of the biggest names in foreign film and TV.

And the argument is always that I was born here, in the US, so I should know all this stuff, and love America and it's culture. Because I was BORN here. I wish I hadn't been. I wish my mother had got pregnant a few months earlier so I could have been born in South Africa. Then at least I'd have the excuse that people seem to need, that I WASN'T born here. Maybe then i'd catch a break and people wouldn't hound me for not knowing what they know. Maybe then people would actually be willing to try and understand why I'm so different. Maybe then they'd actually care.

I am sick and tired of it, that just because I had a different upbringing and foreign parents and was raised to have more of an interest in world media than in American media I am strange. It hurts to have people who I think of as friends belittle and disregard me and my upbringing because it wasn't the same as theirs, because it wasn't fucking American. So I just don't give a damn anymore.

The Human Life Element...

The Right to Make your own choices

Original publish date: 10/30/15

  When we reach the age of 18 we are generally considered adults. We can get married, buy property, smoke cigarettes, make our own health decisions, move out of the familial home, etc… While we cannot buy or drink alcohol (which is ridiculous) we are – legally - adults. While it may take many years for some people to reach adult maturity and actually begin acting like a responsible adult person, technically we are once we reach that golden number 18.

  However, we are not all entitled to make our own choices. We should be, provided they do no harm to another person, but we are not allowed in some cases. The case in particular that I mention is women’s healthcare and specifically abortions.

  Now this is always a touchy topic. No one likes to think about abortions. The very topic turns some people into fiery balls of rage and others in weeping heaps. Some people support it and others call it murder. Recently Planned Parenthood, a well-known women’s health organization, came under fire for some highly controversial videos that were apparently “undercover” videos of the company selling baby parts for profit. Since then there have been at least 3 federal investigations which have unsurprisingly showed that the videos about “selling baby parts” are completely fabricated and false.

  This slander of a women’s health organization has far-reaching consequences. People all over the country are demanding that all federal funding should be pulled from these "houses of atrocious murder". Now, the little bit of federal funding that Planned Parenthood receives from the government only goes to preventative measures, such as breast exams to prevent cancer, STD tests, counseling, and even men’s health screening for colon cancer and other health options. Abortion services comprise maybe 5% of what PP actually does, and yet there is a witch-hunt out for the organization blood and trying to shut it down. In recent weeks when it came to light that PP had done absolutely nothing wrong or immoral and that they would not be shut down by the government, there have been terrible arson attempts and other hate groups destroying these facilities.

  It’s not enough that they have dragged the organization’s name through the mud and slandered their reputation, now they are so angry that they didn’t succeed that they are literally trying to burn it down. Why? Because of their religious beliefs. Not because this organization is really doing anything terrible and bad, but because according to certain people’s religious “morals”, these people are evil for aborting fetuses.

  This is where it comes down to opinion. Is abortion good or bad? Are you really murdering a baby? Is it a real human yet or still just a fetus? Is it alive? These are the questions that cause so much division on this topic. To some people the minute the egg is fertilized it is a baby already, to others it isn’t truly alive until it can breathe and live on it’s own outside the mother’s body. For many, it is somewhere in-between. However, there is enough controversy about these many opinions to cause real conflict between people based on belief that are often derived from their religion, or lack there-of.

  But does this give one group of people the right to make the decision for everyone else? There are many reasons to terminate a pregnancy and it’s no one’s damn business except those directly involved. I do not understand why fat old white men think that they have some right to force women to listen and follow their decisions. Terminating a pregnancy is a very personal decision involving emotions, economics, future ambitions, age, health, etc… It is something very personal and is a hard choice for most people to make. They think about it pretty carefully before doing something drastic like that. However, religious-based organizations lobby government officials to tack on all sorts of other requirements before you can make your own choices. You might have to have multiple counseling sessions, or an ultrasound, or an internal scope… It is not only an invasion of privacy, but it is a highly invasive process that some people are forced to endure and go through. It’s nobody’s business what you do with your body or what your reasons are. It’s nobody’s business if you don’t want kids. No one should be able to force you to give birth and go through the very difficult experience of pregnancy. It’s nobody’s damn business. And yet it is…

  There are so many reasons a person might consider terminating a pregnancy… They may be too young to properly look after it, they may not be financially secure enough to provide a decent life for the child, they may be doing drugs and the fetus might be severely deformed and disfigured. They may have gotten pregnant via rape and don’t want that reminder, or they may be in an abusive relationship and be terrified of having a child grow up in that situation, or feel as though they would be forever trapped because they couldn’t leave their child and their abusive partner would forever hold them hostage. They may simply not be emotionally ready for that. They could have hereditary diseases that have been passed on and do not want to inflict that on a new person in the world. They may already have had too many children already and it’s no longer safe for them to attempt another pregnancy (for some, this could happen with a 6^th baby or a 2^nd). There is a myriad of reasons why a woman might not want to carry a child to full term, even if she could then “give it up for adoption”. And that is her choice, and only hers. No one else has any right to get involved in that choice. No one else has any right to judge her for her decision.

  “Why doesn’t she just put it up for adoption?” is a frequent question heard about women who have abortions. “There might be someone out there that would love that child as is, no matter what is wrong with it”… Yes, that may be so, but do you know how many children are in the foster care system in the US alone? 397,122 children in the US are living without a permanent family (http://ccainstitute.org). Nearly 400,000 children do not have parents already. And a lot of these children will not get adopted for many years, will be bounced around the system from one home to the next. And don’t even get me started on the horrors of the foster cares system with over-crowded “homes” and gross neglect or even mistreatment. Even if a child does find a loving home and family, they may suffer emotional damage and have abandonment issues that will affect the rest of their life. They may end up hating their “real” parents for giving them up, even if it was the right thing to do. So when you ask, “why don’t they just put the child up for adoption”, that may not actually be a good decision, or even the right one. It is such a nuanced issue. It’s not a simple “do I murder this fetus, or don’t’ I”. It’s not an easy thing for anyone to decide, but in the end it is her choice and not yours. And no one has any right to a say except the person who has to make that choice.

  Now on to the heckling. Apart from all the various regulations and governmental controls that are put in place to traumatize, scare, and intimidate people seeking an abortion, there are also the hecklers that stand outside these facilities. There are people who hold up signs telling people they are going to hell, or calling them murderers or saying that they should commit suicide first. There are people screaming and chanting horrible vicious things at these women who are already making a pretty difficult decision. Nobody wants to have an abortion. Nobody wants to go through that experience and probably be plagued by some kind of guilt or upset for the rest of their lives, wondering what-if’s and the like. While some people know and realize that it was the right decision for them and that they are glad they went through with it, I don’t think anybody really wants to go through that experience. So the religious right is often very critical of people having abortions and make it an even more hellish experience than it already is.

  Then on top of that there is the shaming afterwards. Often, women will tell almost no one about her abortion because of the stigma attached to it and the hateful looks and comments that she’ll get in response. It may even be hard for her to tell a future spouse or family members. This leaves a lack of support for a very trying and troubling experience when support and compassion is what she really needs. It is always important to be surrounded by people who love and support you, to have a support group to help deal with the trials of life. If that is taken away because of a personal choice and the stigma surrounding it, then that leads to depression, self-hate and possibly suicide.  Some people would say that “she deserves it” because of her choice, but shouldn’t we have compassion for people? 

  Isn’t that what all religion is about, having compassion and being there for other people? Isn’t this supposed “God” the final judge of everyone, so why do people feel the need to judge and shame others? Especially when it’s none of their damn business… As it says somewhere in the bible, “Let he who is without sin throw the first stone”… Why can’t people just listen to that one line more often? Everyone makes choices, everyone has beliefs and opinions, but it is no one’s right to judge another person without knowing everything about them, why they made their choice, how they feel about it, etc… No one is perfect, that’s just how life is, and yet people constantly bite and gossip and try to hurt each other for their imperfections and decisions.

  To wrap up this whole spiel that’s kind of gone off topic now, if you are a sane and responsible human being then you should be allowed to make your own informed health choices. That should be something private between you and your doctor, not something for the local gossip committee to spread about and whisper. It is not something for politicians to get involved in. If they want a small government then they have to be consistent and keep their noses out of it.

Update 11/28/15

  Today I felt that recent events warranted an update to this post. The recent event in particular that prompted this feeling was the gun shooting at a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs, CO where 3 people were killed (including a police officer) and 9 were left injured. Now we've been seeing a lot of violence and hate crimes in this country of late. First there were school shootings, then police aggression toward african americans, then hate crimes against latinos and suspected "illegal immigrants", arson and viral "videos" painting Planned Parenthood as a company that sells live babies to be butchered, and currently the mistrust and fear mongering associated with the intake of Syrian refugees, some of which are muslims - and therefore to the uneducated and republicans, who are often one and the same, terrorists. This latest attack on the Colorado Planned Parenthood though really takes the cake. We see two things squished into one; a mass shooting event and a hate crime against a center that provides abortions, among many other things.

  Now there's a lot of people out there, trolling reddit, writing their own blogs, making youtube videos, and some of then seem to be almost proud of this latest loss of life. They seem to think that shooting up people in a PP office is a good thing. Some of them are saying that it's going to bring the risks of abortions into the light and stop people from going to PP facilities to get abortions. Some claim that the shooter was crazy. And then theres a few who say things like this:

  I really don't know quite what to say about this... I'm disgusted, disappointed, horrified. While many people don't agree on gun control, or abortion issues, they do generally agree that mass shootings are at the very least sad. Sometimes they can even say that it's a tragedy and something that should never have happened. But somehow, the combination of gun rights nuts and pro-lifers leads to a horrifically ironic situation where pro-lifers are celebrating a mass shooting where 3 people died. They are not only not sad, they are happy, calling the shooter a "brave hero" and THANKING him for KILLING people...

  These nut-jobs who do not see the horror in this latest shooting seem to believe this myth that the republican party ships so hard that Planned Parenthood only ever provides abortions and does nothing else. The truth is that the people that were shot and died, and those that remain hospitalized, may very well have never even gone there for an abortion. They may have been pro-life themselves, but not rich enough to go to a fancy clinic for a breast cancer screening. Or they could have been young adults getting an STD screening, or just a young woman getting on the pill to prevent a pregnancy that could end in an abortion. The people injured and killed in this latest attack against humanity and morality and women's rights were just like anyone else. They were living, breathing people, and for christian, gun-toting, pro-life idiots to congratulate a shooter on killing innocent people just makes me lose what little hope I had for religious people to do the right thing, for humanity and decency to rule out over their "morals".

I'll end my tirade here, but I just want to say one thing. To any christian, or republican, or pro-lifer, or gun-supporter who gets offended by my lumping them with the crazies... This is what the world sees. This is what regular people see all the time. This is what your group and your ideals seem to promote. It may not be everyone, it may be just a few who give you a bad name, but as long as you promote your hatred to anything that you deem "immoral" such as abortions, and as long as you call it murder and incite people to hate anyone that deviates from your beliefs, I hold you all in contempt. You may not be responsible for other people's actions, but the message that you put out into the world has consequences, it hurts people, and I am tired of it. 

The "Rights" of the people...

  So earlier this month I was talking about the ideas of governmental tyranny and how people seem to think that is the reason they need their guns. Now I want to talk about this idea of "the rights of the people" in all of it's many ways, shapes, and forms...

The Rights of The People

  This is something that I both find very annoying and very important. There are a few major groups of "rights" that I want to go over right now: Bearing arms, staying alive, free speech, making our own choices. 

  Lets go over the Bill of Rights quickly. These are the first 10 amendments added on to the Constitution in 1791:

1.   “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”

     Pretty much freedom to worship whatever you want, or not to worship as you choose

• The right to assemble
• Freedom of speech and press
• Freedom to protest peacefully 

2.   The right to a regulated militia, i.e. the right to bear arms

3.   Government cannot force you to house an army

4.   The police cannot search or seize your property without a warrant

5.   The right to keep from saying things that might land you in jail

6.   The right to a quick trial with a jury of peers

7.   If being sued or suing someone, you can opt for a trial by jury rather than judge

8.   No excessive bail or cruel & unusual punishments

9.   There are certain rights, not specifically written down, that all people are entitled to and 

      cannot be taken away by the government

10. Any power not given to the federal government is given to the people and the states

The Right to "Bear Arms"

  It is a sad fact that the right to own and use any gun you want is a thing in this country. There are very few regulations, and even less oversight. Now the gun-toting louts that run around screaming how the liberals are trying to "take away their rights" are completely ignoring the loss of life because they are so afraid that their "rights' are being infringed upon. As mentioned in a previous post, the government has at no point EVER said they are going to start taking away guns. What they have said, which seems to fly right over the heads of the screaming rabble is that they want gun "CONTROL". That doesn't mean taking them away, that means oversight and better management. They want background checks before you can buy a gun. They want gun shows to have background checks as well. They don't want a deranged person with a agenda to kill people to inherit his great grandfather's 17 guns, his father's 12 guns, and then go on a killing spree.

  Is it so terribly out of the realm of possibilities to just have a little bit more responsibility in the gun industry? They (and I mean the government) and we (the people) are asking for 3 major things here:

1.   Background checks & management

2.   Fewer people dying

3.   Proper gun safety

Now what do I think that we actually need in gun reform?

1.   Background checks for EVERYBODY who wants to buy a gun

2.   Mandatory gun safety training with every weapon you purchase to be signed off on by an 

      official, including understanding of proper storage safety and when to use a gun on 

      a person.

3.   Regular gun license renewals every 1-5 years that include:

• Checking serial number against license to ensure legal ownership
• Gun check for proper gun parts and firing safety
• Safety training renewal for all licensed weapons
• Proper storage safety training renewal
• Run-through of when it is appropriate to use a gun on another person

4.   And then finally your license for each weapon should be renewed

  This method of periodically checking that gun owners are using their weapons responsibly and safely has been successfully used in other countries. It's not just a pipe-dream that liberals wish for. It is a real possibility. While it would make owning a gun a little more difficult, complicated and irritating, it would probably save lives. 

  Is putting up with an annoying process worth it if it will save innocent people's lives by making sure that the wrong people don't get their hands on dangerous weapons? Isn't it worth it? Or is having a fun and easy hobby really more important than people? 

  Do you really think it okay for your hobby to cost so much in blood? If you had to meet those families that have lost people to gun violence, would you really be willing to look them in the face and tell them that you valued your easy fun over their children, parents, siblings? 

  My question to all gun owners... How can you live with yourselves when you vote against life-saving legislation? Especially when that legislation is really only asking for background checks, because so far that is all that has been proposed? Truly, how in all good conscience can you vote against that legislation when its not going to impact responsible gun owners or result in any changes to your weapons cupboard?

The Right to "Be Alive"

  

  You would think that this one would be a no-brainer. You would think that this is a "basic human right". But to listen to some of the candidates running for office, it is your own fault if you get shot by a gun, because you obviously didn't try hard enough to stay alive. You didn't fight back enough. You should have definitely taken the time to galvanize the room with a great speech about how everyone should rush the attacker. Thank-you Ben Carson. Before you, I was quite sure that a gunman would shoot me down if I even talked or twitched. But now I know that I can have a democratic discussion with the room, take a vote, and then have everyone move away from the desks so they don't get in the way, and then we can rush the guy pointing a gun at us and overpower him with minimal loss of life.

  The urge to stay alive is an animal instinct that every creature in the world is born with. We fight to live the best life we possibly can, we fight for resources, space, money, our children, our future and theirs, etc... Staying alive is the ultimate goal, and if we can make that cushy enough, even better. When I was little all I thought about when I considered the future was how many cats I would have and what colours they would be. As I grew up I realized I wanted a little more from life. I wanted a nice cottage in the woods away from other people where I would have peace and quiet. When I came to college I thought about what my future career would be. I've always been a little odd when in classrooms and sat in the seat with an optimal way out of the room in case of a fire... rare, I grant you that, but possible. Now, I sit in the seat with optimal access to the doorway, but also with a hidey-hole that I can dive into in case a shooter enters the building.

  I find this concerning. That while I am supposed to be listening to a lecture and absorbing all this information that will be on a test later in the term, I am actually planning what I would do if someone tries to kill me. I jump about a mile when I hear a book drop in the hallway or a shriek outside the window. What if that thump was actually a body hitting the floor? What if that scream outside is someone who just watched their friend die in front of them? What used to be a nice distraction from the monotony of learning puts me on high alert. And why? Because I fear for my life, and the lives of those around me. I fear for my safety. I analyze the room security and plan escape routes because I anticipate, almost expect that I will need that knowledge in the near future. I anticipate that there is a pretty good chance that I am going to die.

  I have a right to stay alive. I have a right to go to school without wondering if I’ll be able to go home at night. People have a right to send their kids to elementary school without waiting by the phone for a call that their toddler was shot through the head. That is a basic human right; to be alive and have a family. And yet it is completely disregarded because of fear the government is going to become tyrannical or take your guns. Your right to a weapon overshadows my right to live and breathe. That is not okay. It is not just, it is not right, and it is pure selfishness.

  How dare those people claim to care about human life? How dare they say, "I'll be praying for them" to the families of the dead? How dare they look me in the face and say that my claim to life is less important than their weapons? How dare they.

The Right to "Freedom of Speech"

  This country gives people the wonderful ability to say whatever the hell they want, and not be arrested for it. You can call the president a terrorist, you can say terrible things about your neighbor, you can even threaten to blow up congress if they pass gay marriage. And NOTHING will happen to you (unless you actually demonstrate that you are capable of domestic terrorism). For the most part, you go on with your day as normal. In many non-democratic countries, insulting the government and its leader is a bit of a no-no, as is threatening to blow them up. In fact, that can get you arrested in some places. But here, that is a no-can-do. It's a delightful way of releasing our inner frustration and feeling like we are big and bad, that we can say such horrible things and threaten such crazy stuff and no one can do a thing about it. 

  So you would think that because you can do those things, when people have something constructive to say they would be allowed to say it. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Not everyone is allowed to openly declare their opinions, especially if that opinion is unpopular with the "majority" of this country’s occupants (i.e. conservatives & christians). 

  I always find it interesting how the minute you contradict a person on their political or religious zealotry, they start telling you off for trying to restrict their "freedom of speech", but then they turn right around and try to silence you for your opinions, beliefs, or ideas. I sometimes get the feeling that the "freedom of speech" amendment is only applicable if you are a God-fearing Christian (and by this I mean you think that Jesus was the Son of God, died for your sins, etc... I don't care about what little sect you are or your specific church's take on one tiny specific sentence in the bible. If you believe Jesus was the son of your god, then you are a damn Christian) or a Conservative Republican in this country. I will later do a section on Christian entitlement and their feelings of oppression and their tale of woe and persecution in the US. But for now, I wanted to touch on the idea that only Christians and Republicans are really "allowed" their freedom of speech rights. 

  They all say they are willing to teach you about their beliefs, and you listen because you are trying so very hard to understand where they are coming from. You are trying very hard not to hate or despise them for believing things that you think are immoral. You want to beat your brain into acceptance that they can be good people when they believe such horrible things hidden under the umbrella term of "family values". You listen and you learn and you care and you try to understand.

  But turn that the other way round and you try to explain your beliefs and you hit a solid wall of resistance to any change. You cannot even make a slight hole in their rigid mind where they will see where you are coming from. They may tell themselves they are trying to see your side, but in reality their brains are just saying "you are wrong, you are wrong, you are wrong" with every word that comes out of your mouth. Listening to you and understanding that you have radically different beliefs is uncomfortable to them. And when they are uncomfortable, they stop listening, put in headphones, ignore that there is anything going on around them because they really don't want to accept that there are people like you in the world. 

The ongoing fight to have a voice in my future...

Standing Up To The Institution

So recently I did the risky thing in my college career and stood up for myself to the University. I say risky because apparently it is just "not done" to have an opinion or make a real complaint about something at one's university. 

To be quick and to the point I went to the administrators of one of my universities departments about an experience with a professor teaching a class that had no business ever trying to teach anyone anything. After A YEAR of being shunted around from one person to the next, having my concerns belittled and disregarded, I finally scored a meeting with the Associate Chair of the Department of IB (nameless to avoid any retribution or defamation claims), the department in which this professor was nested. I sat down in a room with the Associate chair (a man) and one of the office workers (a woman) - I promise, those details will become necessary later on - and began to explain why I wanted this meeting in the first place. Upon the table in front of the Associate chair, I placed a stapled pile of documents. On top was a bulleted list of what was to be found within, the main points of 1) my original complaint about the teacher, and 2) my subsequent complaints about the department's handling of my concerns. Now I began to read these out as a brief overview of why we were all there, but then something happened that stopped me dead in my tracks...

The Associate Chair (AC from this moment forward) decided it was a good time to interrupt me before I really got on a roll and actually got to the point of the whole meeting. He talked over me and told me it was "his turn to talk". He told me that he had thought the issue was resolved the previous year when he replied to my email about my concerns about this teacher with a "I'll look into it". He wanted to know why we were even having this conversation in the first place. Now, he had just interrupted me from actually telling him that, so he could have saved himself some trouble by having decent manners and waiting for me to finish my intro, but that would have been far too difficult.

During the next half hour, Mr. AC talked down to me like I was a naughty child. He told me that my original "Teacher Evaluation" that listed in detail the numerous ways in which I found the teacher and class to be inadequate and unacceptable to be "overly aggressive" to the point at which he had been considering reporting me to Student Conduct. He said that my claims and assertions were unfounded and not based on fact and without sources. I was very curious to know how he thought I could add sources to my own experiences... I told him that it was unfortunate that no one had written a peer-reviewed paper based on his departments teaching standards, otherwise I would have been happy to provide a works-cited page along with everything else. He said that I was obviously upset and overemotional and that he wanted to resolve the situation quickly because he had canceled another meeting in order to sit down and talk with me and he felt that he was wasting his time. The woman in the room did absolutely nothing, neither stood up for her fellow female against this bullying behaviour, nor supported him in his arguments. I was very disappointed in her.

This entire experience was rather horrible and the entire time I felt:

• belittled 
• marginalized 
• put down because of my gender (female)
• bullied and pushed around because I am young and a student
• unfairly threatened with student conduct
• upset because I was constantly being interrupted and talked over

Some people in this world, in this country think that we (aka everyone) don't need feminism. They see feminism as an ugly word, they think that it means that feminists see men as inferior, that we want them to be slaves to us women. But really, what we mean when we say we are feminist is that we want to have the same opportunities as men, we want to stand up for ourselves and have people in authority (usually men) take us seriously, not use tactics that make us feel worthless and not have them belittle us. 

It is a hard thing in this world for a young girl to stand up to male authority and tell them what she thinks. It is hard to walk in knowing you are outnumbered, that there is no one at your back to stand up for you, that it's only you against this big scary establishment. But you do it, because you think it's the right thing to do. You hope that you can make a difference for future students. You hope that because you had the lady-balls to stand up for yourself that in the future another girl with a similar issue or a similar complaint might be strong enough to do the same. And then you walk out having been belittled and bullied and threatened and you feel as though your attempt failed miserably. You understand why more people don't speak up for their rights, why more students don't go beyond giving a a bad RateMyProfessors review. You feel as small and insignificant as a bug that big man in the big suit and the big position had just squashed. 

The whole point of college - beyond just getting an education - is to try new things, spread your wings, explore the world from the safety-net that is still not being a "real adult". We are told to challenge convention, to challenge the way things have always been and to fight for what we think is right. And then we have an experience like this. For some it is their first D grade, and they are instantly disillusioned. For me it wasn't my first D or my first failed class. It wasn't my first negative sexual experience or my first boyfriend. It wasn't even the first terrible teacher that taught me nothing and frustrated me for 11 weeks when I could teach the class better. For me, it was using my rights of freedom of speech, it was standing up to the status quo and being shot down so thoroughly that I'm surprised I am actually ready to write this at all after just a week. 

I'm amazed that I am emotionally and mentally ready to even walk past that building again. Two years ago I would have altered my route to class to avoid it, but now even so soon after my disillusionment, I proudly hold my head high and flip off the entire building as I walk past. Yes, maybe this is a teensy bit juvenile, maybe I should be the "better person" and go on with life, but I refuse to allow my negative experience to happen to another student. I refuse to be silenced and marginalized because of my gender and because I say some things that they don't like. Just because I criticize the ability of their staff to teach properly and their department for not taking student's claims seriously. They have now validated everything I just said to them and I will somehow make it count. 

My plan going forward is to go straight to the legal advice, advocates, and representatives that my school supplies to students and seek their counsel on my next steps and what I should avoid in order for Mr. AC not to have any reason to hold something over my head. From there, I will go to student conduct to tell them of this experience and explain exactly what went on, just in case Mr. AC does go ahead and "report" me. I will be ahead of the game on that count and I wish him luck if he tries to go after me. Next, I will be going to my student government ASOSU, whose job it is to help students with problems they are facing and to advocate for their rights. There needs to be some sort of support and outreach to students who want to try to confront big departments in the future. There needs to be some kind of way for students to have an advocate with them to support them and help them with their goals when taking on other AC's. Finally, I want to propose to my universities paper that they should write a column about how departments try to silence student's voices and try to push their concerns to the back burner while walking all over them.