UNDONE~ WHAT TOO MANY OF US DON’T KNOW

I recently wanted to find statistics on missing women in the U.S. for 2016. I had watched Wind River and was disturbed that there are no statistics kept on Native American Women.

I couldn’t find anything. What I did find angered me.

Each year the FBI releases a report tracking crime statistics in the U.S. The first report under the Trump administration has 70% fewer data tables than 2015.

Some of the missing data concerns information on arrests, circumstances on homicides (relationships between victims and perpetrators) and the only national estimate of annual gang murders.

Statistics on age, sex, race or ethnicity are no longer part of the report. I find all of this scary.

WHAT TRUMP HAS UNDONE WHILE IN OFFICE

• Reversed a rule that would mandate oil and gas companies report payments to foreign governments. The Securities and Exchange Commission will no longer receive this information either.
• Repealed a bill that mandated employers maintain records of workplace injuries.
• Removed information about worker injuries from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration Website.
• Killed a rule mandating that government contractors disclose past violations of labor laws.
• Reversed an interpretation of the Civil Rights Act that provided protection to transgender workers.
• Revoked an executive order that mandated compliance by contractors with laws protecting women in the workplace. (Before 2014 a report found companies with federal contracts had numerous violations of labor and civil rights laws)
• Reversed a policy instituted by the Obama administration to expand punishment for College Campus sexual assaults.
• Withdrew federal protections for transgender students in schools.
• Cancelled a rule mandating that financial advisors act in the best interests of their clients.
• Cancelled the phase out of private prisons even with evidence of abuse and neglect of prisoners, specifically mentally ill inmates.
• Reversed an Obama ban on drilling for oil in the Arctic.
• Withdrew from the Paris climate agreement.
• Rescinded a limit on the number of sea animals that can be trapped or killed in fishing nets.
• Ended a rule banning dumping waste from mining into streams.
• Reversed a rule banning hunting bears and wolves. (The ban applied to federal refuges in Alaska and prohibited using specific hunting methods)
• Ended a State Department Office that oversaw international sanctions.
• Stopped funding some UN relief efforts and instead backed efforts by faith based groups and private organizations.
• Repealed a rule mandating that Internet service providers seek permission before selling personal information.

I don’t know about anyone else but too much of this makes me question so much my head hurts. How can any women still support this person? How can any human being with a moral compass support this person? Or is it me?

American Eugenics

Eugenics is something I knew went on in the past. I was surprised to find out it was still going on in some places in the United States. I am ashamed to call myself a human being because of it.

Eugenics is the compulsory sterilization of the “unwilling and unwitting people” in the U.S. starting in 1907.

These people consisted mostly of (their words not mine) the insane, the feeble minded, the dependent, and the diseased. These Compulsory Eugenic laws were adopted by over 30 states that led to more than 60,000 sterilizations of people they considered unsuitable to procreate. This did not stop until supposedly 1970. The state that used this the most was North Carolina. North Carolina’s Eugenics Board sterilized 7,600 people between 1930 and 1970.

The states thought these people were unable to regulate their own birth control so did it for them permanently. Once this was legitimized, for certain groups, it led to further divisions using race and class. Unfortunately this did not end in the 70’s.

In 2013 a report of incarcerated women found that around 150 of them were illegally sterilized in California prisons. The procedure would be discussed with them while they were giving birth or during another procedure so they would be vulnerable and perhaps under the influence of narcotics given during surgery.

California also didn’t follow procedure regarding who was to pay for these sterilizations. Another no no.

North Carolina became the first state to provide reparations in 2013.

Sterilization is still being used as a bargaining chip in some courtrooms. Often the woman doesn’t realize a tubal ligation isn’t reversible and agrees to the terms. Of the cases involving a man it is often a sex crime. Chemical castration doesn’t make the urge disappear, they just can’t act on it, they can still have power over their victims so the system isn’t really doing anyone any favors there.

The entire Eugenics situation needs to be investigated further. I have no doubt in private facilities it is done more often. You can’t stop something you have no knowledge of.