Inconsistency.

Today our local CBS affiliate aired a pro-life ad this afternoon. This is the network that refused to air the UCC ad that featured an ambiguously gay couple going to church because it was "too controversial." Now, I could be wrong, but let's say you're a stay-at-home mom of four, watching TV. Which would you rather your 4 year old daughter ask you: "Mommy, why are those two men going to church together while standing sort of close to each other?" or "Mommy, what's abortion?"

Protecting unborn children.

The post in my personal journal has generated some great responses. This one is from Daniel Clark, of Minnesota.

Hey, I voted for the candidate who would protect our unborn children. That candidate being, of course, John Kerry.

Here's why. It's actually pretty simple.

There are, give or take, 6 billion human beings alive today. There were more human beings alive in the 20th century than in all the other centuries put together. Imagine how many more will be alive in the 21st century. Now imagine the 22nd. The 23rd? How many billions upon billions of unborn children are being screwed by the Bush administration?

Put aside war and hate-mongering and a "civilized" world where it is now officially okay to attack another nation because they don't like you (and how many people will be killed or never be born because of that?). Let's just talk about the environment. Let's talk about the worst president we've ever had, ever, and how he's rolled back or attempted to roll back the last 30 years of progress we've made in regards to the environment. A president who thinks global warming is "junk science," a president who allows and encourages coal, oil, and timber industries to rape our conservation land in search of a few quick bucks and who has attempted to have mercury's status as a toxic substance downgraded.

Our unborn children will be born into and grow up on the planet we leave them. If breathing the air causes cancer and drinking the water causes birth defects and/or neurological disorders, how are we "protecting our unborn children," I ask you?

Stacked up against the overwhelming catastrophe that is our recent environmental history, how can dictating what a woman can do with her body even registering on our collective radar as a political issue? Some children may not be born unwanted who otherwise would have been vs. the complete extinction of the human race? Am I alone on this?

This comment was left in my person online journal, in reference to my bitter observation that 51% or so of the American people don't care about human rights.

I resent that. I ver [sic] much care about human rights. I just happen to think that all humans deserve protection, including the very youngest children. So I voted for the candidate who would protect are [sic] unborn children.Also I hate Kerry. And I think Edwards is completely unqualified.

My response:

Well, hate is what conservatives have always been best at. That's what drove me from their arms after 20 years. Somehow I realized that what I was being taught in church about Christ and the Bible didn't match with what I was told to believe and feel politically. I started... what's the word? Oh! Thinking.

I think that all humans deserve protection, a phrase which here means... "all humans." I happen to think that brown people deserve not to have 100,000 of their children and parents and husbands and wives killed, and thousands more mutilated, under pretenses that change every few months, but really for an obsessive-compulsive drive to make everyone just like us. I believe that children deserve to be born into a world where they will receive healthcare and have the social support they need so they won't be doomed to poverty and abuse. I believe that the elderly deserve to be treated fairly and not screwed out of thousands of dollars on drug prices. I believe that two people should be allowed to love each other and visit each other on their deathbeds regardless of their sex. I believe that women deserve to prevent unwanted pregnancies with contraceptives, before they even happen. I believe that high school kids should be told the unbiased truth about contraceptives. I believe in free speech, anytime, anywhere - not just in a "zone" miles away from notice. I believe that brown Americans with no connections to any untoward activities deserve to live their lives unharrassed regardless of their skin color. I believe no human deserves to be held for years at a time in abusive conditions without a trial. I believe all people deserve a leader of the free world who tells the truth, and has chosen an administration that will tell the truth before the facts corner them into it. I believe that shuttling unwanted children into life, and then abandoning them to abuse (and underfunded child protective services), poverty (and no healthcare and insufficient welfare), and ignorance (and underfunded schools) is an evil equal to abortion.

On a side note, the number of abortions in this country have been decline for about a decade.

Oh. Until Bush took office -- then they started going up again. Way to be pro-life.

Somehow, they pulled it off.

George W. Bush, the man who doesn’t know how many internets there are, the man that isn’t concerned about Osama bin Laden, the man with the IQ of a cute small dog, has won what seems to be a mostly-clean reelection.

There will be plenty of hand-wringing over the next four years, but there’s nothing we can do about history. The future, however, is different. In fact, it’s all we have. So for heaven’s sake, let’s work on it.

A lot of people have been bantering about how they want to move to Canada, France, or Sweden after this election. I’m guilty of promoting Sweden myself. As tempting as it would be to run away, we can’t abandon this country – physically or, more importantly, emotionally. We mustn’t let the conservative extreme claim the monopoly on patriotism, real or delusional. We owe it to ourselves and our ancestors and our descendents to fix this, as long as it takes, as much as it takes.

It’s not just patriotism, either. For better or for worse, America is the most powerful country in the world right now. What we do here affects millions of people, whether we bomb them, deny them reproductive health care aid, or kick them out of our country. We owe it to humanity to fix this.

Just voting is obviously not enough. We need to roll up our sleeves and hit the mattresses. (Actually, I’m fuzzy on what “hit the mattresses” means, but it sounds good.) I’m not one to talk, I’ve never done squat for America until this Saturday when I canvassed a little. That’s just not enough. If we’re going to get our country back, we’re going to have to bleed for it.

We must become the change we wish to see in the world.
-- Mahatma Gandhi