Yesterday, John Kasich essentially killed Planned Parenthood
in Ohio. I had heard this was coming down the pike and had seen the weird
kneeling faith-based protestors outside the Mt. Auburn location several times, but
I was hoping something would change or there would be an 11th hour
stop put to this destructive madness. From what I gathered, Kasich defunded it because
his personal religious beliefs find abortions to be a sin. Kasich is the kind of guy that would send back a ham sandwich at a diner because
the yellow mustard had too much flavor. Boiled down, a musty old white dude completely out of touch with the real world gets to decide what
choices women have when they become pregnant even though their decision won't personally affect him in any way, shape or form.
It’s silly to think that our country was founded on bedrock principles like religious freedom and freedom of the individual when slavery and witch hunts and scarlet letters and puritanism are all a rich part of America’s past. So what does America stand for? It seems like it stands for white power, religious zealotry, and making sure that poor people stay poor and unsupported. I am so ashamed of the mindset of most of the citizens of America for thinking that racism isn’t real or that with enough perseverance anyone can be pulled up by their bootstraps. Or that Christian zealots are good passionate people while any Muslim, no matter the strength of their faith, is a straight menace.
There is a complete disconnect in America between what people believe is owed to them and what people believe is owed to someone different from them. People believe that since they are American, they have rights and freedoms and can exercise their own free will as they make their way in the world. Then the same people also believe that someone that doesn’t look like them or doesn’t believe in the same omniscient presence or is less fortunate doesn’t deserve jack shit. They believe that it’s that other person's own damn fault, not that the system has rigged the game in advance and if need be will rewrite the rules on the fly to keep things from ever being fair. The American playing field is tilted towards white men in every single aspect of our society and the powers that be want it to stay that way under any guise imaginable. The America of the past, of the present and of the foreseeable future is a dangerous hellscape if you are a person of color, or a women, or someone that holds religious beliefs outside of Christianity. God help you if check multiple boxes off that list.
I'm saying all of this knowing fully well that my life would be very different if I wasn't afforded the privilege of being a white male. I honestly don't know how to change any of it besides just write out my opinion. It's far from good enough.
