14 March 2003

First off, I just adore Ladiebug and Lisse.

But you already knew that, right? :)

So I've been listening to the Christian radio station a lot lately (you'd be surprised how good a lot of it actually is!). The one we have is a pretty good mix of rock, rap, R&B, and even, er, techno? Haha, so you'll get your occasional scary heavy metal tunes (ROWALHHHHH, You're going to hell!) or your weird pop/rap remixes....something is strange when they're rapping about Jesus and what not, when you're used to ho's and drugs. But for the most part if you aren't really listening it just sounds like good tunes, and hey, they don't play commercials, and who can beat that?

Okay, so they have their own commercials for the "pregnancy hotline" which advertises for the local Christian hotspot "help center" on campus that is really biased, and is conveniently located right next to the Planned Parenthood.....and you get a few "this is how god saved me" anecdotes, which can be pretty hardcore, but it's all good.

Actually, I wish more artists could be carried over to mainstream, because they're pretty good. I bought one cd a couple years ago by The Normals and it's a great record. There's this new song out by Switchfoot called "Meant to Live" and I absolutely love it. I impulsively ordered it the otherday. I hope I get it before spring break so I can put it on my Beach Mix. Sure It'll go right between Nas "Made You Look" and Martin Sexton or Starsailor, so it'll be completely bizarre, I know. But that's me, la la la....

I feel absolutely confident that I have a 4.0 for the quarter. Never before have I felt so "sure" so I have this bad feeling that I'm jinxing myself. It's not that I didn't do a lot this quarter, I put in a lot of hard work, but I'd say overall, it was probably one of my least stressful quarters ever. Obviously, not having ANY midterms/tests all quarter (just *lots* of papers and presentations) helped. A paper you can slowly work through....an examine, that's just a guaranteed all-nighter stress inducer.

And I actually had all of my papers done (well, at least the major ones) early. So no night before cry sessions. I usually get one call home a quarter, crying to my mom about something, but I managed to escape that this time.

What felt the strangest is my final women's studies paper went rather quickly. I didn't cry, or freak out or anything...and I think it was pretty good. It was terrifying actually, content wise. I sounded like a psycho women's studies chic, with my conclusion basically ripping the government apart.

It's tricky, the government. I'd like to think I'm libertarian, but in truth I'm a super democrat. I believe in all these social programs, but I do feel in a sense that the government should be less involved in our lives, that they overstep government's true purpose, but on the otherhand, there are so many groups that are marginalized and struggling, and I don't think things will ever get better unless someone (with $$$) does something about it.

And what terribly boring classes I had this quarter. If you can imagine, studying the crack epidemic in relation to women was actually the most interesting class I had. Actually, it wasn't all that interesting, but I think it did strengthen my feelings/position considering abortion.

Especially after studying reproductive health in Mexico for one of my other classes, I think our country would be so backwards if Roe V. Wade was every overturned.

Okay, I think that's completely cool if people feel really strong about an issue and they want to share their opinions about something, say pro-life/choice. In fact, I hope people share their thoughts, because that's how you grow and learn about other things, but to impose your opinion is where it gets me.

I'd like to think that personally I am pro-life. I would LOVE to believe that if I were faced with an unplanned pregnancy that I would take the responsibility of carrying the pregnancy and caring for that child, but I can't say that. I have never been in that posistion, and if I had, I don't expect my situation to be like anyone else's.

But it is a woman's body, and I don't believe in life at conception. I think a fetus, is a part of the body it is connected to. For she is the one who is responsible for it during her pregnancy, and unless if you can provide the best nutrition and prenatal care, and access to a low-stress life, etc--that fetus will be affected by whatever the woman does. If you are going to make abortion legal, are you going to provide in these ways? Are you going to provide the money to social services for the children who are born unwanted, and then neglected? Are you going to provide emotionally for the children who are in foster care? For all that are given up for adoption? Are you going to care about that life once it is born? Can you guarantee that having that child is in the best interest of the woman who is pregnant?

And if your argument is that she chose to have sex, I'd ask you what about the other half? What about the man? Is he going to provide a healthy environment for the mother/fetus? Is he going to be encouraging and positive and supportive? Are her friends? Are her family? Will society?

It is the woman's body, and I understand the concept of potential life coming from her body. But until that moment, until birth, it's hers and I don't think you can regulate that.

And I think if you truly believe abortion is wrong then you should preach it, and share your feelings and beliefs, and maybe you will be right in convincing a woman with a struggling choice, but maybe you won't. And whatever the outcome, you should not deny her of the choice.

If you are coming from a biblical standpoint, I think you should respect a woman's right to choose. God gave YOU the choice to follow Him, right? He didn't demand it, did he? (Okay, so I would call it coercision, since your other alternative is hell, but that's another discussion ;) But essentially there is still an element of choice, and I suppose you can be happy making the woman feel guilty for her decision, but I really am strongly against overturning Woe V. Wade, because our government hasn't done enough in pregnancy prevention (free birth control, insurance coverage, all-inclusive sex ed--abstinence AND "safer sex" discussion) or in taking care of the women who do choose to carry the pregnancy, through lengthy adoption processes, poor funding to social services, no maternal/paternal leave for many, lack of childcare services in general, ETC.)

This is a major problem, and it is too simplified to just overturn a law and then not deal with the consequences. Not to mention those who would attempt abortion anyway, even if it was illegal. It would probably be done in unsanitary and unsafe ways, and do we want that? Bleh. So if you are pro-choice I encourage you to check out: NARAL.org because they make it incredibly easy for you to be an "activist," by emailing you when important things are going on in congress so you know when to contact your state reps. about issues and what not.

Haha, enough women's studies yet? La la, and next quarter I'm going to get worse, because I'm only taking WS classes since my communication major is all done. Should be interesting....or not.