Land Of The Free...Just Not For Women...

Hi.

When you find out that the Taliban's abortion laws are more lenient than those of the country that screams "FREEDOM!" through bull horns at every opportunity, let's just say it causes one to pause. 

We saw this coming. It's been in the works for years. That's why the 3 Supreme Court inductees that the grand Cheeto put into place completely and deliberately lied to Congress and the American people during their interviews to get the job. They lied. They had to in order to at least put forward the facade of legitimacy. Of course, they wouldn't say out loud in front of people that they were looking forward to stripping people who have a uterus of their most basic human rights.

Then they follow this up with whispers of banning contraception, banning the morning after pill, and banning same-sex marriages. Those whispers will only get louder, if those who speak them remain on the bench, and if the bench remains so unbalanced. 

Well if this is what they want to do, they better follow it up with the next logical steps.

If life begins at conception, so should child support. 

Paid parental leave, continued medical care, and child care. If the government is forcing you to have a child, that same government, by default, should be, at the very least, financially responsible for that child. 

The men who participate in an unwanted pregnancy should be forced to bear all of the things that go with it, to be fair to the one who is being forced to give birth. All of the restrictions, no booze, no seafood, limit coffee, limiting physical activity, etc. They should be forced to carry all of the physical discomforts the bearer does. They need to be strapped with increasingly heavy weights, be given medications that put you at risk for diabetes, high blood pressure, swelling, nausea, keep you from sleeping, trigger extreme mood swings, whatever the male equivalent of pre-eclampsia, miscarriage, or hemorrhaging would be, and all of the other fun things.

Just what is supposed to happen to all of these unwanted babies? Is the next step to be perpetrated upon those who were already forced to carry out an unwanted pregnancy and birth, is that next step to be forced to raise these children too? Are the men going to do it? Because the foster system is already beyond all of its limits. There is no support for social programs to help, at least not from the people who hate women having the freedom to choose. 

No, really. Don't come at me dismissing this as an absurd argument without backing it up with logic. Prove to me it's not valid. I dare you. Is the assumption that those who are forced to birth these children will automatically be responsible for them? Because that assumption is not made of the men. If this is truly about life and not controlling women, then women are no more responsible than men. Right?

From the outside looking in, the only demographic in the United States that is, and has ever been truly free, are the straight white men. I know there are those out there who will scoff at this, claiming I'm being dramatic, but if I'm wrong, show me. Prove it. 

It makes my heart hurt.

Maybe it's time for the United States to live up to the persona it likes to project to the world. 

You want to claim that you are a country of freedom? Interesting. 

You want to claim that you are some sort of cornerstone of democracy? Interesting.

You want to claim to be the country in which everyone is clamouring to call home? Interesting.

Land of the free, home of the brave, that's how it goes, right? 

Prove it. 

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In the meantime, to those Americans that have a uterus and would like to, without interference, remain in charge of what happens to it:

May you know that we feel the weight of your oppression, your anger, your fear, your heartbreak.

May you know we are here, a place to come to, a voice to fight with you, the fight to determine your own fate.

May you gather in droves, march, protest, and strive to regain fifty years of lost ground.

May you create the momentum needed to defeat this misogyny, take away its oxygen until there is no sound. 

May you see this as the crucial call to action that it is, in this battle you can not fail.

May you see, if you give up, you are that much closer to living the Handmaid's Tale. 

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Chasing Footprints In The Sand...

                                                                                         
 

Hi!

So much of the conflict and pain we are witnessing in the world is far from new, but that doesn't make it easier to understand. 

How can human beings be so deliberately cruel to one another? For what?

Queerphobia-

It's ridiculous. Why does one group of individuals keep trying to dictate who other, adult, human beings get to fall in love with? 

They seem to come up with new, ever more incredulous excuses all the time. They want it to be about religion. Why should your religious beliefs dictate what others do? We live in a space very proud of its religious freedom, or freedom from religion, if we so choose. 

If you want organized religion to run our choices I vote for one in which women occupy 90% of the positions of power. What? There are none? Interesting. 

Why does someone choosing their own name freak you out? I call myself a woman, and I ask to be called a woman. Why can't everyone receive that same respect? It's not hard. 

Gender and biology are not the same things.  It's not hard. 

Shouldn't we be more concerned about kids being marginalized? Singled out? 

How dare you hide behind religious symbols, books, and quotes that have been rewritten, re-edited, and re-interpreted for centuries to demonize other humans. Humans who want nothing more than equality. Just accept people for who they are. It's not hard. 

Power-

Some seem to have an insatiable hunger for it. Like it means something. Like somehow, in the grand scheme of things it will make a difference to anyone but you. 

Yes, those who wield political power can make an actual difference. For the good of everyone, if they so choose, or to attack other countries, if they so choose, or to simply hold on to the power they become accustomed to by any means necessary, if they so choose. This kind of power may be precious in the moment, but it too is fleeting. In a couple of centuries, those to wield the heft of it will be but names in a history book, either viewed as people who helped humanity, or...........not. Either way, but a memory, and maybe the butt of historic jokes. 

You know that philosophical question about time travel and killing baby Hitler? I can't help but wonder who our descendants will ponder about.

Greed-

Let me get something straight right off the jump. Greed and wealth are not the same things. If you work hard for your money, or had it given to you, and enjoy it, that's awesome. It's the pursuit of said wealth at the detriment of others, and the human value attached to wealth with which I take issue. The idea that people who have money are somehow more valuable than those who don't, yeah that. That drives me nuts. 

This is also something that baffles me. Why do we use the accumulation of stuff as some sort of report card for success? 

I mean, it's not like you're going to take it with you when you leave this planet. You could try, I guess, but even the greediest of us would have to admit that's a pretty idiotic notion. 

When this topic of conversation comes up, the word legacy gets thrown around quite a bit. 

Legacy will carry different meanings for different people. 

Stuff, things, and money can provide an easier life, in some aspects, for future generations, that's for sure. It can mean providing your future loved ones with one less thing to worry about.

They won't have to learn to budget. They won't ever have to decide between electricity or groceries. I get it.

But, the stuff, things, and money, aren't really the legacy. That's just the inheritance.

True legecy is determined over time, and through action.

How do your children walk through the world? How do they treat others? Are your grandkids kind people? Do they live compassionately? 

A generous inheritance can absolutely assist in creating a legacy, but it is by far not the only contributing factor. 

So many people who have left behind true legacy had no inheritance, but went on to create incredible lives that touched so many in such positive ways. The Rosa Parks(not sure what the plural would be lol), the Martin Luther King Jrs, the Terry Foxes, the list could go on, and these are just a few of the famous ones.

There are so many names the world will never learn that have left legacies of kindness and generosity. We all know at least one. A neighbour, a friend a family member who lived their lives in a way we can only aspire to. Does that mean they were perfect? Absolutely not, just fundamentally good humans doing what good humans do, not for the publicity, not for the tax break, not for the pat on the back, but just because it was the right thing to do. 

That example gets picked up and carried into the future by all who witness it. 

It seems to me that as a society, we spend so much of our time chasing footprints in the sand.

Our footprints upon the sand wash away in a whisper, disappearing in but a few fleeting heartbeats, but showing those who follow us how to care for the beach, lives on for generations. 

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May your legacy be one of generosity, kindness, and joy.

May it thrive far beyond your last breath, something for others to hold on to in times of turmoil.

May we come to understand that nature gives not one single care as to how much land, or baubles we own.

May we come to understand that we are here for but a minute, the stuff, the things, the land, not ours, simply on loan. 

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Storms Never Last...

 Hi.

If you take a snapshot of pretty much any time in history, you'll find storms, both literally and figuratively. 

But they never last, no matter how horrible, how damaging, how devastating, how figurative, how literal.

They never last. 

Never.

As Putin and his thugs continue to vomit their heinous, criminal, venomous, putrid hate all over Ukraine, we need to keep reminding ourselves that evil may win a battle or two, but it very rarely wins the war. The people of Ukraine are not defeated. They will never stop fighting to keep their independence. They will never surrender, they are incapable of giving up. We, those not living in their nightmare, can't either. It's easy to tire of hearing of the death and devastation. It's okay to be tired, but they still need us. Our support. Our help. We can't let them become a dropped news story. Ever. 

Surrounded by devastation and loss, this young Ukrainian woman epitomizes what it means to forbid Putin. Forbid him from robbing her of embracing her achievements. She is not alone. Her high school graduation will be one for the history books... in so many unwanted ways, impossible ways, in ways that will create lifelong scars.

Then, there was the first round of primetime hearings coming to us courtesy of the absolute dumpster fire that was the Donald Trump presidency.

This storm is wrought with slime, driven by both willful ignorance and flagrant corruption. From the outside looking in, it's truly mindboggling how close Trump and his gun-loving clowns came to pulling off a coupe! If they had had a functioning brain cell in the bunch, they very well may have made it happen. As it sits, they broadcasted their insurrection on live feeds, there are literal hours of footage from multiple sources, and there are emails, texts, and phone calls going back and forth among key players. Some, well, a lot of which are actually employed by the United States taxpayers. They were on the clock while they were committing treason. 

The fact that this whole situation needs hearings, and there are people STILL denying, and/or defending the deadly craziness that was Jan6/21, makes the rest of us shake our heads. How do you watch all of the video proof, read the texts, emails, phone call transcripts, and Twitter feeds, and somehow pretend that it wasn't exactly what it was? This, my friends, qualifies as a category 5 shitstorm, with downpours of delusion. 

This storm won't last either. There is just too much evidence. More than the minions need consequences. Every single person that owns a modicum of responsibility for this attempted overthrow of the government should be hit with at least a bit of the shit created by this storm, and then just to add some poetic justice, be wrapped in a rainbow flag on their walk of shame to comeupance prison. We have to believe that there are enough intelligent Americans left, that there are enough with a functioning moral compass, that there are enough who care enough to escort all those deserving delusionists, and master manipulators of smoke and mirrors, to the wonderful land of accountability. 

Then there is the storm of inflation. This is something that has hit the entire world. Gas, groceries, pretty much everything is climbing in price almost daily. For people already running out of money before they run out of month, it is becoming exponentially more difficult. It's no longer about tightening the belt, giving up the little extras, cutting the proverbial fat. No, more and more, the choices are between groceries and power. Gas and water. But this won't last either.

It's hard, especially after the last couple of years we, as humanity, have endured. It's a lot. It's finally safe to go to most places and do most fun things, but now we can't afford to do any of the fun things. 

It won't last.

Soon, these storms will pass. Yes, there will be others, but, seriously, I feel like with what we've collectively walked through in the last while... we got this. 

Nothing but rainbows on the horizon. Gorgeous. 

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May we all get through these storms. Period. 

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Too Many Empty Chairs...

 Hi.

It's hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that owning a gun is sooooo important to some people. 

Back in the day, when people needed guns to hunt, because that was the only way to procure meat, they were necessary, absolutely.

But, that was a loooonnng time ago. Yes, people still hunt, but precious few are doing it out of necessity. It's a hobby. 

No one really needs a gun. Not any more. They don't. If you want to own a gun, you should have to prove you need one. Really, actually, need one. And then, and only then, the gun you obtain should be specific to that need. 

In the 21st century, guns are a hobby. For hunting, for target shooting, to collect. A hobby. Like singing, dancing, knitting, playing an instrument, reading, participating in sports, collecting baseball cards, or coins, or playing video games. It carries no more importance than any of these.

Yet, this is the only hobby that is political. This is the only hobby that has lobbyists. This is the only hobby that is perceived as some sort of basic right instead of what it really is, a perception held only by those who participate in it. 

This is also the only hobby that has the potential to be lethal to humans.

If someone breaks into your house and steals your karaoke machine, it would be pretty much impossible to use that machine to kill people.  

I don't know of any hate crime carried out by the use of yarn.

I have never heard of one single person being volleyballed to death. 

No one has ever walked into a church, grocery store, or school and killed multiple people with baseball cards.

I have never seen or heard of "active dancer drills."

Kids have never been traumatized by a coin collection falling into the wrong hands. 

I know this sounds simplistic. I know people like to make it seem that this is some kind of horribly complicated social conundrum with multifaceted solutions. It just isn't. 

Guns, and everything that involves them, are hobbies. Period. 

Explain it to me, using real-world, actual logic, the reasoning behind this unreasonable attachment to something that has one, singular, purpose... to kill.

Make it make sense.

There are too many empty chairs, emptied by bullets, to protect a stinking hobby.

How many tiny graves will be enough?

How many dead teachers will be enough?

How many grieving spouses will be enough?

How many fatherless kids will be enough?

How many motherless kids will be enough?

Where is the line? 

Does it exist? 

Is there a limit? 

What is it? 

Will it only matter when it's one of your own?

Can you name one other hobby that creates this kind of terror, this kind of devastation?

I can't. 

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May you come to see that guns are a weapon, not a tool, not a plaything, death is the sole purpose of their existence.

May you see the only reason they are still a problem, still causing terror, is at your own insistence. 

May you see that it simply doesn't need to be this way.

May you put an end to the 'active shooter' drills, end the need for them, do it today.

May you find a way to let go of your deadly pacifier.

May you see the need goes far beyond your 'wants', it's so much higher. 

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