Reflections on films, politics, and everything else.

  A few weeks ago I was standing at the downtown square with lots of other women, holding signs and shouting. One woman had a sign saying that she couldn’t believe she was still having to fight for the right to control her body. I understand that sentiment. During that day, we rallied and listened to moving speeches, but I left not knowing what to do other than make what donations I could to various organizations helping with the fight. I also left the rally feeling slightly guilty, but fortunate, that I’d never been put in a situation where I either needed an abortion or had to help someone acquire one. When I was an adolescent I remember a neighbor telling my mother that her daughter-in-law was getting an abortion, not seeming to acknowledge that I was present, and maybe this wasn’t something I should be hearing. The woman and her husband had a child already, around my age, and they couldn’t afford another one. Strangely I don’t remember my mother having muc...

  To steal a line from Roxane Gay’s recent article , I am raging. When news broke shortly before I went to bed on Monday night about the leaked Supreme Court decision. I struggled with which emoji represented my feelings on Facebook. I know that seems utterly silly at this moment, but I wished I could have chosen more than one. Ultimately I chose Pissed Off, but Angry, and, more truthfully, Heartbroken could also represent me. I feel my spirit has been broken by what will most likely be coming in the next month to this country. This wasn’t much of a surprise, although I’d hoped the day wouldn’t come. I’ve been nagging my husband off and on for years to think about leaving America or least move to a Blue state, as the Republicans have become more radicalized in this country. We may live in a Blue city, but that makes little difference with Ohio becoming increasingly out of touch. What incenses me the most from the anti-choice groups is their belief that, as on...

I should state up front that I am a white woman, and compared to many in this country I would be considered privileged. There have certainly been times in my life that I didn’t fully grasp that and said and did things that make me cringe now, wondering how I could have been so unaware, but I never had the power mixed with that cluelessness to affect the lives of so many people in such drastic ways. The U.S. Supreme Court does have that power, and appears to have a majority of clueless wonders that are about to do just that. Depending on what poll you look at, anywhere from half the country to three-quarters support the right of a woman to control what happens to her body (i.e. get an abortion), yet it looks very much like that long-held civil right will be taken away by what, I view, is absolute cluelessness of the world we live in, and with five of those justices being white, it really is impossible to not proclaim it white privilege after hearing their comments...