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Edited on Wed Feb-01-06 12:17 PM by Skidmore
kay, hear me out, and let us start from that statement. I was out for the past hour or so running errands. I met a dear friend who is a very active Dem and is also pro-life. For the first time ever we actually talked about reproductive choice. I guess we have always given each other their belief but never shared them with each other out of respect. I wish we had this conversation much earlier. Don't knee jerk jump my case on either side. We talked about a lot of things, like consistency in pro-life stances--death penalty issues, investing in the born child, hunger, end of life decisions.
Now this lady is a young mother and very active in her church. She does not want the government in her church or her church involved in her government. Detests the Robertson/Falwell types. Her sticking point with the Dems is abortion, which she doesn't necessarily feel the need to outlaw, just doesn't want to be the defining issue of the party. Okay, that said, I asked her to explain--I wanted to learn from her. That's when the gates opened. She's worried about women losing rights, too--all kinds of them. These are the same worries I have as well. If abortion is legal and safe, that is desirable. Remove the church from the state and it becomes a decision of conscious for women--between them, their partner (if any), their doctor, and whatever deity they worship. Her take was that the RW will never take RvW away.
Women's rights are human rights is where we ended up. The right to safety, the right to happiness, the right to justice, the right to speak, the right to be educated and to work, the right to have a choice, the right to vote and participate in society. Now I know that this is not a fully thought out reconciliation of the two camps, but it is a starting place for a discussion. I do agree with my friend that many of the other issues get drowned out and she could see my point about how reproductive choice is integrally a part of being an independent person. Now, I don't believe that there is no point at which we can't arrive at some agreement as a party. She is not asking the party to write off RvW, she's asking that we also attend to other hard won and equally important womens rights.
Now before people think I've gone to the dark side, I would like you to think past this one issue and let's factor in the other aspects of personhood for men and women, and what equality means.
Someone loan me an asbestos suit, if it gets too bad.
Over and out.
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