While I visited my bubbe (that's Yiddish for grandmother) at a Catholic hospital where she was recovering from laproscopic surgery, the local news was airing on the TV in her room. It announced that Barack Obama promised to up the ante on George Bush's failed faith-based services initiative if he is elected president, pouring millions more dollars into religious organizations.

Our names, something most of us were given and birth had no control over for the most part, mean a lot. A name can present a person to the outside world through a variety of overt and not-so-subtle ways. As an individual, it represents who you are and what you've achieved. For many people (myself included), a name becomes an inextricable part of his or her identity.

Since the anti-reproductive rights movement is intent on banning not only abortion, but also birth control (as I documented today over at BlogHer), I thought it would be nice to highlight work being done to promote reproductive health and positive sexuality.

Today is the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Clearly, I was not around at that time, but every time I read or think about this event, I sob. I weep because I believe, in my heart of hearts, that the world was robbed of someone who truly could make it a better place.

When I picked up the newspaper on Monday, I was extremely disturbed to read about the decision by the Minnesota Supreme Court that a small day care center (which I will refer to from now on as child care, as the centers provide care for children, not days) is not entitled to property tax exemptions unless it offers a sliding fee scale to parents.

Doing something good doesn't require Herculean effort, enormous personal or familial sacrifices, or physical pain. While it is important to bring attention to people who do give up a lot to make the world a better place for others, sometimes our focus on those individuals can be intimidating to others who want to get involved, but think that it requires them to be another Mother Teresa.

Nearly every day, I receive solicitations in the mail from a variety of very worth causes. Mixed in with offer for credit cards that I don't want, my mail box yields requests for money from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), NARAL Pro-Choice America, Planned Parenthood, the National Network of Abortion Funds, Amnesty International, and/or Habitat for Humanity. On top of that, most of these wonderful organizations have local affiliates.

Last weekend, an essay in the New York Times looked at two women who were working to reform rigid Muslim societies in different ways.

Two weeks ago, I wrote that legal abortion is a myth for many women in the United States. In 2005, 87 percent of all U.S. counties lacked an abortion provider; 35 percent of American women live in those areas.

Safe abortion is a class issue. The right to choose is meaningless if you can not get an abortion when and where you need one. In 2005, 87 percent of all U.S. counties lacked an abortion provider; 35 percent of American women live in those areas. Almost 25 percent of women requiring an abortion travel over 50 miles to obtain the procedure.