22 Thursday Nov 2012
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FLASH REVIEW FROM Anna Furtado: Crash Stop (Bella) Mary Griggs
Two women, meant to be together, struggle against stubborn pride, personal trauma—and, as if that’s not enough to get in the way, there’s also a bit of corporate intrigue. This is a classic love story with differences to be overcome and lessons to be learned. Read it to find out just how much it takes to succeed.
Anna Furtado
www.annafurtado.com
21 Wednesday Nov 2012
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I’ve taken on a new job that has me driving over hell and half of Louisiana on a regular basis. On a recent trip back from a loop that included Lafayette and Baton Rouge, I merged onto I-10 behind a truck carrying an unsecured load of debris.
I could only watch in horror as an interior house door flew off the back of his trailer and sailed through the air toward me. Time seemed to slow as I looked into my side mirrors and saw I had no where to go and then looked back in time to glimpse the sky through the hole in the door where the door knob used to be. I remembered thinking it was good they had taken that off just as it struck my front windshield and then broke into pieces as it damaged the roof and side of my car.
After I had chased down down the driver and waited while the Louisiana State Trooper wrote him a ticket, the reaction set in and I fought the nausea of the adrenilin leaving my system.
As my heartbeat slowed and I calmed, I thought about all the things I have to be thankful for this year.
Not only did I escape what could have been a horrible accident with only body damage to my car, I have found rewarding part-time work that has brought me steady income. My second novel was published by Bella Books and I have just signed a contract for the third. In addition to having a family that loves and supports me, I have a community that has recognized my advocacy as worthy of receiving the 2012 Equality Award from HRC Louisiana.
I am going to be at my parents for the celebration of Thanksgiving this year. Soon I will be sitting at a table loaded with food and surrounded by family and friends. I am so lucky to be alive, healthy and happy and to have been given this opportunity to let everyone know how much they mean to me.
Thank you, too, for being with me on the journey!
19 Monday Nov 2012
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(c) by Mary Griggs
The New Orleans Transgender Day of Remembrance event was held Sunday evening at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of New Orleans.
Organized by the Louisiana Trans Advocates after the LGBT Community Center lost its lease, the event memorialized the 268 individuals who were murdered over the past year because of their gender identity and/or expression. It has been estimated that one trans person per month on average is killed in the United States in a hate crime murder just for being transgender.
During the event, several transgender folks shared their stories as well as involving the entire audience in the reading of all the names of the United States victims and lighting candles for many of those lost over the course of the year. Refreshments were provided by the HRC Louisiana Steering Committee.
The Transgender Day of Remembrance serves several purposes. It raises public awareness of hate crimes against transgender people. Day of Remembrance publicly mourns and honors the lives of our brothers and sisters who might otherwise be forgotten. Through the vigil, we express love and respect for our people in the face of international indifference and hatred. Day of Remembrance reminds non-transgender people that we are their sons, daughters, parents, friends and lovers. Day of Remembrance gives our allies a chance to step forward with us and stand in vigil, memorializing those who have died by anti-transgender violence.
08 Thursday Nov 2012
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(c) Mary Griggs
The primaries and campaigns this past year felt like we were watching the last desperate death throes of the dinosaurs. The “gray faced men,” to borrow a phrase from Tina Fey, made numerous attempts over the past year to forcibly subject the entire country to their extremist policies. Beyond their legislative efforts, their public statements regarding rape and incest, abortion and contraception and utter disregard for anyone not white, male and privileged were frightening to behold. All of this despite nationwide opinion polls showing steady growth in favor of marriage equality, healthcare availability, less-draconian immigration policies, and any number of women’s issues.
As election night went on, I felt such overwhelming relief. The worst of the pro-rapist legislators were defeated, there are binders of women going to the Senate, and Barack Obama won re-election. Even more significant is that the 32 state losing streak was broken and all four marriage equality initiatives (Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington) passed. Additionally, there are now the following openly LGBT members of the US Congress:
President Obama’s victory speech was inspiring. I’m posting here an excerpt that illustrates why I voted for him and why I fight for equality:
America, I believe we can build on the progress we’ve made and continue to fight for new jobs and new opportunity and new security for the middle class. I believe we can keep the promise of our founders, the idea that if you’re willing to work hard, it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from or what you look like or where you love. It doesn’t matter whether you’re black or white or Hispanic or Asian or Native American or young or old or rich or poor, able, disabled, gay or straight, you can make it here in America if you’re willing to try.
I believe we can seize this future together because we are not as divided as our politics suggests. We’re not as cynical as the pundits believe. We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions, and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are and forever will be the United States of America.
Hopefully, with every year that passes, the proponents of hate will continue to be a shrinking minority. Like the segregationists of yesteryear, those who would propose policies that divide us or would restrict the civil liberties become less and less relevant to our diverse melting pot of a nation. Already, their children are showing their support for marriage equality, immigration reform and concern for the environment.
I hope that four years from now marriage equality and many other wedge policies will gain even less traction with the electorate. While the opposition to ending discrimination won’t go away, the demographic writing is on the wall and political parties that don’t evolve are going to die. No longer will hate be a truly viable political platform, at least on a nationwide scale.
For that, I am relieved.
06 Tuesday Nov 2012
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ELECTION DAY, NOVEMBER 1884
Walt Whitman (from Leaves of Grass, first published in 1891-92 edition)
If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest scene and show,
’Twould not be you, Niagara—nor you, ye limitless prairies—nor your huge rifts of canyons, Colorado,
Nor you, Yosemite—nor Yellowstone, with all its spasmic geyserloops ascending to the skies, appearing and disappearing,
Nor Oregon’s white cones—nor Huron’s belt of mighty lakes—nor Mississippi’s stream:
—This seething hemisphere’s humanity, as now, I’d name—the still small voice vibrating—America’s choosing day,
(The heart of it not in the chosen—the act itself the main, the quadrennial choosing,)
The stretch of North and South arous’d-sea-board and inland-Texas to Maine—the Prairie States—Vermont, Virginia, California,
The final ballot-shower from East to West—the paradox and conflict,
The countless snow-flakes falling—(a swordless conflict,
Yet more than all Rome’s wars of old, or modern Napoleon’s:) the peaceful choice of all,
Or good or ill humanity—welcoming the darker odds, the dross:
—Foams and ferments the wine? it serves to purify—while the heart pants, life glows:
These stormy gusts and winds waft precious ships,
Swell’d Washington’s, Jefferson’s, Lincoln’s sails.
Geaux Vote!
04 Sunday Nov 2012
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My endorsements for Tuesday’s election (because I know you all were breathless with anticipation).
Barack Obama, President of the United States of America – I am not a disappointed liberal. I believe that President Obama has done a remarkable job as our president, especially in regards to women and LGBT rights and I am happy to vote for him to have a second term. Here is a list of some of the reasons you should also vote for him: A LONG List of President Obama’s Accomplishments – With Citations
Cedric Richmond, United States Representative 2nd Congressional District
Dana Kaplan, Councilmember, District B
Judges:
Edwin Lombard, Judge, Court of Appeal 4th Circuit, 1st District, Division A
Herbert Cade, Judge, Traffic Court, Division A
Paul Bonin, Judge court of Appeal 4th Circuit, 1st District, Division B
Sandra Jenkins, Judge Court of Appeal 4th Circuit, 1st District, Division H
Tracey Flemings-Davillier, Judge Criminal District Court, Section B
School Board:
Cynthia Cade, Member of School Board, District 2
Lourdes Moran, Member of School Board, District 4 – Lourdes is doing a great job but her opponent is a dangerous bigot and must not win!
Seth Bloom, Member of School Board, District 5
Woody Koppel, Member of School Board, District 6
Thomas Robichaux, Member of School Board, District 7
Constitutional Amendments
(check out Public Affairs Research Council for a non partisan guide):
I am against robbing trust funds to pay budget shortfalls. While I’m a gun owner, I am against strict scrutiny for gun laws, as it could impact weapon free zones like schools and other laws that protect us from gun nuts (Orleans Parish DA Leon Cannizzaro agrees with me). I am against increasing tax exemptions in a state running budget deficits. I don’t believe law breaking politicians should get any benefits from their crimes while in office. I’m in favor of term limits.
Vote FOR – Medicaid Trust Fund for the Elderly
Vote AGAINST – Strict Scrutiny Review for Gun Laws
Vote AGAINST – Earlier Notice of Public Retirement Bills
Vote AGAINST – Homestead Exemption for Veterans’ Spouses
Vote FOR – Forfeiture of Public Retirement Benefits
Vote AGAINST – Property Tax Exemption Authority for New Iberia
Vote FOR – Membership of Certain Boards and Commissions
Vote AGAINST – Non-Manufacturing Tax Exemption Program
Vote FOR – More Notice for Crime Prevention District Bills
Vote FOR – Local Option School Board Term Limits
03 Saturday Nov 2012
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(c) by Mary Griggs
I’m baffled by the number of contradictory thoughts that many anti-abortionists can hold without their heads exploding.
The first one is the relative value of life. These men know women – in most cases were born of and raised by women, are married to women, have women coworkers and advisors. Yet for all their interactions, they don’t give as much weight to living, breathing women as they do to the potential life in these women’s wombs.
Leonard Pitts wrote a powerful column the other day in which he asks if women’s lives are not as sacred as the fetus they carry:
It doesn’t seem to be, at least, not in the formulation embraced by the Grand Old Party. In that formulation, women are bystanders to their own existence, their individual situations subordinate to a one-size-fits-all morality, their very selves unimportant, except as vessels bearing children…
Mourdock and other conservatives frequently tout the sacredness of life, but they seem to have a rather narrow definition thereof. They seem to consider life sacred only until the umbilical cord is cut.
Exactly – these folks are not pro-life. They are only pro-birth.
Perhaps the most insidious contradiction about these pro-birthers is that they are trying to stop abortions. If they were really trying to reduce what they call a holocaust, they would immediately join Planned Parenthood in reducing the need for abortions.
In 2008 alone, nearly 10 percent of unmarried women ages 20 to 29 experienced an unintended pregnancy. About half of unintended pregnancies in this age group end in abortion, according to a study released April 24, 2012 by the non-profit Guttmacher Institute.
When researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine offered 9,256 mostly low-income women and teens free birth control, the number of unplanned pregnancies in the group fell to between 60 and 80 percent below the national average.
Receiving free birth control made teens – a group at particularly high risk for unintended pregnancies – 1/6th as likely to get pregnant. The teen birth rate among study participants was 6.3 per 1,000 women, a huge difference from the national teen birth rate of 34.3 per 1,000 women.
Likewise, the abortion rate among women in the program was 4.4 to 7.5 per 1,000 between 2008 and 2010. In the United States as a whole, there were 19.6 abortions per every thousand women. That’s a 62% to 78% difference.
The World Health Organization reports on this connection: The most dramatic decline in abortion incidence occurred in Eastern Europe, where abortion is legal and safe. Since the fall of Communism, the rate fell from 90 per 1,000 women to 44. The decrease coincided with substantial increases in contraceptive use in the region.
These statistics are repeated across the planet – in Uganda, where abortion is illegal and sex education programs focus only on abstinence, the estimated abortion rate was 54 per 1,000 women in 2003, more than twice the rate in the United States (21 per 1,000 in 2003). The lowest rate, 12 per 1,000, was in Western Europe, with legal abortion and widely available contraception.
In defiance of these facts, these extremists fight against health care reform and that includes decrying any sort of contraception mandate. As part of the federal health care legislation, insurers now have to cover eight kinds of women’s services – everything from contraception to domestic violence counseling – without charging co-payments, deductibles or any other cost to the patient and it is driving the bishops and tea-baggers batty.
It is remarkably simple – many women seek abortions because of an unintended or unplanned pregnancy. The best way to reduce unintended or unplanned pregnancies is to improve access to affordable and effective birth control.
Save the heads. Support the fundamental right of each individual, throughout the world, to manage his or her fertility and watch the abortion rate drop.
Mary Griggs 