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[Sonya Renee at the Individual World Poetry Slam Finals 2006]

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Culturally diversified bi-racial girl

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with a small diamond nose ring and a pretty smile

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poses beside the words "Women Deserve Better".

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And I almost let her non-threatening grin begin to

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infiltrate my psyche til I read the unlikely smallprint at the bottom of the ad:

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"Sponsored by the US Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities and the Knights of Columbus"

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on a bus in a city with a population of 563,000

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4 teenage mothers on the bus with me.

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1 Latino woman with 3 children under 3 and no signs of a daddy.

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One 16 year old black girl

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standing in 22 degree weather

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with only a sweater and a bookbag and a basinette with an infant that aint even 4 weeks yet

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tell me that yes, women do deserve better.

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Women deserve better than

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public transportation rhetoric from the same people who wont give that teenage mother a ride to the next transit.

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Wont let you talk to their kids about safer sex.

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Have never had to listen as the door slams behind the man who adamently says that shit aint his.

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leaving her to wonder how she'll raise this kid.

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Women deserve better than the $300 TANF [Temporary Assistance for Needy Families] and AFDC [Aid to Families with Dependent Children ] will provide that family of 3

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Or the $6 an hour job at KFC with no benefits for her new baby

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or the college degree she'll never see because you cant have infants at the university.

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Women deserve better than lip service paid for by politicians

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who have no alternatives to abortion

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though I'm sure right now one of their 17 year old daughters is sitting

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in a clinic lobby sobbing quietly and anonymously

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praying parents dont find out

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or is waiting for mom to pick her up because

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research shows that out of wedlock childbirth dont look good on political polls and Bush aint havin that.

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women deserve better than patchwork governmental policies

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that dont want to pay for welfare for kids

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or healthcare for kids

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or childcare for kids

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dont want to pay living wages to working mothers

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dont want to make men who only wanna be last nights lovers responsible for the semen they lay

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Just flat out dont wanna pay for shit.

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They want to control the woman who's having it.

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Acting outraged at abortion

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Well I'm outraged that they want us to believe that they believe that women deserve better

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the Vatican wont prosecute pedophile priests

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but I decide I'm not ready for motherhood and its condemnation for me?

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These are the same people who wont support national condom distribution

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to prevent teenage pregnancy

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but women deserve better.

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Women deserve better than back alley surgeries that leave our wombs barren and empty

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deserve better than organizations bearing the name of land stealing, racist, rapists

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funding million dollar campaigns on subway trains

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with no money to give these women

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while balding middle aged white men tell us what to do with our bodies

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while they wage wars and kill other people's babies.

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so maybe women deserve better than propaganda and lies to get into office.

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Propaganda and lies to get into panties

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to get out of court

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to get out of paying child support

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GET THE FUCK OUT OF OUR DECISIONS AND GIVE US BACK OUR VOICE

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Women do deserve better

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Women deserve choice.

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[cheers]