*Note* As many of you know I try to stay out of the realm of political “hot topics” unless it somehow effects how we, the underutilized, underemployed and unemployed workers are able to search for a job. However given the events of Sunday and what has been said on both sides I feel that I cannot turn away from this, and I had to put in my own two pennies on the subject. So to that end, here is Part two of my thoughts on the death at the hands of terrorist extremists of Dr. George Tiller:
While watching the Rachel Maddow Show last night with Wifey, I speculated aloud about something that I have been considering for years now. It sparked a discussion amongst us that left us both with a sick, cold feeling inside our stomachs.
Here is that thought that I had: what do you think the reaction would be if in response to the killing of Dr. Tiller someone who considered themselves to be pro-choice had finally had enough of being harassed, intimidated, threatened, bullied, assaulted and vilified by the extremist anti-abortion terrorists and started giving them a dose of their own medicine? What if someone from the pro-choice side of this argument decided that it was time to start fighting fire with fire, and began their own campaign of violence against the anti-abortion movement and it’s followers? What do you think would happen if suddenly those who were associated with these anti-choice terrorist organizations were themselves being stalked, harassed, threatened and assaulted where they work, where they lived, when they are out with their families, or if it were happening to their children? How do you think they would handle the same treatment that they have been dishing out to the pro-choice side for all of these years?
The answer is: not very well because like a lot of wimps they can dish it out, but they can’t take it.
Wifey came up with a possibility that I had never considered before that would make this scenario possible. Say that there is a young married woman who must have a late-term abortion because the fetus will not only not survive after birth, but the mother would die as a result of giving birth. Abortions of this type have become so rare and hard to get that this woman is unable to get the procedure that she needs to save her life and she dies.
What do you think the reaction of her grieving husband would be?
Who do you think he is going to blame?
And who do you think he is going to want to take his revenge out on?
Yeah, it is going to take that kind of a scenario, where a man has lost his entire family in one shot and feels that he has nothing left to lose.
In that case its not much of a stretch to think that a husband, father, brother, mother, sister or a wife would resort to the same tactics that anti-abortion terrorists have used for years. And let’s be honest here people, that is exactly what they are – terrorists. According to Wikipedia:
Terrorism is a policy or ideology of violence intended to intimidate or cause terror for the purpose of “exerting pressure on decision making by state bodies.”
Terrorism is more commonly understood as an act which is intended to create fear (terror), is perpetrated for an ideological goal (as opposed to a materialistic goal or a lone attack), and deliberately targets (or disregards the safety of) non-combatants.
The tactics that have been used by anti-abortion extremists in the past certainly falls under the definition of terrorism, as they do in the December 30, 1994 attack by the terrorist John Salvi when he killed two receptionists and wounded five others in Brookline, Mass. It certainly qualifies in the case of June Barrett, who was shot by the terrorist Paul Jennings Hill after he had butchered her husband, James and the man he was trying to protect – Dr. John Britton. It certainly qualifies in the case of Alice Hawthorne who was minding her own business at the Atlanta Olympics when she was killed by a bomb set by the terrorist Eric Rudolph that wounded 111 others that night.
Do you need more convincing, or need I go on?
In talking about this scenario we both came to the conclusion that if it did ever happen, then the person involved would have to know that it was pretty much a suicide mission. They would have to know that if they went after the anti-abortion terrorists that there would be no chance of survival. These anti-abortion extremists are our equivalent of al-Qaeda, and they should be treated as such. Yes I know, it is unnerving to think that “we” are the same as al-Qaeda or that we have something equivalent to that living next door to us – but that is exactly what we have had in this country for years. Never more so than now – because they have finally taken that last step and perpetrated an act of terror inside a Church – a holy place. al-Qaeda has sent suicide bombers into Mosques in Pakistan to target actual Muslims, now the anti-abortion movement has become their equal by going into a church which is a place of sanctuary, and committing a mortal sin.
So it does make me wonder what the reaction would be from not only the anti-abortion extremists, but also from the pro-life and pro-choice supporters out there if this were to start happening? What if someone were to start tracking down and terrorizing the people who affiliated themselves with these anti-abortion extremist movements? What if someone were to track down one of these people to their house and kill them as they stood in their front door, ransacked their house and stole a list of all of their contacts in the anti-abortion movement? What if slowly, one at a time, the people on that list started dying? What would the reaction be? And what if during one of these crimes by this serial killer that someone from the mainstream pro-life movement happened to get caught in the crossfire, what then?
Now most of you who are reading this are saying “my God BigDaddy, that’s awful!!!!” To which I respond “yeah, you’re right it is awful. It is the worst-case scenario that we all need to hope never actually happens because if it does, then guess what? We’ve got ourselves another Civil War on our hands, and this one won’t be about slavery, it will be about abortion. And this one won’t be fought on any battlefield, it will be fought in peoples backyards, in their kitchens, in the parking lot where they work, in the frozen section of the local Piggly Wiggly as gunfire erupts on both sides. It would be unlike any apocalyptic movie we have ever seen before. It’ll be like Grand Theft Auto, The Godfather and Left Behind all rolled up into one, and there’s no telling how, or if, it would ever end.”
I know a lot of you are sitting there thinking “oh come on BigDaddy, you don’t really believe all of that, do you?” In my wildest, paranoid, worst-case scenario fantasies I do, yes.
That doesn’t mean that I actually want any of it to happen, which I don’t.
I’m just bracing for the first shot in response to be fired, because when it is then we’ve got ourselves a ballgame.
And it is definitely not what Jesus would have done.
Now that I’ve gotten all of that out of my system, I’m going to go back to looking for a job, writing about my experiences and yours and how all of these events effect our job search while trying to get you guys to buy one of the products that might help you get that interview or that job and a t-shirt so you can go through this economic crisis with at least your sense of humor intact. You know, the reason that I started this blog in the first place
We now return you to our regularly scheduled blogging…..
