Dear United States Senator

Dear United States Senators,

I am frustrated, angry - no make that enraged, and despite the last two years - incredulous. Our country needs leadership right now. We need leadership that will build bridges to peace, not further the already historic divide in our once great nation. The past two weeks what I have seen makes me sick. My heart is breaking tonight for our country's women, children and all marginalized people. The game of which party is bigger, better, or more deserving isn't serve any common interests, only self-interest. I'm so tired of the fighting, the adversity and the inability to see the big picture over the bickering between all of you. Shame on you! The Democrats used Dr. Ford the same way Norma McCorvey was used by the Pro-Choicers. A means to an end. Has anyone checked on her this week? Do you know how she is managing? Do you even care?

And Republicans, including and especially Donald Trump - you have used power over others yet again to get your way. This is not just about gender - it's about abuse of power. I am sick and tired or your platitudes on the value of life. If you valued women, we'd have access to insurance that covered birth control and equal pay to that of men. Do you know how many sexual assault victims commit suicide? According to Rainn, 33% of rape victims contemplate suicide, 13% actually attempt it.  Do you understand the permanence of that trauma to a person's psyche or do you just not care? Please help me understand how your inability to address the epidemic of sexual abuse is valuing life.

This is a pivotal moment in our country's history. We need leaders who can listen - not just to words, but to what actions are behind the words. Intonation. Respectfulness. Intent. Motive. Empathy.

We need leaders who can step back from the war between the Republicans and Democrats, the left and the right, the conservatives and the liberals, men and women, whites and non-whites and open the  lines of communication. We don't need more leadership that shuts down and uses power over others to get their way. This country has lost all its humanity for the taking of winning. America has lost it's soul.

I fear for my children. If we can't count on our nation's leaders to be a voice of reason, to evaluate and educate and listen to each other, we are truly rudderless. Judge Brett Kavanaugh demonstrated an inability to listen. He showed his bias against Democrats and liberals in a clear and angry fashion. Whether or not you believe Dr. Ford is no longer the main issue. If Judge Kavanaugh had any tenderness for his family or his country, he would step aside. He is not thinking of anyone but himself as he fights for his "right" to be a supreme Court Justice and he is certainly not acting in the best interests of our country with his paranoia about the left being out to get him. He is not capable of listening, of answering a question or showing respect. He is certainly not capable of being impartial. How can we ever expect him to be part of the solution to heal our wounded and disenfranchised people?

I hope you're proud of yourselves. I am disgusted. I thought we'd elected leadership for all the people. - leadership that recognizes the crisis we are in and wants to work to fix it. We need you to find a candidate who can facilitate that, not make it worse. You can do better. Our children deserve better. May the God you worship every Sunday have mercy on you when you meet your Maker. You're going to need it.

Sincerely,

Christina Haas

Common Ground?

Last week, I got a glimpse of what the world might look like if the opposing sides of the abortion debate were able to truly come together - not judging or labeling - and listen to each other.

My daughter’s soccer team played their last game of the season. It was a night game, the first night game I can remember in the two years she has been playing soccer. Making it more unusual, they were playing a parochial school in our neighborhood, less than a mile from our house. 

The evening started off with a good part of the girls’ soccer team congregating at our house for pizza before the game. The girls’ laughter filled not just our yard but our neighborhood as they climbed into their cars to head over to the game. The neighbors smiled, remembering their high school days, and waved good-bye and good luck as they drove down the street. 

I gathered my boys and our dog and we made our way through the neighborhood on foot to the game. It was a gorgeous fall evening. 

I had never been on the campus of this school before that night. I was surprised to see so many families at the game. I go to as many of my daughter’s soccer games as I can, but I had never seen a crowd like this before. It was like a huge tailgate party. 

My daughter’s team (the Mustangs) had played this particular team earlier in the season. It was a highly competitive team and the coach for their opposing team was especially loud in his coaching. As soon as I heard his thundering voice, I remembered the last game we played against them. Oh yeah, I thought, I remember THAT team.

The game started and I found myself feeling very alone in a sea of home team parents. My little dog didn’t know the difference between the home team supporters or the other side, though, and it wasn’t long before we made friends with the families seated on either side of us. 

Both sides played hard. At some point during the first half, I noticed that the home team’s parents would cheer for our Mustangs when they made a good effort. “Great job, Keeper” or “Nice pass, Red” were common praise that night. When the girls collided or knocked each other down, more than once I saw an opponent help her up and back to her feet. 

We lost the game by a score of 4-1. But that didn’t matter when it was all over. Photographs taken of the team that night after the game show that spirits were high, smiles beaming broadly. We were the opposing team on foreign soil, but what the girls and those Mustang parents on the sidelines supporting them felt was not separateness but togetherness. There was richness in the spirit of the event that night that brought the community of ALL observers together I have not felt in other games before.

That night left me with a feeling of hope for what we can achieve in a world where we give support to those around us, where we don’t cut someone down because they oppose us, but where we appreciate and accept them for who they are. I believe there is common ground for both sides in the abortion debate. Maybe one day we will be able to come together, without judgment or righteousness and truly make some progress for women and children in the world.  

Namaste.