Written and Illustrated by Koriander Bullard “Boy, these conservatives are really something aren't they? They're all in favor of the unborn.
They will do anything for the unborn, but once you're born you're on your own. Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to nine months. After that they don't want to know about you. They don't want to hear from you. No nothing. No neonatal care, no daycare, no head start, no school lunch, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing. If you're pre-born you're fine. If you're preschool you're ****ed. Conservatives don't give a s**t about you until you reach military age. Then they think you are just fine. Just what they been looking for. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. These people aren't pro-life they're killing doctors. What kind of pro-life is that? What they'll do anything they can to save a fetus, but if it grows up to be a doctor they just might have to kill it? They're not pro-life. You know what they are? They're anti-woman. Simple as it gets. Anti-woman They don't like them. They don't like women. They believe a woman's primary role is to function as a broodmare for the state.” - George Carlin, from the HBO special “Back in Town” September 17, 1996 When you're growing up, you tend to take everything around you for granted, and boy, am I no exception to the rule. I grew up in Chicago, a wonderfully diverse city with over nine million commuters each day, so naturally, I saw different kinds of people on every block, different cultures, religions and of course, people with different needs and life choices. Before I was allowed into the society of adulthood, I was given a full education on reproductive bodies for men and women. What happens, what goes right, what goes wrong, and whatever question I had that my parents couldn't answer, would be answered by Planned Parenthood. We had more than one within driving distance, staffed with people ready and willing to provide the right answers or brochures I needed. So imagine my surprise when I moved to Kentucky, and there was no such establishment around. In fact, the only two clinics within driving distance of my house are controlled by the local churches and are still providing outdated information. As an example, a friend of mine (we'll call her Linda) was told by a doctor that it was perfectly “fine” that she was ill and nearly died during her latest pregnancy. As long as the baby makes it, that's fine, even if you die. Even if you die? Ah HELLO?? If she dies, the fetus dies too. You actually need the carrier to remain alive in order for the slushy experiment in the womb to become an actual baby! But this is the type of “care” typical for Kentucky clinics these days. They are not required to provide more care than has been allowed by the state, and they turn their noses up at anything beyond their “religion” despite the fact that this country thrives off of the separation of church and state. And in order to get to the clinic, you have to drive past the scientifically unsound depictions of fetuses, as played by one and two year old children, being tortured and bloodied beneath misquoted text from the Bible, scroll-work posters about how children of rape are blessings from the same God who commanded mass abortions in 2 Kings 15:16, and the name of a Pro-Life candidate emblazoned proudly as the payee of the billboard. This religious manipulation is almost comedic in it's absurdity. It's difficult for me to believe that a woman's right to choose is still a political “issue” some forty three years after the Supreme Court upheld Roe Vs. Wade, correctly granting to every woman in the United States rights to her own body, the right to choose within the first trimester whether or not to carry to term something she may not be financially or emotionally ready for, the right to information about the body she has to live with, the right to a safe procedure if indeed she chooses to have an abortion. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised. After all, women are still considered to be “property” not fully human and highly disposable. Our culture teaches us that a woman who thinks for herself is not worth listening to, a woman who dresses in the latest fashion deserves rape, and that any woman who stands up for herself or makes any choice that is against that of a stranger's deserves death. Women in general are still fighting for the right to vote in states that have suddenly shifted open voting to “closed” voting without warning in the presidential primaries. 96 years after the right for women to vote was ratified, and 146 years after race was removed from the list of reasons to bar an American citizen from voting, and women are still no better off in the general elections than the average dog. Every political election cycle, the American right to let a woman choose her own path for the body she alone has to live with, comes up as though this was a “fresh” debate. Every year, we vote, rally, protest and fight through the streets, illustrating the scientific and medical reasons why not only abortion, but safe birth control and uncensored sex education are vital to the fate of our children. And considering the fact that Kentucky has an inexcusable teen pregnancy rate, alarming poverty rate and a growing rise in sexually transmitted disease, anybody with a basic, public school, 5th grade education, would imagine that sex education and access to legal, safe birth control and clean clinics specializing in reproductive care, would be an essential priority. And yet it's citizens, many of which are unemployed high school dropouts, not only vote into office women-hating Republicans, but they also vote to eliminate food stamps, access to free or low cost healthcare, access to birth control and anything to do with jobs or education. What happens when you are forced to live because a “pro lifer” bullied your parents into keeping you, and then your folks lose access to any and all means to feed and medicate you? Simple. You die. We have children in Kentucky who were forced into existing, into families that do not care for them, barely surviving in poverty and without an education. The locals have actually fooled themselves into thinking that it is better to die in poverty before the age of twenty, than it is to have been aborted. The very [people why lie to themselves and pretend they “care” about these “precious lives” are actually making it harder and harder for these lives to grow up healthy and smart once they are no longer pink, mushy and fragile. Food, non-slavery jobs, education and the right to decide what happens to your body, should not be played with as political toys. We as Americans deserve the right and freedoms to decide for ourselves where our lives are going, and the right to preserve our lives via food and medicine, without being spat upon and looked down upon by people who are precious more than strangers to us. When we vote into office those who destroy our American liberties in the name of false “values” we are in fact telling Congress itself that we want to become little more than property. It may start with those “mouthy” women who are no longer in the kitchen, but sooner or later, the men end up suffering too. After all, without women, who will be housing these “precious lives” for nine months? Koriander Bullard is an author, cartoonist and human rights advocate. Keep up with her on Facebook!
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Written and Illustrated by Koriander Bullard Recently, another senseless shooting took place in _________ claiming the lives of ___ people and injuring ___ more. The gunman, __ year old ___________________ is said to have been a quiet kid growing up and gave off no indication that this shooting would occur. Police are investigating the incident to see if this was a per-meditated attack. Reports are inconclusive as to whether or not this was terror related, though the secret terrorist group _____________ has taken to Twitter to praise the killings, promising that there will be more attacks in the future. It is currently believed that the shooter had the mental disorder ____________ and may not have been taking medication at the time of the killings.
In other news, President ___________ is currently at odds with congress over the need for stricter gun laws in the wake of this tragedy. The NRA is staging a pro-gun rally within driving distance of the massacre. Liberals are calling out the NRA for this tasteless rally, though the NRA claims this previously unscheduled event missing from their website was pre-scheduled months in advance. Meanwhile, liberal groups are finding themselves at odds over whether or not television, music and video games are to blame. A new bill to address the issue is being passed through the senate as petitions are gaining momentum via social media in support of the victims. The above is the script we have all memorized in our sleep. Mass shootings, stemming from American-based terrorism, has become as much a symbol for this country as the bald eagle. The excuses from the media range from mental illness to race, religious or sexual based hatred, to bullying. There are a few things we can do as a nation that can break this rhetoric, provide actual aid to the victims and their families, and maybe, with enough effort, spark the right conversations that can bring about sound change. 1. Donate blood and supplies. Every time there is a crisis, the Red Cross is usually available to accept donations of cash and blood, while more regional crisis charities are looking for clean water and medicine. Be sure to do your research before donating, as scam artists pop up all over the internet during times like this. 2. Keep religion to yourself. Whether you believe in the more popular gods or in your neighborhood Flying Spaghetti Monster, the fact remains that your religion has no barring on the current tragedy. It's kind of you to pray for the already slain victims, but the five or so minutes you either use in prayer or in trying to turn this debate into whether or not the media is attacking your religion can be spent in comforting those actually harmed by the tragedy or in providing blood and aid to the victims' families. See #1. 3. The gun debate. I lost family to gun violence. I've also shot more than one gun. Even if I was more interested in gun collecting, I wouldn't be so savage as to praise the gun in the wake of a mass murder. Yes, it's annoying to hear about the gun debate, but trust me, if the government wanted our guns, they'd have taken them 19 years ago, after Columbine. Worse? Time wasted on the gun debate means time away from providing actual aid to those in need, and it makes you look heartless. Below is a list of complaints we are finished with hearing from you guys: A) The 2nd Amendment states you have the right to bear arms IN TIMES OF MILITIA. Militia is a pretty word that means during times where we have NO military at all, bearing arms is a good thing. We have the Army, Navy, National Guard, Air Force and enough governmental backing that we don’t need some conspiracy nut in a trailer hoarding all the guns sold at Walmart. This is 2nd grade knowledge. You had to be taught about the 2nd amendment in order to reach the 3rd grade. Behave as though you graduated both. B) Nobody is coming to take your guns. Ever. We should, but that would require disarming Walmart first, and nobody has the time to listen to the crying over it at the big box retailer. This is America. And as stupid as an idea as it is, we will still let you purchase as many death toys as you want until you feel “safer” at night. Get over yourself. You're not that special. C) No, not everybody needs a gun, hence where we just had another shooting. I promise that you can arm yourself with as many guns as you want, but if someone shoots you from behind, those guns will have meant absolutely garbage. Guns rarely save lives. D) If your pretty little death toy couldn't save the recent shooting victims, then they aren't going to do any good the next time someone decides to start a massacre. With that said, please curb the Twitter hissy fit every time you get questioned for buying another gun the day after a killing. E) Teaching children to shoot has never stopped a massacre. It certainly hasn't stopped any from being shot in the head. 6. Please show the world that you are a human and not an animal. Please wait until after the body count has been tallied before championing the gun like it's a new god. The mothers and fathers deserve at least enough time to find their child's toe tag before you chastise them for not outfitting them with an AR 15. F) Yes, you can in theory kill a man with a rice cooker. But you don’t hear about mass rice cooker killings, now do you? No. You hear about gun nuts. I know you “think” you just made a “funny point” but you actually just failed. If this wasn't a funny joke in the 4th grade, it isn't worth typing today. 4. This is about human life. Act like it. We don't need your bigoted, anti-LBGTQ/race-related/religious-based/gender-fueled hate. We can see on your timeline you're already a waste of space, we don't need you to reiterate it. You don't have to pray for the victims. In fact, you don't even have to like them. Just keep your outdated opinion to yourself, at least until we're finished mourning. See #1. 5. Re-purpose the awareness. We're already aware of the massive amount of shooting victims. Selling a ribbon, lighting a candle and wearing a rubber bracelet isn't bringing anybody back or providing for the final costs for the families left behind. Instead, channel that cause-supporting “awareness” into a GoFundMe account to help pay down the funeral costs for the victims, host a rally in protest of whatever form of hatred prompted the killing and support of the killer on Twitter, or just offer emotional support to someone affected by the news. We have to be our own change. This is where we start. Koriander Bullard is an author, cartoonist and human rights advocate. Keep up with her on Facebook! |
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