It would have been wrong to NOT write...
It's been months since I've posted, but this shocked me so much that I had to put it out there...
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Abortion_Outlook.html
Yes, I realize we live in a country that, for various reasons from evangelical persuasions to the still threatening cloud of terrorism that has not dessipated despite the passing of over 4 years since 9/11, has become more concervative both moraly and politicaly. I also realize that, despite my personal horror at the joke that were Samuel Alito's Congressional hearings, many in this country were joyce when our Supreme Court was thrown squarely into the concervative side. Living in the very liberal hub of an even more stereotypically liberal state, I am often out of touch with the rest of the majority's perceptions of morality especially because my small bubble is smack in the middle of the gay world, where we ask questions like "what kind of kids will our friends have?" rather than "will they have kids at all?". Despite all this, I was floored, when I read that a state, which until only two years ago regularly voted for a hard core Senate Democrate, now didn't just limited abortion, but banned it! True, this will probably unite the liberal left, which is what all the Missouri anti-abortion activists are afraid of, but the simple notion of how far we have scaled back frightens me.
Roe vs. Wade was more than 30 years ago and yet our policy on the subject has gone mere centimeters from where we were then. So we have laws to protect abortions in the other 49 states...but has this let us fall into a false lul of security? If the ultimate right to my body can be taken away from me so easily, what fight have we won? How many girls in South Dakota will have to drive at night to get an abortion or go to illegal practitioners who will use an unsterilized hanger to scrape the baby out of her, probably giving her an infection and leaving her infertile?
How can we claim to be a free country when women are not allowed control over their own bodies?..when people who love each other are prohibited by the constitutions of 11 states to unite in what our society precieves as the ultimate form of commitment?...when the first thing we identify about each other is what race we are and if the person we encounter turns out to be mixed we focus all of our energies on guessing their race?
Tommorrow is 11 year since I set foot in this country and no matter how grateful I am of what it has given me, I am angred, frustrated, and ultimately very sadened that currently not only is this nation not living up to the promise of freedom made to my parents more than a decade ago but seems to be racing back into the darker times of burning crosses and witch-hunts. I will wake up tomorrow in a nation that is slowly taking away my rights, both over my body and over my privacy...a nation where my best friend, if he was to choose so cannot marry the man he loves...a nation where phanatycal religion appears to be controling much more than the realm of the eternal soul.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Abortion_Outlook.html
Yes, I realize we live in a country that, for various reasons from evangelical persuasions to the still threatening cloud of terrorism that has not dessipated despite the passing of over 4 years since 9/11, has become more concervative both moraly and politicaly. I also realize that, despite my personal horror at the joke that were Samuel Alito's Congressional hearings, many in this country were joyce when our Supreme Court was thrown squarely into the concervative side. Living in the very liberal hub of an even more stereotypically liberal state, I am often out of touch with the rest of the majority's perceptions of morality especially because my small bubble is smack in the middle of the gay world, where we ask questions like "what kind of kids will our friends have?" rather than "will they have kids at all?". Despite all this, I was floored, when I read that a state, which until only two years ago regularly voted for a hard core Senate Democrate, now didn't just limited abortion, but banned it! True, this will probably unite the liberal left, which is what all the Missouri anti-abortion activists are afraid of, but the simple notion of how far we have scaled back frightens me.
Roe vs. Wade was more than 30 years ago and yet our policy on the subject has gone mere centimeters from where we were then. So we have laws to protect abortions in the other 49 states...but has this let us fall into a false lul of security? If the ultimate right to my body can be taken away from me so easily, what fight have we won? How many girls in South Dakota will have to drive at night to get an abortion or go to illegal practitioners who will use an unsterilized hanger to scrape the baby out of her, probably giving her an infection and leaving her infertile?
How can we claim to be a free country when women are not allowed control over their own bodies?..when people who love each other are prohibited by the constitutions of 11 states to unite in what our society precieves as the ultimate form of commitment?...when the first thing we identify about each other is what race we are and if the person we encounter turns out to be mixed we focus all of our energies on guessing their race?
Tommorrow is 11 year since I set foot in this country and no matter how grateful I am of what it has given me, I am angred, frustrated, and ultimately very sadened that currently not only is this nation not living up to the promise of freedom made to my parents more than a decade ago but seems to be racing back into the darker times of burning crosses and witch-hunts. I will wake up tomorrow in a nation that is slowly taking away my rights, both over my body and over my privacy...a nation where my best friend, if he was to choose so cannot marry the man he loves...a nation where phanatycal religion appears to be controling much more than the realm of the eternal soul.