Angie on TV & Radio

I've done several podcast appearances lately, and haven't provided any of the links (oops!) so let me amend that now.

I was on the ThinkAtheist radio show hosted by my good Twitter buddy @Synthaetica (or Synth for short) a couple of times. The February 28th episode on "The Week in Review" is here. I was also on the March 7th episode.

I was invited on Third Wave Radio and Infidel Guy, but neither show has put up the audio yet. (Sad face goes here.)

Issues for Your Tissues, hosted by Katie Vitale, did two episodes on the #livetweetingabortion issue. For the first episode, Mary Ann Sorrentino (whose slut-shaming "abortion is irresponsible but I'm a pro-choice warrior, really!" piece appeared on Salon.com) came on to explain her viewpoint and reveal her ignorance of how Twitter works. Yesterday, I was able to respond and Katie has already uploaded that audio. (Thanks Katie!)

As for mainstream media, here are my TV spots for ABC News and CNN (stupid embedding disabled by request!)

That's all for now folks!

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I love my sister

I called my prolife evangelical Christian sister yesterday, to tell her about the whole "public abortion" thing before she saw it on the news. Frankly, since we're Facebook friends I thought she might already know, but somehow the *entire* thing had escaped her attention. (To give credit where it's due, she has a thriving small business, loving husband, and adorable daughter to care for, so maybe Facebook isn't where she spends all her time.) Here's what she said to me.

"Well, you know I am prolife and I'll probably cry when I get off the phone, but I love you and I'll always support you."

Go show her some love and browse the sexy costumes, wedding gowns, corsets, and custom-fit bras she's known for!

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Media Circus

Um, is it me or did the world just kinda flip its lid? Every other email calls me a whore* or a hero. An ABC News team was here a couple days ago, and the piece should air on tomorrow night's news (2/28/2010). I've done interviews, plural. A guy from the St. Pete Times talked to me for over an hour yesterday, and I'll be the lead in a larger piece on the TMI question regarding social media. (If you don't wanna read it, don't read it. Just like the rest of the internet. Why is this so hard to grasp?)

I don't think it's right to call me a hero. I think there was a lot more naivety than heroism in my initial decision to tweet this. It wasn't even that conscious of a choice - I tweet everything. I write about everything. The rewards of honesty, in terms of a personal sense of "wholeness", can't be adequately described. No one can hurt me because, everything they know is something I chose to reveal about myself. No matter what they do with that (including writing a so-far 7 post long series decrying me as an evil mentally disturbed skank, ala Jill Staneck, she in desperate need of a good lay) it's not... real.


Once I realized that taking the advice of a bunch of middle-aged unhappy divorced women (ahem, "family") on whether or not I should get married at 23 was a really stupid thing to do, I started to consider the source of feedback more seriously. There are some people in this world who's good opinion I desire - they are my son, my boyfriend, my friends (Christian, atheist, Muslim, Wiccan or Satanist). Even there, my two closest girlfriends are both somewhat troubled by my decision to abort - one because she is pregnant herself right now, and has decided to give her life a complete makeover to prepare for a child she never planned on having; the other because she is an orphan, and has always craved family. I can't fault either of them for their discomfort with my decision, and both have remained supportive to me personally, if perhaps a little distant right now.

This entire reaction has been so out-of-proportion and insane. I've written about illegal drug use, sex, spousal abuse, child abuse, crazy cult stories, personal foibles and failings, and most of all, I've talked smack about Baby Jesus. Yet the reaction was minimal. People might tell me I was misunderstanding the Bible, or else that I was going to hell, but no one suggested I should be physically hurt for my views.

Maybe coming out as an atheist, and longer ago as bisexual, set me up for false expectations. I didn't see this as being more controversial. I know several pro-choice Christians, and I assumed more people were pro-choice than atheist, for example. Abortions are really common, right? And a first trimester abortion, to save the life of the mother, that's supposed to be the kind that every reasonable person supports, right?

Wrong. Apparently I'm a murderer, a killer, a Nazi, Hitler (also, from another "prolife" advocate, I'm apparently a "dirty jew"[stet].) I've been told I made my choice when I "opened my legs", "dint giv him the brown hole[stet]" or "have dude cum on youre ugly face". People threatened my son, insulted him, called me a child abuser and told me I don't love my kid. (One threatened to call child services, under the mistaken impression, one supposes, that abortion is illegal, or child abuse.)

When people say I'm a hero for talking about this, I think they assume I knew what I was getting into. I didn't. Maybe it's because I only really started watching the news during the presidential campaign, and since the election ended, I've only watched sporadically, but I didn't expect this. I knew some people would call me a baby killer, sure. But for the first two days, before I put up my Abortion YouTube video**, I didn't think I was talking to anybody I didn't always talk to.

The media attention has been somewhat overwhelming. I'm just doing something women do everyday. Abortions aren't rare, and when they're legal, they're safe. Maybe it's because I'd spent the days leading up to my clinic visit reading ImNotSorry.net, but I honestly didn't realize that *no one* talks about their abortions. It's been pretty baffling to me, considering how many illegal things people can and do talk about every day.

I've been compared to an antebellum slave owner, a Nazi soldier, a pedophile, and a god. All because I said, "Hey, I don't wanna be pregnant anymore. I'm gonna have a (legal) abortion."

Maybe I'm naive or maybe I just can't tap into black-and-white thinking anymore like I used to. I still can't completely get my head around why people flipped their lids like this. The media are acting like what makes this story interesting is the setting, Twitter. They're missing the point. If women talked about their abortions - on TV and in books and in women's magazines and with each other, and with our significant others and friends and children - then tweeting one wouldn't be a big deal. When people say, "You shouldn't tweet about an abortion" I can't help but feel what they really mean is, "You shouldn't talk about abortion."



















* Well, actually they usually write it WHORE!!
** Since I posted this video 5 days ago, it's had over 49,000 views. What is going on with the world? 1/3 American women have abortions.

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Iran: Weekend Update

There's more information coming in than I can track. I'm trying to verify everything (as best as I can) before posting here or retweeting (RT) on Twitter.com. For pretty well verified, constantly updated information check out Nico Pitney's LiveBlog. For other interesting sites, information, etc.
Check out the following:

Time Mag re: How Obama Should Respond

Time Mag re: Neda Becomes Cause (explains Shiia martyrdom and mourning history)

Mother Jones eye-witness account of Police and Workers Aid Demonstrators

Search Engine Journal re: How to Follow Iran Online

Press TV (Iran State media source) re: Parliment Speaker criticizes Guardian Council

BBC re: Today vs. 1979

Guardian Weekly eye-witness account

Press TV re: Ahmidenijad thanks Leader for Support

One blogger's approach to Get Info INTO Iran

I'm off to tweet #IranElection. Best wishes, safety, and freedoms to you all.

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Iran!

Here's what I'm obsessively following and doing.

Tweeting
Check out Five Ways Tweeters can Help Iranis. These pertain to passing on reliable information, helping with secure IPs, etc. I'm personally RTing (or "re-tweeting") only critical information, such as a map to the foreign embassies in Tehran that are protecting and treating injured protesters, information regarding secured IPs and anonymizers, First Aid insutructions (English and Farsi/Persian) for bullet wounds, chemical burns, and broken bones. I am NOT making statements of a political nature - I am keeping in heavy circulation items that relate to the safety of the peaceful protestors, and their right to have their voice heard without threat of bloodshed. But seriously, focus on First Aid stuff and don't get too swept up in "Allah o Akbar". Especially if you're one of MY readers...

Keeping up with Nico
If following #IranElection on Twitter is way too intense for you (literally hundreds of new tweets each minute) Nico Pitney at Huffington Post has been LiveBlogging the Uprising for days. This is an excellent resource and through volunteer Iranian-Americans, most of what Nico posts has been translated into English. His reporting seems to be pretty well confirmed information (and NOT some of the fear-inspiring rumors shooting around right now).

Trying to Understand
BBC article "Consequences of Engaging Iran"

Tehran Times (state media) claims "Police Were Lenient"

NY Times Op-Ed by Roger Cohen (Brilliant - definitely worth reading.)

As always when posting about current events, tragedies, or personal times of woe, I must mention that I don't believe in prayer. If you wish to do so for the people of Iran, of course that is your RIGHT. But I entreat you, please, DO something as well. Even if it's just keeping track of things, trying to understand our fellow homo-sapiens across the globe, or Tweeting first aid tips.

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I've been up to my eyeballs in Tehran, Iran, Mousavi, Ahmedinejad, Khomeini, Twitter, Facebook, and everything else quasi-revolutionary. I could say something either pithy or profound about the consequences of theocracy, me being an antitheist and all. But I tell you, I am to stunned. I am watching this the way I watched the 9/11 footage. I am reading tweets, and can't keep up with the #IranElection posts. By the time I've read 5, another 400 have come in. But what was posted within 20 SECONDS summarizes for me the bravery, stakes, risks, injuries, and threats being endured by the Opposition people of Iran.

tanyanoel: RT from Iran ! CHEMICAL BURN FIRST AID http://bit.ly/Za5k5 (expand) #IranElection #Tehran #Mousavi #GR88 #iranelections #iranelection #freeiran

bocateacher: RT IRAN : Shiraz Is A City Under Fire. Full Blown Riot (Confirmed) #IranElection

inkcanada: RT from Iran SPREAD THE WORD IF YOU FIND BASIJ MARKS ON YOUR DOORS JUST CLEAN IT WITH BENZIN/PETROL!! #IranElection #Iran #Tehran #Mousavi

reemiireem: RT from Iran: was a nightmare, I can barely breath & my face is burning, friend shot in the arm & friend's brother is missing #IranElection

eadvocate: FIRST AID: CPR: http://is.gd/15sNQ (expand) , Broken Bones: http://is.gd/15sNR (expand) Gunshot Wounds: http://is.gd/15sNS (expand) #IranElection #Tehran #iranelection

samsafay: URGENT! REPORTS Police blocking people tryign to go to Embassy - BASTARDS!#IranElection #Tehran #Mousavi #GR88 #iranelections #iranelection

claret63: RT@WeStandAs1RT RT! CHEMICAL BURN FIRST AID http://bit.ly/Za5k5 (expand) #IranElection #Tehran #Mousavi #GR88 #iranelections #iranelection

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