If nations are sovereign and sacred, free to govern the activity-taking
place within their borders, freedom rings. If women are sovereign and sacred,
free to govern all the activity within their bodies, particularly their uterus,
freedom rings. Men, as political leaders and representatives, have absolutely
no business governing the affairs that are sovereign to a woman’s body, full
stop.
Last night, I talked with a friend in Trinidad that informed me that refugees from Venezuela were flooding
into her country. More than 60,000 have arrived since Venezuela’s economy has
tanked and plunged the nation into chaos.
My friend told me she is afraid for her life and that of her children.
Her house has been through two attempted break-ins. The economy is hiring the
Venezuelans that are taking jobs from island people. All this happens because
of the proximity of Trinidad to Venezuela. Seven miles separate them.
I understand her fears. I understand the fears of the Venezuelan
Refugees that are doing what they must to survive.
How are nations to respond to humanitarian crises? If someone shows up
at my door that I do not know, expecting to be welcome in my house, get a room,
a seat at the table, access to the car, and a debit card; I find that
expectation an absurd notion. This behavior happens daily across the southern
border of the United States. I live in the Southwest border state of Arizona.
Nobody allows for home break-ins that can prevent it.
Two primary hot button issues preoccupy my nation, abortion, and immigration.
This post will examine what they share in common.
White men’s exclusive rule in America has ended. Donald
Trump is the last vestige of great white hope for the good ole days when
women and people of color knew their place. The day of these dinosaurs is done.
The challenge for these historical dinosaurs is that they
do not get it. They think only of themselves and not the nation of the people,
by the people, and for the people. They
cannot get pregnant. They could not face being an immigrant that seeks asylum
and so they resort to what they know. They resort to the posture of powerbroker
using racist and sexist strategies for control.
Abortion
The
U. S. Supreme Court in 1973 ruled in the case of Roe vs. Wade that the Due Process
Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides a
fundamental "right to privacy" that protects a pregnant woman's
liberty to choose whether or not to have an abortion.
The
decision has been under constant attack by right-wing and conservative
evangelical Christians since its inception. Hold on to mouse buttons and find
out about these hypocrites a little later in this blog post. President Trump
siding politically with this part of his constituency and established base of
support has stacked the Supreme Court with judicial appointments that result in
what many fear could be the overturning of the provision.
Abortion is the privilege of women to determine when they
will and will not give birth. Right to life and pro-life advocates behave as
if women are in total control of every time they get pregnant. While
contemporary women have more access to birth control technologies than their
mothers did and their grandmothers did, women still get pregnant unintentionally.
Right to lifers make demands on women and cast extreme negative judgments on
them for choosing not to give birth.
Western culture’s historically white male leadership has
aspired to make the rules and control the parameters of spirituality and
sexuality while breaking them all. Remove men from the equation of pregnancy,
the issue immediately goes away.
That is not in the cards because men are going to find
sexual outlets by any means necessary; money, force, or pharmaceuticals without
regard for whether women get pregnant or not.
Christian White Men have been having sex and creating children they did
not care for or support with African, Native American, and other indigenous
peoples since the Transatlantic Slave Trade’s arrival on the shores of the Western
Hemisphere.
Immigration
Immigration,
both legal and illegal has fueled the U.S. Economy for more than 500 years, the
first four centuries through the forced labor of slaves. Workers from Asia,
Africa, and Latin America built what white men claimed as their own. White men
controlled the narrative of this enterprise and do not want to give it up.
Immigrants
have taken the jobs many Americans would not do. Employers had no regard for
their immigration status as long as they were cheap. An American laborer might
demand $10 per hour for work when an immigrant would work for $2 per hour.
Do
not let the illusion of the global economy fool you. It is about the
exploitation of cheap labor in Latin American and Asian Markets while selling
high-cost ticket items in upscale markets.
The
Correlation
It is time for the rubber to meet the road where unwanted
people and unwanted pregnancy are at issue. There are a number of people across
America making noise demanding an open border policy for all refugees seeking
asylum in America. Here is what you do not hear them saying.
You hear no one saying, “One hundred immigrants seeking
asylum and a better life, we invite you to come to live in our house. We will
feed you, house you and clothe you. We will give you a car and a debit card. We
are thankful to be your host and sponsors. No one is doing that. People just
make noise expecting others to do what they will not.
It is irresponsible to say let everybody in that wants to
come to America when you do not have any skin in the game. Are you willing to
have your taxes raised twice the current rate you pay now to support the lives
of newcomers? If not, you are just making noise. Those that might want to
cannot afford it and those that can afford it are not interested in disturbing
their exclusive life style.
Self – Righteous right wing and conservative Christians
are not lining up volunteering to take hundreds of children to host, sponsor
and raise them. If you are not, you are just demonstrating and making noise.
It is just easier to condemn women who elect to terminate
their pregnancies and negatively judge them from exclusive perspectives than it
is to love them. Now, check out this unholy, however.
According to the Antiochian Orthodox
Christian Diocese, 86% of all the 1.37 million or 1.18 million
abortions performed in the U.S. in 1996 were among Protestant, Roman Catholic,
and Born Again Evangelical Christian Women. Take Christian Women out of the
equation and the market for service takes a significant hit. By 2017, the
Guttmacher Institute not only confirmed the findings of the
Antiochian Orthodox Christian Diocese of 1996 but reported abortions down by
36% to 879,000 in 2017.
Conclusion
Immigration must have a clear and precise policy for
access to a path to American Citizenship. Exceptions should exist that allow
for the relocation of people seeking political asylum and a process for their
integration into American life and a path for citizenship. People living in The U.S. without citizenship for more than 20 years, working, and paying taxes
should receive amnesty and citizenship immediately. Not to do so is to have
exploited their honorable service.
The 1973 Supreme Court Ruling in the case of Roe vs Wade
determined it a woman’s right to give birth or not give birth by electing to
have an abortion performed to end her pregnancy. To make it political and
easily turned over now is to make a sham of the court.
I have high hopes women will continue to manage their
biological, political, relational, and economic lives with the respect of men
but without the influence of men seeking power and control over them.
As a final protection for the concerns of women, women
physicians should facilitate abortion procedures. Women physicians should
facilitate ob/gyn services. Women should be the physicians and the coaches for
women’s athletic teams. Our nation and culture must by moral imperative come to
love and respect women as free and self – determining negotiating in their own
interests for those things that will fulfill their lives. Nothing less is
acceptable.
