[Vision2020] Birth Control

Tue Jul 15 11:59:22 PDT 2014

What was offensive to me was the hubris behind his belief that he gets to
decide what the "real issues of the day" with "concrete impacts now" are for
anyone other than himself, as well as the minimization of the trend to
return a significant part of the population to breeder status denied access
to affordable mainstream medical care simply because we are women.

I don't disagree with his personal hit list, but IMHO, he left out some
pretty important things like the attempts around the nation to
disenfranchise millions of qualified voters, privacy protections, equal
protection, and so forth  . . . those three are pretty big issues in my
book.

As is a SCOTUS decision that allows an employer to dictate how I lawfully
spend my compensation, puts an employer between a medical professional and
his/her patients, and seeks to deny affordable access to mainstream
medically appropriate health care on the basis of gender.

Here's a difference between his position and mine:  I'm perfectly willing to
let individuals decide on their own "Top 10" lists and how they want to
allocate their time, energy, and resources amongst their personal lists
without denigrating their choices or their allocation of their resources.
He prefers to take a paternalistic stance of "I know best," and to tell
others we "should" agree not only with his priorities rather than care about
what he erroneously calls  a "boundary violation,", but also what we
"should" do about them.

That's pretty offensive in my book and something we've historically seen far
too much of with respect to the position of women in society in this
country.

Saundra

From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
On Behalf Of Sunil
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2014 5:52 AM
To: vision 2020
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Birth Control

I'm not dismissive of him, not at all. I do think that cultural issues are
the only ones that are up for debate any more. The two main parties are in
agreement on economic and foreign policy, albeit with tactical differences,
and these policies are firmly in place.

Sunil

  _____  

From: v2020 at ssl1.fastmail.fm <mailto:v2020 at ssl1.fastmail.fm> 
To: vision2020 at moscow.com <mailto:vision2020 at moscow.com> 
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 21:18:11 -0700
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Birth Control

Written by yet another fat white male steeped in unearned privilege with a
tired old twist:  he thinks it's his place to tell the rest of us what the
"real issues of the day" are.

Bully for him that he thinks birth control pills are cheap at $50/month.
That may be the case with the entitled group he runs with, but it certainly
isn't the case for many, many women for whom $50/month may as well be
$500/month.

Somehow, I doubt he'd be so dismissive of the concerns of the many were it
his religious freedom and Constitutional protections that were being taken
away.

Saundra

Moscow, ID

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com <mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com>
[mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com] On Behalf Of Tom Hansen
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2014 6:52 PM
To: lfalen
Cc: vision 2020
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Birth Control

Courtesy of the July 12, 2014 edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

------------------------------------

Reality-Based LeftyHis View: Don't fall for the distraction

By Chuck Pezeshki

It's not about the money.

It's about sending a message.

- The Joker from

"The Dark Knight"

It's only been two weeks since the Supreme Court decided against the federal
government and upheld the notion that Hobby Lobby has a right to deny its
employees birth control under the Affordable Care Act. The stated reason is
because the company owners say certain types of birth control are basically
monthly abortions, and since the owners are against abortions, they cannot,
in good moral conscience, allow their employees access to these methods.

There are multiple levels of the implications of the court's decision that
one could unpack. For example, are the methods of birth control (IUDs and
certain types of pills, for example) abortifacient? The federal government
says pregnancy begins with conception and attachment of the egg to the
uterine lining. Many religious conservatives maintain pregnancy begins with
conception. Therefore, drugs that prevent attachment are not causing
abortions under federal definition, but are causing abortions under the
religious definition. Who gets to control language?

The more salient point is this: How does a company, which is a protected
entity, get to have religious beliefs? And if this is the case, how does a
government enforce any law that a corporation doesn't like? Belief does not
require proof - only a declaration of faith. And that can't be argued.

The whole issue of women having access to modern contraception is arguably
at least 100 years old. And the fact that we are arguing about essentially a
100-year-old issue does not bode well for our nation.

First off, it is absolutely true that if Hobby Lobby's female employees
don't have access to all types of birth control, the world is not going to
end. There will be plenty of outside providers, such as Planned Parenthood,
that will take up the slack. Birth control pills have been actively
discussed as a drug to move to the non-prescription aisle in the pharmacy.
And they're cheap.

But the Hobby Lobby attack does take up oxygen from all progressive issues.
Because the attack is what psychologists call a "boundary violation" - an
intrusion into a personal space where previously half our society felt
marginally safe - it triggers an exaggerated response that distracts from
focusing on the real issues of the day. Banking reform, underemployment,
global warming, mountaintop removal coal mining and going back to war in the
Middle East, to name just a few. These are issues with real teeth and real
effect. And while we're screaming at each other about birth control, so
cleverly launched at the core of our persons, we're letting the clock run on
things that profoundly compromise the future of our children and the planet.

Here's a thought. Look at what other activists on the "physical impact"
issues are doing this week. For example, my friend Mike Roselle, of Climate
Ground Zero, and two friends are back in Charleston, W.V., doing a Fast for
the Mountains against mountaintop removal coal mining. Their incredible
efforts, including non-violent civil disobedience, have drawn large
attention to the issue, and legislation continues to move to ban this
literally Earth-shattering practice.

Women and men who care about the Hobby Lobby decision and think it's a
pivotal moment in our history need to do the same. Get out in the streets.
Organize your own protest. It may not change Hobby Lobby's mind, but what it
will do is send a powerful message to all employers that this behavior is
not going to do much for productivity.

And if protest is not your style, then realize that this decision, more than
anything else, whether implicit, or by explicit direction, is a boundary
violation, and designed to distract from the real issues with concrete
impacts now. Don't let them do it to you.

Because it's not about the money.

------------------------------------

Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)

 <http://www.moscowcares.com/> http://www.MoscowCares.com

Tom Hansen

Moscow, Idaho

"There's room at the top they are telling you still.

But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,

If you want to be like the folks on the hill."

- John Lennon

On Jul 14, 2014, at 5:54 PM, lfalen <lfalen at turbonet.com
<mailto:lfalen at turbonet.com> > wrote:

Read Chuck Pezeshki's (Reality-based Lefty) column in the July 12,13 issue
of the Daily New. While I do not exactly agree with his list of higher
priorities, his comments on birth control are close to what I have been
saying. Some one who knows how might want to post his column to Vision2020.

Roger

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