I am an American woman studying in the UK. When I speak to complete strangers they always ask if I am American or Canadian. I wish I could say Canadian.
They always ask; what am I doing here, don’t I miss my family, why did I leave America. Invasive questions for a stranger to ask. At the same time, all-of their questions have obvious answers. I am clearly in my early 20s in a town with a university. Of course I miss my mom, I haven’t spoken to my father in over five years, and America is on fire.
I come from Austin, Texas, meaning I have less body autonomy than a corpse. How, you may ask? Well a person gets to decide before they die whether or not they wish to donate their organs, even if they are a perfect match for a dying child. If, for whatever reason, they wish for their organs to remain in their dead meat sack their organs, legally, must remain and die in the meat sack. If a woman wishes not to donate their womb to a fetus to keep said fetus alive using their organs it’s too bad, they can’t have an abortion.
Will this ever be fixed? Who knows? The Supreme Court is a corrupt system where once you’re in you get lifelong tenure.
In fairness, the same could be said for all branches of government. There are no rules around candidates accepting donations. There is absolutely nothing keeping a presidential candidate from accepting money from oil companies and then enacting bills that aid oil companies like Chevron.
I was here in Bournemouth during the UK general election; and I found something incredibly interesting. The UK has more than one option. I had been receiving messages from the Democratic party in simple terms telling me to quit complaining about Biden being the candidate because it’s not like I have any other choice. Meanwhile the UK voted 16 different parties into its parliament. The US will be lucky if there are four different parties voted across the presidential, Congress and Senate elections.
Honestly, you are just spoiled for choice in the UK. I personally would love to be able to vote for Cornel West, an independent candidate formally part of the Peoples Party. His campaign announcement video gave the feeling of if Martin Luther King junior and Bernie Sanders had a baby. I would even take the Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver over Donald Trump or most Republicans. It’s the equivalent of saying I would rather have no government than one that has no respect for basic human rights.
I was asked to write an opinion piece about my view. I am genuinely at a loss. The system is so corrupt and rigged against change. It’s like Sisyphus trying to roll a rock up a hill. Except in this case, it’s people who are not straight white cis men screaming to be treated with respect and being told no.
In my opinion the issues I discussed should not be political issues, they are human rights. Politics should be about how we spend the money the government has to enrich people’s lives.
How do we raise everyone’s quality of life; not just the people who have gifted our politicians millions of dollars?
Images courtesy of Julia Apte.