Campaign season and the predictable “debate” rages, characterized by the usual spin and lack of enthusiasm for anything vaguely resembling the truth.
Each party and candidate presenting themself as the salvation of the country, and the party faithful in full denial of anything that remotely hints it isn’t so.
It is as bizarre a ritual as to be found anywhere that culminates in each parties national nominating convention and more closely resembles Mardi Gras in Rio or Halloween, where the attendees will adorn themselves in all manner of costumes waving various banners and party like there’s no tomorrow.
Satisfied with that, and having convinced themself they have done a great thing they will focus their attention on the election, form ranks, and devote their efforts to electing what they perceive to be America’s most capable and favorite son.
The spin, fervor, and disregard of anything factual previously displayed will reach epic proportions-charges and counter charges leveled at the opposition will be the norm, and in a rabid display of frothing at the mouth will be likened to a matter of life and death.
Some valid points will be made, all served with a generous dose of the parties secret sauce- and at least an equal number completely without redeeming value-but such minutia as truth in advertising will not be a consideration.
It becomes singularly about one thing, and that is WINNING, WINNING at any cost-money totaling in the hundreds of millions will be spent.
Pundits and “experts” scrambling to wrest the media attention away from not only their rivals but there fellow supporters as well.
Whoever wins will proclaim it a triumph of patriotism and intelligent ballots being cast-then back to the business of advancing what serves corporate interests best-and curtailing the threat of free speech and lawful assembly.
We have a sitting president who was so intent on pushing a healthcare bill through to serve as a signature to define his administration that what has resulted is a disaster-I favor such a bill, but not this one.
We also have the NDAA now, based in part on language the current administration wanted and co authored, a bill that in effect may be the greatest threat to Constitutional guarantees and the Bill of Rights ever to exist.
A bill that will allow for the indefinite detention of citizens based not only on actual deeds but speech.
On the other hand we have a party who has been rightfully characterized as conducting a war on women, who not only want to restrict women’s access to birth control but everyone’s access to social safety nets
such as healthcare, foodstamps, and any and all forms of public assistance.
This party wants to do away with minimum wage, which at present is at or below the designated poverty level- along with this they want to do everything they can to secure even greater wealth and power for
those who already have an obscene amount.
All this while at the same time seeking to deny contraception for women. It’s kind of a Rube Goldberg approach in that if women aren’t allowed to have a hand in conception more children will be born into poverty,
thus placing a greater demand on social programs-and that is just the tip of the iceberg.
It’s to be expected that the Catholic and fundamentalist churches would rear their heads and attempt to exert influence where they can. That influence has been markedly reduced in industrialized affluent countries so they must comfort themselves in a greater focus elsewhere.
Thinking that if you lose a battle in one arena you seek a more favorable venue. A more fertile ground where the concept of hell and purgatory is a viable instrument to bludgeon a people with.
Elsewhere, like in Honduras where legislation is on the verge of being passed that will criminalize the so called “morning after” pill.
A criminalization that will include not only those who take it, but doctors who prescribe it, and anyone who markets it.
Sounds vaguely familiar? It should, as a part of the healthcare bill previously mentioned seeks to criminalize those who don’t have insurance. The argument being that under the commerce clause the government has
the right to capriciously make criminals of citizens and/or tax at will.
I can think of several words to describe this-words like draconian, totalitarian, and the like-but the best may be stupid and all the ground that covers.
As a people the nations have had everybodies nose stuck in our reproductive business-from the boarding schools and involuntary sterilizations, to the heavy hand of so called child protective services.
In the ranking of social status we are at the bottom- and like all minorities viewed in some ways as guinea pigs to test theories and programs.
While these may not become a law directed specifically at us related to reproduction when you consider such things as uranium laced ground water, pollution and toxins freely distributed among indigenous land, gross dietary inefficiencies, surging related health problems, drug and alcohol issues,and poverty, there may be no need-maybe these will become the “final solution.”
It seems counterintuitive to me that affluence lowers birth rates while poverty seems to elevate them-be that as it may it is a fact nonetheless- if a burgeoning world population is becoming a problem the obvious approach
to me is to spread the wealth-level the playing field-elevate the living standard of all.
That of course flies in the face of greed and what has become one of the core principles of Capitalism-but I have a question, a simple one, and it is- is any position worth millions of dollars in salary-does a CEO who makes
a hundred million a year work tens of millions of times harder than a construction worker, a nurse, or even a garbage collector?
Bottom line is contraception isn’t, or least shouldn’t be, the sole concern of women-there is an obvious implied shared responsibility- healthcare isn’t the singular venue of either gender-much less religious fanatics, or Bible
thumping politicians.
If you cannot adequately provide for children you may already have that alone should be cause for not having more.That is being responsible, living in a balanced manner.
Who besides a rape or incest victim is incapable of avoiding pregnancy? Too many clinics and organizations who provide free condoms if nothing else to say it is unavoidable or an “accident”.
Children aren’t pets to collect-whoever has the most doesn’t win. Better I think to practice a little common sense than to abort or consign another child to poverty.
There is a national, if not international insanity that is growing daily- I’ve never known anyone who has the single best solution to any problem. A part of the problem today that is the majority think they do, so the issue becomes one of recognition and the attentionometer- an unwillingness to construct a solution based on shared concepts and input.
This results in “solutions” whose true value is less than the purported face value-but by design “someone” gets “credit” for them-and that after all is the real name of the game.
If anything I have ever said has resonated with anyone I encourage them to take it, expand on it, incorporate meaningful things, share it with others, and pursue it if they like. It is ultimately about seeking solutions-that and nothing more.
http://www.avaaz.org/en/no_prison_for_contraception_global/?vl
