Unhealthy Connections

So, where to start today.  There are so many issues that need addressing, such as the big lie that the Republicans have been saying about Social Security since it was voted into law in about 1935.  It has neither gone broke nor driven the country into the ground.  The Social Security trust fund has bailed out the federal government several times by “loans” to keep the government afloat.  The Feds just might want to pay those loans back rather than trying to privatize Social Security.

But then we have this crazy society that has become so irrational when it comes to birth, life and death.  Where to start?

How about Phoenix, AZ.  There was the horrible situation with a family where there was a mother of four and pregnant with the fifth child.  A diagnosis was made that there was a medical situation (don’t ask me what it was) wherein the fetus was dying and at the same time was killing the mother.  After much ethical, theological and medical debate, it was determined that the only action that would save this innocent mother’s life was an abortion.  In no case, could the fetus survive.  The local Bishop of Phoenix, Bishop Olmstead, had a conniption over this and excommunicated the nun on the ethics committee of St. Joseph’s Hospital for allowing the abortion to take place.  Remember, without the abortion both the baby and the mother would die, leaving a husband and four children without a wife and mother.  Not particularly just.  And Pope Benedict XVI didn’t intervene.

There are several states in this United States, unbelievable as this is, who have passed or are contemplating passing laws that make it a crime for a woman to have a miscarriage.  Apparently the reasoning here is that maybe some women cause their miscarriages so they won’t have to have an abortion later, so make it a crime for all women to have a miscarriage.  This is probably one of the cruelest miscarriages of justice I have ever heard of.  Many miscarriages are the result of medical conditions over which the woman may have little or no control, and without adequate medical care, no hope of having control. 

Then we have the horrible event of yesterday with the life of Troy Davis, who may not have been guilty of the crime he had been convicted of, who was killed.  The US Supreme Court determined that all due process had taken place, so Troy Davis had to die because of that process – not because he was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt!  And frankly, the live or die yo-yo that man was on the last weeks of his life seemed to me to constitute “cruel and unusual punishment”, which unless I have missed something is still against the law.  We need to have due process, but when that process has been called into question by a former Director of the FBI and thousands of others, including Pope Benedict XVI, justice is not being served. 

We also just survived the 10^th anniversary of 9/11.  It was a truly horrible event, and there is no way one should even think that it wasn’t.  3000 of our innocent citizens died in that event.  In retaliation for that, we have killed some 100,000 innocent Iraqi and Afghani civilians, with only a few voices questioning the justice in this. 

These are just a few of the thoughts that are swirling around in my head, but to me they form a pattern.  Although I am absolutely not 100% accurate in my ability to “connect the dots” and therefore perceive a pattern, there is a pattern in the making here.

If one is white, male and has some wealth, one is pretty assured of clemency.  If one is female or a person of color, hold on to your hats.  The next few years or so are going to be interesting!