Part and Party to Rape

I was tempted to approach this subject on tiny cat paws, as quietly and gently as possible...but the subject of rape has no gentility to it, so talking about it in a gentle, careful manner is meaningless. That is especially true if you know someone, love someone, or happen to be someone for whom this is not just a "subject" but a reality in the most real of ways.

As one of my favorite TV-newsie persons likes to say "first a little housekeeping."  Just to make things clear, personally, I am very much pro-life. I am also "I-would-give-my-life-to-save-it" pro choice. This is not at all unusual. I always count my sons first when counting the many blessings in the mixed bag of blessings and curses that is my life. I found out just how pro-life I am, for me and mine, when I dealt with an unplanned pregnancy and could have had a free (truly free--not paid for by tax dollars free) abortion. 

I had a 5 year old already and was in my final year at University and was commuting hundreds of miles per day on many days doing Public Health work in outlying counties. Continuing the pregnancy meant I would be beginning my job search in my seventh month and my marriage was already well on its way to doom. It all seemed insurmountable, and since I'd been doing volunteer escorting at the local clinic where the crazies had been getting increasingly threatening, the owner and staff had offered me free services. As it turned out, the baby shower and biggest gift basket of baby supplies, along with the most heartfelt congratulations came from those same people after I realized that convenient or not, I was already in love with the little potential being inside me. People who work at reproductive care clinics don't hate babies. They care deeply for women and children; they don't want to see unwanted innocents brought into the world to be neglected and abused. They see the world as it is, not as they wish it could be. 

Then there's rape. Clearly no one's thinking of the women here, so let's try a different tactic. Surely you all have a female relative. Surely you would want to destroy, bodily, anyone who assaulted a woman you loved in that way. Stop and think now. Would you, personally, want to be the one to tell her she must give birth to the child of that rapist if she became pregnant? If she were your wife, would you want to live with her for nine months knowing she had the child of her rapist growing inside her? It's not realistic. Can you even begin to imagine the real-life ramifications of this kind of legislation in this nation? Just watch the suicide rate climb...male and female alike. Seriously, imagine the father of a ten year old girl forced to watch her belly swell day after day as he remains powerless to kill the piece of human excrement who did that to his innocent daughter. Then imagine some turd blossom like Todd Akin saying " well, it's my understanding that if she got pregnant, well....she wanted it." SHE'S TEN YEARS OLD! And please don't tell me it doesn't happen. I have personally taken care of the child of an eleven year old in little Green Bay, Wisconsin. It happens!

Ten Year Old Gives Birth

While the female body does not have a way to "shut that whole process down" [in cases of rape] as Todd Akin, Paul Ryan's partner in legislation, so stupidly stated, emotions can and do change the hormonal atmosphere in which the human zygote, embryo and fetus develop. We are only beginning to understand how that atmosphere, including recreational alcohol and other drug use, as well as prescribed psychoactive and other medications so many young women take now, permanently alters development. This is called teratogenesis when it causes cancer and mutagenesis when it causes deformity/mutation. This can result in something as minor as a heart valve malfunction to a trisomy disorder such as Down's Syndrome. I won't launch into a whole science lecture here, but the science is truly fascinating. 

Admittedly those would be extreme examples and not the usual case. My point is that only the woman who has been raped should decide what she does if she becomes pregnant. Any other way dealing with the situation in a very real way continues the assault. I can prove that logically. Rape is the act of forcing ones sexual will upon another human being against their wishes. Legislation forcing women to carry to term and deliver the zygote --> embryo --> fetus --> eventual baby of their rapist is an act of forcing the sexual will of a bunch of people, most of whom are men, on a class of people, all of whom are women, against their will. This, by definition, is rape! By conspiring with the rapist to continue to act against the will of the woman whose physical assault has already been begun by the original rapist, every person who votes for "no exceptions" legislation is part and party to the crime of rape by continuing the physical and emotional assault upon the body of the victim against her will.

This is not an extreme or "out there on the fringes" idea. If you sit for a minute and think...just cogitate for a moment and it will make sense to you...even the most extreme of you, if you are honest with yourselves. You don't have to say it out loud. No one can read your thoughts, and you know it's true. God already knows it, so you're not sinning by admitting the truth.

What I want to discuss, finally and most importantly, is the fact that only a pregnant woman knows what she should do if she becomes pregnant, especially by rape. A woman who is healthy and has a loving and supportive network of family and friends may carry such a pregnancy to term, as the most purely good, Christ-like and loving young lady I have ever known did when this very thing happened to her at a very tender age. She carried the baby to term and made a couple very happy parents of a beautiful, talented child. That is the ideal, of course. She turned something tragic into the greatest of blessings, and it took the heart of a lion to do it too. That is how she healed, and it wasn't easy. Not everyone agreed with her decision, but it was hers to make. That is how she regained control over her body. Another woman may make a different decision, but whatever the decision is, it is the most vital part of the healing process for that woman, so that she may progress from victim to survivor!

Romney/Ryan Ticket DANGEROUS to Women

Forgive me for being nit-picky, but all this uproar about Paul Ryan and his one-man (okay, one party) war on women has one word lodged in my mind like an accidentally swallowed whitefish bone in the throat.

Womb. ***scream!***

Womb.

It's like using ...what was the biblical term for penis, anyway? I guess Adam's rib...so yes, it's like saying, in all seriousness, "Place the condom over your Adam's rib prior to intercourse"...or wait, what was the biblical word for intercourse? That would be "knowing" right? Okay, so if all things were to be reduced, as women's anatomy is, to ancient biblical terminology, one would place a condom over one's Adam's rib before any and all instances in which any knowing of a woman's womb may take place. No, wait, that's not right either, because condoms weren't in the bible either...

Contraception is a sin according to our wonderful new Teavangelical Republican party which apparently either takes its marching orders from a very out-dated view of the story of Onan from the Old Testament of the Bible (Genesis 38:6-9) or the better known New Testament musings of Paul (I Corinthians 6:9) in which seed "shall not be wasted upon the ground" or, I assume, otherwise mistreated in any way...even though according, again to Paul, it (semen) makes one terribly "unclean." What the people who translated those passages failed to note is that THE key word pertaining to the exact meaning of the original text, which has since been twisted to cover everything from coitus-interruptus birth control to homosexuality (sodomy) to masturbation, literally lost its meaning millennia ago. The meaning of the original Greek word has been unknown for centuries and translators, ministers, priests, rabbis and popes have been guessing, just guessing, and abusing these passages to suit their own prejudices ever since.

Yes, I was shocked too. ***yawn***

Then there is the real wrinkle in the parchment. If you actually pay attention to the CHRIST in Christianity, HE said it was the thoughts in our minds and hearts and not what we do with our hands that make us unclean. Ohhh I can just hear the tea-baggers now. "Sounds like some kind of LIBRUL!" Seriously, I think if most Teavangelicals met "Jesus" right here and now they'd SHOOT Him! THERE's something to ponder for Misters Romney and Ryan, who repeatedly tell lie after filthy lie and steal from the poor, the disabled, children, elderly, and veterans to further enrich the already obscenely wealthy--which they tout as a faith-based initiative.

Of course, they may not be being as dishonest as it may appear because personally, I think the only things they truly worship are money Grover Norquist and the Koch brothers. Of course Romney worships that Joseph Smith guy too, and pays more to his cause than he does in taxes, if he pays ANY taxes at all...so I guess that counts for something.

Sigh...

My original point here, anyway, is that, obviously, womb is a terribly outdated word. Penis, uterus, vagina, and all their sundry and assorted sub and associated parts are perfectly and accurately described by scientific terms. I like to keep up on medical and associated practice in women's health and actually read a "new age" holistic healing text just today that advised an herbal suppository of some kind for placement "in the womb". Umm--NO! Not outside a physician's office or hospital. Clearly they meant vagina, but it is a perfect illustration of how this kind of archaic language leads to misunderstanding and misinterpretation. Also, and as too many of us already know, plenty of men are already mightily confused by lady parts as it is.

So....let's get our language out the the dark ages and into the 21st century. We can begin by removing "womb" and "Adam's rib" and "fornicator" and "sodomite" and all other such ridiculously dated words (and IDEAS) from common usage. While we're at it, as the lovely Nuns on the Bus would advise, let's keep the politicians out of our bedrooms too!

It's bad enough that Ryan VERY LITERALLY wants to return women to barefoot and pregnant status (no one more bitter against women, apparently, than a man forced to marry for money, but hey, at least his wife just inherited that $$$five million$$$, so she DID pay off, and he still gets to "see the guys" at the gym every day).

Very seriously, this is something I have warned young women for YEARS not to be complacent about.

They didn't listen.

Now the reproductive rights they took completely for granted--rights women like me worked so damned hard to defend--are being eroded away, state by state, and maybe even on the national level by the effing Teavangelicals, to the point where even THE PILL will be considered ABORTION because it prevents a fertilized ovum from implanting.

You read that right, the DIVINE and ALL KNOWING Teavangelical wing of the Republican Party said so, in the guise of ultra-healthy "I don't eat sweets because I want to keep my ripped abs because my dad died young and even though I was filthy rich I used Social Security for college anyway, but now I want to take it away from everyone else." ...Paul Ryan.

Ryan has PRONOUNCED that from this day forward a new human life begins the split second a man's PRECIOUS SEED pierces the protective membrane of the female ova (egg) in the (here it comes) WOMB.

Pardon me while I grind my teeth.

At that point, the all-knowing Mr. Ryan insists, when what usually gets flushed down the toilet or washed down the shower drain happens to meet inside a female human body (which is now no longer a living breathing human being, but nothing more than a human incubator for a man's seed to mature inside an ova, whether it was placed there with or without her consent, and no matter who put it there, no matter what her age, dreams, hopes, or health...even if pregnancy and delivery will ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY result in her DEATH at the age of TEN after being RAPED by her own FATHER) that sperm meeting that ova is WAY more important than the living, breathing, thinking, dreaming female human being in which the meeting took place...no matter how violently or by how much force...because she has a working WOMB.

Ugh...that WORD.

She is, in Ryan's eyes, nothing but a BABY FACTORY. If that factory breaks down, the job can just be outsourced to a new, improved womb next time. I hear lots of wombs are crossing the border from Mexico... Maybe he can get one cheap.

THAT is the man who wishes to be one heartbeat away from the presidency.

Yes, I tend to agree this is the most radical choice for VP we have had in my lifetime. Sarah Palin was dirt stupid and had a HUGE ego. Dick Cheney was a violent, war-mongering S.O.B.

This guy Ryan is DANGEROUSLY MISOGYNISTIC and if Romney is elected the damage they do could last for decades. Way too women are going to look at him, think he's CUTE (you know, like that serial killer Ted Bundy...very charming...until he started the killing part) and vote for him because he seems so earnest and nice and homespun. Then, when it's too late they're going to wonder why they can't get a refill on their pills anymore or just go a couple states over if they can't get an abortion in their own state. Not only will they be forced into parenthood too early, but there will be NO social safety net. They'll be on the STREETS with those kids...so while he's insisting they all be born, he's also going to be MURDERING them by refusing medical care. I don't know what your definition of psycho is, but that's pretty close to mine.

And for the record, yes....I know precisely how over the top ridiculous this all sounds. As my son says, "No one is going to take you seriously if you say all this stuff." Well, so be it. It's true. I have not said one thing here that isn't true.

They do want to outlaw hormonal birth control.

They do want to end ALL social safety net programs and instead give more tax cuts to their ultra rich contributors and lobbyists.

They do DEMAND and seek to legislate that all pregnancies, even rape and incest cases, be brought to term, no matter the age of the victim, but they don't want programs like Medicaid which provide health care for the resulting children or food stamps to feed them. That is slow, lingering death for tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of children. When you live in a cardboard box on the street because your mom can't make ends meet, because NO ONE can pay rent alone, much less day care and utilities on minimum wage and TRUST ME, not everyone has family willing to help (been there, done that) PEOPLE DIE.

So though this sounds like hyperbole, I am speaking plain fact. The Romney/Ryan ticket is DANGEROUS TO WOMEN!

And yes, I really do despise the word womb, because when people like Paul Ryan look at people like me, that's all they see. It's exceedingly demeaning. It takes something beautiful and miraculous and wonderful and turns it into a violent act of force and submission.

To that I say NO! I CHOSE to have my sons. I could not personally choose to have an abortion. I am PERSONALLY pro-life in EVERY way, meaning I also care about the poor, the disabled, the elderly and the disenfranchised. I believe in the teachings of Christ with all my heart and soul. I would, however, die to protect the right of another woman to make her choices for herself, especially women who have already suffered sexual assault and don't have loving families to support them. That is a hard, hard, lonely life and I would not wish that on ANYONE.

Paul Ryan doesn't care. Women like her mean less than nothing to him. And what's worse...the infant, once it's born, means nothing to him either! He wants no health care for it, no food stamps, no education...and if heaven forbid it's female, he won't care if the same thing happens to her.

If anyone has unclean thoughts in heart and mind I'd say that person is Paul Ryan. I do not see how any Christian can vote for a ticket topped by a cultist who worships a guy named Joseph Smith and thinks he's the second coming of Christ and has chosen as VP someone as unclean, according to Holy Scripture, as Paul Ryan.

Women...I've warned you before and I warn you again now. Paul Ryan is dangerous. A vote for his ticket is a vote AGAINST equal pay for women, against birth control, against health care, elder care, care for veterans and it's in your hands. Romney/Ryan can't win without female votes. Don't give them yours. For once let us put our differences aside and act as sisters. Think of that little nine year old rape-incest victim forced to lose her life in childbirth. What he does to one of us he does to us all!

Here... A picture paints a thousand words. It's real. She's nine. I've taken care of children not much older. It happens in Paul Ryan's own state, which is also mine. He thinks that's just fine. I don't.

Nine year old pregnant child. If she survives delivery she will likely be disabled and unable bear children as an adult. Her own development will be stunted because the developing fetus takes what it needs, such as calcium she needs for her own bones. As it grows the fetus will make breathing and other body functions increasingly difficult leading almost certainly to a premature delivery by major surgery and a lengthy hospital stay for mother-child and baby, if she is in a city with access to a newborn intensive care and her parents, if she has them, take her there.

Fort McClellan Health Registry Act

  

Long time no post...but this is quite important to yours truly and many thousands of families...maybe yours.

In fact, many lives and legacies may depend upon it.

I am a Fort McClellan Veteran. There are many thousands like me. We are dying for our country and neither the military nor the VA cares. They do not even NOTIFY those of us who are not yet aware of this fact that we have been exposed, in the line of duty to our country, to an array of poisons and toxins in the very prime of life and that we have been walking time-bombs ever since.  As we become ill and may be passing direct and genetic damage on to our offspring, they are "losing" medical records and sweeping this issue under tons of concrete as they pave over complete areas of Fort McClellan because they know of no other way to deal with the vast contamination. Please don't only read what I have to say. Check out these reputable sources:

Toxic Secret - CBS News

http://www.keep-a-breast.org/tag/anniston-alabama/

http://www.facebook.com/JudgeNapolitano/posts/429182087132477  This will break your heart--it did mine--and it's an entirely typical of McClellan vet experience! We are PROFESSIONAL people, hard working, responsible, decent people who volunteered to serve our country, and in return our country is hanging us out to dry...make that to DIE!

It isn't just about Vietnam anymore!

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread748628/pg1  This one has more civilian appeal, but gives a good overview of the toxic over-reach of Monsanto and its many tentacles.

Far and away the best known of course is good ol' AGENT ORANGE!

Since so many of us are women, this is a grave concern on that level as well and could explain the number of children we are losing to miscarriage and early morbidity and mortality. Monsanto, the company that never stops "giving."

Right now most of my income is going toward treatment and medication of a condition the Army didn't bother to tell me they KNEW I had--that they'd had at least a large hand in causing. Not just me...but many, many thousands of men and women like me. I'm not even going to try to use proper grammar this time, so please bear with me. We're just talking here, okay?

Between the years 1935 and 1999, when Fort McClellan, Alabama was finally closed down and partially paved over, like they did with those radiation-leaking nuclear reactors in Japan after the tsunami, unknowable thousands of young women went through basic training through the Women's Army Corps at Fort McClellan. It was also the training center for the MP's (military police) and ***drum roll*** the Army CHEMICAL WARFARE HEADQUARTERS.

The Incinerator, where toxins were burnt, then fell back down in frequent acid rains.
It was later found to be substandard.

Isn't that "speshul?" It makes me feel tingly all over, but then that may be from the NEUROLOGICAL DAMAGE so many of us suffer from exposure to all the different experimental chemicals that leaked into the ground, air and WATER we showered in, drank, face-planted in, slept in while on bivouac, and inhaled while "pressing off" our lovely O.D. green fatigues like the good little "Suzie Home-makers" we were nick-named by the other W.A.C. training center, at Fort Jackson, where the more fortunate females trained--the ones who didn't live in 40-woman (asbestos-polluted) bays, didn't breathe in 40 women's worth of steam from 40 irons a minimum of 5 times a day, plus the ironing we did after doing our own laundry. See, we didn't get to send ours out to be done like the MEN did. Things were far more sexist back then, but don't get me started on that or you'll have a reading headache by the time you're done here. I mention the sexism in part because while certainly a great number of men were affected, the vast majority of the victims of  "Fort McToxic" are female, and have up to now been seen as an acceptable loss, to be swept under the rug, as it were, by the military and VA.

The obvious parallel here is between the way they treated OUR agent orange (and several other toxins) exposure and that of the men who were exposed and who DO receive full medical care, along with a full range of benefits from the VA for their families and how they also sweep claims of sexual assault under the rug. Lucky me, I got to experience both! I still think the military was a good experience over all, because it got me out of  Wisconsin for a while and allowed me to get through college and earn my degree, which in turn allowed me to make a difference in the world before becoming disabled by neurological disease (imagine that, when I was exposed to agent orange, PCB contamination, other pesticides and herbicides, heavy metals like mercury and lead, and God alone knows WHAT else they used on us in the gas chamber and during night exercises, which were fun but stinky BEFORE the gas drills even started.

They were FOREVER spraying something somewhere. Sometimes just moments before we were doing PT on the exact same place...so who knows how much we were dosed. What I have found is that a remarkable number of us have had our medical records "misplaced." If my state hadn't kept a record of my enlistment and DD214, I wouldn't have even gotten my educational benefits...and even with that it took the threat of a congressional inquiry to get the Army to fork THAT much over! Apparently a huge number of records were somehow misplaced, so all our "immunizations" were lost too. Given none of us were sent directly overseas, the number of shots we received was OUTRAGEOUS! I do recall that much! It wasn't a couple of boosters and a tetanus shot, that's for sure, even though that's all that was written on my hard copy I carried around with me from post to post. I'll come right out and say it. We were Guinea Pigs! To make it worse, we were never informed, once people started getting sick; in fact records, I think, were destroyed intentionally to cover up what was done. Monsanto had a huge plant just down the road from Fort McClellan. They were forced to settle a huge multi-million dollar lawsuit with the civilian population of Anniston, Alabama, but we in the military got nada.

That is until Congressman Paul Tonko (D) NY came along. He is sponsoring HR 2052, which would be the first step in getting medical care for we the dying. Ugh... ALL THIS TIME, thousands upon thousands of us have been treated like malingerers or psychosomatics who can't stand stress. I KNEW that was wrong because I was always an adrenaline junkie. Anyone who knows me can vouch for that. On the rare day I feel well I still AM. THAT is my personality. I am no shrinking violet. What on EARTH would I be doing in the ARMY if I were? Why would I have the guts to report the people who ...well we won't get into that, but I stood up to the powerful who thought they could victimize me.

I'm not a weak willed person and never will be. I live every effing day with pain that would DROP most people to their knees and have them begging for their mommies... or death. That's not self-aggrandizing, it's simple fact. My whole spine is a throbbing raw-nerve tooth ache and every day I survive is an act of will. Still,  I have had far too many doctors tell me it's all in my head just because the government wants to save money for sweetheart deals to contractors rather than caring for those of us who have served, with HONOR and are DYING for it!

Every system in my body is FUBAR thanks to Fort McClellan's toxicity.

They KNEW for decades what was happening to us, they chose NOT to tell us lest we join forces while we still had some fight in us. It's the same game the insurance industry plays. They delay paying in hopes people will DIE before they have to pay! At least if we'd known we could have gotten pro-active treatment on our own dime (millions) but again, maybe the insurance industry wasn't crazy about that idea either. NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF INSURANCE LOBBYISTS! NEVER! This is just another symptom of that cancer that is big money owning politics. We the people are the first to die and the last to have a say until we STAND UP AND MAKE OURSELVES HEARD!

Lobbies are so powerful that even now, with so many people AWARE of what happened at Fort McClellan, with the civilian suits settled for multiple millions and similar military legislation signed by President Obama recently for Camp Jejune Marines and their families, HR 2052, which has been IN COMMITTEE since last year has only 11, that is ELEVEN congressional co-sponsors. On the other hand, in this tea---ummm---dipping congress, HUNDREDS co-sponsor legislation that would force a ten year old to have the child of her own father after he rapes her, even if carrying that pregnancy, the product of rape and incest, to term may kill her. Of course these same Teavangelicals cerrrrrrtainly don't want to provide health care OR food for either the twice assaulted victim-mother who will absolutely suffer lifelong debility after carrying a pregnancy so early in life OR that all-important bayyybeeee once it breathes on its own! Their "Christian charity" only applies to the fetus, not the child, never ever the child...unless they're looking to adopt a nice pretty white one with perfect genetics from a "donor" who took perfect care of herself. In what world they expect to find THAT I have zero clue! NONE of it makes ANY sense to me or any other sane person...but unfortunately that's not a requirement. SSDD.

Nope, I just cannot figure this whole thing out...how these Generals who know what's what can allow this to happen and still pretend to have ANY honor. How politicians, like my own Congressman Reid Ribble (R) WI (no really, that's his name) could all but promise to back this legislation then fail to do so, despite the utter NONSENSE that republicans are pro-military. BS! It was uber-Democrat Tom Daschle who had to fight a completely uphill battle for DECADES to win coverage for Vietnam vets with Agent Orange disease, fully knowing he'd be  rewarded by being replaced by some nut-job, which he was.

I used to be pretty smart before this junk started eating my brain. Somewhere in the 98-99th percentile with a nice IQ and EQ. I'm still in the 130's somewhere for IQ on a good day...not great, but workable...and none of this makes sense to me except as greed, pure and simple. They aren't helping us because they want to save as much money as possible for payback deals for their backers. DAMN the military-industrial complex! Damn Halliburton and no bid contracts and war profiteering and Blackwater (now called Xe of course, since that little murder/rape thing) and damn everyone who let us be poisoned and then let us hang out here for all these years afterward without so much as a note saying,

"See your doctor for a tox panel. Sincerely, Uncle Sam" Aren't we worth a post card per person? Think of all the JUNK congress sends out during election season!

Someone else's brain...mine looks a tad more like baby swiss--MANY more white spots but smaller in size.

 Expendable...

That's what the Army figured we are. It's what the VA thinks I am. I'ts what my stupid ass of a congressman thinks I am...but likely because I'm not an idiot republican who wants even MORE money to go to the ultra rich who already HAVE way more than they need and STILL aren't creating enough jobs because HEAVEN FORBID anyone make Obama look good. You realize if minimum wage had increased at the same rate executive salaries have since the 1970's, everyone flipping burgers would be making $23 per hour? Yeah, a LIVING wage! Can't have that~no no no! The rich must get even RICHER and thinking anything else is unamerkkkan!

Expendable...

Well screw that. I'm all my sons have, and therefore I am NOT EXPENDABLE! 

If you don't believe we're expendable... the men and women like me who are suffering cancers, autoimmune disease and slow, painful death because of the Army's negligence, Monsanto's avarice and Congress's cowardice, please ask your Representative to cosponsor HR 2052! I realize the Koch brothers likely own yours as they own mine, but give it a shot anyway. Too many have already died, many served during WWII, Korea and stateside during Vietnam as well as during peace time, and many are still serving and living their lives, unaware they're sick BECAUSE OF THEIR SERVICE. They need to KNOW so they can be treated! They DESERVE to be TOLD! That is the VERY LEAST they are owed after serving their country, and DYING for it...and make no mistake about it...we ARE dying!