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You fight war to destroy another group of people. Destroy and conquer. That is the mission of any war. An obsession of America. We certainly like to start wars.  There’s the “War on Poverty.” Over the last forty years, the US spent trillions of dollars to combat poverty, but yet we still see a record number of people struggling to put food on their table. Heartbreaking. Then we have the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that continue to cost American military personnel and innocent civilians their lives, billions of our tax dollars (ballooning our national debt) and rob us of our much-needed resources that could be better put to use here in our backyards. Infuriating. Then let’s not forget the “War on Drugs.” The United States created harsh, unjust laws that put diseased (drug addicts) people into prisons, educated them in criminal behavior and then dumped them back in the community, destroying the fabric of the black community with the infiltration of jail culture. Furthermore, these archaic laws targeted people of color, locking them up at a rate of 10 times more than their white counterparts for the same drug infraction.  Disgraceful. Let’s not forget the unofficial, but very real “War on Marriage Equality.” Right now, same-sex marriage is only legal in the District of Columbia and six states: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, Iowa, New Hampshire and New York. Civil unions are legal in New Jersey, Illinois, Delaware, Rhode Island and Hawaii. Insane.

The latest war, with a full auxiliary of weapons ready to fire is being waged against women. The Republican men who are leading this war (just like every other war), with Captain Paul Ryan at the helm, have voted time and time again for extreme agendas that will severely hurt women and girls.

In the past two years, The United States House of Representatives voted 55 times to sabotage women’s health by cutting funding for programs that provide healthcare (like simple mammograms and gynecological visits) and basic services for women. Just today, Mitt Romney told supporters in Ohio: “The actions I’ll take immediately is to remove funding for Planned Parenthood.” So that’s what we have to look forward to if he gets elected. What that means is simple and terrifying. Mitt Romney has said he wants to see Roe v. Wade overturned, denying women the right to choose. And he wouldn’t be done there. The Republicans have voted to take access away from availability to contraception, pull money that provide programs that offer nourishment to pregnant women, aim to allow insurers to charge women more than men for their policies for health insurance, end the basic guarantees of Medicare and Medicaid for female seniors and low income females, and they are even targeting the Paycheck Fairness Act and Violence Against Women Act.  

This is a war.  A real war. With lots of casualties, unless we stop this assault. It’s time that women rise up and get to the polling stations to take the House back from extremist men and stand up for the rights women currently enjoy and the organizations who rely on federal funds to continue to protect them. So women, let’s do everything we can to ensure that the war on women will stop. The only way, in my opinion, is to vote for Barack Obama. And men, stand up for your mothers, wives, girlfriends, sisters and friends. Get out and vote. Your daughters are depending on it.

~Russell Simmons