What a Woman Needs

When a young woman finds out she is pregnant, she does not need your condemnation, your ridicule, your disappointment, your BULLSHIT DRAMA. What she does need is your love and support. Notice I didn’t say acceptance. Even if she knows you’re not happy about her pregnancy, it doesn’t change the fact that she desperately NEEDS your love. Let me explain why I’m writing this.

A young woman I know through P recently found out she was pregnant. She posted the happy news to Facebook and was almost immediately assaulted with this:

“Well, I guess I’m the only asshole who thinks this is a really bad idea.”

Yes, I understand she posted it in a public forum for everyone to read and comment on. But there is a time and a place for that conversation, and Facebook is not it. Instead of respectfully communicating to her that this person did not approve, they publicly humiliated her on what should otherwise be a joyous occasion. Yes, I understand she is young, but that does not mean she needs your support any less. If anything, she needs it even more, and publicly humiliating her is not going to make anything better.

Plus, it’s a little late to say its a bad idea, if you really think about it. This young woman is not going to have an abortion, so the cat is out of the perpetual bag. Instead, they should have said “congrats” then talked to her IN PERSON, in a respectful, non-threatening way about how they were concerned about how she would take care of herself/the baby.

Unplanned pregnancies happen all the time, and its time we started realizing that probably isn’t going to change any time soon. Instead of being disrespectful and rude about it, the family and friends of those having an unplanned pregnancy need to support the person/couple in any way they can or STFU.

This is not the answer

Saying “fuck you” to the people who teach our children is not the answer, and taking away their collective bargaining RIGHTS, is pretty much telling teachers and those who support them to take a long walk off a short bridge. These people paid THOUSANDS of dollars so they could be qualified to teach, and now you want to throw that investment back at them and say “Oh well, so sorry?”

NO.

How about YOU take a pay cut? How about YOU give up the cushy pension fund you’ve got lined up for yourself?

Teachers don’t make all that much money to begin with, and now you want to screw up their RETIREMENT as well? There are already too many teachers who won’t retire because their retirement isn’t enough to support them, and now you want to force them to work even longer, just so they can save up enough money to SURVIVE on? These people are smart enough to go and do anything they want to, yet they chose to sacrifice their earning potential so that our children could have a good education, and YOU want to PUNISH them for that choice?

I’m happy those senators walked out, especially given your “no negotiations” attitude. These teachers have come back and said, yes we’ll take a pay cut and pay more for our health benefits, yet you’ve stuck to your plan like glue, not because of cost, but because you are a selfish bastard who has no interest in protecting the people, just your own special interest groups. Good luck getting re-elected, voters don’t take kindly to governors who fuck with teachers.