The other day at the pool, while waiting for our kids, my neighbor asked me what I thought of Sarah Palin’s speech at the Republican convention. I confessed that I had been too busy to watch and she groaned at me, but the man I don’t know at the end of the table jumped all over me. I couldn’t believe it. I don’t know who he is and I wasn’t talking to him. After a brief tirade he said “Aren’t you Right to Life?” I felt cornered. “Of course I am,” I said, “but I don’t think criminalizing abortion is the way to save lives.” You would have thought I just poured acid on his face.
My mother-in-law tells stories of friends she had in college back in the 40s who went to Mexico and back alley practitioners for abortions. Some of her friends died. Surely we can’t return to this. Surely this isn’t the answer in a civilized society. Women are the ones who pay the price. The “father” of the child gets to walk away. Like it or not, he does. That’s the way it works. As a modern society, we need to be able to empower women, not make them criminals. Empower them to get abortions? Of course not. I was sickened by the story out of Arizona a few years back in which a 13 year old went to Kansas to get a late term abortion. Surely there has to be a better way.
Peeling this right to life onion one more layer, I ask what about the right to life of thousands upon thousands of innocent Iraqis? I know people who will argue that the Iraqi people did that to themselves. The insurgents did it. They wouldn’t have done it if we had not attacked a sovereign nation. What about the thousands of lives of those in our precious military? Tonight on the news they showed the names and faces of 18 more soldiers who have died. “Are you looking for your brother?” my young son asked. “No, he wouldn’t be here.” I answered. “But each one of these soldiers is somebody’s brother. Somebody’s daddy. Somebody’s son. Somebody’s best friend. Somebody’s hero.” Isn’t diplomacy a better answer? The international community hates Americans right now. We have squandered all of the good will afforded us after 9/11. We can’t continue to act like a bully in the global playground. My mother always said “You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.” America will be more prosperous if we work with the global community instead of against it.
The man at the end of the table began getting sarcastic and saying things to my companion like “When you get older, Honey, you will understand.” He was sounding like George Bush and Dick Cheney. Kill the discourse with sarcasm and humiliating jabs. I walked away.
