(no subject)
Just sent this to the President:
Dear Mr. President,
I was so happy when you were elected. I remember walking my dog last year, right after CNN called the election. Everyone I saw who was walking in my neighborhood--mostly people who had been to election night gatherings, either in preparation of a party or a support group, depending on how the night would play out--was so happy. We were walking about smiling, and when we passed each other we'd all say, "We have a new president! We have a new president!" The joy was obvious.
But now, Mr. President, I find myself looking back on that night with disgust at my own naivete. The House just passed a Health Care Bill, something you clearly care about and something you were instrumental in getting done. But at what cost? At the cost of women's health. I have never, in my whole life, been so disgusted at the American government. I have never felt so ashamed to be an American. I have never been so disappointed at my elected officials, and never felt as though you all failed me. Us. Women.
You may not like abortions, Mr. President, and you may think that a woman's mental health isn't enough of a reason to allow her autonomy over her body. But now this bill, one that you announced with evident glee on Sunday, has not only failed to provide full health care coverage to women, but has actually reduced health care options for all of us. Abortions aren't fun; they aren't a roller coaster ride at a state fair, they aren't a shopping spree, they aren't a drug addiction; they are a medical procedure, legal in the United States.
Besides your pitiful response to issues important to people who gay about equal rights, in the form of your negligence and reticence to do anything about the absolutely unconstitutional bans on gay marriage and the, quite frankly, bullshit you've been giving us about Don't Ask, Don't Tell, your refusal to acknowledge that this health care bill actively decreases coverage for millions of Americans has shattered any sense I ever had that you might actually usher in a new era. An era where all people--even the gay ones, even the ones with two X chromosomes--are considered as important as the rich, white, heterosexual men that run the oligarchy we call Congress.
I regret voting for you, Mr. President. Quite frankly, I have ceased to see America as anything but an antiquated country, uninterested in progressing towards an egalitarian world in which everyone is free. Women are not free. Our soldiers may be fighting Iraqis for some abstract notion of spreading "freedom, liberty, and democracy," but over here the government, and culture, is waging a war on women's freedom. When 15 year-old girls aren't free from gang rape, when teenage girls are getting raped in disgustingly high number across the country, when women are getting murdered and the police look the other way, as in Cleveland, when our government finds it acceptable and the president finds it honorable to provide full health insurance coverage to men but only partial health insurance coverage to women, and in fact erodes health care coverage for women, it becomes perfectly clear that your government, you, my government, the American people (by which I mean American men, as that seems to be the preferred definition of "people" in Washington DC), do not care about women's rights.
Oh, and also if everyone is so hepped up about capitalism, why are they so upset about the presence of so-called illegal aliens (how can a human's existence be illegal, Mr. President? I'm pretty sure that only actions, not existence, can be illegal.). Denying them health coverage, even though they are in fact human beings just as human as me, born and raised in Western New York, clearly sends the message that we are not interested in their welfare. But you cannot have capitalism, you cannot have free trade, if you don't also have the free movement of people across borders. People who call you a socialist, which is quite frankly laughable to anyone with the critical thinking skills to see any problem at all, even a minor one, with capitalism as it exists today, imply that capitalism is the only true American economic system; but without the presence of the undocumented workers our capitalist system would fall. You have to know this. You are clearly more intelligent that I am. And you know what? Despite the comma splices that cover this internet message box, I am really intelligent! So I can only imagine how smart you are. So why aren't you being smart on camera? You've been elected, Mr. President. You have the seat. You have the White House. Why don't you act like you do? Why don't you be the man you promised us you'd be? Why don't you do the things you promised you'd do? Because you were making those promises to American women, too, Mr. President. I listened to your speeches, I heard my name in your use of the second-person grammatical construction of all your promises, just as much as my father and brother and boyfriend did. So why am I the only one of us who loses with your election?
Your wife should be president. Hilary Clinton should be president. I doubt they'd refuse to cover something that only affects have the population, like prostate cancer or (for God's sake!) Viagra, on a national health insurance bill. I doubt they'd throw half the population under the bus. I won't ever forget what happened to me this weekend. I lost faith in the American government completely. It was pretty low when George W. Bush was president, dropping bombs on innocent civilians and actually torturing people in the most unAmerican presidential term since Andrew Jackson tried to kill all the Native Americans. But at least I never expected anything from him. He never promised anything but a perpetuation of the status quo, and that's what he gave us. You, however, promised more. And you have failed, utterly, utterly failed to live up to your promises.
Sincerely,
Me
Dear Mr. President,
I was so happy when you were elected. I remember walking my dog last year, right after CNN called the election. Everyone I saw who was walking in my neighborhood--mostly people who had been to election night gatherings, either in preparation of a party or a support group, depending on how the night would play out--was so happy. We were walking about smiling, and when we passed each other we'd all say, "We have a new president! We have a new president!" The joy was obvious.
But now, Mr. President, I find myself looking back on that night with disgust at my own naivete. The House just passed a Health Care Bill, something you clearly care about and something you were instrumental in getting done. But at what cost? At the cost of women's health. I have never, in my whole life, been so disgusted at the American government. I have never felt so ashamed to be an American. I have never been so disappointed at my elected officials, and never felt as though you all failed me. Us. Women.
You may not like abortions, Mr. President, and you may think that a woman's mental health isn't enough of a reason to allow her autonomy over her body. But now this bill, one that you announced with evident glee on Sunday, has not only failed to provide full health care coverage to women, but has actually reduced health care options for all of us. Abortions aren't fun; they aren't a roller coaster ride at a state fair, they aren't a shopping spree, they aren't a drug addiction; they are a medical procedure, legal in the United States.
Besides your pitiful response to issues important to people who gay about equal rights, in the form of your negligence and reticence to do anything about the absolutely unconstitutional bans on gay marriage and the, quite frankly, bullshit you've been giving us about Don't Ask, Don't Tell, your refusal to acknowledge that this health care bill actively decreases coverage for millions of Americans has shattered any sense I ever had that you might actually usher in a new era. An era where all people--even the gay ones, even the ones with two X chromosomes--are considered as important as the rich, white, heterosexual men that run the oligarchy we call Congress.
I regret voting for you, Mr. President. Quite frankly, I have ceased to see America as anything but an antiquated country, uninterested in progressing towards an egalitarian world in which everyone is free. Women are not free. Our soldiers may be fighting Iraqis for some abstract notion of spreading "freedom, liberty, and democracy," but over here the government, and culture, is waging a war on women's freedom. When 15 year-old girls aren't free from gang rape, when teenage girls are getting raped in disgustingly high number across the country, when women are getting murdered and the police look the other way, as in Cleveland, when our government finds it acceptable and the president finds it honorable to provide full health insurance coverage to men but only partial health insurance coverage to women, and in fact erodes health care coverage for women, it becomes perfectly clear that your government, you, my government, the American people (by which I mean American men, as that seems to be the preferred definition of "people" in Washington DC), do not care about women's rights.
Oh, and also if everyone is so hepped up about capitalism, why are they so upset about the presence of so-called illegal aliens (how can a human's existence be illegal, Mr. President? I'm pretty sure that only actions, not existence, can be illegal.). Denying them health coverage, even though they are in fact human beings just as human as me, born and raised in Western New York, clearly sends the message that we are not interested in their welfare. But you cannot have capitalism, you cannot have free trade, if you don't also have the free movement of people across borders. People who call you a socialist, which is quite frankly laughable to anyone with the critical thinking skills to see any problem at all, even a minor one, with capitalism as it exists today, imply that capitalism is the only true American economic system; but without the presence of the undocumented workers our capitalist system would fall. You have to know this. You are clearly more intelligent that I am. And you know what? Despite the comma splices that cover this internet message box, I am really intelligent! So I can only imagine how smart you are. So why aren't you being smart on camera? You've been elected, Mr. President. You have the seat. You have the White House. Why don't you act like you do? Why don't you be the man you promised us you'd be? Why don't you do the things you promised you'd do? Because you were making those promises to American women, too, Mr. President. I listened to your speeches, I heard my name in your use of the second-person grammatical construction of all your promises, just as much as my father and brother and boyfriend did. So why am I the only one of us who loses with your election?
Your wife should be president. Hilary Clinton should be president. I doubt they'd refuse to cover something that only affects have the population, like prostate cancer or (for God's sake!) Viagra, on a national health insurance bill. I doubt they'd throw half the population under the bus. I won't ever forget what happened to me this weekend. I lost faith in the American government completely. It was pretty low when George W. Bush was president, dropping bombs on innocent civilians and actually torturing people in the most unAmerican presidential term since Andrew Jackson tried to kill all the Native Americans. But at least I never expected anything from him. He never promised anything but a perpetuation of the status quo, and that's what he gave us. You, however, promised more. And you have failed, utterly, utterly failed to live up to your promises.
Sincerely,
Me