The Common Ills: Stepping away from Iraq for one entry

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Stepping away from Iraq for one entry

The plan last night was to have a snapshot.

That didn't happen.

I was getting ready to dictate it but was told about a few e-mails to the public account. It's the holidays, I'm busy offline. I don't have time to note everything. I'm also tired and doing a lot of holiday things plus having to do some charity work, etc.

So one of the e-mails is about abortion and I strongly support abortion rights.

I'm told the e-mail is "problematic." Read it and I'll see.

So I do and it is.

In what world do we ever call for Congress to censure someone -- private citizen?

And to make that call and not even explain it?

Troy somebody.

I didn't know his name.

I did Google him.

He's anti-choice. He's a leader of an anti-choice organization.

Clearly I disagree with him politically.

But I want to support him being censured?

Because I disagree with him politically?

That bothered me.

What bothered me more was that the organization e-mailing thought they could just give his name and call for his censure.

That they didn't have to make a case for it.

In what world is that logical?

Or am I just a little drone who's supposed to click my heels and start marching when any organization tells me to do anything?

I was also supposed to call for the Committee in Congress to do something about itself.

They're looking into anti-abortion moves. And they were created, I'm told, to protect abortion providers. So they need to be told to do their job and stop exploring anti-abortion moves.

Really?

I mean I'd personally prefer that they protect abortion rights.

But if they're created for abortion (or reproductive issues), I'm of the opinion that they're only allowed to explore the aspect of the issue that I agree with?

Everything about the e-mail -- which was filled with links to one of those Salsa take-action pages -- went against everything I believe in.

I don't believe I call for your censure because we disagree politically.

I don't believe I tell a Committee to explore issue A (whatever it is) but only from a pro-issue A vantage point.

I don't believe that you make any calls for action against a person without explaining why.

Tossing out the person's name and saying they're anti-choice is not explaining why.

Then there was the issue of how badly Planned Parenthood was treated, the e-mail said, with unfounded claims.

Cecile Richards has stated five Planned Parenthood clinics (I believe she said "only five") donate/hand over fetal tissue.

I don't support that.

I've explained here I support stem cell research. But I do not support Planned Parenthood, which is supposed to defend women's health and protect it, donating fetal tissue.

Because the issue is a charged one and we don't need to put abortion rights at risk.

And most higher ups in Planned Parenthood agree with my position which is why this was exposed this year -- it wasn't revealed, this program, when it started.

The right-wing revealed the program -- and Cecile admitted to it -- this year.

So stop your b.s. about poor Planned Parenthood.

Did the right-wing tell some lies about Planned Parenthood?

Probably.

But I never read their charges nor was I interested in their charges.

I know the whole thing was causing a controversy.

And I know Cecile admitted to five clinics donating/handing over fetal tissue.

I know those two things because of speaking on campuses and to various groups and people would bring this up repeatedly during questions & answers.

Certain feminists and 'feminists' (I am a feminist) can pretend that it was all the right-wing and boo and hiss on them.

But the reality is that the actions of these five clinics are not popular.

The reality is that I heard many women (young women) explain that they support abortion rights (usually they stated they were "pro-choice") but that they were uncomfortable about the fetal tissue aspect.

If we don't acknowledge that, we don't look truthful.

We're liars who just huff and puff that the right-wing lied!!!!!!

But to people aware of the situation who are undecided -- the part of America that can be influenced if real arguments and appeals are made -- when we just say "they lied! they lied!" and refuse to acknowledge what five clinics are doing, to that section of America, we lose any standing because they know better and they know we're lying.

I believe Cecile should have announced -- when she said there were five clinics doing it -- that this was being discontinued immediately.

She didn't do that.

I think that goes to how ineffective she is as a leader.

I think offering these silly petitions that insist anything said about Planned Parenthood was a lie also goes to how ineffective we are being.

The reality is that for every advance we've made on reproductive rights in this country, we've seen chipping away at these rights by elected officials -- of both the two major political parties.

That includes by Hillary Clinton whose remarks only nine years ago about abortion resulted in objections from abortion rights supporters. As they should have. (And we objected here in real time.)

Her b.s. was a focus group tested way to speak about abortion.

It wasn't about protecting reproductive rights, it was about protecting her own elections -- future one and not US Senate ones because New York wasn't going to kick out a senator over abortion rights (based on the state's long history of being a leader on the issue).

So as 2004 was ending and 2005 beginning, we all saw feminist Hillary would gladly speak of abortion in charged terms in order to advance herself while putting abortion at risk.

This Troy somebody is probably a danger (they didn't prove it in their e-mail) but I'd argue that politicians like Hillary are also a danger.

Their desire to promote themselves by attacking abortion is harmful.

So why isn't the Feminist Majority Foundation objecting to that.

Oh, that's right, I've been in the room for those conversations: We can't risk upsetting our Congressional 'friends.'

I'm tired of that nonsense.

I'm sick of it all.

I was already tired and sick to my stomach last night.

And to have to deal with that nonsense last night was enough for me to say, "That's it, I'm going to bed. I don't feel well and I'm not in the mood for this crap."

Feminist Majority Foundation needs to grasp that supporting abortion rights means supporting abortion rights.

That means we don't lie for Planned Parenthood.

That means we don't pretend that something a number of Americans would find distasteful (donating fetal tissue) didn't happen -- especially after the president of Planned Parenthood has admitted it did happen (and does happen).

That means we don't look the other way while politicians smear reproductive rights to make their tepid support for those rights less 'controversial.'

We'll focus on Iraq later tonight. But that's just to clear the air.

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