Going off on a crazy rant. I realized yesterday how stir crazy things are getting here. And I got off on a huge rant with my friend. It was a little bit like this....
Him: I believe that choice should come before conception. I mean, everyone can choose. Choose birth control of some kind, not abortion.
Me: Not everyone can choose. Not everyone lives in rural Kansas, and maybe even people who do, don't get to resources all the time that provide birth control. What about this?
And here is where I went on a longish tirade.
What about 10, 11, 12 year old girls living in the projects who have someone coming into their rooms at night? And their family can't afford to live without said person? Do you really think they are going to the school counselor to ask for birth control? Do you really think they are going to stop the man who is getting ready to take advantage of the them and say, "hey, I got these condoms from school, let's use birth control tonight."? Now, I use the idea of poverty and government-financed housing projects as a stereotypical situation. Because guess what? These kinds of situations happen in good ole rural Kansas also. Sometimes it really is not the situation that the woman, the mom, the one who is supposed to protect the children, just chooses a man over her kids. Sometimes, most times, there is so much there. I am not advocating for this kind of situation. I am saying these women need us to love them. And their girls (and boys for that matter), they need us to know that they don't necessarily (not always) want to be separated from the only family they know. That when they are "rescued" to foster care and ripped apart from their siblings and "parents" that they are traumatized. That being one step away from being out of a place to live, out of any resources for food, out of transportation, is very real for some. That sometimes Moms do things that break their hearts as they do it. That not everything is a "choice" as we portray it in or hands-off, no sense of community, live-next-to-our-neighbor-for-years-and-never-even-learn-their-names society.
I have gone from a far-right, mouthy, opinionated point of view about life in general, including abortion, poverty, police brutality, and much more; to a sliding further and further to the left side of a "political" view of things. My stance isn't really so much of "let everyone do all the things" as it is, "there are few, if any, situations presented to us in life that are as simple as what presents on the surface." And my constant question is: What lies beneath this?
Is abortion a poverty issue? Not solely. But is our broken societal system perpetuating a problem bigger than a woman's right to choose? Definitely. Do I think this is a smallish, Popsicle-sized little sliver of ice beneath the surface? No. I think this buried iceberg could sink any ship. There is so much going on below the surface. A broken economic system. A broken justice system. Systemic racism. Broken church systems. Ignorance in society. A widening gap in classes. A caste system. These are a few portions of the foundation of this particular iceberg. And I don't see a basic change happening here any time soon. Because it will take more than a village, it will take a nation, looking for change, voting for change, marching for change, getting on our knees for change, putting in the blood, sweat and tears for change. It will require a paradigm shift.
So I am only one person. Where will this change come from? I believe it will come from one person at a time, opening their mind, reserving judgment, and finding out what lies beneath the surface of the issues that we have always seen as black and white (as in black, white, and grey areas; not referring to race issues right here). But as a fairly privileged white person, I do know that many things have a racial element to them. Oh, that sounds so clean, nice, white. I know that racism, prejudice, and ignorance, drive the actions of many people in power and many opinions of the commoner. There, is that more to the point? I hope you get where I am coming from.
Rant is not over. But this *little* rant, exhausted me. There will be more to come. I don't know when, but it would come bubbling out again soon. I do know this.
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