We thought we had won the abortion battle; we thought the rights and needs of women and children were understood at last and women would have some parity. Not so. The lead editorial in today's NYTImes succinctly says that spending cuts are aimed squarely at the needs of women and children -- the need for contraception, safe abortions, nutrition for newborns for mothers who cannot afford it, one program after another -- all likely to be cut drastically, some axed entirely.Always the women, the minorities, the handicapped are given short shrift -- and those fat, comfy middle aged men in Congress prefer to bail out banks, help mining company and oil companies and wood products companies destroy our environment instead of putting the money toward the health of women and children. I'm sophisticated enough to know that these budgets are never tit for tat in that way, but from the long view that's what it comes down to. The men say "jobs" and "economy. They believe business will bail us out [and assure they are reelected]. They do not say "human needs." If you've dug up enough money to get elected to Congress, you are not watching your twenty-year old daughter struggle with two babies who are malnourished. You do not even see the mentally and physically handicapped whose day programs are cut for lack of funding, your elderly parents do not eat breakfast cereal two meals a day because they have to choose between meds, rent and food.
Getting up in the morning and reading the paper is a sad way to start the day -- and that's not even thinking about the rest of the world where turmoil roils and people are dieing for a change to try democracy, dieing, I'm sure this very moment as I type these words.
