Author Archive for GlobalShift Guest
Charity Chicks Prepare for BRAtober
The chicks and peeps of Charity Chicks Houston are preparing for the 2nd Annual BRAtober, which includes the highly anticipated BRA ART competition! BRA ART is simple: getting creative for cancer. Decorate a bra (a new bra) of any color or size in any way you want. Pick a theme, make it fun, make it serious, make it a statement. Make it yours.
Who says skivvies can’t cure cancer? Or at least help? Visit our BRA ART page for full details. Donate $30 to enter the competition and you’ll receive an email on how and where to submit your work of art. All proceeds from BRA ART will go to Bright Pink, a national non-profit organization that provides education and support to young women who are at high risk for breast and ovarian cancer.
“Last year we showcased the top 50 bras submitted for the cause and heard an uproar of positive support and candid interest. We were genuinely amazed at the bras that were submitted and humbled by the witty and creative nature of our supporters,” said Tam’ra Powell, Co-Founder of Charity Chicks Houston.
This year the group is reaching out across the nation for BRA ART submissions to people from all over.
The winner gets a groovy prize pack and the honor of receiving the 2nd Annual BRAtober trophy, and all proceeds to Bright Pink will be given on behalf of Charity Chicks Houston and The BRA ART winner. What more can you ask for, all while helping a great charity and educating women on the risks of ovarian and breast cancer.
Turn your bra into a work of art and send it in. You never know what one bra might mean to someone battling the disease or debating going to the doctor.
The top 50 will be displayed on October 1, 2010 at BRAtober, which will be held at The Annex at Gremillion & Co. Fine Art, Inc. in Houston, TX. The event will feature cocktails and cupcakes, dancing and much more. Tickets can be purchased for $30 in advance and donations are graciously accepted.
Though the actual event and contest is held in Houston, anyone from anywhere (read, you) can enter. Net event proceeds will go directly to Bright Pink — a non-profit that inspires the women and men of Charity Chicks on a daily basis.
Burning Man: Creating Community in the Desert
Today we have a guest post from Lauren Van Mullem and our sister site StudentStuff.com
Through the heat waving above the cracked surface of Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, a city exists for one week every fall. In this city, nothing is bought or sold, only given or traded. And the one rule is to leave no trace behind. Burning Man is part arts festival, part social experiment. It’s a mass gathering of idealists, dreamers, hippies, tech geeks, young people, and families, reaching around 43,000 participants last year. So what is this exactly, and why might you want to go?
I’ve never been to Burning Man. Honestly, as a relatively conservative person who hates dry heat, it’s intimidating. I envisioned it being a tent city of skeezy hippies high on weed, practicing free love in the dust. And that vision isn’t entirely wrong. But it is definitely not entirely right either.
The purpose of Burning Man isn’t to go out and get high in the desert; the purpose is to see what happens when people come together to give of themselves and spread ideas and inspiration. The hope is that after Burning Man, they will return to the “default world” bringing what worked in the social experiment of the Burner culture with them to make the rest of the world better. People who meet at Burning Man stay connected to each other online, sharing opportunities, job leads, creative projects, sometimes even surplus vegetables grown in their back yards.
For some, it must be said, Burning Man seems to be an excuse to run wild and naked. But the other side of it is a gathering of intensely creative, loving people who want to stretch the limits of what imagination can accomplish.
What You’ll See there:
Art Cars – Vehicles that have been painted, nailed, boarded, constructed and bent into fantastical shapes right out of Alice in Wonderland, usually playing loud music.
Theme Camps – Theme camps can be about anything. Some are substance-free camps; some offer workshops in yoga, meditation, or massage, some give away vegetarian food, falafels, chai and coffee; some specialize in fire art or wild animals. In a city of over 40,000, you can’t possibly see everything there is to see. It’s a little like Disney World in that way.
Boobs – Need no explanation.
Sculptures – From metal and fire flower exhibits by the Flaming Lotus Girls, to towering bronze trees, to giant women made of sticks basking in the sun, to the ultimate Burning Man himself – a man-shaped structure that is set alight at the end of the week – sculpture is huge both literally and figuratively here.
Performance Art – Performances happen often and everywhere at Burning Man. Impromptu parades, fire juggling/spitting/twirling/dancing (Burners tend to like their flames), people in costume, people in body-paint and little else, people dressed like fairies or Steampunk desert survivalists – just walking around can be a piece of performance art. And there is a lot of dancing.
Dancing – Dancing deserves its own space here. Dancing happens in the street, around camp sites, and in huge tents that pump trance music late into the night. Dancing happens in classes, on top of art cars, on top of busses, and on top of sculptures.
If Burning Man sounds like a good time, then take 2 gallons of water per person, per day with you. Self-reliance is a huge part of this desert festival, so you have to be able to camp in extreme conditions. The dust is caustic, so wear sandals and keep hydrated to avoid “Playa Foot,” where your heels crack and bleed. Tickets for Burning Man 2010 (August 30th-September 6th) are currently on sale for between $210 and $300, with low income and scholarship tickets available.
For more information, check out the Burning Man website.
Students Push for Disarmament in Uganda
Only a year after 2,000 human rights activists, mostly students, descended on Capitol Hill to advocate the protection of Ugandan citizens from the hands of The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel army, Congress passed the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act.
The youth-run organization Invisible Children inspired mass-student involvement in lobbying for the bill as they submitted over 250,000 signatures to the State Department that urged the arrest of rebel leader, Joseph Kony in January.
The grassroots efforts were a success as the LRA Act passed with the most support of any Africa-oriented legislation in United States history with 200 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives and 64 in the Senate.
Invisible Children even received a shout out from the House floor by Rep. Susan Davis of San Diego, California.
“These young members of the Invisible Children organization know that no child should live in fear of being abducted, mutilated or killed,” Davis said. “With that they have helped make the children of Uganda visible to us and now with this legislation we have the chance to truly join in this cause.”
The LRA Act, if signed into law, will require President Obama to present a plan of action within a year for a collaborative peace process to protect Ugandan citizens from the LRA. The rebel army has spread terror in Northern Uganda through murder, sexual servitude and abducting children as soldiers.
The LRA originally began as a spiritual cult fighting the Ugandan government with the leadership of Joseph Kony. Over a decade later, two million Ugandans have been left displaced and 60 thousand have been abducted according to the Survey for War Affected Youth.
But the LRA is no longer just in Uganda. The rebels spread to Sudan and Congo where they murdered villages. Christmas of 2009, the LRA slaughtered 600 Congolese villagers in the “Christmas Massacre” and just two months ago had a resurgence where they killed 300 more.
However, the acts of the LRA and the children of Uganda are no longer “Invisible,” as the organization started by three young filmmakers from California in 2003, has gained world-wide support, mostly among students. In the past seven years Invisible children has even been involved in direct peace talks with the rebels and outside of politics, use art to inspire young people to act. Through their online store and documentary screenings, volunteers sell t-shirts, patches, buttons and even bracelets made by formerly unemployed people in Uganda’s impoverished areas to raise money for the children. Their most recent program, The Legacy Scholarship Program, allows anyone to sponsor a student’s scholarship, since education in Uganda is not free. 35 dollars a month can send one child to secondary school and provide them a mentor.
The beauty of Invisible Children though is that any person can easily get involved. Screen the documentary at school, hold a bake sale, even join the team of roadies that travel around the country to raise awareness. To learn more about the LRA Disarmament and Northern Ugandan Recovery Act and Invisible Children visit www.invisiblechildren.com.
Update: On May 24, President Obama signed the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act into law giving him 180 days to create a tactic to help fight the rebel army and contribute to Uganda’s recovery.
– Laura Herrera
Happy Draw Mohammed Day!
Thursday, May 20th, is the first ever “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day,” a celebration of the First Amendment and the guarantee of free speech that has made our country the polarized, back-stabbing, politically charged, litigious society we are today. While you might not attribute all of that as a positive statement, it is very much what will continue to ensure the status of America in the eyes of many as the greatest country in the world. Many other countries and cultures don’t allow for open dissent, and in the end, that makes them weak. We are stronger because of our differences, and need to appreciate that fact.
Everybody Draw Mohammed Day was the brainchild of Seattle artist Molly Norris in response to a Muslim jihadist death threat against Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park. In case you’ve been living in a cave for the last six months, Parker and Stone created a two-part episode in which the prophet Mohammed was depicted as a person in a bear costume. After some jihadist moron predictably posted death threats, the station running the show decided to censor any mention of Mohammed in the follow-up episode, essentially leaving it an empty, head-scratching waste of airtime. Disgusted, as many were, by the acquiescence to militant terrorists, Norris proposed the celebration as a way to stand up to global bullies and help defend the first amendment. Soon after, Norris herself was forced by the bullies to back down and suggest everyone draw Al Gore instead.
Yeah, that would get the point across.
Fortunately for the rest of the world, the First Amendment and rational people everywhere, the Internet is a place where retractions are hard to enforce. By the time Norris was forced to go back on her idea, it had already taken on a life of its own through any number of social networking sites (go ahead, check your inbox; you probably have an invite along with pressure for any number of ridiculous Facebook applications). Multiple organizations have sponsored contests and will display their works of genius–and probably hundreds of lesser works–or all the world to see. If you Google it, you’ll probably have plenty of options to choose from to partake in the celebration.
Of course, before anyone accuses me of joining bandwagons for blasphemy, let me say that I am not a fan of religious offense for the sake of religious offense. I am a fan of equality, and am decidedly not a fan of bullies. The first time that South Park had a Mohammed image censored, they followed up with an image of Jesus defecating on the President of the United States, and the American flag. How do I know? It wasn’t censored. It aired for all the world to see, without one death threat. If you fail to see the inequality in that, then I’d love to make change for a dollar for you sometime.
I support the principle behind Everybody Draw Mohammed Day, not because I get joy out of offending the religious sensibilities of my Muslim friends, but because it’s a very real, and even brave, move on the part of artists everywhere to stand up to ideological bullies. They are fighting a war with pens, pencils, and paint rather than explosives and bullets, and they should be honored for their heroism in the face of potential violence.
The folks who are complaining about the event, and indeed, those threatening to threaten violence as a result, need to grow up and stop whining about such a stupid issue. They’re drawings. Cartoons. They are intended to cause offense and rile you up. It’s actually a time-honored tradition for cartoonists around the globe. A tradition–in America anyway–that is clearly protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution. Your death threats and other violence will only serve to fan the flames of disgust for, and suspicion of, your world view.
If you don’t like pictures of Mohammed, don’t visit web sites, don’t visit museums, and don’t watch TV. You have that option. But don’t try to tell us what we can watch or create. And to the companies, like Comedy Central, that bow down in fear of the death threats of ideological tyrants, you can bite me. This is America, so I’m allowed to say that, and just about anything else I want. If you don’t like it, well, that’s what the comments section is there for. Knock yourselves out—you may just get your own guest column, too!
For those who argue that the event should have been canceled due to potential threats on the lives of the artists, let me ask you –did Martin Luther King Jr. understand the risks involved every time he marched in the defense of civil rights for black Americans? You bet he did, but the cause of freedom and equality mattered enough to him to make it worth the risk. He didn’t back down to bullies, and he faced a lot of them. The same thing is happening with this movement as well. Theo Van Gough, the Dutch artist who created the first global outcry for his depictions of Mohammed, was eventually killed for making his stand. Others have been beaten or otherwise abused. It’s the same pattern over and over, throughout history. That’s why we must support Everybody Draw Mohammed Day. If we don’t defend freedom here, and particularly the freedom to speak even if it offends, there’s nowhere else on earth left to run. If that’s our stance, we might as well just close all the web sites now and hope our future masters will be kind.
It’s freedom, damn it! It’s worth defending.
Guest Poster: Dirk Farbois
Go Green! Reycle Your Graduation Gowns!
Here’s another great post from our sister site StudentStuff.com.
We all know to recycle paper, plastic… and graduation gowns? With all of the enthusiasm to go “green” within homes and industries, who knew that we would actually be looking into recycling graduation caps and gowns? Yes, even schools are going green. Well, apparently plenty of people have been looking into the hundreds of thousands of graduation gowns and caps that go to waste every year. Graduates wear them once, and then have no other use for them than to hang them in their closet or merely toss them in the garbage. Obviously, this is a waste of resources and money. So, people have been looking into alternatives to cut the waste. Caps no longer need to be tossed in the air and then into the garbage.
Instead of the typical polyester gown that we are all familiar with, a manufacturer has developed a graduation gown made out of recycled plastic. What is interesting is that people who have worn these gowns say they are far from uncomfortable. Reports from CB Online showed that the people who tried on the recycled gowns felt the material was actually an improvement of the polyester, feeling lighter and softer.
Another option for a “green” graduation gown is using biodegradable material, which is supposed to decompose after roughly a year. There’s little harm trashing the gown if it is merely going to dissipate after a matter of time.
The idea of reusing gowns is also an important part of going green for graduation. Many schools encourage their students to return the gowns afterwards, so the material does not go to waste… literally.
Despite their similarity in appearance to the original, the unfortunate part about these degradable and recycled plastic gowns is that they are more expensive for students. This probably explains why so many schools have opted to stick with polyester instead of following this new recycled fashion.
Old habits die hard, I am afraid. Every new innovation has to start somewhere. I believe that if the recycled gowns prove to be a smash, we will all be seeing much more of them in future graduation ceremonies. However, considering the current economy, perhaps this new wave of “green” graduation gowns will become popular once the prices begin to drop.
If anyone has tried one of these “green” gowns, please feel free to let the rest of us know what you think of them. Are they actually comfortable? Do they look cheap? Do you feel good knowing that you are helping to preserve the environment?
Want more StudentStuff? Click here to visit out sister site.
Whatever Floats Your Boat
Eco-activist, David de Rothschild, made the news when he announces his intentions to sail a boat from California to Australia. No big deal, you say? Well, how about this? He made the boat himself out of plastic bottles. Named Plastiki, the boat is a demonstration on how supposed “garbage” may be re-used or made into art.
The 11,000 thousand mile journey on a giant water bottle flotation device will be a treacherous one and yet it will be a worthwhile adventure. I know this from experience.
Like David de Rothschild, I have made several boats composed of only recycled materials. Similar to Rothschild’s sea-faring Plastiki, two of the boats I constructed used empty water and soda bottles for flotation. I did not, however, commission a naval architect to build the boat for me. A few friends and I decided to collect all the materials and assemble the boats ourselves. Although a lot of work was put into making the boat seaworthy, the construction was a very casual endeavor and the boats were made it a very short time. How did we build the boats?
The first time I participated in a boat building event, I was a junior at Beloit College looking for a break from all of my arduous homework. My friend suggested that we build a boat from scratch and sail the Rock River. It sounded like an amazing opportunity and a true adventure. I was definitely due for one of those.
My friend and I collected as many bottles as we could find in the recycling bins on campus. We found unused garbage bags to put the water bottles in. Next, we wrapped a few giant cardboard boxes with garbage bags and wrapped the bags full of water bottles alongside the bottom of the cardboard. It didn’t bother us that our friends were skeptical. What was the worst thing that could happen? We could be laughed at for immediately sinking, but we decided to covertly at dusk so no one would see us. Unlike Rothschild’s endeavor, we wanted as little attention as possible. The public symbolism of the event was less important than the fact that we used trash from other Beloit College students to build our masterpiece. We knew in our hearts the importance of our efforts.
Once we set sail, we let out a sigh of relief. Our raft was successful! Although we only traveled a few miles as opposed to the thousands of miles that de Rothschild plans to sail, we fulfilled our goal of (1) getting it to raft to work, (2) and using only recycled parts. Although the second boat failed dismally and sank in a matter of seconds, this first vessel allowed us to drift a few miles and cross to the other shore. I don’t think we got wet at all. While I suggest that potential builders should be careful, I wholeheartedly recommend this experience.
Follow David de Rothschild on his voyage by visiting the Plastiki Expedition home page.
Have you ever build something out of “garbage?” Tell us about it!
Author: Alexandra Hoover
Celebrities and Fans Meet for Fun and Fundraising
Today, we have guest author Danielle Turchiano an entertainment reporter and CEO of IBG, a company that hosts fundraising events where fans get to hang out with their favorite stars.
They say charity starts at home, and my personal experience has proven to be the rule and not the exception. I grew up watching my mother work sixty hour weeks at a major cosmetics corporation in New York City so she could provide not only for our family but also the less fortunate. With every vacation my mother booked for us or every brand new doll or sneaker or piece of technology she bought me, she’d sign another check over to one of her chosen causes. My mother supported everything from animal rights to sick children to global epidemics. She taught me the importance of boxing up once-loved but no longer needed possessions to donate to the Foundling Hospital, where abused mothers and abandoned children were given the items and tools necessary to start over; she got me involved in Walks for Cures for breast cancer and kidney disease; she encouraged me to go door to door in her office, fundraising for Unicef.
As I got older and moved out to Los Angeles to begin my own adult life, I often struggled financially—due to the seasonal and somewhat fickle nature of the entertainment industry and my desire to freelance rather than be “tied down” with a nine to five office gig. I sometimes became the charity my mother chose to help out, rather than be able to give anything back to anyone else, myself.
My mother incidentally was also the reason I first got heavily involved in a television show’s fandom. As is common with soap operas, she had grown up watching one particular one with her mother, and she continued the tradition with me. It only seemed fitting, then, when my mother passed away in August 2009 that I would strive to find a way to combine these two passions.
IBG Inc has become the perfect way for me to do just that. Back in 2008, a group of four fangirls got together and decided they wanted to throw an event honoring one of their own favorite television shows, The X-Files, but they wanted to do it in a way that could help raise money and awareness for a little-known cause. They selected Neurofibromatosis (NF) Inc, knowing it was a cause that The X-Files’ own Gillian Anderson greatly supported, and they set to work throwing a one of a kind screening and Q&A with Writer/Producer Frank Spotnitz.
In 2009, just as I was looking for a way to do something similar for the fandom my mother and I had shared and one of her chosen charities, The PKD Foundation, the girls decided to come together and officially incorporate. They invited me to join them in their efforts and together we became IBG: Inspire. Believe. Give.
Since all five of us in IBG are connected to the entertainment industry in one way or another in our “day jobs,” we decided to take the stance of “philanthropy through the arts,” throwing charity events and supporting campaigns around Los Angeles and globally to shed some light on underfunded, under publicized, and oftentimes start-ups, charities in need of help. In November 2009 we built upon the fanbase from the earlier X-Files screening event and threw something even bigger and better: a moderated Q&A with Spotnitz, series creator Chris Carter, director Rob Bowman, and Anderson herself. Fans were invited to come out and attend the Q&A or purchase a special VIP ticket that would grant them access to a brief autograph session, as well as a cocktail party. In order to raise even more funds for the selected charities (proceeds were split between causes hand-picked by the panelists, including the Rape Treatment Center at UCLA-Santa Monica, Off The Street Kids, Fezeka, and The Kids Defense Team), a few meet & greets were auctioned off on eBay prior to the day of the event.
So many celebrities make headlines for scandalous relationships, wild behavior at parties and events, or casting shake-ups, but so many of them also have real heart and interest in certain specific causes. IBG Inc tries to showcase that charitable side to allow fans to see who they really are as people and not just the image they may have succumbed to in the media. And by attaching a famous name or face to charities that otherwise exist very quietly, we hope it will encourage more people to look them up and decide to support on an ongoing basis.
2010 will be IBG’s first full year of events and campaigns. During the first quarter we completed five very successful rounds of online memorabilia auctions, as well as a wine tasting/silent auction event held in January in Beverly Hills. We are currently collecting celebrity drawings for National Doodle Day 2010 to benefit NF, Inc (already contributors include esteemed pop artist Charles Fazzino, actors Jason Alexander, Tim Allen, and Kristoffer Polaha, author Jodi Picoult, and sports legend Sugar Ray Leonard). We will also be taking part in KidneyWise 2010 to find a cure for CKD/PKD and in the planning stages for a specific Los Angeles area event to beneft the PKD Foundation.
Want to get involved? Please visit our website: www.ibginc.org for more information on our organization, the causes we currently support, and upcoming events.
Photo: IBG
Back to the Basics of Choice
There has been quite an outcry among the pro-choice community of late against a recent bill passed by the Utah legislature. The bill gives women a choice to see the fetus before choosing to get an abortion. Apparently, the “Pro-Choice” community is becoming less about choice and educated decisions, and more about defending abortion at all costs. The reaction to this bill by some voices within the pro-choice movement, such as Planned Parenthood, is a prime example of the movement’s tendency to discourage real choices. The bill is not forcing women to see the fetus, only giving them the choice they should have had all along and that Planned Parenthood has denied.
The bill, HB 200, changes the current informed consent and states that abortion centers must allow women a chance to see an ultrasound before the abortion is done and requires abortion facilities to provide a detailed description of the unborn child to the mother considering abortion. Sponsored by Republican state Rep. Carl Wimmer, the legislation furthermore, “requires the state Department of Health to produce both printed and video information about the ultrasound viewing that abortion businesses must give women 24 hours in advance of the abortion informing them of their rights to view one.”
Rather than giving women complete control of information, and access to all things pertaining to the woman’s body and fetus, it seems Planned Parenthood would rather blindly lead women into an uneducated decision.
Currently, any surgery, medical procedure or medicine given in the medical community at large comes complete with a laundry list of warnings and explanations. Even when a doctor performs an elective surgery, the doctor must give patients a detailed explanation of any x-rays, pre-op photos, and possible risks, no matter how small the risks may be. Doctors also inform patients of any potential alternatives. Given these current and widely accepted standards, it is incredible that a bill similar to HB 200 in Utah has not been made a federal law.
Three Options for Unwanted Pregnancies
Currently, women have three options when it comes to unwanted pregnancies. Option one is, of course, motherhood. In the eyes of a Planned Parenthood supporter, this is a bad idea if a woman is not financially stable or educated. Planned Parenthood backs up this argument by pointing to statistics that show such parenting conditions lead to more crime and poverty. However, there is plenty of information as well as organizations willing to help financially unstable women, such as Women, Infants and Children (WIC), local churches, synagogues, and free parenting classes.
The second option is adoption. Adoption is the least selected alternative and is sadly seen as incomprehensible despite the endless resources. According to the National Council for Adoption, there are more than one million couples waiting to adopt. When a woman considers adoption, a responsible adoption agency will completely review the risks and rewards of the woman’s possible decision.
Then there is the coveted third option, abortion. However, unlike adoption agencies, information is limited once a woman steps through the doors of Planned Parenthood. It would benefit the Pro-Choice community to encourage education, choices, and decisions when it comes to abortion. These additional choices include allowing a woman to see what is growing in her own womb. Unfortunately, there have been several proven claims that Planned Parenthood doctors minimize risks and rarely explain the abortion procedures unless directly asked by the woman.
The Need to Protect a Woman’s Access to Informed Decisions
From my experience working in two pregnancy options counseling clinics in two different states, I spoke with countless women who had previously had an abortion at Planned Parenthood or had visited a Planned Parenthood clinic because they were considering an abortion. Rarely had they received sufficient information regarding risks and options. Our clinic would always inform the woman on the three options if interested. If she asked, we would provide her with information and resources on parenting. The pregnancy options clinic would also review the benefits and concerns involved with adoption if she was considering that avenue. Additionally, if the woman was considering abortion, the clinic counselor would inform her of the different procedure and risks in strict medical terminology. Unfortunately, many women were surprised they had never heard this at Planned Parenthood. Oversights such as these render HB 200 necessary, rather than outlandish.
My account is not the first record of this lack of information being presented at Planned Parenthood clinics. Recently, an undercover crew went to Planned Parenthood to see what kind of information a woman interested in abortion would receive in a counseling session. A copy of a letter submitted to the Wisconsin newspaper, The Journal Sentinel, by Lila Rose of Live Action reveals disturbing findings of a woman seeking counseling described in part in the following excerpt:
“Does it have a heart beat?” the young woman asked. “Heart tones,” the Planned Parenthood counselor interrupted. “Heart beat is when the fetus is active in uterus, can survive, which is about 17 or 18 weeks.”
This is simply false. The prominent embryology textbook, “Human Embryology” by Moore and Persaud, states, “The heart begins to beat at 22 to 23 days.”
Later, Planned Parenthood abortionist Dr. Gary Prohaska told our investigator, “you don’t want to wait” to get an abortion, warning, “You know, women die having babies.”
Providing medical misinformation and manipulating women in such a grave and irreversible decision as abortion is unconscionable. Institutionally standing behind medical falsehoods shows the public that the problems come from the highest levels of Planned Parenthood. Women deserve to know the truth.”
It is also interesting to note that a key argument the Planned Parenthood organization has used when debating the moral issue surrounding abortion is; “If you don’t want one, don’t choose to get one.” It seems that the same argument they champion could be said of the new bill. If you don’t want to see the fetus, don’t choose to see it. The organization should not encourage a choice that ends in a lack of information and more importantly, choices. It also begs the question as to Planned Parenthood’s motive for taking a stand against this new law. It doesn’t seem too far-fetched to infer it may have something to do with the loss of profit that may come with this bill. After all, Lifenews.com states that, “when used in pregnancy centers, ultrasounds are credited with helping more than 80 percent of women to reconsider a decision to have an abortion.” Is it possible to think that a company that earned an income of just over $1 Billion a year (according to their 2007-2008 Annual Report) has a fear that the natural tendency towards curiosity could cause significant detriment to their profits?
Facilitating True Empowerment
The fact that the Planned Parenthood community, which would describe itself as an organization looking to empower women, has a problem with a law that gives women the right to more information and more choices is inconsistent, hypocritical and insincere.
I would like to see the Pro-Choice movement lean towards giving women all information pertaining to the liberty that is legally theirs. I take issue not with women who are free to make their own decisions, but with institutions that push agendas on women without providing necessary tools for informed decisions.
As a nation we need to ensure that women have every opportunity to make educated judgments. Without question, the legally protected option to see an ultrasound of a fetus and increase her awareness of her own body should be granted. True empowerment for women comes not from discouraging the accessibility of information or hiding facts altogether, but from encouraging women to seek out all information that leads to an informed decision. An uninformed choice is no choice at all.
Author: Rachel Raynes
On March 1, Indie Game Musicians Join Forces to Fight Cancer!
Josh Whelchel, who did music for Bonesaw and Spirit Engine 2, has been collaborating with other indie game musicians to raise money for cancer for a while now. For the past few years, he’s been putting together a CD to raise money for the American Cancer Society.
Indie Music Cancer Drive has raised more than $6,000 in past years. The goal for 2010 is to top $10,000, and the project is almost 20 percent of the way there.
This year’s double CD features new or exclusive music from Alec Holowka (Aquaria), David Saulesco (Eternal Daughter), Stemage (Metroid Metal), Select Start and many, many others — more than 30 tracks over two discs.
If you donate before the release date, March 1, $10 gets you the digital download and $25 gets you the physical disc. After that date, the download price rises to $12, and the physical copy remains at $25, but you have to pay for shipping.
And remember, you can download last year’s album for a donation of any size.
Songs for the Cure ‘10 from Josh Whelchel on Vimeo.
Crazy about indie gaming? You can read more articles like this one at DIYGamer.com.
