Courtesy of newsweek.com
I joked with a friend, recently, that if religious conservatives have their way, abortions will be illegal at the point of coitus. We both laughed. But I’m not laughing anymore. Iowa’s woman governor, Kim Reynolds, has signed a bill that makes abortion illegal at the first sign of a fetal heartbeat. That’s about 6 weeks. Not enough time for a woman to know she’s pregnant. (Click)
I’m unsure why the Iowa Republican Party doesn’t get Rowe v. Wade (1973). Lifting a woman out of slavery by giving her control over her body strikes me as a good thing. I do know, I’m exhausted by the persistent efforts of Christian Evangelicals, 26% of the population, to yoke the rest of us to their beliefs. Normally, their bully pulpit wouldn’t be large enough to garner much attention. (Click)
Yet, these are not normal times. With Donald Trump’s help, that bully pulpit has grown like a cancer. The President’s appointment of ultra-conservative judges to the federal bench is furthering their goals. His appointment of the next Supreme Court, which is inevitable, will be the final nail if Rowe v. Wade’s coffin, they hope.
People wonder how the morally righteous can be loyal to a man whose behavior seems reprehensible to so many. The answer is simple. His character is irrelevant. He is doing God’s work. Religion is spilling out of the church into all corners of American life – most terrifyingly into schools, science and social justice.
Their bigotry, turning a blind eye to Trump’s character, has emboldened others and made the practice acceptable. That two American Indian boys were subjected to prejudice on a college campus should be intolerable to any reasonable mind. (Click) .
In a recent essay, “On the Myth of a ‘Rural’ America,” Rebecca Solnit wrote, “…one of the battles of our time is about who the story is about, who matters and who decides.” (Click) Come November, I sure in hell hope who matters won’t be 26% of the population.
