| Micaso's Musings | |||
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Thursday, May 08, 2003 ( 5/08/2003 02:46:00 PM ) Jeanne Just got back from reorganizing files in the Planned Parenthood library. The computer I work on, laptop, wasn't in the office today so I changed tasks. Kind of nice to do something where you actually see results and an end product! I've decided to go picket my local representatives office on Monday. Why? He is most probably planning to vote against insurance companies covering birth control. Its ok to cover Viagra though, right? I do not understand insurance companies arguments that covering birth control would be prohibitively expensive. It seems to me that having babies is much more costly to them and of course to society. Perhaps its because groups like Planned Parenthood pick up the slack for the uninsured and women of means just pay for their own birth control. And of course women without insurance who are having babies in the hospital aren't costing insurance companies a penny....but why would insurance companies look at the more far reaching effects of their grossly negligent behavior? I guess they can't really be considered "members of society" just beneficients. # Wednesday, May 07, 2003 ( 5/07/2003 09:00:00 AM ) Jeanne Well, I really should be walking into work in 10 minutes, but I am instead still in my pyjamas in front of the computer:/ Volunteering is wonderful for this reason. I will get there, but on my own time. Yesterday I went on a shopping spree at our local Salvation Army's first Tuesday of the month half price sale. Bought two lovely sweater's, each 50 cents, as well as other odds and ends. Total bill $9! I am reading Gioconda Belli's autobiography and enjoying it. I had read The Inhabited Woman by her, in Spanish, and loved it. I'm reading the autobiography in English as I can't find it in Spanish and don't feel like waiting for my MIL to come visit so I can get it in Spanish. Belli is a Nicaraguan poet and writer who was active with the Sandanistas. She comes from the upper classes of Nicaraguan society and is the mother of 3 kids. I keep wondering exactly how much she would have been able to accomplish without the nanny who took care of her kids. I know, bitter maybe, I shouldn't begrudge anyone the help they have. It seems that old time lefty politics are alive and well in Lebanon. There was an article about a bar in Beirut the other day in the paper that's "theme" is Che Guevara. When I looked for his name with Lebanon attached a bunch of sites popped up in Google. I think there is something to be said for dying young and radical before esconcing yourself in a political position. Your idealism and "purity" live forever. # Monday, May 05, 2003 ( 5/05/2003 08:04:00 PM ) Jeanne Ok, I think I need to figure out whether I'll be keeping this up or not. I've been busy; first grading standardized writing tests for ESL students in the Washington State school system and then working, voluntarily, at Planned Parenthood electronically cataloguing their library and researching grants for a Teen Peer education project. It feels good to have a job again and I'm beginning to wonder if I really do want to be a writer. I had planned on using this break between sending Sofia to preschool and starting school fulltime myself in the Fall to write, but I have very little interest in doing it in a disciplined way. I have written some things, but I am not a put my seat in the chair and write kind of person. I just finished reading Ian McEwan's book Atonement and thoroughly enjoyed it and this weekend I saw a movie that I think has moved into my top five list of movies ever seen. Rabbit Proof Fence is about three aboriginal girls in Australia in the 1930's who are taken from their family and put into an "education" camp. They manage to escape and make their way 1200 miles back home. The cinematography is absolutely breathtaking, the acting is spectacular (even more so considering none of the three girls had ever acted before) and the tale is tragic and beautiful and sickening at the same time. It is so hard to fathom colonial policies towards indigenous peoples; the condescension and mentality of "doing it for their own good." Has this really changed or is it just foreign policy now? # |
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