Trump

I'd love to talk about anything other than Trump but I have to say this and it's too long for a Facebook post.  

As a long-term morbidly obese woman, I'd always had the idea that I was protected from unwanted sexual attention.  Let's face it, not many guys talk about wanting to get into the (granny) panties of someone my size.  So it was a complete shock when it DID happen.  And I don't mean just the talking of it.  

In 1993, I moved to Nashville.  My mom had died 6 months earlier and I just wanted to go to a new location.  I worked at an upscale hotel and was on AOL often.  I'd been talking to a man who lived in Memphis and we planned on getting together in Jackson, about halfway between the two cities.  I took my roommate to work, and then drove to Jackson to meet this man at a McDonald's.  We talked and seemed to get along just fine.  The place got busy but we didn't want to stop talking just yet, so we moved outside to sit in our cars.  He asked me to sit in his vehicle, which I did.  We'd been talking for maybe 15 minutes about cars, believe it or not.  I told him I liked how his van was set up and got out to look in the back better.  As I did, he shoved me into the van, got on top of me and...do I really need to give more details?  I remember thinking it couldn't be happening.  I remember feeling like I was frozen.  I was screaming at myself to do something but I couldn't move.  When he was done, he told me to get out of his car because he had to go to work.

I drove back to the apartment I shared with a good friend and said nothing.  I didn't know what to say or do, so I did nothing.  Two days later, I called the police and reported it.  The officers I spoke with told me that they really couldn't do anything because it was a date, so it wasn't rape.  I found out a few months later that this man had been arrested for grabbing several women at the bus station, raping them and then killing them, so I guess I was lucky to still be alive.

So why am I saying something now?  Because rape doesn't just happen to young, beautiful women.  It happens to children, to handicapped women, to elderly women, to nuns, and even to someone as fat as I am.  You can't depend on the police or the judges to give you justice or closure.  The only one who can protect you to any degree is yourself. Donald Trump talking to Billy Bush, saying "I took her... I moved on her like a b****. I couldn't get there and she was married."  and "I'm automatically attracted to beautiful... I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the p****. You can do anything."  This made me physically sick.  Literally, physically sick.

As bad as that is, what makes it worse is reading comments that dismiss what he says as locker-room talk, as nothing more than a private conversation. Or saying it's not as bad as what Bill Clinton did.  As if dismissing it as idle talk or deflecting the topic to someone else is going to make what Trump said go away.  As if women who heard this and were hurt by it are just being overly emotional.  As if any of this makes it right for him to even think that, let alone say it, and still be a good person to run this country.  

But what scares me most of all is that, given ALL of this, ALL of his inappropriate words and actions, he might still be voted in as President.  Because people really don't care.
    

Simon Biles & Planned Parenthood

The other day, I read a meme on Facebook about Simone Biles and Planned Parenthood.  It made me angry but I didn't comment because I'm consciously trying to keep negativity out of my life.  Today, I read an opinion piece on the same topic and it made me even angrier.  Enough so that I had to write a post on it.

There is a conservative blogger by the name of Matt Walsh who has a tag line saying he is a "blogger, writer, speaker, and professional truth sayer."  I agree that he's a blogger and a writer because the two things go hand in hand.  Speaker I can't say anything about because I've never had the (dubious) pleasure.  But professional truth sayer?  In his opinion, yep, but that's just it.  It's his opinion, the truth as he sees it.  And sometimes, it's not so truthful.  But I digress.

Ok, so this article mentions the story of Simone Biles' childhood.  If you've read anything, you know that she was born to a mother who was an addict and a father who wasn't in the picture at all.  Her maternal grandparents adopted the younger two siblings, including Simone, while her grandfather's brother adopted the oldest two.  They were the ones that helped Simone reach her dream of being an Olympic gymnast and she calls them her parents.

However, Matt Walsh and the makers of the meme like to say that, if Planned Parenthood had their way, Simone and her siblings would have been aborted from the jump.  Why?  Because she's a member of a minority who was born to an addict and those, according to Mr. Walsh, are the prime targets of PP.  In his eyes, if Simone's mother, Shanon, had gone to PP, we'd have had no Simone, period.

I get his argument.  I really do.  Every human being has potential to be someone incredible, to offer the world something that no one else can offer.  But, just as equally, every human being has the potential to be a psychopath, to do horrific things that the world has never seen before.  The potential for both is there.  And it doesn't matter how a child is brought up.  Some of the worst serial killers came from average, everyday families, and some of the most incredible people came from the worst type of homes.  It's all up to the individual.

I don't like abortions.  It's not something I would have chosen for myself had I gotten pregnant after the age of 25.  But I'm not in charge of anyone but myself.  I can't and won't make a decision like that for someone else.  I don't know their circumstances.  I don't walk in their shoes.  And I'm not capable of saving someone else's life.  I can barely handle taking care of myself.  So I'm going to do exactly what I've been doing: Advocate for personal choice.  If a woman feels that having a baby is the best choice for her, wonderful. Congratulations.  And if a woman decides that having an abortion is the correct option for her, I'm going to support her fully.  Because in the end, the only decisions I have to live with are the ones I make myself.  I will comfort her if she needs to cry and be there for her to lean on.  I'll even stand in front of her if she needs a shield.  But I won't make a decision for her and I will not vote for anyone who thinks they have the right to make the decision for her, either.  It's the right thing to do.