Checking out releases in literature, movies and music Graphic: Pacman, digitized acrylic by Jeannette Harris "Wolf!" Comments on and excerpts from With Liberty and Justice For All, 2005, by Kate Michelman -- "one of America's 200 Women Legends & Leaders," Vanity Fair; "one of the Capitol's most powerful women," Washingtonian; "one of the top grassroots lobbyists," The Hill; President, NARAL Pro-Choice America 1985-2004; Executive Director, Planned Parenthood, Harrisburg PA; adjunct professor, PA State University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry; married with three children and five grandchildren "Now, in a book that is at once personally compelling and urgently relevant, Michelman offers a wake-up call to American women to defend their freedom in what is undoubtedly its hour of greatest danger...." -- Hudson Street Press "... especially now, we must not stop speaking out and standing up for the rights of women and children." -- Secretary of State and U.N. Ambassador Madeleine Albright "Now that an extremist right-wing minority is at the levers of power and young women have fewer rights than their mothers did, we need millions more like Kate Michelman. Her words will light our way." -- Gloria Steinem "... most important of all, her life -- and this book -- are a compelling reminder that it is within every individual's power to make a difference. With Liberty and Justice For All provides inspiration for each one of us to do so." -- Dana Reeve, Activist and Chairwoman, Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation excerpts from Kate Michelman's With Liberty and Justice For All "As he so often [did], Clinton captivated the crowd that night [1992 Democratic Convention], infusing a woman's right to choose with a sense of moral purpose. He masterfully cast the issue as one of privacy, personal and religious liberties, and freedom and equality for women.... [p. 100] "[Chris] Smith [NJ] moved to reinstate the global gag rule, which stripped foreign family-planning organizations of United States funds if they used their own money to provide abortion, discuss the option, or advocate changes in their countries anti-abortion laws.... The United States does not pay for abortions in other countries -- federal law has prohibited that for many years -- but we do fund family-planning services on which some of the world's poorest women depend. These services help prevent unintended pregnancies, promote prenatal, maternal, and childhood health, and limit the spread of AIDS and other sexually-transmitted diseases. An estimated six hundred thousand women -- 99 percent of them in developing countries -- die of pregnancy-related causes each year, and widely available family planning services could save many of them.... [p. 190] "Massive protests against the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in the late 1990s ... had produced enormous numbers of marchers because they sought to embody every conceivable cause, but in doing so, they lost focus and failed to convey a clear message.... [p. 253] "It [March for Women's Lives, 4/25/2004, Washington DC] was one of the largest marches [1.15 million estimated to have attended and listened to Carole King sing 'I Feel the Earth Move'] in the history of the country and a seminal moment in the history of the pro-choice movement.... [p. 259] "Sadly, dark forces have gathered upon the political horizons.... This confluence of political events is unprecented.... The possibility of a return to the past is so unfathomable for most people, so distant, that we are reluctant to believe it. For millions of women across the country, that dark future is now.... The policies of the right wing are restricting sex education and contraception.... President Bush has already placed two justices on the [Supreme] Court.... [He] may succeed in restricting personal freedoms for generations.... Americans stand at the crossroads.... we can break this cycle and set America's story on a course of our own choosing; a path that reflects our values, that respects women, cherishes children, and places real meaning and commitment behind those values.... we face yet another challenge. Defeatism! [The Kerry campaign's] tortuous efforts to offend no one also risked inspiring no one.... A clear majority of voters said on Election Day that they were pro-choice and that abortion should remain legal.... Women's rights seem to occupy a uniquely fragile place as the first repository of political blame and the easiest ballast to cast overboard.... Restoring respect for those first principles -- for the value we place on privacy and fundamental rights, our respect for women, our devotion to children and families -- is the defining challenge of our time.... if the policies and priority of the Bush administration are to be taken as a guide, they are largely unconcerned about prenatal care; America's child care crisis is not in the orbit of their interests; the shameful prevalence of childhood poverty and hunger and a lack of sufficient educational opportunity are not problems they are willing to invest serious resources to solve; our scandalous rates of infant mortality and low-birthweight babies are not, for them, serious issues worthy of real solutions.... Americans need to grow up about sex!... we use sex to sell everything from laptops to Levi's.... As long as we treat sex as a secret taboo rather than a natural part of human life, people will engage in sexual behavior without the knowledge they need to act responsibly.... we have spent [more than $1 billion] on abstinence-only sex education programs that are unproven and dangerous.... federal family-planning services for low-income women ... prevent 1.3 million unintended pregnancies and more than 630,000 abortions each year.... 90 percent of Americans are not virgins on their wedding nights. This fact will surprise no one, at least not nine out of every ten of us.... In Americans' personal lives, our cultural lives, even our commercial lives, sex is pervasive. But in our political lives, [we are] shocked, shocked that anyone has sex before marriage.... we have the highest rates of unintended pregnancy, HIV, and many other sexually-transmitted diseases in the Western developed world.... Sending adolescents raging with hormones into this culture without understanding human development and knowing how to prevent pregnancy and sexually-transmitted diseases is like handing them keys to a car without seat belts or driver's education.... No woman should have to forgo prenatal visits because she cannot afford them. We need a national strategy for affordable, quality child care. Our country must invest heavily and thoughtfully in child health, nutrition, and learning from the very earliest ages, continuing through adolescence.... Untold numbers of women around the world today die in horrific conditions because they do not have access to the reproductive health care they need. Their families live in wrenching poverty. Their children do not have adequate medical care.... We cannot value the lives and rights of women around the world any less than we do our own.... The private lives of citizens are not the province of the state.... there are parts of our lives and our souls and beliefs that government may not touch,... we respect the individual as unique and autonomous and free.... We need make no apology for our firm belief that women, and not politicians, should make decisions about child-bearing.... we must contemplate ... the true meaning, the real impact, of genuinely unwanted birth -- what it means not just for parents, but for children, too.... How does one avoid being accused of crying wolf when the wolves are so obviously and persistently and dangerously real?... America stands at the brink; but we have not yet crossed it. Our freedom belongs to us; it is our right, and it is our responsibility to protect it; and we have the power to do so.... a small but passionate movement of Americans decided to transform the world. They did.... the freedom they left us is in jeopardy; and to save it, we need only activate, with a sense of personal responsibility and dire urgency, the movement they built...." [pp. 263-276] "In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger." -- President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jr. "Never doubt that a small group of committed individuals can change the world." "I believe there's a reason we are born with free will. And I have a strong will to decide what's best for my body, my mind, and my life. I believe in myself, in my intelligence, my integrity, my judgment. And I accept full responsibility for the decisions I make. I believe in my right to choose, without interrogations, without indignities, without violence. I believe that's one of the founding principles of our country. And I believe that right is being threatened. The greatest of human freedoms is choice, and I believe no one has the right to take that freedom away." -- from I Believe advertisement for NARAL's Choice for America campaign Return to A Country Rag Index -- Word Preserve