What to Do about the Women

In South Carolina, women don't fare very well.  Whether it is health care, employment, violence, education, reproductive rights... you know what I mean.  And in spite of all the anti-abortion verbiage about protecting women, pregnant women, babies and children remain vulnerable.

On Thursday, September 1, Charleston County Democratic Women will hold its first meeting after the summer hiatus.  The featured speaker will be Jane Perdue of the Center for Women, founded in 1990, and which mission is "Dedicated to empowering and enriching women in their private and public lives."

The end goal is to increase the presence of women professionally and in elected office.  But to get there, so many things have to change.  Our daughters need to be healthy, well-fed and well educated.  They need to live in homes and walk through neighborhoods that are safe.  As they grow older, they need to have the same opportunities for higher education, employment and economic growth as men, and all those criteria need to cut across race as well.

In South Carolina, preterm birth rate is 4th highest in the nation; while the infant mortality rate has declined, there is a dramatic racial divide.  With the state's continued refusal to expand Medicaid, women and children continue to experience the harmful results.  Last year, attacks on Planned Parenthood threatened to shut down a valuable source of women's health care.  Control of our reproductive health means control of emotional and economic well-being.  South Carolina ranks #1 in violence against women.  We are still debating whether or not to allow our schools to provide medically accurate sex education to students.

What all the above means is that here in South Carolina, girls and women are faced with constant hurdles to living a good life.

The Center for Women addresses each of these issues with education and advocacy.

The year of our first woman president should be the year we move the girls and women of South Carolina into the 21st century.

Please go to the Charleston County Democratic Women Facebook page and say you will attend this important meeting on Thursday, September 1, at the Holiday Inn.  Men are welcome, because what improves the lives of women improves all our lives.  Registration is at 6, the buffet dinner is $20.00.  And please take the opportunity to become a member.

I look forward to seeing you there.  

Let the Banning Proceed!

When I moved to Charleston in 1999, I learned that my son's elementary school library was not ordering the Harry Potter books.  Not because the librarian thought they were bad, but because she feared parent complaints.  You know, Christians worried about making witches look like heroes, and the evil of magic.

Charleston County Public Library, then one of the best libraries I have ever encountered, happily filled the need.  In time, as more and more children absorbed the wonderful series, the Harry Potter controversy dissolved.  And the juvenile and young adult books the library has since made available to our children I believe continues to be among the best collection in the country.

More incredibly, just over a year ago, South Carolina lawmakers threatened to cut funding for the College of Charleston because the book Fun Home by Alison Bechdel had been on the freshman reading list.  The book deals with issues of gay identity in the context of family conflict.  It was horrifying to imagine that our legislators would attempt to censor college reading based on their homophobia.  But it happened.

Last week was Banned Books Week, and my branch at Johns Island had a wonderful display to remind us, once again, of the astonishing poor judgment that has caused communities over the years to ban some of our best books.  And to recognize once again, those amazing books.

On the bottom shelf of that display was a stack of books.  The accompanying sign welcomed patrons to take one.  Never one to resist that kind of bargain where books are concerned, I picked up a copy and flipped through it.  There was an insert from the author explaining why the book was being given away.  During the summer, a parent had complained to West Ashley High School's principal that this book was on the Honors required reading list (actually a choice between this and another) and was not appropriate and should be pulled off the reading list.

Instead of following the process in place in the school district, this principal decided to pull the book from the reading list.  Charleston County Public Library and others then agreed to distribute copies of this book so that any young adult that wishes can read it.

As a parent of two now adult former honors students, it horrifies me when any kind of information is blocked.  The purpose of education is not merely to provide facts, but to pose questions.  In my home any book could be read, any movie could be watched (which at times got uncomfortable), and both kids knew that we could talk about anything therein.  If our schools are not up to teaching honors students (or any student) critical thinking, we are failing them.  Parents who judge material unfit always have the option of not allowing their own child to participate, and I know that teachers and administrators are more than cooperative in this regard.  But to deny others access to material based on one's own comfort level is wrong and should under no circumstances be courted by school administrators.

The same blocking of information is now going on in the Charleston County School District regarding the new law that would require sexual education to be accurate and up-to-date.  Really???  There are people who work in education, serve on school boards and are raising children who do not want sex ed to be accurate?  Yes, and they are working hard to prevent that information from going out to any students in Charleston County.

But back to books.  The one that has been banned from West Ashley High School is by Courtney Summers and it is entitled What Goes Around and is actually two books in one.  The author has received awards and rave reviews for a number of young adult books.  Her writing is honest, the problems are complex, and if you are looking for pat, polite answers, you aren't going to find them here.  It is a wonderful opportunity for young adults to explore the complex and often very adult problems that exist in their world.

Again, it is chilling to imagine that one parent who does not want her teen reading about gritty, real-life problems can prevent all others in a school from having access to that material.

I am proud that Charleston County Library has stepped up to fill that void, and in so doing, make us all aware that important books continue to be banned in a country that was built on freedom of speech, openness to ideas, and the ability to engage in critical thinking rather than hide from unpleasant realities.

I also hope that parents made aware of this poor decision will speak up.  Charleston County School District has a process for reviewing parent complaints (as does the library).  The freedom to read and explore controversial topics is essential, and decisions to censor any book should never, ever be made lightly.

Thanks, Charleston County Library, for stepping up. 

Failing Our Daughters

Imagine a teenage girl having sex.  I know, I know, she's had sex ed and been told not to.  Which has been proven to be as effective as the legal drinking age of 21.  So, as so many of us have done, she waits anxiously for her period, and it doesn't come.  Either she can or she can't tell her parents.  Or she can but she doesn't know that.

She doesn't say anything, except maybe to her boyfriend, who suddenly starts avoiding her.

If she goes to her guidance counselor, her parents will find out.

She can't go to a doctor, because the doctor would insist on telling her parents.

There was once a time, or should have been a time, or should currently be, clinics where teens can get accurate information about pregnancy, and told objectively about the options.  But that doesn't exist.

She tells a friend, who tells another friend, and, as Kurt Vonnegut might have said, so it goes.  The friends try to piece information together.  Somebody has heard that drugs for animals can cause abortions.  Another friend has heard of someone who swallowed lye.  Someone else suggested that she throw herself down the stairs.  They all agreed that she should wait and see; sometimes you just miss a period.

When there is absolutely no doubt that she is pregnant, she looks up some family clinic phone numbers.

At this point, when she turns the problem over to the adults, there is still no certainty that she will end up with accurate information and an objective counselor to go over her options.  If she is determined to have an abortion, she may not have the money.  She may end up talking to anti-abortion counselors who give her bad information.  She may not be able to get to an abortion provider.  Or she may end up, in desperation, swallowing lye.

Meanwhile, she has been depressed, distracted.  She may have continued to go to classes, but her grades have suffered.

Perhaps at some point her parents figure it out.  Recriminations followed by an insistence that she has the baby:  you got yourself into this.  She tries to believe this is the best thing.  Her mother is supportive one minute, angry the next.  Her father says she can stay at home with the baby, but then complains that he will have to take care of her and her kid.

If staying with her parents is intolerable, she may decide to go out on her own.  In some states, there is no health care available, or it is minimal and hard to find.  She can't get housing or food stamps.  There is no child care.  She takes what welfare she can, but it is hard to figure out where to go and how to apply.  When she does get assistance, it is not anywhere near enough to survive.  She doesn't eat well, she doesn't sleep well, she has never learned how to budget and has no resources to help her.  And she surely has no idea how to take care of a baby.

Lindsey Graham sent out an email yesterday bragging on the upcoming "fast-tracked" abortion ban vote.  This is part of an all-out blitzkrieg on women's reproductive rights in conjunction with voting to defund Planned Parenthood.  Once again, holding the government hostage by threatening a shutdown if Planned Parenthood is not defunded.  A Sophie's choice of which most desperately needed programs are going to be killed.

After Wednesday's republican debate, the media heralded Carly Fiorina as the "winner," because she was poised and spoke in complete sentences.  Women cheered her on for confronting Donald Trump for his crack about her face.  On the other hand, her comments about Planned Parenthood were complete fabrications.  Which fact-checking has gone pretty much unnoticed.

In this fictional right-wing world, it is all about saving "lives."  The government should be small and we should all celebrate our "freedom."  Unless we are women, or obstetricians.  Or teenage girls.

Accurate information and objective reporting or counseling has no place in 2015 America.

Here in South Carolina, where our legislature has finally passed a bill requiring accurate sex education be taught in the schools, the same determination is going into thwarting that law as that which went into civil rights laws integrating schools.  Charleston County, which is supposed to be a shining star in the redneck firmament which is South Carolina, has been outstanding in its efforts to avoid telling the truth to our teens regarding their bodies.

So that girl who makes the mistake of having unprotected sex is easily forgiven.  She is living in a world of denial and of falsehood.  She has nowhere that she knows she can turn because anyone that might help her find her way is threatened with firing or defunding.

Our choice.  Not hers. 

Kudos South Carolina

Well, it's over.  It's been an agonizing legislative year here in South Carolina.  Yes, there were great comic moments like the debate about the Columbian mammoth and the age of the earth.  And we all appreciate the great effort put into all the new laws reinforcing our gaming and fishing rights.  But we spent much of the past session trying to protect South Carolinians from the woman-hating power-mad religious right, while at the same time fighting to provide our citizens with health care and better than minimally adequate education.  Given all that, I feel the need to do something I rarely do:  brag about our success.

If you look at our neighbors, all those fellow "red states" and even purple and blue states, you'll see that we've all been bombarded with right wing-nuts with pockets full of money who fund all those "conservative" -- i.e. radical -- social issues that get their angry and ignorant constituents out to vote.  But we fought and I am proud to say we did NOT have any crazy personhood, pre-owned, pre-born baby bills pass in South Carolina.

We came so-o-o-o close to bringing our sex education curriculum into the 21st century, only to be stopped at the last second by one narcissistic and rather stupid state senator.

We attempted to pass meaningful marijuana legislation and equality legislation for the LGBT members of our community.  We fought for veterans, seniors, children and parents, the working poor, the unemployed and underemployed, and those who are not protected by unions.  We fended off drug testing legislation and warrantless searches of our electronic devices.  We went up against the bullies in the gun lobby, and while we weren't able to keep them from allowing guns in bars and restaurants, we continue to fight that battle, and we did succeed against crazy open carry legislation -- hey, we could be Georgia, but, I'm proud and relieved to say, we are not.

We, and by this I mean you, worked so hard to get some good bills passed, but we also kept some real stinkers from becoming law.  I was so impressed with the work that so many groups and individuals put into showing up and fighting, day after day and week after week.

Our Truthful Tuesday movement brought much needed civil disobedience back to Columbia, with brave individuals getting arrested for blocking traffic at the State House to protest the attempt to nullify the Affordable Care Act, and to bring attention to the need to accept federal money for Medicaid expansion.  A stupid bill that might have passed into law and would only have been overturned by the courts was kept from wasting our time and resources.  The protests got state and national attention.  Medicaid expansion hasn't happened yet, but it will.  This group is not giving up.

Here's a group whose existence I only recently became aware of:  Tell Them SC is a grassroots advocacy network that works tirelessly towards bringing appropriate and much needed sexual education to our teens as well as fighting for accessible birth control and making information and vaccine available to prevent cervical cancer.  I was amazed at the intensive effort that went into promoting legislation that would provide kids with better health care and better education.  They worked to let us know what was on the table, who to call or email, and when, so that our legislators wouldn't forget we were there.

And our amazing South Carolina ACLU has been there in Columbia, testifying and fighting for our constitutional rights.  Voting rights, reproductive rights, the rights of immigrants and members of our LGBT community.  If you regularly read our newspapers, you will see very frequently commentary by the director of the ACLU.  If you attend legislative hearings you will hear her speak to all those issues and many more.  The ACLU has been an integral part of our effort in beating back bad legislation and promoting bills that guarantee our individual rights.

And, you know, there are others, too many to mention.  We may not be a blue state, but you are all out there fighting to protect us from the uninformed and mean-spirited, who are funded by those with deep pockets and a hunger for more power.  We don't see our national Democratic party supporting us much.  And some of our Democratic elected officials here in South Carolina sometimes are too intimidated to stand up and fight for us.  But we have these amazing people who are here and are not afraid.  They won't compromise away our rights, and they won't let those rights be traded in the night.  They will fight, they will be loud, they will be heard, and they aren't going away.

Thank you all.

Honoring Our Legislators

As the clown car pulls out of the Columbia station, I think we should all take a few moments to reflect on what I believe has been a year of astounding idiocy.

For example, who can ever get enough state symbols?  Whenever we start to think there is nothing our legislators can agree on, we can always turn to choosing another state symbol.  But wait!  This year, we managed to turn a simple request to recognize the Columbian mammoth as state fossil into a battlefield.  Just as we keep fighting the Civil War, this was yet another chapter of science versus the bible.  Senator Kevin Bryant added an amendment that referred to the animal "as created on the sixth day with the beasts of the field."  Not to be outdone, Senator Mike Fair then put a block on the bill based on his failure to grasp the theory of natural selection.  These religious objections and aimless incursions into the realms of science are just another day of governing down here;  my favorite objection, however, is that we have just too darned many state symbols.

Anyway, my personal opinion about the state symbol debate is that the more time they spend arguing about state-whatevers, the less time they have to do real damage.  Like the way they mangled attempts to legalize medical marijuana.  Our moral mediocrity members, by way of protecting us from relief of pain in our illnesses, whittled down what should have been a simple bill by creating complexities that Obamacare drafters could only have written in their dreams.  Talking out of the other side of the mouths that they use to spout stuff about individual freedom, our legislators showed their concern that we not succumb to the evils of the wicked weed by narrowing the type of oil, its point of origin, the specific type of research, and I believe the hours of the day and days of the month it can be accessed.  And probably a dozen or more other stipulations that will keep that plant out of the hands of those in need.

But no prizes to those who worked hard to make the bill meaningless; it's been done already.  Right here in South Carolina, in 1980, the South Carolina Controlled Substances and Research Act had so many inclusions and exclusions that it has never actually been used.  Not once.  While we wait another 35 years for the next attempt at a law that would actually allow people to use medicinal marijuana, we'll just have to keep relying on that oxycodone, the stuff that will get you high and addicted, while PhRMA gets ever richer.  Hey, it's legal.

Well, that was a little too heavy for a clown car award, especially if you start to think about the people you know who experience chronic pain, and/or the drug dependency and side effects of oxy use.  So I'm not even going to talk about Wendy Nanney's work to become god's crusader for exposing (and controlling) women's medical decisions.  But Wendy did give us a lighter moment.

It seems she was driving home one day and noticed a bicyclist do something dangerous.  And in the time it took her to get where she was going, she had devised a bill that would require licensing and classes for cyclists.  Except that the minute it went public, and to her surprise and consternation, friends of hers in the bicycling community were up in arms; two hours later, the bill went down.  Wendy defended her bill by saying that it wasn't really about big government; only those over 15 years old would have to be licensed.

Now this to me is proof that Wendy sincerely cares about life before birth and after age fifteen.  Any life falling in between is on its own.

Wendy Nanney -- You have to be this tall to be required to get a bicycle license.

Another heated battle that should not have been was about whether to bring sex ed into the twenty-first century, which for some of our legislators would have been too much too soon, as we never actually made it all the way into the twentieth century.  Mike Fair, staunch defender of his own religious distortions, sees no need to bring any education, much less sex education, up to the level of "medically accurate."  Seems to me he was back there complaining that "minimally adequate" was too high a standard for educating our children.

The problem may just be that Mike is uncomfortable with the thought that these young kids might end up knowing more than he does.  So after months of serious legislators, organizations and constituents fighting to get it to the point of passage, he put a block on the bill.   Proving that one idiot can move an entire Senate, and in fact, an entire state -- backwards.

In the final minutes of debate on another bill which attempts to provide much needed awareness to our children, one senator wakes up and rises to ask, "Why are we teaching sexual awareness to our four-year-olds?"  The sponsor of the bill informs him that it is not "sexual awareness" but "sexual abuse awareness."  Watching this debate, a wise friend commented, "Forget the kids; our legislators need sex ed."

And so it goes; another year down the tubes.  If it's any consolation, these guys did approve a raise for themselves.  Might be coming out of the savings from denying people food stamps and Medicaid, but it will be well worth it to keep these idiots off the street.

If you have a favorite moment from this year in South Carolina's legislature, please leave a comment and share it with us all.  Sometimes you just gotta laugh.

More About Bicyling and Pregnancy

Yesterday I wrote about the overreaching South Carolina Representative Wendy Nanney's idiotic bill which would require bicyclists and moped owners to get licensed and insured (with the exception of those expendables who are under 15), and her quick about-face after protestations by the cycling association.

It occurs to me that I may have sounded snarky (moi?!) in reference to bicyclists.  That was not at all my intent.  In fact, I believe that we need to make all our streets safe for cyclists.  Good for people, good for the environment.  I have driven too many times, half-awake, in the early morning, swerving to avoid a bicyclist at the last minute, not because they were not riding safely, but because of narrow roads where cars and bicyclers were forced to share too little space.

But the fact is, it is easier for those like Nanney to make laws fattening the pockets of industry, forcing new rules, paperwork and cost on her constituents, creating greater government bureaucracy, and with absolutely no contribution to insuring the safety and well-being of the public.  Easier than making sure that every new and repaved road has safe walking and bicycling lanes.

This is the way it is also for her fight against pregnant women.  Far easier, and apparently more satisfying, to make laws to force a woman to be pregnant than to ensure a better life for women.  The rate of teen pregnancies could be lowered by better education -- not just sex education, but an education that brings hope to teens for a good future.  Family planning, including contraception, would go a long way to provide families with financial and emotional security, so that wanted children will grow healthy.  Guaranteed health care and nutrition may eliminate the need for some of those twenty week abortions, and certainly reduce the rate of infant mortality -- a statistic of which Nanney should be embarrassed.

But, as the saying goes, when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.  And our representatives here in South Carolina, mostly see their job as making laws to make us do stuff that won't make our lives any better.  Getting a license to ride a bike on streets that aren't safe won't make cyclists any safer.  Making children and women get pregnant and stay that way rather than providing good education and health care is also the cheap way out.  And I mean cheap in the sense of quality as well as cost.

So my apologies to any cyclist that may have been offended yesterday.  It may not appear so at first glance, but you have a lot in common with those girls and women who have come under fire from our fierce and fanatical legislators.  And I will fight for your right to better roads if you will fight for a woman's right to reproductive health care.