Today in my local paper the news is dire concerning a recent spike in suicides in villages across Northwest Alaska. Sadly this is nothing new in our native communities (last year we had 162 deaths by suicide).
I have worked with the mental health community for many years and have had some very disturbing experiences with the kind of despair that causes these, often very young, people choose to end their lives. I wish I could magically think of a solution to the problem but sadly I can do no more than mourn the loss of these young souls and hope that soon we will discover a method to drastically reduce this terrible loss of life.
This issue has existed for much too long to be blamed on our embattled Governor, but I do hope that she will take the time to address this crisis and get this community some much needed help with counseling and suicide prevention educational materials.
Thousands of miles away in Notre Dame, Anti-abortion protesters are getting ready to protest President Obama's commencement speech to the 2009 graduating class. Personally I find these actions repugnant mostly because they are using a time of hope and opportunity to make a very controversial political point.
I always support people's right of free speech, but this commencement has absolutely NOTHING to do with the issue of a woman's right to choose, other than the fact that Obama supports it. They chose this venue solely for the fact that they knew it would have a lot of media attending and that they might get a chance to be on television.
However what seems to be lost to these opportunists is the fact that there are young men and women who are supposed to be celebrating the end of four years (or more) of intense study and preparation, who are finally ready to step out into the world and take their place in helping to shape the future of our country. These students should be able to enjoy this day free from controversy, and instead relish the fact that the President of the United States has come to their school to speak to them. What a thrill!
But it looks like the Conservatives might be ready to toss off the old and used issue of abortion to focus on the new hotness of gay marriage as the wedge issue of choice to use to fight Obama's potential pick for the Supreme court to replace the retiring Justice Souter.
So now instead of focusing on fighting to take a woman's rights over her own body away from her, the Republicans will focus on dictating who we can love and marry.
Does anybody else see a theme emerging here? I mean what is it about sex and love that jacks these people up so much? Must everything the GOP focuses on be below the belt?
Personally I am a little bi-polar when it comes to Pro-choice (though I always end up landing on the side of a woman's right to choose) however I simply cannot see why it is any of my business if a woman who has been in a committed relationship with her female life partner wants to get married. Why the hell not? I have known some gay couples who have been together for over twenty years! If they want to make it "official" I don't believe that ANYBODY has the right to say no to them. I wish I could have a relationship that lasted that long.
Update: The grandaddy of dark clouds today may in fact be this which reveals that Pentagon briefings to President Bush regularly included biblical quotes plastered over images of the war in Iraq:
This mixing of Crusades-like messaging with war imagery, which until now has not been revealed, had become routine. On March 31, a U.S. tank roared through the desert beneath a quote from Ephesians: “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” On April 7, Saddam Hussein struck a dictatorial pose, under this passage from the First Epistle of Peter: “It is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.
Okay enough of this. (Though putting that last one aside is going to prove difficult.)
The sky outside is gorgeous. There are birds calling to me through the window. And I am going to go outside and enjoy all of the rewards that my beautiful home has to offer.
I hope that your day is as wonderful as I am confident my day will be.
Namaste, my friends.
Let me just say this:
ReplyDeleteIf you don't like abortion, don't have one.
If you don't "believe" in gay marriage, don't marry someone of the same sex.
But don't you dare take these two options away from me.
Not that I'd need to use them both at the same time, mind you :P
Ripley in CT (a mudpuppy)
I was just watching Meet the Press with Tim Kaine and Michael Steele as guests and discussing the Notre Dame graduation. David Gregory just pissed me off by saying "President Obama is Pro-Abortion". It is Pro-CHOICE, you dummy! If Gregory is going to say that Michael Steele is "Pro-Life", he should have correctly used the term "Pro-Choice" for President Obama.
ReplyDeleteOK, now I know where Gregory stands on this issue.
Speaking of dark clouds, Paul Jenkins editorial on torture in the ADN this morning. He is a sick man.
ReplyDeleteNamaste Gryphen.
ReplyDeleteNamaste
ReplyDeleteHey Gryphen, it's just a demonstration and it will probably be quite peaceful. If it isn't then the police should throw the troublemakers in jail for a while.
ReplyDeleteI think the problem you're having with it is entirely a different one than you stated. I don't think you care if the Notre Dame wackos ruin their ceremony as much as you care about the president being embarrassed. Don't worry about that, he's only another politician and he needs to be able to take the flak. This could lead to a new awakening of your rotten to the core political system so welcome this kind of thing with open arms.
Think of how great it would be if that douchbag Palin got heckled and shouted down at one of her gatherings! Turn about Gryphen, will allow the political system to change and grow.
After preparing for and attending my niece's weddig yesterday, well wellcome back to reality. Gryphen, that is an excellent question as to why the GOP and the religous and righteous right focues to the point of obsession on matters below the belt. Unfortunately as one who was raised a strict Southern Baptist, and wondered the very same thing, I have no answer. It is frightening, disgusting and totally abhorrent. My own view has always been they are so fixated on the subject of anything to do with sex because they are taught that a physical union between a man and a woman (of course!!) has to be sanctioned by God, rather than just accepting that sex is a normal, enjoyable part of life that does not have to be sanctioned by anyone but the two (or more if you are into that) consenting participants. I am only thankful that I never bought into this and grew up being able to think and reason for myself.
ReplyDeleteNow, I too am going to enjoy this beautiful day and take my dog for a walk on the beach. Namaste my fellow bloggers.
Are we getting close to the iceberg yet????????????
ReplyDeleteWhat does namaste mean?
ReplyDeleteI am from rural Alaska and have been fixated on Palin and the suicide issue from early on since she pretended to be concerned in addressing the string of preventable deaths in her husband's home region of Bristol Bay - New Stuyahok suffered five deaths in a matter of weeks and she made a show of bringing Monegan and a sympathetic ear.
ReplyDeleteHow did she follow-up? Even after a second trip? Fired Monegan (and his solution with an increased budged) and of course, appointed one of her church members from Wasilla (hell, if she can term Dillingham, the biggest town in the Bristol Bay region as a 'village' then Wasilla residents count as villagers. . .it is natural a road-system caucasian preacher can relate to remote Alaskan natives) on the Statewide Suicide Prevention Council and called it good.
I have been consistently fair by admitting Sarah is not to blame for what is wrong in the villages - but for someone who's platform is saving the unborn, celebrating the 'culture of life' and that "life happens" she sure has no qualms on letting the villages fend for themselves, take care of themselves, "This is not a State responsibility" attitude.
Maybe she'll bring Samaritan's Purse out with home-baked cookies.
In her interview on the Yukon bank of Eagle, she still heralded the point that the locals were taking control of the clean-up and response. Ask yourself why? Because in her short time as Governor, she has made it abundantly clear that she is not here to be a proactive and responsive leader in times of trouble or disaster - get your bootstraps ready Alaskans, lick that petroleum slick off the river yourselves, build your homes from scratch before the snow flies, good luck in finding enough salmon this summer to stock your freezers - here's another idea, get a job on the Slope and leave your young children alone half the year. That will do wonders for your family.
She who speaks from her nice big warm home. She who ran for a job that required living in Juneau but arbitrarily moves the capital to her house and collects a per diem for it. She who charges the state for bringing her young children around to cool events with her. She who gets thousands of donations from admirerers around the world for her family, PAC or church with a wink and whine. Charges her donors for designer clothes and accessories.
I could go on and on, but it's damn clear that it's good to be the Queen. Tell me, how in thw world will history judge Sarah Palin?
Personally I am a little bi-polar when it comes to Pro-choice.
ReplyDelete-------------------------
I would love to hear you expand a little more on this. I have my own thoughts....I am ok with it for the first few weeks of pregnancy. But terminating in late pregnancy, unless the health of the mother is in question, is something I couldn't do. And I am an Irish liberal.
I wonder how many of the so called Right to Lifer's are PRO DEATH PENALTY? All life is sacred to their God, right? Or not so much? How many innocents have been executed by man under the guise of law? HYPOCRITICAL? You betcha!
ReplyDeleteThat's the same thing I thought Gryphen...these young men and women have worked hard all their lives to get to this point...all through high school, busting their butts to get into Notre Dame, suffereing the financial burden, studying for four years or more to get their degree, and then rabid pro-lifers show up with their chanting and posters to push their own agenda. It shows no respect for the students of the university on one of the most significant days of their lives. These people should be ashamed. If they are truly pro-life, they should have put their words into action and volunteered time at a homeless shelter, or even offer to babysit the kids of a single parent. No instead, they are outside a UNIVERSITY holding up pictures of mangled fetuses...very productive.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, these same nutjobs never protested Hang em high George Bush who has killed tens if thousands of innocent Iraqi men women and children in his war of choice, and supported the death penalty as governor of Texas, killing the most in state history. The hypocrisy is astounding.
This is why I no longer consider myself a Catholic, after being raised in the church. There are many other reasons like the demonization of LGBT's, celibacy for the preisthood, and the no artificial contraception, just to name a few.