| Lowbagger.org
|
|
National Affairs No Friend of Mine By Marilyn Olsen One evening while listening to a public radio talk show I was outraged when a man called in to say that he thought women were better off under the Bush/Cheney regime than they had been under the previous administration (though he could not say why). The first thing Bush did as president was deny millions of women around the world access to family planning measures by cutting funding to these programs. It was a defiant act meant to signal the use of this religion to set public policy. During his first term bush appointed numerous anti-choice conservative judges to fill bench vacancies. His abstinence only sex-ed in pulic schools has resulted in junior high school students’ sexual activity doubling when they took abstinence only sex-ed. With this policy Bush is denying our children the information they need to keep themselves alive. According to the Center for Disease Control, HIV infection diagnosed among 13- to 24-year olds is increasing as is their high risk behavior. Females between the ages of 13 and 19 have a greater proportion of HIV infection (61 percent) than do males (39 percent). So why isn’t this administration out there passing out condoms to every teen-ager in the country? Bush/Cheney are busy on our high school campuses recruiting our children to be ammunition for their war. The Bush/Cheney, No Child Left Behind Act provides funding for military recruiters on high school campuses. What is the message here? Our children are not to be trusted to make informed decisions regarding reproductive choice/safe sex, but they are valuable as cannon fodder for waging war on any country with oil reserves, while Bush/Cheney subsidize acquisitions of gas-guzzling vehicles. Killing our young for SUVs, quite the family value. If we can’t get military recruiters off campus, then we need to get ourselves on campus with alternative pro-peace messages. We need to make it easier for theurban and rural poor students to succeed in their communities after graduation. How can they be all that they can be if they’re dead? In order for our children to be all that they can be we must start early in their development, providing programs that have a proven success rate, programs cut by Bush/ Cheney that provided quality early education, like Head Start. We need to find ways to strengthen the Family Medical Leave Act, expand after-school childcare and increase minimum wage. The No Child Left Behind curriculum has left educators with little choice and little time to teach anything that does not meet the very limited criteria meant to bolster test scores. Critical thinking skills, electives, physical conditioning, and other essential tools for learning to think outside the box are out the window. Bush/Cheney are ensuring that our schools turn out little robots inclined to do their bidding. It is time for us to go back to school. Clean air, water and soil are essential for healthy children. The During the last election some conservationists did not perceive much difference on environmental issues between the two major party candidates, so they either didn’t vote, voted for Green Party candidates, or voted for Nader. Unfortunately, we don’t have the luxury of making a statement with our votes at this point in time. We have less than two years until mid-term elections to make green candidates viable or viable candidates green. Let’s get to work! With the Bush/Cheney focus on war, militarism turns the country’s gaze towards increased support for military defense, undercutting issues of environmental protection, gender equity and reproductive health care. Apart from the obvious concerns regarding war, it also discourages voters from considering environmental and social concerns at the polls. Disengaging from the war dialogue to focus on environmental /population/human rights issues is imperative. We must say no to war and no to oil. Working for peace and alternative energy is a good start. Kermit the Frog used to say, “It’s not easy being green.” In the The National Council for Research on Women has documented the Bush/Cheney removal from government websites essential information on women and girls’ lives. They’ve also discarded or failed to fund crucial offices that address women’s needs, ignored medical advisory committees, provided misleading information on women’s health, failed to submit mandated reports on women and misrepresented the value of certain data on health care disparities (i.e. the false claim that not carrying a pregnancy to term causes breast cancer). During war, women’s voices are the first to be eliminated from the public discourse. According to a study conducted by Fairness and Accuracy in the month following 9/11, women were outnumbered 10 to 1 on the op-ed pages of the New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today. No one wants to hear that war is not healthy for children and other living things. No one wants to hear that under the Bush/Cheney regime pregnant women in the George Bush frequently refers to the increase of rights for women in The Bush/Cheney State Department gave the right-wing Independent Women’s Forum, co-founded by Lynne Cheney, $10 million to train Iraqi women in democracy. The women in Gender specific violence is rampant in Islamic countries. Anti-immigration attitudes endorsed by militarism are a threat to immigrant women who seek asylum for gender-specific violence. During immigration detention they are often revictimized by enduring physical, verbal, and sexual abuse. If they do manage to successfully immigrate, they face racial prejudice disguised as national security. Individual agency is not bestowed. Removing a burqa is not as simple as Bush would have us believe. The veil most in need of removal is the one over Bush’s eyes and the eyes of his supporters. He is not our friend. Marilyn Olsen is a long-time women's rights activist, mother, and Montanan. |
Lowbagger
Home Features Grizzly Futures: The Bear vs. the Bush Administration By Louisa Willcox Season of the Buffalo By Dan Brister A Healthy-Sized Harvest By Matt Koehler Wilderness Study Area Assault By Larry Campbell Departments Publisher's Notebook Satan is My Co-Pilot By Mike Roselle Editor's Corner What is Lowbagger.org? What is a lowbagger? By Josh Mahan On the Ground Plutonium Wind Threatens Tetons By Mary Woolen-Mitchell Green Politics Conservation and the Political Imperative By Howie Wolke National Affairs No Friend of Mine By Marilyn Olsen Planet Watch Major Free-Flowing River Faces Dams By Bryce Smedley School Zone Short, Aggressive Manifesto on Education By Shane Sanchez Readings Morning Light Shorts and Ecology By Tim Sandlin Floogle Watch The $11 Martini By Uncle Ramon Poet's Lounge His Likable Ways, and Shock and Awe By Greg Keeler Mean Streets By Phil Knight Love is a Glove By Derek Cook Mountain Step How to Lowbag a Peak By John Fothergill Conversations At the Barbershop By Peter Crumbaker Fiction Focus Coyote Goes Snowboarding By Phil Knight |