write and share a "This I Believe" essay

but I have to bow out. Just too much to think about right now… I will come back when my head stops spinning :)

not getting round to this, so off to the sidelines it goes… :(

myself doing this at the moment. and am feeling the need for a clear out…

Submitted today, Mar 22 2007.

I had a lot more preachiness in the original draft, but after reading and re-reading the rules, I decided to tone it down a good bit. I think my true intentions still bleed through, however.

I believe in the redemptive power of the democratic process.

I admit that democracy has taken a battering in recent years. Lately, the voices of cynics have been the loudest. Jonah Goldberg has said that “pure democracy…says that 51 percent of the people can pee in the cornflakes of 49 percent of the people.”

I believe our country has made tragic mistakes because of a cynical attitude towards democracy, not an unabashed embrace of it.

Getting and spending, as Tennyson might have said, we lay waste our democratic ideals.

Examine how democracy has been a positive force for change. The most obvious example, for an unabashedly patriotic soul like me, is the vision of democracy set forth by the Founding Fathers some 218 years ago. I just don’t believe that 51 percent of us really truly want to pee in the cornflakes of the other 49 percent, especially since I know that it’s likely that, one day soon, a handful of people might switch sides and soil my cornflakes.

I just can’t be cynical when I see the manifest benefits of democracy.

There is an incredible tale of democracy in action that I believe has been overlooked in the many, many stories of bravery on September 11, 2001.

On a doomed United Flight 93, Jeremy Glick called his wife. We’ve taken a vote, he told her, and we’re going to take back this plane.

Think for a moment about the power and beauty of those words. As Americans, it was an innate instinct for democracy that led them to channel the power of a small band of patriots in this particular way. They didn’t draw straws. They didn’t allow one man to force his will on the others. Instead, spontaneously and without apparent reservation, they voted.

I believe they knew they were voting to hasten their own deaths, but these common Americans, thrown together by random fate, acted for a greater good — the preservation of a precious and irreplaceable monument of our democracy.

I believe democracy works, and I think they believed it too.

I believe, as Judge Learned Hand so eloquently put it, “the spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right.”

I believe that democracy is the hammer and tongs that forge a commonweal. I believe in the power of this ingenious and deceptively simple tool.

I believe that the greatest immediate threat to humanity is water. Or rather, the lack of clean drinking water to much of the developing world – over 1 billion people are affected. The UN reports that in 2004, 2.2 million people died from unsafe drinking water – 90% of these were children under 5. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are the worst affected areas.

Investment in water and waste water infrastructure is non-existant. There are reports that suggest that there could well be a war in the next 25 years over water. Sounds ludicrous, but if the problem isn’t addressed then I believe it could become a reality. I believe that to let such a situation develop would be truly ludicrous. I believe it would be a black mark against all of us who take our water supplies for granted.

I believe you can help. Today marks the launch of the End Water Poverty campaign. Please help get water poverty onto the agenda for the next G8 summit. If you can, donate to Water Aid. 19 cities in the US are holding Water Walks this Saturday, and there’s also a virtual walk if you can’t attend in person.

I don’t have the head-space for this right now, and I don’t want to force it. I may take it up again at a later date.

Since this goal says “share,” I will consider it on a case-by-case basis since it’s very, very personal. You can 43Pe message me if you’re really that interested in seeing my essay.

It’s a good challenge for anyone, though. :)

finding a topic for this.

Thanks for everyone’s feedback. In the end, my husband is my sharpest critic and I think the essay is so much better for it.

This I believe…

I think about my abortion twice a year. I think about it around the date the procedure was performed and around the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade. It rarely crosses my mind at any other time.

When I do think about my abortion, I think about how lucky I am to live in a country where as difficult a decision it was to make, it was mine to make, right for me or not. I believe the decision I made was best for me and I do not regret it.

I waited. I abstained until I graduated from high school. But, like many college students today, I lacked the knowledge and skills to talk about birth control with my partner, to make sure we used a condom correctly, every time. Even though I knew about condoms, I did not know how to use them. No one ever talked to me about sex – not my teachers or my parents.

Sadly, I remember the day that caused the pregnancy – that dread I felt, knowing that the condom broke. The weeks that followed were torture. When my period was late, I stayed up at night, punching myself in the stomach. I went so far as to drink as much as I thought I could handle without throwing up. But I knew, in the end, a little alcohol was not going to save me.

I wish I had sex education or someone that would have talked to me. Perhaps then, I would have spoken with my partner more insistently. Or perhaps I would have gone to a doctor to get birth control.

Who I am and what I do have been shaped by untold numbers of people and events, including my pregnancy and my abortion. It became a force in my life. I do not want anyone to have to go through the anxiety, frustration and the disappointment of an unintended pregnancy.

After my abortion, I graduated from college. I went on to jobs that I hoped would help others. I’ve worked to protect civil liberties and to fight for the care of people living with HIV/AIDS. Today, I work to expand access to reproductive health care, including sex education. Isn’t that appropriate?

I believe that no one should become pregnant or infected with HIV because they didn’t have information. I believe all individuals, regardless of their age, have a right to be taught how to protect themselves with information and appropriate skills. I believe in a world where no one is faced with a decision of whether or not to have an abortion because of an unintended pregnancy. I believe all individuals deserve the dignity and respect to make decisions about their own sexual health and sexuality without government interference.

I believe in the rights granted by the U.S. Constitution and upheld Roe v. Wade.

and I want to participate. This may be my next big writing project after the contest is over.