Let's Talk About Planned Parenthood in Texas

In this blog post, I will be responding to a slew of comments on this Mic. article: https://mic.com/articles/160424/texas-officially-defunds-planned-parenthood?fb_comment_id=1316213465087743_1320093818033041&comment_id=1320093818033041#.H0BV1vwLS

Here I have literally taken screenshots of every single comment made between the article's posting date and 00:51 on Dec 24, 2016. There are many comments. You're welcome. Let's begin.

This is Kevin.

Kevin is a middle-aged white man. He has what I presume from his Facebook profile are a wife and a teenage/college-age daughter. I don't want to believe that he harbors ill feelings towards women in Texas, but Kevin's comments indicate a lack of understanding of what it means to have physically accessible, financially accessible health care and resources.

Kevin felt strongly about the Mic. article and thus has engaged in a lot of discussion with other people on Facebook about it. Here they are. My comment, which is partially shown at the top of the first image, will be shared later.

10th Amendment gives any not-specifically-federal powers to the states and the people.  Kevin here is hopeful. There will be other solutions! But what are those solutions? By the way, health insurance is a fickle beast, even government-provided.

The Texas that is run by older white men who don't have vulvas, uteruses, periods, or financial troubles probably will not elect to have Medicaid absorb abortion costs. Also, I guess it's morally bankrupt to live in Texas and pay state taxes there. Good thing it's so easy to quit your job, move to a new state, find a new home there, find a new job there, get a new state ID card, and pay for moving costs. Wonder why more people don't just move whenever they want to.

Kevin's comment here confuses me. Since when are women threatening to kill doctors if they don't provide abortions or pap smears? Doctors who provide abortions or even just women's health services are stalked, harassed, and murdered in this country far more than other kinds of doctors. Carrie is right about TRAP laws, like medically unnecessary admitting privileges in Texas.

Angela was a little crude here but the point she makes is that Kevin's perspective is that of a person who is not affected by women's reproductive health and doesn't think that anyone else is either. Paul's comment on religious beliefs isn't exactly relevant but it's not irrelevant. However, his criticism is on point: it is cruel to deny someone a crucial health care service because you personally wouldn't use it.

Whitney explains to Kevin that pap smears are technically cancer screenings (for cervical cancer caused by HPV), but that doesn't mean they are covered under health insurance as cancer screenings. If you are denied Medicaid and can't afford decent private health insurance, you're paying for everything out of pocket. Providers work where they live and then work way far out because medical facilities really need doctors these days.

Good for you for being able to pay out of pocket for your shots, Lacy! Glad it wasn't too expensive. True, lots of health care providers do take Medicaid. That doesn't mean that all OB/GYNs will have fair cash prices or that the health care providers nearest you will accept Medicaid.

I doubt that the press would care that Medicaid doesn't cover everything... No one's tax dollars go toward abortion... If you can't fund an abortion, which can cost between $350-$3K depending on whether your insurance covers it, the number of hoops you have to jump through, and travel costs associated with going to a clinic way far away because it's the only one who will take you/the nearest one...if you can't even pay for an abortion, how can you be expected to be able to afford having a child? Also state-provided Medicaid doesn't cover you outside the state you live in.

"There is no way anyone is denied basic service through Medicaid." However, people are denied Medicaid, and those who need "basic service" more frequently than others or need more than "basic service" have to pay out of pocket for more services even if they have Medicaid. Many people enroll in Medicaid because they can't afford other health insurance providers.

Calling people sexist isn't the most effective way of getting them to see your point of view or change their minds. However, Mike raises a good question: "What do you think Texas will do when faced with the children born because of lack of services? Or women facing advanced cancer because of the same?" "Do you think that men should lose access to viagra?" is, in my opinion, a valid question. If men's reproductive health isn't denied to men at any medical institution, why are so many reproductive health services denied to women?

You can appeal, but that doesn't guarantee that your appeal will be granted. There isn't a place in every town where you can get a free pap smear or mammogram, by the way. Pap smears out of pocket can cost at least $60. That's just the cost of the test, not the appointment. I don't really know why Kevin asked Mike if he'd rather let people die, maybe a deleted comment in there somewhere, but more women will die trying to self-abort or by not having access to a place that provides pap smears, mammograms, contraceptives, and STI testing if all 34 Planned Parenthoods in Texas get shut down.

Correct, you have no say in anyone's right to pursue an abortion. Actually, there is more than one good reason for Planned Parenthood to exist! Service-wise, they provide family planning counseling, pregnancy counseling, educational materials for public schools, STI testing, contraceptive information and insertions, and more. The services they provide literally do cover the poorest of the poor. Planned Parenthoods are up-front about costs of services and help you find ways to finance your use of their services. Why is it a bad thing to have services covered both by Planned Parenthood and other institutions? 

There is such a thing as having a sexist attitude when talking about getting rid of a medical institution that is almost exclusively used by women. Planned Parenthood is an affordable, federal-government-funded organization that provides screenings and other services. Who else are you referring to? And to what extent are the cancer screenings like pap smears "affordable"? Affordable as in a woman working a minimum wage job can afford to take a half-day off work to go to the doctor?

Insurance like Medicaid is not the person that performs those services, though. Doctors perform medical services. There aren't a lot of options for people with low incomes when it comes to finding health care providers that won't nickel-and-dime them.

You lose 34 health centers by losing Planned Parenthood. That's a lot. What is gained by keeping a federal entity when its services can also be given by another entity is that there is less overcrowding at other hospitals and clinics, there is more space for doctors to practice in, more doctors offices closer to the places that people live and work, and more time slots available for appointments.

16% of Texas residents are uninsured.

Texas has the second largest population in the US. California has the largest population, but only 8% of California's population is uninsured.

She doesn't know English? That's a rude assumption to make.

Ultimately, I don't think there was a winner in the comments. If you look at comments on the Facebook posting for the article, many people recognize that taking away Planned Parenthood in Texas does no good for women's health. Kevin is among those who do not have much experience with needing but not having physical or financial access to reproductive health services, or having to jump through hoops to receive access to these services, and his comments show as much.

Many people get turned off by flagrant language and anger when talking about any social justice issues. That being said, it's hard to be a social justice supporter without a certain level of anger. The anger isn't unjustified.


My comment was more or less that there are 34 Planned Parenthoods in Texas, and only 5 of them actually perform abortions. Medicaid in Texas does not pay for abortions anyway. If the state government of Texas takes away patients' ability to pay for their health care services at Planned Parenthood with Medicaid, and only 5 out of 34 of the Planned Parenthoods provide abortions (and 9 do abortion referrals), then what the state is really doing is limiting women's access to reproductive health care, not just abortion. They are limiting women's ability to choose where they can get general and reproductive health care, and limiting their financial and physical access to it.

What I Want For Christmas

I would like the following material gifts for Christmas:

A copy of the French edition of the graphic novel Persepolis, by Marjane Sajtrapi
A copy of the book The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood
A Kitchen Aid stand mixer (lol)
A slow-cooker cookbook
A cooking/baking with alcohol cookbook
Empty (or full) round Camembert cheese boxes--camembert cheese specifically
A professional DSLR or Camcorder (lol)
Money, of course. Gotta pay that rent.


I would like the following non-material gifts for Christmas:

Legislation in favor of human rights
People to stop watching pornography because it perpetuates male-pattern violence and men's degradation of women
Insurance companies to not scam the heck out of consumers seeking affordable healthcare
Sleep
Time

Empathy, Kindness, and Listening

Let me preface this by saying that this is a long post. Thanks in advance for reading.

Last spring was personally and academically overwhelming, and this semester hasn't been easy either, but I was and continue to be grateful to all the generous people who have offered up their time, services, and understanding to make my life a little easier. Feeling drained and exhausted all the time reminded me that other people around me might feel that way too. I wondered if they needed someone to talk to- not someone to complain to, just someone who would listen without judging them for their personal flaws, ignorance, lack of social life, etc., and someone who wouldn't point out the obvious as a "solution." (*See example at the bottom of the post.)

I don't think I have been actively listening to the people around me as much as I should have in the past week or two, and I want to make a more conscious effort to be available to my friends, coworkers, and community members as someone who is here to listen and to help. Even if we're not close, I will never be too busy to make time for you. I will never be too busy to give you a hand with whatever you may need. I am willing to do your laundry, vacuum, run errands for you, make you food, drive you to and from school, edit a video or at least take a look at it, talk about relationships, stay up late with you, do all the things I wished I had asked other people to do to help me with, the everyday things I didn't feel like I had enough time or energy to accomplish.

It's really important to me to make time for other people, as there have been so many times where others have decided that they cannot make time for me. Although I may never have had to struggle with what you're struggling with, I know exactly what it's like to feel like no one understands you're going through.

Sometimes it's hard to tell people about your struggles.

• It's hard because you don't want people to know that you are struggling in the first place, because you want other people to see you as happy and successful and pulled-together. And you want to be someone they can rely on.

• It's hard because you are afraid that people won't understand your problems. And they'll just say, "yeah, that sucks" about something that has been eating away at your soul.

• It's hard because you are afraid that they won't care. We all have problems, right? Deal with it. I have problems, but I'm not complaining about them. Actually, let me tell you about my problems instead of listening to yours...

• It's hard because you are afraid that people will judge you for your problems. (Example: me being afraid of getting judged for not knowing that I needed to know something that to others is intuitive.)

• It's hard because you are afraid that the people you open up to will give you "advice" instead of actually helping you, even if they mean well. You fear that their suggestions will make you sad because you feel like it's impossible to follow right now. 

• It's hard because you think they will care, and get really scared for you (and freak out) when all you really want from them is calm, compassion and assistance.

• It's hard because you are afraid that they will care but they won't know what to do to help you.

• It's hard because they might tell you something like "I'm sorry to hear that. Things will get better for you soon." But that doesn't make right now any less terrible.

• It's hard because what you're dealing with might be caused by something that is out of your personal control, and it feels like maybe there really is nothing you or anyone else can do to make it better. At least not in this very moment.

• It's hard because you're afraid to ask people to do things for you that normally you'd be able to do yourself.  It's hard because you're afraid that they'll be too busy to help you out when you actually can't do something all by yourself. (In my experience, sometimes friends are too busy or unavailable when you can't do something all by yourself and need help. But they are usually very willing to help out.) 

People like my closest friends, like the UNC Sport Club officers, like Jan Yopp (Dean of UNC's Summer School) who helped me carry a lighting kit halfway across campus on October 6th, like my professors, my Student Television, Campus Rec, and Marathon team members who care about helping one another thrive and grow... I strive to be as generous and as understanding as they are. I feel relieved now, maybe even relaxed, because all the hardest things in my semester are done, but I couldn't have made it through without the people who listened and helped me out.  Even the smallest gestures of kindness, compassion, generosity, and empathy go a long way.

Bluegrass Throwback

Tonight I had the pleasure of listening to Back Porch Music, the NPR program that plays on 91.5 WUNC on Saturday nights, on my drive to Durham (I drove to Durham this evening). And there were so many throwbacks.

It all started with the Chicken Man
When my brother and I were younger, our parents dragged us to bluegrass concerts all the time. (Can't say that I really enjoyed said concerts when I was six except for being able to dance in the front by the performers.) My parents have a CD from The Band, a soft rock/bluegrass band, that Fouad and I used to listen to all the time. One of our favorite songs on the CD was "Atlantic City." As five and six year olds, Fouad and I thought the Chicken Man was hilarious! I remember laughing at the idea of a Chicken Man, as in a man in a chicken suit.

"Atlantic City" was originally written and performed by, as the internet has recently informed me,  Bruce Springsteen. Here are the lyrics we thought were so funny when we were five and six years old:

Well they blew up the chicken man
In Philly last night
Now they blew up his house too

So, in the car tonight, I was blown away when I heard the words "chicken man" on Back Porch Music. I recognized the tune immediately and sang along with the chorus, which I still remembered:

Everything dies, baby that's a fact
Maybe everything that dies someday it comes back
Put your makeup on, fix your hair real pretty
And meet me tonight in Atlantic City

Here's a link to the original song if you'd like to hear it: https://youtu.be/9p4VuHTLjg0
Personally, I like The Band's cover of it better, on the Jericho 1993 album: https://youtu.be/I0eZwpHtcK4

Unidentifiable throwback
On the program tonight, Back Porch Music played a song from Chatham County Line (NC local band!) that I think I've heard before, although I can't say from where.
Just looked it up: it's the song "You Are My Light" from their latest album, Autumn. That's probably why I've heard it. Worth a listen.

Throwback to Spencer Hall, Fall 2015
Last fall, when I lived in a residence hall on campus, my RA Emmy had a hall de-stress event were we got together and made collages. My friends and I stuck various bits of postcards, magazines, and calendars onto colored construction paper. One of the very amusing postcards that I happened to glue onto my pink construction paper was from this group called the Squirrel Nut Zippers. Haha. Nut. Zippers. Squirrel. I'm so mature.

Well, I kept this collage on my door all year and one day my good friend Tirthna bursts into my room with a CD. The album is called Perennial Favorites, by none other than the Squirrel Nut Zippers! It turns out that the Squirrel Nut Zippers is also a local swing band that has been around since the 1980s (although Wikipedia says they formed in 1993). Their songs are super catchy. I listen to the CD on repeat in the car when I don't have NPR on.
Listen to "Hell" here: http://www.mtv.com/videos/squirrel-nut-zippers/10096/hell.jhtml
Listen to "Ghost of Stephen Foster" here: https://youtu.be/KJzWGkgFcTU

Tonight, the radio announcer casually mentioned that the Squirrel Nut Zippers are going to be in concert this Friday at the Carolina Theater in Durham, and I was like "Wow! I know them! We should go!" And by "we" I at first I had someone in mind but then realized that they probably wouldn't want to go.

Anyway, bluegrass tonight brought me back to last year and to way way back; thanks to Back Porch Music for making my drive to Durham a blast from the past.

School is a lot right now and I'm tired

Whenever people ask me what year of college I'm in and hear that I'm a senior, they ask me, "Are you sad this is your last year?"

My response to that question is always this: I'm ready to graduate. I've been mentally ready to graduate since sophomore year.

College is great, don't get me wrong. It has been a heck of a ride. I've been extremely lucky to study at UNC for this long. Being surrounded by my creative and thoughtful peers is wonderful. However, the uber-competitive, workaholic college environment is a toxic environment for my mental health, and everything I've just said is an attempt to sugar-coat that truth. Last year was mental hell and this year, although I'm better off right now, is not a walk in the park.

Going into my senior year at the university, I don't care about school anymore. I don't even think about school anymore: I think about what comes next. I think about what I want to do with my life once formal education is no longer what defines my day-to-day activities. Right now I pay $4000+ per semester to work my butt off for a bachelor's degree that these days isn't worth as much as job experience. If worst comes to worst, I am qualified to work as a cook in Antarctica (it's a real job, look it up).

Admittedly, I like most of my classes at the university. All of them are project-based, so I get to apply my knowledge in a dynamic and meaningful way. Unfortunately I have five different class projects all going on at the same time, plus I have two part-time jobs on top of that, which pay the rent and my student loan debt. Sometimes I like to exercise and have a social life too. I am excited about at least half of my projects, and I like my jobs, but with everything combined, it's a lot. It's only mid-September and I'm already tired.

What's really bringing me down, what I'm really writing this blog post for, are two things. I am about to type cryptically for confidentiality's sake, but bear with the metaphor.

First, this past week I burned a bridge with someone I respect, and that's business that I feel terrible about. I know it's something I can't fix because I made a promise and broke it, and I cannot expect that person to have any trust in me after breaking a promise. We're done, and it sucks.

Second, this afternoon I got a message from someone that threatened the foundation of everything I've tried to build so far this year. Someone else I respect and look to for advice just drenched the bridge between us and the surrounding riverbank in kerosene and is about to light a match. I have to fight to keep this bridge from catching fire because I refuse to let the arsonist break their promise to me. It's not fair to me and everything I've worked for--there's too much at stake this time. They can't just give up on me, not like this, not without me fighting back. I can't believe, after all this, that they'd do that to me. I can't afford to start back at square one, not now.

It's days like today, weeks like this week, that I consider dropping out of school. Learning in a dynamic and meaningful way is fun, and a lot of my college experience has been like that, but it's not reasonable to expect me to cope with so many things all at the same time.

I'm not giving up yet. But it's crossed my mind.

First Day of Class, Senior Year: Reflections

Coming up on senior year, my mom insisted on giving me a can of mace to carry around. "I don't want you to end up like Eve Carson." Eve Carson, for whom there is a memorial 5K at UNC each year, was a top-performing student who was killed when getting money from an ATM at two o'clock in the morning. I assured her that I would never stay out too late for stuff like that, that I'd try to be safe and smart.
Monday, after seeing a group of people at the bus stop near my apartment viciously fighting, I wished that the mace my mom had given me was on a keychain.
This semester, and this year in general, my personal goals are to be healthy and happy in mind and body. It is going to be a challenge but I will do my best.
The first day of classes got off to a rough start with a not-so-productive meeting with a professor. I left the meeting feeling panicked and anxious. I had a hard time getting it off my mind, even during my first class, a class which many of my friends in my major are also taking. (Hi friends!) "It's too early in the semester to feel this way," I thought to myself.
I ate lunch by myself while sending emails (I hate emails) and networking when I ran into one of my friends from class, randomly. We talked a little bit. Then, I got the best message ever: a chance for UNC Student Television to collaborate with DSI Comedy!!!! I have to say that I really love STV alumni. They are legitimately the best people ever. They care so much and I am incredibly appreciative of their support.
That offer made my day a lot better. Thank you.
Second class of the day: it's another friend party! Wow someone got really tan over the summer. Hey you were in my last class- you're in my class tomorrow too? Haha what a coincidence!
After class, one of my friends and classmates asked me if I wanted to go get coffee with her. It was really cool to catch up, seeing as we hadn't had a class together since last fall. There aren't many good coffee shops really and Starbucks was crowded so we wound up at Old Chicago for Irish Coffee at 3:30 in the afternoon and talked about our lives for over an hour. It was great to hear from her, and then to vent about my day and what things I wanted to do with my life.
I sold some textbooks, bought a bike light, and helped to make some very basic STV videos.
That's my day without a lot of the details and emotional descriptors.

LA VIE pt. 3: La fin

Since the internet is very compatible with lists, here are some lists:

All the "famous" people I saw/stared at/was in the presence of this summer in Los Angeles because I paid to see them or didn't:

• William Haynes, Sourcefed host and comedian (Salad Farm in Woodland Hills) (again, sorry for staring when you casually walked in and out of Salad Farm while my intern friends and I were having lunch there, I just recognized you and was super awkward in public)
• Josh Waldron, that comedian guy with the hair who appeared on America's Got Talent or something and actually made me laugh (The Comedy Store, The Improv) (sorry for staring, I just recognized you, and it was exciting, and your hair is cool)
• Taylor Williamson, that other guy who was the runner up on America's Got Talent (The Comedy Store)
• Neil Casey, comedy writer on Adult Swim and also the villain of Ghostbusters (2016) (UCB) (Thank you for validating my opinion that Ghostbusters was better than Star Trek Beyond)
• Bobcat Goldthwait, comedian, panelist on NPR's Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!, and two-time Sundance winner, went to high school with Tom Kenny and a guy named Sparky (The Improv) (thanks for buying me a drink) (let's be real, it was your basement-dwelling friend and comedian Caitlyn Gill who paid for the drink but you were in on it! And then you said hi as I left awkwardly, it was great)
• Greg Proops, comedian (The Improv) (I wasn't that impressed actually)
• Katie Willet, comedian (The Improv) (funny)
• Bernie Sanders (Santa Monica pier) (he looked just like he does on TV)
• George Takei (Hollywood Bowl) (way too far away to be able to see him clearly but he was there)
• Garrison Keillor (Hollywood Bowl) (I was sitting so, so far away, but #allthefeels)
• Seth Morris (UCB) (funny)
• Owen Burke (UCB) (funny)
• Rob Huebel (UCB) (funny)
• D'Arcy Carden (UCB) (ok, kind of quiet)
• Nick Kroll (UCB) (funny)
• Charlie Sanders (UCB) (funny)

The takeaway from this is that almost all the famous people I saw in were comedians and/or old(er) men.


Other things I've learned while in LA:

• I have been really fortunate in having great bosses who care about their jobs and about everyone working for them, with very few exceptions. The boss of my internship was awesome. I learned so much. This whole bullet point is an understatement. I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity to come out to LA this summer for an internship. #BlueFoxForLife #LiterallyTheBESTBarbequeSauceEver #Foxstarz #RoCP
• I'm blessed to have had close friends from UNC and new friends to hang out with in SoCal.
• Good relationships go a long way. #communication #respect
• #DoYourResearch
• #StayOnTopOfTrends (because your job in entertainment depends on it)
• IMDb is actually a terrible interface. IMDb Pro is so much better. 
• I used to tell people who asked me what I was going to do with my French and Communications majors that I might try to get a job in international film distribution after I graduated from college. I told people that because it seemed like a pretty good way to combine my majors, and maybe they would stop asking. I had no idea what went into film sales and distribution before diving into my internship this summer. Now I do. It's nothing like what I imagined. Film distribution is so complex.
• I went to a lot of comedy shows by myself and it was fine. 
• West Hollywood has the best nightlife. #WishIHadMadeItToTheAbbey
• California catches fire a lot.
• California has great hiking trails.
• I should have reapplied that sunscreen. 
• Theme parks, 360 degree 3D experiences, virtual/augmented reality, drones, 3D printing, light displays, and new technology are super cool and we should be learning about them.