Jen's Green Journal

Birth Control Not Bans Pro-choice rally at the Capitol

Birth Control Not Bans

I've found in the past few weeks that just about every post I make about choice, I get at least one person, and sometimes more that want to debate the same things I'd already debated in an earlier post. So in the effort to be a little more efficient, I've decided to build this post as a resource page that I'll link to on the side bar and refer new commenters to.

Jen's Green Journal Posts on Choice

Most of these posts have several comments from "pro-lifers" and my responses to them.

When I was pro-life

Pro-Consent

Clarification: for Allie

66%

February is Misogyny Month at the Utah Legislature

77%

Morally responsible and loving choice

Calling all scripture enthusiasts

Utah Taliban: Keep your religion off my body

Can someone give this guy a logic transplant?

Blog for Choice Day – Why I’m Pro-Choice

Today is Blog for Choice Day

I managed to fit in a honk and wave event before work today, and a letter writing party at Stoneground after work.
This morning's "Honk and Wave" event got a mostly positive response. The only negative response that I noticed was one female driver doing the "shame on you motion" as she drove through her left  turn -- quite a driving feat if you know that intersection.

The letter writing party tonight was at Stoneground and several people came and went in the hour and a half that I spent there -- at one point filling up over half the resaurant seating. One pregnant woman who was eating there with her family came over and asked if she could write a letter and another woman eating there with her partner also came over to participate and sign the petition.

The "Honk and Waves" will continue each Tuesday and Friday at 7:15 a.m. at the northeast corner of State Street and North Temple throughout the legislative session or until this bill is killed-- the location ensures that several of our reps will see us on their way up to the capitol.

Other upcoming events:

Planned Parenthood Legislative Lobby Day -- February 13th (Tuesday) 9:30 a.m. - noon and 1 p.m to 4 (more info at http://ppacutah.org/)

Pro-Choice Rally planned for Thursday, February 15th (time and place to be announced, but will probably be an "after work" rally)

[This post formerly titled "Male dominated legislature" and I've made some additions.]

Is it because they are mostly men in the Utah Legislature, or because they are mostly GOP?

Misogyny

"Subscribers to one model, the mother/whore dichotomy, hold that women can only be "mothers" or "whores." Another variant is the virgin/whore dichotomy, in which women who do not adhere to a saintly standard of moral purity are considered "whores."
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Insurance in Utah covers Viagra and breast implants, but not birth control and our legislature will not address this issue.

They'd rather ban abortion rather than trying to prevent unwanted pregnancies -- HB235 (written by a man, and chief sponsor is another man). The chief sponsor man, Paul Ray, wants to make sure that we not only ban abortion, but give women a criminal penalty for seeking an abortion : Pregnant Women Could Be Punished Under Abortion Ban. 

An they're reluctant to take care of the kids we already have in this state: Health care for children, Medicaid not top priorities

As if all the above weren't bad enough, they killed a bill that would give women education and vaccinations for HPV which causes cervical cancer. Couldn't possibly be because women who have sex are at risk, could it? HB358: Lawmakers nix cervical cancer campaign, vaccinations for Utah women

I keep hearing that it's about life from the pro-lifers/anti-choicers and I keep arguing that it's about punishing women for their sexuality. The evidence from our male and GOP dominated legislature proves me right.

More on abortion in the Utah Blogosphere:

The World According to Me: Choice

The Third Avenue: GOP: life begins at conception and ends at birth

Background info:

Roe v. Wade

H.B. 235 S1

Utah Taliban/American Taliban: A place where laws are made according to the dominant religious/superstitious ideology and tend to result in excessive control over most aspects of one's life, and even more excessive control over women who are seen as inferior to men in that ideology.

What started out as a "trigger law" has become a serious threat against reproductive freedom in Utah. HB235 S1 (substitute bill) as become an all out assult on Roe v. Wade.

Fellow women of Utah, meet Rep. Paul Ray, a Republican from Clearfield, who wants to be in control of your body and your life.

Ironically, the way the legislature does email addresses make Rep. Ray's email: pray@utah.gov
You can also reach him at PO BOX 977, CLEARFIELD, UT  84089 or 801-725-2719

Read H.B. 235 S1

This substituted bill just made it out of committee and is expected to have strong Taliban Republican Support. The last time our legislature tried such an assault on our reproductive rights was in 1991 -- not only did it lose in court, but it cost the state $1.2 million dollars. Looks like our own little good ol' boys club is hoping that the rapture righties will be able to trash Roe v. Wade so that they can get away with this waste of money.

Quotes from Paul Ray:

"The people here have an ideal of protecting children - that's also unborn children." That's why our air is so poisonous -- to keep all those little children healthy.  That's why we are the most pro-war state in the U.S.: Gotta protect all those Iraqi children by bombing their houses and maiming and killing them.

"The honest reason behind this is, No. 1, I'm just plain flat-out against abortion," : Good for you, Rep. Ray! I support your choice on this and I promise to never force you to have an abortion.

and remember, this is the guy who's critical thinking skills gave us this little gem: “If we have to wait until the next legislative session, we’re going to have an onslaught, a rush of abortions to go in and beat the deadline."

I'll be keeping this blog up to date on all actions and organizing on this issue. Let me know if you know of something you don't see on this blog.

[If you think this issue is about the life of an embryo, let me remind you that our legislature in Utah allows insurance to cover viagra and not birth control, two things which add to the number of unintended pregnancies. Looks to me like an indication that punishment of a woman's sexuality as based on religious/superstitious ideology, and not life, is the driving force behind this legislation.]

Say No to HB235 S1

Melinda Casino at BlogHer summed up some of the best posts from Blog for Choice Day -- something I wish I had time for. I've had a three-year old with a fever and bad cough that I've been taking care of most of the day today and Sunday (and I'm behind on my Sundance schedule posts and I really wanted to have a review of a Sundance film I saw Saturday -- ah, the pressures of motherhood!).

One quote (from Persephone's Box) that Melinda posted that I especially liked:

""No country advocating freedom and democracy can reasonably force women to be life-support systems against their own better judgment."

There are probably lots more wonderful posts out there. The best way to find them is at here at Bush v. Choice, where most of them are listed.

I covered the reasons for my belief that women must have the ultimate say in what happens to their bodies and my experiences in making those choices in my life in last year's Blogging for Choice Day.This year's theme is "Why I'm Pro-Choice" which I really felt I covered in last year's post.

My thoughts keeping coming back to "Why are some people 'pro-life'?" We already know that a good percentage of "pro-life" folks aren't really pro-life, as evidenced by many of those same folks eagerly embracing the policies of war and the death penalty, and the justification of the murder of clinic workers and doctors. Their creditability is further undermined by being anti-contraception and anti-comprehensive sex education, which would lessen the need for abortion. This group isn't so much pro-life as they are pro-punishment -- and what better way to punish a woman for being sexual than force her to go through a pregnancy against her will, and either suffer the emotional scars and uncertainty of giving her child up to adoption, or raise a child for 18 years, most likely in poverty.

Another group are the people who are "pro-life" that I've identified really do believe that there is a life lost with abortion. Many of these people's beliefs come from their religious background, which makes me wonder -- where is their faith? Is their God so incapable that each abortion is a threat to His/Her plan? Is a woman more powerful than God in their viewpoint? If God wants a certain soul to be born on earth, isn't He/She capable of making sure that soul gets born to someone who wants the child? How do we know that abortion isn't part of God's plan to make sure that each child is a wanted child, and to help us to balance out our impact on the planet?

In ancient times the human race perhaps needed every baby that was conceived to be born to ensure the survival of the race; this was a time when many babies and children died due to diseases and famine and just the dangers of living in those times. We now know that not only do we not need every child conceived to be born, but the survival human race may depend on a lot fewer of them being born.

I believe another group taking the "pro-life" side are those who want to see a return to unquestioned male dominance in our society. What better way to keep women in their place, than to force those of them unwilling into the role of producing and taking care of children? I've seen evidence of this in various "studies" of questionable method that have been publicized by mainly conservative media, that "prove" that women who stay home and raise the kids are happier than those that pursue a career -- my personal experience (which is likely as valid, if not more so, than these "studies") is that closer to 75% of the women I know are much happier haivng a career or working outside the home than doing the full time mom thing (of which I am one); I do know a few that do enjoy staying home with the kids, and I respect their choice -- I just do not want policy for the rest of womankind modeled around those few.

So we have pro-punishment people, religious folks with shaky faith, and the misogynists running this "pro-life" movement, as far as I can tell. Not exactly an opposition with a trustworthy authority.

Being out and loud about being pro-choice is more important now that just about any time in the past 30 years. We have to be adamant about our right to choose the direction of our lives, as the legislatures across the country that are  dominated by pro-punishment folks, shaky-faith folks and misogynists are planning legislation to to chip away or do away with legal and safe access to abortions.

I keep hearing conservatives saying that their policies are about personal responsibility. Disregading many of the policies that they support that aren't -- safe and legal contraception and abortion is about being personally responsible. It's about honestly confronting our strong, and very human sexual drives, and balancing that with what we can handle in our lives.

*Progressives, Political Junkies, Activists, and Greenies

Sundance Film Festival 2007 Screenings and Events for Sunday, January 21: The Unforseen, Wonders Are Many, The Devil Came on Horseback, Miss Navajo, Joe Strummer, and many more below the cut

Our abortion rights are fading fast -- and MediaGirl wonders where the outrage is. I do too. The wacky religious righties won't be happy until we're all back in the home barefoot and continually pregnant amd no longer competing with those fragile conservative male egos.

New health recommendations for "pre-pregnant" women.

"New federal guidelines ask all females capable of conceiving a baby to treat themselves -- and to be treated by the health care system -- as pre-pregnant, regardless of whether they plan to get pregnant anytime soon.

Among other things, this means all women between first menstrual period and menopause should take folic acid supplements, refrain from smoking, maintain a healthy weight and keep chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes under control."

Are they also addressing the health of males of the fertilizing age?

The article mentions that half of all pregnancies are unintended. No surprise there -- we do live in a country that was founded by puritans. The guys in charge think that abstinence only programs work and are striving to make choice obsolete. Many insurance compaines don't cover contraceptives for women so women are stuck paying for birth control out of pocket. We could greatly reduce unintended pregnancies with good education and easily aquired birth control. But instead we're supposed to keeping our bodies in perpetual prime baby-making condition for 30 plus years.

A couple of years ago in Utah there was the case of Melissa Rowland. Are these federal guidelines a set up to eventually prosecute women who don't deliver healthy babies?

It's frightening to see how fast all the progress that women have made in the last 40 years are being stripped away.
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Related Scary Stuff:

The Christian Right's war on contraception
Should the CDC be a political tool?
The Handmaid's Tale

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Some musings on this from the Blogosphere:

On the other hand, it's hard not to see this as yet another harmless-seeming but nevertheless sinister step toward government domination of women's wombs. This is an administration that sees no difference between religious dogma and public health: Catholic hospitals don't need to offer contraceptives to rape victims; Christian pharmacists don't need to fill birth control prescriptions even if the Rx is for irregular menses; a fundamentalist Christian OB/Gyn who routinely drugged and paid his wife for anal sex (and claimed he only engaged in the sin of sodomy because he couldn't tell the difference between an anus and a vagina) singlehandedly blocked over-the-counter sale of Plan B. . . .After enough instances of that kind, it's hard not to suspect that at least some of those responsible for unveiling this initiative (after 20 years of discussion) are doing so, not solely because it's healthy for women and children, but because it helps establish government dominion of every woman's womb as a potential temple of Life.
. -Vichy Democrats (emphasis mine)

Pre-pregnant? Sorry, I’m too busy preparing for pre-dead. I’m also sort of pre-cancer and I'm a little pre-sleepy. Pre-pregnant is one of the craziest terms our insane government has ever come up with. -Suicide Girls

At least now I can't ever clean the cat litter again, right?
Gilead jokes aside, I don't know what to say. Literally, how are people not understanding why this is offensive to women. This isn't about health care, or making people healthy (because we'd have socialized medicine if that were the case) this is about reducing women to what society still sees as our most beneficial asset: not our minds, not our skills, not our compassion. This is about my uterus, and it's power. And because that power is scary and I obviously can't be trusted with it well then 'the mens' better intervene. -Laura, My Space Blog

Hi. My name is Jenny. I'll be your handmaiden, walking-incubator, live-baby-farm, uterus for the day. Would you like to impregnate me now? Oh, wait, excuse me, I have to go take my folic acid supplements and spend an hour in the gym first, to make sure I can carry the baby to full term. Once impregnated, I will not be able to carry another baby for nine months, but I should be able to keep carrying babies for the next 20 to 30 years, at which point I will stop existing in the medical system and the popular culture. Thank you. -Jenny, My Space Blog

I'm so GLAD he told me I'm overreacting because I sure wouldn't want to be an OVEREMOTIONAL WOMAN.  I'm sure the CDC just has women's best interests in mind, and it is unfair of me to put this all in context with other attacks on women going on right now, like the several states which are banning all abortions, or the pharmacists who refuse to dispense birth control, or the continuing refusal of male-dominated courts and law enforcement to jail or convict rapists, or the "men's rights" movement pushing for men to have the right not to support the children they engender, and welfare reform, which along with the new CDC guidelines prettty much makes for a smooth continuum of oppression which puts all women at risk of becoming pregnant at all times, without recourse to any support from either government or impregnator, and to then be blamed for anything and everything that goes wrong. -amananta

So, is this all a coincidence, or are government-funded agencies that are supposed to provide scientifically grounded and dispassionate recommendations for public policy being remolded into reinforcers of a conservative world-view, including the idea that womens’ primary function is to bear children, and that goal should be the prime determinant of their health choices? -ChezLark

Tell me to be healthy FOR ME, because I am important. Don't tell me to be healthy simply because I am a womb. -summer_smile

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UPDATE: The WaPo has an agenda and it's different from the CDC's

Clever rewording (found here) for guys who don't get why women are so insulted by this:

New federal guidelines ask all males capable of ejaculation to treat themselves -- and to be treated by the health care system -- as active studs, regardless of whether they plan to impregnate a female or donate sperm in the near future.

Among other things, this means all men after their first ejaculation should refrain from smoking, maintain a healthy weight, keep chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes under control, avoid known mutagens such as caffeine, and keep their scrotum from extremes of temperature.

Ejaculating men are also urged to avoid participating in sports with fast moving projectiles or other objects which might injure their testicles and cause their sperm to mutate.

Carnival of the Feminists is visiting Women's Autonomy and Sexual Sovereignty Movements. So many good posts, but my favorite post is "The Politics of Self Worth"

". . . .society measures my worth by what I look like and what I am to others and to what others think of me and where I stand in regards to idiotic societary norms based on a collection of legends of a xenophobic bigoted desert tribe 3000 years ago.

This puts me at odds with society. And since the societary norms are very pervasive and invasive, present everywhere and imposing, sometimes that puts me at odds with myself as well."

I just found out about another great blog carnival -- the Carnival of the Feminists. Carnival of the Feminists happens every 1st and 3rd Wednesdays.

Carnival of  Feminists #13 is the latest carnival, with the theme "Feminisms and Challenges".

To find out more about the Carnival of Feminists, check out the basics here.

Wednesday, March 8, 6-9pm
International Women's Day - "Building Global Bridges"
Vieve Gore Concert Hall, Westminster College
FREE and open to the public
Reception: 6pm, Program: 6:45pm
~~~~~~~
Feature Film: "Women on the Frontlines". Women in 5 countries strive to improve their lives and communities thorugh education, micro loans, democracy, and the search for peace and forgiveness. Discussion will follow.

Presented by:
Planned Parenthood, People for Peace and Justice of Utah, Mormons for Equality and Social Justice, National Council for Community and Justice, Tapestry Against Polygamy, Ten Thousand Villages, Westminster Students for Choice and Diversity Center, Rape REcovery Center, YWCA, SLC Film Center and City Weekly.
___________________________________________________________
In many countries, International Women's Day is a national holiday. It doesn't surprise me that it's not a holiday here -- we're somewhat lagging as a nation in the way we view women. We've never had a female president here when there have been female leaders of several other nations. A big chunk of the population here believes that middle-aged white men in suits have the right to control a woman's body and life -- women in this country stand to lose a lot of rights if this destructive ideology isn't halted quickly.

This quote  (found here) sums up at least one good reason to focus some of our attention on women's issues:

"At the same time that women produce 75 to 90 percent of food crops in the world, they are responsible for the running of households. According to the United Nations, in no country in the world do men come anywhere close to women in the amount of time spent in housework. Furthermore, despite the efforts of feminist movements, women in the core [wealthiest, Western countries] still suffer disproportionately, leading to what sociologist refer to as the “feminization of poverty,” where two out of every three poor adults are women. The informal slogan of the Decade of Women became “Women do two-thirds of the world's work, receive 10 percent of the world's income and own 1 percent of the means of production.”

— Richard H. Robbins, Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism, (Allyn and Bacon, 1999), p. 354

The bolded part comes from 1980 census information, so you'd think that things might have improved in the past 26 years, but the site above claims that trends seem to be moving in the opposite direction.

Also of great concern for women is human traifficking where women and girls as young as 6 months are sold into sexual slavery. I heard on the radio the other day that there are more slaves on the planet now than at any time in history. I personally believe that with many cultures (including part of our own) that de-humanize and consider women less than equal to men contribute psychic-ly to world in which such a problem exists.

My vision for the world is one in which women are seen as equal to men, where they have choices about their lives and the right to make whichever choices are right for them; where women can be anything that they want to be and not restricted to narrowly constructed roles based on decades past.; where women are seen as human beings and not as: children or lesser adults to the patriarch || property || baby-machines || or sex objects, which I think will only happen when as a society we stop demonizing sex. . .

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"If society will not admit of woman's free development, then society must be remodeled."

Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910), the first U.S. female medical doctor

Wow! So many posts for the Blog For Choice event last month. There will be another blog for choice event coming soon covering birth control and preventing unwanted pregnancies -- keep  checking back at Bush v. Choice for more info.

Blog for Choice

One of the great things about living in these times is that women's opinions about politics are listened to more than in times past. I just came across the website What She Said which features women political bloggers. On the right hand side of the page is a blog roll of "Progressive Women Who Blog Politics" with a really long list of links. I stopped counting at 300 and I was just in the Ms alphabetically.

Blog for choice

Today is the 33rd anniversary of the Roe v. Wade descision. The site Bush v. Choice organized a "Blog for Choice Day" for today. Actions such as this are important as recent political movements have been chipping away at a woman's right to control her own body.

I grew up in a conservative home and a conservative religion, so I think I have a pretty good grasp of where pro-lifers are coming from in their ideology. But essentially, the religion I was brought up in (LDS) espoused "free agency". Some of the stories I was told in Sunday school as a child were of a "pre-existence" -- a sort of heaven before the earth was created by God. In this pre-existence, I was told, there was a war over the idea of free agency of the earthly existence. The angel Lucifer asked God to let him lead humanity, that he would make them obey God's will. The angel Jesus told God that he would let humans have free choice serve God's will or not. At the end of this "war", Lucifer and his anti-choice followers were cast down into "outer darkness".

I always remember this story whenever I hear about our (mostly) Mormon legislators here in Utah passing legislation that limits our free agency in many ways, from reproductive rights to instituting a lottery to benefit schools, to allowing kids to organize gay-straight alliances. I wonder if they got the same lessons in church that I did, and how they reconcile their own actions with that theology.

The beauty of choice, I've often felt, is that it honors everyone's choice. My choice to have my children is just as valid as that of someone who chooses to have an abortion or give their child up for adoption.

That essential choice is not always an easy one. Both of my children were unplanned and I was not married to either of their fathers, although I did later marry the father of my youngest. I went through each of my options over and over, carefully weighing the repercussions of each. In the end, both times, I chose to have my daughters. I would never condemn a woman who made a choice that was different than mine.

Raising a child does not only entail hard word and expense, but it can be so draining mentally, emotionally and physically that, in my experience, you sometimes feel as if are losing yourself. There are some rewards and benefits to having children, but there are rewards and benefits that are equally as good for those pursuing other paths in life. And there are rewards and benefits to having children when the timing is right: after you have had ample time to discover yourself and enjoy your life, after taking time to work on career goals and come to feel mature enough to handle motherhood.

It's interesting to me that the issue of abortion is often bundled together with other reproductive issues. I would think that those most involved with the fight against abortion would at least champion birth control and comprehensive sex education that generally reduce the need for abortion, but most of these people are fighting women's access to these options as well. This makes me wonder if those opposed to abortion are more attached to the idea of punishing women for being sexual than to any issue of fetal rights.

The ideological shift and the growing power of this regressive segment of society frightens and angers me. I am a whole human being, with hopes and dreams that don't necessarily have anything to do with raising children, and in some cases, are hindered by it. I am vital and interested in doing much in the outside world; I refuse to be limited or imprisoned by a narrow role defined by my physical ability to get pregnant.

My ultimate goal in life is to leave the world better than I found it. I intend to raise my girls with the full knowledge of all their options in life. I intend to raise them with the awareness that they are whole human beings, and that motherhood is one option among hundreds or thousands that they may choose from. I hope for a world where women not only have choices, but one where they have a supportive society that honors their choices.

_______________________________

My friend Eileen McCabe-Olsen wrote a very moving poem about women's choice for their bodies. She performed it last night at a poetry slam sponsored by the Slamdance Film Festival -- the rival to Sundance. (Photos from that event can be found here).

God Has a Plan B

I have figured out why

Bush, Ashcroft, Rove and Falwell

fear the woman with choice –

Because her god can beat their god

with one arm tied behind her back

Her god, my god has a Plan B.

My god is not foiled

by the knitting needle, the coat hanger

the pennyroyal, periwinkle, RU-486

or the compassionate physician.

My god does not stand helplessly by

wringing her hands and

whining to the next

Ghandi, Mother Teresa

Albert Einstein or Margaret Sanger

why they’ll never be born.

She just fills out a new boarding card

pats them on the head

and sends them on their way.

I have always known my limitations.

It is not for me to decide

which spirits will grace this earth.

But it is for me to decide

whether to invite them

into my body and into my life.

When the Great Mother comes knocking –

The answer can be no.

So to patriarchs everywhere –

Have a little faith in the powers that be.

Render unto God what is God’s -

But render unto Woman what is Woman’s.

Eileen McCabe-Olsen 04/26/2004 – 05/01/2004

 

 

Much as I'd love to see a woman president, I agree with Molly -- I won't support or vote for Senator Hillary Clinton.

"Do not sit there cowering and pretending the only way to win is as Republican-lite. If the Washington-based party can't get up and fight, we'll find someone who can."

Wonder if Molly is planning on voting Green next election?

There was a recent discussion about voting for women on the feminist community here on LiveJournal. I got out of the discussion that feminists wouldn't just vote for a woman just because she's a woman. The thread is called, "What if Clinton Runs?"

I wrote recently about my brief personal experience with Senator Clinton as one of the reasons that I don't think that Senator Clinton would be a good president.

I attended high school in the materialistic 80s. The most political we got was to participate in a small-scale sit-in to protest the new "hall patrol" rules.

I hardly ever see anyone around my age at the political events I attend. I wonder sometimes if the era I grew up in nutured a kind of apathy for my age group.

Over the past few years I've admired all the teen political activism that seems to be everywhere. It's wonderful to see all this new energy to make the world a better place.

These girls are organizing a "Girlcott" of Abercrombie and Fitch, and while the company tends to thrive on this kind of controversy, the more important point seems to be that these girls are refusing to keep quiet about these degrading products.

With the backlash against feminism growing ever stronger in this fundamentalist-crazed era, I'm especially in awe of these young women.

 

I’ve received three (all the same) “2005 Critical National Issues Survey” from the “Friends of Hillary” over the past few months.I filled it out, with modifications, the first time and sent it in.

In the first part, you are supposed to rank a list of nine issues. The nine issues listed are:

· Economy/Jobs

· Environment

· Social Security

· Education

· Homeland Security

· Health Care

· Tax Cuts

· Reproductive Rights

· Separation of Church and State

Conspicuously absent from the list (which I added to the side, and then ranked with the rest) are:

· Ending the Iraq War

· Getting rid of the Patriot Act

· Reducing Military Spending

· Promotion of Fair Trade over Free Trade

· Debt Relief to Africa

In the second part, there are a number of questions that are asked about which party you trust on various issues. The only two choices given on each question is Democrat and Republican. I added Green Party to each with a hand-drawn box that I checked off.

In the section for additional comments I added: Senator Clinton voted to give Bush war powers – bad move. I vote Green Party because they are ANTI-WAR, anti-corporate rule, and represent my values. I will donate only to pro-peace candidates. Get us out of Iraq!

I remember how rabid the right-wing got about Hillary way back when Clinton took office. I had no problem with her at the time, and I knew that the main reason conservatives detested Hillary was because she was a strong woman who had been labeled that nasty “L” word – liberal.

I’ve seen many instances over the years where Hillary could have done the right thing, but sold out, mostly for political gain.

Back in March of 2003, the CODE PINK anti-war group had several events in Washington D.C. Thanks to a donation of a friend’s frequent flyer miles and being able to share a hotel room with some other women, I was able to attend.

Two days before the march was a lobbying event. We had planned to give “pink slips” to senators that supported giving Bush war powers, and pink medals of courage to those that had opposed the war. I met Medea Benjamin, Jodie Evans and several other pink women at the NOW offices in D.C. where we packed our pink gear in bags and split up in cabs headed for the senate office buildings.

We made it past security and headed for the women’s restroom to change in to our pink berets and other pink paraphernalia.

In the restroom I was teaching a couple of women part of a chant that the radical cheerleaders in Salt Lake had used, and we modified it for Hillary, the first office we planned to visit. It went like this:

We’re putting our bodies on the line
Trying to stop war while there’s still time
We’re putting our bodies on the line
Hillary, it’s time to get some spine!

We stormed Hillary’s office, scaring her staff. There were probably 25-30 of us with some press stuffed in the fairly small outer office, holding up clothesline with dyed pink slips with various messages. The chant I had taught a couple of women spread to the whole group, and we did that chant and sang some peace songs, while Hillary’s staff tried to find someone to talk to us.

Hillary’s chief of staff came out to talk with us and somehow we moved out into the hallway,where Medea cornered her. I can’t remember what Medea said, but I remember being so impressed with how eloquent and passionate she was. It was agreed that the chief of staff would arrange a meeting between Hillary Clinton and us later in the day.

We went to a few other offices, Diane Feinstein and Ted Kennedy among others, but were unable to arrange meetings with the Senators, and ended up talking mostly with staff. We then met a few blocks away for a lobbying “debriefing”; we were joined with more Code Pinkers and then headed for our meeting with Senator Clinton.

After some time, I wondered if the meeting would happen at all, as Senator Clinton was very late. We were finally admitted into a waiting room, but we weren’t allowed to bring in our clothesline, so several of us put the pink slips on over our clothing.

While we waited for Senator Clinton, we sang, and the chant I had taught earlier had now evolved into a song. Many women were dancing and all of us were singing. The atmosphere in the room felt like a celebration of peace and hope.

Senator Clinton finally arrived, and I think that many of us were quite awed that we’d actually been able to meet with Hillary. Senator Clinton seemed very tired when she came into the room. She spent some time explaining her position on Iraq, and wouldn’t back off on going to war, even when Medea talked about Hillary’s position on “It takes a village” and asked about the children of Iraq, something she knew a lot about, as she and several other CODE PINK women had visited Iraq to meet with everyday Iraqis.

Finally, when it was determined that she had no intention of changing her stance on war, Jodie Evans took off her pink slip, which said “Hillary, you’re fired!” and handed it to her.

Senator Clinton got very angry, saying “I’m the Senator from New York, and I will not do anything that will put people at risk” or something along those lines, and she stormed out as almost all of us responded with, “But you are!” very much aware that war on Iraq would be more likely to increase terrorist numbers than to diminish them.

The energy in the room, a few minutes before feeling so positive, was now quite different. I was amazed how powerful her anger with us was, it was palpable.

As much as I’d like to see a woman as president, it is this incident and Hillary’s record of selling out what were probably once good principles that has convinced me that I will not support her for president. There’s no guarantee that the good things that does still support will get any support from her as president, either.

There’s been talk of running Cindy
Sheehan as an alternative to Hillary, and I would really like to see the Green Party run a woman in the next presidential election.

Waiting to Pink Slip Hillary March 2003 We weren't allowed to bring in these props, so many of us put the pink slips on over our clothing

Code Pink and Hillary Clinton March 2003 Poor quality photo I took with a disposable camera. Senator Clinton is standing up in bluish-green, and Medea Benjamin in standing to the left of her.

The article about our meeting with Senator Clinton from Common Dreams includes a couple of photos.