On a break from cutting costume parts at Ye Olde Krewe du Vieux/C.R.A.P.S. Sweatshoppe last evening, I skimmed the feedreader and came across this exchange between The Washington Independent’s David Weigel and a group of anti-abortion protestors at the recent instance of the annual Roe v. Wade rally on the National Mall. Emphasis is mine.
… [Jake] Teshka and three friends have driven straight from South Bend to watch Obama“s inauguration, although Savannah Herms, 15, was disappointed in the way that crowd booed former President Bush. We were clapping respectfully and people laughed at us. I asked them why; they said because of Katrina. Who cares what the president did? You have to boo him?
Hold up. Hold up! WHO CARES what President George W. Bush did during Katrina? Let’s see:
a) You admit the president did something wrong or didn’t do something right during Katrina,
b) you DON’T CARE?!?!,
c) you call yourselves “Pro-Lifers” but neglect the fact that thousands of REAL, LIVE people lost their REAL, LIVE lives because of federal mismanagement, apathy and delayed response during and DAYS after the hurricane and flood and are still dying, and
d) showing up at the National Mall with a poster that blares, “Hitler killed Jews, Obama kills babies,” which likens the current president to Adolf Hitler and suggests he personally commits murder, is respectful, but booing the most incompetent and unsuccessful president in this nation’s history isn’t?
To top it all off, your very own champion on the airwaves, Rush Hudson Limbaugh III, openly states on his show and during a videotaped and nationally-broadcast interview that he wants President Obama to fail. That’s a lot worse than a boo-hiss in my book, so where’s the righteous indignation on behalf of your president now? For the record, I dislike President Bush but never, ever wanted him to fail. If anything, I spent eight years praying that the good lord put sense in W’s head to lead this country with vision and dignity. A country which includes you, me and everyone who agrees and disagrees with our positions because they choose to.
Choose to. Here’s something about choice. The word is widely applicable beyond the topic of abortion and is the very tenet that this country was built on. Our founding fathers, the architects of America, wanted to be able to choose who represents the people rather than serve a self-appointed king. Choice means choosing to worship freely without a religion thrust upon you, choosing whom to fall in love with and marry, choosing a profession rather than the government telling you what, how and when to work, choosing what to wear without having rocks thrown at you, choosing when to go outdoors and stay in, choosing your government and choosing a way of life. You choose, for good or for bad, and that’s what a democracy is all about. That’s what our kids are getting their brains blown out in Iraq for.
Choice means the one not to get pregnant and have babies, but also absolutely means the one to get pregnant, give birth and offer that child a decent life in a loving and safe home. You guys are now so obsessed with abortion that you have forgotten that life extends beyond the first nine months of gestation. Why is this child so sacred until its head pops out of Mom’s birth canal? Do you then lose interest if that child, say, dies once it’s born? Apparently you do, because I have not witnessed a single instance of your activism on behalf of child welfare regulations, safe housing, healthy food, good schools and responsible fathers. Your selfish salvation, your pathological formula and desire for getting into heaven, forgetting the real, Real, REAL consequences, is so important until that baby has to be fed, clothed, educated and loved. Where are you then? Where are you when that child grows up dirt-poor in a rodent-infested trailer without heat (yes, I’ve actually seen this) or a crime-caked inner city apartment eating canned beans for the rest of his or her life? Where are you when his or her mother looks on her child as unwanted, a burden, another mouth to feed? Where were you when hundreds of little children drowned in the Katrina Flood while the delicate, unboo-able President partied and twiddled his thumbs? Where you are is sitting in front of your suburban TV watching CBN and junk cable news yelling “Amen!” at dollar-draped politicians and talking heads who only want your votes and money. Never mind that you are forcing others to make babies, not citizens. And never mind that the Bible has no direct reference to abortion but hundreds of calls to social awareness, charity and the use of common sense.
I don’t see how it’s your collective responsibility to make sure a woman carries her baby to term, and then it’s her sole responsibility to raise that child. Spare me the nonsense about abstinence education and waiting to be married to have children because you’ve already Tripp-ed up on leading by example. While you’re at it, quit chastizing single moms who can actually provide for their kids, and leave Barack Obama out of it – his wife and he made the choice to have two children whom they can raise well, but simultaneously recognize that having a uterus does not automatically qualify one as a caring parent. This is why the Freedom of Choice is wholly American and necessary. Life may begin at conception, but it does not end at birth.
Unless you come up with a more holistic solution for every child’s wellbeing, in the womb and out, your “For Life” movement comes up extremely short. The choice to act on that is yours, too. Until then, I’ll pray for your eternal soul.
Like Rev. Lowery said, let all who do justice and love mercy say AMEN…
Amen, Maitri.
Although I suspect that the “why’d you have to BOO him” is just a reflexive pearl-clutching fainting couch routine learned from the conservamedia complex. I can’t break my mother of that habit and she is a diehard Obamamaniac.
Very well said!
*Excellent* post, Maitri.
Have you read this: http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2009/01/17/ooopsshe-did-it-again-anticontraception-nurse-take-womens-wombs-her-own-hands
Thanks for your input, everyone. I read or heard a piece recently in which someone described democracy as women not being forced to give birth under a theocratic thumb. How true. And, honestly, I would take anti-abortion folks more seriously who consider ALL life sacred.
I am Jake Teshka spoken of in the post. Savannah’s words were taken out of context my friends. What she meant (and I believe she corrected herself) was that the President of the United States deserves respect. The same respect that we, a group of republicans two of whom worked on the McCain campaign in Indiana, gave President Obama by being on the national mall that day to support him.
President Bush deserves the respect that every president deserves. I can’t imagine the weight of that job. Waking up each morning to intelligence breifings that nobody else is privy to. Having to act on information knowing that it will only fuel the global anti-YOU sentiments. History will tell us the true story of the bus presidency.
The Mayor of New Orleans, The Governor of Louisiana and the Federal Government failed as far as response to Hurrican Katrina. It was not “Bush’s fault”. Oh and Rush Limbaugh is not my champion.
Jake, thanks for taking the time to respond to this post. I personally would not boo anyone but understand why some did. My real beef is with the question “Who cares what the president did?” – an extremely callous response, more callous than booing, which shows ignorance of the horrendous facts on the ground re: Katrina. What happened down here on the Gulf Coast is a national tragedy, which we continue to live everyday, perpetrated by incompetence all the way up to and including the Oval Office. Please feel free to read this blog and many of the other New Orleans and area blogs to educate yourself on the matter.
Rush Limbaugh may not be your personal champion (on the airwaves, as I said), but he does speak for many who espouse conservative views, and probably even provides them with their talking points.