M.I.A.

Last weekend was a great experience of like- mindedness. Saturday was the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance Conference. It was an awesome collaboration of committed activists that are really taking feminist values to a global level of consciousness (Although I struggle with wanting to fix so many wrongs at home. . .). On our way in, Court and I are welcomed by the friendly group of protestors, again- I can only thank them. Were it not for the protestors there are just so many times I would have wasted time looking for where I was going, but they direct me there every time- awesome!
Then the final plenary speaker was Sarah Weddington. I'd seen her almost 2 years ago. I find her to be incredibly warm and charming all the while commanding a respect that speaks volumes without saying a word. She is a pinnacle of intelligent candor that I admire and want to model. She is progressive and passionate. She can tell the best stories.

She's on a plane going to or from a speaking engagement. She, of course, has on a pin that has a coat hanger with the circle and red line on it. The flight attendant continues to look at. Finally, the flight attendant asks her, "Excuse me, what do you have against coat hangers?!?" I think this is such a good story because it illustrates that we have come so far from the struggle that many young women don't know or understand the symbolism. It also means that this is something that we have gotten so far from that it is easily taken for granted.
So today was my first day at the DA's office. It was a bit overwhelming but expectedly so- I'll blog it later. So yesterday I met up with Kenneth, I hope I don't fail to tell you Kenneth, just how much I enjoy our time. We grab lunch and some coffee and it never fails to lead to mental masturbation. A diatribe of democratic proportions. Yeah goodtimes. But the moral of the story is: we talked about abortion- no need to worry, Kenneth's not going to have one!
Here's what I think, we think, and what we decided no one knows. Abortion is not about life or death. It sounds crazy, I know- but it's about gendered consequences in a gendered world. It means that when we debate life without the consequences- we loose sight of the fact that that is an argument that just can't be made in a society that does not have gender equity. It's like going to a poker tournament to play Pictionary--- it just doesn't work that way folks.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 17, 2005 at 9:34 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.