So, is there anything going on this weekend?
Information that the spin-meisters wanted to bury was released late on Friday or over a weekend, because no one would pay attention. One of the benefits of 'the new media' is that if something is important enough, such as a state senate bill passed at midnight or a jury verdict pronounced late on a Saturday, it will make an impact.
Such was the case this weekend with the Texas Senate's passage of House Bill 2 and the George Zimmerman murder case verdict. I'm blessed and excited to live in a day where I can have online debates with people across the county at 2:00 A.M. about such issues. It tells me people are paying attention and are engaged, even at the wee hours of the weekend.
What saddens me is the reaction of so many to these long-awaited results, shaped either by their politics, emotions, race, gender, or various combinations of these factors. Everyone is entitled to their opinions and beliefs, and is of course part of what makes America the amazing place that it is.
However, it appears that the God-given and Constitutionally-secured right to believe differently is diminishing in America. This weekend, in these two events, the more conservative position actually (and perhaps, surprisingly) won the day, and the liberally-minded, politically-correct class, supported and defended by most in the "mainstream media," are in full panic mode. In looking at public opinion polls, this is still a center-right country, with most embracing moderately-conservative positions, both economic and social. However, this position has been under attack from a vocal, sometimes militant and hate-filled extreme liberal class, and is somehow winning the war of ideas in the public square, many times through shame or demagoguery.
Late this past Friday night into Saturday morning, the Texas legislature finally passed the bill outlawing most abortions in Texas after 20 weeks and requiring clinics performing such "services" to meet the same safety and facility requirements as ambulatory surgical centers. This, only after a legal filibuster three weeks ago by Senator Wendy Davis, an illegal one by pro-abortion activists which prevented a vote from being recorded before the regular legislative session expired, and a reset of the bill in a special session called by Governor Rick Perry. While the pro-abortion crowd argues that this is the most stringent of all the states, Texas will become the eighth state to outlaw elective abortion after 20 weeks and the 30th to require the procedure in an ambulatory surgical center. Bill backers argue the facility requirement will provide a much higher level of care and protection for patients, should something go wrong during the "procedure." Far from being a precedent-breaker, Texas seems to be following in a growing line of states that have already put such laws into practice.
But don't tell this to the pro-abortion activists. For them, the Taliban has taken over in Texas, and "women's rights" have been set back to the stone age. The only results of this "regressive and oppressive" legislation is that poor girls and women will be forced to return to the back alleys, to coat hangers, or to driving hundreds of miles to a clinic since the one near them has been shut down. This is nothing more than white men invading women's vaginas, taking away rights to their own bodies, discriminating against and targeting the poor, and making laws that are politically expedient rather than ones which are those backed by their constituencies (all comments I saw and were directed towards me on Twitter early Saturday morning).
Last night, the jury in the George Zimmerman trial returned a verdict of 'not guilty' on the second-degree murder charge in the death of Trayvon Martin. Legally, the prosecution's burden of proving malicious intent on the part of Mr. Zimmerman when he pulled the trigger and killed Martin was not met, leaving the jury no choice but to exonerate Zimmerman. The legal analysts leading up to and following the verdict, even well-known liberal ones, agree on this point.
But don't tell that to the bleeding-heart or many in the black community today. For them, #justicefortravon only could mean a murder conviction, regardless of the facts. For them, the only facts they need to know is that a white man (Zimmerman is half-Hispanic, by the way) shot a black kid who was armed only with his hoodie and bag of Skittles. Martin was obviously racially-profiled by a "creepy-ass cracker" (Zimmerman is half-Hispanic, by the way!), was otherwise innocent, and was killed only for being black. Now, post-verdict, in addition to being a victim of a racially-motivated killing, Martin is now a victim of what is obviously a racist justice system reflective of a still racist society, and we're really no better off than we were 50 years ago in America in terms of race-relations. For some extremists, or those with big Twitter muscles, the only answer now is vigilante justice.
On the abortion law issue, premie care has become so good that more and more babies are surviving birth between 20-25 weeks. Studies are increasingly emerging that a 20-week-old preborn can feel pain. There's no question that the "procedure" for aborting a preborn of that size and age is brutal at best. For these and so many other reasons, regardless of your faith or belief in when life begins, I can't understand how a reasonable person would feel that a restriction on abortion after 20 weeks is problematic. The new law still provides for the same access to abortion that has always been available to the 20 week mark, and a year from now will be in even safer centers that provide far greater cleanliness standards and emergency capabilities.
But this violates the third rail of liberalism, access to abortion no matter the reason, place, or point of pregnancy, as anything less would be an intrusion on a woman's sovereign right to control her own body. To me, this has nothing to do with a child, abortion, or privacy. This has to do with sex, and the potential results of sex. Since the 60s, the feminist movement turned its attention from political and property rights to sexual ones. The sacredness of abortion to the political left is about allowing women to have sex without consequences just as much as their male counterparts, namely removing the threat of pregnancy from sex.
To the pro-abortion crowd, it is unfair that women have to bear the imposition of pregnancy where men do not (supposedly). The 'right to privacy' invented in Roe was more about continuing the legacy of civil rights started in the 60s, getting closer the ideal liberal utopian society, than it was about anything else. Today, to impose any restrictions on abortion gets in the way of consequence-free sex, and thus, is oppressive to "women" and jeopardizes "women's health." The Republicans (read "white men") are engaged in an oppressive "war on women." Don't even get me started on the hatred of the "religious" dimension of this battle by many pro-abortion activists.
Also, special thanks to George Stephanopolous for bringing the concept of equating abortion with other forms of contraception into the mainstream dialogue.
Never mind the fact that the majority of women favor late-term abortion restrictions, and that an increasing number of people are identifying themselves as pro-life. Never mind that abortions up to the 20th week are still completely legal in Texas. Never mind that not one clinic has yet closed, and has a full year to come into compliance with the ambulatory center standards.
On the George Zimmerman verdict, racism obviously exists in America, but it seems more directed from blacks towards whites rather than the historical precedent or what conventional wisdom would tell you. Be it regarding this case, or the recent SCOTUS ruling reversing the section of the Voting Rights Act which called for extra scrutiny to states with histories of voter suppression (50 years ago), one might think by reading and hearing some voices in the black community that we're still in 1963 instead of 2013. If you listen to most in the mainstream media or liberal influencers, profiling of any kind is as heinous of a crime as murder itself.
Which brings us to the aftermath of the verdict. At worst, according to the trial evidence, it seems Zimmerman was guilty of profiling and some questionable decisions to continue the pursuit of Martin. But is you listen to those on TV and Twitter last night, profiling was a crime that required a guilty verdict - don't worry about the fact that he was charged with murder.
In both cases, there's no question we are discussing with historically oppressed classes of people. Do these issues from this weekend have anything to do with oppression? Absolutely not. Is there any arguing or reasoning with these people? Absolutely not.
How did we get here? How can a woman, uniquely gifted by God to incubate and raise a new life, deny that what is growing inside her is a life at all? How is it that a woman has to go to such extremes as to call a preborn baby a parasitic ball of cells that has no rights to inhabit her body? Where is the responsibility of both consenting parties that if you're going to have sex outside a marriage that pregnancy may result, no matter the level of contraception? How can the view or desired result of justice be one that ignores the rule of law and legal standard of 'innocent until proven guilty' just because a (half-) white guy profiled a black kid?
I contend liberal society so desperately wants to right the wrongs of the past that they are willing to commit equally as great wrongs to accommodate the emotional needs of the oppressed classes, and perhaps, assuage their own guilt. We are willing to overlook the murder of the unborn so that women can somehow feel in more control of their lives than in the past, or somehow feel more equal with men. We are willing to convict a man of a crime simply because he saw potential danger in a stereotype.
Unfortunately, I don't see this getting better any time soon. "White men" like me unfortunately can't drive the change. Pro-life women and mothers, strong enough to stand up to the loudest on the other side, must show how the truly oppressed class in the abortion debate is the unborn. Black leaders must work in their community to change the culture of violence in young men so that the stereotype of a young man in a hoodie is not longer seen as a threat.
The answers are simple, but far from today's cultural desire or norms. If unmarried couples would observe God's design for sex and waited for marriage, the abortion issue wouldn't even be a problem. If the black community, no matter their economic conditions, would rise up to stop the pattern of gangs, violence, and drugs, with fathers actually present in their sons lives, society would no longer feel a sense of fear of young black men.
But no. Our culture today seeks to justify the actions of the oppressed classes simply because they've been oppressed, no matter what atrocities they may carry out. Assuaging these groups' feelings, "empowering" them, and striving for a perception of equality is more important than standing up for what is right, regardless of class or circumstance.
The law and ruling of this weekend are a welcome and somewhat unexpected step towards righting some wrongs, but these classes and the mainstream media will do everything they can to try to convince us that in both of these cases the wrong decision was made, and everything they can do demonize those who support these decisions.
Be prepared.
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