Political rant

[lunabee34]

Y'all, I am sorry. You know I don't post a lot of personal stuff on my blog, and I don't think I've ever really posted about politics, but I've about had it up to here, and I can no longer be silent.

As always, defriending amnesty day at Lorraine's journal.



I LOVE TAXES. TAXES ARE AWESOME. I AM SO GLAD I GET TO PAY TAXES. I WILL NEVER, EVER VOTE FOR ANYONE WHO DOESN'T WANT TO RAISE TAXES. I ENJOY WHEN MY TRAFFIC LIGHTS WORK, WHEN MY WATER IS NOT FULL OF ARSENIC, WHEN AIRPLANES DON'T CRASH INTO EACH OTHER IN THE SKY, WHEN BRIDGES DON'T COLLAPSE, WHEN THE MOTHERFUCKING POST OFFICE DELIVERS MY MAIL EVEN THOUGH IT IS RAINING, WHEN COPS CATCH BAD GUYS, WHEN MY CHILD CAN GO TO SCHOOL, WHEN PEOPLE LIKE ME WHO WERE POOR WHEN THEY GOT PREGNANT CAN LIVE THROUGH THE LEADING FETAL AND MATERNAL CAUSE OF DEATH IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BECAUSE OF MEDICAID, WHEN CHILDREN WHO DON'T GET FED AT HOME GET FED AT SCHOOL.

I AM TIRED OF BEING TOLD IN THE 21ST CENTURY THAT I AM A SLUT BECAUSE I WANT TO HAVE CONTROL OVER MY OWN BODY. WHY IN THE FUCKING FUCK OF FUCK ARE WE EVEN TALKING ABOUT CONTRACEPTION IN THE 21ST CENTURY? WHY? MY FUNDAMENTALIST PROTESTANT FAMILY'S ARGUMENT--WE'RE NOT AGAINST CONTRACEPTION, JUST REQUIRING A COMPANY TO PROVIDE A FREE SERVICE--DOES NOT WASH. AT ALL. WHEN I GO TO THE EYE DOCTOR, I DON'T PAY A CO-PAY. THAT DOESN'T MEAN MY DOCTOR VISIT IS FUCKING FREEEEEEEEEE! IT MEANS THE APPROXIMATELY FOUR MILLION DOLLARS I PAY EACH MONTH DURING THE YEAR TO MY INSURANCE COMPANY GOES TOWARDS THAT DOCTOR VISIT.

ABORTION IS LEGAL IN THIS COUNTRY! REQUIRING A WOMAN TO PAY FOR AN ULTRASOUND SHE DOESN'T MEDICALLY NEED AND FORCING HER TO FUCKING LOOK AT IT BEFORE PERFORMING THE PROCEDURE IS ONLY ABOUT TRYING TO SHAME HER INTO NOT HAVING THE PROCEDURE AT ALL.

I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THAT THE ONLY THINGS JESUS GIVES A SHIT ABOUT ARE GAY PEOPLE LOVING EACH OTHER AND ABORTION. IF YOU'RE PRO-LIFE, YOU CAN'T BE ALL YEEHAW ABOUT THE DEATH PENALTY. EITHER YOU BELIEVE IN THE SANCTITY OF LIFE OR YOU DON'T, NOT JUST FOR UNBORN BABIES THAT YOU AREN'T GOING TO GIVE A SHIT ABOUT ONCE THEY'RE BORN BECAUSE A LOT OF THEM ARE POOR. AND ALSO NOT WHITE. AND MIGHT NEED THE SERVICES PROVIDED BY THE TAXES YOU DON'T WANT TO PAY.

WHAT PART OF THE BIBLE SAYS, "YEA VERILY FOR EARNING MONEY IS AWESOME AND THY GOD MAMMON CAPITALISM FINDS IT ECONOMICALLY UNFEASIBLE TO CARE FOR THE EARTH AND WE'RE ALL GONNA BE RAPTURED UP ANYWAYS BY NEXT FRIDAY SO WHO GIVES A SHIT ABOUT POLLUTING AND BEING HORRIBLE STEWARDS OF THE WORLD AROUND US?"


Y'all, most of the time I love living in the rural South. I truly do. There's lots of awesome things about being here. But sometimes I just can't take it anymore. I can't take that every television I see EVER in a public place is tuned to Fox News. I can't take it that every conversation I overhear in a public place is about how amazingly smart and awesome X Republican candidate is. I can't take the racism and the homophobia and the classism and the sexism. It's also possible I am in a really bad mood. :(

Comments

[ithiliana]

+1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000!

[lunabee34]

INORITE?

*sigh*

Hi, can I borrow your rant space?

[thefourthvine]

I don't live in the rural South (uh, my mixed-race, queer family wouldn't make it down there, I expect), but I hear you on the general YAY TAXES front. I mean. I do wish my government would make slightly better choices about what to spend the money on, but it's not like I don't understand why I'm paying.

And it's late and I'm exhausted and for various reasons my filter is off, so if I may borrow your rant space?

IF YOU'RE PRO-LIFE, YOU CAN'T BE ALL YEEHAW ABOUT THE DEATH PENALTY.

Here is what I always want to say to people who are opposed to abortion and/or birth control: You better fucking be voting for higher taxes and more entitlements. You better be CAMPAIGNING for that, at least as much as you campaign against abortion. Because when women have children that they know they shouldn't have, they end up poor, and stressed, and under or unemployed, and often alone, and they need government help and lots of it to take care of those children. And since you insisted that they have them - forced those children into the world - you'd better be prepared to pay for their care and feeding and education and support. Otherwise I will know that you're not just in favor of punishing those dirty sluts who dare to have sex despite their failure to be perfect; I will know you're also in favor of punishing the children of dirty sluts - denying them adequate food and shelter and education and medical care, all basic things children need to grow up strong and healthy and safe - for a crime you believe their mother committed. (Which was, let's just cycle back, the crime of having sex in the absence of perfection.) And I will know that your interest in Protecting the Children lasts until the child in question is born. And then it's someone else's problem, all the protection that kid still needs.

What's that? Adoption, the loving option? Okay, well, the aftereffects of adoption are not well studied (and why do you think that is?), but first mothers grieve. Often a lot. Sometimes endlessly, painfully, terribly. I assume, since these women chose the loving option and all, you're willing to pay for the therapy and support they need? (No, of course the adoption agencies don't provide it.) You're voting for more taxes and mental and medical health entitlements for that, right? Since these are the good girls? Or are you wanting to punish the non-dirty sluts, too? And often adopted children have their own suite of adoption-related issues, and will themselves need therapy and educational support and an array of other services. And these are the kids of the non-dirty sluts! Their mother made the choice you wanted. Surely you're going to want to help these kids and their adoptive families deal?

Oh. You are opposed to abortion and you also vote for lower taxes and fewer entitlements? Then, yes, you hate women. And children. So fuck you.

Re: Hi, can I borrow your rant space?

[lunabee34]

YES YES YES YES YES to all of that!

I have had heated discussions with my parents before about how if women not having abortions is so important to them, then they need to make it economically and socially viable for women to have babies they might otherwise abort. This includes not slut-shaming women who get pregnant out of wedlock (talking about them as if their lives are over or ruined, ostracizing them, forcing them to drop out of extra-curricular activities at school, not allowing them to graduate valedictorian or salutatorian (which is fucking hard to do as a teen mom and should be given double awards in my thinking!)).

I also hate the evangelical Christian argument that we don't need government assistance for anything because Christian charity will take care of the world's poor and needy. Can you hear Lorraine laughing where you are?

Re: Hi, can I borrow your rant space?

[thefourthvine]

AUGH. When Christian charity solves all the world's problems, THEN we can consider rolling back government assistance. Which will be never. So. Dear Christian Evangelicals: Can we talk about a thing that MIGHT ACTUALLY HAPPEN? Penguins on the moon is much more likely than that. Let's choose to talk about how we will maintain penguin health in low gravity!

Grrrrrrrr.

Too true

[lunabee34]

The Penguin Colony shall be named Happy Feet and special care shall be taken to maintain the structural integrity of the eggs in this precarious celestial environment.

[monanotlisa]

I understand. Such a beautiful region; so terrifying at times.

At a professional fair, some recruiters wanted me to come to Duke or Vanderbilt. I was like, I'm Sure The Uni Itself Is Fine; I'd Just Rather Feel Safe In The World I Live In...

[lunabee34]

*nods nods*

And to be fair, it's not as if these things are confined only to the South. There's no magical place I could move where everyone would be treated fairly and kindly. I think it's just the homogeneity of things that's getting to me. I've never lived in a big city, and I imagine that kind of environment is full of all kinds of ideas coexisting, rather than being just one note.

When we were at Ole Miss in Oxford was the one time that I've truly felt comfortable in the South. It's a little liberal mecca that's full of everything that's good about being Southern.

[monanotlisa]

There's no magical place I could move where everyone would be treated fairly and kindly.

True, but that's always the case, isn't it?

I think it's just the homogeneity of things that's getting to me.

Yeah, I recall.

at Ole Miss in Oxford was the one time that I've truly felt comfortable in the South. It's a little liberal mecca that's full of everything that's good about being Southern.

Aw. :)

[zillah975]

*holds you tight*

A shame it isn't confined to the south. Then we could all just...migrate, and leave the south to the racists, homophobes, misogynists, and their ilk. I would miss it, but it'd be a price I would be willing to pay.

Alas, they are everywhere.

[lunabee34]

You are so right. Thank you for reminding me of that. I don't mean to hate on the South; I love many things about living here. I just get so frustrated. I would probably get frustrated no matter where I was living.

[ithiliana]

It's not just the South (am in Texas, and even here the culture is changing--the state went 40% for Obama last presidential election), and the cities (Austin, Dallas, Houston, are different than the rural areas).

I'd argue a lot of the issues are in the rural areas/small town (but I LOVE living in the country, just physically, and cannot stand to live in the urban environments), not just the South.

However, Alabama and Mississippi went to Santorum.

And there's a lot of shitty legislation getting passed in the Southern legislatuers (and Southwest--let's not forget Arizona).

[lunabee34]

*nods nods*

I completely agree with you that these issues are not confined to the South, and it's important for me to remember that. There's no magical place I can go to escape all the --isms.

Arizona is deeply frightening to me.