November 9, 2002
THAT WAS NOW, THIS IS THEN:
NOW Fired Up By Election Losses, Steps Up Mobilization Efforts (Statement of NOW President Kim Gandy, November 6, 2002)Roe v. Wade hangs by a single vote. Tipping the balance of the Supreme Court with one more extremist justice would ensure the loss of abortion rights for generations. We know that the stealth legislation disguised as "fetal protection," is really an thinly-veiled effort to deprive many more women of their reproductive freedom. And the Senate is primed to confirm a bevy of right-wing judges that will make the federal bench look more conservative than a Bush family reunion.The Bush agenda for 2003 is no secret: further decreases in women's reproductive health options, more reductions in the already-limited safety net for the poor, restrictions on civil rights and liberties, Social Security privatization, more power for HMOs and insurers and less for patients and doctors, more lifetime appointments of religious and political extremists to the federal courts, and unfettered corporate influence over regulations that might restrain their greed. Tax cuts that benefit the wealthy will become permanent and programs that help the struggling working families who are the backbone of our nation will be slashed.
We have taken some serious body blows, but nothing will stop us from organizing and rededicating ourselves to progress. We will do whatever it takes to protect women's lives in every city, town and district with an energized, focused and expanded constituency.
This election is a clarion call to everyone who values peace and wants a just and fair society for themselves and their children—we must join together with each other and with brave allies to defend fundamental human and civil rights and to renew our dream of full equality. We have faced and beaten formidable odds before, and we will do no less now. We must mobilize and organize as if our lives and the futures of our children and families depended on it. They do. And as our numbers double, watch out George Bush—here comes trouble!
Geez, if only people had known all this before the election the GOP might not have won in a landslide and 11 of the 12 Senate candidates that NOW's PAC worked for might not be buffing up their resumes. Oh yeah, and the one who won was Frank Lautenberg. So only a legal violation kept them from going 0 for 12. Ms Gandy seems to really have her finger on the pulse of the nation, huh? Posted by Orrin Judd at November 9, 2002 11:21 AM
"This election is a clarion call to everyone who values peace.."
Yes, it was. I value peace and want to ensure my children live in peace. I considered the consequences of my vote, I examine the values I hold dear and came to the conclusion that the people who blames me and other Americans for 9/11 probably will not consider that MY - and all other Americans’ - safety and security is paramount to anyone else’s.
I don't want to understand, I don't want to share their fears; I want them dead and I want those who share their vicious views to be afraid to sleep in the night, fearful we will come for them as they try to sleep.
I have no expectations that everyone in the world will love us. There will always be those who hate us, fine, hate us, but fear us just a slight bit more. That's always been a damn good deterrence.
Hiding from threats does not equate with valuing peace.
The sheer arrogance of people like her who assume that many of us were some how "hoodwinked" takes my breath away.
"And as our numbers double, watch out George Bush here comes trouble!"
Wow! I can't wait to see what's going to happen that will convert the "extremist" 53% of us!!
And do they really want us anyway??? We’re extremists!
Uh, Roe v. Wade hangs by TWO votes, not ONE (only Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices Scalia and Thomas would overturn the decision). The Four Horsepersons (Justices Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer) and Justices O'Connor and Kennedy have all voted, on numerous occasions, to uphold the decision. It hardly can be said that it hangs by a thread. Indeed, I think it's never been safer. (This is all not to mention the fact that the justice most likely to retire is the Chief, who would need to be replaced by one of those "extremist justice[s]" to even maintain the 6-3 count instead of going to 7-2).
And even if the decision fell, which is extremely doubtful, that would not "ensure the loss of abortion rights for generations." The decision would simply be moved to the State level -- States could ban or place restrictions upon abortion, or not, as they see fit. Some would, many wouldn't. Some States could even adopt State constitutional amendments to protect the right to choose from simple state legislation. Why is it that those on the Left forget about "democracy" and "the will of the People" when it doesn't serve their short-term needs. The above-described scenario (under which reasonable, moral minds and votes can differ and will be ALLOWED to differ) is a perfectly acceptable system of governance, one far more in tune with the federal system our Founders envisioned than the one we presently have under Roe. If NOW President Kim Gandy resides in Massachusetts, New York or California -- as, I suspect, she does -- she has absolutely nothing to fret about. If she does not, she may either agitate the political process for protection through legislation or "vote with her feet" and simply move to one of those States.
It strikes me as abhorrent to label as "extremist justice[s]" those who (1) bother about what the United States Constitution actually says; (2) would account for the preferences of the population where that Document does not expressly mandate otherwise; and (3) are not particularly convinced by Justice Blackmun's characteristically well-intentioned but weak-minded reasoning in Roe.
Why bother even trying to have an intellectual discourse with these people, though? Their principles and reason are too far outdistanced by their passion and wrath.