Just another reason to FREAKING VOTE!
Okay, so I have been spending a lot of time when writing my journal to stay away from political issues but with just one week left and with the polls (even though they are barely scientific as far as statistics go) I just have to go at it tonight.
I just got back from a panel discussion about women's issues (including reproductive rights but also labor and wages, marriage penelty, education...a billion things) and I am seriously fired up.
So if you don't have a uterus you may not understand this, but my uterus is just that--MINE. It's not just some place where babies live and I am SO much more than a machine for producing babies. And I am pissed off that people think that I am. I want to be thought of as a person with rights and rights that I have earned from 20 years of being a thinking, logical and reasoning human being. I am all about choices and if one of those choices is abortion, I want that to be open to me. I'm not saying I would definately get an abortion if I found out I was pregnant today because I don't know. What I am saying is that I want that opportunity to be available to me.
All of the women's issues addressed by George Bush have been about family, marriage, reproduction and those things are important. However, in 4 years though I may be thinking about getting married, I am probably going to be thinking more along the lines of getting a job and earning money to pay off all these wonderful loans. The furthest thing from my mind in the next 4 years is going to be having a baby. In fact, I am terrified of the possiblity of having a baby in the next 4 years so I'm going to work my darndest to have that not happen. What if the choice to get pregnant wasn't my own? What if I need to mail a letter tonight, walk outside Harstad and am forced to have unprotected sex which results in a pregnancy. Why on earth should I stand there and let a 60 year old man decide what then I should do with my body. I believe I would have already had enough decisions made for me at that point. So thanks but no thanks.
And THEN there's the whole homosexual marriage issue. Now, here, I invite you to imagine for just one second that the roles were flipped and homosexuals were the majority but you want to marry your lovely girlfriend or your amazing boyfriend who you love so very, very much. But you can't. The law won't let you. They say that the love you feel is invalid and, not only that, morally wrong. They say that if they let these crazy heterosexuals marry each other then the world will be all topsy-turvy and nothing will ever be right again. They use the bible to refute you, they say that God hates you and you're going to hell for offending God. That's it. Well, anyway, what place does God have in politics? NO PLACE. God did not institutionalize politics, man did. GOSH! Besides, here we go again taking away people's rights to decide who they want to be and to do what they want to do with their own lives. Again, thanks but no thanks.
I'm taking a social policy class where we are looking at the history of social welfare in our country and I am appalled at how little things are changed and at the fact that when things do finally get changed it doesn't take much but a flick of a pen to erase years of advocacy. Dammit!
Anyhoo...so today was good but I was tired. I went to class and didn't feel like I learned anything. Until just now I realize maybe I have learned more than I though in Policy. At any rate, I am still tired of school and am ready for Christmas less for the break from class but more for seeing my family(!) and for the anticipation of starting anew in January. I just get bored of my classes really easily not because they are boring and I'm not learning but because I want to talk about new things and am tired of the same conversations. I need to pick a class for January--speaking of. I like that part of things. hmm...
okay, well, I'm off to do some good old fashioned HW! I need to get my rear in gear on a lot of research that I have to do. I'm so behind!
I just got back from a panel discussion about women's issues (including reproductive rights but also labor and wages, marriage penelty, education...a billion things) and I am seriously fired up.
So if you don't have a uterus you may not understand this, but my uterus is just that--MINE. It's not just some place where babies live and I am SO much more than a machine for producing babies. And I am pissed off that people think that I am. I want to be thought of as a person with rights and rights that I have earned from 20 years of being a thinking, logical and reasoning human being. I am all about choices and if one of those choices is abortion, I want that to be open to me. I'm not saying I would definately get an abortion if I found out I was pregnant today because I don't know. What I am saying is that I want that opportunity to be available to me.
All of the women's issues addressed by George Bush have been about family, marriage, reproduction and those things are important. However, in 4 years though I may be thinking about getting married, I am probably going to be thinking more along the lines of getting a job and earning money to pay off all these wonderful loans. The furthest thing from my mind in the next 4 years is going to be having a baby. In fact, I am terrified of the possiblity of having a baby in the next 4 years so I'm going to work my darndest to have that not happen. What if the choice to get pregnant wasn't my own? What if I need to mail a letter tonight, walk outside Harstad and am forced to have unprotected sex which results in a pregnancy. Why on earth should I stand there and let a 60 year old man decide what then I should do with my body. I believe I would have already had enough decisions made for me at that point. So thanks but no thanks.
And THEN there's the whole homosexual marriage issue. Now, here, I invite you to imagine for just one second that the roles were flipped and homosexuals were the majority but you want to marry your lovely girlfriend or your amazing boyfriend who you love so very, very much. But you can't. The law won't let you. They say that the love you feel is invalid and, not only that, morally wrong. They say that if they let these crazy heterosexuals marry each other then the world will be all topsy-turvy and nothing will ever be right again. They use the bible to refute you, they say that God hates you and you're going to hell for offending God. That's it. Well, anyway, what place does God have in politics? NO PLACE. God did not institutionalize politics, man did. GOSH! Besides, here we go again taking away people's rights to decide who they want to be and to do what they want to do with their own lives. Again, thanks but no thanks.
I'm taking a social policy class where we are looking at the history of social welfare in our country and I am appalled at how little things are changed and at the fact that when things do finally get changed it doesn't take much but a flick of a pen to erase years of advocacy. Dammit!
Anyhoo...so today was good but I was tired. I went to class and didn't feel like I learned anything. Until just now I realize maybe I have learned more than I though in Policy. At any rate, I am still tired of school and am ready for Christmas less for the break from class but more for seeing my family(!) and for the anticipation of starting anew in January. I just get bored of my classes really easily not because they are boring and I'm not learning but because I want to talk about new things and am tired of the same conversations. I need to pick a class for January--speaking of. I like that part of things. hmm...
okay, well, I'm off to do some good old fashioned HW! I need to get my rear in gear on a lot of research that I have to do. I'm so behind!