WEBVTT 00:00:00.071 --> 00:00:06.702 [Sonya Renee at the Individual World Poetry Slam Finals 2006] 00:00:08.886 --> 00:00:11.179 Culturally diversified bi-racial girl 00:00:11.179 --> 00:00:15.047 with a small diamond nose ring and a pretty smile 00:00:15.047 --> 00:00:19.830 poses beside the words "Women Deserve Better". 00:00:19.830 --> 00:00:22.292 And I almost let her non-threatening grin begin to 00:00:22.292 --> 00:00:28.200 infiltrate my psyche til I read the unlikely smallprint at the bottom of the ad: 00:00:28.200 --> 00:00:35.434 "Sponsored by the US Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities and the Knights of Columbus" 00:00:35.434 --> 00:00:40.031 on a bus in a city with a population of 563,000 00:00:40.031 --> 00:00:42.725 4 teenage mothers on the bus with me. 00:00:42.725 --> 00:00:47.028 1 Latino woman with 3 children under 3 and no signs of a daddy. 00:00:47.500 --> 00:00:49.644 One 16 year old black girl 00:00:49.644 --> 00:00:51.149 standing in 22 degree weather 00:00:51.149 --> 00:00:57.260 with only a sweater and a bookbag and a basinette with an infant that aint even 4 weeks yet 00:00:57.260 --> 00:01:00.800 tell me that yes, women do deserve better. 00:01:00.800 --> 00:01:02.200 Women deserve better than 00:01:02.200 --> 00:01:07.849 public transportation rhetoric from the same people who wont give that teenage mother a ride to the next transit. 00:01:07.849 --> 00:01:10.774 Wont let you talk to their kids about safer sex. 00:01:10.774 --> 00:01:16.613 Have never had to listen as the door slams behind the man who adamently says that shit aint his. 00:01:16.613 --> 00:01:19.000 leaving her to wonder how she'll raise this kid. 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:24.335 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 00:01:24.335 --> 00:01:28.514 Or the $6 an hour job at KFC with no benefits for her new baby 00:01:28.514 --> 00:01:33.315 or the college degree she'll never see because you cant have infants at the university. 00:01:33.315 --> 00:01:36.781 Women deserve better than lip service paid for by politicians 00:01:36.781 --> 00:01:39.428 who have no alternatives to abortion 00:01:39.428 --> 00:01:43.236 though I'm sure right now one of their 17 year old daughters is sitting 00:01:43.236 --> 00:01:45.488 in a clinic lobby sobbing quietly and anonymously 00:01:45.488 --> 00:01:48.344 praying parents dont find out 00:01:48.344 --> 00:01:50.852 or is waiting for mom to pick her up because 00:01:50.852 --> 00:01:56.878 research shows that out of wedlock childbirth dont look good on political polls and Bush aint havin that. 00:01:57.124 --> 00:02:00.047 women deserve better than patchwork governmental policies 00:02:00.047 --> 00:02:02.300 that dont want to pay for welfare for kids 00:02:02.300 --> 00:02:04.197 or healthcare for kids 00:02:04.197 --> 00:02:05.884 or childcare for kids 00:02:05.884 --> 00:02:08.500 dont want to pay living wages to working mothers 00:02:08.500 --> 00:02:14.954 dont want to make men who only wanna be last nights lovers responsible for the semen they lay 00:02:14.954 --> 00:02:18.600 Just flat out dont wanna pay for shit. 00:02:18.600 --> 00:02:21.224 They want to control the woman who's having it. 00:02:21.224 --> 00:02:23.035 Acting outraged at abortion 00:02:23.035 --> 00:02:28.236 Well I'm outraged that they want us to believe that they believe that women deserve better 00:02:28.236 --> 00:02:31.162 the Vatican wont prosecute pedophile priests 00:02:31.162 --> 00:02:35.600 but I decide I'm not ready for motherhood and its condemnation for me? 00:02:35.600 --> 00:02:39.335 These are the same people who wont support national condom distribution 00:02:39.335 --> 00:02:42.029 to prevent teenage pregnancy 00:02:42.029 --> 00:02:43.900 but women deserve better. 00:02:43.900 --> 00:02:48.530 Women deserve better than back alley surgeries that leave our wombs barren and empty 00:02:48.530 --> 00:02:52.989 deserve better than organizations bearing the name of land stealing, racist, rapists 00:02:52.989 --> 00:02:55.311 funding million dollar campaigns on subway trains 00:02:55.311 --> 00:02:57.200 with no money to give these women 00:02:57.200 --> 00:03:01.255 while balding middle aged white men tell us what to do with our bodies 00:03:01.255 --> 00:03:05.017 while they wage wars and kill other people's babies. 00:03:05.017 --> 00:03:09.900 so maybe women deserve better than propaganda and lies to get into office. 00:03:09.900 --> 00:03:12.865 Propaganda and lies to get into panties 00:03:12.865 --> 00:03:14.165 to get out of court 00:03:14.165 --> 00:03:16.719 to get out of paying child support 00:03:16.719 --> 00:03:20.528 GET THE FUCK OUT OF OUR DECISIONS AND GIVE US BACK OUR VOICE 00:03:20.528 --> 00:03:22.400 Women do deserve better 00:03:22.400 --> 00:03:25.195 Women deserve choice. 00:03:25.195 --> 00:03:28.241 [cheers]