Choice...Small Government

   Everyone is clamoring for smaller government, less intrusion in our lives, allowing us to make more choice for ourselves . . . unless, of course, we are talking about government overseeing our private lives - who we can and can't marry, when women can stop a pregnancy, who can serve in combat roles, whether or not you can vote, etc.
   I just learned that 31 states demand the mother who gives birth to the child of a rapist must allow the rapist to retain parental rights. Imagine that - you are raped and the state says you have to bring you child to the rapist for parental visits, forcing you the deal with the person who raped you for 18 years. I spent many years in Virginia, home to the current ultra-sound governor. it's no wonder he thinks the way he does. if he was raised in Virginia, he was raised in a state where a man cannot legally rape his wife. she is considered property and must surrender herself to him at his request or demand. I would venture that many states have similar laws still on their books - no one bothered to remove them - just a silly law, like no donkey riding on Sundays through the streets of Norfolk. So, why bother to take it out of the Virginia state law book?
   I am breaking my own rule by even broaching the topic of rape and abortion, as I am a man, and it is highly unlikely that I will be raped and impossible to face the difficult decision of abortion personally. But, I am married and am a firm believer in social justice and equality. I fail to see the justice or equality in men making decisions about women's bodies, their choice and rights.
   Recently, a congressman started a fury over the abortion debate by using the term "legitimate rape" and claiming a woman can control her body to reject the sperm of her rapist, thus avoiding pregnancy and the decision to abort. It has become a hot topic, perhaps the defining topic of this year's election process, as the same doctor that this congressman cites as evidence for his rape and pregnancy claim, is the same man Mitt Romney chose in 2007 as his advisor on abortion. And, the congressman coauthored two pieces of legislation regarding abortion with the republican vice presidential nominee, Paul Ryan.
   This gets us back to smaller government. Romney and Ryan claim that government intrudes too much and too often into our personal and private lives, yet they have chosen to annoint themselves as the leaders ready to decide a woman's most difficult choice and force her by law to give birth to a rapist's child, where, in 31 states, she would be forced again by law to interact with her rapist regarding their child's future. Smaller government indeed.
   I think it's time to become totally politically and racially incorrect. I know from experience, that when people have to make decisions based on something happening in their own back yard versus the neighborhood down the road, their opinions are quite different. So, let's make this personal: What if your fifteen-year-old daughter were raped by someone of a different race that worships satan?
Knowing that your daughter would have to take that child for a monthly visit with the child's father for the next eighteen years, would you deny your daughter the right to say "no" again to her rapist?      Can't imagine that? How about your sister is taken advantage of by a professor after a night of drinking - date rape? She has one more year to go before getting her degree and has already been offered a job. Should she give up everything she has been working toward for 20 years because she was taken advantage of? How about your wife? What if your wife were attacked in a parking lot, raped and impregnated? Would you want to help raise the child while sharing visitation rights with her rapist? Rape is an extreme invasion of a woman's body - one no man can actually imagine. and abortion most likely her most agonizing decision of her life - remember, first and foremost -it's her life - not yours, not the zygote's, not the sperm's, not the egg's - the woman's - her body - her mind.
   As a matter of respect, I would refer decisons that affect only women to women.

Peace - Ho'oponopono . . .