Thursday, February 11, 2010

I am not a womb for rent


(From SocialistWorker.org)

I'VE BEEN engrossed in the pro-choice issue, more so recently than in the past, and I am glad I am paying more attention! I get ever so mad at people who say that abortion should only be in the case of rape, incest or if carrying a child to term would hurt the mother. What is the difference of aborting that fetus vs. aborting any other fetus?

And are you going to go through all the adoption hooplah when the child is born? And are you going to pay for all the things that that child deserves after it is born? And are you going to push a 10-lb object through your vagina for seven hours? And are you going to not judge a single mother? And are you going to pay for the medical bills for the child if it has a terminal disease? And are you going to force me to have a child I do not want?

It's about choice and safety for the woman. It's about power over a woman's body, not about the unborn.

Just think--if the government can force you to have a child, it can force you to have an abortion. I am not a womb for rent.

Jacquelyn Patterson

Monday, February 1, 2010

Novel Concepts:

* Setting: the year 2050, much social turmoil, edge of war & rev -- geographical area of U.S., but in alternate reality -- context: 13 american colonies had lost war of independence to the british -- america subsumed into the broader 'north american' province (of united kingdom) alongside canada, stretching from alaska to florida, and from east coast to louisiana purchase territory. area west of this is part of the Mexican territory, stretching to the west coast, and from present-day mexico to oregon. man is persecuted by british govt in n.a.p. (north american province) for writing (censored) book depicting alternate reality in which the american colonies had won the war of independence -- history of this story is exact to the one of 'our real' history, except that it ends in 2050 (the present year); twist: in this story, the u.s. govt persecutes a man for writing a (censored) book depicting an alternate reality in which the american colonies had lost the war of independence -- world described is the exact same as the original, ending, of course, in the year 2050.

* setting: distant future. poses question: whence the human soul? science has ability to switch a person's 'soul' from one body to another using electro technology, maps person's memories, emotions, etc., and relays it over to new brain in a new corporeal form -- new bodies are taken either from preserved corpses or from artificially-constructed clone-like bodies (stem cell, etc); may even be 'body shops' where one can go & browse potential new bodies; other issues: what kind of bodies can be purchased by rich versus poor, racial question, weight/height, etc.


* N.A.P./U.S. 2050

N.A.P. 2050

uk british->anglo-american->french-american->irish-a->native-amer->various other european->black->mexican->asian 

world powers: uk, africa, russia . . . world teetering on edge of war/conflict . . . new movt for amer independ emerging . . . class struggle . . . mccarthy repression

author: 'u.s. 2050,' john stump (black man) . . . persecuted/censored (reason: u.k. fearful of new amer independ movt; local u.s. authorities/nationalists fearful of negative u.s. depicted)



U.S. 2050

u.s. vs china/britain . . . world on edge . . . (israel v. iraq)

mass turmoil at home . . . mccarthy repression . . .

author: 'nap 2050,' francisco hidalgo (mex-amer, illegal) . . . persecuted/censored (reason: u.s. fearful of british/china war victory, fearful of 'better' n.a.p. conditions, viz, u.s. present-day).