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Planned Parenthood cuts back; Catholics claim victory

Augusta Planned Parenthood reduces office hours

Abortion foes say change reflects public sentiment

By Kelly Jasper | Staff Writer | The Augusta Chronicle, Augusta, Ga.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Planned Parenthood of Augusta has reduced its hours from nearly 40 a week to 19.

The organization said the change was made in response to a down economy, but abortion opponents are celebrating the cutback, which follows a 40-day vigil outside the clinic.

“Women have been changing their consumption of health care because of the economy,” said Leola Reis, the vice president of external affairs for Planned Parenthood of Georgia. “We’re seeing a lot of women giving up preventive care. Their priorities are keeping the bills paid, putting food on the table, and their kids’ health before their own.”

She said preventive care is the mainstay of Planned Parenthood’s business. Screenings for sexually transmitted diseases and cancer account for 48 percent of its business, while contraceptives accounted for 36 percent, according to the national nonprofit agency’s 2007-2008 annual report. Abortion services totaled 3 percent.

Growing up Jewish in Augusta

Jewish cherish shared identity in community at Hanukkah

By Kelly Jasper | Staff Writer

Friday, December 11, 2009

Lisa Daitch’s children don’t know what they’re missing. How could they? She’s a native New Yorker who moved south 25 years ago to marry a man with roots in Augusta. Her children have never lived anyplace else.

They were raised Jewish in the South, without the prolific Jewish community that surrounded Mrs. Daitch as a child.

“In other words, my experience is not their experience,” she said.

That’s not to say Augusta lacks a Jewish community. It’s small, but vibrant, with many shared meals, concerts and programs, including a Hanukkah dinner tonight. The events are meant to build upon a shared identity, and to lend Jews, a minority in a Southern, predominantly Christian city, a sense of community. Leah Ronen estimates that the Augusta Jewish Community Center, where she’s executive director, serves about 400 families.

Many of those families will gather at one of Augusta’s three temples this week. Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, begins at sundown.

The festival is a celebration of a miracle that occurred upon the rededication of the temple in Jerusalem. The Hanukkah story famously records how oil for just one night burned in a lamp for eight days.

On a larger scale, Hanukkah represents a preservation of Jewish identity. In the second century B.C., Judaism was outlawed. When Syrian Greeks imposed Hellenistic culture and defiled the temple, Jews revolted.

They were successful, winning back the right to practice their religion freely.

Hanukkah is an opportunity to cherish her Jewish heritage, said Mrs. Daitch, a physician’s assistant in Augusta who teaches at Medical College of Georgia. Her husband, Fred, owns International Uniforms on Broad Street.

Mrs. Daitch is also an adviser for Augusta’s B’nai B’rith Youth Organization. It’s a social network of sorts for Jewish teens across the country. Mrs. Daitch advises the eight or so girls who attend this year, while Sam Budenstein leads a group of eight guys.

“There are more Jewish high schoolers than that but those are the ones that have chosen to affiliate. It sounds like tiny numbers, but it’s big to them,” she said.

Proud to be Pagan

Augusta – the founding place of Southern Baptists, mind you – celebrated it’s first Pagan Pride day.

It’s no surprise this story got more than a few comments. 420 some, I believe.

Proud to be Pagans

By Kelly Jasper| Staff Writer

Saturday, October 03, 2009

Theoretically, there are two types of witches.

“There are those of us who live in the broom closet and then there are those of us who” are more visible, said Joe Zuchowski, a Wiccan high priest. A festival, he figures, just might help that.

In actuality, there are several varieties of pagans, a few of which will be represented at Augusta’s first Pagan Pride Day, today at Lake Olmstead Park.

“We want to let people know there are pagans out there,” said his wife, Jezibell Anat. She’s a Wiccan high priestess and a coordinator of Pagan Pride Day.

The event includes music, dance, children’s games and information sessions such as Ask the Wizard. “We want to invite people in,” Mrs. Anat said. “We want to explain what we are.”

And what would that be?

“We are real people. We are about diversity,” Mrs. Anat said. “We believe there is no one-size-fits-all religion. We are a genuine spiritual path.”

Paganism is a family of faiths with ancient roots united by a reverence for nature and harmony with the earth, one another, and one’s self. Modern paganism takes many forms, but the faiths it encompasses have been around for ages, said Carolyn Jones Medine, an associate professor in the University of Georgia Department of Religion, whose work includes an emphasis on religious theory and thought, women’s spirituality and writings.

“Paganism has been a legitimate path for a long time,” she said. “If you look at Western religions, you find the influence of paganism. It underlines our major traditions. Things like the Christmas tree, that’s early incorporation of a pagan tradition.”

Events to raise the profile of Paganism and recognize its influence are growing. The first Pagan Pride Day was held in 1998, with 17 celebrations in the United States and one in Canada. This year, more than 120 events are planned in 10 countries and 41 states.

A story of nuances …

Augusta Muslims respond to Fort Hood attacks

Thursday, Nov. 12

By Kelly Jasper

Staff Writer/ The Augusta Chronicle

Heather Abdelnur’s reaction to the deadly shooting at Fort Hood on Nov. 5 wasn’t all that different from her reaction to Sept. 11.

The same fears flashed through her mind. "As soon as I heard about this thing, I thought: ‘Please don’t let it be a Muslim. Please don’t let him have a Muslim-sounding name."

It was, and he did.

The suspected shooter, Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, is an American-born Muslim. So is Mrs. Abdelnur, an assistant professor of history at Augusta State University.

"It was a letdown to find out a Muslim was involved," she said.

Muslim leaders were quick to condemn Maj. Hasan’s actions, calling it "a black eye" upon Islam and its practitioners. Many said they feared retaliation; some increased security.

Retaliation against Muslims does occur — Augusta’s Imam has even taken to wearing a T-shirt and jeans out in public this week instead of his traditional tunic — but Mrs. Abdelnur and others are quick to emphasize that experiences with discrimination vary widely among Muslims.

About three-quarters of American Muslims say they’ve never experienced discrimination, according to a survey of Muslim Americans released by the Pew Research Center in May 2007.

After Sept. 11, 2001, the Islamic Society of Augusta, the largest mosque in the area, was vandalized with graffiti directed at Osama bin Laden.

What gets less media attention is how members of the community sent money and flowers to the mosque upon hearing the news, said Hossam Fadel, a member of the mosque.

Keep reading at augustachronicle.com.

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Posted: December 18th, 2009 under Uncategorized.
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This is how we talk about breast cancer.

By Kelly Jasper

Staff writer/The Augusta Chronicle

October 2, 2009

AUGUSTA – When a friend in Tonia Welsh’s office started selling shirts in the name of breast cancer awareness, Mrs. Welsh had to have one.

It had a pink ribbon, but the shirt also had a slogan that said so much more: “Fight like a girl.”

“It caught my attention,” said Mrs. Welsh, the office manager at Phoenix Printing in Augusta. She was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago, at age 37.

The phrase, while attention-getting, is one of the more demure rallying cries for breast cancer survivors and advocates.

Others range from cheeky (”save the ta-tas”), to brazen (”save a life, grope your wife”).

“You see them everywhere,” said Lisa Bryant, a breast cancer survivor and the American Cancer Society’s community manager in Augusta. “Speaking as a woman who has had breast cancer, there are a lot of different ways to talk about awareness.”

Read the story here.

Posted: October 18th, 2009 under Uncategorized.
Comments: none