Human rights!

We in this country talk quite a bit about human rights. We are quick to criticize others for human rights violations, yet are willing to deny basic rights to our own people because you believe you are protecting them from themselves and the foolish decisions they may make.
 We deny women the right to make their own decisions about their lives and health because you feel "God" would not want them to make decisions contrary to your beliefs. Yet by doing so, you inject your "opinions" into a place we do not belong.
Therefore any woman who, by circumstances beyond her control such as poverty, rape, age, inability to raise a child, should be denied the right to terminate that pregnancy because you know better. Bullshit! Until it directly affects you, you have no right to determine another's life.
We talk about gun control, yet are unwilling to make any substantive decisions about background checks or the allowance of military hardware in the hands of people who use those weapons to carry out wholesale slaughter of our fellow citizens. Hail the NRA! Kill all you want, we'll stand up for your rights!
We talk about healthcare and the availability of access to basic services, yet we deny that coverage so we can prop up a broken system of drug companies and insurance middlemen taking 20% to 30% of premiums for shareholders, yet people die every day of illnesses that could be prevented by basic care and early intervention.
We talk about the militarization of our police forces, supply them with military hardware, hire soldiers just back from a war zone and wonder why a person of color is terrified of being stopped for a routine traffic stop, wondering if they will still be alive afterwards!
We can TALK all we want. If we as a people do not come to terms with our prejudices and biases and do something more than talk, we are not going to survive as a republic.
The government as we think it should be is badly broken, and the only way we are going to repair it is to listen to your legislators, and if they do not conform to basic human rights regardless of their biases, get them out of control of our lives! Don't just blindly vote Republican or Democrat, educate yourselves and make decisions based on that education. Vote for people who will use logic and common sense in their decisions, because there are a lot of new people seeking office, and some of them fit that profile.