Mississippi Personhood Amendment

Oh, this is potentially very scary.

Originally posted by gabrielleabelle at Mississippi Personhood Amendment

Okay, so I don't usually do this, but this is an issue near and dear to me and this is getting very little no attention in the mainstream media.

Mississippi is voting on November 8th on whether to pass Amendment 26, the "Personhood Amendment". This amendment would grant fertilized eggs and fetuses personhood status.

Putting aside the contentious issue of abortion, this would effectively outlaw birth control and criminalize women who have miscarriages. This is not a good thing.

Jackson Women's Health Organization is the only place women can get abortions in the entire state, and they are trying to launch a grassroots movement against this amendment. This doesn't just apply to Mississippi, though, as Personhood USA, the group that introduced this amendment, is trying to introduce identical amendments in all 50 states.

What's more, in Mississippi, this amendment is expected to pass. It even has Mississippi Democrats, including the Attorney General, Jim Hood, backing it.

The reason I'm posting this here is because I made a meager donation to the Jackson Women's Health Organization this morning, and I received a personal email back hours later - on a Sunday - thanking me and noting that I'm one of the first "outside" people to contribute.

So if you sometimes pass on political action because you figure that enough other people will do something to make a difference, make an exception on this one. My RSS reader is near silent on this amendment. I only found out about it through a feminist blog. The mainstream media is not reporting on it.

If there is ever a time to donate or send a letter in protest, this would be it.

What to do?

- Read up on it. Wake Up, Mississippi is the home of the grassroots effort to fight this amendment. Daily Kos also has a thorough story on it.

- If you can afford it, you can donate at the site's link.

- You can contact the Democratic National Committee to see why more of our representatives aren't speaking out against this.

- Like this Facebook page to help spread awareness.

of forwards for luck..OR ELSE!

My movie watching buddy sent out a good luck novena. I don't normally look that closely, but apparently I'm bored today.
( Don't mess with Mama Theresa, y0. )

Allow me to talk to you, my fellow temps.

(You know who you are.)

Six years or so of working as a temp has taught me a few hard lessons.

The biggest? That as a temp you will, as a general rule, be treated like a second class citizen. You will, for office political reasons, be excluded from $WINTERHOLIDAY celebrations. Full time staff will wait until after your apparently unworthy self has left the office before pulling out the birthday cake purchased for the few, the proud, the people worthy of receiving benefits. Your agencies will seduce you with promises of 'temp-to-hire' positions, and you'll believe them because THIS time might be different..THIS time, after a year of working sans benefits, or holiday pay, or sick days..THIS time, your employer is going to hire you.

Only that never quite happens, and so you chase the next sparkling promise of full time employment.

It's discouraging.

It can be heart-breaking.

But ya know what really sucks?

What SUCKS, my fellow temporaries, is when you are told by your prospective employer of the behavior of past temp workers. The ones that talked on their celphones all day. The ones that had no bloody idea how to use Excel, or Word, or a friggin' fax machine. The ones that dressed in torn shirts and jeans and were surprised to hear this wasn't considered 'office casual.'

Now, sure. These incredibly incompetent people make those of us with skills and common sense (shhhh I do too have some!) look like friggin' rock stars. HOWEVER. It also means we have to work much much harder to convince our employers that we are, in fact, rock starts, and that we're not going to slack off as soon as we get hired.

Being a bad temp is like being a bad renter-with-pets. You make it harder for everyone who comes along after you to convince the People In Power that you were the exception, not the rule.

Take your job seriously. Or, hey, if you don't want the job? Don't take it. There are a ton of us that *do* in fact want to be employed. And your antics are unappreciated.