Author: Choicematters

Voting – Why Bother? Part Two

Voting – Why Bother? Part Two

After the 2016 Presidential election, any enthusiasm people had about voting was torn away. How could Donald Trump still be president after it was exposed that the election was fraught with Russian meddling, and with the majority of votes —more than 3 million— being cast for Hillary Clinton? Many of us lived in denial up until the moment of the inauguration.

It was truly an election that made you wonder what the point was in voting.

But then reality hit like a ton of bricks. Yes, we’re living in the time of Donald Trump, and yes, we’re angry, but that doesn’t mean we give up control and let other people rule —  quite the opposite, in fact.

In times when it feels like so much is out of our control, voting is one of the few means we have to exercise decision-making power. The reality is that voter turnout is historically low in this country. In turn, when voter turnout is low, every single vote cast counts more. A single vote can make the difference.

Elections can be so close that they result in a tie, like in Irvington, NY[1] or in Virginia this year. One was decided by the flip of coin and the other by the drawing of one name out of a can[2]. NYS Senator Andrea Stewart Cousins lost by 18 votes in 2004[3], and then turned around and won in 2006.  In the 2016 New York State Senate race for the 8th district seat, Democrat John Brooks beat Republican incumbent Michael Venditto[4] by only 33 votes out of 128,965 votes cast.[5]

Even more recently, the 2017 Alabama Special Election for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions showed the importance of individual votes. The unimaginable actually happened: Alabama voters elected a Democrat to the Senate. Doug Jones claimed victory over his Republican opponent, Roy Moore. Jones won by around 20,000 votes. That was the first time a Democrat won in Alabama in decades. If those voters had stayed home because they thought a Democrat could never win, a child molester would have been elected.

Still not convinced that going to the polls makes a difference? In September of 1975, the closest Senate election ever took place. After two separate recounts, the original win by Wyman of 355 votes was narrowed down to a two (2) vote margin.[6] This is the best possible example of why the votes of individual citizens matter. In this race every vote truly did count and matter.

A good time to sit out on an election is NEVER. Every election from school board to president matters. You have to start at the base to build a pyramid.

Granted, it’s impossible to know when your vote could change history. But do you really want to risk it? After all, if you sit out an election, you’re giving up control of your life to others. You’re letting go of the only control you have of who governs you and how.

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[1] https://www.irvingtonny.gov/DocumentCenter/View/54

[2] https://www.npr.org/2018/01/04/573504079/virginia-republican-david-yancey-wins-tie-breaking-drawing

[3] http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C07E1DE163AF93AA35751C0A9639C8B63

[4]http://www.liherald.com/westhempstead/stories/Brooks-Venditto-tied-in-89th-District-senate-race,85449

[5]https://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/new-york-state-senate-district-8

[6]https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Closest_election_in_Senate_history.htm

Millennials, Listen Up!

Millennials, Listen Up!

As I walked out of my small high school in a rural southern town on my final day of classes, I was excited about all of the possibilities that awaited me when I reached college.

One was the prospect of being surrounded by politically like-minded individuals at the liberal arts school I would attend in the fall. I naively thought that because of this relocation, I would never have to bang my head against the wall after hearing a fellow student’s comments on politics ever again. I was entirely wrong. Although the political climate here is much less hostile than it is at home, it still seems that there’s a disconnect between what’s happening politically and the students who call themselves activists.

Many of them have never voted even though the majority of them are of legal voting age. They’re perfectly content to protest outside Trump Tower on the weekends, but when it comes to mobilizing voters and going to the polls themselves, they fall painfully short. Additionally, there is too much focus placed on Trump’s personal issues. As awful as Trump can be, spending too much time gossiping about his relationship with a porn star and discussing his latest inflammatory tweet won’t do anything to prevent his political agenda from succeeding.

Millennials – the non-voting majority!

Millennials have to step up our game if we want anything to change. We are now the largest voting-eligible generation in the country! This power that we have is being undercut, however, by the fact that we have the lowest voter turnout rate of any age group. This is completely unacceptable. It is fair to feel disempowered when we are young and our elected officials seem so out of touch. It is fair to be frustrated. However, it is up to us to change that.

Millennials have the numbers now to turn the tide of elections. We have to stay informed, research candidates, and support the ones we believe in. Even when there are no candidates that perfectly align with our desires, that does not mean we have a free pass to sit out. We must – in these cases – vote preventatively to keep the people who seek to destroy our rights out of office. We must fight back against conservatives whose mission it is to tear us away from our contraceptives and our access to safe and legal abortions. We must fight back against candidates that have been accused of crimes such as sexual assault and sexual harassment. We must fight back against candidates who seek to take away power from women in any way.

Our days of being trapped in the kitchen voiceless and oppressed are over and we must keep it that way. Any time we choose to sit out an election is a time when we could have kept such candidates out of office with our votes. Let this serve as a call to action. Take your anger not only to the streets, but to the polls and to the offices of your representatives.

Double Barreled Shotgun Aimed at Our Rights

Double Barreled Shotgun Aimed at Our Rights

Donald and his Republican NRA-driven Congress can’t get gun control done but they sure can come after our civil rights, which includes the right to control out own bodies.

Today, Donald Trump issued two new rules which allow employers to deny women copay-free birth control.

This is discriminatory and a direct attack on a fundamental component of the Affordable Care Act. Birth control is expensive and, for many, not affordable.

They have also cut funding to all programs that assist educating or raising kids – special needs or otherwise. But they want to force women to keep having them.

This comes from an administration that has shown total disregard and disrespect for  women, particularly lower wage earning women. It is also an all-out assault on people of color of all ages and genders.

In the past 6 weeks, we’ve also witnessed the huge distinction in attitude and attention paid by this administration to hurricane victims in Texas and Florida as compared to those in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. FYI: The people of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands cannot vote for president. One might conclude it’s all about the Donald and his base.

That’s who the Donald plays to.  His  personal obsession for attacking all things “Obama” really gets them revved, and also distracted. His base doesn’t care about Iran or North Korean, but they do care about making their religious convictions the law of this land.

Earlier in the week, the House passed a 20-week abortion ban. Now it is said to be heading to the Senate.

Read: 20-Week Abortion Ban – No Big Deal? Think Again!

The Iowa Supreme Court just upheld a 72-hour waiting period — Another REALLY big deal

Remember: Just like shotguns, elections have consequences, and we are clearly on the wrong end of this one.

20-Week Abortion Ban – No Big Deal? THINK AGAIN!

20-Week Abortion Ban – No Big Deal? THINK AGAIN!

If you’re a woman in your 30s or 40s, beware – the 20-week abortion ban is aimed at you.
Even though it was beaten back in the Senate in September, the 20-week abortion ban will be back. It’s been passed in the House and is already the law in 13 states. Anti-choice extremists in Congress want to make it the law everywhere.
These zealots are targeting your right to decide whether or not to have a healthy child. They want to force you to give birth to a child who is suffering from chromosome abnormalities and/or genetic disorders – whether you want to or not.
Those of us who get pregnant in our 30s and in our 40s are at a greater risk of giving birth to a child with a birth defect, because of our age. We know this.
I knew this so I had three Amniocenteses, one in each of my pregnancies. It’s the most accurate and the safest test you can have. An Amnio tests for chromosome abnormalities and genetic disorders, and also detects neural tube defects which are birth defects of the brain, spine, and spinal cord – the two most common of which are spina bifida and anencephaly.
But you can’t get it until the second trimester.
An Amnio is performed at 17-19 weeks, and it takes another 2-3 weeks to get the results. That will take you to 19 to 22 weeks.
You’ll be out of time to get an abortion if anti-choice extremists in Congress and in states
across the country have their way.
That means all of us women, who want to have children, will no longer be able to have accurate testing for chromosome abnormalities, genetic disorders, or neural tube defects,
and do something with the results.
The possible loss of this right is very real – and this is not to even mention, what if your life is at stake.
The Bastion of White Male Privilege

The Bastion of White Male Privilege

I confess. I read the obituaries regularly. I like to. They are a great glimpse into history. You read about people you may never have heard about and about accomplishments you may never have known occurred.

But, truthfully, what is omitted is more striking. With rare exception, there are no women – and the few people of color mentioned are men.

Some might argue that men generally die before their female spouses, and, therefore, there is no one left to write the obituary for the wife when she goes. Really??

The truth is that the men who inspire long obits and thanks from different boards did not reap their accomplishments on their own, but rather just did not share the public glory. This speaks to “behind every great man is a woman.”

I have had the pleasure of meeting many of these women, the wives who have outlived their successful husbands, and are still here providing the funds necessary for the not-for-profit world to survive. They recognize what abortion rights means, and what not having them also means. When we speak, I do not have to navigate the artificial obstacles – minors’ rights, emergency contraception, waiting periods, sonograms. Abortion is abortion – a necessary medical procedure that must be available to all regardless of age, race, religion or ability to pay. These women know and understand.

They are older now, and often rely on another woman, a housekeeper or an aide who is usually of color. Together these two women navigate their way. This is a relationship not to be romanticized but to be recognized.

Sometimes one or the other will share a story with me. They’ve usually been together a long time, and rely on one another. Their lives and station in society are without doubt very different, but they do have one thing in common: neither will be highlighted in The New York Times obituaries. The widow will, at most, be described as “Mrs. Joe Smith, the wife of the great…” The aide won’t even receive that mention.

This power to erase women’s accomplishments has not changed with time. In contrast to the chronicling of the deaths of younger men, when younger women die we are told the cause of death rather than what they did.

Perhaps, the true measure of how far we have, or have not, come and the thickness of the glass ceiling is found in the obituary column.

Hate Right Here in Westchester

– What we feared is indeed the new reality –
This White House is in the hands of
anti-Semitic misogynistic white supremacists.

Dear Pro-Choice Voters,

Donald Trump and his closest advisers have turned the clock back to a time where discrimination and hate were an accepted, common trait of American life. They began before the General Election with hate mongering intended to stir the base and intimidate everyone else. Beginning with the Muslim ban to reinstating and expanding the Mexico City Policy* to trampling on LGBT rights**, Trump was laying the groundwork for the resurgence of the KKK and Nazi demonstrations and violence we saw this weekend.

But make no mistake, this ideology of hate and the intimidation tactics the Trump administration employs are not limited to Charlottesville or the South. It is right here in Westchester County and being spirited forward by Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino.

On August 17th,  Astorino vetoed the Immigration Protection Act – a bill that was in total compliance with federal law and that had passed the Board of Legislators 10-5.  The goal of the bill was to stop local law enforcement from acting as federal immigration officials, thereby protecting county resources and building trust in our communities. 

Why did Astorino do this?

You need look no further than the praise Astorino’s veto received from Trump’s AG Jeff Sessions.

Remember this is THE Jeff Sessions who said the KKK is “OK”*** and used a Supreme Court case permitting the racial segregation of swimming pools to justify the Muslim ban.

This was not Astorino’s first attempt to please Trump. Back in the fall, when swastikas and racist graffiti started appeared around Westchester, Astorino blamed Obama and Clinton supporters, telling both leaders to calm their supporters – just as Trump blamed those who were demonstrating peacefully against the Nazis and KKK in Charlottesville.

Only you can put an end to this hate mongering by our elected officials here in Westchester.
And that is by VOTING – And if you are not registered, do so: Register Here


*Here’s What Donald Trump Did  Trump’s Mexico City Policy **Trump Tramples on LGBT Rights

***Jeff Session: Comments on Race

Trump Administration Cites Segregation

 

 

Dorothy Height – The Irony of It All

Dorothy Height – “The godmother to the Civil Rights Movement”
President Barack Obama

A portrait of Dorothy Height is on the Black Heritage forever stamp this month. She was an amazing woman with more credits to her name than most of us could ever dream of. She spent almost 50 years of her life fighting for race and gender equality.

She helped organize the 1963 March on Washington, and was the only woman to stand on the stage with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  But, despite being a march organizer and representing the National Council of Negro Women, she was not asked to speak.

Dorothy Height recognized a fundamental truth – a truth that we must embrace today. Women’s rights, including the right to choose – the very right to control your own body – encompasses all women and must, therefore, include all women on the front lines.

Height and other black women leaders sought to empower the black community to fight restrictions on abortion. The African-American Women for Reproductive Rights, an influential black political, social and grass-roots organization, gave voice to that.

We will include Dorothy Height on our 45th anniversary wall Recognizing the Pro-Choice Voter.

The irony that it took until Trump was in the White House for her image to appear on our 1st class postage stamp cannot be overlooked. Trump and his administration seek to  destroy all we have fought for, for  so many years – including birth control and abortion rights. Dorothy Height’s portrait stands as a reminder that we can neither stand idly by nor can we isolate ourselves in groups as we wage this battle.

Where Will Our Women Go?

Reproductive freedom in the United States has been under siege for years. Since November, state governments have been passing abortion restrictions at a record speed. Every new regulation passed further limits what was once a recognized Constitutional right – the right for every woman to be able to have a safe, legal abortion. Ironically, these regulations – which according to Roe v. Wade are unconstitutional – are being passed in the name of protecting the health and safety of women. In reality they are endangering women by forcing them to return to back alley abortions – all at a time when Trump has promised to overturn Roe.

Earlier this month the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a law suit in the Louisiana District Court challenging the onerous regulations that serve only to impede access to abortion care.

Louisiana could be Any State, USA. Only one year ago, the US Supreme Court affirmed that a similar Texas abortion restriction was unconstitutional because the burdens imposed on abortion access outweighed the so-called benefits conferred by such action.

Under the guise of “health and safety,” Louisiana is again trying to pass a version of the Texas T.R.A.P. law, but now we have a new anti-choice Supreme Court Justice. T.R.A.P., Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers, is exactly that. These bills target abortion providers with a series of arduous requirements that affect every aspect of the medical care being provided. The restrictions are issue-specific: they are only being applied to abortion providers, not to any other low-risk healthcare providers. Abortion providers and their facilities are already subject to the State’s medical licensing laws so these bills are further unwarranted.

These new regulations are not structured to make the medical procedure safer. The sole goal is to close clinics, thereby making safe and legal abortion access impossible. As Whole Woman’s Health (2016) clarified, states may not infringe on Americans’ constitutional right to abortion by subjecting it to sham medical regulations and by pressuring abortion facilities to close.

Louisiana is not the only State crafting this type of deceptive legislation. It is happening across the country, in every state.

The threat to abortion access is real and only proliferating. Under this administration and with a new Supreme Court justice changing the balance of the Court, no previous decision is safe.

We need a state that is committed to being a reproductive rights sanctuary – a safe zone where any woman can safely, swiftly and legally terminate her pregnancy.

You might believe we, New York, are already that State, but we have only become less friendly to reproductive rights as time has passed. Our abortion law is arcane, and still in the penal code. It was passed in 1970 and has never been updated to include 21st century medical care or the full constitutional protection guaranteed by Roe. 53% of NY counties have no abortion clinics. If a woman’s health is at risk or something goes wrong in her pregnancy after 24 weeks, she must seek care outside of NY because State law doesn’t allow a doctor to provide abortion coverage. Where will she go when Roe is overturned?  We need New York State to be a leader again. To accomplish that, we must pass the Reproductive Health Act.

But…we have a serious roadblock. There is a group called the IDC (Independent Democratic Caucus).  They obstruct all progressive legislation from coming to the floor of the Senate for a vote because they have chosen to leave the Democratic Caucus and, instead, govern with the Party of Trump. They took the electorates decision to elect a Democratic Majority away from the voters! For personal gain, they instead joined forces with the Republicans, and are blocking the Comprehensive Contraceptive Coverage Act and the Reproductive Health Act from coming to the floor of the Senate for a vote.

We must educate the public about the IDC and the actual state of reproductive rights in New York

Let’s make NY the progressive state it once was.  Let’s protect the reproductive rights for all women.

Resist – Day of Action – Thurs. July 13th

Join Us 
Thursday, July 13th,
for knocking on doors and canvasing in Ossining! 
Meet up at  5 p.m.
First Village Coffee
123 Main Street
(across from the Post Office)
Ossining, NY 10562

RSVP to Nicky@ChoiceMatters.org

We are targeting all 8 IDC* districts
beginning with NYS Senate District #38, David Carlucci’s district.

Why start with Carlucci’s District?
He is one of the original 4 founding members of the IDC, AND he joined immediately upon being elected to his very first term.
Carlucci started betraying his constitutents on Day One of his first term in the NYS Senate.

Our Purpose: 
To educate voters about the IDC and their State Senator!

fyi: The IDC  is blocking all progressive legislation including the Reproductive Health Act, Comprehensive Contraceptive Coverage Act, and  Contingency funding for Planned Parenthood from coming to the floor of the NYS Senate, INCLUDING a New York State bill that would force Trump to disclose his taxes.

The 8 IDC = LIARS

The IDC* Mantra: When all else fails, LIE
(Sounds like Trump, doesn’t it?)

Clearly Choice Matters’ expose of the IDC’s anti-choice actions as well as their tactics of obstruction of all progressive legislation is taking its toll.

They just sent out a mailing  implying that their 8 rogue members were endorsed by Planned Parenthood — NOT!

The truth is:
1. Planned Parenthood had nothing to do with the mailer.
2. The 8 IDC members stopped the Reproductive Health Act & the Comprehensive Contraception Coverage Act from coming to the floor for a vote.
3. The IDC members did nothing to advance the Reproductive Health Act and Comprehensive Contraception Coverage Act to the floor, despite these bills having bipartisan sponsorship and support – BUT the mailer falsely implies that IDC members successfully passed both bills.
4. In addition, the IDC members REFUSED to support a bill that would have provided contingency funding to Planned Parenthood.

Call All 8 IDC members & tell them to stop lying!
Click 8 NYS Democrats for their names & telephone numbers!

fyi: The IDC is blocking all progressive legislation including the Reproductive Health Act, Comprehensive Contraception Coverage Act, and  Contingency funding for Planned Parenthood from coming to the floor of the NYS Senate, INCLUDING a New York State bill that would force Trump to disclose his taxes.