Here we are: Legions of folks are hungering for decent jobs that pay a livable wage, we're plagued with a crumbling infrastructure, and public schools are being defunded in favor of privatized education and building prisons. Yet we have a Congress that's so dysfunctional that they can't even pass a simple one-page bill that would reverse the sequester (HR 900). This so-called "sequester" consisted of a series of measures so draconian that no one would dare let it happen.
But lo and behold: here we are. Nutrition and Head-Start programs are getting butchered along with numerous other vital social programs that enrich us as a society.
According to the gospel of many public officials, especially those elected with Tea Party support, government serves a single function: to regulate the traffic in and out of women's vaginas. That's it!
That's why it was so refreshing to witness Texas State Senator Wendy Davis successfully sustain her one-woman filibuster against daunting odds during a legislative session. She managed to temporarily defeat a draconian measure which, although intended to limit abortions, would have defunded many of the state's women's health clinics. It was likely just a symbolic victory; the same legislation will be reintroduced next week. But Senator Davis seems to have achieved iconic status, not only in Texas, but well beyond.
Some meaningful pushback toward the misogynists in public office has been a long time coming. Let's hope there's more.
Sorry, Dan, I'm not cheering about this one; I oppose late term abortions. A panel of medical doctors some years back discussed the "to save a woman's life" aspect of ending a pregnancy at 6+ months, stating that they couldn't think of a medical condition which necessitated such a procedure, which by the way is a partial birth abortion--the woman still delivers the baby vaginally, the doctor punctures the baby's head to kill it just before birth concludes. That's disgusting and cruel.--Abort much earlier or give the baby up for adoption if you can't care for it! People are still looking at Russia as a source for babies to adopt, when we could adopt right here in the U.S. without late term abortion practices.
ReplyDeleteMs. Davis may be a rising star--I hope she uses her determination to promote more worthy issues in future.
Amber, I understand your concern regarding late-term abortions. However, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), only 1.3% of all abortions in the U.S. are performed beyond the 20-week limit specified in recent bills from Congress and many state legislatures. (The data are from 2009, the most recent year such stats were available. But overall, the incidence of abortions has been slowly decreasing since then).
ReplyDeleteThe concerns I stated in my post are twofold. First of all, these primarily Republican legislators are squandering valuable time and resources in the face of a declining quality of life among the majority of us who have already been born (e.g.: decreased funding for education and vital health and nutrition programs, crumbling infrastructure, climate change .... the list goes on). Secondly, many of these same lawmakers seem to sincerely believe that women are second-class citizens.
In short, I have no quarrel with the issues you've raised. But they weren't intended to be the central theme of my post. That stated, I'm largely in synch with your closing statement. I too would like to see Senator Davis focus on an array of other issues in the future.