1 post tagged “my body! mine!”

Well, not today; today has barely started and I expect to be spending 10 1/2 hours of it at work, so there's a chunk of time lost already.

But yesterday, yesterday I not only renewed my membership in the ACLU, I also made a contribution to NARAL Pro-Choice America.

"Okay, whatever," you're saying, "but why is this entry tagged 'wwo' then?"
Let's say we do have a catastrophic oil crisis on April 30th. What does this mean to me, as a woman, aside from the fact that I'll have to start biking/walking/riding everywhere (and you'd better hope I don't have to bike, I'm hopeless on a bike) and making my own food and dealing with no AC just as the summer will be kicking into gear? It means that if violence breaks out I'm more vulnerable than a man, cricket bat and swordfighting experience notwithstanding. It means that if anything happens I am basically SOL, 'cause what self-respecting policeman is going to be as concerned with a girl who got raped as with the murder and looting that's going on somewhere else in town? She's not dead, and was probably asking for it.

Granted, I'm probably being unnecessarily pessimistic and grim, but I can't help but worry about stuff like this when right now in our current oil-flush situation my reproductive rights are already being eaten away at by the radical right. I am extremely uncomfortable with the fact that five Catholic old men (by the way, that makes me uncomfortable all on its own, the fact that 5 Catholic old men are all sitting on the Supreme Court deciding what's right and what's wrong) have just decided that they have the right to limit my ability to decide with my doctor's input what medical procedure would be safest and most appropriate should I ever (and here's hoping I won't ever) need a late-term abortion.

I have a hard time believing that should we suddenly be faced with an energy crisis that women's rights in this country will take a turn for the better. Call me crazy.

Anyway, to make this post at least a little more relevant to its tags, I've been thinking about what I do that relies most on oil, and I think it pretty much boils down to electricity and driving. Electricity because I do spend most of my life on the computer these days, plain and simple. I'd be lost for some time without my computer and the Internet. As for driving, well, I have a 15 minute commute to work every day, at an hour in the morning when I'm not sure the limited public transit system my area has is even running. And walking or biking is not an option simply because it would take too long to walk and I am (as I said earlier) hopeless on a bicycle.

I've actually entertained the idea of hooking up (or trying to, most of them are married) with one of my coworkers who lives closer to be able to spend nights during the work week somewhere close by so walking would be a feasible option for my commute. I guess hooking up is not the only option, I could throw myself on the mercy of some of my married coworkers. I'm handy, I can cook or garden or fix things to earn my keep.

Though, come to think of it, since I'm not on birth control and getting a hold of any would be more difficult than usual in an oil crisis, maybe hooking up would be a bad idea. Hah.