Personal Experience

I've just found out first-hand that there are those in the hierarchy of the Catholic church who are very, very displeased with Sen. Joe Biden's position on reproductive rights (imagine that!), to the point that even buttons advocating the Obama/Biden ticket are being banned from being worn by employees of the church on church property. Sen. Biden is both a practicing Catholic & a pro-choice proponent, which I would guess is extremely common today. The ability to be both is a choice that at least some Catholic bishops are not willing to give Catholics; I guess the "don't ask, don't tell" policy started in the military regarding sexual identity has unfortunately trickled down to everyone who actually thinks for themselves in this area, also, especially those of us who work in any capacity for the church.

Nobody but a moron is "pro-abortion". Abortion is almost always the very last choice for the vast majority of women. I just wish everyone would get the language straight: it's "pro-choice" & "anti-choice", NOT "pro-abortion" & "pro-life". Everyone is "pro-life", & I resent that the phrase has been appropriated by the religious right. You can certainly be both morally opposed to abortion & still be pro-choice. It simply means that everyone can make up their own minds about the matter, without laws either prohibiting or advocating abortion. Why is that so difficult for people, especially the religious right, to understand? There are lots of things that are sins without being crimes. Apparently some people would prefer that we throw out the Constitution & replace it with the Ten Commandments. These are the same ignorant people who obviously are unaware that our country owes its very existence to the concept of separation of church & state.

So for those of us who are in the position of needing our jobs but are denied freedom of speech, I guess we just bite our tongues & resent the shit out of the authorities who deny it to us, & hope that this November we finally elect candidates who will give us a government that is genuinely responsive to & actually cares about all people, which has been so sorely lacking the last eight years. I, like Michelle Obama so rightly said (in spite of being forced to back down), would like to have a government & a country I can be proud of again, & a president who really represents the better angels of our natures that I can look up to, instead of being ashamed of. I mean, do you really want to be smarter than the leader of the free world? That's both sad & scary, & I hope never to experience it again in my lifetime. It all IS really up to us, & we can change the history of the world forever this November.