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musingsofonehuman · 4 years

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Let’s talk about Black Lives Matter...what’s that?...This is a gaming blog? Read the title at the top. Does it mention gaming? No. So let’s talk about Black Lives Matter.

I’ve argued with myself back and forth over whether I should write about this, whether I should say something, but every time I read about it I just get so angry, so sod it, I wanna talk about this, if you don’t wanna read this then fine, but understand that your ignorance is part of the problem. I will also say that I am not an expert in this matter, I know what I know and I have an opinion, these are the musings of one human, these are my thoughts and opinions, they are not a solution.

Like many of you, I’ve been watching the Black Lives Matter movement for the past few months following the death of George Floyd, the outcry of anger, people taking to the streets demanding change, and it is from this movement alongside many other movements and voices that the world has truly opened up and racism has been brought to the forefront. Throughout these times, I’ve been reading, listening, watching and learning all about the situation, I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on my own actions, reflecting on what I could do better, on how I could help end racism.

I’ll be honest, up until these past few months, I thought racism wasn’t a big problem, I thought, like a lot of people, that because Barack Obama had been voted in as US president that the world was moving on, it didn’t, racism never went away, it just went into the background, it’s only been because of the past few years that racism has suddenly come into the foreground again. But it never left us, we just chose to ignore it, and quite frankly, I’m disappointed in myself, it took a global pandemic, the killing of an innocent man and worldwide protests for me to finally wake up and realise that racism was a massive issue.

So where did it go wrong? Obviously, I have to start with my own self ignorance, and for that there is no excuse. I chose to ignore this issue, I chose to not pay attention to it, I chose to be ignorant while people suffered, people who are just like me, the only difference being the colour of our skin, and yet because of that, they’ve suffered far worse then I could ever imagine. There is no excuse for my ignorance, and for that, I am eternally sorry. But we also have to look at other factors, why wasn’t I taught about any of this in school? Why wasn’t I told about my country’s role in the slave trade? Why was I not educated about racism and why it’s such a big issue? Maybe it’s because our government tried to hide the truth, no, literally, they tried to hide the truth about the British Empire and the atrocities they committed during their reign, all because they didn’t want to own up to their mistakes, and that seems to be a running theme through all of this.

It seems to be that those who are in a position of privilege do not want to give that privilege up, definitely to people who they see as ‘inferior’ or ‘lesser people’. Is that really a bad thing? Does the colour of your skin really dictate who you are as a person? “This person is white so they’re gonna have a successful career, this person is black so they’re gonna be a murderer”. No, that’s not how the system works, the system works to actively oppress black people which is why they fight back, they’re not fighting back because that’s who they are. All these people that have been protesting, labelled as rioters, thugs, thieves, vandals, gangs, they’re not fighting to overthrow the world, they’re fighting for equality, they’re fighting for the same rights that I have, to be able to live in a world where people are not judged on the colour of their skin.

On that note about protesting, have you noticed how the media has been portraying this? On one side, you have people who are protesting for Black Lives Matter, and yet, they’ve been called all the above and more, while people who are protesting for All Lives Matter, which I will get onto, have been treated very kindly in the media, they’ve been called protestors, demonstrators, one media outlet even decided to call them ‘anti-anti-fascist protestors’. If you are that scared to say fascist protestors then don’t even bother, just say it as it is, they’re fascists protestors, they’re defending ideals that are fascist in nature, but no, apparently they’re the good guys in all of this because they’re not destroying public property and clashing with police, even though they totally are. Again, this idea of losing privilege, is this a privilege you really want? The privilege to be able to abuse black people because of the colour of their skin? Do you not have more moral decency than that, or are you literally just a monster?

Take the case that happened just this week, the shooting of Jacob Blake, now thankfully he is not dead, however he has been paralysed from the waist down and may never walk again, all because he opened his car door. Meanwhile, a 17 year old boy fired a rifle into a crowd of people, killed two people and injured another, walked towards the police with his hands up, and the police waved him away and didn’t arrest him, he turned himself in and has now been charged with murder. In all of this, the media has tried to paint the teenager as the good person in all of this, the teenager who illegally got a gun and killed two people all in the name of ‘defending property’. Meanwhile, Jacob Blake has been painted as a bad person because he had a knife in his car, nothing on his person, and is now in hospital where he has been handcuffed to his hospital bed. May I remind you, he was shot in his lower half and may never walk again. How? How is the teenager being portrayed as the good person here? In what world does a 17 year old get to carry a gun, fire it into a crowd, kill people and then walk away from it? Forget skin colour for a second, how is that right? How is that justice? How is a teenager, who in legal terms is still a minor, allowed to buy a gun and use it to kill, whether he intentionally wanted to or not, how is that possible?

It begs the question, what type of world do we want to live in? Seriously, stop reading for a moment and ask yourself, what world do you want to live in? Go ahead, I’ll wait... ... ... ...Thought about it? Well if your answer doesn’t include ‘a world where black people aren’t shot and killed for being black’ then your answer is wrong. It’s not just about being shot and killed, racism is a part of everyday life, whether we acknowledge it or not, from job prospects, to selling your house, to even getting Covid-19, racism is so prolific in our world. We are so used to being racist as a society, we don’t even know that we’re doing it, that’s why it’s comes as a big shock to me, because it’s not just big things like killing people, it’s all the little things, all those tiny things we don’t think about that make such a huge difference. I’ve talked before about music being a form of expression, and I discovered a track that does just that. The song is called Black and it’s by an artist called Dave, you may have heard this song as he performed a version of it at the Brit Awards this year where he called Boris Johnson ‘a real racist’, which by the way, top stuff. The song talks about what black people have to go through on a daily basis, giving scenarios and painting a picture of how black people struggle in this world because they are black. The original is important, but the Brit Awards version is so much more powerful, you need to listen to it, I’ll link it at the end of this blog, so when you’ve finished reading this you can go listen to it, and again, listen to it, don’t be ignorant.

I apologise if this blog seems a bit rambly, if it jumps all over the place, but this is me taking my raw emotions and trying to process them all, right now I’m not entirely sure what comes next, personally I’m still finding myself, who I am as an individual, I hope that I haven’t been racist in the past, if I have then I apologise, I am going to pay more attention to this issue, to educate myself further on this issue so that I can be more aware of this issue and what I can do to help. In terms of where the world goes, I don’t know, this isn’t gonna be solved overnight, this is gonna be something we deal with for a long time, long after we’re all dead, but we need to start educating people, it’s time we finally owned up to what we have become, it’s time we took responsibility for our mistakes. As white people, we took power away from others and kept it all to ourselves, now it’s time we gave that power back, otherwise we’re just as bad as the monsters we read about, we’re just as bad as Hitler and the Nazis, we may not be doing the same things, but our impacts are still the same.

Which brings me back to the All Lives Matter movement, which argues that all lives matter, not just black lives. Technically yes, all lives do matter, but all lives can’t matter until black lives matter, what you’re actually saying is ‘White Lives Matter’. You’re scared of losing your privilege, you’re scared because you feel you have to take responsibility for something you don’t want to, so instead you argue that all lives are equal so things must remain the same. But all lives aren’t equal, that’s clearly been shown, why are you so scared? What do you have to lose? Or do you not recognise just how much privilege you have as a white person? Let me take a page from Dave, let me ask you this? What do you think white is?... ... ...Got an answer? Ok. Let me tell you what white is.

White is living in a cosy neighbourhood surrounded by big houses and wealthy neighbours where hardly any crime happens.

White is complaining to the barista that they got your order wrong, and that’s the worst thing that happens to you all day.

White is getting into university and spending your time drinking at parties.

White is climbing up the career ladder faster than everyone else because the boss thinks you’re trustworthy.

White is making yourself the victim without taking any responsibility for the problems that you caused.

White is committing serious crimes but only getting a fraction of the recommended prison time.

White is complaining about foreigners taking opportunities that you’re too lazy to take.

White is walking down the street without people judging you.

White is not being immediately suspected for a crime.

White is choosing which history is saved and which history is destroyed.

White has really got a sour taste to it, here’s a taste of it, but white is all I know, and I’m ashamed of it.

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#blacklivesmatter #blm #blm movement #blm uk #dave #black

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brianjacob · 4 years

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The Corona virus reality.

We're about 4 months in, Cases have skyrocketed, and a lot of people have died. It's about time people stopped the whole hoax BS. Numbers are from June 25th 2020.

1. Globally 9,808,267 have been listed as having the virus. 493,993 have died. That’s half a million loved ones that are no longer here y’all. That’s a 4.999% fatality rate. (For every 100 people you know that have it, 5 will die) 5,299,920 have recovered, and 4,014,354 are still active cases. Some of those folks will die, but many will get over it.

2. In Florida. 122,960 have been listed as having the virus. 3,366 have died. That’s a 2.74% fatally rate. (For every 100 people you know that have it...about 3 will die.) Only 21,651 have recovered. If you want to know the rate of death, and are smart enough to google… do the research yourself. (Deaths/Total Infected) x 100 = the % of death.

3. "The numbers are going up but deaths are going down.” That does not mean Floridians have somehow beat this. The sun’s only giving you a tan and some Vitamin D, not immunity…. It takes 1-4 weeks for folks to die or recover from this. You will only see the deaths increase in 2-4 weeks. And if we actually obey some mask and social distance rules, our infection rate will go down as well. So 4 weeks from now, the number of deaths could climb while cases are low. The variable of time needs to be accounted for in your assumption.

Ellie Murphy put it best. “What does lead time bias have to do with #COVID19? Well, we switched from only testing people who had really serious severe symptoms to testing a much wider group of people with milder or even no symptoms. Many of the new cases are much earlier in their disease process. Lead time bias tells us that we can expect to see a longer delay between detection & death because we are detecting people earlier in the disease process. This does not mean people are surviving longer! That’s the sneaky lead time bias talking!!“

4. It’s mislabeled, it’s not that serious, it’s like the flu.They are counting diabetes, heart attack, blah blah blah as Covid Deaths. Well it is a Covid death. Almost all those folks were doing fine with their conditions controlled with medication, healthy diets, and exercise. The disease exasperated their pre-existing conditions, and made their body unable to handle it, thus succumbing to their body’s deterioration resulting in their subsequent death. It is a Covid Death, because if they had not gotten it, it probably would have been business as usual. Also we don’t know much about this disease as it is evolving as fast as we are fighting it. We are seeing it attack 30–40 years olds at a much higher rate than before. Kids are facing weird symptoms, and we do not know the long term damage it may cause. NBA players are saying they are still dealing with the after affects months after recovery and a negative test result. There is lung scaring, and many many other things we still do not have a grasp of.

5. Almost all other nations whose citizens respected their scientists, and authority are almost fully recovered, and back to semi-normal. We seem to not care about our fellow citizens, or our scientists. That’s why it’s a FACT that we have the most cases, and most deaths in the USA. Non debatable. That’s why other states are not allowing Floridians to travel to theirs without a 2 week quarantine. That’s why other nations are looking into imposing a ban of US citizens traveling to their shores. We did not flatten the curve. We have created a new one. Facts.

6. The Protests raised the numbers. NO. People not wearing masks, and gathering inside for long periods of time did. Texas, Arizona, Florida… all states with low protesting, all states that opened up early 2–4 weeks ago with some citizens that don’t want to follow any decency rules, are showing the increase. In almost all the film you watch, you see the vast majority of protestors wearing masks. They have been diligent about this. Could some of them have spread it, but of course, we cannot rule that out. But being outdoors and wearing masks have all helped. Close proximity, heavy breathing, poor circulation/ventilation, all indoors is a recipe for disaster. Alcohol makes it worse. Let the politics go. This is a humanity thing now. We need to squash this for all of us, not to prove a president or governor is right or wrong. People shouldn’t die for political loyalty during a pandemic.

7. Masks work. There is science around this. Every nation that has seen a drop has it’s citizens masked up. You are wearing it mostly to not infect others if you are currently asymptomatic, but have the capability of spreading it. Like all things(consider seatbelts, airbags), can you still get sick & die. Possibly, but the risk is significantly reduced. And NO, you cannot faint or die from CO2 poisoning,. Tell that to the doctors that wear stronger masks, and do 12 hour surgeries. You can wear that mask for your grocery run. Calm down.

So what do we do… what can we do? Somethings are simple, and some we must rely on the experts to help. Social distancing, and masks are easy, but let’s also avoid enclosed places, time with our elderly relatives and friends, and large gatherings. As we maintain those guidelines, we wait for our incredibly gifted medical & scientific organizations to come up with solutions, medications and the vaccines needed to shield us from this long term. But that requires time. Like HIV, and other diseases that had high infection and death rates, we had to put a plan together to avoid getting the disease, testing ourselves and our loved ones, and being careful. Did we eradicate it? No. But are we getting closer and closer to beating it? Yes. One main difference is when we heard or saw stories about HIV/AIDS deaths, the pictures and the stories were gruesome. The media has kept away from showing how bad the body does with this disease, how it disfigures and scars your lungs, or how it constricts your blood flow, causes cardiac swelling and scarring, or even how it causes brain inflammation encephalitis, seizures, loss of consciousness or strokes. This is a scary disease, but doesn't sound so scary when compared to the “Common Flu.”

In addition, we have been here before. Referencing the CDC: The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most severe pandemic in recent history. It was caused by an H1N1 virus with genes of avian origin. Lasting February 1918 to April 1920, it infected 500 million people–about a third of the world's population at the time–in four successive waves. The death toll is typically estimated to have been somewhere between 17 million and 50 million, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in human history.

Mortality was high in people younger than 5 years old, 20-40 years old, and 65 years and older. The high mortality in healthy people, including those in the 20-40 year age group, was a unique feature of this pandemic. Control efforts worldwide were limited to non-pharmaceutical interventions such as isolation, quarantine, good personal hygiene, use of disinfectants, and limitations of public gatherings, which were applied unevenly. Social distancing measures were introduced, for example closing schools, theatres, and places of worship, limiting public transportation, and banning mass gatherings. Wearing face masks became common in some places, such as Japan, though there were debates over their efficacy. There was also some resistance to their use, as exemplified by the Anti-Mask League of San Francisco. Vaccines were also developed, but as these were based on bacteria and not the actual virus, they could only help with secondary infections. A later study found that measures such as banning mass gatherings and requiring the wearing of face masks could cut the death rate up to 50 percent, but this was dependent on them being imposed early in the outbreak and not being lifted prematurely. So we’ve been here before, and we have an outline of time, spread, and effective solutions till a vaccine/medication is made. We just need to listen to it, and follow through. We are significantly more educated, and our science has come a long way since 1918. If we take this seriously, and practice good habits, we will beat this thing. When it comes to work, this is a huge issue. For a large segment, working from home is available. But for many others, this simply does not exist. This is when we need an empathetic and properly functioning government to step in. All retail businesses and the like should have been granted immunity for the year from expenses, leases, and other fees. Emergency & Essential staff should have been provided the proper PPE and an upgrade in their pay. Unemployed folks should have had an easy time dealing with collecting unemployment benefits, and a new assessment program should have been created to teach them how to do work from home jobs to get them back in action sooner than later. These are just a few of my ideas, but many others can be found online that can easily be implemented. Forcing a parent to choose between their small business and feeding their family during this crisis is an impossible position to be in. Unfortunately we did not care, and chose to bail out billionaires, and Companies that should have been more diligent about saving for a rainy day or using the insurance they can afford to shield themselves from collapse.

We all get it. This is an emotional time, families are struggling stuck at home with each other or with homeschooling their kids, businesses are suffering or have shut down, our entire way of life has been dismantled. I know 13 people that have passed away from this. I’ve heard of over 100 stories in network that have had it, and are battling it. Some winning... some struggling. I have countless family and friends on the front line fighting this disease. Many in my immediate family circle. If we don’t ban together and beat this thing like other nations have by being unified... then the disease has won in more ways than one.

#coronavirus #covid #covid19 #masks

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itschassed · 4 years

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Search the Re of Planned Parenthood

Andrew Boshard

Professor Burton

English 2010

2 December 2019

Planned Parenthood Research Paper

For my research project, I have decided to take a look at Planned Parenthood. Initially, when I think of planned parenthood I get a negative feeling towards it because of the way the media and others have portrayed it towards me. But how do I know that all that information is true? I have lived in a pretty conservative state my whole life and maybe that could have impacted my opinion on Planned Parenthood. With this research project, I will start by going on about the background of planned Parenthood and how they were able to come to the surface, Dig deep on the objectives they had when founding the organization and their goals and ambitions. Another topic about planned parenthood that I want to immediately touch on because I have had questions about it for a while now is, that whole scandal that happened where doctors were experimenting with unborn fetuses/zygotes/ embryos. That subject would be probably the biggest chunk of this research project because I know there are many sides and stories about it that are very controversial in today's society. Next with this project, I want to go deep into the things that are beneficial about planned parenthood and what they are doing to change the world. But I can't go on about the good without going on about the bad. With these two, they are completely opinion based on other people that voice their thoughts about the subject and also a mine of course.

With the research part, I want to first take a look into Planned Parenthoods website and see how they want to portray themselves and try to come to a consensus of what my initial opinions are about them with their website and how it's laid out for everyone in the public to view ( I have never seen the planned parenthood website ). Then with other parts of the research, I want to use and cite credible sources, like looking into unbiased articles or books and those who are written by people who actually know what they are talking about. For some Primary sources, I can use some of my friends and interview them. One, in particular, had gone to Planned Parenthood for treatment and getting his opinion on the Planned Parenthood subject could be very beneficial. Also, id like to get a take from a friend I know that is in med school and what he thinks about the government funding planned parenthood and how he feels about what they are doing/ offering to people in today's society.

For an accurate response to Planned Parenthood I think that it would be ideal to conduct some type of survey where it will ask basic questions about planned parenthood and then I can take those results and apply it to my research, for example, X amount of people think the government should provide funding for planned parenthood and Y think otherwise. Also, it would be interesting to have a text box or a verbal response on why they chose what they chose because it’s essential to gather that information that we can see what and why people are so opinionated on this subject. There is no better place to conduct this survey than at my current job. There are so many different religions, races, and values that are shown at that place and it would be great to get most of my coworker’s hot takes on this subject.

This topic is very important to discuss in today's society especially for people between the ages of 17-25. Let’s face it, everyone pretty much has sex but there are people out there that don’t actually know what some of the risk factors are of unprotected sex. This is why this is such a great subject to research and bring to attention because being a kid who was born and raised in Utah all my life I never had any sort of sex ED class. The only thing I can remember is in 6th grade we got the birds and the bees talk and in 8th-grade health class, they talked about it a little. Nowhere did I hear that I can potentially be treated for an STD and hear the risk factors of having unprotected sex. More importantly to help educate the people who were like me and didn’t have a good knowledge of what STDs were and that it's completely normal to get it treated and taken care of. Also to prevent the spreading of any type of STD to other people because you weren't comfortable with getting treated or you didn't know what to do. Planned Parenthood offers these types of services and could be very beneficial to people who are looking to treat it.

I personally think I am more than qualified to research about this subject because merely I have been skeptical about this topic for quite a while now, and have always wanted to know everything about it, but nothing ever gave me that drive or purpose to dig deep into this topic till I got the opportunity to write a research paper on any subject my heart desires, so no brainer I had to write it on PlannedParenthood. This topic is so fascinating because of one, It’s medical-related. I am majoring in Health Administration, and looking into this topic can really help me gain knowledge of the side of things where STD prevention does take place, the controversies of abortion and certain ways to fund something like this. Now second, This is such a controversial topic that there is no way that someone couldn't be semi-interested. Some extremists go to all ends to protest and hate on Planned Parenthood and there are others that are the other way around that are so passionate about this subject that they can go to every extreme that is possible to support what they are doing. There is so much information to take in from just one simple subject that you could write about infinitely, and that's what we're going to do.

Planned Parenthood has been given so much backlash on where their uprising came from or even what they continue to practice to this day. But one thing that always seems to arise to issue is the fact that they perform abortions regularly. Many people don’t condone abortion or anything affiliated with it mainly because of moral views and standards. Also, people don’t quite understand what Planned Parenthood is or what they actually do to offer healthcare wise rather just like to associate them mainly on the face they put off which is glorifying women’s rights and abortion which obviously will tick some people off. But that’s the cue to provide valid information to help the people questioning this idea of Planned Parenthood and what they portray.

First being that, Planned Parenthood should be more than qualified to receive some type of funding from the government due to it being a large healthcare provider, but to go along with that Planned Parenthood should also not be able to abort an unborn child that is older than 12-14 weeks due to it actually developing and gaining basic functions. These are just simple statements that help prove that Planned Parenthood is moving in the right direction.

To help give some insight into the way people portray Planned Parenthood and how Planned Parenthood goes about with basically eliminating this stigma that has been put on them over many years. In an article that was written by a notable author, Heather Prescott. She talks about this initiative that was taken by planned parenthood to help branch off from this label that they have put on themselves over the many years of fighting to be a health care provider. Initially, they were all about making a name for themselves and showing people, this is what Planned Parenthood is about. But with doing that they gained people’s attention, and some in a pretty negative way. Heather then goes on about how they chose this new approach with the company and tried to show some positives that universally would be for the greater good. How so are like their birth control methods. They are specifically seeking funding for their birth control methods because they are looking out for the greater good of women and want the best for them. So in doing so to push this, they decided to host a conference to basically show the people that America is in a rut that they call the “contraception gap”. This meaning that America is very uneducated compared to the rest of the world when it comes down to contraception and STD prevention. So Planned Parenthood had gotten together scholars, med school students, and deans, physicians and women to help raise this awareness for women and try to educate more about it and bring to air that this type of healthcare needs to be financially assisted by the government. Which without a doubt is a great way to go about it with rebranding the company? Planned Parenthood also stated in the conference that they recognize that they are pro-choice for abortion and others won’t agree but this emphasis on birth control and educating women is for strickly the betterment of women and our country.

Planned Parenthood has received so much hate because of their political standards and have been shut down left and right by the people who believe their opinion matters most. Whats to say about the other millions of people who support them who are hiding in the shadows? In nationwide news coverage that was done by PBS, they went out to see how Planned Parenthood was treated out in Missouri. In Missouri, there are multiple PPH (Planned Parenthood) clinics all throughout the state but there is just one sole one that still has the license to perform legal safe abortions, but the senator of Missouri wants to pass a bill that will revoke this license from them so they cannot perform any abortions. With protestors out trying to make a difference and Planned Parenthood committees going to try to make a change with this bill being passed there doesn’t seem to be much hope. Later on the news coverage, they brought out the President of Planned Parenthood at the time to give her stance on the matter and she said: “taking this opportunity to provide legal, safe abortions put women at greater risk”.But in an article that was posted a few months ago by Kayla Epstein began to elaborate on how Planned Parenthood took a step further and opened a new clinic that performs abortions right on the border of Illinois and Missouri. The part that strikes most about this sudden change in events is that its only 13 miles away from St. Louis where they are completely shutting down the right for that specific clinic to perform legal abortions. Planned Parenthood had made a way to help thousands of seeking this care in Misouri and also in Illinois. But should this be funded by our government or strictly out of the pockets of Planned Parenthood?

As taxpayers of this country, we’d like to know where all of our money is going to right? But to us do we actually know where every bit of our money is going to or how it’s being spent? Should we support everything that our money goes to? Planned Parenthood is a semi-mainstream health care provider that provides care for pretty much any person that has questions or concerns about reproductive health. Whether it be just a young girl who is seeking out some more information on what they can expect when having sex, preventing the contraction of some harmful STI’s and other bacterial infections, or even looking for insight on other information that could benefit her, or on the other hand a woman who had made the mistake of not taking precautions of having safe sex and now is 12 weeks in seeking an abortion that hopefully will be covered. In this article that Sarah Torre wrote, talks about why Planned Parenthood shouldn’t be a government-funded health organization. She says “ During its last reporting year, like many before it, the organization reported revenues over expenses exceeding $127 million and net assets of more than $1.4 billion.” You could say Planned Parenthood is a pretty successful health care provider when they are putting up those kinds of numbers and has that much in assets. But get this she then goes on to say “During that same year, Planned Parenthood received over $528 million in taxpayer-funded grants and reimbursements from federal and state coffers – 41 percent of the organization’s total revenue.” Later on in the article, she points out a key point that says that Planned Parenthood had committed fraud multiple times the first being that in 2013 Planned Parenthood of Gulf Coast agreed to pay over 4 million dollars in Medicaid Fraud itself. Also, audits have shown that Planned Parenthood Affiliates had committed fraud for over 8 million dollars spaned over at least 9 states and this was all done through Government Reimbursement. So do we actually know where all of our money is going? Do we support everywhere our money is going to aswell? Us as taxpayers should know what exactly our money is going to and what these organizations are doing. I believe that Planned Parenthood should be able to receive funding from the government because they are a healthcare provider that does do great things in which help educate young women or men about reproductive health and the risk factors that go along with it. But should they receive $528 million in taxpayer money when they are gaining over $120 million in revenue? No, I feel that they should most definitely not receive these large amounts of tax-payer dollars to help things that some do not stand for. Rather it is cut down to a bit more less due to some of the ways they go about things like for example the fact they donate fetal tissue to other organizations for profit. I also believe that we should know where this money is going towards and be able to see what is being done with it because although it is getting taken out of our checks.

In conclusion, Planned Parenthood is a very complicated company say none the less and they tend to carry around a lot of baggage that has been collected over the past few years. But that doesn’t mean that they are a terrible company. They are taking necessary steps to help educate people about what goes down with reproduction and eliminating the risks that come along with it. This is our future generation and should we educate and share our knowledge with them so they can have a better life? I wish for people to develop their own opinion about this subject and try to dig deep about what it actually offers and not what people like to push onto you so you can develop their opinion. So start from stage one find your own research, eliminate the thought of all they care about is abortion and feminism and dig deep to find what you wish to know.

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illuminatedbyu-blog · 7 years

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“Feminism is the radical notion that women are people. -Marie Shear”

I’m not quite sure how to begin this or if I am even the right person to write this post, seeing as how I am relatively new to feminism myself, having only been introduced to it around 2011 or so. I’m ashamed to admit that as a teenager (and, if I’m being honest, even into my college days) I used the term “feminazi” and believed that feminists were just a bunch of men hating weirdos who didn’t want to shave their armpits and legs and who were, obviously, all lesbians. By the time I reached graduate school, I was more open to the thought that feminists maybe weren’t everything I thought they were, but imagine my shock when my graduate school girl friends pointed out that my views and values aligned with those of third wave feminism.

Much like Taylor Swift, I was resistant to the label at first. I didn’t know what it meant that I was now a feminist or if there was a set of rules I was supposed to follow or a certain set of things I was now supposed to do. I can almost imagine the horror seventeen-year-old me would feel at finding out that not only did I turn out to be a feminist, but I turned out to be the type of feminist who would endure a nine hour long car ride and intensely uncomfortable crowds just to not be able to see or hear anything at the world’s largest single protest. But that’s exactly where I found myself and what I found myself doing a few weekends ago.

Around the same time that I found out I was a feminist, I also found out that I have something called privilege- and lots of it. As a straight, white, middle class, cisgender female, there were and are a lot of opportunities available to me that aren’t available to other people. In addition to learning about privilege, I had to learn about things like gender, intersectionality, and race in ways I had never considered before. According to Kimberlé Crenshaw, intersectional feminism is “the view that women experience oppression in varying configurations and in varying degrees of intensity. Cultural patterns of oppression are not only interrelated, but are bound together and influenced by the intersectional systems of society. Examples of this include race, gender, class, ability, and ethnicity.” If you’d like to learn more about feminism, I highly suggest reading bell hooks’ book, Feminism is for Everybody or Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s We Should All Be Feminists.

Intersectionality means that I am oppressed not only because I’m a woman, but also because I’m a disabled woman. I’m lucky in that I’m a cisgender middle class white lady, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t experience any oppression. It just means that I experience less than some people and more than some other people. Feminism has helped me make sense of a world that I previously didn’t fully understand and it’s helped me understand why it can feel so bad to be a woman and specifically a woman with mental health stuff.

I wrote something about the Women’s March on Washington sort of for my Memoir Writing class I’m taking and sort of for my own personal record keeping. It’s here:

I’m walking down the street, River on my left-hand side and Tiffany on my right. Tiffany and I make small talk about how excited we are for the day to come, but we are also bleary-eyed from not getting to sleep early last night and, if I’m being honest, there’s still a bit of the sleeping pill I took last night in my system. We are in Arlington, Virginia and we are on our way to board the silver line Metro to the National Mall. We swipe our SmartTrip cards and pass through the barriers. The station is packed and it takes us almost an hour to finally board a train as all the ones that come through the station are either too full for anyone to get on them, people push past us to get on them, or they don’t have enough room for Tiffany, River, and I. River does better than expected on the train, lying down next to me and only trying to greet two people. A woman spills her hot but not burning coffee on me and all over the floor. It hurts a little bit but it mostly makes me angry because she chose to push her way to stand in between my legs over River in the first place. We will see later if River got sticky from the coffee or stayed out of it, but at this point, I’m really not sure. We exit the train and it’s time to face one of my biggest fears for the day: will the elevator be working or will we have to take the escalator up? River has practiced on the escalator a lot, including using the escalator a lot yesterday to prepare her for this very moment, but I’d still rather she didn’t have to use it at all in the crowd and she does better going down the escalator than going up it. The crowds make it impossible to do anything but move forward towards the escalators. Mercifully, they are turned off and are therefore glorified stairs that are unlikely to trap unprepared dog claws and toes.

The crowd is stop and go, moving at barely a crawl for reasons unclear to us. We eventually emerge from the escalator and walk out of the metro station where we continue to walk for a few blocks before we run into a massive number of people. I’m not sure how many people are here, but there must be hundreds of thousands of women with some children and men about as well. I’m sure the media will have a count in the days that follow, but all I know right now is that it is a lot of people and the weight of having so many of them around me makes me feel like I’ll be crushed to death. I know that weight is all in my head. This is a peaceful demonstration, after all. The organizers have worked very hard to ensure that and have done their best to ensure that few, if any, arrests are made. But tell that to my anxiety disorder. Or don’t. It won’t listen anyway.

Each person is here for her own reason, she has her own motive, her own white whale, but we are all united under the same unifying principles and the same title, the Women’s March on Washington. I march because it’s the right thing to do. I march for Planned Parenthood and the ACA and Equity and disability rights. I march because this is 2017 and the idea that Black Lives Matter should be a given, not a necessary and crucial movement that is dismissed by so many in positions of privilege and power. I march because I get to call the United States my home, while so many others are in danger of being forced to leave their home because of the President Elect. I march so I can tell future generations of my family that I was here in this important, beautiful, historic moment.

We are excited for the rally, but we waste time trying to find the ADA tent so that we can sit down. My back is already screaming at me but it should calm down soon because I took a muscle relaxer after we got off the metro. I may pay for this later, but this rally and this march are more important to me than a few days of pain. We look for a way to get to the ADA tent, but we can’t find it and crossing Independence Avenue seems like an impossibility. Even looking to the left away from the rally, Independence Avenue is packed with shoulder to shoulder people as far as the eye can see. We cross Independence Avenue a few times, moving towards the front of the rally in an attempt to get away from the super religious counter protestor who has set up shop with a megaphone right next to the closes set of speakers. From where we end up, you can just almost see a big screen showing the stage and you can sort of hear what the speakers are saying, but the crowd around us is affecting us both in a negative way, me more than Tiffany I think and in spite of the 2 mg of Ativan I have taken. It’s time to move away and find somewhere else to go and find somewhere for me to sit for a while.

We make our way to the side of Independence Avenue away from the National Mall and walk along the buildings where there is more room and less of a crowd. We round a corner and realize we are back where we started. We walk up to the intersection and find a woman with an orange vest that says something about ADA on it and ask her where the ADA tent is. She says there is no point in going there because all of the seats are full, it’s become overrun by non-ADA people, and it’s very crowded. We turn back the way we came and sit down in a truck delivery area for some big concrete building to eat our lunches. We hear from someone else later that this is when Gloria Steinem was speaking and we missed it, but that isn’t accurate- she spoke much earlier even than this. We were very upset about this, but at least the live-stream is available online. I eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich while Tiffany eats her ham and cheese. When we finish, we make our way back to independence avenue and begin searching for a bathroom because I have the smallest bladder in the world. We went towards the Smithsonian Castle but got to a point where we couldn’t move anymore, so we turned around and stood in place for a while listening to Scarlett Johansen speak about how she had to go to Planned Parenthood when she was fifteen because her family was poor. Or at least Tiffany was listening to that happen. I had no idea Scarlett Johannsen was speaking, only that I really needed a restroom. I interview a woman for the podcast about what feminism means to her and about why she is marching. I don’t know it at the time, but my voice recorder isn’t actually working.

I eventually tell Tiffany that the bathroom situation is really getting quite urgent. About two hours have passed since lunch when I first said I needed the bathroom. We push our way past the crowd coming from the Smithsonian Castle towards Independence Avenue and make it to a place where we can climb onto the grass and continue going. As Tiffany and I are walking, my left foot goes into a plastic pipe with a broken lid the wrong way, I fall, my foot bends forward, my ankle twists, and I hear a loud pop. Thankfully, we have just seen a Smithsonian employee and Tiffany goes to get her. She comes over and asks me if I’m okay and how I was injured. I tell her that I think I just sprained my ankle (a white lie, I think I may have torn a tendon) and how it came about. Her name is Rosario and she will continue to be kind and helpful the whole time I am in the Smithsonian’s care. She calls to someone else on the radio and the other woman, Ms. Smith, brings a wheel chair. Tiffany grabs River’s leash and my backpack as the other two women help me to my feet, guide me over to and off of a small ledge to the wheelchair, and help get me situated.

Rosario and Ms. Smith push my wheelchair across the grass to avoid the impressive crowd on the pathways. We have to stop and I have to stand up again so that they can close the wheelchair, push it between two trees, then help me hobble through before I sit back down. Almost as soon as we get inside, Rosario takes me in the elevator down a floor to the bathroom and pushes me all the way up to the stall door. I wash my hands and she pushes me back upstairs. We sit inside one of the Smithsonian buildings for a while, Rosario checking on me every so often and asking if I want her to call 911. I resist because of the cost. I don’t want to pay $600 for the ambulance ride plus the hospital deductible and copay just for a sprained ankle or torn tendon. Tiffany eventually leaves to find the first aid tent for the Women’s March, which is supposedly close by, but before she does she gives me 800mg of ibuprofen, for which I am grateful. She isn’t gone long. “They won’t leave the tent to come here, but if we can get you to them they can wrap it and take care of it for you,” she tells me. Through all of this she is calm and kind. She doesn’t even act like I’ve ruined her March experience, even though I’m starting to feel like I have. We make our way to the Smithsonian exit.

I hobble down the street with Tiffany and River on either side of me, surrounded by women, men, and children holding signs, marching, and chanting things like, “hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go! Hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go!” We finally make it to the first aid tent. They ask me if River will remain calm if they let her inside the tent. I say yes and prepare myself for an argument about the Americans with Disabilities Act and its provisions for service dogs, but luckily it’s a nonissue and they let her in with me. The paramedic wraps my ankle with an ace bandage, stuffs some Hot Hands down into my sock, and tells me I can put my shoe back on and be on my way. There’s still a lot of pain when I put weight on my foot, but at least it’s more stable.

I emerge from the tent to see Tiffany standing just outside it and we make our way out into the crowd. It’s less dense here now that people are moving, but it’s still a very thick and close crowd. We march, chant, and chat, making our way along a few roads and into a park that has a fence in it where people are putting their signs. It’s a powerful sight, but somewhere down to the left some young men start kicking the fence down. Almost everyone yells at them to stop, but Tiffany and I decide that it’s time for us to head back to my brother’s house. We walk to the Metro station which is almost but not quite as crowded as the one from the morning. On the way there, we meet a veteran who has a service dog and her group of friends. They seem really nice. On the Metro ride home, I interview three young women for the podcast. Then we listen to a Trump supporter start a verbal argument with a woman with an “End racism” sign. He has accused her of calling people names because of her sign. He then calls her husband an idiot and tells her to go bark at the moon before proceeding to actually bark at her. If I was braver, I would stand up for her, but he made me fear for my safety, so I stay silent. We get off at our stop, walk back to my brother’s, and decompress for a bit before figuring out we are going to eat pizza for dinner and hanging out with the dogs.

Resources

Women’s March on Washington

Chimamanda Ngozi TED Talk- We Should All Be Feminists

Woman in Viral Photo From Women’s March to White Female Allies: ‘Listen to a Black Woman’

Women’s March on Washington

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Feminism by Catherine Cottam #CompassionOrBust "Feminism is the radical notion that women are people. -Marie Shear" I'm not quite sure how to begin this or if I am even the right person to write this post, seeing as how I am relatively new to feminism myself, having only been introduced to it around 2011 or so.

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