Abortions and Platforms

Today I traveled up to Olympia, Washington with a group of activists from the Washington chapter of NARAL and Planned Parenthood. We were heading up for a Lobby Day that ended up having at least three hundred people taking part. The main goal was to lobby for an act that would require any school district in the state that taught sexual education to teach comprehensive, medically accurate information based on a set of guidelines that were recently released by the Washington Department of Health and the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. It's a great bill that I would like to see pass, which has a good chance this year since the state House and Senate are now both controlled by Democrats.

The day went well. I had to awaken early to head out, dragging myself out of bed about six thirty. Mornings are hard for me, understand, and particularly so since I haven't been going to school and have been able to sleep until nine or ten most days. So hauling my ass out of bed at six thirty after four hours of sleep was a chore. I felt hot and uncomfortable and nauseous the ride up, which I typically feel after I get up very early without much sleep, as well as when I ride long distances in other people's cars. So the day did not start out good.

Once we got up to Olympia, everything improved. I started to feel better, we did some initial training and then a rally, and then it was off to meet with our representatives. Along with a few other people, I visited my two Representatives and one Senator. Here's the short of it:

The first Representative was a Democrat that I worked for this last November. She's wonderful and is a sponsor of the bill, so she was right there with us on it. That was an easy visit, and a fun one.

Next, we saw the Senator, a Republican. Frankly, he's an ass. He flat out told us that NARAL and Planned Parenthood want only to increase abortions so that they can make more money, thus he would never vote for a bill that they sponsored. I guess that means I want an increase in abortions. I never knew.

Last, we saw the second Representative, also a Republican. He was nice, but kind of crazy. He spent much of the time talking about blanket beatings in the military and building a platform for a bull to better be able to have sex with a cow. And no, I am in no way making a joke. He claimed to support the bill, but his record suggests he's likely snowballing us. We shall see.

I have to say, the entire experience was very interesting. It was the first time I ever did any lobbying and it was actually kind of exciting, as well as a bit nerve-wracking. And it was fascinating to find out what my representatives were like on a more personal level.

I'm exhausted, so there won't be any more entries until tomorrow unless I get some kind of bug up my ass. But I'm pretty sure I won't. Tomorrow, I'll probably be talking about predicting the future. I might talk about hiking, as well, and post a picture. Who knows what else! You'll just have to come back and see.

Oh, and I'll mention that I had my first article go up on the new political magazine, Blue and Red. I again urge you to check it out if you haven't already, and if you're interested in politics. My particular article will be familiar to most of you--it's my PETA rant from below. I'll likely have another article up before long about Lobby Day. The site is off to a good start so far, with some interesting articles. Furthermore, Larime--the siterunner--is always looking for new writers and, in particular, needs more right-leaning authors. If you're interested in doing some political writing for Blue and Red, check out the site, get a feel for it, then give Larime an email for more information.