military retirements and health care

I do appreciate that Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta is considering grandfathering in soldiers when they decide to butcher the retirement plan for the military. They want to "protect the current soldiers and keep the faith of the military families". He was quoted as saying that as long as they took into consideration the soldiers that were in, there was no reason not to go ahead and consider future changes. What I do not appreciate is that they are talking about doing away with retirement benefits after 20 years and making the payout kick in only after the legal retirement age. They are talking about decreasing the amount you get for retirement and they are talking about having it be just be a contribution only retirement plan. This all said, then, also adding that most soldiers do not even stay in for 20 years and so do not get retirement anyway.

They are also talking about significantly increasing the premiums for Tricare(military) healthcare because of the rising costs attributed to taking care of the soldiers and their familes. Not taking into consideration that we are at one of our highest numbers in a ong time and are downsizing our forces as we speak due to the withdrawl from Iraq. Also not taking into consideration that instead of increasing premiums for soldiers & their families, they should just making smarter decisions. If you only allow same day "sick" appointments and everyone else has to go to the emergency room, you are flushing thousands of dollars away. If the on base clinic is only open 4 1/2 days a week & the doctors still take extended lunches & vacations, so we have to go to a minor emergency or emergency room, you are throwing money away. I recently have had to make 4 appts with my doctor because I was told they can only talk about 1 issue at a time. They are too busy to take any longer with a patient. Direct quote from the nurse. 4 appts take a LOT longer than just hearing me out the 1st time. I believe all issues are tied together & should be addressed as 1 issue. It is not the families fault that these military health care professionals are paid salary so they don't feel they have to work. Or that we have to often times go a more complicated or expensive route to get the care we need.

Why are we singling out military families? Education of our children? Foriegn aide to ravaged countries? Why are the biggest budget hits to the very places we need to be protecting? Hilary Clinton says that her husband made the hard choices and gave us a balanced budget and that sometimes you have to make unpopular decisions. I say that women and children first wasnt meant to be the quoted for the line to slaughter. Last I checked, and yes I checked, the Clintons made $20,400,000 in 2007. Their salary had increased every year from 2000 to that year also, so I can only imagine what it was in 2010. I know that they have big important jobs and I don't take away from that. What I do take issue with is the fact that to keep her in office and to keep these and all other government head's salary we are doing tax increases and premium increases and taking away from the retirement of people who I feel do a VERY important job as well.

I do not care if you consider yourself Republican or Democrat, military families and soldiers should not have to pay the deficit our politicians have gotten us into. Children should not have programs cut from their schools because the powers that be decided that as part of their retirement package, they should get the use of a private jet. We should not have to pull our relief workers from Africa because the President decided that the government paid vacation should be at a 9 million dollar ocean front estate in Hawaii for 9 days. If I don't have money to pay the bills, I don't go on lavish vacations. If I can't balance my budget I don't go buy a new car or hire a housekeeper. Why? Because these are "extras" They are fluff things that I don't need. I don't tell my kids that they can't eat lunch anymore because I can't pay for groceries (got to afford the new Benz), I don't tell the water company to suck it because momma needs a tummy tuck. If our country is broke, then it is broke. I think that there are better areas to make cuts and redistribution of funds. What do you think?


I do appreciate that Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta is considering grandfathering in soldiers when they decide to butcher the retirement plan for the military. They want to "protect the current soldiers and keep the faith of the military families". He was quoted as saying that as long as they took into consideration the soldiers that were in, there was no reason not to go ahead and consider future changes. What I do not appreciate is that they are talking about doing away with retirement benefits after 20 years and making the payout kick in only after the legal retirement age. They are talking about decreasing the amount you get for retirement and they are talking about having it be just be a contribution only retirement plan. This all said, then, also adding that most soldiers do not even stay in for 20 years and so do not get retirement anyway.

They are also talking about significantly increasing the premiums for Tricare(military) healthcare because of the rising costs attributed to taking care of the soldiers and their familes. Not taking into consideration that we are at one of our highest numbers in a ong time and are downsizing our forces as we speak due to the withdrawl from Iraq. Also not taking into consideration that instead of increasing premiums for soldiers & their families, they should just making smarter decisions. If you only allow same day "sick" appointments and everyone else has to go to the emergency room, you are flushing thousands of dollars away. If the on base clinic is only open 4 1/2 days a week & the doctors still take extended lunches & vacations, so we have to go to a minor emergency or emergency room, you are throwing money away. I recently have had to make 4 appts with my doctor because I was told they can only talk about 1 issue at a time. They are too busy to take any longer with a patient. Direct quote from the nurse. 4 appts take a LOT longer than just hearing me out the 1st time. I believe all issues are tied together & should be addressed as 1 issue. It is not the families fault that these military health care professionals are paid salary so they don't feel they have to work. Or that we have to often times go a more complicated or expensive route to get the care we need.

Why are we singling out military families? Education of our children? Foriegn aide to ravaged countries? Why are the biggest budget hits to the very places we need to be protecting? Hilary Clinton says that her husband made the hard choices and gave us a balanced budget and that sometimes you have to make unpopular decisions. I say that women and children first wasnt meant to be the quoted for the line to slaughter. Last I checked, and yes I checked, the Clintons made $20,400,000 in 2007. Their salary had increased every year from 2000 to that year also, so I can only imagine what it was in 2010. I know that they have big important jobs and I don't take away from that. What I do take issue with is the fact that to keep her in office and to keep these and all other government head's salary we are doing tax increases and premium increases and taking away from the retirement of people who I feel do a VERY important job as well.

I do not care if you consider yourself Republican or Democrat, military families and soldiers should not have to pay the deficit our politicians have gotten us into. Children should not have programs cut from their schools because the powers that be decided that as part of their retirement package, they should get the use of a private jet. We should not have to pull our relief workers from Africa because the President decided that the government paid vacation should be at a 9 million dollar ocean front estate in Hawaii for 9 days. If I don't have money to pay the bills, I don't go on lavish vacations. If I can't balance my budget I don't go buy a new car or hire a housekeeper. Why? Because these are "extras" They are fluff things that I don't need. I don't tell my kids that they can't eat lunch anymore because I can't pay for groceries (got to afford the new Benz), I don't tell the water company to suck it because momma needs a tummy tuck. If our country is broke, then it is broke. I think that there are better areas to make cuts and redistribution of funds. What do you think?

Scout suspended for pocket knife in car

6-Year-Old Scout Suspended for Bringing Knife-Fork-Spoon Utensil to School - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com

6-Year-Old Scout Suspended for Bringing Knife-Fork-Spoon Utensil to School - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com

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World won't end in 2012 Mayans insist

MEXICO CITY (Oct. 11) — Apolinario Chile Pixtun is tired of being bombarded with frantic questions about the Mayan calendar supposedly "running out" on Dec. 21, 2012. After all, it's not the end of the world.
Or is it?
Definitely not, the Mayan Indian elder insists. "I came back from England last year and, man, they had me fed up with this stuff."
It can only get worse for him. Next month Hollywood's "2012" opens in cinemas, featuring earthquakes, meteor showers and a tsunami dumping an aircraft carrier on the White House.
At Cornell University, Ann Martin, who runs the "Curious? Ask an Astronomer" Web site, says people are scared.
"It's too bad that we're getting e-mails from fourth-graders who are saying that they're too young to die," Martin said. "We had a mother of two young children who was afraid she wouldn't live to see them grow up."
Chile Pixtun, a Guatemalan, says the doomsday theories spring from Western, not Mayan ideas.
A significant time period for the Mayas does end on the date, and enthusiasts have found a series of astronomical alignments they say coincide in 2012, including one that happens roughly only once every 25,800 years.
But most archaeologists, astronomers and Maya say the only thing likely to hit Earth is a meteor shower of New Age philosophy, pop astronomy, Internet doomsday rumors and TV specials such as one on the History Channel which mixes "predictions" from Nostradamus and the Mayas and asks: "Is 2012 the year the cosmic clock finally winds down to zero days, zero hope?"
It may sound all too much like other doomsday scenarios of recent decades — the 1987 Harmonic Convergence, the Jupiter Effect or "Planet X." But this one has some grains of archaeological basis.
One of them is Monument Six.
Found at an obscure ruin in southern Mexico during highway construction in the 1960s, the stone tablet almost didn't survive; the site was largely paved over and parts of the tablet were looted.
It's unique in that the remaining parts contain the equivalent of the date 2012. The inscription describes something that is supposed to occur in 2012 involving Bolon Yokte, a mysterious Mayan god associated with both war and creation.
However — shades of Indiana Jones — erosion and a crack in the stone make the end of the passage almost illegible.
Archaeologist Guillermo Bernal of Mexico's National Autonomous University interprets the last eroded glyphs as maybe saying, "He will descend from the sky."
Spooky, perhaps, but Bernal notes there are other inscriptions at Mayan sites for dates far beyond 2012 — including one that roughly translates into the year 4772.
And anyway, Mayas in the drought-stricken Yucatan peninsula have bigger worries than 2012.
"If I went to some Mayan-speaking communities and asked people what is going to happen in 2012, they wouldn't have any idea," said Jose Huchim, a Yucatan Mayan archaeologist. "That the world is going to end? They wouldn't believe you. We have real concerns these days, like rain."
The Mayan civilization, which reached its height from 300 A.D. to 900 A.D., had a talent for astronomy
Its Long Count calendar begins in 3,114 B.C., marking time in roughly 394-year periods known as Baktuns. Thirteen was a significant, sacred number for the Mayas, and the 13th Baktun ends around Dec. 21, 2012.
"It's a special anniversary of creation," said David Stuart, a specialist in Mayan epigraphy at the University of Texas at Austin. "The Maya never said the world is going to end, they never said anything bad would happen necessarily, they're just recording this future anniversary on Monument Six."
Bernal suggests that apocalypse is "a very Western, Christian" concept projected onto the Maya, perhaps because Western myths are "exhausted."
If it were all mythology, perhaps it could be written off.
But some say the Maya knew another secret: the Earth's axis wobbles, slightly changing the alignment of the stars every year. Once every 25,800 years, the sun lines up with the center of our Milky Way galaxy on a winter solstice, the sun's lowest point in the horizon.
That will happen on Dec. 21, 2012, when the sun appears to rise in the same spot where the bright center of galaxy sets.
Another spooky coincidence?
"The question I would ask these guys is, so what?" says Phil Plait, an astronomer who runs the "Bad Astronomy" blog. He says the alignment doesn't fall precisely in 2012, and distant stars exert no force that could harm Earth.
"They're really super-duper trying to find anything astronomical they can to fit that date of 2012," Plait said.
But author John Major Jenkins says his two-decade study of Mayan ruins indicate the Maya were aware of the alignment and attached great importance to it.
"If we want to honor and respect how the Maya think about this, then we would say that the Maya viewed 2012, as all cycle endings, as a time of transformation and renewal," said Jenkins.
As the Internet gained popularity in the 1990s, so did word of the "fateful" date, and some began worrying about 2012 disasters the Mayas never dreamed of.
Author Lawrence Joseph says a peak in explosive storms on the surface of the sun could knock out North America's power grid for years, triggering food shortages, water scarcity — a collapse of civilization. Solar peaks occur about every 11 years, but Joseph says there's evidence the 2012 peak could be "a lulu."
While pressing governments to install protection for power grids, Joseph counsels readers not to "use 2012 as an excuse to not live in a healthy, responsible fashion. I mean, don't let the credit cards go up."
Another History Channel program titled "Decoding the Past: Doomsday 2012: End of Days" says a galactic alignment or magnetic disturbances could somehow trigger a "pole shift."
"The entire mantle of the earth would shift in a matter of days, perhaps hours, changing the position of the north and south poles, causing worldwide disaster," a narrator proclaims. "Earthquakes would rock every continent, massive tsunamis would inundate coastal cities. It would be the ultimate planetary catastrophe."
The idea apparently originates with a 19th century Frenchman, Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, a priest-turned-archaeologist who got it from his study of ancient Mayan and Aztec texts.
Scientists say that, at best, the poles might change location by one degree over a million years, with no sign that it would start in 2012.
While long discredited, Brasseur de Bourbourg proves one thing: Westerners have been trying for more than a century to pin doomsday scenarios on the Maya. And while fascinated by ancient lore, advocates seldom examine more recent experiences with apocalypse predictions.
"No one who's writing in now seems to remember that the last time we thought the world was going to end, it didn't," says Martin, the astronomy webmaster. "There doesn't seem to be a lot of memory that things were fine the last time around."
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

Baby snatched. Yikes!

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Oct. 1) - Eric Peterson heard a bang on his door in his quiet Nashville neighborhood and opened it to a woman covered in blood.
She pleaded with him to go rescue her children. She said she had left them at her house a few doors down to get help after a woman stabbed her with a kitchen knife. By the time Peterson got to the home, the baby was gone.
A woman posing as an immigration agent snatched a newborn from a Nashville, Tenn., home and repeatedly stabbed the baby's mother when she tried to intervene, authorities said Wednesday. Maria Gurrolla, 30, told reporters she had never seen the kidnapper before. "I need my baby back," Gurrolla, shown, said in Spanish.

Authorities are searching for the baby boy and the woman his mother says was posing as an immigration agent and snatched him from her home.
Maria Gurrolla told reporters she had never seen the woman before she showed up at her door Tuesday evening. She said the woman got a knife from the home and stabbed her several times.
"I need my baby back," the 30-year-old mother said Wednesday through an interpreter outside Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Gurrolla said she did not see the woman take the baby because she ran to Peterson's home. Peterson told The Associated Press she was "covered from her head to her toe with blood" with gashes on her neck and upper chest.
She asked him to save her children from the "lady in the kitchen" who had a butcher knife. When he got there, he saw a woman speeding away from the home. He brought Gurrolla's 3-year-old daughter back safely to his house, but found no baby, he said.
Gurrolla, who had a long scratch on her face, said the woman, whom she described as white and "robust", did not say anything about wanting to take the baby, who was on the sofa.


"She said she was an immigration officer and she was there to arrest her," said Gurrolla's cousin, serving as interpreter. It was not clear if Gurrolla was an immigrant, but police said she has lived in Nashville for at least 10 years. The cousin said the family did not want to discuss her legal status.
Police issued an Amber Alert with a picture and description of a 30-year-old woman. They questioned a woman matching the description in Buffalo, N.Y., but determined she wasn't involved.
Dr. William Dutton said Gurrolla had a penetrating chest wound and her lung had collapsed. He said she also had deep stab wounds to her neck, but was in stable condition. He said she still has physical signs that she gave birth recently. He described the birth as complicated but declined to elaborate.
A blue yard sign outside Gurrolla's home in the community of mostly single-family brick houses in south Nashville announces, "IT'S A BOY!" Police spokeswoman Kristin Mumford said she doesn't know whether Gurrolla was targeted because of the sign.
Peterson said as he was making his way to Gurrolla's house, a woman with a ponytail was behind the wheel of a gray 2-door Honda that sped away from the home.
As he approached Gurrolla's yard, a young girl in a diaper walked from around the back of the house. He left her with Gurrolla and the woman he lives with and headed back to look for the baby.
He sent his pet pit bull in first to check things out, then went in through the back door.
"As I preceded into the kitchen, I saw a puddle of blood, a big puddle of blood," he said.

He searched everywhere but found no baby. When he told Gurrolla, that's when she first started to cry. Police said the baby's father was at the home later Tuesday night, and Sharon Kimble, who lives with Peterson, said the toddler's father came later to pick her up.
Police spokesman Don Aaron said investigators were interviewing Gurrolla and her family again about the abduction.
A sketch artist is working to come up with a drawing of the kidnapper's face.
"We don't have any indication at this point that this is anything but a stranger child abduction," Mumford said. "We're not ruling out anything, but we have no reason to believe that the family is not being completely truthful."
Mumford said police are retracing the mother's activities before the attack, such as a visit to a local Walmart. Hoping to find a witness, police released a photo of a car that was parked near Gurrolla's at the Walmart and later followed her down the road.
Aaron asked the public for tips on the case and said it was a top priority for police in the area.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2009-09-30 11:04:32

Where do parents rights start? End?

A Florida mom tried to rein in a new school-dismissal policy -- literally.

A new parking policy at Crystal Springs Elementary School in Jacksonville, Fla., requires parents to wait in line, inside their cars, while the students are released one-by-one. Fed up, one mom showed up on horseback, citing fuel costs and time spent waiting as the reason for her four-legged mode of transportation.

"I don't have the funds in my budget to sit in lines for an hour to two and a half hours to wait for my daughter," said the woman, identified only as Deidre by news station WJXT.

Deidre, who said she and her daughter often ride horses together, was prevented from taking the child home and was ushered off the property by police.

"Our first priority is the safety of our children, and during our arrival/dismissal, their safety is first and foremost a priority on campus," said Principal Jaime Johnson, according to WJXT.

Deirdre said Johnson refused to release her daughter, and in fact, pulled the girl back from her mother. "(Johnson) would not turn loose of my daughter's hand," Deidre told WJXT.

The principal stated that she did not think it was safe for the child to ride on horseback through the streets around the school, many of which are under construction.

Instead, a police officer drove the girl home, where she waited alone until her mother arrived.

Should the school have released the girl to her mother on horseback?

Autistic Man Hacked Into American Gov't Systems

I am back to posting news stories. I thought this one was a little crazy. I have heard a lot of negative feedback on this story written by Kaiser Hwang. So much of it fueled by ignorance of the autistic condition. Let me know what you think.





Forty-three-year-old Londoner Gary McKinnon is facing extradition to the U.S. (as well as up to 60 years in a U.S. prison) if convicted of hacking into government computers, reports the BBC. He also has Asperger's syndrome, a type of autism disorder. After numerous failed attempts to have her son tried in the U.K., McKinnon's mother, Janis Sharp is pleading directly to President Obama for help, having sent him a letter signed by 40 Members of British Parliament asking him to "bring this shameful episode to an end." Speaking outside the High Court last week, she added, "I'm just praying, please hear us, Obama, because I know you would do the right thing."

McKinnon claims he was simply looking for suppressed UFO-related documents, and that the attacks were in no way malicious. Still, laws were broken, and two judges found that extradition was the proper response, but also admitted that extradition and prison in the U.S. for the handicapped McKinnon might be "very difficult indeed." With the U.S.-U.K. extradition treaty recently failing to get a revision, it's unknown exactly what Obama's choices are in the matter. But Sharp is hopeful. Outside the High Court, she told reporters, "Obama wouldn't have this. He doesn't want the first guy extradited for computer misuse to be a guy with Asperger's, a UFO guy." [From: BBC News]
Tags: aspergers, government, hack, international law, InternationalLaw, law, top, ufo, uk

New study on Autism

Hey blogger moms! I read this study and was curious. Do you think that what your children eat affects their behavior? My children do not even have autism and I think it makes a difference. I would be interested in your opinion. Thank you!







Jenny McCarthy is wrong, according to researchers at the Mayo Clinic.

Diet does not contribute to autism.

The autism activist who started her career as a model and Playboy playmate has made a crusade out of her belief that food allergies and childhood vaccines are major contributors to the rising number of children diagnosed with the neurological disorder.

However, Mayo Clinic researchers tracked 124 kids with autism for more than 18 years and compared them with "typical" children. Dr. Nancy Snyderman, NBC News' senior medical editor, was emphatic in reporting the researchers' conclusions.

"These findings are very conclusive," she said on the "Today" show following the release of the study Monday in the journal Pediatrics. "There is no link between illnesses of the gut and the signs and symptoms we see in children with autism."

This is good news for parents, she told viewers. "Because its means if you're putting your child on a restricted diet, or if you're doing colonics (which is a type of enema), if you're using extra vitamins and nutrients, and you're spending a lot of money and putting your child through that, there is no reason to," she said.

Children should only be put on wheat- or dairy-free diets after undergoing diagnostic tests, Dr. Samar H. Ibrahim told The New York Times. She is a pediatric fellow in gastroenterology and an instructor in pediatrics at the Mayo Clinic, as well as one of the principal authors of the report.

"There is actual no trial that has proven that a gluten-free and casein-free diet improves autism," she said. "The diets are not easy to follow and sometimes cause nutritional deficiencies."

Physicians listed with the advocacy organization Defeat Autism Now stick to their belief in the link between food and autism.

Dr. Rochelle Neally, a chiropractor at the Long Beach Autism Center in California questions large-scale medical studies. They are often backed by the big money of monolithic pharmaceutical companies," she said.

"What they call 'scientific' are these expensive double-blind tests," she said. "I tend to believe what I see in my office and what I've seen at the autism conferences I've attended for the past 10 years."

What she sees, she said, are often dramatic improvements in children's behavior when they are placed on a special diet. "The proof is in the pudding," she added.

The gluten-free pudding, that is.


That's the problem, according to traditional researchers. Practitioners such as Neally base their conclusions on anecdotal evidence rather than hard scientific investigation. "I think there's room for both," said Neally.

However, she said parents with autistic children are increasingly unsatisfied with science that comes without answers. "Parents are rebelling against traditional medicine," Neally said.

Dr. Eileen Comia, M.D., in Bloomfield, Conn., is another physician allied with Defeat Autism Now. She said smaller-scale studies are needed. "Any doctor who says there's no link between diet and autism hasn't read a single article on the subject," she said.

Actually, believers in the link between mind and tummy have read too many articles -- inaccurate ones, Dr. Patricia Manning Courtney, medical director of the Kelly O'Leary Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, told US News and World Report.

A new study shows that Autism and food issues are not linked.




"A couple of highly publicized cases of autism and loose stools in the 1990s led to an impression that children with autism had a higher rate of GI [gastrointestinal] dysfunction," she said. "It wasn't well characterized, but that got the story onto the national scene."

There is a link between diet and autism, Ibrahim said The New York Times, but not the one McCarthy and Defeat Autism Now physicians believe. Children with autism are often picky eaters. With limited diets, they often have more cases of constipation.

Restricting their diet choices even more than they do themselves only makes the problem worse, she told the paper.

"We did find that two specific problems -- constipation and feeding issues -- were more common in children with autism," Ibrahim told WebMD Health News.

I love stories like this.....

It is nice to hear about communities banding together and helping each other out. Love it!



CLARE, Mich. (July 4) - "Cops & Doughnuts" is more than a punchline. It's now a bakery in Michigan — owned by nine full-time employees of the Clare Police Department.
The newly renamed bakery opened Wednesday, offering doughnuts, cookies, muffins, brownies and bread. It also has mugs and T-shirts bearing the "Cops & Doughnuts, 100 Percent Cop-Owned" logo, and phrases including "You Have the Right to Remain Glazed" and "Handcuffs and Cream Puffs."
Officer Al White says the officers were concerned when the Clare City Bakery's owners decided to throw in the towel. The 113-year-old bakery would have become the sixth empty storefront in Clare's three-block downtown.
The officers were on hand for the grand reopening but have hired a manager and will employ local students as staff.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2009-07-04 13:48:18

Response to my previous blog

.....This is a response to my previous blog written by my dear friend Lindsay. I really loved what she had to say and wanted to share it with my readers. Please, please feel free to also comment and share your thoughts.....




*Please read everything before commenting or getting upset. I realize that this only represents my side, and that is because it is the only side I can rightfully represent.I just want to say first and foremost I don't think my friend meant all pro-lifers, just the one I mentioned who is very prominent in the community and said something that is vile and disgusting while in the same breath saying he was against the murder, his words didn't sound much like he disagreed to me. So I'm sorry if what she said on my post offended you, and had I thought it was offensive I would have said something but I really agree with her message. From the other side of all of this, when all I really want to hear from anybody is how disgusted they are at the heinous murder of an innocent man, on this I can agree with you this is certainly NOT the time for politics, all I seem to hear is how afraid that the conservatives are that the liberals are going to use this against them. (Not that all conservatives feel that way, but the ones who get on the TV sure seem to). That is upsetting and offensive to me. I feel like a man is dead and a new game has already begun over how we are allowed to grieve. I feel like those comments back me and others into a corner where we can't say what we feel and express our immense sadness and outrage without it being some political mess. I think after a tragedy like this many people will say things they don't mean, but lashing out is often a part of the grieving process, I feel like I have the right to be angry, to be upset, and more importantly to be sad, and I feel like that is being taken from me. On top of that to hear leading pro-life orgainzations issue statements that are so backhanded as what Randall Terry from operation rescue said, it really does make the "pro-life" side of the argument look bad. (I used quotations because I don't believe there are only two sides to any argument, I think the vast majority of people who are "pro-life" don't fit into the same group as Randall Terry and those people who say such horrible things, but it gets difficult to express things coherrently if I start seperating the groups out because there aren't any other widely used terms) I agree that not all people who are "pro-life" even begin to agree with each other (especially with the radicals or those who are saying hateful things) as I wouldn't agree that all "pro-choice" people agree with each other, but that is what the devicive political game tells us to believe, and when it gets emotional sometimes that is the first thing that gets forgotten, on BOTH sides of the issue.To me, right now, this is a really hard time. For those of us that have our reasons to be "pro-choice", on an aside I hate the designations pro-life and pro-choice, it is reasonable to question our safety for speaking our mind. I've seen some pretty terrible things at rallies and protests, and I've known people who have been injured volunteering at Tiller's clinic. This is definately not the first time that violence has ocurred during this debate, this isn't even the first time somebody has tried to murder the man. Do I think that all pro-lifers engage in this type of behavior? No, not even close, MANY of my very close friends are "pro-life" and I know that they would never hurt anyone, and that they really do value life and are respectful in the disagreements, but I think that there will likely be a backlash toward the radicals, who tend to be more vocal and prominent than the sane people with good morals and values. I also don't think this backlash will be out of hatred or anger, but fear. Not that the fear is new, but now somebody is dead, so the fear is stronger. (Note: I don't mean a physical backlash, just verbal, and I don't agree with it, but I do understand it.)Also, we lost a strong, dedicated, upstanding, member of our community. A man who stood up for what he thought was right, and never wavered in his dedication to serve the members of not only our community, but the women of this entire country who desperately needed him. This is a time of grief, and sadness, and sometimes people say things in grief that they wouldn't normally say.So in short, I don't agree with anything anybody is saying at this point, other than that we need to focus on healing the wound left by Dr. Tiller's loss, first and foremost by showering his family in love and support, showing respect to them while they heal by not speaking ill of the man before he's even been burried, and by healing our community which has been shocked by a terrible tragedy.I don't want to start any arguments today, just share how I feel right now. I support a woman's right to choose and I think almost all of you know that by now. It is not my goal to change anyone's beliefs, and I can promise you will never change mine. I have heard all of the arguments, I've been called all the names. I made my choice based on the facts at hand. I've talked with many women who have been faced with an immensely difficult decision and chosen both ways, I know in my HEART that they had the right to make that choice for themselves. I also know in my HEART that every person has the right to choose for themselves whether or not to agree with me. I wrote this in response to an amazing woman with whom I tend to disagree politically, but who is as open-minded and loving as the day is long. I want to share what I'm going through (and lots of others like me) with her, and with everyone who truly wants to know. I know that she may disagree, but she does it respectfully, and that she cares about all people and their well-being no matter what they believe. If it wasn't for you Amber I don't think I would have had the strength to say what has been weighing on me these last few days, for that I must thank you.That being said I welcome constructive comments and thoughtful conversation, but any hatefulness from either side will be deleted and ignored. My heart is too heavy from this tragedy to deal with any more hatefulness.


My response- I really appreciate what you are saying and I do not disagree. In fact I whole heartedly agree with most of what you are saying. I was not attacking your friend. I have had that point of view expressed to me (or in front of me, or I read it in reference to the situation) by no less than 10 people. It was really starting to frustrate me. Because I am someone who is openly pro life, there have been days this week where I have been made to feel like I was somehow partly responsible for this tragedy because of my political and relious beliefs. I think that you are simply, and more eloquently I might add, expressing my argument from the other side. As always, I love hearing what you have to say and I love you!

Pro-life and Pro-choice, doesn't matter

I read this today.."Who could be ''pro-life'' yet feel that killing someone for being ''pro-choice'' is justifiable? Hypocrites."
Every day for the last 3 days all I have been reading is more of the same. "How dare the pro-lifers take such a valuable man from us"
"Just remember all of you who oppose abortion, two wrongs don't make a right"

I would just like to say that just because you are pro life doesn't mean you justify violence as a means to end abortions. Or that we are ok with Dr. Tiller's murder. Why would you not say that about the individual who killed him. Must you really lump everyone who is prolife into that? How is that different from lumping everyone together based on skin color. Everyone who is white wanted Martin Luther King dead? Really?! How could you actually think that? Are you so blinded by ignorance that you must stoop to outrageous stereotypes? If you really think that of all pro-lifers then you must know, that if all we cared about was furthering the cause, this would hurt us more than help us. "We" have just given the pro lifers a martyr. A way to rally for their beliefs. How does that help "us pro-lifers" again?

I am very saddened by this tragedy. The family had to witness what happened. Our prayers go out to them. Regardless of what you believe, this was a horrible terrible act. A wife is without her husband today, a daughter does not have a father. Regardless of what your beliefs are, THAT is what should matter. That is what we should be dwelling on this week. Go with God Dr. Tiller, I pray that your family finds peace in the wake of this horrific tragedy.