Twelve Percent

Wait, wait, wait…

So Rick Perry mentioned many times during the presidential primary debates that the (democratic) government was interfering too much in people’s private lives, right?

BUT he allowed the sonogram law to be passed in Texas that requires a doctor asked to perform an abortion to conduct a sonogram on the fetus, describe the features of the fetus AND play aloud the fetal heartbeat whether the woman wants it or not.

Woah there.

Isn’t that a little invasive of the government? That sounds a tad bit more invasive than the health care overhaul. It goes into a woman’s body for heavens sake.

“It’s ridiculous to not want women to have abortions but also not want them to go to Planned Parenthood and get birth control and then give people the safety net of Welfare and food stamps to only come back and say the recipients keep having babies and don’t want to take care of them.”

Help….It’s confusing.

Don’t want to support Planned Parenthood but then don’t want them to get an abortion, but THEN get mad when they get on welfare because they couldn’t get an abortion.

What DO you want?

GLAAD achieved it’s mission. Today, CNN announced that Roland Martin has been suspended indefinitely for the non-gay friendly Superbowl tweets that landed him in the hot seat with the Gay Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Sunday, and I think we all know that indefinite suspension is code for he will be fired—eventually.

Angry, I immediately took to Twitter, and was probably on my way to proving I learned nothing from this situation about Twitter restraint, when a tweet from Carolyn Edgar stopped me in tracks. She wrote:

“Instead of getting upset that GLAAD had the juice to get Roland Martin suspended, how about we figure out how to get some of that juice?”

As much as that’s not something Roland Martin supporter’s want to hear in this instance, the words are a dose of harsh reality. If people want Roland Martin to maintain his post at CNN, they’re going to have to figure out how to be just as clever, convincing, organized, and dedicated to the cause as GLAAD, because they’ve basically achieved their goal.

A lot of people say as a black person, if you are upset at Roland Martin’s suspension then you should disagree with Don Imus’ firing but I think there is a crucial difference there. Don made his racist remarks on-air with Fox, Roland tweeted homosexually insensitive comments from a personal Twitter account that are not reflective of CNN. When you look at those facts, black people have a right to be mad. Although this isn’t necessarily a race issue, it is interesting that neither CNN contributor’s Dana Loesch or Erik Erickson were fired for the controversial statements made on their radio shows, yet a Twitter comment gets this response.

But shouldn’t we do more than get angry? A lot of people liken the gay rights struggle to that of black civil rights activists, and while I don’t agree with that comparison, there are some things the black community can learn from the gay community because in an overly simplistic, two-worded summation of LGBTQ activism: they move.

That’s sort of the unspoken joke about gay activists—they have eyes and ears everywhere and they will make you pay for saying, doing, and possibly even thinking anything remotely anti-gay. Why can’t the black community do the same? In just the last few months, several racially insensitive situations have come to light. Newt Gingrich singled out black people as welfare hoarders, French Elle said we’re only stylish because we adopt white codes of fashion, Michelle Obama’s been blasted for her backside, likened to the Grinch and Marie Antoinette, and been labeled an angry black woman, Tea Party members have called for the lynching of the entire Obama family, and there are countless other instances that are too numerous to name. But every single one of those individuals still has his position and is free to offend the black community again while we go one writing open letters and waiting for change.

Commentors on this site say it best whenever suspect behavior is exposed: simply stop supporting it. But there’s another next step that has to go beyond not buying a rap CD, or watching reality TV, or purchasing a magazine—organized action. It’s not enough for a handful of people to make a personal decision about what they expose themselves too, the black community’s agenda has to be made known and be seen clearly. GLAAD didn’t hesitate to bring popular members of the gay community in on his efforts to get Roland Martin fired. They did their homework, they disseminated information, and they got results. Now it’s our turn.

Do you think Roland Martin and Don Imus’s suspension are equal? Do you think there are things the black community can learn about getting results from gay activists?

Okay so let me catch you up if you don’t know what’s going on. Basically, the Catholic leaders of America are upset that the new health care bill “requires nearly all employers to provide employees free preventive medical services — including contraceptives.”

As we know, the Catholics do not  believe in contraception (blank stare), so they feel that this law goes against their religious freedoms and violates the first ammendment.

Businesses like Catholic-based/owned hospitals would be affected.

Now….people are saying, this goes against their freedom of religion and this country is based on freedom of religion! WAH WAH WAH, Obama you socialist!

When I reread what the law says, I don’t think it’s saying that Catholics MUST take birth control, I’m pretty sure it just says that they MUST COVER birth control in their preventative health care to employers. So if a lady works for a hospital that is owned by a Catholic church but the lady is not Catholic, she will be able to get contraceptives under the provided health care with her employer.

To me, if the employer doesn’t cover contraceptives in their health care, I feel that is imposing their religious belief on other people, namely their employers.

Yes, those people do have a choice whether they want to work there or not, but should that really be a determinant factor in whether you take a job somewhere when you’ve been out of work for months..or years.

“They won’t cover my contraceptives in their preventative health care plan so I must stay unemployed and on welfare until I find another job.”

I mean come on.

Yes, it is forcing these businesses to do something that they do not want to do and no that doesn’t sound very…capitalist…but still, people need health care. It’s America for crying out loud. Provide them with health care and as an extension, provide them with the CHOICE to get contraception. If they’re Catholic, they won’t use it. If they are not Catholic and DO want to control the size of their family and realize that they can’t provide for any more children, they can do so. Not attacking your religious freedoms, just giving everyone the chance to practice THEIR freedom.

Right?

Just my opinion. :)