The world has got me down, you guys.
Every other day there are new headlines about some awful thing Donald Trump said, or that his followers did at a rally. At first I was just scared by the thought of him maybe having a chance at becoming our next president. Now I am terrified by his followers-- by the fact that he has said such clear horribly sexist, racist things, and yet they only seem to bolster his popularity. Audiences at his rallies seem to have no compunction about resorting to violence against people with whom they disagree. It is horrifying and chilling to know that there is enough support for this sort of behavior and these views, that someone like Trump is a leading potential candidate for our PRESIDENT. I want to say there's no real chance of him actually getting elected, but... I don't know anymore. I never expected him to get this far, either, or have this much support.
The other day I read a story online about a woman who, out of desperation, attempted to perform a self-abortion...and is now being charged for it. I thought Roe v. Wade had put the days of wire-hanger abortions behind us. But no. It appears the so-called "pro-life" movement is dead-set on returning us back to those days again, legislating away as many clinics as possible, and harassing and attacking anyone who dares enter the few remaining ones that dare stay open.
Or shooting them up. Which brings us to the rash of recent mass shootings, and the rampant gun violence in our country, which by the way mass shootings make up a small percentage of gun deaths in the US. Yet we refuse to do anything about this issue. We treat gun laws with a logic that is reserved only for this one issue, apparently. Because for most other things, we see the point in having reasonable restrictions. But guns? NOPE. ANY restrictions are worthless, right? because the "bad guys" won't follow them anyway. Not that we think that way when it comes to laws of the road or drug trafficking or anything else. We act like there's no possible way we could prevent these shootings, to reduce the violence rampant in our society, refusing to acknowledge that no other developed country experiences this level of violence, and hey maybe we should look at their gun laws and take some notes.
Tonight I read about how the state of Ohio is proposing a bill that would require women who are undergoing an abortion or a miscarriage to designate wether their fetus would be buried or cremated, and possibly have to foot the bill for it. I shared the link on facebook, accompanied by a rant that was much less angry than I felt. What I really wanted to do was yell and scream FUCK YOU to those Ohio politicians. I'm normally able to let these things roll off my back, but for some reason this one just hit me, I guess it was the straw that broke the camel's back. I found myself fighting back tears as I paced around my kitchen trying to figure out what to make for dinner for my kids.
It felt like just another reminder that so many of the people in charge of running our country, of writing our laws, seem to despise my gender. It just weighs me down sometimes, to the point hat it's hard to breathe.
(and that's me, as a white woman in this world. I don't even have the additional bullshit people of color, women of color, immigrants, lgbtq people, etc, have to deal with)
I am so tired of people who use their so-called "morals" to pass laws that do nothing but make them feel better (nice view from up on your high horse?) while only causing pain and sorrow in others. The ludicrous attempts to pass hate and bigotry as some sort of "religious belief." It sucks, and I hate it, and I hate that I let it get to me, and I hate that I feel like there is so little I can do to change it.
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