Thursday, January 24, 2013

Roe v Wade or taking care of the chidlren

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There is a lot of static in the news these days about Kansas Governor Sam Brownback’s decision to try and eliminate all income taxes in his state. Way to go Governor. What are you going to replace them with?  Oh. Nothing. This is a tea party no tax movement. I see.  Well, that changes the light on your reform ever so much.

You see, Kansas has been one of the leading states (and Brownboack at the helm has led the charge) to be abortion-free. They have made it harder in Kansas than most of the other 50 states for a woman to receive a medical abortion: roadblocks and interference all along the way. In the state’s rush to cut spending and to pare down government size and waste, Aid to Dependent Children has all but been eliminated. Crossed off the state’s budget. No can do. Education isn’t far behind . Medicare and Medicaid have been turned over to private insurance, as if dependent children could get insurance to begin with.

So here we have a state and a governor who pound their chests on TV swearing allegiance to God and Jesus for saving the lives of unborn fetuses, and then turning their backs on the children when the pop out of the womb.  Can you say hypocrisy?  I can. And moderate voters in Kansas are starting to rumble a bit about this, too.

No, I am no big fan of income tax.  I think it is regressive and wrong.  I am also no absolutist fan of Roe v Wade. I think there are times when a doctor and her patient should be able to rely on safe, medical abortions for certain instances especially in the first trimester. But absolute general abortion on demand, I am not sure about – just as I am not absolutely against all capital convictions resulting in the death penalty.  There are time we need to fire up old sparky, but far less times than we do. (Don’t write me letters saying we don’t use old Sparky anymore…it is a metaphor.) And that is part and parcel of this whole absolutists argument. All or none.

Brownback wants to lead the charge to make Kansas government (all government for that matter) the smallest it can be. Okay, fair enough. Got no argument here, but where do you cut?  Do you cut on the most defenseless members of our society? Do you cut on the young, the elderly and the ill? Do you raise revenues for highways, police and fire and industrial sites, while gutting education and food for needy children programs? Brownback thinks so.

And do you outlaw abortions while turning your back on the born? It is one thing to protect the unborn, but the new born and young children are just as much at risk and just as innocent. And a state that proudly parades around proclaiming the leader in stopping abortions and then turns its collective back on the children in that state are nothing but political cowards and hypocrites.

My own state, Texas, isn’t far behind. So if you live in the Lone Star State don’t get too smug as you point the fingers at the jayhawkers. We’ve all got a long way to go to recover our balance as a society. Absolutism is the mantra of the far right. It is starting to appear in everything they stand for and exercise their power to correct.  It is well the biggest part of our problem in Austin, Topeka and especially in Washington, D.C. Absolutism it will force us into a form of America Sharia law if we are not careful.

Want to live under an Islamic-type judicial and legal system?  No. Neither do I; yet, the direction we are taking — the directions states like Kansas, Texas and others are taking— is leading us exactly to our own version of such a place.

If you are going to outlaw abortions completely, Kansas and Texas and other states — then have the decency and strength of will and fortitude to take care of the children born into your state who need your assistance.

You can’t have it both ways.

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