International Day of Peace

This morning I read the New York Times article about the Afghani military practice of raping boys and young men, even at military bases. It's a sign of status for upper-level police and military to surround themselves with these boys. Evidently, our military, the ones we support with not only our tax money but our hearts (and if we don't we're called treasonous or cowards), have been instructed to basically turn away from what is determined to be a cultural thing. The article explains that many of our military have shirked from "turning away," have "beaten up" some of the Afghani men who they've caught with boys and -- well -- I wish I had words, but this is about the best I can do. I won't even go into why the hell we're still "over there," why we appear to be, now, (and arguably have always been) a colonial power, and the whole magnitude of the thing we've wrought as a country since that terrible day in September, 2001.

International Day of Peace, indeed. I guess it starts at home, so I'm going to continue the disconnect that is the disease of this country and refrain from telling my boys that if they don't pick up their wet towels from the bathroom floor, they will be lashed with wet noodles. I'm going to go quietly and gratefully into the bathroom, pick them up from the floor, fold them inward on both sides, like I like it, and hang them just so, just where the light illuminates their neat blue folds.




The poet C.K. Williams died today. Here's a poem:

Claws

    from the Sanskrit of Mayura

The claws of the mighty nation dabble the gore-pools
and wallow the muddy flesh of the horrible enemy.

Human mouthfuls plucked like reeds. Hearts, plucked.

The claws dancing in the torn chest like herons.

MAY THE MIGHTY NATION PROTECT YOU!

Who loves ya?

So what I think these comments do underscore is why we shouldn't have a bunch of politicians, a majority of whom are men, making health care decisions on behalf of women.

-- President Barack Obama, on recent comments by Republican Representative Todd Akin about rape 

Yeah, yeah, I know Obama making this statement so publicly is about politics, but when Truth is stated, it bears repeating. Over and over and over and over. In this case, I'm grateful for the extrapolation from the POTUS.

Although these particular comments have led Governor Romney and other Republicans to distance themselves, I think the underlying notion that we should be making decisions on behalf of women for their health care decisions, or qualifying forcible rape versus non-forcible rape, I think those are broader issues,

Now, I'm going to mull, again, over those who would support Akin's candidacy at this point. And then, I'm going to venture toward wondering why any woman would vote for a Romney/Ryan ticket. Looking on the bright side, I imagine my brain will get a good enough work-out to ward off dementia.

Akin was Paul Ryan’s co-sponsor on a House bill just last year banning the use of federal funds for abortion except in cases of “forcible rape.” This term seemed laughably redundant since all rape, by definition, is forced. But this redefinition of rape was deceptively sinister. Statutory rapists often use coercion but not physical force. If the measure had passed, a 13-year-old emotionally manipulated into having sex with an older friend or relative would no longer be able to use Medicaid to terminate a resulting pregnancy. Nor would her parents be able to use their tax-exempt health savings fund.

from The Danger of Laughing at Todd Akin by Ilyse Hogue in The Nation