Obama Reverses Bush abortion-funds Policy---What A Wonderful Surprise

          As a strong pro-choice advocate, I have to say I am very pleasantly surprised at this move; and on his second day!!!  I was under the belief that our new president was to the right of center and as happy as I was about his presidency, I had a lot of reservations about real change really happening. Maybe things are looking up after all.  I cannot wait to see what comes next. 

          I read a very interesting and informative blog piece about this issue on Beliefnet.com called Is Repealing the Anti-Abortion "Gag Rule" Actually a Pro-Life Position? by Steven Waldman, author of Founding Faith and Editor-In-Chief of Beliefnet.com. 

Here are some facts I found in this article:

1. The repeal will not fund abortions

2. The repeal will reduce number of abortions around the world

3. The repeal would prevent countless pregnancy-related deaths and illnesses worldwide.

4. The repeal would save the lives of countless children worldwide.

5. The repeal would fight the spread of HIV/AIDS and other STIs.

6. The repeal would restore a wide range of health services.

Messages for the New President!

          What an amazing moment to be a part of.  I need to go and get 10 copies of tomorrow's paper to save.           Today I attended the Obama Inaguration celebration at P.S. 132Q in Springfield, NY (Queens, NY).  It was held at the school's auditorium and what an electrifying moment is was to be sitting in a room full of children, most African American and knowing how this would be one day they will never forget.           

          When I came home I put Nora down and looked online for images.  Being a visual person, I wanted to see if there were any images that would encompass the day's emotions.  On Al-Jazeera News Online I found these great video messages from all over the world for our new president.  I think that is a great idea!  Perhaps I will try to find other links to these types of messages and bring them to this site.  

         I also found a great article about what MLK would have thought of President Obama. It is written by Glen Ford, the executive editor of Black Agenda Report, and here he explains why he rejects ties between the US president-elect and the iconic civil rights leader.  I agree with some aspects of this article, such as the fact that many (1) people often are unable to spell out President Obama's policy stances and (2) the fact that he has been silent about current atrocities and on the fact that (3) he's pretty much right of center on most of his policies. Having said all that I am hopeful that he will address some severely ignored problems and wish him the best!! 

Below are images from Kenya! Taken from Yahoo News/Associated Press