This is what we have to do to stop Motion 312, aka Woodworth's Wank. (Read the whole thing.)
“One of the things that happened in Idaho was that the legislators assumed people weren’t going to pay very much attention,” says Luther, who helped organize a social-media campaign against the bill. On the ground, Monica Hopkins, executive director of the ACLU in Idaho, agreed: “The public outcry is what killed this bill.” She pointed out that a 20-week abortion ban passed relatively quietly last year. “I think really it’s a nationwide trend that Idaho is participating in.”
Activists in other states that have successfully beat back anti-reproductive rights laws have noticed a similar pattern: A legislator says something terrible and condescending; women use social media to stoke nationwide outrage about the comment; and the legislators, cowed by the unexpected attention, back down.
We've already made a good start. The petition, started on March 22, already has more than 3300 signatures. It has a nifty feature: one can mouse over 'view' in the Comment column to read what people have added. A great many of them express shock, dismay, and disgust that we have to fight this battle again.
But, sadly, most Canadians are too distracted by their own troubles to pay attention. I mentioned this to my dentist's assistant the other day and she had heard nothing about it.
To put it bluntly, we have to make pains-in-the-ass of ourselves. Tell everyone. Bug the hell out of our friends, relatives, and co-workers to sign the petition, write to their MPs.
Continue writing blog-posts and tweets.
We cannot allow this crack to open even a nanometre.
Because this is what they have in store for us:
1 comment:
Well said, and thanks for the continued focus!
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