Thursday, March 31, 2011

I thought they were all about personal responsibility. . .

Since 1971, Minnesota has had a law that allows teenagers to get reproductive medical care without their parents' consent (as well as substance abuse and mental health care).  "But I have to sign a form to allow the school to give my child an aspirin" you might say.  "But I don't want my child getting medications without knowing about it" you might also say.  Or you might say, "But I want my child to feel comfortable talking to me about these things."

Here's the problem: your teenager doesn't feel uncomfortable asking you for an aspirin and thus will probably get the medical care they need in that situation.  It seems like once you become a parent, you immediately forget what it was like to be a teenager.  I don't.  I vividly remember the discomfort I felt even thinking about approaching my parents to discuss sex. 

But guess what?  I was lucky enough to live in Minnesota where I could walk into a Planned Parenthood clinic on my own and get a prescription for birth control pills (as well as a pap smear, a UTI test and a talk with a qualified medical professional about keeping myself safe and healthy).  And guess what happened?  I didn't get pregnant as a teenager.  In fact, I waited until I was 27 and fully ready to have a baby, and it was the most wonderful experience of my life.  I've never had to have an abortion, and I've never had an STD.  And even if I had, I would have been able to go and get myself treatment on my own instead of waiting around while chlamydia took my fertility away.

What's the moral of this story?  Of course parents want their kids to feel comfortable coming to them when these issues arise, but most simply don't, and many have parents who would be hostile or downright abusive if their child ever tried to ask them about birth control.  So isn't it better that we let them take care of themselves and prevent something bad from happening?  I'll trade complete and total openess for a happy, healthy child.

Why do I bring this up you might be asking?  Well, the MN GOP (at the instruction of the Family Council I'm sure) is trying to get rid of this law, and I think it would be a tragedy if they suceeded.  So PLEASE contact your representative and senator to let them know that this is an important law that needs to be maintained.  Tell them NOT to repeal minors' consent for health care.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

I guess we're all Christians up here.

My 7-year-old son came home from his PUBLIC school the other day with a book about Noah's Ark (did I mention he goes to a public school?).  I asked him where he got it from and he said he got it from the "surprise box" in his classroom.  The surprise box is a box full of toys donated by parents that the kids can choose from when they've done something good.

Obviously, I didn't make a huge deal out of this because he is only 7 after all, and it is just a book.  But I was very bothered by the fact that another parent felt it was appropriate to donate this, and more bothered by my personal knowledge that this is just the way it is in our town.  There is an assumption that that's ok because everyone here believes in the Bible, right?  If I tried to donate a book about Islam or Atheism or something, there would be a huge to-do, but Bible stories are a non-issue because everyone "around here" teaches their children from the Bible.  So it's just something parents don't have to think about at all.

My son and I read the book together and played with the little figurines that popped out of the book.  I explained to him that this was a story from the Bible, which has a lot of good stories, but they're just that: stories.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Abortion Crackers

Many of you have already heard this story (in fact, probably all of you at this point), but I figured I better get it written down for posterity anyway.

I used to own a small, specialty foods store.  One day, a priest walked into my store with a woman (no, this is not the start of a joke).  Despite my devout atheism, I was surprised to find that I really liked this preist.  He seemed like a cool guy.  Plus, he purchased pretty much everything I recommended to him.  I'm not sure what this lady's relationship to him was, but she purchased a few things as well, then they both left.

The very next day, this lady walked timidly into my store carrying her bag of groceries.  After a few minutes of awkwardly standing at the front of the store she approached me and asked if I was the owner.  I told her I was, and after a few more minutes of hemming and hawing she asked me if I was pro-choice.  I told her that I was and she immediately put her bag down on the counter and said, "I'm sorry, I have to return these."  I was a little bit in shock, but I said, "ok" and began to process the return.  She told me she had already eaten some of the food, but the crackers were unopened so I gave her a refund on those.  I figured, she could accuse me of being pro-choice, but she couldn't accuse me of being rude or unfair.  I was as pleasant as I could possibly be about the whole thing, and as she was leaving she said, "I'm sorry, I just see it as the killing of little babies," and I replied, "Well, I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on that one," and she left.

Thereafter, the staff and I lovingly referred to that brand of crackers as the "abortion crackers."  Needless to say, I never saw that priest (or any other priest) ever again.  I guess word got around town that I was a "killer of little babies."

I guess what bothered me the most about the whole thing is that she didn't ask me if I was killing babies in the back room, or if I was giving store funds to Planned Parenthood or anything, she simply asked me if I was pro-choice.  Meaning, simply the fact that I believe that people are allowed to make up their own minds on the issue is enough to boycott my store.  Unbelievable.

Monday, March 28, 2011

What's that now?

I had an amazing and rare uplifting moment last week.  I emailed our local high school librarian to see if it would be okay if I donated a copy of Dan Savage's new book "It Get's Better" to the school library.  I wasn't going to buy the extra copy if they wouldn't even allow it into the collection, but imagine my surprise when I got the following response:

"Yes, thank you. We welcome contributions. . .FYI: We have an open, progressive library collection for the young adults in our school. . . I did read some reviews of the book, and it appears it will have a place in our LGBT section."

Our high school library has an LGBT section??!!  Keep in mind, I live in a school district that does NOT observe Martin Luther King Jr Day and takes almost every Wednesday afternoon off for religious release time.  My jaw about fell to the floor when I read that!  I couldn't have been prouder of our local high school librarian.

Pieces of Flair

I had a "button making party" this weekend where a few friends of mine and I made over 100 one-of-a-kind buttons for the upcoming "Women's Expo" that our pro-choice group will be participating in.  I actually really got into it and forsee making about 6,000 more on my own after the kids are asleep.  Some of our favorite slogans:

"Pro-Child, Pro-Family, Pro-Choice"
"Trust Women"
"Mother by Choice"
"Pro-Faith, Pro-Family, Pro-Choice"
"Pro-Baby, Pro-Choice"

Do you see a theme here?  In a community like mine, I find that many people who consider themselves "pro-life" would actually find that they are pro-choice if they just realized that you can still like babies and support abortion rights.  Like I try to tell people; whether or not you're pro-choice has nothing to do with your personal stance on abortion.  It's only based on whether or not you believe that other women are capable of making that decision for themselves.

You really can love your kids and be pro-choice at the same time.  I do!

The start of something beautiful. . .

So generally, I'm kind of anti-blog.  I think there are too many of them out there, and with the exception of a precious few I find them to be repetitive and boring.  So I thought, "Hey! I can be repetitive and boring too!"  Basically, I just wanted somewhere to direct the constant frustration I feel over my plight of being so darned liberal in such a darned conservative area.  I mean, even our Democrats are anti-choice!  Come on!  So, if you feel compelled to read my posts, I thank you and apologize in advance.  If not, I won't hold it against you.  I'm all about choice.