breastfeeding bothers conservative america

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15720339/ MSNBC.com Woman kicked off plane for breast-feeding Files complaint saying she was being discreet, airline disagrees The Associated Press Updated: 2:07 p.m. HT Nov 16, 2006 BURLINGTON, Vt. - A woman who claims she was kicked off an airplane because she was breast-feeding her baby has filed a complaint against two airlines, her attorney said. Emily Gillette, 27, of Santa Fe, N.M., filed the complaint with the Vermont Human Rights Commission late last week against Delta Air Lines and Freedom Airlines, said her attorney, Elizabeth Boepple. Freedom was operating the Delta flight between Burlington and New York City. Gillette said she was discreetly breast-feeding her 22-month-old daughter on Oct. 13 as their flight prepared to leave Burlington International Airport. She said she was seated by the window in the next-to-last row, her husband was seated between her and the aisle and no part of her breast was showing. A flight attendant tried to hand her a blanket and told her to cover up, Gillette said. She declined, telling the flight attendant she had a legal right to breast-feed her baby. Moments later, a Delta ticket agent approached and said the flight attendant had asked that the family be removed from the flight, Gillette said. She said she didn't want to make a scene and complied. "It embarrassed me. That was my first reaction, which is a weird reaction for doing something so good for a child," Gillette said Monday. A Freedom spokesman said Gillette was asked to leave the flight after she declined the blanket. "A breast-feeding mother is perfectly acceptable on an aircraft, providing she is feeding the child in a discreet way," that doesn't bother others, said Paul Skellon, spokesman for Phoenix-based Freedom. "She was asked to use a blanket just to provide a little more discretion, she was given a blanket, and she refused to use it, and that's all I know." A complaint against two airlines was filed with the Vermont Human Rights Commission, although Executive Director Robert Appel said he was barred by state law from confirming the complaint. He said state law allows a mother to breast-feed in public. The Vermont Human Rights Commission investigates complaints and determines whether discrimination may have occurred. The parties to a complaint are given six months to reach a settlement. If none is reached, the commission then decides whether to go to court. A complainant can file a separate suit in state court at any time. © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This sounds rather ridiculous to me. First off, it's a legal right for a woman to feed her child, whether in public or private, regardless of it bothering anyone. Second off, if it bothers anyone those people should be killed right now, because they obviously don't appreciate the gift of life their mothers gave them in birthing them and then breast-feeding them. Unless they're the non-breastfed type. Which would explain this sort of psychotic, anti-social reaction.

love is the answer

rereading entries whilst deleting them has made me re-realize how deeply i feel for blue...and how attached i was to her. and that may explain my clinginess with my boyfriend....emotionally, he's just blue's replacement.

i'm really fucked up.

remember, remember

so today is november 5th and the full moon, as well as my friend's 'expecting' date. i find it to be full of good omen...a remembrance of pagan traditions (burning man) as well as a celebration of revolution against tyranny. of course, i live in a place where it is illegal to set off fireworks on any day except new years or july fourth, so i will have to make due with a small beach fire tonight. because that's not illegal.

it's actually quite fitting...with the celtic new years just past, and the re-evolution that this day symbolizes, my plan to do a fire in which i burn all the negative things i don't want in my life, in order to make room for the positive things i do want. maybe a purely selfish way to spend such a day, but if i don't start with myself where should i start? besides, i could use more energy to do the things that are not selfish.

or perhaps just the strength of will to refuse the things i know i should--ie social life and fun--in order to do what's important--ie homework, writing, and activism. but it again boils down to that question of what's more important: personal happiness and a willful ignorance, or impassioned activism and absolute self-misery. they are both important--it's finding the ever-escaping-me gay psychic, it's achieving balance. it's having enough energy to do so.

and i find that i don't. and i end up swinging mostly to personal happiness, because it really is near-impossible to say no to my boyfriend. i'm not saying he's a bad influence--indeed, personal happiness can be a good thing to focus on if you're used to pushing it aside to make everyone else comfortable--i'm just saying i'm having trouble controlling myself.

and my emotions. i haven't taken my pills because mostly i don't need them, but then i have these wild mood swings every week or so, and they always catch me by surprise. so i take the pills and feel dulled down but not any happier. sr doesn't work as well as xl did for me. so i desperately try to stay happy, to stay afloat, at all costs, because i am happy. i am. this is not denial. i've just fallien into a 'used-to-it' happy that allows me to become upset at other things. the novelty has worn off; i've fallen back into old habits.

i feel too much, but the alternative is too scary. pure logic is pure evil. emotions dictate morals. that is why psychopaths are so scary.

but i do want to tone it down. to feel as much as i do but not show as much as i do.

i am tired of being a heart-on-my-sleeve girl.

hence this ceremony. hence the need for a change.

hence so much.