one spice girl away from secession and over-population

The day after the first presidential debate between McCain and Obama, all I truly feel is that the divide between the positions of the two candidates and the parties and people they now represent is cataclysmic. Any illusion of partisan-free progress is dead, and had it not already been dead a month ago, McCain's VP nomination would have killed it. His selection is a gallop towards division, and the country now faces an election divisive at the civil war level. These are not mild disagreements, but divergent cosmologies; these are fundamentally opposed views of the natural world, the responsibilities of government, and the rights of all humans. There is no maybe, there is no grey, there is only I deserve to exist and be bailed out by the government and you do not. So let's return for one minute to Obama's speech at the DNC, where his diplomatic demeanor insisted on providing examples where the approach might be different, but common ground is still possible. He eloquently reminded us of the semantic battle around reproductive rights. Everyone I know is for life, and all support reproductive freedoms for women. What we hope to reduce in this world is not knowledge or access, but unwanted pregnancies and the difficult procedure of abortion. No one wants to have to make that choice, but the choice must be there nonetheless. The fewer who have to make it due to better education and better access to birth control, the better for all of us. So this week I hope you'll take action with Planned Parenthood to not only continue the fight for women's rights across the country, but to also help defeat dangerous state initiatives by protecting teens in California, privacy in Colorado, and rights to access in South Dakota. And while you're at the PP site, be sure to let the woman in the race know that she's not the woman for you.