Rejuvenated

Last Saturday, I presented at a Conference at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where I am plugging along at my Master's degree in International Relations. It was a great experience; I talked about how empowering the Dalit will decrease human trafficking within India. Sometimes, I have to sit back and reflect about why I decided to become involved in human rights and empowerment. I became a peer mediator when I was just 16, through a long process of applying, interviewing, and eventually becoming selected. Admittedly, part of that was to add something interesting to a college application (not many high schools offered such a thing as peer mediation, and my high school was relatively large and progressive), but I really did like helping people. Some of the disputes were smaller, over a he-said-she-said, some were regarding romantic relationships, and many involved more than 2 students. Conflict always exists, but with how short and busy life is, isn't it best to just resolve conflicts?

As many previous entries have suggested, I have become very jaded with organized religion in America. There are a few Christians who seem to really take Christ's message of serving others and promoting justice very seriously, so the assembly(ies) that these individuals attend seem to be more aligned with where I would like to go. As election day is only 9 days away, the misusing of religion seems to have made people even more divided. I'm very happy to know that there ARE people who are able to see through the lines of 'Democrat' and 'Republican,' and just vote on the issues they believe are important.

One argument that really gets me heated (yes, many do), is about birth control. Now, this is NOT about abortion; rather, it is about prevention. Yet, many people believe that de-funding things like Planned Parenthood. So, say that someone completely does not believe in birth control (and does ridiculous things like the rhythm method instead of using a condom-- birth control pills do have side effects, but condoms don't!), and they get pregnant and can't provide, the government has to pay. The government IS the people. So, if this person believes that it's their 'right' to have this child and have governmental money provide for it, is this person loving their neighbor? By making the already-struggling middle class have increased taxes, their poor decision-making is making lives of others harder. Now, that's not exactly 'loving,' is it?

Paul Ryan (ugh) is talking about reducing the amount of aid given to welfare programs, including food stamps. Libertarians agree that this is good, but we all know that the trickle-down system doesn't exactly work, especially in a large country where money is not necessarily re-invested in job growth. People are more hesitant with their money, so they're likely to invest, put money in savings, and hold onto their current job since the economy and job growth is very insecure. He is also stating that the churches should be responsible for helping the poor. That's all well and good in theory, but A: what about the poor that are not of the Christian denomination? do they not get helped?? B: we are a pluralistic nation, so pushing Christian agenda/help from the church is very offensive to people who practice other religions, are non-religious, or even individuals like myself who are Christian but FAR from wanting to destroy the beauty of plurality of this nation. Mr. Ryan, I know you're attempting to gain the votes of the Religious Right, and we'll see how far that goes. What this nation really needs is LOGIC. Having sex means, yes, you can get pregnant. If you cannot afford that child, that means someone else will (since we don't want children dying on the street, of course). But whatever happened to POSTPONING having children? The upper-middle class, educated population of this country has become much older (28+) when deciding to have children. This does NOT mean that they don't like children. It simply means that they are trying to do all they can to be self-sufficient so that they do not force their neighbor to pay for their own decision.

What angers me even more is when people say that using birth control pills is playing God. As if women are supposed to spend their entire lives having babies?? How is this country going to invest in education if there are simply too many mouths to feed? I get even more riled up when people claim that birth control is playing God, but something like IVF isn't. I believe that if God WANTED someone to get pregnant, he would allow that to happen, whether or not someone is on the pill or not. If someone is using IVF, they are just as much (if not more) going against the will of God to fulfill their own narcissistic desire to reproduce. Whatever happened to adoption? Don't pre-existing children need homes, too? It makes me sick.

Now, back to the thesis...