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By Anna • 12 years ago

A reminder

It’s easy – in this day and age where individual citizens are told day after day that their rights can be ignored, their voices will not be heard, their demands will not be met – to believe that we, the people, have no power. My faith in the goodness of our world often falters when faced with the devastation of war, famine, disease, slavery. Sometimes I need a reminder that there are forces in our world more powerful than hate or politics or greed.

Over the past few weeks, Chile has been embroiled in students protests throughout Santiago, the country’s capital. The students are demanding a great amount of education reform, including a “call for more government funding and a fundamental change in a system set up under the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet that largely left public schools at the mercy of underfunded municipalities.” (Source: The Associated Press)

These protests, however, do not resemble those peaceful marches many of us  have seen or participated in before; they are not sanctioned by the government. The result is that the protesters are met with hundreds of carabineros (police) dressed in riot gear, and armed with tear gas and water cannons.

Normally, I would read about something like this on the news. Right now, I’m living it. Today, protesters mounted two large demonstrations – the first early this morning, the ...
By Anna • 12 years ago

A reminder

It’s easy – in this day and age where individual citizens are told day after day that their rights can be ignored, their voices will not be heard, their demands will not be met – to believe that we, the people, have no power. My faith in the goodness of our world often falters when faced with the devastation of war, famine, disease, slavery. Sometimes I need a reminder that there are forces in our world more powerful than hate or politics or greed.

Over the past few weeks, Chile has been embroiled in students protests throughout Santiago, the country’s capital. The students are demanding a great amount of education reform, including a ...

It’s easy – in this day and age where individual citizens are told day after day that their rights can be ignored, their voices will not be heard, their demands will not be met – ...
By Anna • 13 years ago

Diversity in the pro-choice movement

This summer, the only organization with which I had time to volunteer was Planned Parenthood. Despite the fact I couldn’t commit nearly as much time as I wished, every second was worth it; every time I went to the PR headquarters, I left feeling invigorated and inspired. Mostly, those feelings resulted from the people who gave their time, and coordinators who made it easy for volunteers to feel like we contributed to something larger.

My first volunteer event was phone banking. Anyone who has done phone banking – as a job, for a politician, or to raise money – knows it can be extraordinarily nerve wracking. Despite the fact that we don’t know ...

This summer, the only organization with which I had time to volunteer was Planned Parenthood. Despite the fact I couldn’t commit nearly as much time as I wished, every second was worth it; every time ...
By Anna • 13 years ago

Revolt!

Nearly all my life, I’ve felt like I’m competing with the women and girls around me. You’d think that, at least when I was in Kindergarten, I would have been able to see the other girls in the same way I saw the boys: as playmates, friends, naptime buddies. But even then, I viewed girls as my competition. We competed for the best dress-up outfits, our roles in the game of “house,” the boys we wanted to be friends with. We were never allies.

It continued into grade school. I was jealous and wary of the girls who had boyfriends at such a young age. I gossiped, all the while knowing that others were doing the ...

Nearly all my life, I’ve felt like I’m competing with the women and girls around me. You’d think that, at least when I was in Kindergarten, I would have been able to see the other girls ...