Another advantage of retirement: Flexibility about travel dates

I’ve been following the horror stories coming from Peru re. the floods and mudslides at Macchu Picchu. According to our tour group, the Peruvian government said it will take 7 weeks to rebuild the railway to Macchu Picchu. It's clear we will not be going to Macchu Picchu in early March.

As all my friends have been telling me when I’ve bemoaned the cancelled trip, “you’re lucky you’re not there now.”

It apparently was pretty brutal: tourists were trapped for days with no place to sleep and food and water supplies were running dangerously low. (Of course, considering the destruction of the homes of so many Peruvians, the temporary suffering of tourists is relatively inconsequential.)

A representative of our tour agency said their travelers who are in Peru now have all been evacuated and they all decided to continue the trip. They are a lot more adventurous than I would have been. After an experience like that, I think I would just want to go home and crawl into bed for a few days.

So we are now in the process of rescheduling the trip. If my husband and I were still working and had planned to travel to Peru over our Spring break, we would have had a major problem. But as retirees we are flexible about rescheduling.

I had wanted to do take this trip in early March so it wouldn’t interfere with the beginning of the gardening season. I had thought that for the first time in my life, I would have time to do a real Spring clean-up. Also, once my little beauties start popping up, I just don’t want to travel. But as my husband says, you can’t forego travel anytime between early March and late September because you might miss the bloom period of a plant or two. He has a point.

The travel agency said we have to be aware that the trip date could change once again, if the Peruvian government finds the damage is more extensive than they thought. It’s fortunate we can be flexible. We might have to reschedule this trip once again.

The Impulse Trip: One of the best things about retirement

When my husband and I were working, we only traveled during summer vacation or semester breaks. My husband often wanted to go to NYC for a week-end, but I was always too exhausted—too many papers to grade, classes to prepare, memos to write. In addition to my teaching job, for the past 8 years I served as president of Philadephia NOW. Juggling responsibilities from both my paid and unpaid jobs took up all my dwindling energy.

I didn’t want to give up my volunteer job, which I enjoyed more than the paid job, so the consequence was total exhaustion. The impulse trip to NYC was out of the question.

Now there are no more papers to grade and although I am still active in NOW and other progressive organizations, I no longer have the burden of leadership. So when my husband noticed that the Bauhaus exhibit at MOMA was about to close, he said, “We’ve got to go up to NYC to see it,” my response was, “Sure.”

When we were working, we sometimes managed to get to NYC for major exhibits during summer and semester breaks. We rarely went to a relatively small exhibit like the Bauhaus show. Now we have the luxury of time (at least in the short run).

These small exhibits can be very rewarding. I would never have gone to this on my own. This one was for my husband, who has a strong interest in modernism in general and modernist architecture in particular. But to my surprise, I really enjoyed it. Best of all were the textiles from the women of the Bauhaus.

We’ll be taking more of these day trips to NYC. Given the cost of NYC hotels, we have to limit the number of weekend trips, but we are discovering how easy it is take a day trip. For the first time we took the Bolt Bus, which leaves Philly at 30th Street Station and in two hours arrives near Penn Station for a $26.00 a person round trip. At our age all that driving in one day is just too much.

So, more impulse trips! After all, one of the best things about living in Philly is easy access to NYC!

The Day After

I am really really depressed. As a long-time progressive, activist I’ve dealt with a lot of political disappointments. The worst was the election of Ronald Reagan and the loss of all those liberal Democratic senators. That one changed my life. I abandoned my left wing view that participation in electoral politics was a waste of time, and became a Democratic committeeperson. I have toiled in the grassroots (and more recently the netroots) ever since.

What happened last night in MA was especially hard after the euphoria of Obama’s 2008victory, and the probability that health care was finally within reach. Sure it’s not a perfect bill, but that’s how social reform in this country has always worked. First, establish the principle—e.g., everyone deserves to live in dignity in old age—and then work to gradually improve the legislation so more and more people are included. That happened with social security, with Medicare and it looked like it might happen with health care.

I received an email from a good friend who lives in Cambridge MA; she expressed much of the anger and frustration I feel.

From Fran Waksler:
I’m appalled at the outcome of the election. I’m furious at Coakley for not taking the election seriously and waiting so long to campaign. I’m furious at the DNC for not supplying support until it was too late. And I’m furious at (and very disappointed with) the voters of MA. The insult to Kennedy’s memory makes the Democratic loss even worse. I think my greatest anger is towards voters who only gave Obama a year and then faulted him for not having cleaned up Bush’s mess. Now, the day after, I can’t even listen to the news—any news—because I don’t want to hear about the election. I can see through my study window that tiny buds have appeared on the Rose of Sharon. I think I’ll spend the day contemplating them.

The line that jumps out at me is:

I think my greatest anger is towards those who only gave Obama a year and then faulted him for not having cleaned up Bush’s mess.

I’m trying to pick myself up off the floor and soldier on. This message from my friend labor leader John Meyerson helped:

Back off the ledge my brothers and sisters, the Massachusetts election was not about Health Care or even Obama and progress. The voters simply did not like Martha. I personally spoke to about one hundred voters and not one told me anything different. Mass was not ready for this election so now we all have to dig in and work harder and longer but no one promised this was going to be easy.

And from health care activist Marc Stier:

Attention please: the world has not come to an end. Health care is alive. The Democrats are going to lose less than the average number of seats in November. And Obama is going to crush any Republican who runs against him in 2012 because as even Newt Gingrich knew, while a party of no can temporarily embody the fears...

Marc and John are both smart, politically savvy guys. Hope they’re right.

It’s not too late to phone bank for Martha Coakley. Elections are won and lost on Election Day!

I have been obsessing about the Massachusetts senate race for the past few weeks. When I got the email from Obama for America asking for phone-bank volunteers, I saw it as a chance to assuage my anxiety—do some work! If Martha Coakley lost by one vote, I’d hate myself for not doing my part to get out her voters. And then when you’re retired, there’s no excuse.

I’ve never liked phone-banking. I did some last week for Planned Parenthood—calling constituents in targeted House districts urging them to call their representatives to make sure the final health care bill did not weaken abortion rights. It was kind of fun using Planned Parenthood’s new state of the art Activate phone bank system, but the responses were not exactly fun.

Just about all the folks who picked up the phone were seniors. Many were not very receptive to my message. When I said I was calling from Planned Parenthood several started laughing and said things like, “I’m 77 years old. What in the world does Planned Parenthood have to do with me?” I decided that it was not worth trying to convince them they had a stake in a society in which women have a choice when and if to be a mother. Not sure I accomplished much that day.

I’ve always preferred phone-banking for a candidate rather than for issues—-especially if it’s a candidate I really believe in or (like Coakley vs. Brown) a race that’s critically important to a progressive agenda. But no matter how much I care about the race, I’ve never been very good at phone-banking.

I noticed that the younger people in the room seemed much more skilled in the art of phone–banking, sounding more natural, looking more engaged, actually seeming to enjoy the experience. I was adequate, but I don’t think anyone would get the impression I was having fun. Any experienced phone bankers out there with some tips to improve my game?

I plan to go back today. If I lived in Massachusetts, I’d be knocking on doors. I firmly believe the old adage that elections are won and lost on Election Day.

The Old House Blues

I love my house, but it has been problem after problem of late. The valves on all our ancient radiators went bad and did a lot of damage to our window sills; the roof over our front bedrooms needs to be replaced and on and on.

The people who come to repair the various problems tend to say, “This house should never have been built this way. The pipes should never have gone directly into the wall or the roof over the bedrooms should have been much steeper etc.etc. The builder and/or architect were probably not all that skilled. (The house was built in 1916.)

My husband said, “Maybe we should never have bought this house." I was kind of upset by this. It was almost like a parent saying, “Maybe we should never have had this child.’’ He later said he didn’t mean it.

Warts and all, I love my house. Even more I love my garden. One of my recurrent bad dreams is that we have sold the house and I can’t get into my garden to tend my beloved plants.

We bought the house largely for the garden. It’s not easy to get a city lot that it is a half acre. So okay, it may not have been the greatest investment, but I love it and I love my plants. They’re like old friends who for the most part reliably come back year after year.

So I am trying not to get too bent out of shape by the latest problem: once again pipes built into the walls are breaking down, destroying the wall which will need to be cut so pipes can be removed and replaced. Then the wall will have to be replastered and repainted. I just hope it can be done before a 60th birthday party I am having for a very dear friend in late Feb. If not, I guess we’ll just all have to avert our eyes from the ugliness in my living room.

Despite it all, I love my house, and we intend to say here as long as we can!

Something we have never done before: group travel

My husband and I have traveled a lot but always as individual travelers. We wanted our freedom. We didn’t want to deal with some group leader telling us we had to get up at 6:00 a.m. to catch the tour bus, we didn’t want to follow somebody else’s itinerary—no, that’s not what travel is about.

Also over the years, we’ve developed our style of traveling—spending a lot of time hanging out in cafes, doing less per day but really savoring each experience. I always felt so sorry for those tourists herded through museums with maybe a few minutes before each painting before being marched back to the tour bus. No, we would never travel like that. And in addition to being free to do what we like, part of the fun was trying to figure out how to get from place to place, to navigate the public transport systems.

But now we are in our 60’s and we decided that for certain destinations maybe we should consider a group. We don’t need a group for Europe, but for a trip to Peru it might make sense. We’ve always wanted to see Macchu Picchu and decided it’s now or never. For people our age, the altitude might be a challenge; having the support of a group in case of altitude sickness might have its advantages. And, making all the arrangements ourselves would be much more expensive than the economies of scale we could get with a group.

A tour agency which specializes in older travelers was highly recommended by some of our friends, so we decided to take the plunge and book their "Real Affordable Peru Trip.” When I first mentioned to my husband that this was a company specializing in senior travelers, he said, “I don’t want to travel with a bunch of geezers!” I reminded him that we too were geezers and perhaps he wouldn’t want to have to keep up with twenty year olds.

Another challenge: my husband, who is something of a polymath, has a tendency to correct the tour leaders. Sometimes we've taken group visits to museums—usually when the only way you could visit was in a group. Correcting the tour leaders’ pronunciation/ information in a two hour one-shot museum visit was one thing, but this could get a little dicey if we’re traveling with the same group for a couple of weeks. So let’s hope he can keep this impulse under control.

Anybody have any advice for two novices at group travel?

I’ve never played the New Year’s resolution game, but this year I came to the conclusion that I need that kind of to-do list

I’ve never played the New Year’s resolution game, but this year I came to the conclusion that I need that kind of to-do list. One of the great rewards of retirement—all that unstructured time-- is also one of the great dangers.

My husband I have developed the delightful habit of having 2 hour breakfasts drinking tea, reading newspapers and trying to catching up on the ever-growing pile of unread periodicals. We really like print and resist getting all our info on line.

Much as I enjoy our 2 hour breakfasts, I must manage to get some work done each day. I’ve got to finish my history of second wave feminism in Philadelphia while I have (I think) full possession of my faculties. I’m sitting on a treasure trove of archival material that a graduate student in history would die for. I’ve promised those who gave me this material that I would tell their story.

A friend suggested that I commit to 15 minutes a day. Now at that rate I’ll never finish, but I am going to try for 2 hours a day. I’m keeping track of how much I’ve done each day. On Jan. 2, I managed to do one hour—-but then I was cleaning up after our NY’s party. Without that 2 hour resolution hanging over my head, I’m sure I wouldn’t have done any work on this project.

I decided to apply my friend’s a few minutes a day principle to my other resolutions:

1) Each day I will spend 30 minutes reading books/articles in Spanish. We booked a trip to Peru in early Spring, so I have an incentive to focus on Spanish. On Jan. 2, I actually managed 30 minutes.

2) Each day I will spend at least 20 minutes a day cleaning cabinets and emptying drawers filled with junk, tackling the dumping ground in our attic and the filth in our dungeon like basement. I didn’t manage to do this on Jan. 2 despite the modest 20 minute goal. This is going to be the tough one.

3) Each day I will swim or walk briskly for 30 minutes at least 3 times a week. If we are ever to manage Macchu Picchu, we need to be in better shape. No progress here on Jan 2.

Well, we’ll see if this keeps me more focused on how I’m spending my time.

If anyone has any suggestions, for sticking to one’s New Year’s resolutions, please share.

No longer haunted by holiday depression

For much of my life I spent the holidays obsessing about not having the perfect family. I’ve always been haunted by Brady Bunch like visions of the big happy family. My family of origin was small and dysfunctional. And continuing the family pattern I went on to two unhappy marriages. I finally got the marriage thing right the third time around but the dream of the perfect family still eluded me--a loving partner, wonderful children, and a large, supportive extended family.

My husband I did not have children (which was the right decision for us) but one consequence was putting the Brady Bunch dream further out of reach. And my little son was stuck shuttling back and forth between 2 households in a tension- filled joint custody arrangement.

For the most part, I haven’t wasted too much time feeling sorry for myself because I don’t have this dream family. But the holidays always brought these anxieties to the foreground and there were years when I really dreaded the holidays.

Yes, I know how rare it is to have a happy marriage and to have an extended family free of tension, in-law problems, and ancient, unresolved quarrels threatening to disrupt the family dinner. It’s not like the whole world has something from which I alone am shut out.

For reasons I don’t fully understand I’ve gotten beyond my dream of the perfect family. I have my wonderful husband, my son, my sister and her family, and many wonderful friends. I will never have that huge happy family I’ve always dreamed about, but I’ve made my peace with that. And one consequence is that the holidays are no longer an ordeal to be gotten through.

A cautionary tale from Gail Collins: Or why we have to pass a health care reform bill

Today I received an email from NOW President Terry O'Neill. One of the reasons many feminists support NOW is to have an organization we can count on to look out for women’s rights. From Terry O'Neill:

The so-called health care reform bill now before the Senate, with the addition of Majority Leader Harry Reid's Manager's Amendment, amounts to a health insurance bill for half the population and a sweeping anti-abortion law for the rest of us. And by the way, it's the rest of us who voted the current leadership into both houses of Congress.
The National Organization for Women is outraged that Senate leadership would cave in to Sen. Ben Nelson, offering a compromise that amounts to a Stupak-like ban on insurance coverage for abortion care. Right-wing ideologues like Nelson and the Catholic Bishops may not understand this, but abortion is health care. And health care reform is not true reform if it denies women coverage for the full range of reproductive health services.
We call on all senators who consider themselves friends of women's rights to reject the Manager's Amendment, and if it remains, to defeat this cruelly over-compromised legislation.

Support for abortion rights is a litmus test issue for me. I’ve never voted for an anti-choice candidate, no matter how good that candidate might be on economic justice issues. And I don’t expect to ever vote for an anti-choice candidate.

I will write to my senators to let them know how outraged I am by the anti-choice language in the bill. I will continue to lobby to get this language out of the final bill, but I don’t want to ask my representatives to torpedo the final bill.

I have gone back and forth on this. What finally clinched it for me, was Gail Collins’ article which jogged my memory about what happened when progressives failed to work together to mobilize support for child care.

Collins relates a cautionary tale:

Back in 1971, Congress passed a bill aimed at providing high-quality early childhood education and after-school programs for any American family that wanted them…Then Richard Nixon surprised almost everyone by vetoing it. The social right, which was just beginning to come into its own, was delighted….
Meanwhile, there was hardly a peep from the other side. Children’s advocates had been enthusiastic at first, but as the legislation made its way through Congress, they squabbled over what kinds of community groups should be allowed to deliver the services…
In the end, the people who hated the whole idea were much more energized than the people who loved the idea, but disagreed on the details.
“People always think there will be another day,” said Jack Duncan, who was counsel for the subcommittee that handled the bill in the House. “Well, there might be another day, but not in my lifetime.”

At that stage in my life, I thought the 1971 child care bill was too flawed to support—-nothing short of free childcare for all would have satisfied me.
I didn’t realize at the time that we had just blown a historic opportunity which would have made an enormous difference in women’s lives. If there had been enough support from progressives to override Nixon’s veto, the bill would have in all likelihood have become stronger over time.

By now, Americans would view government subsidized high quality child care as a right—-just the way Europeans view child care as a right. We forget that social security was not widely supported initially, but there is now a consensus that financial support in old age is a right of citizens. Something similar is likely to happen with health care.

At this stage in my life, I am willing to take half a loaf to establish the principle that all Americans have a right to health care. We can’t miss this opportunity.

How I’m dealing with my depression about health care reform

This is not the way I expected it to turn out. No public option, no Medicare buy –in for people 55-64. But I don’t want to kill the bill.

I spend too much time reading liberal/ progressive blogs and am dismayed by how many on the left are making the argument that it’s better to scuttle this bill.

Many thanks to Nate Silver who kept me from falling into this defeatist way of thinking! One of my Facebook friends alerted me to
His 20 Questions for Bill Killers

Silver convinced me that passing this bill is so much better than starting over. Among his most compelling points:

8. How many years is it likely to be before Democrats again have (i) at least as many non-Blue Dog seats in the Congress as they do now, and (ii) a President in the White House who would not veto an ambitious health care bill?

11. Would base voters be less likely to turn out in 2010 if no health care plan is passed at all, rather than a reasonable plan without a public option?

[An aside: Nate Silver got me through the 2008 general election. Whenever I stated to panic, I went to fivethirtyeight.com and Nate’s solid, fact-based analysis calmed me down. Silver demonstrated that electoral arithmetic was clearly in Obama’s favor and that helped me get beyond the headline of the day.]

Silver’s arguments helped and a little bit of history helps. Major social reform has always been piecemeal. In order to get the votes to pass social security, FDR made a devil’s bargain with Southern Democrats to exclude domestic workers and share croppers, effectively excluding the majority of African-Americans.

In many ways the New Deal was racist, but it established the principle that the elderly were entitled to financial support. In the 1950’s the laws were amended to ensure that the principle applied to all workers. (Those who had been excluded from social security or their descendants should have been compensated.)

Medicare was similarly a work in progress, with prescription drug coverage not included. Medicare established the principle that the elderly were entitled to health care, but it took forty years for prescription drug coverage to be included, and even then, the prescription drug coverage passed during the Bush administration was deeply flawed. We are still working on fixing that one.

Killing the bill will kill reform for the foreseeable future and kill more of our fellow citizens who are dying for lack of health care.

And from Bill Clinton:
“Take it from someone who knows: these chances don't come around every day. Allowing this effort to fall short now would be a colossal blunder -- both politically for our party and, far more important, for the physical, fiscal, and economic health of our country."

Maybe Obama and the Democrats could have fought harder, fought smarter but the archaic senate rules have stacked the deck against change. It’s time to get rid of the filibuster and the 60 vote threshold required.

So I’m reconciled (sort of) to passing this flawed bill as a first step and trying to talk myself into a "don’t mourn, organize!” mind set.

I’m going to work like crazy to make sure the people who came out for Obama in 2008 come out in 2010 to give the president the votes he needs to fix this bill. Too bad Lieberman doesn’t come up for re-election until 2012.

Karen Bojar

President Obama deserves the Nobel Prize

One downside of retirement is I have more time to obsess about what troubles me. If I were still working, I’d be too busy grading papers to be obsessing about Afghanistan and Obama’s Nobel Prize.

I am in the minority who thinks Obama deserves the award. I don’t share the disillusionment of many of my left wing friends with Obama. He inherited a horrendous mess. There were no good options in Afghanistan and the economic disaster was not of his making. And as for the difficulty of getting real health care reform passed, although the Democrats control congress, Obama does not have an ideological majority. A lot of those blue dogs might as well be Republicans.

But the escalation in Afghanistan gave me pause. I had hoped for a different decision. There is an argument for trying to stabilize a region in which there is a real possibility of nuclear weapons winding up in the hands of some truly scary people. But is increasing troop levels the way to forestall this? I've read some compelling arguments against Obama’s surge—even from Arlen Specter! So I’m very uncertain about all this and worried, really worried.

Yet I still think President Obama deserves the Nobel Prize and am happy it was awarded to him—-largely because of what this says about the world’s changing view of our country. In less than a year Obama has dramatically changed the image of the US. In the first days of his administration he declared an end to torture, the intention to close Guantanamo, his commitment to a world without nuclear weapons and , in the truly remarkable Cairo speech, he reached out to the Muslim world. Granted it’s more promise than achievement, but after 8 years of Bush/Cheney such a dramatic shift counts for a lot. Obama has raised the hopes of people around the globe that just maybe another world is possible.

Karen Bojar

More thoughts on the winter garden

A beautiful medititation on the winter garden from my friend Fran who gardens in Cambridge, MA:

I think of the winter garden as the place for stock-taking. The “bones” of the garden are evident and I, thanks to retirement, have the leisure to reconsider, regroup, and plan. This year I’ll try to do more with autumn flowers. I’m also looking for a good groundcover for a bank where the dogs run—plants that are low-growing, very hardy, and willing to spread. The ground phlox hasn’t been entirely satisfactory, but maybe more of it would work better. I always want something in bloom throughout the year but am far less successful than Karen. Maybe next year. Time to check out plant sites on the web.

Of course, a lot of what I see now is jobs that I should have done already—tie up the broom so it doesn’t get beaten down by the snow, prune here and there, do any odd job that cold and rain and snow will allow. And leaves always remain. Nonetheless, it is rather peaceful since there really isn’t all that much that I can physically do, but I can dream. And when snow comes it covers up all the problems and everything looks beautiful.

Like Karen, people ask me if I would prefer living where I could have a year-round garden and, like Karen, I prefer (actually need) the varied seasons. Seasonal change and weather are very important to me. I love the drama of storms and the comfort of warm sunny days. When spring comes, I really feel that I’ve earned it by surviving winter. A friend, a fellow New Englander, moved for a time to California and said she didn’t know how Californians developed any personality without weather to contend with! I also think that without the winter break from gardening I wouldn’t have that pause that makes gardening something to really look forward to. I await the snowdrops and crocuses as the first sign that, once again, spring will really come.

Reading gardening books in the winter is a special pleasure for me. I plan such wonderful gardens, even if they are only very partially realized. At the moment I’m reading Olive Pitkin, My Garden and I: The Making of a Mid-Life Gardener (1992). I prefer narratives like this one to “how-to” books. Pitkin does most of the gardening herself (aided by relatives and friends), which I admire. I can’t really identify with gardeners whose work is done primarily by others. I also can’t identify with those who seem to have unlimited resources. When the famous gardener Christopher Lloyd was laying in a garden on an estate, a road was in the way of what he planned so the owners had the road moved. That’s a bit more ambitious than I can manage. I’m content with my little city plot of ground in all the seasons that it passes through.

The Winter Garden

This is a tough time of the year for me. We’ve had our first snowfall and hard frost, so there’s not much left in my garden—just a little bit of winter jasmine.

I try to have something in bloom for as much of the year as possible but December and January are tough. I usually get a snow drop or two in January, but that’s it.

Friends who know of my passion for gardening sometimes ask if I’ve ever wanted to move to a warmer climate where I could have an all year round garden. Not an option. Not only do I love my city, my house, my friends, I don’t think I could live without the drama of Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring.

I’m sure that I would never burst into tears of joy at the sight of the first species crocus (usually in late February) if it weren’t for several months of ice and cold. Now maybe that sounds a little crazy—wanting the pain of winter to fully experience the joy of Spring, but that’s how it works for me. And then Philly winters aren’t all that bad; it’s not like I’m living in Maine.

I’ve tried to figure out why seasonal change is so important to me and I think it has a lot to do with growing up on English literature. My imagination has been shaped in a really deep way by all those references to seasonal change. Bits and piece of poetry pop into my mind when I am out in the garden. Right now it’s “bare, ruined choirs where once the sweet birds sang.”

And the Holidays for me are a Winter Solstice festival. I just can’t imagine the holiday season without cold weather and at least the possibility of snow.

The way I make sense of the world is bound up with seasonal change. Sure some of it may seem clichéd—e.g., the autumn of my life—but it’s powerful nonetheless.
Karen Bojar

I’m glad I got it together to go to DC for the National Lobby Day to Stop Stupak

I’m glad I got it together to go to DC for the National Lobby Day to Stop Stupak and Pass Health Care Reform.

A diverse group of women from all over the country gathered in DC; the really good news is that the majority were young women in their 20’s and 30’s. I think many women in my generation breathed a sigh of relief when we saw all these young women determined to protect reproductive rights.

Lobby days can be tedious as you go to one office after another, usually meeting with staff rather than with elected officials. (Thanks to Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz, one of the few elected officials who met with constituents.)

The lobbying may have been tedious, but the rally was inspirational. Leaders of major feminist organizations and women legislators with long careers fighting for gender equality affirmed their determination to stop this assault on women’s rights.

Many emphasized that that here has been a compromise in place for decades that federal funds can not be used for abortion but that women can purchase insurance coverage which includes abortion with private funds—-i.e.with their own money. The Stupak-Pitts amendment would overturn this compromise and dramatically change the status quo.

No other legal medical procedure has been singled out to be excluded from plans on the proposed newly created insurance exchange—just this procedure which applies only to women.

A common theme from the women legislators who have been fighting for real health care reform is “We are going to win this one. We are not going to pass health care reform which restricts access, which takes away a right which women currently possess.” As Carol Maloney (Dem. representative from NY) said, “I didn’t go to Congress to roll back women's rights."

We must make sure that in arguing that health care reform not undo the compromise in place for decades(the Hyde amendment), that we are not legimitizing this law's discrimination against low income women.

After we defeat Stupak, we will mobilize against the Hyde amendment which denies government employees and women on Medicaid access to abortion. And we will win!

I can’t believe we are still fighting for abortion rights.

I can’t believe we are still fighting for abortion rights. In 1973 after the Roe decision, I thought the battle had been won. How wrong I was.

When I went to a pro-choice demonstration in DC in the early 90’s, I couldn’t quite believe that we were still fighting this battle. But I was heartened to see so many young women there and thought that soon this would be settled and we wouldn't be wasting our energy fighting for this basic right. Wrong again.

When I dragged myself to DC for the 2004 March for Women’s Lives I began to worry that I might be fighting this battle until my dying day. Bush was president and had the power to shape the Supreme Court for years to come.

Now we have a Democratic president and a Democratic congress, yet we’re still fighting an energized anti-choice movement. But supporters of abortion rights are energized as well. According to NY Times , Nancy Keenan, Executive director of NARAL describes us old folks as “a menopausal militia”—women who can remember a world without access to safe, legal abortion. (Most women my age know someone, either directly or indirectly, who died from or suffered serious complications from an illegal abortion.)

Young women may lack this direct experience, but many see access to safe, legal abortion as a right and they don’t want health care reform to endanger that right. So I expect to see at a lot of young women at the rally/lobby day for abortion rights in DC on Dec. 2.

One concession to age: I no longer take the bus. There is no way I can get to Center City Philly by 6:00 and then return to Philly at 9:00 for a 17 hour day. I plan to drive down the night before, stay in DC overnight, and get up at a reasonable hour in the morning. I’ve paid my dues—40+ years of taking the bus to marches in DC. Unlike so many of my friends, I’ve never enjoyed the experience. I went out of a sense of obligation. I’ve always been a little phobic about crowds and was never really comfortable marching around with like-minded folks chanting slogans in unison. My politics may have collectivist tinge, but temperamentally I’m an individualist.

But there are times when you just have to stand up and be counted.