Category: social issues

About The Situation Around the Clinics

Now we know why the journalists ignored our requests not to come to the clinic: see the article.

It is very well written, and it rightly focuses on Alderman Conway’s activity, which we really appreciate! Also, valid concerns about the bike lane blocking and the noise level.

Here is a picture from the article:

That day, I was there. My shift was over at 9-30AM. I saw that the situation was getting worse, but I was just three days back from our trip, and Boris was arriving on the evening of that day, so I could not stay later.

One thing I forgot to mention in my previous blog: when I was staying at the street corner on a lookout, a lady who passed the clinic entrance earlier stopped by me and asked: how are you doing this? I didn’t understand the question first, and she repeated: how are you doing this? I still didn’t get it. She continued: how can you keep doing this and not get mad? I won’t be able to do it! I would kill them! I said: I understand! But that’s why you are not doing this :). We are here for the patients, to make a safe passage for them. She paused: yea, I can see that…

To my point – that’s not the place to express your feelings towards antis. But the article is good 🙂

Mega March for Ukraine on August 26 – please come!

Event details here

On 32nd Anniversary of Ukraine’s Independence Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, Illinois Division calls on all the communities to participate in the Mega March UKRAINE-UNBREAKABLE NATION. We will start at the Congress Plaza Garden 501 S. Michigan Ave at 3:30pm, march will end with a program on the west end of Riverwalk (upper Wacker & Orleans/Franklin. For Sponsorship opportunities and inquiries please email at info@uccaillinois.org or inquire via messenger

Clinic Escort, And All Thing Related

I saw this map in Time Magazine, and it’s terrifying: look at Illinois surrounded by states where abortion is banned or restricted. So we are in the center of public interest. I get it.

Last Saturday, a group of reporters from one of the city’s progressive newspapers came to the clinic at the start of our first shift. As I was told, they were asked not to come, but they came anyway. And just so you know – the situation is increasingly bad there. The number of antis is growing; they are loud and intimidating.

I understand that many people are outraged. However, for some reason, they don’t understand the difference between an anti-abortion rally and escorting. For the first event, you want as many people as possible; you want to be loud and visible. But when you are escorting patients to the clinic, you want the opposite. I can’t even start telling you how many bad things happen when counter-protesters start to attack antis by a clinic. Recently, we were asked not to put anything regarding escorting on our social media; that’s how bad things have become.

So, friends – it’s not a field trip.

CTA Accident

Just found out that I didn’t publish this post on Sunday when I wrote it (and was wondering why everybody reacted to my lost nail, and nobody reacted on this one). Anyway, publishing it now.

Today, we went to the matinee performance of West Side Story in the Lyric Opera. “Us” included me, my mom, and my neighbor. I chose a matinee performance for this show a long time ago because I thought that that was the show that my mom would enjoy.

She did; she liked it to the extent that she didn’t make any negative comments. But I wanted to share something else about this outing.

Most of the time, I try to take Uber when I take mom out; however, the last couple of days were impossible with all the road construction and Taylor Swift concerts, so after consulting with my neighbor, I decided that we would take the Red line and then a bus to Lyric opera. 

We started way in advance, and the train was on time. However, as it often happens on the Red line, a person asking for “some change” appeared. I give to people on the streets most time, but I never give on the CTA, because that’s a violation, and there are many other places where people can ask for money.

I ignored the requests. Requests turned into hysterical crying (Anybody! Anybody! Any change!!!) Since this is not an unusual scene, and since I had mom with me, I didn’t pay much attention to the development of the event, and the next thing I realized (after the fact) was that this woman tried to commit suicide and managed to almost completely open the doors while the train was running.

The CTA crew stopped the train, then they came and escorted this woman to the front of the train and called for police assistance. We were very close to Sheridan station, but we could not move until the train crew received confirmation that the police arrived and were ready to take this person into custody.

We sat there for 25 minutes with the train engine off (and consequently the A/C off). I was afraid that we would be late (my neighbor was waiting for us by the Lyric entrance), but also, this whole situation was so horrible and hopeless…

Asylum-seekers and racial tensions in Chicago’s Black neighborhoods

Over the past few months, Chicago has been dealing with waves of migrants from Central and South American countries, many of them bused in by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. The African-American backlash to the  proposal to set up shelters in majority-Black Woodlawn and, more recently, majority-Black South Shore has been covered extensively on the news, but the migrants have been arriving in the Austin  community area as well.

Continue reading “Asylum-seekers and racial tensions in Chicago’s Black neighborhoods” →

May 1

I went to the new plaque dedication at the Haymarket Memorial. The weather was miserable, so unfortunately, it was hard to feel May-Day-like. Probably, a part of it was that I was not that much in the May Day mode because of a conference and all other professional things going on. So, there won’t be a proper MayDay post, but at least some pictures of this very rainy event are here!

Fighting Forward!

It used to be an annual Planned Parenthood fundraiser celebrating yet another anniversary of Roe/Wade. This year is different- for the first time, the defenders of reproductive rights gathered after Roe/Wade was gone.

Despite that, the event was very elevating, and I left the event inspired. Everybody is determined to fight relentlessly to defend women’s bodies and the right to choose.

Dick Durbin
Jennifer Welch

Antis were blocking the way to the venue (anything new?!), although not that many. And escorts were protecting the guests :). I thought I would be alone (I didn’t share my plans with anybody), but I met two escorts who invited me to sit together, so it was even more enjoyable.

The only time I attended this event before was in 2016 when I got discounted tickets for my friend and me. This year I decided to give more to Planned Parenthood by buying a non-discounted ticket. And I also gave money during the event.

We will keep fighting!

Refugees

so… I easily could skip this notification from the NextDoor, but I didn’t. And once I saw the situation the people are in, I could neither just walk away, nor drop some donations and check it done.

After one week of doing my best to help (with moderate success), I have a couple of statements to make:

  • It is awesome that we have so many organizations that help refugees
  • It’s ridiculous, that the refugees are not informed about them, and that there is no centralized agency which would direct them to the right resources
  • This whole system of affidavits is wrong, and I do not know how to make it right
  • Last week, I mentioned on this blog that I wonder why none of my Ukrainian friends ever told me that “I do not understand their situation,” and at the same time, most of my friends in Russia tell me that I do not understand their sufferings. Now, I want to make a similar statement. Why a refugee, who was a poll watcher, received multiple threats, had her friends arrested, and finally fleed Russia, why she is saying: Ukrainian refugees do not want to talk to us, I totally understand, after everything we did… and at the same time, people who are currently in Russia are saying: why the whole world is against us, just based on nationality.

Also, I am exceptionally thankful to Anna, who jumped in and spent a good part of her weekend her helping; to Igor who jumped in on the first day and helped in many ways, and to my next door neighbors, who donated not the things which they wanted to get rid of, but the items which were really needed.

… And They Have Nothing!

I remember the post on Next Door I saw several months ago. The title of the post was “Refugees are here, and they have NOTHING!” The post described the situation in the Refugee center and how they need funds and lots of household items.

I bookmarked that post with the intention to come back later, to message the author, to ask what is needed most, and theт I didn’t. And I thought to myself that there are too many causes in the world, and I can’t address all of them.

What I saw yesterday, immediately reminded my about that post, because that’s how “have nothing” looks. I do not feel comfortable revealing details, even if I won’t mention any names, but let me say, I haven’t seen such level of desperation for a long time, if ever.

There is propaganda, and then there is this

Today, Russian State Duma changed the penal code to increase penalties for conscripts dodging draft, put in penalties for willingly surrendering to the enemy and reviving Soviet-era penalties against “marauding” (while also adding what would count as extenuating circumstances, which includes participating in the armed conflicts). And there are also supposed to be referenda on joining the Russian Federation in separatist-controlled parts of Donesk and Luhansk oblasti (the self-proclaimed People’s Republics), as well as the Ukrainian territories Russia occupied since the start of the war. The logic seems to be that, if Ukraine continues its advance, they would be attacking Russian territories, which would justify putting the country on war footing and partial mobilization. (As many people, including some pro-war commentators, have pointed out, the Russian Federation simply doesn’t have the infrastructure and the personal for the full-scale, World War II style national mobilization – then again, I can’t entirely rule out the Russian government trying it anyway).

The whole thing is flimsy as hell – but again, so is a lot of the spin coming out of Russian state media.

Continue reading “There is propaganda, and then there is this” →