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Pro-choice. Keep Your Hands off My Body. My Body, My Choice. Does this apply to men as well?

According to Salon.com, " In a complicated, fascinating and refreshingly balanced story for the June issue of Elle called "The Parent Trap," writer Stephanie Fairyington explores the case of Greg Bruell, a divorced, stay-at-home father of two who, when confronted with an unwanted pregnancy, just said no. Bruell and his girlfriend had already gone through one abortion when, just months later, she found herself pregnant again. He says they'd agreed ahead of time that if she conceived again, "she'd abort without waffling." Instead, she not only had the baby, she sued him for child support. What may have been a messy private situation for a man, a woman and a child soon became a golden opportunity for the National Center for Men, an advocacy group devoted to "assertively addressing all legitimate men's concerns."

Disturbing reports surfaced today after the American Academy of Pediatrics endorsed "female genital cutting." According to Salon.com, "The American Academy of Pediatrics has suggested a new way to fight female genital mutilation in the United States: Allow doctors to give girls a "nick" down there. In a policy statement titled "Ritual Genital Cutting of Female Minors," the Academy suggests that allowing such a ritual could serve as a way to "build trust" with immigrant families and prevent parents from sending their girls overseas for far more extensive, and potentially life-threatening, procedures. It's a "possible compromise to avoid greater harm," the statement says."

Wow! So, you just mutilate the girls in the United States, so at least they will be safe from the infection and the greater risk later, instead of have them go overseas and get mutilated, all while risking infection, disease, and death. That sounds Sensible? Give me a break!

I know. Criticizing a campaign mailer -- or maybe that should be spelled "campain maler"--is like picking the fruit hanging so low it's almost on the ground. But maybe you will allow a little venting.

I won't criticize the use of suggestive phrases instead of actual assertions ("Kansas values. Kansas commonsense.") Nor will I criticize the assertions that are only questionably relevant: "Five generations of Mann's [sic] have lived in the house his great-grandfather built." OK. But he lives more than 100 miles to the east.

But then we get these words: "Free market solutions for healthcare reform" and "protect Social Security and Medicare." Under the assumption that he is listing these things because he supports them, isn't there a problem here? Neither Social Security nor Medicare are "free market solutions," and that is their glory. We have learned from hundreds of years of experience now that free markets are greatly inventive, but without assistance they promote inequality. In fact, they promote so much inequality that those who can no longer sell their labor or intelligence on the free market would be left without the necessities of life.

So which do you want, Mr. Candidate, free market solutions or help for the elderly?

His name was Floyd, but everybody called him Smoke. He was legendary--in his day the strongest man in town.

1965. Not yet sun-up, maybe 7:30. Foggy. Walking the couple of blocks from home to Bogue High School where I then teach English and journalism. Across the street from Elsie's Cafe comes the quavery voice.

"Bob...Bob!" Leaning against an old Chevy pickup, he waves. I cross over. Smoke is fighting for air.

"Bob. You mind...going.....Elsie's. Get me... packa Winstons?" I smoked then, too. Maybe that's why I obliged.

Not long after Smoke died, I watched my neighbor Vera come out, sit down on her front porch, choking and coughing, and slowly, sadly, suck in the smoke. Thin, gray as a ghost, she maybe got temporary relief. I dunno. They both died from tobacco addiction. But that wasn't on the death certificate, I'm sure.

As a high school sophomore, I remember how my grandfather Steve Stone lived his last few months with us before lung cancer got him. My mother was what then was called a "practical nurse" -- no degree but a big heart. Granddad had paid so many medical bills he was broke. He was proud, too. Didn't want us fussin' over him. We burned his mattress after he died. I don't know exactly why.

While life distracted me, February and March offered a myriad of opportunities to talk about women’s issues.

International Women’s Day was observed on March 8th, a Colorado bill ending gender discrimination in health insurance rates moved into the Senate after passing the House with only 2 “no” votes, and Half the Sky, a national simulcast event, placed a well-deserved spotlight on heroes who are fighting abusive practices against women around the world.

It’s a nice way to shepherd in the spring. But distractions or no distractions, this post is late.

Well, better late than never.

According to Barrie Examiner, "In 2010, tuberculosis (TB) is one of the leading infectious killers of women around the world, taking the lives of 1.8 million people per year. About 4.9 million lives have been saved since 2001 through the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and malaria with help from donor countries like Canada. "

Population growth, the HIV epidemic, increasing poverty and rising levels of drug resistance will inevitably increase the burden of this disease in women. Women are at increased risk of progression to disease during their reproductive years. However, in most low-income countries, twice as many men are notified with tuberculosis as women, reports PubMed, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health.

Last Saturday I volunteered to do a phone bank for the group Organizing for America to help in Barack Obama's efforts to pass his health care reform bill. These past few months I've grown passionate about getting this health care reform bill passed, as I've seen friends and family members lose jobs and struggle with their health care. A recent March 6, 2010 editorial of the New York Times makes a strong argument for the passing for the bill, noting how it'll help 30 million people who are at present uninsured. The same paper has a graphic that shows the 20 times since 1980 that the reconcilation process has been used, as the Democrats may use that tactic to avoid a possible Republican filibuster. To support Obama and the Democrats in their efforts to pass this bill, supporters of health care reform should contact their Senators and Representatives, to show that many voters in their area support such a measure. To contact your Senator or Congressman, you can click the links to find your Representative or your Senator.

In 1960 when John F. Kennedy, a Catholic, ran for president, anti-Kennedy politicos warned that if he won the election, the country would end up being run by the pope. By golly, they were right. A few years later, Pres. Ronald Reagan established an embassy in the Vatican and sent an ambassador there, a practice that has continued to this day.

Now, as President Obama is pushing for a reconciliation vote on the troubled health care reform bill, which has in truth become a health-insurance reform bill, members of the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops are reenergizing their efforts to kill reform if, in their words, reform does not “…truly protect the life, dignity, conscience and health of all.” Translated, this means the health reform bill should ignore the needs of women who want their insurance to cover elective abortions. In fact, the bishops gave themselves away when they wrote in a Jan. 26, 2010, letter to Congress, “Disappointingly, the Senate-passed bill in particular does not meet our moral criteria on life and conscience.”

In the Long Beach area, a grassroots and coalition campaign is taking place to clean up the air pollution and poverty in the local seaports. The air around the seaports is dirty because port truck drivers earn too little to buy trucks that would belch out fewer diesel particulates, tiny particles that contribute to cancer and asthma.

The Teamsters union, environmental groups, and local residents have teamed up to form a group called the Coalition for a Clean and Safe Ports to persuade the Port of Los Angeles to adopt a far-reaching plan that bars old trucks from hauling cargo from the port and to find a way to buy new vehicles.

A study found that drivers earn around $9.50 an hour, ninety five percent do not have retirement benefits, and only ten percent have health insurance. Truckers work over 11 hours a day on average, and many work 14 hours or more. Most of these truck drivers live in the neighborhoods surrounding the seaports, and they and their families are deeply affected by the dirty air from the trucks.