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Many Happy Returns

Posted November 6th, 2012 by Lesley Hazleton

There’s a free all-welcome election-night special at Town Hall Seattle tonight, so’s we can all bite-our-fingernails/celebrate/drown-our-sorrows in good company, and they asked me to prepare a short squiff on what I most wish for the next four years for the US and Seattle.

So I’ll present a Top Ten List, tongue only partially in cheek:

Number 10:  Justices Scalia and Thomas get an irresistible urge to write their memoirs, and resign from the Supreme Court.

Number 9:  Frank Gehry does a John Gault, tears down the Experience Music Project,* and puts up a building he can be proud of.

Number 8:  Citizens United spawns Corporations United, giving individuals the right to avoid taxes like most of the Fortune 500.

Number 7:  Seattle writer Rebecca Brown’s next book wins the Pulitzer Prize.

Number 6:  Medicare eligibility age is lowered ten years per year until we finally have Medicare For All.

Number 5:  Seattle stops obsessing about being a “world-class city” – the sign that it already is one.

Number 4:  All presidential candidates in 2016 are women.

Number 3:  We bring all our soldiers home – and keep them home.

Number 2:  Tim Eyman** moves out of state.  Or better, out of the country.

and in the realm of purest fantasy:

Number 1:  The Mariners*** win the pennant, the championship, and the series.

——————————————————————–

What would your Top Ten be?

——————————————————————–

*  Adulatory articles about Gehry never mention the Experience Music Project.  Rightly so.

** Tim Eyman’s flood of anti-tax ballot initiatives aim to hamper good government (and almost forced the Seattle Public Library to close down branches earlier this year).

*** Seattle’s baseball team nearly always ends up at the bottom of the league.  At least they have a beautiful stadium to do it in.  Go, Mariners!

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File under: US politics | Tagged: Tags: Citizens United, Election Night, Frank Gehry, Mariners, Medicare, Rebecca Brown, Seattle, Tim Eyman, top ten, Town Hall Seattle, US Supreme Court | Be the First to leave a comment

A Tale of Two Countries

Posted October 28th, 2012 by Lesley Hazleton

Compare these two news reports from October 26.  The first, from France:

The lower house of the French parliament voted on Friday to fully reimburse all abortions and to make contraception free for minors from the age of 15 to 18.  France’s national medical insurance pays for abortions for minors and the poor, while other women are reimbursed for up to 80 percent of the procedure’s cost…  Contraception is partly reimbursed.  The bill now goes to the Senate, where it is likely to pass. [AP]

A safe bet:  with free and easily available contraception, there’ll be far fewer abortions in France.  And with free and safe abortions, there’ll be far fewer unwanted children born into poverty and negligence.

Meanwhile, in the United States, the Republican party sees any form of national health insurance as some kind of dire Communist plot against America, and plans to scrap Medicare.  Its official platform calls for a ban on all abortion except in cases of incest and armed rape (and there are a ton of Republicans who want to ban it even then), and it is intent on shutting down the country’s largest provider of contraceptive advice and services:

Planned Parenthood filed a new lawsuit on Friday over a Texas rule that bars its clinics from a state health program for low-income women because the organization performs abortions…  In the past two years, conservative Republicans in more than a dozen states have taken steps to eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood. [UPI]

What puzzles me about the French bill:  why it seems to exclude girls under the age of 15.

What puzzles me about the American elections:  how any self-respecting woman could even conceive of voting Republican.  Or any man with a conscience.

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File under: US politics, women | Tagged: Tags: abortion, contraception, France, health insurance, Medicare, Republican party, war on women | 10 Comments
  1. Sani says:
    October 28, 2012 at 1:26 pm

    Why should a woman go to seek for abortion?

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      October 29, 2012 at 7:54 am

      Sani — maybe start by reading the other comments…

  2. Judith says:
    October 28, 2012 at 1:32 pm

    It is a matter of control. They can’t let go of a woman’s womb and the power of dominance.

  3. Jude says:
    October 28, 2012 at 1:49 pm

    I know a lot of devout Christian women who vote for Republicans because they are opposed to abortion. I don’t argue with them about religion, politics, or abortion because I hate arguing. But I know that if they knew what I am–an atheist liberal–they’d pray for me and consider me evil. Sometimes I think it’s like coming out as gay–if people in small towns realized that atheists are all around them, and that we’re okay human beings, maybe they’d get over the prejudice. For that reason, I bought an atheist bumper sticker for my pickup. Anyway, I can understand why they take abortion personally–they actually *like* babies (I gave birth to three of them, and they were okay, but other babies? Yuck). But their overriding need to stop others from getting abortions leads them to vote for idiots like Romney. It’s difficult to forgive them for that.

  4. paul skillman says:
    October 28, 2012 at 3:21 pm

    Yes, Yes. What is wrong with American. I am American but I do not understand.

  5. Chad says:
    October 28, 2012 at 3:32 pm

    The poor cant catch a break. Here’s an example. A poor single woman works as a store cashier in the morning and a waitress in the evening. Her job barely covers her rent and her old mom’s medications.

    Insurance will not cover contraception, and if she gets pregnant, she cant get an abortion. So she is forced to keep an unwanted child who ends up raised by the streets.

    Same people who are against contraceptive coverage and abortions are the ones who oppose helping this family or this kid when he grows to become unemployed or homeless because any help to him is “entitlement”. They are all “good christians” when it comes to saying no to abortion and contraception, but when it comes to helping poor people or providing healthcare, food or shelter for the poor, they forget that Jesus was all for the poor and weak, they are suddenly greedy people. They use religion only for the ideas they like. Every “life” is important and from god, only till its an adult whose poor then racism takes over and its just hate.

    All very hypocritical if u ask me. They all talk about abstinence like its the solution to everything, but lets ask those same “god-fearing” people…how many of them were abstinent till they got married. Let alone what percentage were abstinent through college. Why do they try to force things down society’s throat when even they couldnt live by these ideals. I just dont get it. Sad.

  6. SusieOfArabia says:
    October 28, 2012 at 10:00 pm

    The religious right in the US have taken over the Republican Party – and it’s a dangerous situation for all women. We must vote these backward idiots out of office, for all our sakes.

  7. Jerry M says:
    January 15, 2013 at 11:43 am

    The people who run the US must be making a lot of profit from an inefficient health care system. Otherwise it makes no sense. It is uber expensive and wasteful.

  8. Fish Jones says:
    January 17, 2013 at 12:12 am

    I commented on your guns one too.

    While guns are a lifelong hobby of mine, they are about the only thing that makes Republicans… Less irritating?

    France is awesome for setting that up.

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      January 17, 2013 at 10:58 am

      Huh?

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