Anyone who has read my column, stories, blogs, and meanderings is well aware that I am an avowed liberal. I am so anti-gun in the hands of civilians—banning assault rifles would be the beginning for me. Despite the recent assassination of their former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, I am a fan of the Japanese anti-gun stance. The fact that Japan had one gun-related murder in all of 2021 compared to America’s 45,000—I don’t need to be hit over the head with the butt of an AR-15 to recognize the obvious. Had the number of miscreants who have committed mass murder been forced to go to their basement and assemble two shot pistols from a pipe, duct tape, and wood, I can only guess the number of lives that would have been saved.
Somehow liberals have lost the fervor and momentum of the 70s and 80s on gun reform. I remember my friends and me refusing to buy our kids cap guns. The push to limit the number of shootouts and gun murders our kids saw on TV may have been misdirected but was a noble cause. We discussed our childhood tv watching habits, looking forward to seeing how many men Matt Dillon would kill per week. We reveled in the violence and finally concluded that maybe the glorification of guns was not in our kids’ best interest. Slowly Democrats cowered to the right’s debasement of the Constitution, and we started looking for compromise in place of conviction.
We are now faced with one of the most consequential and literally life-changing pieces of legislation since the 13th Amendment, and compromise and conviction meet again. Millions of women—with some men as allies—fought long and hard to have the freedom to avoid forced servitude and carry a fetus they did not want or could afford. For years liberals told women that the dog (GOP) did not want to catch the bus; it would always remain as just a political talking point to get conservative votes. Now that they have caught the Greyhound, they are sharpening their claws to slash the tires and chew on the Naugahyde upholstery. Meanwhile, liberals, just as they had in the eighties, ceded the point with compromising statements— no, it is about the women’s health, rape, and incest. No, no, no, I say to my fellow Democrats, Liberals, and Progressives, it is about a woman’s complete autonomy, and we attend gender reveal parties, too. I am bothered that liberals do not speak up about the pregnancies we have celebrated in our lives but sit back and allow conservatives to define us as baby killers. As tragic as it is, it should not take the traumatic stories of a ten-year-old impregnated rape victim in Ohio or Marlena Stell in Texas, forced to carry a dead fetus for two weeks. Doctors in Texas and Ohio knuckled to the legal and financial threats and jeopardized both the girl and Ms. Stell—delaying immediate medical intervention.
Wavering convictions are like pebbles in the ocean, an ever-weakening ripple. Meanwhile, conservatives are damming the waters of progress. Demolition is a messy, dirty, and painstaking endeavor. If Liberals do not stand up now, hammers in hand, the foundation, the bridge to the future, and the democracy will be washed away.
Continue to Vote for Change.
