Only A General Strike Will Secure The Right To Safe, Legal Abortion

Yesterday I endangered the 20 people I was with, standing on the pavement thinking about the government. I yelled at an older man in a car with NY license plates who was mansplaining that Maine still has access to safe medical abortion. I asked him if he had a uterus and then told him "If you don't have a uterus then shut the f up" (yes, I said f not the f word). Luckily he did not become angry and shoot anyone. He just said, "Nice language, lady" and drove away.

I've apologized to the event organizer for losing my temper. 

The incident made me realize how deeply angry I am about the attack on people who can get pregnant, by attackers who can't. 

I was disappointed by the coverage in the local paper which focused on the need to vote harder for Democrats. Really? Y'all still falling for that bullshit that got us to where we are today?

Honestly, though, I just became a hair more willing to vote for the Democratic incumbent for governor, a woman who has disappointed numerous times with her craven pandering to big business. Her challenger is the old incumbent, a man who arguably was channeling 45 before that demagogue had even made it to the White House. Rude, crude, and would definitely strip Maine of reproductive rights if he were able. (And ranked choice voting does not apply to the election for governor in our state.)

Some of my friends are posting as former wards of the state about their hellish experiences in foster care. They are challenging the narrative that adoption is a magic wand that solves unwanted pregnancy problems. They are reminding us that they were kicked to the curb after aging out of the system at 18; many ended up unhoused, exploited, addicted, or dead.

I'm also reminded of the now decades old statistical analysis pointing out that access to safe, legal abortions caused the U.S. crime rate to plummet. (If you've not heard about this theory before, you can listen or read about it here on the Freakonomics site.) There's no doubt that policing and incarceration are systems built to keep white people at the top of the heap. Unfortunately, those are constants in the U.S. But did legalizing abortion in the 1970's have a ripple effects on the rate of violent crime 20 years later?

As a teacher for 25 years I had occasion to know many families. The vast majority of people love their kids -- even moms and dads who didn't particularly want children to be born into poverty and who are struggling themselves after a bad childhood. Parents and other caregivers (increasingly grandparents after their own child succumbs to substance use disorder) don't always make the choices that seem wise to their teachers. Educators are a middle class bunch, mostly raised by parents that had resources and took the job seriously. We are often judgmental about the suffering we see and who's causing it. 

If you haven't lived a childhood full of trauma it can be hard to empathize with those who have. The scars are invisible, but they are deep.

I worked with children in dire poverty for many years. Subsequently, I wrote a novel about their struggles and triumphs; the book includes trafficking, sexual assault, unwanted pregnancy, and abortion. My protagonist experiences all of the above but she triumphs in the end because she's a bad ass who's able to find her way into nurturing communities. She has a safe, legal abortion while other characters are forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term. Now I'm revising while trying to find an agent and/or publisher. If you have any suggestions for me, I want to hear them.

You can buy this cool poster here on the Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies) website.

I could end this post by saying, see you on the streets, but I'm pretty sure only a general strike will turn this ship around. Easy for a retired person like me to say, but if all the women and girls who could manage it stayed home from work next week, within a month Congress would have passed and the president would have signed a law guaranteeing the legality of abortion throughout the U.S.

We must hit our corporate overlords in the pocketbook by withholding labor in order to get their attention.

Of course then Democrats would lose the ability to fundraise off the abortion political football. And I'm pretty sure we're all clear on which they value more: $$$$ or basic human rights. Under their leadership, what's the only wealthy country on the planet that doesn't have universal health care? Of which abortion on demand is just one component.

🚨#BREAKING: Secret Service Takedown a protestor during ⁦POTUS motorcade

📌#LosAngeles l #California

A Protester has jumped out in front of a motorcade as the Secret service tackled her to the ground. The woman said she was protesting for women's rights pic.twitter.com/TdVitVNwvh

— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) June 9, 2022

The fervor of this young person attempting to communicate with the president's motorcade in Los Angeles this month is what's needed now. What are they shouting? 

"An abortion ban will not stop abortions! Only safe ones!!!"

My Sister's Series: The Ignorant & Dangerous People Now Forcing Women Into Childbirth Against Their Will

My sister Hope is the all time top guest poster to this blog, and it's not hard to see why.

Here for your perusal is her rogues gallery of enemies of women's rights to control their own bodies in 2019.












This one won't embed, so I'll share Hope's repost of an item she titles Twisted Sisters it as a screenshot.

Ok, now that you know who to look out for, here's how to look out for #1 if you find yourself in a predicament:

"Abortions by mail are available now in the U.S. Here's what you need to know." 
The provider of this service told Julia Veluz reporting for VoxMedia:

I got an email from a woman who was living in a car with two kids...Something had to be done.

REVISED May 26, 2019 to include more of the ignorant and dangerous.

A Perfect Storm Of U.S. Political Extremism, Calmed By Homegrown Indigenous Wisdom

The story of what happened between MAGA hats and Native elders in our nation's capital last week turns out to be weirder than my post yesterday indicated.

A perfect storm of U.S. political extremism was brewing on January 18 at the Lincoln memorial.

First of all, Native people had come to Washington for the first ever Indigenous Peoples March. Organizing under the climate change slogan, "If the waters are rising, then so must we," and bringing attention to the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, their presence was healing and wise. You can read coverage of that event here.

Smoke dance another angle. The moves my relatives! Those moves! #IPMDC19 #IndigenousPeoplesMarch pic.twitter.com/Ulqp8TfFyV

— Prairie Rose (@msprairierose) January 18, 2019

Today we remember the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women. #IndigenousPeoplesMarch #IPMDC19 #WaterIsLife pic.twitter.com/icU7csfV78

— PFAW (@peoplefor) January 18, 201

Next, a radical Christian group called Black Hebrew Israelites -- which the Southern Poverty Law Center tracks as a hate group -- began preaching their aggressive brand of monotheism. You can see them and hear them in this video made on January 18.

You can hear them mocking Native people for "worshiping totem poles" (?!), eagles, buffalo and other forms of what they characterize as "idolatry."

They also claim Natives lost their land because of their incorrect spiritual practices and beliefs (which the Israelites give every indication of near total ignorance of).

Screenshot from video

A couple of women approach them and clap back. One is led gently away by an elder woman. The other resists another woman's attempt to turn her away. She persists offering education and a reasoned argument until the Israelites begin dissing her for being a female who uses her voice.

Meanwhile, a knot of MAGA hat boys is gathering; they have been bused in from Kentucky's Covington Catholic High School to attend an annual event aimed at denying women and girls access to reproductive health care.

As the Israelite group and the MAGA hats become more confrontational and agitated, Native elder Nathan Phillips steps between the two groups with his drum. According to his own account, he attempts to climb the steps of the Lincoln memorial intending to pray from that vantage point, but he is blogged by a grinning 16 year old who won't let him pass.

Nathan keeps drumming and is joined by another drummer as the crowd of boys chant "build the wall" and jump around mocking the Native prayer song demonstration. They also offer their political views, as nurtured by their politicized religious education.

Here is another infuriating clip from the MAGA mob of kids from #CovingtonCatholic

An indigenous man politely reminds them they are on stolen land and a student responds, “Land gets stolen. That’s how it works. It’s the way of the world.” via @ka_ya11 IG #IndigenousPeoplesMarch pic.twitter.com/SYun9wkzpY

— Andrew Kimmel (@andrewkimmel) January 19, 2019

Some viewers say they see chaperones behind the large group of boys.

So we have religious fanatics, white supremacists, and Native people still in possession of their non-coercive system of spiritual beliefs. An elder peacekeeper who was in the military during the Vietnam War era and who doesn't believe in walls, doesn't believe in prisons. (Thank you, Nathan Phillips.)

Photo credit: Perez Hilton

Some of the questions I'm left with: who bought all the matching MAGA gear for the teenage boys? Why weren't they in school on a Friday?

Who knew I would find common ground with a group preaching that I'm headed for eternal damnation because I don't worship Yahweh? (The Hebrew Israelites are angry, as I am, about the federal government shutdown.)

A more comprehensive account of the day with additional videos can be seen here on Indian Country Today.