A Menu of Choices…Not just for Restaurants

Food
Alcohol
Cigarettes
Spouse
Friends.
Not relatives!
Religion
Career
Morals
Geography
Vehicle
Education
Children
Pets
Exercise

In life, we are constantly making choices. Some choices we agonize over and some choices we instinctually make without thought. We base our choices on nature AND nurture. Some choices are biological and some are taught. Wars are fought over choices that two individuals make, two countries make, two religious groups make. These wars ignite when either of the two do not respect the other’s prerogative to live with their choices. There are many of us, even in this country of “liberty” who feel that those who do not make the same choices as we do are ignorant, stupid, going to hell, not saved, “up tight”, out of touch, immoral, bigoted, anti-Semitic, homophobic, liberal, exhibitionist, introvert, conservative…and so on.

None of us is more right than the other. We need to accept other individuals’ choices, not attempt to forcefully impose our choices on others. Not live in fear as a result of being uneducated and uninformed about another’s life choices. Appreciate the differences. Or as the French so perfectly put it…”viva la difference”…embrace the difference.

These two poems by Robert Frost embrace this laisez-faire philosophy and just happen to be my favorite poems..they say it all to me!

The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost
TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.


Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening, by Robert Frost
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

I would be doing a grave injustice if at the commencement of the DNC Convention, I did not include this part of the platform that speaks to choices. I base my choices on information and education. I look at facts and of course emotion! What I personally would do for myself…is just that..it is personal and it would be my choice as is every other individual able to make choices to fit their lifestyle and beliefs. I neither condemn nor approve their choices…they too are personal!

The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right.
The Democratic Party also strongly supports access to comprehensive affordable family planning services and age-appropriate sex education which empower people to make informed choices and live healthy lives. We also recognize that such health care and education help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and thereby also reduce the need for abortions.

The Democratic Party also strongly supports a woman’s decision to have a child by ensuring access to and availability of programs for pre- and post-natal health care, parenting skills, income support, and caring adoption programs.

Don’t Break Out the Champagne Just Yet
Below the Belt: A Biweekly Column by NOW President Kim Gandy
August 21, 2008