Thoughts from a small town in Illinois

First of all, I'm excited that I was invited to be a part of the blog... even though I'm a good eight hours away from ya'll and won't exactly be able to make the meetings.  Being a theory nerd, it's nice to know that I'll be able to get my "fix" after I graduate.  Plus, its nice to have a slightly less academic venue to talk about this kind of stuff (What?!  You mean I don't have to write a 5 - 10 page paper about this?!).

Other than that, I haven't read the articles yet (already I'm the slacker of the group) but I thought I'd bring two things to your attention:

    1) In the aftermath of the Northern Illinois and other shootings, Arizona is considering a bill that would allow concealed weapons on college campuses.  This is frightening to me for a variety of reasons, not the least of which being that some consider the only way to address violence is with the prospect of more violence.  I also fail to see how allowing people untrained in crisis situations and shooting in crowds (and unprepared for the psychological repercussions of actually shooting someone) to carry weapons will, in any way, make me safer.

    2)  According to NARAL Pro-choice America, Minnesota received a C+ in their "initiatives for choice."  This is for a variety of reasons including that, while we protect clinics from violence and provide low-income women with access to abortion and family planning, we also prohibit certain state employees and organizations from receiving funding if they provide referrals to abortion services, require minors to notify their parents before receiving abortions, and allow certain institutions to refuse certain medical services such as emergency contraception, birth control, etc.  Its nice to know that we're above average?  Check out the posted link (well... I'm pretty sure I posted it... I'm not so good with this whole technology thing) for more details.

Happy Feministing!