Category Archives: Op-ed

Komen, Planned Parenthood & the power of an angry mob

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How great has this week been? When I first heard about Susan G. Komen Foundation eliminating funding for the breast cancer screening services that Planned Parenthood provides to poor women, I was shocked. I took to my blog, Facebook and Twitter to express my dissatisfaction as did a lot of people. I sent them $50 and others sent them 2,999,950 more. I wouldn’t have been surprised if that was it.

It wasn’t.

Over the next few days, the mob got louder and angrier, and they kept it up. It got so bad, that today Komen apologized and stepped back (albeit a little) from their original plan. It’s a testament to the power of an angry mob.

What amazes me, is that companies and organizations continue to make the same mistake. First there was Lowe’s, then there was SOPA and now the Komen debacle. You’d think they’d learn. The damage to Komen’s brand and reputation may be irreparable. This controversy has forced many people to take a deeper look at them and what was found wasn’t pretty. The founders of Komen have been found to be big GOP donors. They had no issue putting their brand on pink guns. and a new part of their management team is a major anti-abortionist. Many of the supporters they lost this week will not be coming back.

At the end of the proverbial day, I’m happy this happened. Planned Parenthood collected $3 million to help people who need it the most and we know what the Komen Foundation really is. And the internet and social media has become of age as a tool of mass activism.

It’s been a really good week.

Komen vs. Planned Parenthood: Choosing a charity based on politics

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Pick a side, everyone else has.

The partisan attitude that has infected our politics and ruined any hope of partnership in Washington has spread throughout the country. There is no better example of this than the fact that I now have to choose my charities based on their politics. This is what the Susan G. Komen’s decision to defund Planned Parenthood means to me. From now on, every time I see a pink ribbon on the back of a car, a pink bat in Major League Baseball, or pink sneakers in the NFL, I’ll see pro-lifers and their rabid attack on women’s health. Judging by the outcry on the internet, I’m not alone.

I’m not sure that the Komen Foundation expected this.

By choosing to side with the right on abortion, they have forced the hands of anyone that is pro-choice.

My simple solution: any charity that is attacked by the right, is now on my list to support. As such, I sent donations last night to Planned Parenthood and National Public Radio.

What about you? What are you going to do?

Occupy Philly – Please

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Occupy Philly started their occupation of city hall yesterday. Anyone that’s bringing attention to the huge inequity in wealth distribution needs to be listened to.

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I thought it amusing and ironic that right after I took that picture, I see a guy riding around in a rare Ford GT ($200k new) so close to where I see people sleeping in doorways.

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Remembering 9/11

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10 years ago I decided I needed to go into work early; something seemed important. On 9/11, I was scheduled to fly to San Francisco in the afternoon, but went into the office to try and catch up on a couple of things (in those days you could get to the airport at the very last minute).

I was one of two people in the office at the time. I remember Annie, our office manager coming in and telling me about the first plane (some stupid recreational pilot I thought); and then listening to KYW News radio when the second plane hit (oh shit.)

The rest of the day is a blur to me. I remember not wanting to fly that day, as if that were going to be an option. I remember that the Internet was useless, and that our only visual line to the world was little black and white 13″ TV which didn’t have cable.

We stayed at work that day – not that much work was done. I specifically remember spending a lot of time with my co-workers in that conference room.

I kind of wished I had just walked out and planted myself in front of a TV all day. Even without doing that, the images are seared in my mind to this day.

And while that day feels like it was just yesterday, so much has passed, so many lives have been lost, and so many questions still remain, that it also feels like another lifetime.

What are your memories of that day?

TSA wants you to feel safer – even if you’re not

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I don’t like to write about the TSA controversy two weeks in a row, but the furor isn’t dying down. If anything, it’s only gotten greater as there have been stories of breast cancer survivors being asked to show their breast prosthetics, scans being leaked, and the TSA’s refusal to modify their screening procedures.

I have already come to terms with the fact that when I fly next, the agents will have to grope me. As a man, I guess it doesn’t have the same stigma. I have never been sexually assaulted; I don’t know the feeling of being leered at; I don’t have a disfiguring disease that makes me self-conscious – so I will give away the right that bars unreasonable search and seizure, not because I want to, but because it’s the best of two evils.

But let’s be clear – what the TSA is attempting to do is substitute technology for a lack of intelligence (in all senses of the word). Their agents are overworked, underpaid, and trained to follow written rules to find terrorists (as opposed to teaching them how to spot a terrorist). How about spending some of the hundreds of millions that we are spending on these machines, towards better pay and better training?

But all of this will make some people feel better about travelling, and I think that’s the real point, because the appearance of doing something is often better than doing something.

The touching of junk: How far will the TSA go?

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As the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) moves to more invasive forms of screening, they’re getting some push back from pilots, attendants, civil rights activists, and citizens. Some people are saying enough is enough, but once you’ve given away freedom for the promise of security, it’s hard to know where to stop.

I read a novel that described how a prostitute was “turned out”. A woman meets a great guy, until one day he gets into trouble and owes someone a great deal of money. In exchange for the money, that person is willing to accept sex. The great guy tells his girlfriend his predicament and she bails him out – just that one time. Once she has slept with one guy for money, she’s damaged goods, and she does it over and over again.

We’re that prostitute; the first time a traveller took off their Nikes so that they could be checked for a bomb, we proved that we were willing to sell ourselves for safety – and the government, like a pimp, keeps coming back to us for more. The day that a terrorist smuggles a bomb aboard by hiding it in his anus, we’ll be grabbing our ankles and they’ll be grabbing the lube. All in the name of safety.

There’s a great quote from Benjamin Franklin (actually there are  a lot of great quotes from Benjamin Franklin):

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

So how far are you willing to go?

Run the bums in

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Tomorrow we get our chance to voice our displeasure with bad leadership. The expectation is that we will “run the bums out” it record numbers; it’s deserved. The performance of our leaders has been abysmal. But it’s not enough to just run the bastards out. We need to be careful about who we run in.

I cannot believe the candidates that have been run out there as serious candidates. And people are so anxious for change, they don’t even seem to care what the change to.

On the way home today I saw a Jon Runyan around the corner from my house. I live in Pennsylvania. Runyan is running in New Jersey. People aren’t even paying attention.

For all of the reasons there are to bring in some fresh blood, there are just as many reasons to be careful. There are some dangerous candidates out there. This Congress is the worse that we’ve ever seen – only to be surpassed by the next Congress.

Don’t run out the bums, only to replace them with newer bums.

Don’t vote based on your affinity for witches, football players, or attack ads, because you’re bound to be disappointed. Do your research; get out and vote on Tuesday, and only vote for the other guy if he’s in fact better.