“Democrats’ effort to codify abortion rights fails in the senate.” That was a New York Times headline a couple of weeks ago that explained that the Democrats in the United States Senate simply didn’t have the votes to change leaked-document policy, so they threw up their hands and went to lunch.
Our first thought was that a person can be both anti-abortion and pro-choice. It’s a compromise, and it recognizes that a woman’s body does not belong to the government any more than a man’s does.
But really, it was the Democrats’ whining about not having enough votes that mussed our hair.
Humans are champions at whining, we know that. But just giving up? Did no Democrats watch the Kentucky Derby where Rich Strike got OK’d to run the day before the race, drew Gate 20 (the far outside and longest way to run the track), went off at 80–1 odds, and won?
We blame religion for guilt, guns for deaths, gun manufacturers for greed, and social media for outfitting alternative philosophies that appeal to our dark side. We blame big pharma for opioid addiction, and oil exploration for turning oceans into sludge. We blame stepmothers, Russians, heredity, the number 13, old age, Mercury in retrograde and each other for our refusal to embrace being alive.
We blame a woman for getting pregnant, but then insist she do things our way.
Why?
This Supreme Court debate, really, is about whether women deserve rights, any rights. If the law of the land can deprive a woman of making a decision about her own health and well-being, why should she be trusted with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Should we simply designate our species as men and child-bearers instead of men and women?
Should it be dangerous to be a woman?
Apparently, it’s more dangerous to be a child than to be anyone else. Texas had a school shooting that made us emotionally puke. Whom should we blame? Cops? A young man? His mental health? His meds? His easy access to a weapon that did his screaming for him?
How about blaming his government, which apparently sees itself as three branches of first responders rather than three branches of elected leaders entrusted with our welfare?
Do we really think that banning abortions and banning the sale of assault or semi-automatic rifles will make a difference in our happiness?
Control is not a by-product of law, it is the point. If we really care about the unborn, shouldn’t we go ahead and legislate that women not be around alcohol, smoking, non-dairy coffee creamer, and driving? And why stop with that?
About how many laws do we need before freedom is not even in the dictionary because it simply doesn’t exist?
Should we ban assault rifles, where you can hold the trigger down and it will fire all its bullets continuously, or semi-automatic rifles, which means if you want 15 shots you have to pull the trigger 15 times?
Fear has replaced motivation, fear has replaced vision, fear has replaced reason. If we “grownups” are afraid of women controlling their own bodies, and we also refuse to arrive at a fair interpretation of the Second Amendment, we’re just like the Democrats who simply gave up.
We do know that if we blame rather than compromise, we will miss the first step in overcoming misfortune. We do it anyway.
Philosopher William James wrote in the early last century that the greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another, and that by changing inner attitudes we can change the outer aspects of our lives.
There is no reason to believe we can undo our anxieties by telling others what to do. All we have to do is ordain ourselves as peace seekers. Gently, firmly, consistently.
The children shot in Uvalde could be angels watching over us. They might have sacrificed all they had to plead with us to simply stop killing.
And that’s how those kids could make us smile.