[what I would call] poverty of spirit
my support of abortion (saying I should take it to other named groups)
[what I perceive as] poverty of lifeways
Addressing the first and third:
I think this culture is very deeply impoverished both
emotionally and "spiritually" (in my circles I'm beginning to think
either the word is overused or things are far worse than I thought).
This culture, as brunner alludes to, places far more value on things
than on people and personal emotional connections between individuals.
(I, personally, think that if you have a choice to not subject your
children to the restricting influence of your neighbours then you should
take the children and move somewhere where they will be free to move
around like children, not little adults.) You seem to be blaming your
neighbours for something you have some responsibility in creating, too.
This society seems to be very 'contractive', rather than
expansive (despite its imperialism); very exclusivist, not inclusive.
This means things like, if you have a child out of wedlock, you're penal-
ized and the health and welfare of the child (not its *soul*, it's very
life) are made endangered. This society is very anti-life, in its
restrictiveness and standardization. (There are some things that simply
should not be standardized, like people.) There is a bizarre thread of
illogic in this society which runs, roughly, "if you need something from
[others, agencies, etc.] you are bad, sinful, for needing"; and you will
be penalized for that need, even while you get the services. Often they
are delivered meagerly, grudgingly, and very impersonally. Since
there is, in my estimation, no longer any family, nor community (its
extension), then the slack must be taken up by the impersonal State, to
which we are reduced to mere lifeless numbers. If you are a minority
or a woman or child, you're the last priority.
In contrast, in most Native groups I know anything about, if you
need, you are given or given an opportunity to join in with others in
helping the whole community survive with whatever skills or talents you
have to offer. It is simply done, there's no penalty exacted for need.
Abortion:
I continue to support abortion, no matter what you (brunner) may
think of abortion, and I don't actually actually care what you (brunner)
or anyone else thinks of supporting abortion. If abortion were not
legal, many more women in this country alone would die from botched and
homemade abortions (because if they seriously want to kill the child
they're carrying, they will do no matter the risk to themselves), and
many more children will starve or be injured through abuse, or killed.
Women are women, no matter what skin they wear, and subject to the same
physiological, and many of the same social, realites.
I also feel that it is my right as a mother not to have so many
children I cannot properly care for them, for example: we don't currently
have the space for a second child, much as I want another. We have
decided to wait until we have a house of our own where we can provide
enough space for all of us in our family to live in calmly. If I became
pregnant now, with no place for an infant to live in and no prospect on
the horizon soon enough, I might have to abort. I could not properly
care for them both, so we prevent another conception. Should that fail,
abortion for me might be the only possible real solution if it comes to
that, since we use contraception.
I'm lucky. In this country I still have that choice, and I
intend to make sure my daughter does, too. Choice does not mean an
imperative to follow the choice, it simply means something is available,
if it should become necessary to choose.
-babs