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In America, women are not required to
walk three paces behind their husbands nor are they submitted
to genital-mutilation to ensure marital fidelity. After decades
of collective struggle, they have achieved many of the rights
that are clearly provided under the constitution. That does not
mean that the same dark forces which reduced women to second
class citizens have vanished. Rather, just below the placid surface
of civility, the primitive impulse to dominate women still thrives
and is visible everywhere that women are not protected by strongly-enforced
laws.
No one has done more to activate
those primordial instincts than our doltish-executive, George
Bush. By reenergizing the abortion-debate he's emboldened the
tribe of backwards-thinking traditionalists who see his tenure
as an opportunity to apply their narrow-minded fanaticism to
the rights of women.
Isn't this what the abortion
furor is all about; controlling women?
Behind the gauzy curtain of
religious devotion the same ravenous appetite for domination
continues to flourish.
In South Dakota Governor Mike
Rounds signed a bill that bans all abortions in the state except
to save the mother's life. The new law will require a women bear
a child conceived in rape or incest; forcing her to relive her
trauma for the rest of her life.
There are no exceptions.
The legislation was passed
by a meager 12 vote margin in the South Dakota House; 12 votes
that transferred the ownership of a woman's womb over to the
state.
Even state Republicans oppose
the new bill. In a recent survey, 73% of Republicans supported
a "pro-choice position."
No matter. The fanatics have
taken over.
Is Governor Rounds sincere
in his defense of the unborn, or is this just political maneuvering
to reward his constituents?
If Rounds actions are heartfelt,
then where else has he distinguished himself in the area of human
rights? Nothing on the Internet suggests that he's ever lifted
a finger to defend, civil liberties, human rights, or social
justice. Has he spoken out against the well-documented cases
of prisoner abuse and torture at Abu Ghraib?
No.
Anything on Guantanamo?
No, sirree.
How about the rampant misuse
of the death penalty?
Nada, zippo, zilch.
His blustery indignation seems
limited to one issue alone; stripping women of their right to
reproductive freedom and reducing them to breeding-machines.
Hasn't this always been the cornerstone of evangelical chauvinism?
Rounds' spearheads a coterie
of finger-wagging zealots who see it as their religious duty
to force others to accept their blinkered dogma. Their contempt
for individual freedom is barely concealed behind their pretensions
about "loving their fellow man" or "turning the
other cheek". Love, however, never enters into the equation;
their real intention is to imbue their convictions with the power
of the law; ensuring that others conform to their wacky ideas.
This is how they seek political vindication for, what amounts
to, self-righteous discrimination.
The right to choose is the
right to have sovereignty over one's own body. It is protected
under Roe vs. Wade because the Supreme Court recognized that
the state has no constitutional authority to insert itself into
the most private areas of the citizens' life. This principle
cannot be violated without depriving women of the benefits to
full citizenship.
That's why we should take the
South Dakota challenge seriously. It is an attempt to subordinate
the principles of secular democracy (choice) with religious conviction.
This isn't just about women.
This is about the relentless attack on secular values by fundamentalist-extremists.
The ideals of the French Revolution and the 18th Century Enlightenment
have come under withering assault by religious fanatics who openly
despise democracy.
Do I exaggerate?
Don't fundamentalists openly
flaunt their contempt for the First Amendment's separation of
church and state? Don't they advocate the death penalty for adulterers,
blasphemers, incorrigible teenagers, gays, and "witches"?
Don't they support bringing prayer back into the classroom, depriving
homosexuals of their civil liberties, and substituting the Constitution
with the Old Testament?
Isn't the ultimate goal to
replace American democracy with Christian theocracy?
Once the evangelical piety-police
are in charge; the skids are greased for hell.
Terri Schiavo is just the beginning.
We'll see birth-control swept off the pharmacy shelves, moral
watchdogs hacking away at free speech, and high-school girls
waltzing around with scarlet letters' stuck to their chests.
The religious nutbars will
insinuate themselves into every area of the body-politic; attaching
themselves to venal congressmen to ensure their dogma is scribbled
into law. The change has already taken place on the High Court
where Federalist Society brown-shirts are now preparing to apply
their moral-straitjacket to every area of social interaction.
The effects of their smug self-righteousness will soon be felt
throughout the culture.
The assault on personal freedom
has never been greater. Our basic liberties are now in the hands
of proselytizing, Christian-extremists who see independence and
personal-autonomy as a sign of moral decline.
South Dakota is just the first
domino.
Mike Whitney lives in Washington state.
Finally
Available
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Against Israel
By Michael Neumann
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