My Unsolicited Opinions

I’m supposed to be doing my homework. But I decided to take a 5-minute break and look at Facebook because the Falcons are headed to the Superbowl and a lot of my friends are super excited about that. I like seeing posts from friends who are super excited.

A lot of my friends and family, men and women, also marched yesterday in support of women and they posted about that. I really liked seeing those posts.

But a few of my friends have posted long missives about why they don't support the march, which is okay because I'm all about how being allowed to have different opinions is one of the things that makes America great. So here are my opinions. 

My observation about the anti-march posts is that it looks like most of the posts are ones that have been copied onto walls from someone else’s page (which I have done at least once as well, when a post written by my niece mirrored exactly my feelings on the 2016 election). There are two that seem to prevail. One berates the organizers of the march in Washington for disallowing pro-life feminist groups from being sponsors. The other goes on about how “I’m a women… I make my own choices…stop being a victim…protest about things that matter like women’s rights in countries where they are supremely held down.”

First of all, I think it was unfortunate that any women’s group, including the pro-life feminist groups felt disinvited to the party.  I agree that women throughout the world are marginalized, and whether or not you are pro-choice should not be a reason that you aren’t allowed to support women’s causes.  But seriously – some of the posts sounded like there is some conspiracy to encourage all pregnant women to have abortions.

Let me say that NOT ONE person I know who is pro-choice (myself included) is pro-abortion. Abortion is a terrible thing – I am not pro-abortion. So let’s make sure not one girl or woman is in a position to even have to worry about whether or not to get an abortion. Let’s teach our girls about birth control, and having respect, and taking responsibility for their own bodies. Let’s teach our boys about birth control, and having respect, and to take responsibility for their own bodies, and to understand that an unwanted pregnancy is generally  much worse for the girl than for the boy. Let’s stop rape and child abuse and incest. BUT…let’s agree that if an unwanted pregnancy happens, it is very possible that if abortion isn’t a legal alternative, there are women who will find someone to perform one anyway. Someone in a dirty, unsanitary back room. Someone who doesn’t know what they are doing. Someone who can KILL that girl.

Secondly… and I apologize ahead of time for the disgusting profanity copied below...

Is there any woman out there who thinks Donald Trump’s well-publicized description of how he tried to “move on” a woman is okay??? 

Some of the people I know who have posted these canned responses to the march have sons. I want to ask them- "if your son said 'I moved on her like a bitch' and 'grab them by the pussy,' would that be okay with you? Or would you just say 'well… boys will be boys?'' I have to believe that the latter is true if this doesn’t make you physically sick. I don’t care how long ago it was, it’s wrong and perverted. It shows a gross lack of respect for women that we cannot let go unchecked. If we don't continue to let the president and congress know that we won't stand for this type of treatment then it will just get worse. To not say anything against it is to condone it.

Just to be clear, I have friends who I respect who voted for Trump. This isn’t a rant against people who voted for Trump.  But rather than troll anyone’s Facebook post, I figured I’d just get it out here and then let it go. Now back to my homework…