Planned Parenthood offers essential services to the women of Arkansas. Already, only 40% of all the counties in the state even have an OB/GYN, the closing of Planned Parenthood would diminish that even further. Consider- to actually see a doctor who specializes in women’s medicine, patients in Arkansas may have no alternative but to leave the state.

Furthermore, Planned Parenthood is the only organization that provides comprehensive sex education in Arkansas high schools. The curriculum focuses on abstinence, but also provides information about pregnancy, HIV, and other STIs. Without Planned Parenthood providing the curriculum and the tools, most high schools will simply stop teaching the subject.

In defunding Planned Parenthood, Arkansas adds more insult to injury to women who would choose to end a pregnancy. After their recent anti-abortion bill, which bans abortions starting at 12 weeks, the closure of Planned Parenthood may effectively end access to care within the incredibly short timeline left to those women. It is a clear violation of their constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy.

Write to the state representatives in Arkansas. Write to the governor. Do not let this stand.

It took from January 1, 2012 until today- April 9, 2013- for women to earn the same amount that men earned in 2012 alone. That’s more than a full three months of pay that women are being denied annually, simply because of their gender.

There are so many laws and corporate rules and social taboos that continue this problem. It’s against many company’s policies to discuss your salary with your coworkers and it’s considered rude to ask friends about their financial situations, so how can a woman learn what she SHOULD be earning, opposed to what she takes home?

We need real equal pay laws. Laws with teeth, with criminal penalties for companies that discriminate against women. We need to treat women with dignity and respect, not because any other person is in charge of caring for them, but because we are human beings.

Women, imagine that right now, every cent you’d earned in 2013 had been given to you when you earned it, last year. A full quarter of your income, denied to you. This is what is happening.

Write to the president. To your congressmen. Get angry. It’s Equal Pay Day, and it’s time somebody paid.

That’s right, in the Atlantan suburb of Nelson, Georgia, gun ownership is now compulsory.

The “Family Protection Ordinance” passed last week, and requires every head of household to purchase a gun and ammunition.

The fact that ammunition is also compulsory should show you that they expected all manner of peaceful protest to this kind of law.

What is most striking is the loopholes written into the bill to get you out of your compulsory gun ownership. If you’re a convicted felon, or have a history of mental illness.

That should sound familiar. Those same people who aren’t forced to buy guns are the same people that the majority of the public would prefer didn’t have access to guns in the first place. The same people who’s ability to purchase guns ought to be regulated.

So, gun control is bad, but forcing people (except the people who gun control is aimed at) to buy guns is good.

Glad we’ve got that cleared up.

For the first time, this year the students elected only one Prom king and queen, versus the “white” and “integrated” king and queen of years past. The king is white, and the queen is black. Yet, she is still banned from the “whites only” Prom.

Many of the students have worked to end this segregation, but the school is utterly uncooperative. That’s because the Proms are not sponsored by the school- they are entirely paid for by donations from parents and students. Therefore, the students who wish to end this so-called tradition have taken matters into their own hands. They picked a day, and began raising money to put on their own Prom for everybody themselves.

Still, students in the school tear down their fundraising posters, and many of the parents are vehemently resistant.

Next time somebody tells you that racism is dead, tell them this story.

North Carolina is ready to abandon this document. Two GOP lawmakers have brought forward a bill that allows the state to establish a state religion (presumably, their brand of Christianity). This bill is already backed by nine other Republicans, including the State House majority leader.

This is anathema to the American way of life, to every freedom that the United States has stood for since the Revolutionary War began.

North Carolina isn’t alone. Mississippi is trying to pass a law to allow them to nullify federal laws- presumably to the same effect. In order to enact their own theocratic ideals, rather than democratic ones.

Democracy means living in peace with people who might not agree with you. Not making their differing beliefs illegal, or legally inferior.

It this law passes, we may look back at it as the day America’s decline to dust began.

Originally, the bill was intended to protect first responders who might be exposed to HIV. Now, that’s all well and good, but in committee, the bill was modified. Now it can be interpreted to mean that any  person with HIV or AIDS could be removed from the public.

This is a severe infraction of the civil rights of any person. Most likely, these Kansas lawmakers don’t understand how HIV is spread. They seem frightened that proximity to HIV positive people is enough to spread the infection.

Our lawmakers need to be educated about issues before they begin writing laws about them. But regardless of the correctness of the science involved, writing laws that strip American citizens of their rights and liberties is always unacceptable. There is never a time when it is okay.

People of Kansas, write to your legislators. Don’t let them do this.

Thousands of barrels of crude oil has forced people from their homes surrounding Little Rock, Arkansas.

This is why there has been so much concern over the Keystone XL pipeline. This is the hazard of of pumping crude oil underground over hundreds and thousands of miles. These are real concerns.

Is it worth it to continue using a resource that we know is limited, that we know is hazardous to our environment, that we know is bad for life- both human and animal?

The conservatives in favor of these pipelines claim they’ll create jobs. But those jobs involve cleaning the wasted oil out of the back yards of unsuspecting Americans, are those jobs we really want to have?

There have long been debates about whether or not medicine should be a for-profit institution. If the purpose of medicine is to help people, how is it beneficial to force sick people to bid for the access to health? This is a real problem even here, where we take freedom from diseases like polio and tuberculosis for granted. More than half of all bankruptcies in the US are caused by medical bills. Many patients, upon learning they have cancer, have no choice. Die, or forfeit all you own.

Even among medical researchers, the debate rages.

This Novartis case is important because the courts chose the right to access to healthcare over the right to maintain control of intellectual property. They have said that when lives are at stake, profits are irrelevant.

Is this a good thing, or a bad thing?

If you are on the side of human life, it is an unequivocal good. On the side of free markets, it is a disaster.

Let’s hope this debate reaches our own shores with real-world consequences soon. It’s a debate that the millions of Americans in health-related bankruptcy would love to take part in.

This year, consider setting aside plastic grass, and instead using a renewable resource. You can shred old paper and recycle it afterwords, or you can use veggie straws for a healthier, edible grass.

Consider saving your plastic eggs for next year, rather than add them to our ever growing landfills.

Holidays are about family, and giving, and love. But that should not blind us to the dangers of wastefulness.

Additionally, you can put earth-friendly treats into Easter baskets. Flower growing kits, herb gardens, seeds… these all encourage a custodianship of the earth, as well as reminding us of the joy of spring.

This Easter, be kind to the earth as well as each other.

As expected, the four conservative justices (Scalia, Roberts, Thomas, and Alito) have made their position on marriage equality clear. Justice Scalia once famously compared gay people to murderers, and even supported throwing them in jail.

Also as expected, the four more reasonable judges (Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan) are on the side of equal rights for all Americans. Sotomayor has made her position on anti-gay discrimination very clear over the day’s proceedings- she finds it appalling.

Which leaves only the swing voter- Justice Anthony Kennedy.

His votes have been sometimes confusing. While he tends to side more often with the conservative judges, he has been known to take unexpected swings center left. And most importantly, he has a history as an advocate for equal rights for LGBT Americans.

He made it clear yesterday that his greatest concern regarding DOMA was that it overrides the individual states’ ability to make their own laws in this regard, and he seems to find that unconstitutional.

Hopefully, come June or July, we’ll know how he really feels. And we will be one major step closer to recognizing the rights of every American.