People who care

After a long days work, I took my child to the park where he played tennis for an hour then hit the playground for a bit. I needed to pick up groceries to make dinner so we headed to the market. After we checked out and paid for our yummy food we ran into some kids that had been playing tennis with my son. My son started to play with his tennis mates and then an outreach representative from EQ America started on me about the next gay rights movement. You know, the ones that hover in the parking lot with the eye locking stare they lay upon you as you try to dart to the car? Before this woman could even finish her opening hook line I interrupted with "you guys already have my money and support."I was too tired to hear the whole low down on transgender rights. She followed up by saying "thanks" and went on to tell me about  the current bill they are opposing and warned me to read before I vote on this particular bill. I truly love the follow through these folks have on delivering their message. I agreed and began to counter educate by informing her of a bill I am working to support and get passed. It is 1038 the bill that will remove obstetrical supervision from midwives. This will allow Medi-Cal patients to receive care from midwives and even receive care from them outside the hospital setting (birth centers/ home births, etc). It also defines normal birth and the scope of a midwife's practice. I figured if I am going to stand here then we are going to talk about what I am caring about at the moment. This woman became so inspired and started telling me that her heart was in reproductive rights more than any cause. I told her about my involvement with the birth rally, my work as a birth professional and  as a human rights activist. We exchanged statistics and stories while jazzing each other up.  We also ended up giving our contacts to one another and she wants to help out with the organization I have been volunteering for, the organization that put on the national rally to improve birth. Before I knew it ten dollars were flying out of my wallet to support transgender rights. I remembered how hard it was to get people to listen and care about what is wrong and even how much harder it is to get them to do what it takes to make things right. She reminded me to stop and care by stopping to care herself. It's people like this woman who really restore my faith in humanity.