“Health care isn’t controversial, it’s a Human Right”
~ MSP Gillian Mackay

Here is a story about a 15-year-old boy called Rifat living in the city of Aleppo in Syria in 2016. Since 2011, Syria has been in a civil war, and the residents of Aleppo, like all Syrians, were living with the effects of the war.

This summer, my husband and I undertook a move. A relocation from Massachusetts to Arizona has been undertaken by others, no doubt. We decided to make things a little more interesting than a direct route. We headed north. Our circuitous route is winding us through Newfoundland, Portugal, and North Carolina. When one would think to take the southerly route from the Carolina’s to Arizona in the winter months, we will make Bugs Bunny’s famous right turn at Albuquerque to get to Bozeman, Montana. Then, we’ll drive to Arizona.

Friends old and new can offer connection and perspective in shifting times.

The many aspects of friendship come up as a source for musicians, of course. Friendship also often informs the creation of music itself, as musicians collaborate in writing, playing, and recording their work.

Here are several ways to consider these varied aspects of friendship as expressed through music.

During one of my classes at the University of Stirling, we were asked what our decision would be if we had the power to grant asylum to a woman seeking asylum in our country on the grounds of consistent domestic violence from her husband. Being a woman and coming from a background where multiple women have died as a result of domestic violence, either directly or indirectly, I naturally want to offer her respite, but I also know that the answer depends on the substantive laws of both my country and her home country.

The approximate 6,000 ships that have succumbed to raging storms attest to the power of the Great Lakes. As I traveled, writing and compiling information for my three-volume travel series that explores Michigan's coasts, I heard or read the tales left behind by those ill-fated ships. They add a somber, but compelling backdrop to Michigan’s waterways.

Do you know what reproductive rights are, who they apply to, and what they involve?

Often, the reproductive rights narrative is minimized to:

● Women’s Rights 
● Abortion 
● STDs 

Not only is this limited narrative incorrect—and, in some cases, harmful— it also does not fully reflect the impact, success, and importance of reproductive health care for all people in fully claiming, and enjoying their human rights.