This is the title of a beautiful song by Joshua Radin, whose music I really like–it’s calming, sweet, gentle and relaxing.  Very nice.  And I’m needing that these days.  And I like that–have no envy, and no fear.  Good words to live by.

This year has been challenging, as I’ve said before.  The past few weeks have been such a mixed bag.  I’ve felt very up and down, frustrated I think overall more than I’ve been excited, unfortunately.  I’m extremely upset about what’s been going on in the House of Representatives, since on Friday, they voted to defund both public broadcasting AND Title X funds, which supports STI testing, cancer screening, family planning (at least contraception) and health education. Though neither of these incidents of defunding are expected to be approved by either the Senate nor the President, it is still disturbing to me. Though it has been really refreshing to see so many people on my Facebook wall posting about supporting Planned Parenthood, and seeing some incredible speeches where women explain from their personal perspectives why abortion must remain accessible to all women, and how ridiculous it is to call it genocide or ethnic cleansing of black babies. Though there are certainly issues with both these women’s speeches, fallacies in their logic, I think it sheds some light on the ridiculous of white men discussing these issues, claiming that this is a ploy to convince women to have abortions, or to kill black babies. As I’ve read about on the various fantastic blogs I peruse, it is important to recognize that abortion does not happen out of the context of culture. Perhaps more black women get abortions, but more black women are poor. And Republicans do such a great job supporting poor folks, right??! They offer a lot of options in terms of flexibility to raise your children the way you want, and support them financially, right?

I’m super sick of Republicans focusing on this instead of real issues, creating jobs, as Spier points out. Defunding Title X means removing funding from a program that has shown to SAVE the government over $4 for every $1 they spend. So, really, this is NOT about getting rid of the deficit.

Anyway, that’s all been quite disheartening, and I’m happy to see that it’s not just me who is paying attention, taking action and is outraged (somewhat related: see Wisconsin).

I’m excited about the energy I feel growing about these issues on the Left, that we need to fight for our right to control our bodies, to receive adequate health care, something we ALL need. So, as much as you are able, please speak out, donate, call your representatives. Show them you are paying attention. This shit absolutely affects us all.