a day to celebrate freedom ? ?

Today is July 4th, Independence Day here in the states, a day we celebrate the freedoms we have?!?!?

Today I also learned about this tremendous project, Faces of Courage: Intimate Portraits of Women on the Edge, by Mark Tuschman, that is looking for funding via Kickstarter and I wanted to share this with you, today, as it is about freedoms; freedom from abuse, repression, and giving women and girls some say in their lives.
Here is the link to the kickstarter site and the video explaining the project.  I was truly moved by the presentation and feel that this is a worthy cause to support.

Faces of Courage:

And I feel that it is importnat to highlight the plight of women and girls around the world as we here in the USA, had a wake up call for women's rights this week.

Today, in the Boston area, Mother Nature presented us with a much quieter and thoughtful holiday, as the threat and rains of Hurricane Arthur cancelled fireworks, town common concerts and parades.
This dampened and subdued acknowledgement of our country's birth feels apropos in the light of recent supreme court rulings and the fall out and discussion following said decision.

This week I feel as though women's rights and freedoms took a serious blow. The Hobby Lobby ruling by the Supreme Court has so many ramifications for Women's Rights that we really should be acknowledging this day with our own revolution.

But that is not happening, there are many women and political groups making statements and making stands, however the silence from the majority of women, and men as well, really unnerves me. There is an apathy in our country which should scare all of us.  The pervasive thought that our opinion really doesn't matter, that the big machinery of government will do what it will regardless of our opinions is alarming.

To emphasize the danger of such apathy let me quote a man you may have heard of:

“The best way to take control over a people and control them utterly is to take a little of their freedom at a time, to erode rights by a thousand tiny and almost imperceptible reductions. In this way, the people will not see those rights and freedoms being removed until past the point at which these changes cannot be reversed.”

― Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf

Also, this case involved the word, birth control, which is such a minefield of emotion and religious zeal that it clouds the waters of any clear discussion of the facts. I have watched as well educated people turn this subject into the dos and don't of unwanted pregnancies - NOT THE POINT!!!

I was hesitant to write a post about this ruling and my opinions because I was taught to tread lightly when it concerns politics. That having a strong opinion about a hot topic could alienate people and somehow have some nasty backlash effect.  But this decision has infuriated me and, at its core, it threatens the rights of my daughters and all women.  This ruling has opened the floodgates to more scrutiny and judgement about a woman's personal and private health choices by organizations, corporations and politicians that have no right to tell me what choices I make in regards to my body and my welfare! I needed to get on my soapbox.

If I remember correctly from my American history classes, in middle school and high school, that there 'should be' a separation of church and state.  As I learned it or as I understood this to means is that the government can not and should not tell us, its citizens, how and what to believe.  Granted this is mucky waters to begin with.

One of my main interests and concerns as a living, breathing woman and a mother of two brilliant daughters is that the government does NOT mess with or alter the rights of a woman to make her own personal health decisions according to HER body, her beliefs, her life style and her choices, PERIOD.

So on this fourth of July I hope that we all really take a moment and consider our freedoms and the freedoms of our fellow citizens.  Let us be able to look at the big picture and not through specific religious and economic and moral lens.

I will close with a quote from Mark Tuschman, author and photographer behind Faces of Courage: Intimate Portraits of Women on the Edge:


thank you and peace ~