This is just a blog note for those who don't use a blog reader, but rather visit the blog. Lately I've noticed some weird glitches throughout the blog. They're mostly little things that you'd only notice if you visited regularly, though some is a bit more obvious (like where the hell did the dates go for my posts?!?!). I guess this is a bit of a warning in case more strange stuff starts happening.
I'm trying to figure out what's going on and how to fix it (if you have technical expertise, please let me know). In the meantime, carry on!
A couple of weeks ago, I shared a video for the No Abortion Ban campaign by Center for Reproductive Rights. As I mentioned in that post, there was a call for others to participate by sharing what they don't want their tax dollars spent on. The people have spoken, and here's their response:
[Jay Smooth, speaking to camera, with the words 'Last Time...' on the bottom left corner.]
Smooth: There are some members of Congress who are committed to stripping abortion coverage from our health care, and the Hyde Amendment is how they do it. Everyone in America disagrees with where some of their tax money goes, but nobody else ever gets to pick and choose where their tax money goes, so we need to speak out on this right now.
[Text on screen says: 'And you did.'
Instrumental music starts playing and continues to play in the background for the rest of the video.
Rectangular frames with rounded corners appear on top of each other so that you can see the top frame and part of the frames below it. Each frame features a different responder their their name in caps. When the clip is over, the top frame peels away and shows the one below it. The effect resembles turning through a pack of photos.]
Marisa: Some in congress don’t want federal money going to fund abortion.
Lizz: I don’t want my tax dollars going to fund torture prisons in Cuba.
Xena: Imprisoning and torturing people who have never had a fair trial.
Emmily: I don't want my tax dollars spent on the fairytale secrets of abstinence-only sex ed.
Matthew: I don't want my tax dollars spent on discharging men and women from the military because they're gay. Almost twenty thousand dollars each time.
IAmDrTiller: Some members of congress don't want tax dollars spent on abortion.
Jen: Well I don't want my tax dollars to fund the death penalty.
Omer: [holding photo of bomber plane next to face] I don't want more than a billion of my tax dollars going to fund the F-22 bomber, a plane the military doesn't even want.
Lee: From now on, I think the defense department should send us each a list of all the crazy stuff they're doing and, uh, we get to pick which ones we want to fund.
Amie: I don't want my tax dollars going towards crisis pregnancy centers.
Whole Women's Health: [group of five in the frame, one speaks] We don't want our tax dollars spent on
Whole Women's Health: [one person in the frame] Law enforcement that fails to protect the women we serve.
Leila and Tara: [Two women in the same frame, one in front, one woman a few feet behind her.]
Woman in back: I don't want my tax dollars spent on keeping me from marrying you.
Woman in front: [cringes and turns to face woman in back] I don't want to marry you.
[Woman in back looks sideways and slaps knee. Both women laugh.]
[Rectangular frames removed, showing a dark background with text on the screen. Each sentence that follows appears on the screen after a few seconds. Text on screen says: 'Hyde blocks abortion coverage for millions. The new healthcare bill expands Hyde restrictions to millions more. No one else gets to pick and choose where our tax money goes. Stop unjust special treatment. Help millions.']
[Text on screen says 'noabortionban.org' with voice over by Jay Smooth.]
Smooth: For more on the fight for reproductive rights worldwide, go to noabortionban.org today. Thank you.
(Cross-posted at Feministe.)
Tell Me Something True is about a young woman, Gabriella, who spends a summer visiting family in Colombia and what she learns about her mother, Helena, upon discovering her diary. Helena died when Gabriella was only a baby, so the image Gabriella has of her mother is broken when she is confronted by the secrets her mother kept. Meanwhile, she is dealing with her own life and the complications that arise as she develops a relationship with the son of a drug lord.
After reading the first few chapters, I thought I was going to hate it because it seemed too predictable. But as I kept reading, I felt myself drawn in by the lives of these two women and ended up really liking the book. Despite its predictability (which I found problematic throughout the entire book), it was the development of the characters that I enjoyed. I felt there was a lot about both Gabriella and Helena that I could relate to. As a Latina growing up in the U.S., I struggled with fitting in, balancing independence and obedience, managing expectations, visiting family abroad, etc., and I think a lot of that was captured very well in this book. Of course, these struggles aren’t exclusive to Latinas, and I think there is something for everyone to connect with as they read.
The structure of the novel is one of the things I liked most about it. Each chapter switches back and forth between Gabriella’s experiences in the present, written in the third person, and entries from Helena’s diary, written in the first person. Because the diary entries are moving forward in time (for the most part, anyway), there is an anticipation that comes with each entry as the reader waits to know the whole story. I like novels that jump through time and shift narrators, so in some ways I was the ideal reader. Those who find such narratives frustrating might have a hard time connecting to the story.
Based on the reviews I’ve read, another complaint people have about this book is that they don’t like the ending. There isn’t much I can say without giving it away, but I will say that in many ways the ending made me connect with Gabriella’s character even more. In my opinion, it was a more realistic ending rather than the typical storybook ending. There are also some questions left unanswered about other characters, so there isn’t the sense of closure that people expect. Personally, I don’t mind not knowing, but I can certainly see why others would feel let down by the ending.
So if you like books with traditional narratives and happy endings, you probably shouldn’t pick this one up. But if those things aren’t particularly important to you, this book might be a pleasant surprise, even with its predictability. At its core, this novel is a coming of age story with a couple of twists. It’s also about relationships – the ones that fall apart unexpectedly, and the ones that strengthen under unlikely circumstances.
Hey hey, it's Blog for Choice Day! Each year, they pose a question to spark the dialogue. Last year it was about our hopes for the Obama administration. This year's question, in honor of Dr. Tiller, is: What does Trust Women mean to you?
As I was trying to come up with my response to this, I watched this video from GRITtv about reproductive rights as human rights. Do check it out if you have some time - it's about 20 minutes long. It features Carole Joffe, author of Dispatches from the Abortion Wars, Silvia Henriquez, E.D. of NLIRH, and Lynn Paltrow, E.D. of National Advocates for Pregnant Women. (I'm hoping I'll have some time this weekend to add a transcript. If somebody else has one, please let me know.)
The dialogue here touches on a lot, here are some bullet points until I get a transcript:
- some (but not enough) improvement under Obama in terms of rights
- Latinas and immigrants need access they don't/won't have
- a reminder that pregnant women keeping their civil rights is still a radical notion
- stressing that local access is a particular problem
- the fanaticism in assaulting women's rights and access
- abortion rights might not be the priority for most, but human rights should be
- anti-choicers focus on attacking the basic human rights of pregnant women but don't try to reduce unplanned pregnancies
- contraception was the middle ground before, but now it's lumped with abortion
- focusing on abortion is effective for Conservatives because it provides a distraction and prevents adequate health care reform
- abortion providers are constantly under attack and clinics are targeted more under Obama, but there are physicians committed to providing abortions
- we need to step it up with our activism and call them out on the misinformation they spread
Like I said, there's a lot discussed, but there are two points in particular I want to focus on. The first is the notion that reproductive rights are human rights. To me, that's the crux of what Trust Women means. Abortion is simply a medical procedure that allows a woman to do with her body what she wants and needs. Having a fertilized egg inside of her doesn't suddenly make her incapable of making decisions, yet she is suddenly deemed unworthy of retaining her rights. The second point is closely linked to the first, in my opinion, and that's education and information. If women are given access to accurate information about contraception, abortion, adoption, childbirth, etc., then why should anybody else be allowed to interfere with her decision and her rights?
If we set up a system built on mistrust and misinformation, then there is no hope for having a system that trusts women and puts women's rights at the forefront. Yet that is the system we currently have. There are so many people who just aren't informed, who don't have access to contraception, and who don't understand the basics of abortion. The video stresses activism, and I don't disagree, but I think the activism has to be geared towards education and emphasizing that reproductive rights are human rights.
That's my take on it, what's yours? What does Trust Women mean to you?
(Cross-posted at Feministe)
Hot off the presses (or whatever the YouTube equivalent is): this awesome video about the Hyde Amendment put together by Center for Reproductive Rights. Check it out!
The video features bloggers and other voices in the pro-choice movement who complete the sentence: “Some in Congress don’t want federal money going to fund abortions. I don’t want MY tax dollars spent on _________.” It really gets you thinking about how much of our tax dollars goes into projects we don't support, but we can't do anything about. Why is it cool for us to give our money to those causes but not cool for our money to go to access to abortion?
So now that this video's got you thinking about that, it's your turn to take part! Check out the campaign page for No Abortion Ban and think about what you don't want your tax dollars to be spent on. Create a 20-second video clip with your response by January 20th and maybe you'll see yourself in the next video.
[Effect as though switching on an old fashioned television]
[Jay Smooth, speaking to camera, with his name and website (illdoctrine.com) at the bottom of the screen. 'Center for Reproductive Justice' is at the bottom right of the screen and remains throughout Smooth's parts of the video.]
Smooth: The Hyde Amendment. We need to talk about the Hyde Amendment.
Since 1976, Congress has tacked the Hyde Amendment onto every annual appropriations bill, blocking access to needed healthcare services for millions of poor women and families. [this paragraph summarised in dot points on screen]
And right now the Stupak and Nelson amendments on this current health care bill try to expand Hyde into the private market, restricting insurance for abortion even when people pay for coverage themselves. [this paragraph summarised in dotpoints on screen again]
Why does this one crowd get to pick and choose on this one thing (that’s totally unjust) while the rest of us never get to pick and choose?
['the views expressed are bloggers' own...' appears at the bottom of the screen]
I mean imagine, in your ideal world, what would you say we shouldn’t spend your tax money on?
[Bloggers appear in rectangular frames with rounded corners on a black screen, with their names in white capital letters below and their websites in grey below their names. When they finish, their images shrink and the next blogger's expands to replace it.]
Aimee Thorne-Thomsen of protectchoice.org: Well I don’t want my tax dollars spent on building a 700 mile fence along the US-Mexico border.
Sarah Seltzer of rhrealitycheck,org: Well I don’t want my tax dollars spent on a wasteful, racist war on drugs.
Jesse Taylor of pandagon.net: You know what I wish the federal government wouldn’t spend money on anymore? Cancelling my favourite public television shows. [lowers voice so that it's more whispery] I miss you.
Melissa Harris-Lacewell of thenation.com and Heather Corinna of scarleteen.com, appearing in separate boxes: I don’t want my tax dollars spent-
Corinna: -on abstinence-only sex education-
Harris-Lacewell: -incarceration rather than education-
Corinna: -corporate federal bailouts.
Jill Filipovic of feministe.us: Well I don’t want my tax dollars spent on corporate farm subsidies.
Amanda Marcotte of pandagon.net: Well I don’t wanna spend my tax dollars on mercenary organisations like Blackwater.
[Allison Kilkenny of allisonkilkenny.com and Jamie Kilstein of WeAreCitizenRadio.com appear in the same shot]
Kilstein: Wait.
Kilkenny: Mm.
Kilstein: You know what’s really dangerous?
[Kilkenny turns to look at Kilstein]
Kilstein: A woman’s right to choose a safe medical procedure.
[Kilkenny turns back and nods in the direction of the camera.]
Kilkenny: Mmm.
Kilstein: Oh wait!
Thorne-Thomsen: Abortion care is healthcare and don’t all women deserve good healthcare?
Smooth: The impact of the Hyde Amendment will be hugely expanded when this healthcare bill adds millions more women and families to Medicaid. So we need to speak out on this right now.
Submit your own video about what you don’t want your tax dollars spent on and help us prove how hypocritical and unfair the Hyde Amendment is. We’ll share some of your best submissions with the world. [On screen: Submit your YouTube vid (up to 20 secs) to: http://reproductiverights.org/youtube.
[stroking cat] For more on the right for reproductive rights worldwide, go to noabortionban.org today. Thank you.
[on screen: noabortionban.org]
[Effect as though switching on an old fashioned television]
