It's not so much that Sarah Palin's inexperience worries me~I think we can all admit that Barack Obama has less experience than some older statesmen as well~it's her stance on "womens' issues".
Saying that if her daughter became pregnant through rape or incest, she'd expect her daughter to keep the child? I guess it's a good thing her daughter just made a mistake, otherwise there wouldn't BE a husband at the shotgun wedding.
Wanting rape victims to have to PAY to have a rape kit done? Because that'll drastically reduce the number of rape victims who come forward after being attacked. That number is low enough as it is. What are lower-income women supposed to do? Choose between paying for a rape kit or paying their rent?
And abstinance only. Puh-LEASE. It worked so well in Alaska, didn't it? You think, more than anyone, she'd know that (while not EVERY kid) many kids in high school (and junior high, let's be realistic here) are going to be having sex, in some way shape or form. There was an outbreak of syphilis in a school in Georgia~in an affluent suburb outside of Atlanta~in which over 200 teenagers tested positive. I don't know whether or not they were taught the "abstinance only" program, but it really didn't seem to matter whether or not they were taught anything at all. I know that my graduating class of 211 students only had 2 pregnancies~one junior year and one senior year, and that we had comprehensive sex ed starting in 5th grade.
And I abhorr the term "Pro-life". It implies that those who aren't "Pro-life" are out there willy-nilly "pro-death" killing babies. The phrase "Anti-choice" and "pro-choice" fit better; "pro-life" is intended to invoke a strong emotional response. Pro-choice does not mean pro-abortion. It means that you believe every woman should have the right to make a choice. Not only when it comes to abortion, but to other things as well.
Sarah Palin is a member of the FFL "Feminists for Life" (which is actually just...I can't even describe it.) They perpetuate the myth that hormonal birth control is not a "contraceptive", it is an "abortifacient". Pretty much, they 'educate' young women that birth control pills and IUDs kill a fetus. This is so untrue! The hormones in birth control pills PREVENT an egg from being released. No egg, no potential fetus. So, if inhibiting the release of an egg can be construed as 'abortion', everyone who believe that must be pregnant constantly, right? Otherwise they are wasting a potential human life? Before this gets ridiculous, and really, getting into the FFL's values CAN get ridiculous, I'm going to stop this section of thought, and close.
I'm TERRIFIED of what might happen if Sarah Palin is VP. Even more so to think that she could possibly be president~even if McCain DOESN'T die in office, which, I mean, he's pretty old, it could happen~she'd be the Republican party's presumptive nominee if, god forbid, McCain can hold on for two terms. I'm worried that I'll wake up and no longer have a choice, no longer have ready access to birth control or medical services that I may deem necessary. Or that my friends and female family members~my cousins, my cousins' daughters, my sisters-in-law~might not have access should THEY need it.
I'm scared for the girls who are still children~the ones who, in the next few years, will need information available to them. All information, not just "Don't do it." I'm not saying, don't tell them not to have sex, I'm saying let them know that if they DO decide to, there are ways to protect themselves.
I don't want to have to worry that there could be more sexual predators that go unprosecuted because a woman couldn't afford to pay to have her rape kit done, so whatever DNA might remain wouldn't be in the system.
I really don't want to have to worry that if I become pregnant with an unviable fetus, I'll be forced to carry it to term. I'm not talking about birth defects or Down's Syndrome~a lot of people are using Sarah Palin's baby as "the pro-choicers would have aborted him!" weapon~I'm talking about a fetus who would never be a baby, never be a child.
I've got shoes on my feet, and I'm afraid Sarah Palin will want to make me take them off. There was always this undercurrent with Bush that "Oh, he'll be horrible for womens' rights" and he's wasn't the best, but it seems outrageous to me that a woman would want to limit other women in such drastic ways.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
It seems necessary
I remember being in Music Theory, and Mrs. Dupra came in all quiet-like and spoke to the theory teacher-her name escapes me at the moment.
We could tell something was up, and our teacher gave us brief information~"Something has happened in NYC, the twin towers are on fire."
But the principal came over the PA and pretty much told the teachers to NOT turn on the TVs. That really pissed me off, because some major shit was happening, and we weren't being allowed to know what.
I remember after that class, going up to Mrs. Thomas' room instead of advisory, and bless her heart, she had put black paper over the windows and turned her classroom TV on. She let me in and I was able to see what had happened. It seemed so surreal to me~the concept that it was INTENTIONAL just hadn't processed, and I just remember thinking, "How the hell do you crash into the buildings?"
It was my senior year, and I had Early Dismissal because I had fewer classes than our day had blocks, so I was able to go home at noon~Early Dismissal kids weren't actually supposed to leave, but the aide at the door to the senior parking lot was my neighbor, and she let me out.
Taryn and I drove home~she dropped me at my house, then went to hers, and I kind of wish we had stuck together. Anyway, my mom was at work still, so I walked down the road to Scott and Leah's because I couldn't stand to be alone. I sat with Scott and Leah watching the TV until my mom got off work and picked me up.
It was only then that I learned that a couple of my cousins were usually in the towers for work. I think one of them didn't have to go in that day and the other one was late for some reason.
I also learned that my godmother's nephew's wife was there. I met Bill and Sara when my godmother married Alex, I guess I was in 11th grade? or 10th. They weren't yet married, but Bill is nice, and Sara was nice~a lot of "grownups" won't really talk to a "kid", but she and I had a real conversation at the wedding, and I remember thinking how cool it was that she talked to me~considering I was one of the youngest people there, not counting Alex's grandkids, who were small children at the time.
Sara worked on the 93rd floor of the first tower to be hit~Carole said she's comforted by the fact that the plane went in so close to Sara's office that she must have died quickly. I was so afraid for a while, until I accepted that idea, that she was somehow still alive under all of that rubble.
I was caught between hoping she had survived and was just waitig to be found and praying that she died quickly and relatively painlessly; not scared.
I remember going to school the next (?) day~it might have been the day after that~and how in every class, it was all that we would talk about. Ms. Kritz (english class) was really pushing the whole "let' talk about how everyone is FEELING about this" thing, and I just couldn't stand it. I remember asking if we could talk about something else, or get back to whatever book it was we were doing, and she starting saying how we were going to talk abot it in school because some people weren't talking about it with their kids at home, and I kind of spazzed and told her about how we hadn't really heard anything about Sara and I really couldn't handle talking about it ANY MORE and could I please have a pass to the office.
So she let me go to the office, and I called my mom, and she got me calmed down. It just seemed like no one else in my classes, or that I knew at school at all, had known someone involved. I don't mean to say that none of them had a personal connection, because it was intensely personal to us. We didn't grow up near the city, but it was OUR CITY. Those were OUR people. We were still New Yorkers. It was still our state, our country, our SAFETY that was threatened, and we all felt it deep inside, that fear that everything it changed, nothing is safe, and nothing will ever be the same.
But none of them had a face to put on it. A voice, a personality, a memory. I have pictures of a visit my family took there when I was a kid~some trip to grandpa's in New Jersey, and we took the ferry over, and we went to Ellis Island and the towers. But everytime I think about it, that's not what I see. I see Sara, chatting with me. I see Bill, at Candeia's wedding 2 or 3 years alter, still a shell of himself.
Bill and Sara got married August 11th, 2001. And exactly one month later, he was a widower with a cause.
Bill was a very loud voice in the fight to get justice. Once he learned about the fact that the government did have an inkling that this was going to occur, he was relentless in his pursuit of inquiries and reforms and just wanting to make it KNOWN. He didn't want Sara to have died without an explanation; without people knowing who she was or the amazing things she did.
There's now a 4 year scholarship to Georgetown in her name for students studying economics. She quickly rose the ranks at Fred Alger Management to become a vice president and senior security analyst by the time she was 31. She was the founding member of Fabretto Night for Ninos, which works to raise money for the Fabretto Foundation in Nicaragua. They educate children and provide meals while the children are in their school. Her picture now hangs in a lunch hall at the school in Somoto, Nicaragua, which has been dedicated to her.
We could tell something was up, and our teacher gave us brief information~"Something has happened in NYC, the twin towers are on fire."
But the principal came over the PA and pretty much told the teachers to NOT turn on the TVs. That really pissed me off, because some major shit was happening, and we weren't being allowed to know what.
I remember after that class, going up to Mrs. Thomas' room instead of advisory, and bless her heart, she had put black paper over the windows and turned her classroom TV on. She let me in and I was able to see what had happened. It seemed so surreal to me~the concept that it was INTENTIONAL just hadn't processed, and I just remember thinking, "How the hell do you crash into the buildings?"
It was my senior year, and I had Early Dismissal because I had fewer classes than our day had blocks, so I was able to go home at noon~Early Dismissal kids weren't actually supposed to leave, but the aide at the door to the senior parking lot was my neighbor, and she let me out.
Taryn and I drove home~she dropped me at my house, then went to hers, and I kind of wish we had stuck together. Anyway, my mom was at work still, so I walked down the road to Scott and Leah's because I couldn't stand to be alone. I sat with Scott and Leah watching the TV until my mom got off work and picked me up.
It was only then that I learned that a couple of my cousins were usually in the towers for work. I think one of them didn't have to go in that day and the other one was late for some reason.
I also learned that my godmother's nephew's wife was there. I met Bill and Sara when my godmother married Alex, I guess I was in 11th grade? or 10th. They weren't yet married, but Bill is nice, and Sara was nice~a lot of "grownups" won't really talk to a "kid", but she and I had a real conversation at the wedding, and I remember thinking how cool it was that she talked to me~considering I was one of the youngest people there, not counting Alex's grandkids, who were small children at the time.
Sara worked on the 93rd floor of the first tower to be hit~Carole said she's comforted by the fact that the plane went in so close to Sara's office that she must have died quickly. I was so afraid for a while, until I accepted that idea, that she was somehow still alive under all of that rubble.
I was caught between hoping she had survived and was just waitig to be found and praying that she died quickly and relatively painlessly; not scared.
I remember going to school the next (?) day~it might have been the day after that~and how in every class, it was all that we would talk about. Ms. Kritz (english class) was really pushing the whole "let' talk about how everyone is FEELING about this" thing, and I just couldn't stand it. I remember asking if we could talk about something else, or get back to whatever book it was we were doing, and she starting saying how we were going to talk abot it in school because some people weren't talking about it with their kids at home, and I kind of spazzed and told her about how we hadn't really heard anything about Sara and I really couldn't handle talking about it ANY MORE and could I please have a pass to the office.
So she let me go to the office, and I called my mom, and she got me calmed down. It just seemed like no one else in my classes, or that I knew at school at all, had known someone involved. I don't mean to say that none of them had a personal connection, because it was intensely personal to us. We didn't grow up near the city, but it was OUR CITY. Those were OUR people. We were still New Yorkers. It was still our state, our country, our SAFETY that was threatened, and we all felt it deep inside, that fear that everything it changed, nothing is safe, and nothing will ever be the same.
But none of them had a face to put on it. A voice, a personality, a memory. I have pictures of a visit my family took there when I was a kid~some trip to grandpa's in New Jersey, and we took the ferry over, and we went to Ellis Island and the towers. But everytime I think about it, that's not what I see. I see Sara, chatting with me. I see Bill, at Candeia's wedding 2 or 3 years alter, still a shell of himself.
Bill and Sara got married August 11th, 2001. And exactly one month later, he was a widower with a cause.
Bill was a very loud voice in the fight to get justice. Once he learned about the fact that the government did have an inkling that this was going to occur, he was relentless in his pursuit of inquiries and reforms and just wanting to make it KNOWN. He didn't want Sara to have died without an explanation; without people knowing who she was or the amazing things she did.
There's now a 4 year scholarship to Georgetown in her name for students studying economics. She quickly rose the ranks at Fred Alger Management to become a vice president and senior security analyst by the time she was 31. She was the founding member of Fabretto Night for Ninos, which works to raise money for the Fabretto Foundation in Nicaragua. They educate children and provide meals while the children are in their school. Her picture now hangs in a lunch hall at the school in Somoto, Nicaragua, which has been dedicated to her.
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