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I know I said you wouldn’t hear from me while I’m doing the Guard thing, but here I am!
Okay, I haven’t been down around there much (and thank God! we don’t want to go downtown, because that means things have gotten violent down there) but I did go on a little run downtown yesterday, and let me tell you what I saw.
- I saw bike rickshaws and bike rental stations. How awesome! I hope these things stick around (at least the bike rental stations, I don’t know how useful bike rickshaws are going to be in the long term, but who knows?). I can just picture it, I could take the light rail down town and then take a bike when I get there. I’d never have to drive downtown again. Denver is really working hard to be seen as uber green during this convention, so I really hope we keep it up.
- I saw cops on every corner. Let me tell you, I don’t envy these guys jobs.
- I saw people peaceably exercising their first amendment rights.
- I saw people behaving in more negative manners, but nothing violent or destructive.
- I saw street corner carts selling cheapo Obama gear.
- I saw an excess of knock off designer purse street carts.
In other news, today my PA team engaged The Daily Show. Yeah, the Daily Show. It was pretty awesome. Jon Stewart was not there, but I did get my picture taken with John Oliver.
John McCain, currently on his second marriage, may not have been involved in the lives of his children from his first marriage.
Apparently one of his kids from his second marriage wrote a book about him and neglected to mention all of his children, suggesting that, perhaps, the children from his second marriage were not involved in the lives of their half siblings.
This is disturbing to me. The way he dumped his first wife is bad enough (apparently, after she waited for him all those years while he was a POW, she got into a crippling accident. The 40 something McCain, who apparently didn’t want to be burdened with a cripple, began cheating on his wife with a 25 year old, the woman who he is now married to), but if he proceeded to abandon his children from his first marriage afterward that is unacceptable. Hopefully he at least paid child support, but you would think that the presidential candidate who is representing the interests of the Christian Right would not find it acceptable to leave children without a male role model. It is the Christian Right, after all, who are so adamant that a father’s presence is crucial for a child’s development.
While I don’t see a fathers presence in quite the same light as the Christian Right does, I do think that child abandonment is one of the worst things a man can do, and believe that it is a serious issue affecting the well being of the American culture as a whole. I think we all need to demand clarity from John McCain on his history as a husband and father, because if this man can’t even raise his own children, how can he run a country? If he can abandon his own flesh and blood, what kind of care will he have for the rest of us Americans whom he has not even met?
Dead beat dads are not fit to run a country.
Sorry I haven’t been writing much lately. Unless I can find time to do it on my iPhone while nursing, I don’t have time for the internet these days. As you may or may not know, the entire Colorado National Guard is preparing to be activated for the Democratic National Convention. We will be working in support of local law enforcement agencies, blah blah blah, command information.
What this means for me is
a) two weeks without seeing Elijah, even though I’ll only be about a half hour’s drive from home
b) I won’t be able to participate in any of the DNC demonstrations with any of the organizations I belong to
c) I am busy as hell at work getting ready for this enevitable madhouse
I’ve been busy putting together a family care plan for Elijah incase the unthinkable happens and I die during the DNC or if Elijah gets sick or hurt and my mom needs to get him medical help. Its been slow going (because no one is ever in the JAG office!), and terribly stressful and frightening. For example, I need to start thinking about if something were to happen that kills me and my mom, but not Elijah, where does he go? Yes, I have a large extended family, but I’m skeptical that any of them would raise Elijah the way I want him to be raised.
Another thing, how much is my estate worth? Yeah, I just bought a new house, but I haven’t even made a payment yet, so do I count the worth of my house as my estate, even though I still owe everything my house is worth? Its so complicated!
Where are the guys from JAG? Where?!?!?!?
Anyway, if you don’t hear from me in two weeks (and you won’t, I promise) after this weekend, you’ll know why. I’m off playing Army in downtown Denver.
If you’re watching DNC coverage on TV, and you see an overweight, red headed Soldier with a big camera and a dazed and/or angry look on her face, that’s probably me. I will be wearing square glasses (either a purple pair, or a brown pair, depending on the time of day) and my hair will most likely be a disgraceful mess.
Just a heads up for all you nursing single moms out there, August is Breastfeeding Awareness month, and next week is World Breastfeeding Week. So whip out your boob some place public and tell objectors to shove it. Or handle it politely, whatever.
Also, starting today, the Workplace Accomodations for Working Mothers act takes affect, requiring Colorado employers with more than 2 employees to provide reasonable break time and a private place that’s not a bathroom stall to pump breast milk during work. Read more about it here and here, and have your boss do the same, if need be.
Also, totally un boob related, here is a cool article I read on Grist today about green and affordable grocery shopping. Most of this stuff I already do, but for whatever bizarre reason, I still like reading about it.
Have you ever encountered negative reactions to your nursing in public? Just Saturday some old dude at Sweet Tomatoes was giving me dirty looks, thats about the most I’ve ever gotten. Oh yeah, and one time at the Aveda Salon I overheard some dude saying to the chick he was with, “Why do people have to do that in public?” I wanted to tell him, “Specifically to freak out prudes like you”.
My friend and I have been having a spirited discussion about adoption. You can read our discussions here, if you would like. In an effort to better understand her point of view, I have gone out and discussed the matter in a variety of other forums and investigated other websites.
I know that many women feel pressured into abortion because they feel they are unfit or uncapable of caring for their children because the stereotypes society places on single mothers. This is wrong, and I have always spoken out against this. It has never occurred to me that the same pressure is exerted on mothers to put their children up for adoption. That is also wrong. Women should never be made to feel incapable of raising their own children, if they want to raise their children they should have the resources and support they need to do so. I feel that I was very clear about that in my last post. There is no reason why a woman should feel unable to raise her own child, unless there is some sort of physical restriction that would keep her from doing so (I can’t even imagine what kind of restriction that would be, maybe a single, parapalegic with no living family?)
I believe adoption is a choice, but, like abortion, it is a very serious choice that should be made based on education and personal assesment, not on societal pressure. I have known two women who chose adoption because they found themselves pregnant and did not want children, but for personal reasons abortion was not a good option for them either, but in the past couple of days I have heard from many women who had an entirely different adoption experience, one that has left them feeling victimized and taken advantage of. That is just as horrifying to me as the stories I know of women who felt pressured into abortion and soon regretted their choice.
When a woman is faced with an unplanned pregnancy she has only three choices; parenting, abortion or adoption. I do not think any choice is any better or worse than any other, only the woman making the choice can decide which is best for her. But any of these choices made for the wrong reason, such as societal pressure, is bad for women, children, and society as a whole.
Obviously there are some terrible flaws in the adoption system. For starters, adoption should not be an industry. It should be strictly non profit. Babies are not merchandise and women are not farm animals spitting out spawn for sale (unless you want to be, and hey, professional surragates are a whole other issue). Women who are considering adoption should not have to defend themselves against adoption salesmen who’s only interest is to get another baby on the market. That is awful. I am horrified to hear how common this sort of thing is. If people are seriously willing to pay so much to have a baby, why not just pay a woman to be a surrogate and call it what it is. Forking over lots of money for adoption services just creates a baby market and makes it more likely that vulnerable women will be taken advantage of by baby salesmen. Furthermore, those looking to adopt should really look into adopting children who already are without homes, such as the ones in the foster care system, instead of helping to create this enormous demand for babies.
Maybe women need more help from unbiased sources when making a descision about how to handle an unplanned pregnancy. You have to see a psychiatrist before you get gastric bypass surgery, to make sure that’s something you really want to do and can live with, maybe women should do the same thing before deciding on adoption or abortion. Women should certainly know of all the support they can get if they choose to raise their child, and what their parental rights are. Too many women do not know these things until it is too late, and they have already made a descision they would not have made had they known of the aid they could have had. The aid that is currently available is also insufficient, and I think I was very clear about that in the last post.
I still think that adoption is a viable option for some women who do not want to be a mother. But I have learned that the system in which adoption takes place in this country is seriously fucked up (for lack of a better term) and that it often does not represent the best interests of women and children. Some serious changes need to be made, both legally (maybe by socializing adoption so its no longer a profit industry) and socially (maybe by encouraging more people adopt out of foster care rather than paying high prices for infants). I don’t have all the answers, but I conceed to my friend that there are serious issues that need to be fixed right away.
