We’re just past the 10th of 13 days of mourning my grandmother. The Hindu bereavement period bears a remarkable resemblance to the Jewish practise of sitting Shiva, except that we don’t wear black or cover our mirrors, hence bolstering HinJewism and the need for the two faiths to merge.
During this time, I also mourn the loss of Dr. George Tiller, who provided the difficult but much-required option of late-term abortions to women who in no way could or should have carried to term. His patients were women with cancer needing chemotherapy, conjoined or fatally-ill babies and pre-teens who were raped or didn’t know they were pregnant until it was too late for a regular abortion. This was not killing babies for fun and profit, as the far right likes to think, but a service to keep women as healthy and whole as possible.
But, this isn’t about what the religious right thinks. It’s a free country where they can think what they want. It is what they do that concerns me. You don’t kill to make a political point. When you do, it’s terrorism and there is no difference between you and someone who flies an airplane into a building.
I do believe in self-defense, however, and know that some argue that those who kill abortion providers protect little, defenseless babies. That’s a fallacy if I’ve heard one. These people don’t care about anyone but themselves and act only from self-righteousness. If they really did care about children and the well-being of families, they would make sure that these kids have access to healthcare, housing, education and good parenting AFTER BIRTH. Their responsibility until birth, someone else’s after. Alive during gestation, dead at birth. Admit it, pro-lifers (oh, the irony), it’s not about the babies, it’s about you, and people like George Tiller and women pay the price.
I, too, am through with candlelight vigils. As long as terror-inducing acts against their fellow Americans by Christian extremists are not judged in the same way as those perpetrated by Muslim fundamentalists, the Great War On Terror is meaningless. But, no politician will lift a finger to really condemn this and launch a full-scale investigation. While strangers in strange lands are not part of their voter base, these internal terrorists are. Votes are obviously more important than justice and keeping America truly safe.
Forget everything I said above and ask yourself one thing: Is this how differences are to be resolved in our great, civilized and allegedly model society?
