My husband and I spent the month of September in Palau, a tiny Pacific island nation near Micronesia, shepherding 10 university students on a travel course titled "Sustainable Development in Palau." We spoke with many government officials, non-governmental leaders, and business owners. We even attended the new President’s inaugural picnic on a paradise-perfect beach under swaying palm trees.
It was a wonderfully successful educational adventure, enhanced by Palau’s natural beauty, the warmth of her people, and the hopeful spirit that pervades the country. Palau held its federal elections the same time we did, but unlike the U.S., the country elected a President and (woman) Vice President who believe in, and talk about, sustainable development. Palau has an official population policy. Yes, Palau faces serious problems: the onslaught of western lifestyles (most noticeably too many cars and too much garbage), lack of good health care, haphazard harmful development. But environmentalists there are very hopeful that they can get a national vision to develop village-level economic projects that will benefit Palauans, and also protect their beautiful tiny islands from greedy outside investors.
We returned home to a large, powerful, and wealthy nation positioned to lead the world, but unwilling to address some of the most basic issues of sustainability. California’s energy crisis should come as no surprise. Its 33 million people racing towards 50 million and beyond, combined with no real effort to control consumption, insures that the state will exhaust not only its own resources, but those of its neighbors as well. The response of politicians and industry leaders? Heaven forbid we should have a thoughtful public conversation about population, consumption, conservation, and renewable energy issues. No, instead let’s build more expensive, polluting power plants, in a losing race to keep up with the demands of never-ending growth.
On his first day in office, President Bush banned all U.S. government funding to any international family planning organization that even talks about abortion. Fact: The U.S. government has not allowed any of its international funds to be used for providing abortions since 1973. Yet Bush justified his action with the words " . . .taxpayer funds should not be used to pay for abortions . . .." I don’t know what’s worse, his ignoring the facts, or news reporters repeating his words without also stating the facts. Let’s stick to the facts. Fact: Family planning lowers the incidence of abortions. Women don’t have abortions for fun. Abortions occur either because of violence (rape), serious illness, or a failure of family planning. Once again, an abortion is a failure of family planning. Statistical evidence worldwide proves that where family planning is strong, abortions are rare. So if one really opposes abortions, it would only be logical to greatly increase family planning funding.
I’m sure the President meant to do just that, so I’ve decided to help him. Following the advice of columnist Patt Morrison (Los Angeles Times), I have made a donation to the cause requesting it be in his honor. I have sent a card to the White House that reads, "President George W Bush, a donation has been made in your name to Planned Parenthood International."
