I've been missing my father especially after seeing cousins from his side of the family at Barbara's surprise party. My father was the last survivor of his immediate family; his three sisters predeceased him by decades. My brother and I are the only ones among those cousins that have even one parent alive.
I've also been doing work to settle the estate, trying to meet a deadline of March 31st to avoid another fiscal year. It's brought up a lot of the anger and frustration that I had repressed.
The current political atmosphere depresses and angers me--i.e. the right wing attacks on Planned Parenthood and other "spending cuts" that won't even make a mark on our deficit. Hey, let's cut funding for poor women to get pap smears but continue important programs such as funding a NASCAR race car.
Thirty years ago I was a volunteer on John Anderson's campaign for President. He had been a Republican congressman before Republicans became synonymous with anti-women positions. I remember telling another volunteer that I thought the right wing Republicans wanted to get rid of birth control. She thought I was overreacting.
I'm sorry to say that I was right. It is frightening. Forced birth is frightening. The issue is rarely framed in those terms: "Do you favor forcing women to risk their lives to give birth to children they don't want?" Instead the question is, "Do you favor regulation of abortion?" Of course. Who wants unlicensed people performing abortions in unclean conditions.***
I saved but didn't publish this post for a few days. I didn't even come back to this site. I haven't worked through these issues. Unfortunately there's been more bad political, economical and natural disaster news. It can be overwhelming. But I can't let it overwhelm me.
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