Author: storiesinamerica

I met Brenda, a 50-something former Democrat at last week’s Juneteenth festival in San Francisco. Corruption is clearly turning people who were once politically active into non-voters. Because of Brenda’s belief that Jesus Christ will return and solve all of our problems, there is nothing activists or politicans can do to convince her to vote again. I met several Republicans on my road trip who said they don’t care about the state of the environment, education, healthcare, etc… because they too believe Jesus Christ will soon return. The difference is, they tend to vote.
Do you vote?

No. I no longer believe in the system. My government is God’s government. If you look at history, you’ll see that things are getting worse. They’re not getting better. I don’t care how many people vote. Nothing is changing. I used to vote. I used to campaign. I used to put flyers on doors. I used to register people to vote. After I saw all the corruption and lies, I said no more.

Do you think you can make a difference at the local level? San Francisco has the highest minimum wage in the country because the voters passed the proposition. Does that matter?

But that’s not my concern. I’m gonna keep going back to what I said before. When Jesus Christ comes back and changes everything, people will not be sick, they will not be homeless, they will not have to worry about medical benefits. Everything will be perfect.

Politician make promises, but they really can’t keep them because of the simple fact that they are beholden to lobbyists and people who have contributed to their campaign.

I believe in a new system and that system is Jehovah’s system because he is the only person that can change the hunger, the crime and the disappointments.

And when is that going to happen?

Only God knows.

When you were voting, were you a Democrat or a Republican?

I was a Democrat.

Why?

Because I felt that that party looked out for the common person: someone who is struggling and working hard. But everything is so totally corrupt. It doesn’t matter who’s in office. It’s just not for me anymore.

Will you ever vote again?

There is no way I’m ever voting again. My trust is in a higher power.

Do you still keep up with issues?

No. I hardly ever watch television news because it saddens and depresses me, but I know what’s going on because I hear people talk about different issues.

What would you tell Democrats who say, ‘We need you. Our country is a mess and we need you back.’

I would tell them that they need to start studying their bible. We need them to focus on spiritual issues. Once that’s taken care of, things will be better. This time is gonna go by so quickly. I’m in my 50s and I’m working on myself and my spiritual needs and I feel so much better.

Promoted by Steven D. Too important for words.

Many of you followed parts of my six-month road trip through the so-called “red states,” where I interviewed people about why they vote the way they do. The goal of the trip was to steer clear of politicians and talking heads and focus on talking to real people about a variety of issues. I still feel the media, both traditional and alternative, are in a bubble and ignore the voices of average people. Many journalists and authors have a tendency to write long diatribes about the Bush administration and its horrible policies, but they rarely quote real people. On March 20, 2006, Newsweek’s Howard Fineman and Evan Thomas wrote a piece called “The GOP’s Abortion Anxiety,” but they didn’t include comments from pro-choice Republican voters who are actually leaving the party. Finding them isn’t that difficult.
From now until the November election, I will feature interviews with a variety of people about a wide range of issues. Because I’m working on my book about my “red state” experience, I can’t travel too far from the Bay Area, but I will make a point of interviewing a diverse group of people. I also plan to podcast the interviews.

Conducting these interviews isn’t always easy, especially when I encounter someone who is pro-war, anti-choice, anti-gay, etc…but I believe they will help the left figure out where to focus their efforts and how to shape their message.

Last weekend, I interviewed a number of people at Juneteenth, the largest gathering of African-Americans in northern California:

San Francisco Juneteenth has taken on even more importance because the traditional black neighborhoods in the Western Addition and Bayview/Hunters Point have lost population due to the increased ability of blacks to live throughout the region due to rising incomes, redevelopment which displaced some residents and businesses and an influx of new residents into those communities. San Francisco Juneteenth is the one constant which dates back to the days when the Western Addition covered 120 consecutive blocks of 100 percent African-American households.

My first interview is with Ericka, a 32-year-old San Francisco resident who says she always votes. Democrats should pay close attention to her last comment about poverty.

What issues are important to you?

Issues concerning education and abortion. African American voting rights. Family and marriage. I believe marriage is between a man and a woman.

So you’re against gay marriage?

Yes. It’s my biblical beliefs and it tears down the basis of the family.

Do you vote for Democrats or Republicans?

I was a Democrat. Now I don’t agree with a lot of what they support. I’m still registered as a Democrat, but I’m voting more with the Republican Party.

Why?

Because the value system is totally different with Democrats. They’re more liberal. They’re for abortion, which obviously is the murder of a baby. And they support gay marriage which is breaking down families. Since my values have changed, my voting habits have changed.

Did you vote for Bush in 2004?

Yes I did.

Do you think abortion and gay marriage should be political issues?

Definitely. I don’t appreciate the fact that they’re trying to teach kids that homosexuality is ok. It has to become political because how else can we stand against it?

You mentioned education earlier. What about issues like education and healthcare? Do you have health insurance?

No.

What do you do for a living?

I’m an entrepreneur. I sell children’s clothing.

The Republicans are often criticized for using gay marriage and abortion to get you to vote for them. Meantime, they refuse to raise minimum wage or work to make healthcare more affordable and accessible.

I don’t vote according to party. I vote according to each individual issue. I don’t care if they don’t give me healthcare. I’ll never support abortion. I have two children and in the past, I’ve had an abortion and I’ve asked for forgiveness for that. I don’t think that should be ok for a 17-year-old.

Do you think the government should have made that choice for you?

Yes.

Where does it stop in terms of the government telling you what you can and cannot do with your body?

It’s not about the government telling you what to do. We vote. This is a democratic society. We vote for these measures.

Once the baby is born, should the government stay involved? If you’re going to ban abortion, we’re going to have a lot more unwanted children in this country. Who’s going to take care of those kids? Who’s going to pay for their healthcare and education?

The bible says there will always be poor people.

So gay marriage and abortion are your top issues and Republican policies on the economy and the poor don’t matter?

I’ve lived in this community all my life under Democrats and Republicans. My neighbors have been living in poverty for years and nothing ever changes.

A year after a White House spokesman was asked whether Bush supports birth control, and more than 300 days after New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney and 19 colleagues asked the same question in a letter (they wrote five letters in total), we finally have an answer from John Agwunobi, assistant secretary for health. In a letter to Rep. Maloney, he writes:

This Administration supports the availability of safe and effective products and services to assist responsible adults in making decisions about preventing or delaying conception. The Department of Health and Human Services faithfully executes laws establishing Federal programs to  to provide contraception and family planning services. The Title X Family Planning Program and Medicaid are each significant providers of family planning services.

Additionally, this Administration strongly supports teaching abstinence to young people as the only 100 percent effective means of preventing pregnancy, HIV, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

I’m not quite sure how he defines “responsible adults?” Would an 18-year-old qualify? Would I (a single thirty-something) qualify? What about a single mom who just lost her job?

Now that Bush is apparently pro-birth control, Rep. Maloney is asking him to reverse the anti-birth control actions of his administration. In a letter sent to Bush yesterday, she wrote:

Although you say you support access to birth control for responsible adults, I am concerned that your administration’s seemingly politically-driven policies are impeding access for this very group in number of ways:

1. In January of 2005, the Justice Department distributed .the first-ever guidelines for the treatment of sexual assault survivors. The 141-page document provides step-by-step medical treatment guidelines for sexual assault patients, including
guidance on sexually transmitted infections, but no information on emergency contraception. News reports published at the time indicated that information about emergency contraception was included in earlier versions of the guidelines, but
was subsequently eliminated. Including this information in the guidelines would provide sexual assault survivors access to an important form of birth control that could help prevent unintended pregnancies and avoid abortions.

2. Since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) agreed to review an application to make Plan B available over-the-counter in June 2003, the agency has gone to unprecedented lengths to avoid issuing a decision. Most recently, it denied a petition by 60 family planning and health groups to allow sales of the Plan B contraceptive without a prescription. Your political appointees at FDA have put on hold, indefinitely, the decision on whether to make Plan B available over-the-counter, claiming to fear an increase in teenage sexual activity- despite studies showing that availability of emergency contraception does not result in an increase in teenage pregnancy, sexual activity or sexually transmitted diseases. This unscientific, political decision is preventing responsible adults from accessing this important form of birth control and is having a serious impact on peoples’ lives, as documented in a recent Washington Post article entitled ” FVhat Happens When There Is No Plan B” (June 6,2006) (enclosed).
3. Pharmacists around the country are refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control pills including emergency contraception. As you know, emergency contraception is a time-sensitive drug and works best if taken soon after unprotected sex. By the time a woman contacts a medical provider and obtains a prescription for emergency contraception, she may have only a few hours to obtain and take the drug. By refusing to fill the prescription, pharmacists may prevent women from taking the drug at this crucial time. In addition, 30% of women practicing contraception use the birth control pill. Pharmacists who refuse to fill these prescriptions seriously hinder these women’s ability to prevent unintended pregnancy. Your failure to intervene on behalf of American women is troubling and is having serious consequences.

Since you have stated that you support access to birth control, I write to ask that your policies reflect your position. Therefore, I would like to know the following:

1. Will you urge the Department of Justice to incorporate information about emergency contraception in the guidelines for -the treatment of sexual assault survivors?
2. Will you remove political barriers to the scientific process at the FDA and urge the agency to make a decision on the application to sell Plan B over-the-counter?
3. Will you intervene on behalf of American women and work to stop pharmacists from preventing access to birth control pills, including emergency contraception?

Let’s hope it doesn’t take another year to receive a response.

This November, South Dakotans will send a strong message to the rest of the country after they vote on the nation’s most restrictive state abortion ban, which offers no exceptions for rape and incest.

Politicians on Capitol Hill will be watching this vote closely, especially the forty-six Senators who have a zero percent rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America and a 100 percent rating from the National Right to Life Committee. All 46 are Republican and with the exception of Sens. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, they are all men.
I recently placed two rounds of phone calls asking each of those 46 Senator two questions: Do you favor overturning Roe v. Wade? If so, do you support exceptions for rape and incest?

Once I mentioned the words “abortion” and “rape,” Senate staffers either transferred me to voicemail or said, “I’ll have to look into that.” I have yet to receive any answers.

So far, only three Republican Senators have publicly gone on record stating their positions on the law. Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas told Newsweek he would have signed it. “Rape and incest are horrible crimes, but why punish the innocent child?”

Sen. George Allen of Virginia has said if a similar bill landed on his desk when he was governor, he would have vetoed it. Sen. John McCain of Arizona has said he supports banning abortion with exceptions to protect the life of the mother and in cases of rape or incest.

If South Dakota voters approve the ban, a young girl who is raped by a male relative will be forced to carry the child to term. Similar laws are under consideration in Alabama, Oklahoma, Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Tennessee and West Virginia. The Ohio ban goes even further by making it a crime to accompany a woman to a clinic that provides abortions in another state.

Efforts to outlaw abortion in Kentucky and Mississippi were defeated on March 25 and March 27 respectively.

And that’s just the beginning. More than 850 choice-related state bills have been introduced or carried over in the first two months of the 2006 legislative session, according to Planned Parenthood. These include laws to restrict funding to family planning clinics and allow pharmacists to refuse to dispense contraception. Not only are anti-choicers going after abortion, they’re also targeting birth control.

What’s in store for America’s women if these laws continue to pass? Look at Africa, where this year alone, more than four million women will face serious injuries as a result of abortions performed by unskilled people under unsanitary conditions, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Nearly 30,000 women will die. That’s almost 90 per day.

“These preventable deaths and illness represent not only a major public health crisis, but also a social injustice and violation of women’s human rights and dignity,” said a WHO report on abortion.

Like South Dakota, abortion is illegal in most African countries, with an exception to save a woman’s life. At a March meeting in Addis Ababa, more than 150 health experts and politicians from 16 African countries called for relaxed abortion laws and greater access to birth control and sex education to prevent further deaths and injuries from unsafe abortions.

Over the past 10 years, 15 countries around the world, including Nepal and Burkina Faso, have relaxed their abortions laws. After South Africa legalized abortion without any restrictions in 1997, the country saw a drastic drop in abortion deaths, from 425 per year to less than 20.

Only five countries, including the United States and Poland, have restricted access to abortion.

Governments can outlaw abortion, but if a South Dakotan or Kenyan woman wants to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, she will do whatever it takes, even if it means risking her life.

If this is the future anti-abortion lawmakers want for American women, they should be pressured to say so.

As Bush travels the country raising $27 million for his fellow compassionate conservatives in one night, the people of New Orleans continue to suffer beyond comprehension. Suicide rates are higher than they’ve ever been, all of the city’s public school teachers have been fired and over 5,000 public housing units are about to be demolished.
*According to an article in today’s New York Times, New Orleans is experiencing a near epidemic of depression and post-traumatic stress disorders, leading to a suicide rate that state and local officials say is close to triple what it was before Hurricane Katrina struck 10 months ago:

Sgt. Ben Glaudi, the commander of the Police Department’s Mobile Crisis Unit here, spends much of each workday on this city’s flood-ravaged streets trying to persuade people not to kill themselves.

Last Tuesday in the French Quarter, Sergeant Glaudi’s small staff was challenged by a man who strode straight into the roaring currents of the Mississippi River, hoping to drown. As the water threatened to suck him under, the man used the last of his strength to fight the rescuers, refusing to be saved.

“He said he’d lost everything and didn’t want to live anymore,” Sergeant Glaudi said.

The man was counseled by the crisis unit after being pulled from the river against his will. Others have not been so lucky.

“These things come at me fast and furious,” Sergeant Glaudi said. “People are just not able to handle the situation here.”

*Yesterday, Democracy Now! featured an interview with Joe DeRose of the United Teachers of New Orleans about the firing of 7,500 public school teachers and employees. Have you heard about this? Control of many of the city schools has been given to private charter organizations. Last week, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced $24 million in federal aid to Louisiana for development of private charter schools:

Every teacher in New Orleans was fired. There weren’t 7,500. There was 7,500 school employees, everybody from cafeteria workers, truck drivers and custodians to teachers, and there were about 4,000 teachers. Solid middle class employees, career professionals who had dedicated their careers to helping try to educate the children in one of the neediest cities in the country, a city with one of the highest poverty rates, as everybody saw in the days immediately following Katrina.

They were treated with utter disrespect. There was no notification that they would be fired until one day in October, when the school board called a press conference, notified us about an hour before that they were going to have such a conference. Therefore, most people found out that they were being terminated on the 5:00 news. Those who didn’t have TVs or weren’t still living in the city found out in the newspaper the next morning or by phone calls from friends and relatives who were in touch with the media.

AMY GOODMAN: And so, what happened through this year? And what percentage of the public schools? Are we talking over 90% of the schools are African American?

JOE DeROSE: Yes, it’s probably closer to 95%. And we also have a class division within the city, where many African Americans of means, middle class African Americans, were able to send their children to or chose to send their children to Catholic schools. So New Orleans public schools were left with really the most most impoverished students, and they were also in the buildings with terrible conditions, a school system that was not really adequately supported. There was not enough money. Nobody has ever determined how much money is needed to properly educate children in the state of Louisiana, for one, and certainly not in the city of New Orleans.

If people had seen before Katrina the conditions of these schools, they would have been appalled. In fact, there was a group of people from the great city schools who came in in October to evaluate the damage caused by Katrina, and because these people were experienced and because they were visiting schools mostly on the un-flooded West Bank of New Orleans, they could tell the difference between hurricane damage and previously existing damage. And they were astonished at the conditions that the city provided for its public school students.

*Bill Quigly, human rights lawyer and professor at Loyola University New Orleans School of Law, writes passionately about the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s announcement to demolish over five thousand public housing apartments:

HUD’s demolition plans leave thousands of families with no hope of returning to New Orleans where rental housing is scarce and costly. In New Orleans, public housing was occupied by women, mostly working, their children as well as the elderly and disabled.

To these mothers and children, HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson said: “Any New Orleans voucher recipient or public housing resident will be welcomed home.”

Exactly how people will be welcomed home, HUD did not say.

How can thousands of low-income working families come home if HUD has fenced off their apartments, put metal shutters over their windows and doors and are now planning to demolish their homes?

As in the face of any injustice, there is resistance.

NAACP civil rights attorney Tracie Washington promised a legal challenge and told HUD, “You cannot go forward and we will not allow you to go forward.”

Most importantly, displaced residents of public housing and their allies have set up a tent city survivors village outside the fenced off 1300 empty apartments on St. Bernard Avenue in New Orleans.

If the authorities do not open up the apartments by July 4, they pledge to go through the fences and liberate their homes directly. The group, the United Front for Affordable Housing, is committed to resisting HUD’s efforts to bulldoze their apartments “by any means necessary.”

If the government told you that they were going to bulldoze where you live, and deny you the right to return to your home, would you join them?

The Times and Democracy Now should be commended for their continued coverage of what’s happening in New Orleans. Where are the rest of the media?

The Washington Post Magazine ran a lengthy piece in yesterday’s magazine about the pro-war Hart family, whose son John wasn’t provided the proper armor to avoid major injuries and in this case, death. This should be required reading for everyone who claims to “support the troops.” As the House (most members have never served in war) passes a measure supporting the troops, the very troops they claim to support are without the proper gear and families are being completely destroyed in the process.

And what about the conservative pro-war talking heads? Will they do their patriotic duty by publicizing this very important story?

Like so many pro-war families, Brian, John’s father, began questioning the war during phone conversations:

Don’t believe spinmeisters on TV, Brian recalls his son saying; the Iraqi insurgency is real and building. John and his buddies in Charlie Company of the 508th Infantry Regiment of the 173rd Airborne Brigade were patrolling ever longer distances in thin-skinned Humvees suited for hauling cargo, not for carrying soldiers under fire.

In previous calls, John told his father he’d been issued body armor with plates to small to shield his chest and a broken rifle.

John and Pfc. Chris Williams were sent to hunt for rocket-lobbers in Kirkuk on October 18, 2003:

“I’m like, uh, why are they sending us?” Williams recalls. “We were returning kitchen equipment. We were not combat-effective . . . You are going to investigate a rocket attack. So you know they have rockets. Why send guys in a rickety Humvee to chase guys who have rockets?”

Williams didn’t ask his questions aloud. “I was a private,” recalls Williams, now a clerk at a Blockbuster Video in Washington state. “I wasn’t supposed to ask questions.”

After their son’s death, the Hart’s continued to support the war. Then Brian began asking questions and seeking the truth:

He flew to Washington two days before John’s funeral at Arlington to question the soldier escorting his son’s body home — Chris Williams, who’d been riding next to John during the fatal ambush. Williams told him that the bullet that killed Bernstein went right through the thin metal skin of the unarmored Humvee and that the vehicle had not even a simple gun shield for John to take cover behind when he returned fire.

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) was planning to attend John’s November 4 funeral. Brian contacted his office and asked if he and Kennedy could meet before the service to talk. Some of Brian’s relatives were aghast. Brian grew up in a family of fundamentalist Christians who vote Republican. At the University of Texas, Brian was president of the campus Republicans. Now some of his Texas relatives warned Brian not to be seen with Kennedy, he recalls. Brian didn’t care. To get answers, he needed allies. He even called John Kerry’s presidential campaign; but nobody called back, he says. Kerry did send an aide to John’s funeral.

Brian eventually learned that the Bush administration flat out lied about the money it was spending on the war and equipment to properly protect the troops. He eventually began speaking out against the war and was alienated by his pro-war Republican relatives in Texas. This quote says it all:

“There’s virtually no communication anymore,” he says, choking up as he speaks. “The president says one thing, and I am telling them that’s not the truth. It’s unresolvable.”

First Lt. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer to publicly refuse to deply to Iraq with his “Stryker Brigade” later this month, held a press conference on June 7 in which he stated his reasons for speaking out rather than applying for conscientious objector status. Since going public with his decision, the First United Methodist Church of Tacoma, Washington has declared itself a sanctuary for servicemen and women who also refuse to go to war:

“Our initiative was because of Lieutenant Watada’s gesture and a clear sense that we have, as a reconciling congregation, deeply involved in justice issues throughout the city, that any war, particularly this one, is inconsistent with Christian teachings,” the Rev. Monty Smith said Wednesday night.

Watch Lt. Watada’s speech here:

My name is Ehren Watada.   I am a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army  and I have served for 3 years.

It is my duty as a commissioned officer of the United States Army to speak  out against grave injustices.  My moral and legal obligation is to the Constitution and not those who would issue unlawful orders.  I stand before you today because it is my job to serve and protect those soldiers,  the American people, and innocent Iraqis with no voice.

It is my conclusion as an officer of the Armed Forces that the war in Iraq is not only morally wrong but a horrible breach of American law.  Although I have tried to resign out of protest, I am forced to participate in a war that is manifestly illegal.  As the order to take part in an illegal act is ultimately unlawful as well, I must as an officer of honor and integrity refuse that order.

The war in Iraq violates our democratic system of checks and balances.  It usurps international treaties and conventions that by virtue of the Constitution become American law.  The wholesale slaughter and mistreatment of the Iraqi people with only limited accountability is not only a terrible moral injustice, but a contradiction to the Army’s own Law of Land Warfare.  My participation would make me party to war crimes.

Normally, those in the military have allowed others to speak for them and act on their behalf.  That time has come to an end.  I have appealed to my commanders to see the larger issues of our actions.  But justice has not been forthcoming. My oath of office is to protect and defend America’s laws and its people.   By refusing unlawful orders for an illegal war, I fulfill that oath today.

Thank you.

Monica Benderman is the wife of Sgt. Kevin Benderman, who is currently in a military prison. At a recent Congressional briefing about conscientious objection, she stated: “My husband went to war.  He saw mass graves filled with dead bodies of old people, women and children. He watched dogs feeding on their bodies. … When he returned home, my husband and I wrote publicly about our feelings for this and all war. … My husband took the course available to him and filed a Conscientious Objector application. His command, in an effort to punish him for his humanity, and because they could not do so for the public comments that he and I had made, chose to disregard his application, and … found a way to put him in prison. … My husband violated no regulations. His command violated many. The command’s flagrant disregard for military regulations and laws of humanity sent my husband to jail as a prisoner of conscience.”

Ann Wright is a retired Army Colonel and former State Department diplomat. After 16 years in the diplomatic corps, she resigned in May 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq. She said today: “I was in the military for 29 years and what many soldiers are doing today is just extraordinary. When I resigned from the diplomatic corps, there were no ill effects on me other than quitting a job. But many of these soldiers are risking a great deal for their principles.”

The story about 21-year-old Suzanne Swift, the female soldier who was arrested in Eugene, Oregon for refusing to return to Iraq, is now getting a lot of attention. On Monday, Suzanne’s mother, Sara Rich, told OR Public Broadcasting that her daughter dealt with constant sexual harassment; today, truthout.org is running a letter Sara wrote called, “Fear for My Daughter.”

All of the headlines I found on Google focus on Swift being AWOL. They should focus on the sexual harassment.

Please spread far and wide and demand more from the media and the way they’re covering this issue.

It started out with being scared for her life when she signed up for the military. She assured me that she was promised she would not go to Iraq. I was not as trusting.

    She was sent to Iraq right out of her basic training. While she was packing, we cried, as she assured me she would be okay. One of her sergeants assured me, “Don’t worry, ma’am, we’ll take good care of your daughter.” I desperately hoped that I could trust him to watch over her. I later found out he was one the first predators to try to have sex with her and make her “his private.”

    She spent a long year in Iraq. I feared for her safety every waking minute. She frequently called me crying, telling me very little of the horror she was witnessing – only telling me it was hard. She told me that almost all of the other soldiers were sexually harassing her and that many of her sergeants and lieutenants were really pressuring her and making her life miserable for rejecting them. Calls from her often ended with “Oh, there goes gun fire – gotta go mom, love you.”

    When she returned from Iraq, she was much more quiet and anxious than when she left. I offered to get her help, but she refused. She told me that if she opened that can of worms she would not be able to function as a human being. I asked her if she wanted to deal with the horrible sexual harassment charges against so many of her fellow soldiers. She said, no mom, it would only make my life even more of a living hell. Then she finally blew the whistle on one of her superiors for sexually harassing her, and she was treated like a pariah, while he was moved to a different unit and promoted. She put her head down and worked as a Military Police officer on Ft. Lewis. She was always shocked by the number of domestic violence calls she went out on. The fear of a mother of a peace officer was there, but at least I could call her and knew she was safe. We knew that she was going to be re-deployed to Iraq sometime after the mandatory 18 months’ stabilization time is over. So, we were looking at November of 2006 for a second re-deployment. Our hearts were heavy at the thought.

    She came home for a visit and couldn’t face me to tell me she was going back to Iraq much sooner than expected. My fear was skyrocketing. I asked, how can they do that, you will have only had 11 months of stabilization time? She told me that she refused to sign the paper waiving her rights to 18 months. She was told that her life would be hell in a shit hole if she refused to sign. They screamed in her face and intimidated her to the point that she would shake when she told the story. Our family prepared. She was packed, ready to re-deploy, keys in hand. She said, “I can’t do this, Mom, I can’t go back there.” We shifted into action to protect our daughter.

    We networked with everyone imaginable. We knew that we would rather see her in jail than spending another minute in Iraq. We hired an attorney with experience in these kinds of military matters. And Suzanne went into hiding.

    Now here we are, facing what we knew was a real possibility. Suzanne is in jail and waiting to be taken up to Ft. Lewis, and I am really scared. The military treated her horribly when she was a soldier, I can only imagine what they will do to her as a prisoner. She is a brave young woman and my hero. But there is only just so much stress an Iraq war veteran can handle.

    My fear for my daughter is real. My hope for and belief in my daughter and what she is doing is strong and unshakable. I truly believe she saved her own life with her courage. It is to be hoped that by telling her story and standing strong she can encourage others in the military to stand up, speak out, and refuse to participate in this illegal and immoral war.

    Thanks to you all. I knew this was going to happen eventually, so I had my ducks in a serious row. Today I had a press conference, a vigil, at the jail where Suzanne is, and I spoke to 10 different radio shows, some nationally syndicated, three TV stations, 3 newspapers and had a million calls.

    I only got to talk to Suzanne for one short minute in which we were both were crying so hard we could not talk.

    They are transporting Suzanne tomorrow in the early morning to Ft. Lewis and returning her to her unit. We are planning to be at the jail at 7:45 – 9:00 a.m. to see if we can catch a a glimpse of her as she leaves the jail to show her that we are here for her.

    Letters of Support Needed

    Please write to Lt. Colonel Switzer, Ft. Lewis, Washington, to ask that Spc. Suzanne Swift receive a medical discharge or an honorable discharge from the Army due to her Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. After writing the letter, please fax a copy to:

    Senator Gordon Smith
    Federal Building
    211 East 7th Avenue, Room 202
    Eugene, OR 97401
    Phone: 541.465.6750
    Fax: 541.465.6808

    Senator Ron Wyden
    151 West 7th Avenue
    Suite 435
    Eugene, OR 97401
    (541) 431-0229

    Congressman Peter DeFazio
    151 West 7th, Suite 400
    Eugene, OR 97401
    Phone: (541) 465-6732

    Senator Patty Murray
    950 Pacific Avenue, Ste. 650
    Tacoma, Washington 98402
    Phone: (253) 572-3636
    Fax: (253) 572-9892

    If there is no fax number, you can email them. Let me know if you send a letter and if you get a response.

    If you want to donate to Suzanne’s legal or medical fund, please contact me at formydaughtersuzanne@yahoo.com.

    Thanks so much from Suzanne and her family. We appreciate your love and passion. This is so important for us to do – not only to end the war, but to defend women who are in the military.

    Peace,

    Sara Rich, M.S.W.

Here’s another outcome of the war that gets little to no attention. Think about it. Tens of thousands of men are serving their second or third years in Iraq. They haven’t had sex in a very long time and are most likely experiencing major depression and anxiety, so they take it out on the women in their units. This is a report from Oregon Public Broadcasting:

Eugene Police jailed US Army service woman Specialist Suzanne Swift Sunday night at the request of the military. As Kristian Foden-Vencil reports, Swift has been absent without leave since last year when she refused to return to Iraq.

Swift, who’s 21, served her first tour in Iraq in 2004.

She was a Military Police Officer in Karbala. She drove a Humvee during combat patrols and was repeatedly shot at, according to her mother, Sarah Rich. She says her daughter was about to leave for her second tour when she broke down and said she simply couldn’t — because of the war itself and the way she was treated.

Sarah Rich: “She was belittled, she was called names daily. She was called fat. She was propositioned to have sex daily and if she refused she was treated like a dog and if she accepted she was treated like a dog.”

Military Police from Fort Lewis are scheduled to collect Swift Tuesday and return her to her unit.

The unit is expected to leave for a third tour of duty in 2007.

The unit is expected to leave for a third tour of duty in 2007.

So the military police plan to return Swift to her unit and send her back to Iraq even though they know she’s not mentally or emotionally capable? Based on what her mother said, Swift may have given in to sexual advances. The question is, was she raped? Will there be an investigation? This country is woefully unprepared for the impacts this war is having on female soldiers who not only are fighting on the front lines, but are also subject to verbal and sexual abuse.

Note: I changed “she was raped,” to a question. As a few of you pointed out, it is tough to tell based on her mother’s quote. Hopefully the Eugene press will follow-up to find out what happened.

Since 1997, the number of women in prison has increased by a whopping 757 percent. Women are the fastest growing segment of the prison system, surpassing men in all 50 states.

Over the past 15 years, the number of women prisoners in California doubled to approximately 11,681. Last year alone, the number was up by eight percent.

The majority of those women have survived domestic violence and 80 percent are mothers. Because 1 in 10 of the state’s female inmates is pregnant, a new baby is born in prison on an almost daily basis.

The population of mothers in prison has drastically increased since the 80s, largely due to tougher sentencing for nonviolent drug crimes. Because the number of women having babies in prison is also increasing, California officials are preparing to open the state’s first prison nursery. Shouldn’t this be causing us to question what this says about us as a society? Do we really want children being raised behind bars?

It’s time to have a discussion about why so many women and mothers are behind bars in the first place, and recognize the fact that female prisoners have different needs than male prisoners. It’s highly unlikely than any politician will honestly tackle this issue during an election year for fear of being labeled “soft on crime.”