The Silence of the Lambs
It all hurts. The Health Insurance Profit Protection Plan. The government mandate to fork over money to private companies. The lies. The flimflam. (“It’s called ‘Health Care Reform.’ That means ‘Health’ and ‘Care’ and ‘Reform’!”)
But what hurts worse is all the people who I thought knew which end was up, who knew right from wrong, who cared. Krugman, even, so help me God, Kristof — practically the only widely visible man out there who’s aware that women are people. All of them not noticeably conscious that women’s most fundamental right was trampled for . . . well, for the obligation to fork over money to private companies. For nothing.
Because that’s what this is. The right to control your own body is so basic that you can even kill in self-defense. The right to control what is done to your body is fundamental to every other right. There is no freedom of speech or thought, no life, no liberty, no pursuit of happiness, if there is no control over your body. This is an issue like slavery. It is fundamental. It cannot be harmlessly traded away for anything.
But people don’t see anything wrong. A headline on the McClatchy site is about the eventual silence of the Tea Partiers. The delusions of a few paranoids are visible. The human rights of half the population are not.
Knowing right from wrong is like knowing which way is up. It’s essential to digging out of a hole.
How did we come to this place where women get shoved further and further down, and even women barely notice?
That hurts worst of all.
The sad thing is that many people are cheering both on blogs and in their homes about the “landmark” passing of healthcare. This is because they labor under the illusion that this crappy bill that just passed is going to be used as a stepping stone for future legislation to build on. However, our beloved congress critters have demonstrated that they are just as in bed with soft money from various corporations as they ever were. This travesty of a bill is probably as good as it is going to get because congress is now going to consider the healthcare issue “solved” and not bother revisiting again in the future. We have now been bound and gagged with and delivered on a silver platter to the very insurance companies that have been price gouging us for years. Let me go put on a gimp suit and zipper mask so that I can welcome our new health insurance overlords.
Neurovore on March 23rd, 2010 at 00:24