Okay. I’m going to write my own opinion piece.
Not that it’s not perfect, but the Government gets it 100% wrong on two issues:
Guns and Abortion.
Here’s how I see it. These issues are NOT complicated. These issues are controlled by special interests in Washington DC. That puts unnecessary complexity into two issues that really are not complicated and shouldn’t be complicated.
I believe most Americans want to preserve their privacy. Americans also highly value having their own rights, responsibilities, and the liberty and freedom that they have as citizens of the United States. That’s why mainly Republican politicians have been so successful with the minds of so many Americans: They frequently cite these terms and take the position that they stand up for them, even when they don’t.
On Abortion: It’s private. It’s a personal decision. It’s for a woman to decide. It’s her body. It’s her life. It’s her baby/fetus.
If a woman wants an abortion, she should be able to have it. Period.
I know and respect the known medical definitions of viability of the fetus. However, there is no way of knowing at what time a fetus becomes sentient, or even if it does become sentient while in utero. There is no way to know this and there probably never will be a way to know this. I myself have no memories before about the age of 2 or 3 years of age. I have no recollection of my life in utero. So, for me, it’s hard to believe that any fetus would have any concept of anything until way after it’s born. Maybe I’m wrong. But I just don’t think a fetus, or even a newborn, is really capable of any full perception of the internal or external environment until it has lived a little and has begun to develop enough to be able to have this capability.
Babies are precious. They are the future. They deserve nothing but the best in terms of support, love, nurturance. They also deserve to be raised in a healthy environment, have warm clothes, shelter, food, good prenatal and postnatal care, vaccinations, sanitation, and to live in an environment that is healthy, has clean air and water, and where they can run, play, and develop with other children and hopefully have a happy childhood.
During and after childhood, babies, children, kids and young adults deserve a good education and opportunity to become the most successful, productive and happy adults that they can become. To learn how to live and work in the world. But that all takes resources. A lot of resources. Are those resources currently all fully available to all children? No.
If babies are born into a world where they have no support, love, are not being nurtured, they live in filth and squalor, have no warm clothes, no shelter, no food, no medical care and are malnourished and or diseased from a lack of these basics for living a healthy life, is is really okay to force that by not allowing an abortion of a fetus that would surely suffer after it is born? What kind of a future is that? And, how precious is that baby when it is a victim of being born into such circumstances?
If a woman wants an abortion, she should be able to get an abortion. Period. If the procedure is deemed life-threatening, it’s the doctor’s job to make sure that she knows that in order for her to decide whether or not she wants to take that risk. It’s called informed consent. Competent adults use informed consent to make any and all medical decision for themselves. It is and should only be a matter between a patient and her doctor. The government should have no right to interfere or interject or make conditions in this relationship because it’s personal and private. At least it should be private in my view. To take a most extreme example and one that would be EXTREMELY RARE: even if a woman is 8 months pregnant, if she is competent to make her own decisions, and she wants to abort the baby, she should be able to make that decision for herself. She will have to live with that decision and whatever consequences may occur as a result for the rest of her life. But it is a decision that she should be allowed to make for herself if she is competent to do so. She may have good reasons for wanting to proceed with the abortion. And, it should be her right and her decision. There should be no governmentally imposed restriction or conditions preventing her doing so. Getting an abortion should be treated as a right with responsibilities. That’s what Americans value, rights with responsibilities.
Guns. The government’s position of inaction on making responsible gun laws even in the midst of an epidemic of mass shootings and gun violence demonstrates a total disregard for public safety.
The government seems to be promoting the continued amassing of high-powered combat military grade arsenals with huge capacity for ammunitions to be hoarded by the most dangerous, mentally unstable, insecure, paranoid, and medically untreated individuals in our country.
The NRA controls Congress and is the cause of governmental inertia on the creation of gun laws for public safety. Our “elected representatives” continue to take money hand over fist from the NRA. Money in politics is another matter altogether and one that I will not address any further in this note suffice it to say that things are the way they are in Washington DC because of money in our politics.
Congress could:
Ban all assault weapons, ban semi and automatic weapons, require registration and background checks of all guns, not allow anyone with mental health problems to own or have guns, not allow huge capacity magazines for ammunition.
I am not an expert on gun control. These are just some of the things that I have heard responsible elected representatives talk about that could be made law that would promote public safety. There may be others. I would encourage Congress to at least start this discussion.
So, the government, IMO, so far gets it 100% wrong on the two issues of abortion and guns.
In my view, the government could to the right thing with abortion and stop restricting it. On guns, it could make laws that promote pubic safety. That is supposed to be one of the functions of government, isn’t it, to protect the public? So far, it has not done so.
Abortion: Government get out.
Guns: Government get in.
It’s as simple as that.
thoughtprivacyandliberty.com 