I found Vivian Loyola Dames' article, "Chamorro Women, Self-Determination, and the Politics of Abortion in Guam" to be very interesting, particularly because I had never heard about the abortion debate in Guam until reading this article. In high school, I knew a Guamanian girl who expressed her frustrations that so many students had no idea what Guam was, despite it being a U.S. territory. It seems crazy to me that the U.S. prides itself on being the land of the free, bringing democracy around the world when people haven't even heard of the countries we're supposedly saving. It wasn't until U.S. rule that matrilineage was outlawed in Guam and "patriarchical marriage laws were imposed," which is also interesting in the sense that most Americans think women have the most freedom here in the states. It seems to me that Western feminists look at child-bearing as being a source of female subordination because of this, yet they fail to understand that child-bearing was once a source of power and authority in Chamorro culture. But back to the abortion issue...honestly I've always been confused as to why abortion is such a hot debate when there are so many other pressing issues in the world. Why do people seem to get more wrapped up in saving fetuses, which aren't even real people yet, when no one seems to make much of a fuss when our grown men and women are sent to war? I don't mean to say that I think abortion shouldn't be taken seriously, but I just don't understand why it is one of the most controversial issues of our time. And on that note, without hoping to offend anyone, I don't think men should have a say in the issue at all. How could a man say that abortion should be illegal in all cases when he doesn't have the capability to know what it would be like to be raped by someone and be forced to give birth to and take care of that child for the rest of his life? And since it is a womens' issue, it is even more interesting to me that there is such a variety of opinions amongst those who share the same culture/other beliefs, as exemplified by the debate between mother and daughter on the issue in Guam. I'm starting to doubt that there will ever be consensus on the issue.