May 25th, 2022

A time of confusion

According to several news reports, medical assistance for those with emotional or psychological problems is not readily available. As rational standards of behavior deteriorate, it seems the growth of mental illness in America can increase.

One cause of the problems results from the spread of Covid-19. Awareness of the virus began during the presidency of Donald Trump, who failed to confront the danger scientifically. He seemed to call upon male authority to thwart what he referred to as the “Chinese flu.”

When effective vaccines became available, Trump supported the notion that everyone had the right to refuse the vaccination. In fact, he conjured up a human right to refuse to wear a mask to retard the spread of the disease, even though medical science had established that these measures effectively retarded the spread of Covid to others.

So now, according to political conservatives, the right of the individual is so powerful, that they cannot be required to assume simple measures to protect others from potentially fatal disease. How then can women, who also enjoy this right, be denied the authority to terminate a pregnancy in their own bodies?

The attempted defense of this inconsistency is said to save human life by denying women their right of abortion. Strangely enough, conservatives also believe that innocent citizens should be exposed to potentially fatal Covid germs by someone who exercises an imagined right not to be inoculated or wear a mask.

Even more strangely, conservatives who claim to be concerned about human life are the least likely to support federal plans to end childhood poverty. It appears that this claimed love of human life ends after the newborn draws his or her first breath. According to data, almost 1 in 7 U.S. children live in a family that is poor. The reason is that the U.S. spends less on children than other European countries.

When ranked among 40 countries that spend funds on their children, the U.S. comes in 38th behind Finland, Germany, Denmark and France as well as Slovenia, Estonia, Russia and Mexico. Is it any wonder that 71% of poor children in the U.S. are Black, Hispanic or Native American? Under such circumstances, how can sensitive Americans support the denial of women to determine for themselves whether or not they will have an abortion?

Young people usually get their understanding or community values from their elders in respected positions. How can they sanely follow Trump, who insists that he won the 2020 election despite the failure of any audit or judicial decision to support that false assertion? In addition to that, Virginia Thomas, the wife of Clarence Thomas, the most senior judge of the U.S. Supreme Court, has, according to reports, actively tried to overturn the 2020 vote.

What is worse, with his wife having possibly committed criminally actionable interference in the nation’s democratic processes, Justice Thomas has renounced the leak of the court’s potential decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Is it worse that liberal supporters of Roe v. Wade protest at Supreme Court justices’ homes, or that the wife of a justice is conspiring with conservatives to overturn a presidential election and destroy the nation’s democracy?

Is it any wonder, then, that a community activist might have some difficulty retaining sound judgment while considering the bizarre political positions assumed by some prominent citizens?

abortion, child welfare, Republicans, right to choose