Takin' It to the Streets

Protests this Saturday all over South Carolina

I went to college at the University of Northern Iowa, in Cedar Falls, and one of my closest friends was from Wisconsin, so let me tell ya, I’m channeling that upper Midwest accent and history of commitment to progressive causes to celebrate Susan Crawford’s win against the millions and minions of Musk right now.

It’s nice to get a little good news to buoy the spirits, and between the Crawford win and Senator Cory Booker dethroning South Carolina’s own (vampire) white supremacist Strom Thurmond for having the longest speech on the Senate floor, I feel like we’re finally shifting into fight mode. This weekend there will NOT be organized protests in Greenville or Charleston (in Greenville, there’s the iMAGINE STEAM festival for kids from 11-5 and in Charleston, it’s the Cooper River Bridge Run, with tens of thousands of runners crossing the Ravenal Bridge). I’ll be among the throngs of runners, slowly run/walking and taking in the views while my three other (much faster) mom friends compete for age group glory.

I’ve yet to find any of our organizers paid by George Soros (really, a hilarious dismissal of protestors when Musk is literally giving people a million dollars to vote), but I have found them to be very conscientious about not planning protests that disrupt kids learning about math and science or people trying to run a 10k over a very steep bridge. There are many other protests planned for Saturday, in Anderson, Columbia, York/Rock Hill, Spartanburg, and Summerville, among others. In the absence of our SC state legislators working for us, and our SC Congressional delegation sabotaging the entire American experiment, protest might be our main political force right now. Be sure to be safe, and channel the spirit of John Lewis, as Booker said as he yielded the floor: “This is a moral moment. It’s not left or right. It’s right or wrong. Let’s get in good trouble.”

The SC House resumes debate on the racist anti-DEI bill today after it was delayed by a week. More than two-thirds of the Republicans in the House proudly put their names on the bill as co-sponsors. Representative Jermaine Johnson delayed a visit to his father recovering from brain surgery to call out his colleagues:

White Southerners like the ones Johnson works with love pretending they’re not racist because they’re “friends” with Black people, meanwhile blatantly supporting white supremacists and their initiatives. Le plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose, I guess.

In the SC Senate, a bill which would provide even more state support to the churches disguised as medical facilities otherwise known as crisis pregnancy centers advanced out of the finance committee. These fake facilities, which prey on the vulnerable, should be illegal what with their violations of HIPAA and determination to get those babies born so they can steal them for the righteous childless couples out there, but instead South Carolina gives them tax dollars to operate. In Laurens County, where I teach, they even donated public lands to build what they’re calling the Upstate Pregnancy Center. For now, they’re solving the structural poverty facing women and children by handing out a couple of packs of diapers a month, and haven’t yet built the center, but when and if they do, I’m sure our college students will be a target.

My favorite thing is the fake feminism behind all these initiatives—let’s look like we give a shit about women dying childbirth by spending millions on facilities designed solely to talk women out of considering abortion. The bill is called the “Pregnancy Resource Act” LOL. Meanwhile, our governor’s attempts to punish Planned Parenthood and make sure poor patients can’t access the actual medical treatment Planned Parenthood provides has made it to the U.S. Supreme Court, which for some reason took up the case this year, despite every lower court blocking South Carolina’s attempts to take away the 80k (literally, that’s it) of Medicaid funding Planned Parenthood South Atlantic was receiving.

You’ll love this, though. The lawyer for Alliance Defending Freedom (reader, they are not defending freedom) said poor people don’t even need to worry because they have PLENTY of options:

“If the Supreme Court rules in South Carolina’s favor, Bursch, the Alliance Defending Freedom attorney, said Medicaid patients can instead access family-planning services at publicly funded health care clinics instead of the Planned Parenthood clinics in Charleston and Columbia. The state has 53 public health clinics that offer family-planning services, 32 federally qualified health centers and 14 Title X federally-funded family-planning clinics, including Planned Parenthood’s Columbia clinic.”

But guess what Trump and Buds just did? They just cut Title X funding! And obviously they’re gunning for Medicaid, so I guess all these South Carolina girls and women should just have a home birth in a church or something.

BREAKING: The Trump Administration Freezes $35 Million in Title X Funding

Just having schools in church is our state superintendent Ellen Weaver’s solution to us losing all our federal funding for education, too. Boy these places of worship are going to be busy, with educating and turning over immigrants to ICE!

Here’s the link, donate to ACLU-SC while you’re at it.

Obviously our lives are literally on the line, so if you’re not running or taking kids to learn about science while they still can, get out to protest, be safe, and make some good trouble.