Saw a wonderful production of Dirty Dancing yesterday at the Broward Center for the Arts. We bought their subscription this year and have been very pleased with the shows we have seen, liking most, one not so much, but the office was very cooperative in changing dates if needed. The plays seem to come a year before they come to Kravis, a tad upsetting, as we are so much closer to Kravis than Broward, but in the end it is fine. The theater is smaller than Kravis's Dreyfus and the audiences have been marvelously responsive to the actors. Worth looking into it for next year's calendar.
Yesterday's production was excellent. The actors were enthusiastic and the audience in a great responsive mood. After the play ended the cast came out into the audience. Nice. But what I found to be interesting to myself were the musings that arose during and after the play. 1963. The cusp of America losing its innocence. The loss of a widely admired young President who had galvanized the nation, especially the young. The new Camelot, the hopes for the future. Only if one looked very carefully and deeply did one see the shadows beneath, but there was a confidence and a pride in being American at that point. Nations listened when we spoke and yes, we were not always sensitive to the needs of others, but since when was that a big part of diplomacy?
There was a security and a confidence that we all had a future, Cold War, missile crisis and ever growing Vietnam notwithstanding. Boys were still doing their own doo wop and a - capella in the hallways and we all felt safe walking around, going to the beach by ourselves, on the trains, something which was lost by the time I grew up, got married and had kids of my own and it got progressively worse from then on. They met their friends but there was a lot more driving them around than I had. A lot less freedom of movement.
But look within and find the issues that tore the nation apart in many areas and which still remain, even though they should have been settled long ago. These issues, at least some of them, are to be found within the somewhat silly story of Dirty Dancing, yet maybe not so silly after all. Abortion, yes, that same issue now, that volatile volcano of an issue, was raised within the play and it is quite clear where the playwrights land. There should be a lawful and legal manner by which to arrange an abortion. The days of back alley abortions wherein so many died or lost the chance of future children needed to be gone and the newer laws need to now remain in place.
The paternalistic attitude of men who feel they must have control over women, over their very bodies, must be remedied. The arrogant attitude of those who believe that their religious beliefs take precedence over that of others, be it another religion or even none, must stop NOW, right in its tracks. Pray for others if one must, but perhaps a better way to avoid the need for abortions might be the education of our children, the acknowledgement that the partners in the creation of this fetus must be equally responsible, not just the one carrying the child and thus more visible to the world and for the care of a child were the fetus to come to term.
It is time to realize that these people who go to the extremes, who kill in the name of "saving" lives, those who demand that doctors be forced to say certain statements, that force someone to look at a sonogram of the fetus, those who make abortion for whatever reason or cause almost an impossibility for a lower economic woman but for the rich - no problem, just fly away to where it is legal. This must stop.
It is time for the anti choice people to realize that NO ONE is pro abortion; they are pro choice, the possibility must be there. Nor is it right for one to judge others. No abortion - but shame them? No abortion rights, no chance to choose - but no help either after a full term pregnancy and the needs that arise to raise a child, to feed, clothe, educate and simply care for it even as one tries to earn a living wage. Where is the help there? And if no help is forthcoming - and a few onesies and a crib do not begin to cover the lifetime need at all - then the choice is clear.
It is time for the anti choice people to realize that to decide to have an abortion, to make that choice, is one of the most difficult choices or decisions one must make. No one dances into a clinic. No one wakes up one day and says, "Oh, let's have an abortion today. I'm bored." No one wants this decision to have to be made. It is a choice that rends the soul, but a choice that often must be that way.
It is a problem area that could be eased a great deal if contraceptives were more readily available. Why is it that these "religious" companies are okay with covering Viagra or Cealis but not with pills or IUD's for women? Why is it not okay to make these contraceptives available at a clinic so that it does not come down to a choice of abortion or not? And why, oh why, is Planned Parenthood the target of a fake video, spliced together to look horrified at them? They provide much of the needed and necessary help and medical care to women and no, it is not only or even always pregnancy. Those who think that way are a part of the backwards, men driven thinking that that is what makes women tick, the main thing, and all else is just by the side. I myself have filled out Planned Parenthood yearly questionnaires as they track women's records and health through the years, learning what pills did to the body or what problems arise that women will need to take care of in later life or whatever other purpose they need to fulfill and no, most of us at the Planned Parenthood in NYC were not there for abortions but for aid and advice for other issues or simply to undergo a yearly exam. So why shut them down? Simple ignorance. Simple contempt for women.
This is the attitude which leads to sexual attacks on campus. To rape within marriage as "religious" leaders say that cannot be. To women in Africa and Asia exhausting themselves thru too many pregnancies, to having too many children and the lack of money and education and food and what else that a child needs to raise himself/herself in life to a better level. To the ugly and painful deaths of women forced to have an abortion in secret, with filthy tools and in filthy rooms, with liars and charlatans wreaking havoc on women.
There are more issues within the play. There are the issues of that generation breaking the mold, of moving away from the values of their parents, or losing patience with its snail pace advancement. It leads to hordes of the young roaming the country and setting up new centers within cities. It leads to the growth of a drug culture. And in the end, I am not sure what was accomplished for here we all are, members of that generation, and what has truly been changed or accomplished? Sometimes I feel that whatever was accomplished has either faded into the woodwork or been twisted into something else. The hatreds are still there. The violence against women is still there. The inequalities are still there and now they come with a backlash attached. The condition of our very little orb upon which we live is in even worse condition and so what has changed? You think about it. Depending on the day, one side or the other wins out but, BUT - we must not give in or give up - not in the outside world nor in here.
This is a time of year that is just meant for reevaluation and thinking. The Christians have
their Easter where their Lord was risen, giving them new hope. The Jews have their Passover, wherein they became the nation, or rather returned to their nationhood after centuries of slavery, regained their freedom and headed off to their Promised Land. There is optimism within this season. Let us make good use of it and do something, even a little bit, to make this world of ours a better place.
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