Gateway City Chronicles

CW: miscarriage trauma patriarchal bullshit.

People might think I’ll stop being pro-choice after my daughter Sky had a miscarriage. If anything, I’m more pro-choice because instead of my daughter bleeding to death in the parking lot of the hospital, she received care prior to (when they said the baby stopped growing) and will receive care after the bleeding stops, to make sure they got everything, to avoid sepsis. The name of that procedure is a D&C and it sometimes needs to be done to avoid sepsis and other issues.

Knowing Colorado has codified safe and legal abortion access, actually brought me peace, because I know my daughter is being cared for, instead of doctors being afraid they’ll go to prison for helping her, opting instead to let her bleed to death. (Google it, it’s happened.)

Also, by virtue of the fact we live in a Blue State, my daughter isn’t in fear of being imprisoned for having a miscarriage. Because those states where abortion is illegal, are going after women who’ve suffered miscarriages. Because they believe that women are purposely doing that to themselves, because they believe the women wished to have an abortion. They investigate and they would have held Sky accountable because she uses legalized weed for pain and anxiety. She stopped the second she realized she was pregnant. However, look into these cases where the Red States are imprisoning women for miscarriage.

Despite my grief, and  I cried my eyes out the other day and still feel depressed and anxious; I am grateful we live in a Blue State.

Addressing the idiotic rumor, that Venezuelan gangs that have allegedly overrun us here in Aurora. I cannot stress enough that I live 4 blocks from that apartment building. It’s just about 22 blocks from the building on Nome St. I walk around my neighborhood quite a bit, about 1 mile daily, and take the #15 bus everywhere I go, just rode it (and #16) up to Casa Bonita yesterday. I didn’t run into one Venezuelan gang member or any trouble.

I’m a 51yo citizen journalist and community organizer, I know my neighborhood.  No one is saying we don’t have crime here. We do. We also have a sadly large homeless population, and yes, we have gangs here. Despite that, easily 90% of the people here are kind and just trying to live their lives. My kids and grandkids are among them.

Do you know what else we have here? We have a lot of small businesses, usually minority owned. They’re trying to eke out a living and don’t deserve to have this negative press. Did Danielle Jurinsky think about or care about the irreparable harm she and Mike Coffman did to those businesses? Did they care?

I have a friend in from out-of-town that I met yesterday for lunch at Casa Bonita. He’s from Denver, but is a priest out in Kansas, and when he told people he was coming here, people urged him not to, because they heard the ridiculous rumors that Venezuelan gangs are running amok. I had to reassure him that we are not being overrun by Venezuelan or any gang members.

I wonder how many potential tourists have changed their plans to come to Colorado as a result of these irresponsible and demonstrably false rumors  that were caused by our own city leaders. The city leaders may have changed their positions, but you can’t put toothpaste back in the tube.

A bit about me: I am a writer and community organizer based in North Aurora, Colorado. In addition to being a mama, mimi, dog mom, and U.S. Army veteran, I’m passionate about uplifting our community and keeping my neighbors informed about our city and beyond.