Pro Life, or Pro Woman? What defines Pro Life?

Dear Readers,

I went to a conservative private school, and there I had to learn that “marriage is pro life.” Is it really? Some women really aren’t able to deal with pregnancy, and a hysterectomy would not work for some women because they don’t believe in throwing out the uterus. Unfortunately, some women who aren’t able to carry are raped, but pro life movements state that abortion is wrong, murder, and denying the fertilized egg of life.

Well, I have a news flash for the pro lifers out there. A fertilized egg that later gets very sick and has to die will die, and sometimes must be removed from the woman’s womb, so this happens a lot. Women who miscarry are often shamed, but miscarriage happens too much. It is not the woman’s fault if she miscarries, and it is not her fault for carrying a rapist’s child either. However, I would personally never spread the seed of sadistic men like my ex (initials JDO) or even the seed of men like Ted Bundy, who was executed for murdering multiple victims. If the child’s father was a slave trafficker, I would personally have that slave trafficker prosecuted if I had that power, and as for the baby? Well, if it is a boy, I would either have two options: carry the boy to term and adopt him out only to find out he inherited the sadism of his father, or abort the pregnancy because at that point, I would be considered a victim of slave trafficking. And I should have every right to make sure the world is safe from guys like Johnny D., whose character is portrayed in Law and Order Special Victims Unit later seasons.

It started with Ariel, a young girl who went missing, and her mother Martha, undercover as a madame who went looking for her daughter. It was discovered that Ariel was under the tutelage of Timmer, a pimp who was then arrested in the episode for pimping teenage girls, and then we find Johnny D., who was abusing girls like Ariel and others who would not cooperate and have sex with their customers. One such girl, Ellie, would later become pregnant with Johnny’s son, who was adopted by Olivia Benson, one of the detectives who was on the squadron. Benson would tell the story of Noah’s mom to Noah when he was just a tiny baby in her foster care. Even more, Benson will probably get a good cop out of that little boy, I wonder when Noah Benson will become a cop, but it is known that Johnny D. was Noah’s biological father, and a sadistic slave driver who frequently abused young girls. Johnny Drake, as is later revealed to be his name, should never have been allowed to have children, but he did because of his work. Sadistic men who commit sex crimes, crimes that sometimes go unprosecuted because the victims are either dead or disabled, they should never be allowed to father children. Fathers take a great deal of time with their children, so mothers should not be forced to carry the seed of sadistic killers, rapists, or racists either. I honestly would choose not to carry my ex’s baby because if I knew he’d go on to abuse other victims, even go as far as hitting one and sending her to the hospital, then lying and saying that because of his blindness, he is incapable of abusing, well, he is. If I knew what he was potentially capable of, whether it be devinace in sexual behaviors or deviance in other ways, I would have never dated him at all.

To the people responsible for the bad commentary on this blog, you have been blacklisted so that your comments will not appear, and even if they did, and even if my blacklisting didn’t work so well, I can still look up the IP address and email and have it blacklisted. I can’t condone men who commit crimes against humanity, or men who commit crimes against the women I stand up for, blind women whose testimony would not be believed because courtrooms want proof of sex and other things. My ex did the things he did because his victim was pregnant, and the baby miscarried. It died in the womb and never got a chance to proove the world wrong that sadism spreads sadism. Evangelical churches should never condone sex crimes of their ministers, and if you are pro life, you should understand that most women would not want to carry the seed of their rapist because it doesn’t make sense for that baby who looks like JDO to go on to become JDO Junior. I would be honored to carry my significant other’s child because he is a responsible man and will make a good father for said child. However, men who talk racist doctrine, hit girls for fun, and use disability to put up a veil of secrecy around abuse, those men should be punished and not allowed to have children, period. And if he impregnates someone, she should choose depending on the gender and likelihood of the baby’s potential to commit crimes whether she wants to adopt the child out or keep the child safe and away from his/her father. News flash for those who think I defamed JDO’s character, talk to the schoolmates who came to me with plenty of evidence to support my claims. Talk to the many girls he has hurt, is hurting now, or will soon hurt. Think about the grooming for abuse, the misuse of money, and the procurement of more victims through the Internet. Please do not comment over this post if you can’t say what’s true, and anybody, even blind men, are capable of abuse. Not paying child support is just the tip of the iceberg. Blind men and sighted men alike can impregnate women of all kinds, and I’m lucky I found the good one. However, I will not be told that I am defaming character of someone who truly is an abuser, is a known abuser, and is not going to stop abusing till he’s caught. Hiding behind disability doesn’t work.

Credits go to all the friends who support all the pro life movements, but bear in mind that antisocial behavior could spread to offspring if not carefully monitored and nurtured out of the child.

Breakthrough

Dear Readers,

I want to see how many of you can come forward to share your stories of bullying and harassment on the Internet truthfully. After four trolling comments and a major threat to the blog’s safety and security, I want to know how many of you have been harassed by someone online, bullied, or pirated for content. Please write in the comments, and unless you’re blacklisted, you may get a reply back. This is a project that I’m undertaking about bullying online on the Internet, how it affects people and its aftermath.

What Cults Are

Dear Readers,

Imagine you go to a religious establishment such as a church or mosque or temple. What do you feel when you go to said church or other establishment? If you are a Jehovah Witness, what do you feel when you go to the Kingdom Hall, for instance? Is it spiritual oneness? You can answer in the comments, and don’t be ashamed of it. But let me tell you about an interesting book I found while browsing Bard, and it is about a famous cultlike church that existed in the ’70s. You guys might not know this, but churches sometimes go bad, not knowing what they do to their followers. I have had no problems with JW members, Catholics, or Muslims or Jews. However, this book gives you an inside look at the most damaging cult in recent history. It carried the biggest casualties, even more than Waco, Texas did, at like 900 followers dead. It was so damaging that the survivors opened up in interviews to the author of this book whose name I’ve forgotten for some reason.

The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and People’s Temple was written in 2017, decades after the Jonestown suicide massacre in Guyana. Does anyone remember when that occurred? Well, this book should jog your memory.

Joe Wilson narrates this book for the NLS talking book program, but it is probably available for Kindle, paperback print, and other formats if you desire.

The book begins with a telltale sign that Jim Jones’s mom, Lynette or Lunetta, wrote in the Jonestown logs that she had raised the greatest man alive. Jones was, however, not really the greatest man alive. This book tells you why. It begins with Jones in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he began what became known as the People’s Temple. Later, the book covers how Jones manipulated and fenagled his followers through good works and strict rules and rigid boundaries into a rather deadly situation. This book to me is an invaluable guide to understanding how a popular cult can be damaging and how one man can use psychological manipulation to cause such atrocities, spare Hitler. Hitler, of course, ran Germany like his own personal playground, and the worst thing was the casualties he brought. 6 million plus men, women, and children were systematically wiped out of existence because of Nazism, including disabled people, who were euthanized. But that’s a story for another day.

Jones’s casualty count being less, much much less, he still held damaging control over 1000 plus people who settled a farm in Guyana. After he was ready, Jones committed a final act of horrible abuse and murdered a Congressman at that.

So how do cults work? This book doesn’t exactly go into other cults, but it does give an idea of how Jones recruited his followers. Jones recruited a lot of disenfranchised individuals, poor, black, white and poor, anything you could name that existed in the ghettos of cities like Indianapolis or Los Angeles. Both cities had black populations that were disenfranchised, but they flocked to Jones because he was charismatic. Cults generally have a charismatic leader, someone who claims special powers, can raise the dead, heal, etc. I’ve never been a fan of faith healings or have ever thought that any but God would raise people from the dead. And then, I was taught that only Jesus rose from the dead, but even that is questionable because none of the material holding Jesus is here, and all we have is a book penned by followers to go by. So to hear a charismatic leader like Jones talk about healing cancer and raising the dead would have turned me off.

The next clue that Jones’s church is a cult is the rigid boundaries. Think of a group of people that follow strict rules, dressing modestly if you’re a female, giving your body to said charismatic leader etc. That’s what Jones’s women did. They were frequently approached for sexual dalliances outside his proper marriage with his wife Marceline, and worse, younger followers were beaten with a board or a hose. Jones frequently humiliated his followers who disrespected him and eight people defected because they saw bad stuff going on in temple. The defections are a clue that others should have taken that Jones was dangerous and could manipulate people through supposed good works.

Isolation is the number one symptom of a damaging cult. Frequently, cults will keep you working day and night to serve them, and then they will estrange you from family and friends. Jones had whole families in the cult, and some kids got sucked in while their parents watched. It’s awful to watch as your loved one is isolated from you in such a horrible way, but Jones knew how to do this well.

Cults frequently steal finances from people. Sometimes they steal your entire workday, making it impossible to talk to friends, socialize, or even see films you want. Jones forbade those activities because he feared his followers would be led astray.

If you or your loved one is in a damaging cult, here’s some steps provided by an article I read about a young woman who got sucked in.

Carrie was sucked into a micro control group, but when police came to investigate the group she was in, she weighed less than 90 pounds. She had scars, both physical and mental, because she’d been controlled. Carrie ended up in a transitional living facility for former cult victims, and her article appeared in Seventeen’s early 2000s issues. She spoke of having to discipline her former group, and having to abuse herself as well. She met a charismatic leader in church at college, and got sucked in when he presented her with a sizable mission, to pray for the Parsi people to convert to Christianity. YEah, sounded like a good mission, but in reality, she was withdrawn from her friends and family, abused, and beaten nearly half to death. She was taken to the hospital because someone found out what was going on, and so far as I’ve read, the police were contacted and the group was torn apart. And for good reason.

Carrie is probably well adjusted to life outside the cult by now, and there are other cults, big and small, like Carrie’s, like the Jim Jones group, etc. HEre’s another example.

Carolyn was born to the Blackmoore family, who had for generations been in a polygamist cult led by charismatic leaders. Carolyn was abused frequently by her mom when her father moved them to cult headquarters in Short Creek, the twin cities of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona. Colorado City had multiple families in the cult, and Carolyn wrote in two memoirs about how she survived, and the ultimate straw that broke the camel’s back for her was the way her husband treated her and her sister-wives. Carolyn later wrote in her later memoir, Triumph: Life After the Cult–a Survivor’s Lessons, that the raid in El Dorado, Texas revealed what Warren Jeffs had done to these people. Recently, way after the raid, Lyle Jeffs took over leadership of the cult, but he was charged with welfare fraud because of the tenet of “bleeding the beast.” There are good polygamist families, but this cult totally ruined everything for Utah food stamp recipients who really need it. This cult could have damaged folks like Carolyn, who is now in a relationship with a good man as far as I know, so she’s been out of the cult for a long time.

Take a lesson from the Jonestown massacre, read The Road to Jonestown, and other memoirs of cult survivors. However, the best medicine for cult survivors is good counseling and therapy, medications included if necessary. Carolyn Jessop remembers talking to counselors and having to shuffle her kids to appointments, but remember, the counselors may be swayed not to go against cult principles. Jessop’s story demonstrates that sometimes counseling is ineffective, but with her strength of character, she was able to get her kids through counseling and eventually won sole custody so that the half siblings and husband as well as sister wives could not mess with them. We are all vulnerable in some way to cults, so take these lessons seriously.

P.S. Due to the commentary I received in the past, I will carefully look at your comment and check for hatefulness, bigotry, and threats. I will not approve any comment that begs to be approved and contains vile language and is synonymous with stuff I’ve recently received. Please keep the comments relevant to the post, nothing else.

Beth

Rules for the Blog

Dear Readers,

Notice that a post has gone missing from the blog. Also, notice I removed a follower due to defamatory comments. I have rules for this blog, and one of those rules is do not defame my character for the benefit of a criminally negligent person, someone who abuses, or someone who is a troll. Well, without further adieu, here are my rules, and there are quite a few.

1. Always comment with respectful and stimulating work. Use proper grammar and spelling, and no cussing is allowed in comments except where contextually appropriate such as whether you quote someone or not. No more than three times can you do such things.
2. Do not defame character of the authors of this blog or in this case, the one author, because of something you feel is wrong. You may state opinions, but do not accuse the author of “hiding behind the delete button.” Any defamatory comments will be removed by the author.
3. There is no room for advocating for abuse. Any harassment and abuse allegations made by commentators will be removed.
4. Do not advocate gun or drug use.
5. Donald Trump support comments are not allowed. This is a highly divisive topic that has gotten me trolled four times, with a fifty time use of the F word in this blog, as well as attacks on African Americans and persons with disabilities. Therefore, to prevent this, no Trump support comments will be posted. I admit I’m a liberally leaning person, but there’s a reason for that.
6. Any defamatory comments against LGBTQ+ people are not allowed, see rule 2.
7. If you are a known associate or assistant to a criminal organization, you will be removed from following or commenting this blog.
8. The Denver Queen does not praise or condone terrorist groups. This blog is not dedicated to allowing violence, and where descriptions of triggers are present, a trigger warning may be posted.
9. No nude pictures will be posted. ANy inappropriate pics of me that anyone finds will have to be removed.
10. No males who follow this blog are allowed access to me naked, or in any case a provocative fixture. All males who follow this blog will refrain from sexual harassment and use of sexual jokes and slurs, if any are found they will be removed.
    1. The purpose of this blog is to bring about social justice issues and show them off. Anyone who opposes the rights and privileges of persons with disabilities or any other minority group, including LGBTQ+ persons, will have to be closely monitored, and if any defamatory comment is written, it will be removed.

Thank you all for reading these rules carefully, and if anyone is caught not following the new set of rules I just wrote, you’ve been warned. I will not add any further to this post. I will also not take it down, so if you want to make harassing or defamatory comments, please leave this blog alone and write something in your private notepad.

Beth

Girls Rule but Guys Should Be There, Too.

Dear Girls, and yes, boys too,

In honor of International Day of the Girl this month, I’d like to highlight some of the problems, the successes, and the solutions found in the book Girl Rising, a book I read by a well known author in the modern age, Tanya Stone. Ms. Stone wrote this book to accompany a film called Girl Rising, and she highlights girls who overcame obstacles such as poverty, child marriage, threats of forcible abduction, sexual harassment, etc. They went to school and learned what they should about their P’s and Q’s, how to play with numbers, and all that science and stuff. I personally took education for granted till I heard stuff about the Taliban, listed as a terrorist organization, and AlShabbab, another terrorist organization in Somalia. Let me just explain in a sentence what these guys stand for: men do the work, fight, breed, etc., and girls stay at home, breed, cook, pop out babies, whatever you want to use to word it best. The Taliban nearly killed an activist, but they are not in charge of the government in Afghanistan anymore. However, AlShabbab stole my ex-boyfriend’s hometown, Kismayo, a coastal location in Somalia, along with pretty much all of South Somalia. Sadly, girls are threatened by both of these groups still, and AlShabbab has been known to hang girls for being victims of rape.

How can we change this problem into a solution? It’s not just the terrorists who need to be thrown out of line with the planet. It’s not only this, but government corruption in Africa and Asia are the biggest problems. First, governments should understand what their roles are. What is education? Education is a necessary thing that we should all have in order to change the world, girls included. But let’s add a little edge to this education ambition: blind and physically handicapped girls.

Yes, child marriage and sex slavery may affect these girls at a disproportionate rate. India is known for not letting a blind or physically incapacitated girl go to school. Mariyam Cementwala, a blind woman who was born in India, says that we should educate the people of these countries, notably India, about the capabilities of blind people if given the proper tools. She’s like most blind folks in America, and thanks to her efforts, she’s not unnoticed, but she and others like her can have meaningful jobs and careers like the boys in any village could. Cementwala has been stopped and patronized repeatedly in the streets because of her cane. LEt’s just say it’s a teachable moment.

I get pretty upset when med drivers (medical transport people hired by Medicaid to drive disabled people to doctor appointments) try to grab my cane like it’s the steering wheel of a car. Most of these drivers come from foreign nations where girls who are blind do not have proper tools for walking freely around. I have to tell them that this cane is not to be touched while in motion, especially while I’m trying to explore the area. With the limited language skills of these guys, however, I find myself yelling impatiently sometimes because they have to stop groping my arm, grabbing parts of my body, etc. Gentle holds are fine, but I’m more comfortable with holding someone’s hand if there’s no safety rail, or handrail for instance. The bad thing about these guys is that their lack of education in English could lead to death of the passenger in an autoaccident. Automobile accidents kill a lot of people, I don’t have a number, but the uneducated men who sometimes get involved in accidents like these can’t adequately speak to a 911 operator. This can become deadly if I myself was involved, could not speak, or was dead on impact. If the driver survives, he could be forced to pay funeral bills, hospital bills, etc., and that’s if he caused the accident.

I don’t mean to use this as an excuse to yell at anyone, but this is why English and education are so damn important. And this is for both girls and guys.

Girls are more vulnerable to being married off even in Denver, my city. I have heard of Somali girls being married off to what my ex’s cousin calls “men old enough to be their Grandpa.” Fardousa, the girl who told me this information, now lives a happy life, going to college, etc. Fardousa is a sweet and compassionate young woman who lives to help other people, and her mother, a midwife by trade, wants to learn too. Nadifa speaks fluent English, but she needed to go to premed school and nursing school, learn some Latin terms, etc., and get a board certification to work here in the States as a midwife to her community. It is education of her, her daughters, and her sons alike that will stir up the pot and make the family stronger. Yes, even their youngest daughter is in school by now.

Deq, my ex, is a blind man from Somalia who still went to school in Kenya. Even while he’s a guy, his education will create a ripple effect with his wife and children. He married a refugee woman, and I hope together their children, once grown, will be educated as he was despite his blindness. Deq will share his story with his future daughters, and they in turn will learn that even a physical handicap can’t stop them from going to school.

All blind students should be taught Braille, of course, something that girls and boys at the Thicca High School for the Blind all learned. Deq did not, however, fine tune his computer skills. Blind people both male and female should be honing their computer skills.

Why is education so important? Not only because it’s a safety issue, but it’s a matter of life and death. Had Nadifa’s daughters been stuck in Kenya, in a camp, not schooled, they would have likely been among the millions of teenage brides forced into marriage, labor, or prostitution. Though Muslim, these young women would still have to make a living, right? In Kenya, life sucks if you’re both blind and a woman, depending on your luck, family, and support system. What if Deq had been a girl? Would the support of his Uncle Aden been the same? Would I have heard the same thing from Aden as I heard at his CCB (Colorado Center for the Blind) graduation? Aden says that just because the eyes don’t work, that doesn’t mean the whole body is broken. That philosophy carried through Deq’s future and education, but really. What if he had been a girl?

Girls in Somalia are ten times more likely than boys not to be educated. In the southern half of the whole Somaliland, girls don’t usually go to school, but if they do, something good happens. They can get jobs, and there are jobs abounding in places like the United States, a lot safer for women. Hey, I think women would make good drivers for Somali and Muslim women who would request a female driver.

Drivers in cab and transit companies need a lot more than just basic English. They need to know medical terms at the intermediate level such as what the hell a stroke is, or what a heart attack is. Maybe some of those male drivers can lead by example and show their daughters what education in a night school looks like. These guys should be encouraging their lady folk to go to college, be doctors, nurses, etc. Nadifa’s midwifery skills will play a vital role in her community, and Denver needs more gentle hands like hers to assist and be a role model to other girls out there.

As far as girls in developing nations go, they have a chance to change what is wrong. If they are educated and learn how to advocate for themselves whether on or off disability pensions, the girls will have a greater impact in the world. Afghan girls need more money for good school supplies. Imagine an Afghan lady coding an app with a Google Chromebook. Imagine that same Afghan girl becoming a woman and working for Google. I don’t think that’s far fetched, don’t you?

In honor of International Day of the Girl, here are some solutions to the problems of poverty and child marriage and lack of access:

First off, teach the guys. Like the medical drivers in Denver who don’t know what blind women are comfy with, a lot of guys are illiterate and don’t know the value of education for their daughters. So why not? Send an old grayhead to school for a week. Why not have a Take Your Dad to School Day for the girls in these nations. Even in the United States, refugee men should go to school, and maybe that will motivate them to educate their daughters. Let’s picture a father in Somalia going to his daughter’s school, learning about code, and the girl showing him a rented Chromebook. That would totally blow her dad away. The dads would be invited to a class where they learn basic girl to father interactions, and how to empower, not squelch, their daughter’s voices. Take Your Dad to School Day would be the reversal of Take Your Daughters to Work Day, something my dad took pride in. But because education is important, I think we have to start with the males who don’t get it, and why not take away their bombs and their tanks and guns and give them books and Chromebook computers instead? Show them what their daughters are learning, and how it can break the cycle of poverty.

Secondly, let the girl choose what she wants. Give her basic choices, even if you’re AMerican and reading this, give her the choice to be herself. Let her wear clothes she likes. LEt her express her feelings safely in words, and don’t use violence against her, including the sexual stuff.

Thirdly, nations should be encouraging their governments to strengthen policies on education. Both males and females need education, and it’s a safety hazard if they don’t learn. I don’t think basic English is gonna cut it. Afghan women can learn the Latin root terms for a heart attack: myocardial infarction, and they can also learn what the hell PRN means which I had no idea where the hell they got that from. It’s from a Latin phrase meaning, “as needed.” So when your friendly doctor or nurse says, “I’m going to prescribe you a little antianxiety med PRN”, you will also know she means, “as needed.” Education changes everything, and it should start with families at home. LEt the girls draw pictures, take selfies, write a blog. Whatever happens, let the girls do what they want, and if marriage happens, let the local police deal with it.

I think all boys should have a basic civics to help my sister course, and girls should know the law as well. Girls should be able to have a whole lawbook so that they can be direct when they say, “I don’t want to get married.” IF the family is poor, girls should find ways to reach out and say they are, they need help, etc. IF a girl in the U.S. needs help, then she should say so.

Girls and guys need education equally, and boys should protect their sisters with every bone in their body. Older men who have fluency in English can get better jobs here in this country, thus their girls get better opportunities to live their dreams.

And the best part? If we give guys and younger boys eighteen to twenty an education in full on English, including medical terminology, I will be safe in these guys’ hands. Women should indeed participate, and they could also get better jobs. I won’t have to call 911 even when I’m rear ended and the guy can’t speak much English.

And disability education can teach men and women alike that disabled people are not things to be grabbed, groped, and pulled. Right? We should start them learning as young as possible.

Mental Health Awareness and Domestic Abuse

Dear Parents,

And I mean this, dear parents, what costumes are your kids craving this Halloween? What outfits can you think of that your child may wear during the festivities? I hate to say this, but some people will dress up as an aspect of mental illness. Perhaps your child wants to dress as a clown, or those psychologically malformed killers. Well, that isn’t appropriate. Let me explain why.

The facts and scientific figures speak for themselves. All the people with mental illness want is to be loved and treated with respect and dignity. People with mental illness are not crazy, they have a real disease that affects their judgment such as substance abuse problems or they have had traumatic events occur such as the death of a loved one. Grief can cloud the judgments of everybody who experiences it. Mental health is not a costume you can wear and there are no true ways to simulate it, except when cops are trained to deal with the most severe cases of schizoid symptoms such as hallucinations. These are real symptoms of a disease, and these hallucinations are often conflicting with reality we understand such as God and Jesus declaring war. That’s what happened to one man who fell out of his apartment because of hallucinations. And those hallucinations led him to almost kill himself. This is why treatment should be welcomed for people who need it. I question the need for medications because I’ve had to play catch up with relationships and conflict resolution due to the verbal and emotional abuse I offered at the hands of my family, including coverups. Victims of domestic abuse should also not be portrayed in costumes this Halloween because abuse is a choice that someone makes to do harm on another. And it’s not the victim’s fault.

What are appropriate costume ideas? I’ve done this topic previously, but here are some things you can try: dress as a favorite celebrity, excluding the Donald. Try dressing up as a judge, a lawyer, or a certain occupation whether it be concrete or spiritual such as a nun. Try an imaginary character such as a princess or a pirate. You can also dress up as food. There are endless possibilities this Halloween, but here’s a costume that is much cheaper than the ones you’ll find at Party City.

You’ll first need to print out stuff, so grab a printer and all your spam emails for the month. Next, with some scotch tape, tape all the printouts around your waste, face up on each page. No stacking. Next, after creating this weird shirt or skirt, take a piece of masking tape, then pen the word “inbox” on it, then place it right in the middle of your forehead. Voila, you’ve got the cheapest Halloween costume on the block, and it should start a conversation at the same time as look terrifying. You are the Spam Monster. Credit should be given to Lisa Molderman and Timmy V. Who Des to host a radio show at Florida’s 1071 a1a. There you have it.

Letter to the People Responsible for Economical Woes

Dear Donald Trump, the billion people who work for him, and all the rest of the guys who claim they don’t, but do sexually harass women,

It is unacceptable to approach women in the way of sexual advances if they say no. This means you, Harvey Weinstein, Donald Trump, Bill Cosby, Roger Ayles, whoever you are that reads this and says, “But women deserve nothing more than sex.” No, women are gonna explode in your faces because we have more power to us. We’re not sex objects and don’t deserve to be. We have more drive to figure things out, and girls and women should be treated with untold amounts of respect. My choir treats its female members with respect, and there are married adults in it. Oh, and should I include Bill OReilly in this case of moguls who sexually harass women? This is awful, what you en do to us women. Gender equality should be portrayed in the media as it is in Star Trek. Think again, think big. LGBTQ+ people should be portrayed in a sympathetic light, and there are no excuses to call them names. Mr. Weinstein, Mr. O’reilly and Mr. Trump, you guys really should step down long ago. Trump should be fired from the presidency for his role in harassing immigrants, women, etc. O’reilly should have been fired long ago. Weinstein is now getting a taste of wheat it’s like to lose his job because of wheat women say. Women tell more of the truth than any of the men I mentioned before. We women don’t put any crap before our safety, and we won’t take crap from anybody, so if you’re an executive at the top of a company, anywhere near the top of a company, or working to become CEO, treat the ladies with respect or leave the company.

Let’s Finally Talk About Gun Control?

Dear Readers,

I don’t want to get debatable about the subject of gun control, but there’s no question we need regulations. After the deaths of 59 people and the injury of more than 500 at a Jason Aldean concert celebrating the harvest in Las Vegas, Nevada, we need to stop and think, what is missing? Regular rules on guns should be a priority, but Congress is backed by lobbyists of the NRA, and I know the NRA should be considered dangerous. Why? Because they enabled a white terrorist, a sickly man, to commit a crime more than once. We will not see a guy like Steve Paddock, but we will see more Omar Matins, and thousands of other sick terror stricken persons around the world. I thought Mr. Paddock was a weirdo, how many guns can you go through in a single day? 10? And there was practically an armory in his property in Northern Nevada. Omar, the guy who shot up the Pulse Nightclub, however, was doing it because of a hateful Terrorist inspired motive: because the club was for gay people. I heard a story of one woman’s survival of that shooting on Saturday.

Unfortunately, for the Las Vegas shooter, there is no motive as of yet. But I’m sure there could be a motive such as gambling debts, or maybe he targeted Jason Aldean. I don’t know for sure, and neither does LVPD. Las Vegas sheriff Joe Lombardo is doing a fine job of trying to piece this together, but seriously, I am curious to know what the government will do next.

Because of the craziness in this world, I propose that new gun legislation be in place. For one, ownership of a gun should be licensed. Just as law enforcement should be careful who they shoot, so should a licensed gun owner. All gun owners should undergo a background check, and should only own one gun per household per person. Or just one gun per person. We should incorporate biometric security into gun cases, things like fingerprint sensors or a gun lock like what I have. I personally do not own a firearm, but I signed a pledge. The pledge said I would be safe around guns, and I got a free lock for that. What a way to show that I love America! I own a free gun lock.

As for myself owning a gun, I would only own a firearm if it was necessary, I took a gun safety course, and if I followed background and licensing checks. Blind women should be given license to own guns, of course. I don’t want to be completely vulnerable to people who own guns, especially rapists who get said weapons on the black market. Therefore, if I lived in a bad neighborhood, I would have to own a shotgun I’d pull off the wall, then I’d aim the muzzle of said rifle at the target suspect. Sure, a gun range would be a harder thing to do for me, but there are blind gun owners in the world. I also want to make sure I’m skilled at defending myself, using hand to hand techniques. There’s the Universal Reference Point, something I learned in the Hadley self-defense course which I don’t know if it’s deactivated or not. However, Safe Without Sight, a book written for the course and a very good one too, recommends use of the Universal Reference Point when dealing with weapons and targets. OF course, there’s the old kick in the groin thing, but what if a man with a gun walks uninvited into my house and wants money, a child, or me or Trenton by God? That’s where I think not letting him make the first move would be a good idea, but what about being able to track his movements without sight? Awareness is what bothers me, but then the same book says to listen to your guts.

For more information about the Safe Without Sight book, do go to http://www.nbp.org and look at their bookstore. There are also great publications in said bookstore about tech, sex, and other great subject matter for adults. Quotes and songbooklets are also available. Some publications are free, others are not.

But what are we doing to prevent even the small scale shootings? Nothing. Mass shootings can be prevented but no one wants to talk about it. As a blind woman, I do not want to be in a situation where I’m pouring with blood because some narcissist snuck up on me and shot me with a gun. THerefore, mental health history checks should be done to check for potential violence. In said forms, color or race should never be asked of the licensed gun owner, not unless you’re just collecting data and doing a poll. For instance, 54% of blacks own a gun, just as an example. However, persons with disabilities should be taught to use and not abuse weapons, and that can be done. Marksmanship for blind persons should be done, especially at NFB or ACB training outlets, places where independence is taught. The trick is to get the staff on board with that because of an incident in Michigan involving a director who was fired for the marksmanship classes.

Further background checks should also be done to ensure that the gun is not being sold to a criminal. Don’t give Donald Trump a weapon. He has a tendency to divide rather than unify people, but his speech following the Las Vegas massacre might have been unifying and avoided politics, but he could soon say that someone will shoot nobody at a black lives matter event, or make such comments as that. Black lives matter cannot be sued, so what’s his problem?

I would not sell weapons to known sex offenders either because they could use their guns as props for sexual crimes or violent acts against women or children. Don’t sell guns to people with known issues like schizophrenia that could trigger violent acts. IF the symptoms don’t include violence except induced by medication, then a gun should be sold to a person so long as they don’t take certain medications that could induce violence. Doctors already ask me if I own a gun, and I always say no, but what if I did own a gun? As a blind woman, I feel that sighted thieves and robbers and/or rapists could see me as vulnerable, but if a key to their eyes doesn’t teach them to knock it off, what will? I also want the right to bring a gun with me to the mall, like Weird Al suspects Canadians do at all. If I had a gun worn on a belt at all times, unloaded, safety on, all that stuff, I could walk safely around the mall without problems, and maybe could prevent another mass shooting. I never know what could befall a group of folks at the mall. There were terrorists in Nairobi who shot up a mall and demanded that nonmuslims die, which I wouldn’t ever allow. I would need a conceal carry license for a tiny pistol, and imagine what good that would do. If a guy asked me if I was Muslim, I would say, is it any of your business? He may spare me if I say yes, but if I admit the truth, and he tried to shoot me, what could I do? I’d have to shoot him before he shoots my friends and family. This also applies if a guy or gal was harming my children or pets or spouse. Guns are an extremely important part of our culture, and I realize that, but just because we have the right to, that doesn’t give us license to buy a gun or a whole armory and go shoot people. Mr. Paddock should’ve known better than to do such things, and he didn’t, now he’s gone along with 59 others, and this pattern will continue unless we do something radical to change the way we own guns.

Suppose we also keep guns out of the hands of known child and domestic abusers. IF we do that, we’d at least be narrowing the citizenry down to worthy individuals who need or must own a gun for protection. Yes, we have the 2nd amendment right to bear arms, but we should add, it was designed for militia purposes after the Revolutionary War. We’re long past that, so we need a regulation or two to keep guns out of the hands of the bad guys. Studies show that regulated weaponry laws in other countries make the societies less violent. Less gun violence can occur with the aid of Congress, and the victims and survivors of such might agree with me, but when is a good opportunity for Congress to talk about it? The answer is whenever things cool down, but the time is now to act so that the many victims and survivors of gun violence will never be forgotten.

Beth