Web Letters | The Nation

Web Letter

"When it comes to abortion, there really is only one moral question: Will women be free to determine their own lives, including whether and when they will bear children, or will women be subjugated to patriarchal male authority and forced to breed against their will?"

I think this quote from Sunsara Taylor gets right to the heart of the matter.

You can read more in her article, "The Deadly Illusion of 'Common Ground' on Abortion: Response to Obama’s speech at Notre Dame on common ground and abortion."

Web Letter

The day after Dr. Tiller was killed, a recent convert to Islam, shot two soldiers in Arkansas, killing one of them. I suppose that all Muslims are responsible for that act, just as the prolife movement is responsible for the death of Dr. Tiller. Also, for months, the media has described the harsh treatment of Muslim suspects by American troops and CIA agents, often using inflammatory language, and has even published shocking pictures of such treatment. Therefore, those who published the images and failed to temper their language must be responsible for the shootings in Arkansas.

Web Letter

The killer purportedly murdered another human being because that human being "killed" a baby in the womb by performing late-term abortion. Strange world! There are two issues here, one moral, the other the rule of law. The killer elevated his moral belief above the law. Yet moral laws are self-defined, according to one's philosophical or religious orientation or belief. In truth, what the killer calls "murder" is not recognized by the state. It is his own act of taking the law into his hand to execute another human being that is recognized by the state as murder and against the law. If we are to have an ordered society, the rule of law must always trump self-defined ideas about morality and justice. Alas, where are the defenders of the law? Where is the prochoice movement? Where is activism on the side of women's rights to decide the course of their lives?