Red States and Blue Pills

Here’s a little bit of reflection on Tanzania, mixed with some cultural and political commentary (yes, I hear the groaning), ending with a great line from my hilarious sister.

One of the experiences that has stuck with me from Tanzania is the quiet strength of women in their culture. Their physical strength, carrying a remarkable amount of weight on their heads, was surpassed by the strength of their presence and character. The owner of Zara Tours, the company that owned the hotel where we staged for our trek, is a woman and while that was unusual in Tanzania, it was one small sign of progress on a continent that has posed immense struggles for women.

It was also a relief to spend two weeks in a country that had never heard of Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, or Newt Gingrich. Of course, everyone knew of Barrack Obama and we even saw a small roadside stand that said “Obama ’08” and, at the bottom, “The Hillary Clinton Shop”. It was unclear what the stand’s original purpose was or what the proprietor used to sell in the Hillary shop, but like all things done in “Africa time”, four years later there was no urgency to remove it .

After visiting a relatively progressive third world country, it was startling to return home and hear our GOP presidential candidates, each vying to be the leader of the free world, outmaneuvering each other to strip women of their right to make reproductive decisions, while supporting efforts to grant employers the power to deny insurance coverage for any procedure, prescription, or treatment that they have a moral objection to, including contraception. According to the United Nations, more than 200 million women worldwide who want to use contraceptives do not have access to them. Women in many developing countries walk miles to the nearest health clinic in search of birth control, only to return home empty-handed due to severe shortages. Yet, here in the most developed country in the world, where contraception is readily available, men are campaigning to become President on a platform that  declares outright war on women. As a very smart woman I love has noted, none of the Republican candidates are lobbying to have Viagra banned by insurance companies. Maybe it’s time to take away Rick Santorum’s little blue pill.

All of this leads to an email exchange with my sister, a progressive who happens to live in Tennessee. Our online conversation took place following the announcement that Rick Santorum had won the GOP primary in her home state. You should also know that my sister is one of the funniest persons in the whole wide world and that includes Bev, who everyone knows is pretty damn funny. (Oh, and before anyone gets all twisted in knots over this, I DO know that women vote Republican. Many of them are in their right mind. I also divorced one of them.)

ME: “Santorum? Really? You live among vey disturbed people.”

SISTER: “Um… yeah. Apparently Romney wasn’t religious enough.”

ME: “Since no woman in her right mind would vote for any of the Republican candidates (except maybe those who live under Taliban rule and don’t realize that the Stone Age is over), what really puzzles me is how the GOP kept all of the women in Tennessee locked up and away from the polling places on Election Day.”

SISTER: “They put aspirin between their legs and hence, couldn’t drive to the polling places.”

My sister is SO awesome.