Dear Editor:
Women’s rights are a quintessential part of political decisions,which could not have been more clear in the recent presidential election. Women all over the country voiced theiropinion in support of reproductive health care.

Why is it that Ohio politicians are interested in eliminating thisprogress? Each woman is capable of making her appropriate health care decisionand should not be limited by legislation from a large group of malepoliticians. The voters spoke, but too many of our representatives in Columbusare not listening. What will it take for our message to be heard?

I am an Ohio college student and I personallyrely on Planned Parenthood for my own reproductive health care. As an aspiring medical student I spend mytime in the classroom, the lab, and on campus studying, leaving no time for ajob on the side. Therefore, I rely onthe services provided at the local Planned Parenthood to maintain properhealth. In addition, I have many peers withsimilar lifestyles and share the same concerns regarding the defunding ofwomen’s health care.

We will not stand for politicians—too many ofwhom are men—dictating our

Two weeks have passed since the night of the Rove meltdown and Romney's electoral loss. Like the days after a major sports championship, everybody has an opinion on two things: why victory was achieved this time and how victory can be achieved the next time. However, political reality is quite different than sports. Democracy is more than a game. And if our current democracy is a game, the people lost in 2012.

America is at best a minimal democracy. It functionally has two parties, one more than a dictatorship. It allegedly grants one person one vote each election, although this is not constitutionally guaranteed. Our elections fail to meet even minimal standards by allowing the racist suppression of votes that we thought was outlawed in 1965. What this election has made clear is that more than a small minority seek to erase 140 years of struggle from Andrew Jackson to Lyndon Johnson to secure and defend these most basic tenets of democracy: the right to vote.

Israel's military has in recent days attacked the Gaza strip with drones and F-16s, and has apparently been preparing for a possible ground war. Israel is using weaponry provided by the United States at the expense to U.S. taxpayers of $3 billion per year. Veterans For Peace member Doug Rawlings adresses the following statement to members of the Israeli military:

"I have been to where you are going. From my heart, I beseech you not to join me. In 1969, I was sent to Vietnam as a reluctant soldier, a draftee, who did not have the courage of my convictions. I chose to follow the orders of my government rather than to follow the dictates of my conscience. It’s been over forty years now, and I still remember the faces of the Vietnamese people who were victimized by my lack of moral autonomy. I became one of Pharaoh’s army, and, to this day, I have been wading through the miasma of that murderous indecisiveness. Had I heeded Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. instead of General William Westmoreland, I would have refused to serve as a pawn in my government’s immoral invasion and occupation of Vietnam.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- U.S. President Barack Obama's paternal grandfather arrived in Burma during World War Two as a Kenyan cook in Britain's colonial army, fighting Japanese invaders in horrific jungle conditions.

Today, people in Myanmar -- the country formerly known as Burma -- anxiously await the president's arrival during his Asia tour from Nov. 17 to Nov. 20 which also includes visits to Thailand and Cambodia.

Earlier U.S. involvement in the Buddhist-majority nation included visits by three Americans whose careers included the presidency.

But Mr. Obama will be the first to arrive as president in mainland Southeast Asia's biggest country.

He is proud of his ancestor's footsteps.

"Mr. Obama's grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama, served in Burma during World War Two with the 11th East Africa Division of the King's African Rifles," said Thant Myint-U on his Facebook page.

(Facebook)

Here’s one take on U.S. militarism and the culture of domination:

“Americans love to fight, traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle. You are here today for three reasons. First, because you are here to defend your homes and your loved ones. Second, you are here for your own self respect, because you would not want to be anywhere else. Third, you are here because you are real men and all real men like to fight.

“. . . Americans love a winner. Americans will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win all of the time. . . . That’s why Americans have never lost nor will ever lose a war; for the very idea of losing is hateful to an American.”

Here’s another:

“I can’t sleep without drugs. But even then, I often wake up in the middle of the night, crying, my mind racing. And I lie there awake in the dark, reliving the rape, looking for a second chance for it to end with a different outcome, but he always wins.”