When I think about FREEDOM, I think about CHOICE

This is a bit of a poetic rant I wrote back in June of 2009 after the same day that late-term abortion provider Dr. George Tiller was killed in Kansas and the Canadian Border Services Agency once again imposed it's oppressive forces on my home community of Akwesasne.

My heart is open. And it hurts.

Today, I field phone calls from family in Akwesasne. I'm back in Toronto. What can I do to support my courageous people who must continue to fight against the ongoing colonialism of the border in our own lands?

Tonight, the pregnancy options line rings again and again. I've been on the after-hours shift since last week, and starting yesterday faced with the imminent fear of hoping it's not a woman more than 22 weeks pregnant needing an abortion. I really don't know what I'm going to tell her.

First it was my people taking the international bridge to protest the brutality of the armed Border Patrol that made me think about freedom. Then it was finding out about Dr. Tiller's murder by an anti-choice vigilante that made me think about choice.

They have no right to do this. THEY HAVE NO RIGHT TO DO THIS.
I'm screaming inside.

And what I continue to think about is freedom. I'm thinking about choice.

Yet I'm being pulled in different directions to care about one issue or the other more. I'll tell you right now that it won't happen. I care about it all. I'm not picking one above the other since it affects everything I do. And why wouldn't it?

Since the way I see it, freedom and choice go hand in hand. And once freedom is threatened, so is choice.

So for tomorrow, I make no apologies to care about it all. And I invite you to stand with me to do the same.