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"I'm not into politics," said my beloved niece Tiffany yesterday. She's been listening to Aunt Ida fume about Junior for several years now, and up until yesterday, she didn't get why I cared. (To be fair, prior to Junior, I really didn't care all that much -- other than being an "informed voter", I just trusted "other people" to be paying attention to what was best for the country while I went about "normal" life.)
Anyway, I dragged her to an impeachment hearing last summer, and was recruiting her into an environmental project I have been working on (which is way cool, by the way). She had, however, been completely appalled while we were at the gym doing cardio when I gave the finger to the television screen when a "vote for me" advertisement came on for a local political figure. "You support Bush, you bastard!" I snarled loud enough for her to hear through her headphones.
Now, let me explain something. She is FOURTEEN. She is absolutely MORTIFIED when Aunt Ida begins political discussions with strangers in the grocery store, and is at that stage in her life when she just wants to blend in with the crowd. She is very intelligent, strong willed, and stubborn (traits of which I am very proud, by the way, assuming her parents don't throttle her before she becomes the fabulous woman she is destined to become), and we've been having a series of discussions over the last few months about the importance of standing up for what you believe in, even if its uncomfortable. "I'm not like you," she told me a few weeks ago. "I don't try to PUSH my views on other people."
"Well, you're young," I told her. "Hopefully, you'll outgrow that."
I'm not sure what started it -- probably Junior came up again -- but this time, the topic was abortion.
"Its murder," she said, with all of the conviction of the young and uninformed.
"Its medicine," I snapped back. "And its nobody else's business but the woman involved."
"Look," I continued, "Do you know that 2% of all pregnancies are either ectopic or tubal? Do you know what that means?"
I was being passionate. She stared at me wide eyed. "No."
"That means if you don't terminate the pregnancy, YOU WILL DIE. Period. End of story. Every time a woman gets pregnant, she has a 2% chance of being one of those women WHO WILL DIE unless the pregnancy is terminated. That means YOU, Tiffany, because you are going to be facing the same risks as every other woman on the planet. The baby will die, and SO WILL YOU. And do you know what these whack job religious freaks who are Anti-Choice say to that?"
"No," says Tiffany, with ears wide open. "What do they say?"
"That it’s God's will you die, and too bad for you. And what do you want to do if you find out that you're going to have a child with no brain, or heart problems so bad they can't live once they're born? And that its going to cost you five hundred thousand dollars which insurance won't cover to try to keep them alive for a few hours while they suffer in pain and agony every moment? What would you do?"
She looked at me, and I could see she was getting it. "I wouldn't want to do that to a child," she said slowly.
"Congratulations -- you just became Pro-Choice," I told her. "Look, you know how badly I want a baby." She nodded; the trials and tribulations of my infertility issues have been common family gossip fodder for years. "But I will *NOT* condemn another woman to death because of my issues, and I will *NOT* try to make decisions about things I know nothing about for other people."
"You can never walk in another person's shoes," she said sagely. (Did I mention she's super smart?)
"When it comes to medical decisions -- and that's what a pregnancy is -- it’s really no one else's business except the woman, and her doctor. End of story. That doesn't mean I believe in abusing it, but even though anti-choice people like to PRETEND its common, it isn't. Abortion should be safe, legal, and rare -- and that means using birth control. If you can't talk to a man about a condom, you shouldn't be naked with him."
"Aunt Ida!" My blunt speech is shocking to her (and I'm confident her mother has already begun having these conversations, otherwise I wouldn't be reinforcing them), and I'm going to keep the rest of that conversation between us. Suffice it to say I don't believe boys are that much of an issue yet (THANK GOD!), but I'm hoping she'll remember stuff. She's also been told she should never date a boy she'd be ashamed to introduce us too, and that "dating" is really about "job interviewing" people, but I digress.
Later we talked about how war with Iran is probably going to bring back the draft, and how the "draftable" age has been raised, along with the "specialized skills" stuff that makes not only her parents, but Uncle Bob and Aunt Ida draftable, and puts her younger brother AS WELL AS HERSELF*** at risk of being forced to go to fight in a war we don't believe in. She was very concerned over who was going to be taking care of the children left behind by the parents, and I pointed out gently that we already have men and women over there fighting and dying and getting wounded who have little babies and five year olds and seven year olds and.... When she asked again, I told her bluntly that Junior doesn't care about those people, and either the grandparents or other family members will step up, or they will end up in children's homes, like happened to her grandmother (my mother) during World War II.
***(Yes, I know girls are not considered draftable YET, but I for one can see the writing on the wall -- I think a limited draft -- those "special skills" which include programmers, accountants, and janitors -- is going to be started shortly after the 2006 elections when the Republicans miraculously retain control of the House and Senate.)***
And then we talked about how much money she owes the government because of the "credit card debt" Junior has incurred, and how he's been robbing the Social Security Trust Fund to give money to his cronies. She likes her money, and she wasn't happy to hear she as a taxpayer (did I mention she recently got her first tax paying job?) was the one who was going to be footing the bill for his military adventures.
"The only reason I'm "into politics" as you put it, Tiffany, is that I am TRYING to stop the bad things from happening. We've got ten years to stop Greenland from melting, I don't want us to go to war with Iran, and I want to make sure medical decisions are made by the people they affect instead of whack job religious whackos who don't care about you or anyone else. I love you, kiddo, and I want you to have the best possible future there can be. I want there to *be* a future you!"
She looked at me so oddly, I cannot even begin to explain it. But I know she got it, because once she got home, she immediately began talking about how if there was a draft, she wanted her entire family to move to Canada (!), and why doesn't anyone care about the Stolen Elections? (Yes, Aunt Ida has been talking about this stuff for a while, but that topic didn't come up yesterday!)
She's a good kid. I made it personal. She gets it.
Did I mention that I'm really proud of her?
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