The things you learn

With the election mess getting started and the brouhaha over Planned Parenthood (not to mention poor little old Cecil, may he RIP) it's funny what will set off a media firestorm and what can get brushed under the rug.

For most, if not all of my life, at least where I knew there was such a thing as Republican and Democrat, Republicans were always accused of being the racists. We wanted to keep minorities in their place and never provide any kind of assistance. Heaven forbid. Democrats were always seen as being for progress and lifting minorities out of poverty and helping them succeed. In fact, just yesterday someone practically accused me of supporting the KKK because I'm what she referred to as a religious conservative. Well, then, that must be true, right? 

Not really. The KKK can be divided into three distinct past and present organizations. The first was what is referred to by some as the terrorist arm of the Democratic party. If you'll remember the Democratic party was the party of slavery. It wanted slavery to remain legal. When the Confederates lost the civil war and Reconstruction began, the organization known as the Ku Klux Klan was formed by Democrats to terrorize black and white Republicans. They burned down the homes and murdered people they knew (or at least suspected) of being Republicans.

The second KKK organization came about in roughly the 1920's and was more religious in nature. That's when they began to also target Catholics, Jews, and anyone not their religion or their kind of Christian. They also continued their attacks against blacks and other minorities. This is the KKK that attracted the likes of Margaret Sanger, who started Planned Parenthood. She wanted to decrease the numbers of blacks, mentally ill, and other inferior peoples. Her organization is continuing her work brilliantly by making sure they target those communities and are making a nice amount of extra income by selling off dismembered and whole babies for profit.

The current KKK organization is not so much an organization but a bunch of smaller groups. They're not connected but like to use the slogans and logos of the KKK.

I find it interesting that if you look past the hyperbole and look at the parties and people doing most of the shouting about PP and KKK, they have it backward. But in the day of soundbites and tweets, that's not surprising. It's easier to click "share" than it is to do a little digging. All that required is maybe a click or two of the mouse to find out more. But that's not so quick and easy, is it?

Why I don't need to go out and do it myself

Lately there have been a lot of posts on Facebook about both the villainy and the sanctity of Planned Parenthood. Both sides can be accused of bad behavior, whether they've actually been rude or not. Non sequitur comments abound due to inability to think of anything else. These comments are designed to be a conversation stopper so that the commentators can claim victory in the war on life. Either stop the conversation or cause the other person to backtrack and hem and haw.

I've decided not to backtrack any longer. I think I surprised a friend today by replying to her non sequitur with a "No, why would you think so?" She replied with another non sequitur. It was kind of fun. It was empowering. I plan to do it again as soon as possible. LOL

People have become so brainwashed by PP's propaganda that they honestly believe that if PP is defunded that women in low-income communities will no longer have access to health care. The fact is, they will not only still have access but it will still be affordable or even free. I'm not from a large city. It's small to medium. Besides one PP clinic, in a rather nice, medium to high income area, there are at least two crisis pregnancy centers, at least one community health center, and the county health department. All of which are there to help women obtain the services they need. Some are free, some are inexpensive, and some are sliding scale.

The problem in our community (and I'm guessing in others as well where people are screaming that low-income women will suffer from the loss of a PP clinic) isn't that there aren't alternatives to PP. It's that they aren't advertised. There are billboards around town from different pro-life organizations but only one that I've noticed from one of the crisis pregnancy clinics. I don't know how many people realize that the health department and the community health center can also help them.

Now I realize that the health department and community health center may or may not refer them to places to obtain an abortion. I realize they may well supply birth control that can, in some cases, cause the death of an unborn child after failing to prevent conception. I used to be pro-choice. If I were still pro-choice I would still send someone there rather than to PP. PP was started by a woman who was quite open in her racism, support of the KKK, and her support of eugenics. It's no coincidence that most PP clinics are located in areas with a high minority population. I would also not send someone to a clinic in the business of selling human body parts.  Pro-choice is not synonymous with approval of PP practices, though many people I've seen on FB seem to think so. Pro-life is not synonymous with punishing women who make mistakes in their personal lives. Quite the contrary. As one crisis pregnancy clinic in my area clearly states, they are non-judgmental. They provide help and support, education, parenting classes. They are not there to make the women feel judged or punished. They are there to help both the mother and child. And no, I don't expect the women working there to adopt all the babies.