David Meredith's Blog
May 25, 2021
Explaining the Big Political “Pro-Life” Scam
Just this past week, Texas passed one of the most restrictive anti-abortion laws ever enacted in the post Roe v. Wade United States. It will hypothetically ban virtually all abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy before most women even know they’re pregnant. It will also allow any private citizen to sue any doctor who performs an abortion for up to $10,000 each. As with virtually all draconian abortion bills of this nature, pro-choice groups have already sworn to challenge it in court, where it will almost certainly be defeated as unconstitutional after the State of Texas spends millions of taxpayer dollars defending it. Is there an outside chance this law makes it all the way to the Supreme Court where the newly minted conservative majority uphold it? Well, there’s always a chance, but it is worth noting that all three justices confirmed during the Trump administration stated specifically during their confirmation hearings they believed Roe v. Wade was decided case law. Assuming they were telling the truth, this makes the likelihood of this, or any other hyper-restrictive abortion law, actually becoming enforced criminal or civil code very, very low. After fifty years of futility since Roe v. Wade, no one understands this reality better than conservative, so-called “pro-life” politicians, so why do they keep up the attempt?
Well, the stock answer one would likely receive from their respective offices would probably have something to do with the moral turpitude of the insidious practice of abortion, so even if the chance for success is low, they have a moral obligation to continue the good fight. The problem with this type of response is it is clearly a lie. The reality is, there is a surefire way to reduce the number of abortions in this country by 80% or more almost overnight, and conservative politicians have spurned it for decades – namely providing free universal birth control to all women and girls of childbearing age with the same consistency and regularity as we provide other vaccines. Now, some may object to referring to birth control as a vaccine, but in reality it easily matches if not surpasses any other vaccine for preventative benefit. Research clearly shows birth control is a vaccination against poverty. It’s a vaccination against low educational achievement among women and girls. And yes, it’s a vaccination against ever needing to even consider the wrenching choice between keeping a child you don’t want and/or can’t afford and having an abortion that in addition to the moral question, is a potentially risky and traumatic medical procedure. Birth control is also exponentially cheaper than the thousands of dollars American taxpayers spend in public entitlements for each child of women and girls who never meant to get pregnant in the first place.
So why do they do it? Why do they persist in passing legislation they know is doomed from the start? One would suppose if the goal was to prevent as many abortions as possible that these “pro-life” crusaders would be the biggest cheerleaders in the world for encouraging women and girls get on a birth control regimen as prudent public health policy and want to ensure they have the easiest possible access to encourage maximum coverage. However, this is not the case. The reality is “pro-life” politicians have no interest in solving the very real public health crisis of unintended pregnancy and abortion. In fact, there is powerful disincentive for them to ameliorate the problem at all – Namely, publicly and vocally decrying abortion gets votes, but solving the problem does not.
Politicians know these draconian anti-abortion laws are doomed to failure before they are ever passed out of committee. They know they’ll be challenged in court. They know defending them is futile and an extravagant waste of taxpayer money, but they do it anyway. The reason of course is the issue of abortion is exceedingly easy to demagogue. It is extremely simple to fire up your conservative base if you frame the issue as saving poor innocent little babies from monstrous, murderous abortionists. After all, who doesn’t want to save babies? Babies are cute. Babies are defenseless. Now, this completely ignores the nuance of scientific grey area about when life and moral agency actually begin, but that is a nonissue for politicians who owe their political lives to moral outrage over “killing babies”. The moral indignation over abortion in conservative circles is such that they will forgive conservative politicians almost any personal vice or shameless act of corruption as long as they give public lip service to their disgust and distain for abortion, all who advocate it, and their heart-felt desire to severely punish everyone involved with the practice. Thus “pro-life” politicians engage in a predictable and repeatable cycle, which goes something like this:
First, a conservative politician campaigns on a hardline stance against abortion. They advocate strict restrictions on the procedure, harsh punishments for women and doctors, all with the intention of firing up their conservative “pro-life” base. They get elected and pass these highly restrictive bills knowing full well they will be immediately challenged in court. The draconian laws get prominent, free news coverage as do the politicians who support them. They fork out millions of tax dollars to pay for defending the law in court, then when the law is inevitably thrown out as unconstitutional, they shake their fists and loudly decry dastardly “activist judges” thwarting their righteous efforts. The end result is these politicians can claim they are “tough on abortion” when in actuality, in terms of doing anything practical to reduce the number of abortions, they have done exactly nothing. Their efforts do not prevent one, single, solitary abortion. At its most basic, “pro-life” anti-abortion outrage is nothing but a political bait-and-switch scam that conservative politicians perennially dust off and reuse every two, four, or six years depending on their office, but the health crisis remains, and that’s just exactly how they want it.
There is no question unplanned pregnancy is a huge public health crisis in this country. Whatever one’s stance on abortion, the reality is if women and girls received birth control in the same numbers and with the same regularity as they receive other vaccines, the issue over abortion would largely solve itself. By eliminating the strong majority of unplanned pregnancies, the procedure would mostly be relegated to medically necessary situations where abortion is a lot less controversial. However, conservative “pro-life” politicians are unlikely to take the practical steps to actually improve a public health situation they decry as an abomination, because demonizing abortion is too much of a political cash cow for them to abandon. They have no interest in actually reducing the number of abortions. They aren’t really “pro-life”. They are simply pro-outrage, because hyped up fury over abortion is what keeps getting them votes.
Well, the stock answer one would likely receive from their respective offices would probably have something to do with the moral turpitude of the insidious practice of abortion, so even if the chance for success is low, they have a moral obligation to continue the good fight. The problem with this type of response is it is clearly a lie. The reality is, there is a surefire way to reduce the number of abortions in this country by 80% or more almost overnight, and conservative politicians have spurned it for decades – namely providing free universal birth control to all women and girls of childbearing age with the same consistency and regularity as we provide other vaccines. Now, some may object to referring to birth control as a vaccine, but in reality it easily matches if not surpasses any other vaccine for preventative benefit. Research clearly shows birth control is a vaccination against poverty. It’s a vaccination against low educational achievement among women and girls. And yes, it’s a vaccination against ever needing to even consider the wrenching choice between keeping a child you don’t want and/or can’t afford and having an abortion that in addition to the moral question, is a potentially risky and traumatic medical procedure. Birth control is also exponentially cheaper than the thousands of dollars American taxpayers spend in public entitlements for each child of women and girls who never meant to get pregnant in the first place.
So why do they do it? Why do they persist in passing legislation they know is doomed from the start? One would suppose if the goal was to prevent as many abortions as possible that these “pro-life” crusaders would be the biggest cheerleaders in the world for encouraging women and girls get on a birth control regimen as prudent public health policy and want to ensure they have the easiest possible access to encourage maximum coverage. However, this is not the case. The reality is “pro-life” politicians have no interest in solving the very real public health crisis of unintended pregnancy and abortion. In fact, there is powerful disincentive for them to ameliorate the problem at all – Namely, publicly and vocally decrying abortion gets votes, but solving the problem does not.
Politicians know these draconian anti-abortion laws are doomed to failure before they are ever passed out of committee. They know they’ll be challenged in court. They know defending them is futile and an extravagant waste of taxpayer money, but they do it anyway. The reason of course is the issue of abortion is exceedingly easy to demagogue. It is extremely simple to fire up your conservative base if you frame the issue as saving poor innocent little babies from monstrous, murderous abortionists. After all, who doesn’t want to save babies? Babies are cute. Babies are defenseless. Now, this completely ignores the nuance of scientific grey area about when life and moral agency actually begin, but that is a nonissue for politicians who owe their political lives to moral outrage over “killing babies”. The moral indignation over abortion in conservative circles is such that they will forgive conservative politicians almost any personal vice or shameless act of corruption as long as they give public lip service to their disgust and distain for abortion, all who advocate it, and their heart-felt desire to severely punish everyone involved with the practice. Thus “pro-life” politicians engage in a predictable and repeatable cycle, which goes something like this:
First, a conservative politician campaigns on a hardline stance against abortion. They advocate strict restrictions on the procedure, harsh punishments for women and doctors, all with the intention of firing up their conservative “pro-life” base. They get elected and pass these highly restrictive bills knowing full well they will be immediately challenged in court. The draconian laws get prominent, free news coverage as do the politicians who support them. They fork out millions of tax dollars to pay for defending the law in court, then when the law is inevitably thrown out as unconstitutional, they shake their fists and loudly decry dastardly “activist judges” thwarting their righteous efforts. The end result is these politicians can claim they are “tough on abortion” when in actuality, in terms of doing anything practical to reduce the number of abortions, they have done exactly nothing. Their efforts do not prevent one, single, solitary abortion. At its most basic, “pro-life” anti-abortion outrage is nothing but a political bait-and-switch scam that conservative politicians perennially dust off and reuse every two, four, or six years depending on their office, but the health crisis remains, and that’s just exactly how they want it.
There is no question unplanned pregnancy is a huge public health crisis in this country. Whatever one’s stance on abortion, the reality is if women and girls received birth control in the same numbers and with the same regularity as they receive other vaccines, the issue over abortion would largely solve itself. By eliminating the strong majority of unplanned pregnancies, the procedure would mostly be relegated to medically necessary situations where abortion is a lot less controversial. However, conservative “pro-life” politicians are unlikely to take the practical steps to actually improve a public health situation they decry as an abomination, because demonizing abortion is too much of a political cash cow for them to abandon. They have no interest in actually reducing the number of abortions. They aren’t really “pro-life”. They are simply pro-outrage, because hyped up fury over abortion is what keeps getting them votes.
November 30, 2018
Why Cultural Appropriation is Segregationist Nonsense
This past week the acclaimed singer, Ricky Martin got himself in some trouble on social media. His crime? Cultural appropriation. So what exactly did he do? He posted a picture of himself wearing a full Lakota War Bonnet, sunglasses, and (gasp) he’s NOT a Native American.
The New York Daily News points out, “It is well known that Plains Indians headdresses hold deep spiritual significance and that each feather is earned through acts of courage… Moreover, Martin is not native. He is not enrolled (in a tribe)…” (Nov. 30, 2018). So is Martin completely out of line for daring to don the garb of another culture without providing the appropriate genetic credentials at the door?
The Oxford English Dictionary defines cultural appropriation as, “The unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society.” Martin is a Latino from Puerto Rico, and I suppose we could get into a debate about whether Puerto Rican culture is more dominant than Lakota culture, but I fear that borders on the absurd given their limited interaction. I’m not familiar with the Great Puerto Rican Invasion of the Lakota Nation, so I’m not sure it is accurate to argue that one culture is dominant over the other. Having said that however, that still does not let Martin off the hook. Let’s focus on the “inappropriate” part of the definition above. Martin was definitely being inappropriate. He had no business wearing the war bonnet, but not because he was from the wrong culture. He was wrong in wearing the war bonnet because he was claiming for himself trappings of valor he did not earn. In short, he was being ignorant.
As the Daily News article mentioned, the feathers in tribal war bonnets are earned individually for acts of courage – traditionally in war. Martin was not in error for failing to stay in his ethnic/racial lane. Rather his mistake was more akin to an average civilian with no military experience walking around their local suburban mall with a Congressional Medal of Honor hanging around their neck. It would be horribly offensive to members of the military – exponentially so for individuals who had actually been legitimately awarded the honor, but not because of anything related to ethnicity or race.
What if instead Martin had chosen to decorate his house with Lakota artwork? What if he decided to wear traditional Lakota moccasins or put a Lakota beaded blanket on his bed? Would he be equally guilty of appropriating the culture because he had entirely the wrong genetics for that particular variety of footwear and bedding?
Claims of cultural appropriation are certainly not limited to Martin. Katie Perry was lambasted for wearing a kimono in a performance. Kylie Jenner was pilloried for “trying to look black” because she did her hair in corn rows. Selina Gomez got blasted for wearing a Bollywood outfit, as did Beyoncé. Two Portland women were even forced to close their burrito cart after being inundated with protesters highly offend that white women would dare think they could sell a warm tortilla wrap when they were clearly of the wrong race to do so.
How about a personal example? My daughter was born in Japan. Both I and my wife are white Americans of European decent. She attended Japanese public school through 4th grade, and the only English she spoke was with me and my wife for years. Every other interaction and relationship in her life when she was very young was with Japanese people, in Japan, through the medium of the Japanese language. In fact, she is a native level Japanese speaker, but racially she is undeniably still an American white girl with no Japanese ancestry at all. So when she wore a Japanese happi or yukata to local festivals or when she recited Japanese haiku for school cultural festivals, was she inappropriately appropriating Japanese culture because she was the wrong race?
I find this line of thinking troubling for many reasons, but primarily because it is the idea that race should be the determining factor in what music you play or listen to, what food you prepare or eat, what clothing you wear, or what cultural practices and beliefs you choose to incorporate in your own personal lifestyle. The fact of the matter is, when cultures interact, they always appropriate aspects of other cultures they find to be more attractive, more efficient, more effective, or just simply cooler than the way they were doing things before. The Greeks appropriated culture from the Etruscans. The Romans did the same thing to the Greeks. Japanese people, Russians, Indians, and most of the rest of the world compose and listen to rock and jazz music. They eat hamburgers and pizza sold by individuals with no racial connection to the United States or Italy. Should we be offended? Should we demand they cease and desist?
We certainly did at one time in US history. In the antebellum south, white southerners were adamant it was totally inappropriate if black people tried to use their bathrooms, go to their schools, shop at their stores, or drink from their water fountains. Today we view the practices of the Jim Crow to be rank injustices, and rightly so. How is this modern insistence that you are only allowed to participate in or utilize elements from a particular culture as long as you have the right racial pedigree any different? The idea should be patently offensive to anyone who claims to value diversity.
Having said that, there are cases where the cursory adoption of other cultural characteristics are problematic. Recently NBC anchor Megan Kelly defended wearing blackface at Halloween. She argued, “It used to be okay when I was a kid”. However, this is not a problem of simply being the wrong race. Blackface, a common artifice of minstrel shows, was specifically designed in the antebellum south as a method to stereotype and demean African Americans – to portray them as stupid, inferior, less. Blackface was not a case of “cultural appropriation”, but rather blatantly racist, anti-black propaganda. In a similar incident in 2012, a Penn State sorority had a widely publicized “Mexican Night” party where they all wore ponchos, sombreros, and phony mustaches. Likewise, the problem with this particular party theme was that it amplified a stereotype specifically designed to denigrate a particular group of people. Neither of these incidents were okay, but the problem was not about being the wrong race. The problem was intentionally portraying a certain group of people as buffoonish cartoons.
Let’s use the above example now as a segue and take a closer look at the burrito example mentioned previously. I don’t think anyone would argue the two white women involved were trying to perpetuate any negative racial stereotypes by making burritos. They just wanted to make money. They flew down to Puerto Nuevo, Mexico and met with local housewives to learn the traditional process of making and rolling perfect tortillas. Afterwards, they returned to the United States to implement these practices in their own business. They were then promptly accused of “stealing” the recipes to enrich themselves without any clear evidence they appropriately compensated the Mexican women from whom they learned the process.
Even if this is true, the injustice is not racial or ethnic in nature, but rather economic. Rich people stealing ideas from poor people to further enrich themselves is a persistent problem in every society, but it is not "cultural appropriation". It is instead socio-economic appropriation. Perhaps it was unfair for two relatively wealthy women to profit from poor individuals lacking the financial wherewithal to travel to another country and invest in the capital necessary to get a fledgling burrito business off the ground, but this was a function of financial disparity, not racial difference. I would argue, if a Mexican millionaire had done exactly the same thing, it would have been equally problematic.
I recently submitted a DNA sample to 23andMe.com in order to learn a little more about my genetic makeup and family background. I discovered my genome is comprised of 99.8% white European DNA with 0.1% Sub-Saharan African and 0.1% unknown. I suppose this means, according to the cultural appropriation argument I should only indulge in cultural practices racially consistent with my genetics. I should resign myself to wearing nothing but brown corduroys and button-down, short sleeve, white dress shirts, eat nothing but hamburgers, pork chops and potatoes, and listen to nothing but American country music or Bluegrass. I clearly don’t have the genetic right to partake of anything diverse.
Herein lies the biggest problem. The idea that one must have the right genetics to wear a particular style of shirt or play a certain kind of music is blatantly racist, segregationist, and anti-diversity. It ignores the fact that cultural exchange is a good thing. There is so much division in the world today. The trend is to retreat to our various tribes and label everyone different as other and a threat. However, when we experience the cultures of people different from ourselves, it provides an in – a common reference point, a conversation starter, and an opportunity to understand each other as human beings and individuals. If someone of a different culture listens to my cultural music, eats my ethnic food, watches my nation’s movies and thinks, “wow, that stuff is really cool. I want to do that too”. We should be delighted, not offended.
Even when the adoption attempt is ignorant and misguided like Mr. Martin’s, it still represents an opportunity to educate a person, who is clearly enamored of and open to my culture and values, in why we do what we do, why it is of value to us, and when, how, where, and for whom it is appropriate. It invites dialog. This can only engender mutual respect and understanding in the end. If instead, I decry that individual as being unworthy of my culture, all it does is reinforce division and emphasize the “otherness” of the way we live our lives compared to theirs. It makes us unnecessarily into something alien, foreign, and strange. If our goal is to increase diversity and intercultural understanding – if our goal is to decrease racism, stop segregation, and advance equality, respectful cultural exchange should be a thing we encourage, not forbid. Like the old adage says, “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”
-David Meredith, Ed. D.
The New York Daily News points out, “It is well known that Plains Indians headdresses hold deep spiritual significance and that each feather is earned through acts of courage… Moreover, Martin is not native. He is not enrolled (in a tribe)…” (Nov. 30, 2018). So is Martin completely out of line for daring to don the garb of another culture without providing the appropriate genetic credentials at the door?
The Oxford English Dictionary defines cultural appropriation as, “The unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society.” Martin is a Latino from Puerto Rico, and I suppose we could get into a debate about whether Puerto Rican culture is more dominant than Lakota culture, but I fear that borders on the absurd given their limited interaction. I’m not familiar with the Great Puerto Rican Invasion of the Lakota Nation, so I’m not sure it is accurate to argue that one culture is dominant over the other. Having said that however, that still does not let Martin off the hook. Let’s focus on the “inappropriate” part of the definition above. Martin was definitely being inappropriate. He had no business wearing the war bonnet, but not because he was from the wrong culture. He was wrong in wearing the war bonnet because he was claiming for himself trappings of valor he did not earn. In short, he was being ignorant.
As the Daily News article mentioned, the feathers in tribal war bonnets are earned individually for acts of courage – traditionally in war. Martin was not in error for failing to stay in his ethnic/racial lane. Rather his mistake was more akin to an average civilian with no military experience walking around their local suburban mall with a Congressional Medal of Honor hanging around their neck. It would be horribly offensive to members of the military – exponentially so for individuals who had actually been legitimately awarded the honor, but not because of anything related to ethnicity or race.
What if instead Martin had chosen to decorate his house with Lakota artwork? What if he decided to wear traditional Lakota moccasins or put a Lakota beaded blanket on his bed? Would he be equally guilty of appropriating the culture because he had entirely the wrong genetics for that particular variety of footwear and bedding?
Claims of cultural appropriation are certainly not limited to Martin. Katie Perry was lambasted for wearing a kimono in a performance. Kylie Jenner was pilloried for “trying to look black” because she did her hair in corn rows. Selina Gomez got blasted for wearing a Bollywood outfit, as did Beyoncé. Two Portland women were even forced to close their burrito cart after being inundated with protesters highly offend that white women would dare think they could sell a warm tortilla wrap when they were clearly of the wrong race to do so.
How about a personal example? My daughter was born in Japan. Both I and my wife are white Americans of European decent. She attended Japanese public school through 4th grade, and the only English she spoke was with me and my wife for years. Every other interaction and relationship in her life when she was very young was with Japanese people, in Japan, through the medium of the Japanese language. In fact, she is a native level Japanese speaker, but racially she is undeniably still an American white girl with no Japanese ancestry at all. So when she wore a Japanese happi or yukata to local festivals or when she recited Japanese haiku for school cultural festivals, was she inappropriately appropriating Japanese culture because she was the wrong race?
I find this line of thinking troubling for many reasons, but primarily because it is the idea that race should be the determining factor in what music you play or listen to, what food you prepare or eat, what clothing you wear, or what cultural practices and beliefs you choose to incorporate in your own personal lifestyle. The fact of the matter is, when cultures interact, they always appropriate aspects of other cultures they find to be more attractive, more efficient, more effective, or just simply cooler than the way they were doing things before. The Greeks appropriated culture from the Etruscans. The Romans did the same thing to the Greeks. Japanese people, Russians, Indians, and most of the rest of the world compose and listen to rock and jazz music. They eat hamburgers and pizza sold by individuals with no racial connection to the United States or Italy. Should we be offended? Should we demand they cease and desist?
We certainly did at one time in US history. In the antebellum south, white southerners were adamant it was totally inappropriate if black people tried to use their bathrooms, go to their schools, shop at their stores, or drink from their water fountains. Today we view the practices of the Jim Crow to be rank injustices, and rightly so. How is this modern insistence that you are only allowed to participate in or utilize elements from a particular culture as long as you have the right racial pedigree any different? The idea should be patently offensive to anyone who claims to value diversity.
Having said that, there are cases where the cursory adoption of other cultural characteristics are problematic. Recently NBC anchor Megan Kelly defended wearing blackface at Halloween. She argued, “It used to be okay when I was a kid”. However, this is not a problem of simply being the wrong race. Blackface, a common artifice of minstrel shows, was specifically designed in the antebellum south as a method to stereotype and demean African Americans – to portray them as stupid, inferior, less. Blackface was not a case of “cultural appropriation”, but rather blatantly racist, anti-black propaganda. In a similar incident in 2012, a Penn State sorority had a widely publicized “Mexican Night” party where they all wore ponchos, sombreros, and phony mustaches. Likewise, the problem with this particular party theme was that it amplified a stereotype specifically designed to denigrate a particular group of people. Neither of these incidents were okay, but the problem was not about being the wrong race. The problem was intentionally portraying a certain group of people as buffoonish cartoons.
Let’s use the above example now as a segue and take a closer look at the burrito example mentioned previously. I don’t think anyone would argue the two white women involved were trying to perpetuate any negative racial stereotypes by making burritos. They just wanted to make money. They flew down to Puerto Nuevo, Mexico and met with local housewives to learn the traditional process of making and rolling perfect tortillas. Afterwards, they returned to the United States to implement these practices in their own business. They were then promptly accused of “stealing” the recipes to enrich themselves without any clear evidence they appropriately compensated the Mexican women from whom they learned the process.
Even if this is true, the injustice is not racial or ethnic in nature, but rather economic. Rich people stealing ideas from poor people to further enrich themselves is a persistent problem in every society, but it is not "cultural appropriation". It is instead socio-economic appropriation. Perhaps it was unfair for two relatively wealthy women to profit from poor individuals lacking the financial wherewithal to travel to another country and invest in the capital necessary to get a fledgling burrito business off the ground, but this was a function of financial disparity, not racial difference. I would argue, if a Mexican millionaire had done exactly the same thing, it would have been equally problematic.
I recently submitted a DNA sample to 23andMe.com in order to learn a little more about my genetic makeup and family background. I discovered my genome is comprised of 99.8% white European DNA with 0.1% Sub-Saharan African and 0.1% unknown. I suppose this means, according to the cultural appropriation argument I should only indulge in cultural practices racially consistent with my genetics. I should resign myself to wearing nothing but brown corduroys and button-down, short sleeve, white dress shirts, eat nothing but hamburgers, pork chops and potatoes, and listen to nothing but American country music or Bluegrass. I clearly don’t have the genetic right to partake of anything diverse.
Herein lies the biggest problem. The idea that one must have the right genetics to wear a particular style of shirt or play a certain kind of music is blatantly racist, segregationist, and anti-diversity. It ignores the fact that cultural exchange is a good thing. There is so much division in the world today. The trend is to retreat to our various tribes and label everyone different as other and a threat. However, when we experience the cultures of people different from ourselves, it provides an in – a common reference point, a conversation starter, and an opportunity to understand each other as human beings and individuals. If someone of a different culture listens to my cultural music, eats my ethnic food, watches my nation’s movies and thinks, “wow, that stuff is really cool. I want to do that too”. We should be delighted, not offended.
Even when the adoption attempt is ignorant and misguided like Mr. Martin’s, it still represents an opportunity to educate a person, who is clearly enamored of and open to my culture and values, in why we do what we do, why it is of value to us, and when, how, where, and for whom it is appropriate. It invites dialog. This can only engender mutual respect and understanding in the end. If instead, I decry that individual as being unworthy of my culture, all it does is reinforce division and emphasize the “otherness” of the way we live our lives compared to theirs. It makes us unnecessarily into something alien, foreign, and strange. If our goal is to increase diversity and intercultural understanding – if our goal is to decrease racism, stop segregation, and advance equality, respectful cultural exchange should be a thing we encourage, not forbid. Like the old adage says, “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”
-David Meredith, Ed. D.
April 19, 2018
How to Get Picked Up By Quality Book Promotion Sites & Scoring Those Early Reviews Using Twitter
First of all a disclaimer: I was not paid for these comments by any of the entities mentioned, nor was I provided any good or service of monetary value in exchange for my comments. The opinions expressed below are my own.
I ran a free KDP promotion for my book, Aaru back at the end of March. It was a three day promotion, and I offered my Kindle eBook on consecutive days through Book Cave, Book Sends, and Books Read Freely as well as a Facebook ad campaign through my FB writing website. I'll say in advance, I have always been skeptical of paid services for anything IndyPub related because there are so many bogus promotion sites out there that just want to take your money without much demonstrable benefit. However, these sites came highly recommended, so I was willing to give them a try just to see if any or all of them were worth my time.
Over the course of the promotion I got just under 3,000 downloads and the novel hit #2 for Kindle New Adult & College Fantasy, #4 for Kindle SciFi, #4 for Kindle Paranormal/Urban Fantasy, and it peaked at #93 among all Kindle Books. Also, I'm still getting a pretty steady stream of KENP reads every day since, which was not the case before this promotion.
Needless to say I was pleased with the results, so good on the above sites for actually delivering on their promises! However, I was further impressed, because even though these are paid services, it appears they are also legitimately selective about which works they choose for promotion. The service they provide is not actually targeted toward authors. Instead, their business model is focused on building membership among readers by providing quality eBooks at a heavily discounted rate or for free. This is great for authors in the sense that if your book is selected, you are likely to see some rather robust download activity on Amazon (especially if the eBook is free) and increase your exposure and readership. However, the downside then is that it is also fairly competitive to get picked up. After reading a large number of comments on Goodreads regarding authors' struggles with getting accepted to these types of services, I think what I did most right (without any conscious planning or skill at all before hand to be perfectly honest - Huzzah for stupid, dumb luck and happenstance!) was I didn't try to run the promotion the day, the week, or even the month the book came out. The result was it had many more than the above sites' minimum of required positive reviews.
Aaru came out in July 2017. The promotion was March 2018, so I had eight months to promote on my own and get reviews. By the time I submitted to the above sites, I already had over 80 reviews on Goodreads and in the 40s on Amazon (with star-ratings of 3.84 and 4.2 respectively). All three of the companies mentioned got back to me with approval within less than an hour of submitting, and I think their excitement was based upon the book's preexisting appeal demonstrated through a fairly large number of positive reviews. So just get a bunch of reviews first. Easy right?
I know getting reviews is a major challenge for many authors. Goodreads is inundated with Indy authors begging people to review their work, and I would guess from personal experience, begging not very successfully. Book Review blogs can be a great resource, but Googling individual blogs is time consuming. The blogs that pop up on the first few search pages are deluged with review requests so unlikely to take on many new volumes, and a large number are inactive. Even when you can find lists of review blogs, they are often out of date and suffer from the same problems already mentioned. So, what to do?
Let me now outline a method for scoring reviews I have heavily used for my first two books with what I think is a fair degree of success, (Aaru has over 100 GR reviews and ratings and my first book The Reflections of Queen Snow White has over 350). If you stick with this method for the long haul and do it regularly, it will save you time, frustration, and (assuming your work is actually good and publisher ready - vitally important caveat) you will achieve much better results. I have done some advertising for Aaru on FB with mixed results, but the bulk of my returns in terms of getting those initial reviews was probably 95% or better through the use of Twitter and E-mail.
First, make sure your query is tight (concise request with vital book statistics, professional sounding blurb). Have a standard query letter for the book you want reviewed that you can copy, paste, and send quickly. Once you get in a rhythm you can get quite a few queries out in a relatively short period of time. Then log into Twitter. (NOTE: I prefer doing this on my laptop where I can have multiple windows open at the same time.).
On Twitter, search for bookish terms (for example "book reviewer," "Book blog," "Book Reviews", "vlog", "book blogger" or anything else similar). Then click on the "Latest" tab and scroll down the list of recent book review posts. By clicking on the links to new book reviews, it will take you to the reviewer's website or blog. Virtually all of them have submission guidelines and contact info (usally an e-mail address, contact form, or link to other social media) listed on their sites. This will then allow you to send requests to the reviewers who are most likely to accept your work AND to those you know are still active because they are posting review links to Twitter in real time, which cuts out virtually all the orphan blogs and prevents wasting time sending queries to inactive reviewers. Do this every day or two for a couple of hours - maybe send a dozen/couple dozen requests a day or more. If you do this regularly, and your work is good, you will also get a fairly steady stream of reviewers interested in checking it out.
I wish you well with your work and hope this helps!
Follow me on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/DavidMeredith...
or Goodreads!
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
I ran a free KDP promotion for my book, Aaru back at the end of March. It was a three day promotion, and I offered my Kindle eBook on consecutive days through Book Cave, Book Sends, and Books Read Freely as well as a Facebook ad campaign through my FB writing website. I'll say in advance, I have always been skeptical of paid services for anything IndyPub related because there are so many bogus promotion sites out there that just want to take your money without much demonstrable benefit. However, these sites came highly recommended, so I was willing to give them a try just to see if any or all of them were worth my time.
Over the course of the promotion I got just under 3,000 downloads and the novel hit #2 for Kindle New Adult & College Fantasy, #4 for Kindle SciFi, #4 for Kindle Paranormal/Urban Fantasy, and it peaked at #93 among all Kindle Books. Also, I'm still getting a pretty steady stream of KENP reads every day since, which was not the case before this promotion.
Needless to say I was pleased with the results, so good on the above sites for actually delivering on their promises! However, I was further impressed, because even though these are paid services, it appears they are also legitimately selective about which works they choose for promotion. The service they provide is not actually targeted toward authors. Instead, their business model is focused on building membership among readers by providing quality eBooks at a heavily discounted rate or for free. This is great for authors in the sense that if your book is selected, you are likely to see some rather robust download activity on Amazon (especially if the eBook is free) and increase your exposure and readership. However, the downside then is that it is also fairly competitive to get picked up. After reading a large number of comments on Goodreads regarding authors' struggles with getting accepted to these types of services, I think what I did most right (without any conscious planning or skill at all before hand to be perfectly honest - Huzzah for stupid, dumb luck and happenstance!) was I didn't try to run the promotion the day, the week, or even the month the book came out. The result was it had many more than the above sites' minimum of required positive reviews.
Aaru came out in July 2017. The promotion was March 2018, so I had eight months to promote on my own and get reviews. By the time I submitted to the above sites, I already had over 80 reviews on Goodreads and in the 40s on Amazon (with star-ratings of 3.84 and 4.2 respectively). All three of the companies mentioned got back to me with approval within less than an hour of submitting, and I think their excitement was based upon the book's preexisting appeal demonstrated through a fairly large number of positive reviews. So just get a bunch of reviews first. Easy right?
I know getting reviews is a major challenge for many authors. Goodreads is inundated with Indy authors begging people to review their work, and I would guess from personal experience, begging not very successfully. Book Review blogs can be a great resource, but Googling individual blogs is time consuming. The blogs that pop up on the first few search pages are deluged with review requests so unlikely to take on many new volumes, and a large number are inactive. Even when you can find lists of review blogs, they are often out of date and suffer from the same problems already mentioned. So, what to do?
Let me now outline a method for scoring reviews I have heavily used for my first two books with what I think is a fair degree of success, (Aaru has over 100 GR reviews and ratings and my first book The Reflections of Queen Snow White has over 350). If you stick with this method for the long haul and do it regularly, it will save you time, frustration, and (assuming your work is actually good and publisher ready - vitally important caveat) you will achieve much better results. I have done some advertising for Aaru on FB with mixed results, but the bulk of my returns in terms of getting those initial reviews was probably 95% or better through the use of Twitter and E-mail.
First, make sure your query is tight (concise request with vital book statistics, professional sounding blurb). Have a standard query letter for the book you want reviewed that you can copy, paste, and send quickly. Once you get in a rhythm you can get quite a few queries out in a relatively short period of time. Then log into Twitter. (NOTE: I prefer doing this on my laptop where I can have multiple windows open at the same time.).
On Twitter, search for bookish terms (for example "book reviewer," "Book blog," "Book Reviews", "vlog", "book blogger" or anything else similar). Then click on the "Latest" tab and scroll down the list of recent book review posts. By clicking on the links to new book reviews, it will take you to the reviewer's website or blog. Virtually all of them have submission guidelines and contact info (usally an e-mail address, contact form, or link to other social media) listed on their sites. This will then allow you to send requests to the reviewers who are most likely to accept your work AND to those you know are still active because they are posting review links to Twitter in real time, which cuts out virtually all the orphan blogs and prevents wasting time sending queries to inactive reviewers. Do this every day or two for a couple of hours - maybe send a dozen/couple dozen requests a day or more. If you do this regularly, and your work is good, you will also get a fairly steady stream of reviewers interested in checking it out.
I wish you well with your work and hope this helps!
Follow me on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/DavidMeredith...
or Goodreads!
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
January 25, 2018
5th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published eBook Awards' Results Are All In! Aaru is a Perfect 5/5!
Aaru scores a perfect 5/5 in the 5th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published eBook Awards for
ALL
sub-categories! Here's the score card...
Entry Title: Aaru
Author: David Meredith
Entry Category: Middle-Grade/Young Adult books
Structure, Organization, and Pacing: 5
Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar: 5
Production Quality and Cover Design: 5
Plot and Story Appeal: 5
Character Appeal and Development: 5
Voice and Writing Style: 5
Judge’s Commentary*:
Author has put great thought into the story’s structure, and while dipping us in disturbing situations and images, never leaves us there for too long. Pace instinct is terrific. Author has a talent for story structure. We open with engaging sensory details, providing a sense of place and tone. Some great phrasing here, such as describing the setting as ‘quiet and not’ in the hospital, and ‘the white was not the comforting sort, like gently billowing linens on the clothesline.’ Brilliant imagery here! Rose is in cancer treatment, and the description of it as an ‘ignominious defeat’ provides terrific depth. Descriptions elevate the book. When we find the amazing things that Rose can do in Aaru, we can feel a higher level of energy, and we can put ourselves in her shoes, a fine sense of engagement for the reader. I would have loved to get more dialogue in character interaction scenes, such as ‘Rose and Koren chatted a little.’ As this is the start of a relationship that will evolve, it would have served the story very well to get dialogue here, to sense the emotions in their connection, to get further into these characters. Where dialogue scenes are more fleshed-out, author excels at differentiating character voices for realism. Well done. Author has crafted fanciful creatures, and I was especially taken with the author’s description of wardrobe. Author has a terrific instinct for painting such details. Koren’s abduction and threat of rape is very disturbing, and again, author dips us in that fear but does not indulge in too much trauma. Excellent restraint here. An intriguing closing section strikes a creepy tone, leading into what we believe may be a sequel. A fine work and a unique concept with nice interplay of conflicts.
Entry Title: Aaru
Author: David Meredith
Entry Category: Middle-Grade/Young Adult books
Structure, Organization, and Pacing: 5
Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar: 5
Production Quality and Cover Design: 5
Plot and Story Appeal: 5
Character Appeal and Development: 5
Voice and Writing Style: 5
Judge’s Commentary*:
Author has put great thought into the story’s structure, and while dipping us in disturbing situations and images, never leaves us there for too long. Pace instinct is terrific. Author has a talent for story structure. We open with engaging sensory details, providing a sense of place and tone. Some great phrasing here, such as describing the setting as ‘quiet and not’ in the hospital, and ‘the white was not the comforting sort, like gently billowing linens on the clothesline.’ Brilliant imagery here! Rose is in cancer treatment, and the description of it as an ‘ignominious defeat’ provides terrific depth. Descriptions elevate the book. When we find the amazing things that Rose can do in Aaru, we can feel a higher level of energy, and we can put ourselves in her shoes, a fine sense of engagement for the reader. I would have loved to get more dialogue in character interaction scenes, such as ‘Rose and Koren chatted a little.’ As this is the start of a relationship that will evolve, it would have served the story very well to get dialogue here, to sense the emotions in their connection, to get further into these characters. Where dialogue scenes are more fleshed-out, author excels at differentiating character voices for realism. Well done. Author has crafted fanciful creatures, and I was especially taken with the author’s description of wardrobe. Author has a terrific instinct for painting such details. Koren’s abduction and threat of rape is very disturbing, and again, author dips us in that fear but does not indulge in too much trauma. Excellent restraint here. An intriguing closing section strikes a creepy tone, leading into what we believe may be a sequel. A fine work and a unique concept with nice interplay of conflicts.
December 12, 2016
Why Both Sides Have it Wrong in the Abortion Debate & How Universal Birth Control is Actually the Most Economically Conservative Position
Roe vs. Wade? Pro-life? Pro-choice? Abortion – yes or no?
There is perhaps no other issue in the American political conversation that is as polarizing and divisive as the debate concerning abortion. Does a woman’s right to decide what happens to her own body trump the right of the fetus to life? Should the unborn not be afforded the same rights and protections as any other living human being? There are no easy answers. The arguments go back and forth, seemingly forever; both sides adamant in their certitude that theirs is the good and righteous fight against unrelenting evil, without anything ever seeming to be settled. But what if there was a third option? What if the way that we’ve framed the whole abortion debate totally misses the point?
How about if instead we started the discussion with this question: Is an abortion a good thing? Throw out the moral indignation and righteous anger. Forget questions of whether or not abortion is morally acceptable or not and just answer that question first. Is it a good thing? Now, think carefully before giving answer. Some might argue that abortion is preferable to baring a child that a mother cannot afford. Some might argue that it is morally permissible under certain circumstances, even occasionally necessary, but I don’t think there is any rational person who could make any sort of coherent argument that it is “good”.
All questions of morality aside, an abortion is still a highly invasive, very expensive medical procedure. As with any such procedure the potential for complications like infection, scar tissue formation, sterility, and even death are very real possibilities. Therefore, given the choice, if one can avoid such an arduous and costly ordeal completely, would that not be the best choice?
I think most people would probably answer, “of course!” so the question then arises; Is prevention of abortion really the key issue? Is pro-life vs. pro-choice really the most appropriate rhetorical dichotomy in addressing what most people agree is a serious social ill? If a woman is forced into a decision between an abortion and having a child that she either doesn’t want or can’t care for, are we not already too late? Should our focus not instead be the reduction or elimination of unwanted pregnancy in the first place? After all, if women don’t become pregnant to begin with, they don’t have either abortions or children they can’t afford, and the whole issue of abortion all of a sudden largely settles itself.
Now, at this point I suspect that many conservative readers are sitting up in their chairs, screaming at their computer screens, “that’s right! So if women just don’t have sex…” Erm… No.
Of course, they are correct that celibacy is the surest form of birth control, but in a practical sense, simply preaching abstinence has largely proven to be a complete and abysmal failure as policy. Government sponsored, school sponsored, and/or church sponsored preaching is no match for simple human biology. (Don’t believe me? Just ask Sarah and Bristol Palin how effective they think an abstinence only approach is.) Once a pregnancy happens, the reality of the situation is whether a woman or girl chooses abortion or to carry an unexpected pregnancy to term, it is still a tragically traumatic and essentially unnecessary experience that either way is going to cost us.
“But people should exercise better self-control!” You cry. Okay… Maybe they should, but they don’t. The government should not be in the business of indulging in hypothetical “shoulda, coulda, wouldas” that might make us as individuals feel justified, but solve absolutely nothing. All one need do to demonstrate this total policy failure is to examine the states that have most ardently supported abstinence only approaches. They incidentally also have the highest unplanned pregnancy rates. Just telling people not to have sex has not solved the problem. However, it cannot be denied that the fact people don’t appear in aggregate to exercise monastic levels of self-control regarding sex, creates an undeniable social burden on the rest of society. It therefore behooves the US government to come up with a policy approach that ameliorates the situation, reduces misery and poverty for women and girls, and at the same time cuts the economic burden on the rest of us.
There is no question unplanned pregnancy remains a serious issue in the U.S. which has one of the highest unplanned pregnancy rates among all industrialized nations. Unwanted pregnancies are expensive, whatever the final decision proves to be in terms of how a woman chooses to deal with it. When the United States government is then forced into doling out billions to pay for these pregnancies, it then necessitates spending reductions in other agencies and programs, an increase in taxes, higher budget deficits, or some combination of all three. So, given this reality, the government cannot fail to consider what would be the most economically responsible thing to do. If it is also the morally upright thing to do, then so much the better. Therefore, should our goal not be to minimize both cost and misery?
If the answer to that question is yes, the obvious solution is universally available, free birth control. Now, conservatives at this point may experience reflexive and bellicose paroxysms of distain for this suggestion, but in reality it is the MOST conservative approach to the problem, and the justification is simple cost-benefit analysis. If we can agree (and pro-lifers and planned parenthood supporters alike do on this issue) that preventing unwanted pregnancies and thus also abortions is a good thing, the question then becomes, “what is the most cost effective way of doing that?”
There are plenty of conservatives who might protest that they don’t want to pay for some woman’s birth control, or even more inelegantly to pay for women to “have sex”, (although I think this particular view is exceedingly, poorly premised), but in any case, what is the alternative if you also want to prevent her from having an abortion or a child she cannot afford? I would imagine that there is pretty broad agreement in conservative circles that the government should not be paying for abortions, but it cannot be denied in an economic sense, it is worse still for the tax payer in the cases where the pro-lifers are successful and unexpected pregnancies are actually carried to term.
The Washington Post reported on March 3, 2015 that the US annually spends about $21 BILLION a year on unplanned pregnancies. If you break this number down, that includes $12,770 in prenatal care and postnatal care for the first 12 months as well as another $7,947 for care from months 13 – 60 for a total of $20,716 PER BIRTH. This does not then begin to factor in additional costs for EBT (formally known as food stamps), WIC, government housing, free and reduced school lunch, along with many other and varied forms of government assistance that both mother and child often qualify for, considering that a high percentage of children born as a result of unplanned pregnancy are born into families who subsist below the poverty level. The bottom line? You are already paying far more for one woman’s unplanned child than you would ever pay for dozens of women’s birth control.
In contrast to the cost of an unplanned pregnancy and birth, the average price of a birth control injection is roughly $50-$60. They last for three months and are necessary four times a year. Injections are preferable because they are not permanent. When a woman decides that she is ready to conceive, it is a relatively painless process that involves little more than patiently waiting, but unlike the birth control pill, helps women largely avoid accidental pregnancies through missed doses.
The above are not the only expenses to consider, however. If one looks only at teenage pregnancies for example (of which an astronomically high percentage are unplanned) there are even more costs involved. Women who have their first child in their teens are less likely to ever finish high school and much less likely to complete a college degree. They are more likely to work in minimum wage or low paying jobs or be unemployed. This then makes it much more likely that they will continue to be a net drain on the entitlement system for the duration of their lives. Children born into these families themselves are also much more likely to have unwanted pregnancies and continue the cycle of poverty. Conversely, women who have children later in life are much more likely to finish their educations, find lucrative jobs, earn an income that will allow them and their families to be self-sufficient, and become net contributors to the tax base instead of net takers. This represents not only enormous potential reductions in cost but also corresponding increases in revenue that make the overall positive economic impact of preventing these pregnancies exponential.
When you crunch all the numbers, examine all the potential benefits, and consider any drawbacks, the solution to the unplanned pregnancy crisis in the US should be clear. The average abortion can cost $1000 or more and to many, is morally reprehensible. Even tossing out the moral aspect all together, it is still a highly invasive surgical procedure that should be avoided if at all possible. An unexpected pregnancy carried to term can be astronomically expensive for the US tax payer. Free birth control would represent a cost to federal and state governments, yes, but a much reduced cost - exponentially cheaper than current policy.
The solution should be obvious. If you want to vastly reduce the number of abortions you must vastly reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies, which would also greatly reduce the cost of these pregnancies to the US tax payer. All women of child baring age should receive regular, free birth control injections unless they choose to opt out (for personal or religious reasons) either through schools or county health departments. The abortion rate would almost immediately drop by 90% or more and the nation would incur a much lower cost than what it currently pays in entitlements for unplanned children. The benefits to the country in terms of transforming net takers into tax payers would be economically huge and the reduction of misery and poverty among at-risk women and girls would be an enormous social good.
Pro-life? Pro-choice? If we are pro-universal birth control, that decision largely becomes irrelevant and everyone is better off.
There is perhaps no other issue in the American political conversation that is as polarizing and divisive as the debate concerning abortion. Does a woman’s right to decide what happens to her own body trump the right of the fetus to life? Should the unborn not be afforded the same rights and protections as any other living human being? There are no easy answers. The arguments go back and forth, seemingly forever; both sides adamant in their certitude that theirs is the good and righteous fight against unrelenting evil, without anything ever seeming to be settled. But what if there was a third option? What if the way that we’ve framed the whole abortion debate totally misses the point?
How about if instead we started the discussion with this question: Is an abortion a good thing? Throw out the moral indignation and righteous anger. Forget questions of whether or not abortion is morally acceptable or not and just answer that question first. Is it a good thing? Now, think carefully before giving answer. Some might argue that abortion is preferable to baring a child that a mother cannot afford. Some might argue that it is morally permissible under certain circumstances, even occasionally necessary, but I don’t think there is any rational person who could make any sort of coherent argument that it is “good”.
All questions of morality aside, an abortion is still a highly invasive, very expensive medical procedure. As with any such procedure the potential for complications like infection, scar tissue formation, sterility, and even death are very real possibilities. Therefore, given the choice, if one can avoid such an arduous and costly ordeal completely, would that not be the best choice?
I think most people would probably answer, “of course!” so the question then arises; Is prevention of abortion really the key issue? Is pro-life vs. pro-choice really the most appropriate rhetorical dichotomy in addressing what most people agree is a serious social ill? If a woman is forced into a decision between an abortion and having a child that she either doesn’t want or can’t care for, are we not already too late? Should our focus not instead be the reduction or elimination of unwanted pregnancy in the first place? After all, if women don’t become pregnant to begin with, they don’t have either abortions or children they can’t afford, and the whole issue of abortion all of a sudden largely settles itself.
Now, at this point I suspect that many conservative readers are sitting up in their chairs, screaming at their computer screens, “that’s right! So if women just don’t have sex…” Erm… No.
Of course, they are correct that celibacy is the surest form of birth control, but in a practical sense, simply preaching abstinence has largely proven to be a complete and abysmal failure as policy. Government sponsored, school sponsored, and/or church sponsored preaching is no match for simple human biology. (Don’t believe me? Just ask Sarah and Bristol Palin how effective they think an abstinence only approach is.) Once a pregnancy happens, the reality of the situation is whether a woman or girl chooses abortion or to carry an unexpected pregnancy to term, it is still a tragically traumatic and essentially unnecessary experience that either way is going to cost us.
“But people should exercise better self-control!” You cry. Okay… Maybe they should, but they don’t. The government should not be in the business of indulging in hypothetical “shoulda, coulda, wouldas” that might make us as individuals feel justified, but solve absolutely nothing. All one need do to demonstrate this total policy failure is to examine the states that have most ardently supported abstinence only approaches. They incidentally also have the highest unplanned pregnancy rates. Just telling people not to have sex has not solved the problem. However, it cannot be denied that the fact people don’t appear in aggregate to exercise monastic levels of self-control regarding sex, creates an undeniable social burden on the rest of society. It therefore behooves the US government to come up with a policy approach that ameliorates the situation, reduces misery and poverty for women and girls, and at the same time cuts the economic burden on the rest of us.
There is no question unplanned pregnancy remains a serious issue in the U.S. which has one of the highest unplanned pregnancy rates among all industrialized nations. Unwanted pregnancies are expensive, whatever the final decision proves to be in terms of how a woman chooses to deal with it. When the United States government is then forced into doling out billions to pay for these pregnancies, it then necessitates spending reductions in other agencies and programs, an increase in taxes, higher budget deficits, or some combination of all three. So, given this reality, the government cannot fail to consider what would be the most economically responsible thing to do. If it is also the morally upright thing to do, then so much the better. Therefore, should our goal not be to minimize both cost and misery?
If the answer to that question is yes, the obvious solution is universally available, free birth control. Now, conservatives at this point may experience reflexive and bellicose paroxysms of distain for this suggestion, but in reality it is the MOST conservative approach to the problem, and the justification is simple cost-benefit analysis. If we can agree (and pro-lifers and planned parenthood supporters alike do on this issue) that preventing unwanted pregnancies and thus also abortions is a good thing, the question then becomes, “what is the most cost effective way of doing that?”
There are plenty of conservatives who might protest that they don’t want to pay for some woman’s birth control, or even more inelegantly to pay for women to “have sex”, (although I think this particular view is exceedingly, poorly premised), but in any case, what is the alternative if you also want to prevent her from having an abortion or a child she cannot afford? I would imagine that there is pretty broad agreement in conservative circles that the government should not be paying for abortions, but it cannot be denied in an economic sense, it is worse still for the tax payer in the cases where the pro-lifers are successful and unexpected pregnancies are actually carried to term.
The Washington Post reported on March 3, 2015 that the US annually spends about $21 BILLION a year on unplanned pregnancies. If you break this number down, that includes $12,770 in prenatal care and postnatal care for the first 12 months as well as another $7,947 for care from months 13 – 60 for a total of $20,716 PER BIRTH. This does not then begin to factor in additional costs for EBT (formally known as food stamps), WIC, government housing, free and reduced school lunch, along with many other and varied forms of government assistance that both mother and child often qualify for, considering that a high percentage of children born as a result of unplanned pregnancy are born into families who subsist below the poverty level. The bottom line? You are already paying far more for one woman’s unplanned child than you would ever pay for dozens of women’s birth control.
In contrast to the cost of an unplanned pregnancy and birth, the average price of a birth control injection is roughly $50-$60. They last for three months and are necessary four times a year. Injections are preferable because they are not permanent. When a woman decides that she is ready to conceive, it is a relatively painless process that involves little more than patiently waiting, but unlike the birth control pill, helps women largely avoid accidental pregnancies through missed doses.
The above are not the only expenses to consider, however. If one looks only at teenage pregnancies for example (of which an astronomically high percentage are unplanned) there are even more costs involved. Women who have their first child in their teens are less likely to ever finish high school and much less likely to complete a college degree. They are more likely to work in minimum wage or low paying jobs or be unemployed. This then makes it much more likely that they will continue to be a net drain on the entitlement system for the duration of their lives. Children born into these families themselves are also much more likely to have unwanted pregnancies and continue the cycle of poverty. Conversely, women who have children later in life are much more likely to finish their educations, find lucrative jobs, earn an income that will allow them and their families to be self-sufficient, and become net contributors to the tax base instead of net takers. This represents not only enormous potential reductions in cost but also corresponding increases in revenue that make the overall positive economic impact of preventing these pregnancies exponential.
When you crunch all the numbers, examine all the potential benefits, and consider any drawbacks, the solution to the unplanned pregnancy crisis in the US should be clear. The average abortion can cost $1000 or more and to many, is morally reprehensible. Even tossing out the moral aspect all together, it is still a highly invasive surgical procedure that should be avoided if at all possible. An unexpected pregnancy carried to term can be astronomically expensive for the US tax payer. Free birth control would represent a cost to federal and state governments, yes, but a much reduced cost - exponentially cheaper than current policy.
The solution should be obvious. If you want to vastly reduce the number of abortions you must vastly reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies, which would also greatly reduce the cost of these pregnancies to the US tax payer. All women of child baring age should receive regular, free birth control injections unless they choose to opt out (for personal or religious reasons) either through schools or county health departments. The abortion rate would almost immediately drop by 90% or more and the nation would incur a much lower cost than what it currently pays in entitlements for unplanned children. The benefits to the country in terms of transforming net takers into tax payers would be economically huge and the reduction of misery and poverty among at-risk women and girls would be an enormous social good.
Pro-life? Pro-choice? If we are pro-universal birth control, that decision largely becomes irrelevant and everyone is better off.
April 27, 2016
The Timeless Allure of Fairytales - A Guest Post
Why do fairytales continue to resonate with us so?
Please check out my guest post on Myths, Legends, Books, and Coffee Pots - "The Timeless Allure of Fairytales" here:
http://maryanneyarde.blogspot.com/201...
Please check out my guest post on Myths, Legends, Books, and Coffee Pots - "The Timeless Allure of Fairytales" here:
http://maryanneyarde.blogspot.com/201...
March 11, 2016
An Ordinary Train Ride From Sendai
On this, the 5th anniversary of the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami I thought it appropriate to repost this piece I first wrote right after it happened. Don't forget to say a prayer for the survivors who are still struggling to recover
An Ordinary Train Ride From Sendai
Ga-tan -ga-tan. Ga-tan -ga-tan. Ga-tan -ga-tan.
The steady rhythm of the “One-man” car gliding down the tracks lulled him. His coal black school uniform was disheveled and unbuttoned in the manner that was most stylish among his classmates - his hair carefully sprayed and sculpted. His fit and trim figure slouched drowsily in the handicapped-only seat.
Screw ‘em, he glanced at the sign clearly indicating his spot's very specific designation and grimaced in disdain. The train’s nearly empty anyway…
There were few other passengers in the car at this time of day - most other people more gainfully occupied with either work or school. Still, an old woman clutched shopping bags to her chest and muttered under her breath a few feet away. A couple of business men stared down at their keitais, motionless but for their frantic thumbs. Near the door, a young mother played a rhyming game with a little girl of about three or four who giggled and shrieked at the diversion. He wished she would shut up.
The young man glanced out the windows. Endless rice fields stretched toward the distant mountains on his left. On his right was the glittering ocean, dotted here and there with fishing boats and barges. He slouched lower. Why did he even bother looking? It was the exact same view every day. Sometimes it was sunny, sometimes cloudy. In the winter it might spit snow, but otherwise the sea and the fields were immutable.
Dull, dull, dull, he thought sullenly making a face at his own dim reflection in the glass.
His keitai buzzed and he dug it out of his pocket with a growl. The text was short. Where are you? (Frowny face). It was from his Kokugo teacher.
He did not reply to the message. It was Friday, Goddamn it. He didn’t feel like thinking about her or his least favorite class. The nagging old prude could wait until next week when he would have an appropriate and elaborate excuse dreamed up for ditching. He checked the time.
2:31pm… Home in a half hour…
Mom and Dad wouldn’t be back until well after six leaving him completely free to turn his music up loud and flip through the porn magazine he had shop-lifted from the konbini yesterday morning. It was something to look forward to. He slouched ever deeper in his seat resolving to nap until he got to his stop.
The breaks of the train squealed as they pulled into the next station. The old lady had fallen asleep and one of her half-dozen bags overturned, contents dumping across the lurching floor. One of the business men looked up, but quickly went back to his phone. The other remained motionless except for his madly tapping thumb. The little girl laughed in delight at her clapping, screaming game with her mother and he hoped to God they got off as the old woman growled and mumbled under her breath, stiffly bending to collect her spilled belongings.
He looked at his phone again; 2:37pm. Would this ride never end?
The doors opened. A couple more people got on and the previously immobile business man leapt from his seat to rush out. A grey-haired, older man in a green argyle sweater and the tall rubber boots of a farmer took his place. The doors began to slide closed once more, but just before the portal could completely seal a girl stuck her school bag in the narrowing gap. The doors opened in response to the impediment and she stepped lightly into the car.
The high school boy sat a little straighter and pulled a small mirror from his pocket, checking his meticulously coiffed hair. She was pretty.
She wore her high school uniform almost as carelessly as he did – top two buttons undone, navy skirt tight-rolled to expose a dangerous portion of bare leg. Her eyes were large and luminous and her pretty face liberally decorated with glitter – cheeks, eyes, lips. She looked almost like a fairy, he thought and had a sudden, comic vision of shaking her to obtain pixie dust. He smiled, but did not look up at her directly. It seemed someone else was skipping school today too.
She sat down, crossed her legs prettily, and immediately began texting on her keitai. She made no show of noticing him.
Why do girls do that, he wondered? Going to so much trouble to make him look and then pretending like he didn’t exist! Of course, he mused ironically, he himself was far too self-conscious to even look at her directly so talking to her was certainly out of the question.
He sighed to himself silently. Oh well, he thought wistfully. At least I’ll have something nice to look at until I get home.
He checked his phone; 2:41pm.
He could not help but stare at the girl’s legs. She must walk a long way to school every day, he thought. Muscular lines were vivid in her slender calves and thighs, made all the more tantalizing by the fact that her skirt covered exactly enough skin to avoid indecency, but not one millimeter more. It might be nice to walk behind her up the platform stairs when she got off, he idly supposed, even if not his stop. He could always hop on the next train.
She caught him looking and he quickly pretended to be texting; 2:43 pm.
Was that a smile he saw? Did she like that he had noticed her? He pulled out his mirror again. Was she interested? Could he talk to her?
Of course not, he thought immediately, but chanced another peek anyway. The girl had bent over to dig determinedly through her school bag. A heart-shaped necklace fell out of her gaping collar and he sucked in a breath as he caught the unmistakable flash of bright pink bra and olive cleavage.
She looked up at him and he turned his head as if looking out the window. His cheeks flushed brilliantly pink. She had smiled at him that time!
His keitai buzzed.
Karaoke tonight? It read.
Yeah, he wrote back. Meet at station: 6:30.
It was 2:45 as he pressed ‘send’.
The train lurched suddenly and he gasped in surprise. Breaks squealed and the young man was thrown out of his seat. The car quickly came to a halt, but the shaking did not cease. Bags and briefcases crashed down from the luggage rack and the other riders exclaimed in dismay. The girl he had been ogling screamed and the toddler began to cry.
The farmer in the argyle sweater shouted, “Earthquake!”
It was a big one too. The train car lurched and bounced. People shouted and cried. The shaking went on and on then intensified. He had experience earthquakes many times without concern. This was Japan. You waited for the shaking to stop then cleaned up the mess, but this was something completely different. It felt as though God himself had picked up their little car and given it a long, vigorous rattle.
Then everything went still. The train was eerily silent. Very slowly the passengers picked themselves up and collected their scattered effects. Taken by a suddenly brave impulse, he offered his hand to the girl and pulled her to her feet.
“Wow,” she said shyly. “That was a big one.”
He nodded, but before he could reply a voice
crackled across the loudspeaker. “There will regrettably be a delay. We humbly apologize for the inconvenience. Please wait for instructions.”
No kidding, he thought ruefully. They would probably have to get off now and walk to the next station, then God only knew when the trains would start up again. So much for karaoke. They stood in silence for several minutes waiting to be told what to do next.
“Mommy,” the little girl exclaimed abruptly, pointing toward the ocean. “What’s wrong with water? Why is it going away?”
Everyone looked. Something was wrong. His eyes widened.
He had seen the same ocean out this same window for over a year every day on his way to school. Where was it now? He could barely see the waterline anymore. There was only bare, grey sand. Several boats hung awkwardly from docks at their moorings as the water inexplicably retreated, bows pointed high, sterns buried.
No one spoke. Everyone stared at the inexplicably missing sea. Minutes passed. His keitai buzzed again, but he did not answer it.
“Wait, what’s that?”
“Do, you see something?”
“No, it’s nothing. We just need to wait.”
“No, I see something out there. It looks like…”
The old lady with the shopping bags made a strangled sound then started murmuring a prayer. She rocked back and forth clutching a strand of juzu prayer beads. The businessman started shouting and pulling on the doors to the outside. When they did not open, he ran to the next car, his panicked screaming audible long after he was out of sight. The child began crying again.
The ocean…
“Oh, God…” the young man breathed.
Taller than an office building, a great, sable juggernaut raced towards them. He wanted to scream. He wanted to run, but the awesome vision was paralyzing. In that towering wall of water, the young man saw inexorable Death.
Someone seized his hand and he jumped. He stared into the terror stricken eyes of the high school girl. She was breathing very quickly.
“Please,” she whispered fearfully. “Please, look at me… And… And… I’ll look at you! I don’t wanna… I don’t wanna see... Please, look at me.”
He nodded, squeezed her hands, and stared into her pretty face. A tear leaked from her eye to make a shimmering trail through the glitter on her cheek - So beautiful.
A low roar came to his ears. It grew louder and louder, but he and the girl continued to gaze into each other’s eye terrified eyes. She squeezed his hands more tightly.
“My name is Masato,” he breathed.
“I’m Marika,” she answered.
The noise grew deafening. He pulled Marika tightly against his chest - so small and warm. He buried his nose in her hair. The smell made him think of flowers – Sakura, perhaps - The kind that would soon turn the cherry trees in the park pink, and under which his friends would sit singing, eating, drinking, and laughing. Maybe, Marika would be there too - Hanami together. He clenched his eyes tightly closed, concentrating on Marika’s sweet scent.
The thirty-foot tidal wave struck the train.
On March 11, 2011 over 18,000 people of Tohoku lost their lives in the worst tsunami in Japanese history. The death toll was six times the number killed on 9/11. The bodies of many of the lost were never found and their stories remain untold, their families and friends never knowing their fate.
An Ordinary Train Ride From Sendai
Ga-tan -ga-tan. Ga-tan -ga-tan. Ga-tan -ga-tan.
The steady rhythm of the “One-man” car gliding down the tracks lulled him. His coal black school uniform was disheveled and unbuttoned in the manner that was most stylish among his classmates - his hair carefully sprayed and sculpted. His fit and trim figure slouched drowsily in the handicapped-only seat.
Screw ‘em, he glanced at the sign clearly indicating his spot's very specific designation and grimaced in disdain. The train’s nearly empty anyway…
There were few other passengers in the car at this time of day - most other people more gainfully occupied with either work or school. Still, an old woman clutched shopping bags to her chest and muttered under her breath a few feet away. A couple of business men stared down at their keitais, motionless but for their frantic thumbs. Near the door, a young mother played a rhyming game with a little girl of about three or four who giggled and shrieked at the diversion. He wished she would shut up.
The young man glanced out the windows. Endless rice fields stretched toward the distant mountains on his left. On his right was the glittering ocean, dotted here and there with fishing boats and barges. He slouched lower. Why did he even bother looking? It was the exact same view every day. Sometimes it was sunny, sometimes cloudy. In the winter it might spit snow, but otherwise the sea and the fields were immutable.
Dull, dull, dull, he thought sullenly making a face at his own dim reflection in the glass.
His keitai buzzed and he dug it out of his pocket with a growl. The text was short. Where are you? (Frowny face). It was from his Kokugo teacher.
He did not reply to the message. It was Friday, Goddamn it. He didn’t feel like thinking about her or his least favorite class. The nagging old prude could wait until next week when he would have an appropriate and elaborate excuse dreamed up for ditching. He checked the time.
2:31pm… Home in a half hour…
Mom and Dad wouldn’t be back until well after six leaving him completely free to turn his music up loud and flip through the porn magazine he had shop-lifted from the konbini yesterday morning. It was something to look forward to. He slouched ever deeper in his seat resolving to nap until he got to his stop.
The breaks of the train squealed as they pulled into the next station. The old lady had fallen asleep and one of her half-dozen bags overturned, contents dumping across the lurching floor. One of the business men looked up, but quickly went back to his phone. The other remained motionless except for his madly tapping thumb. The little girl laughed in delight at her clapping, screaming game with her mother and he hoped to God they got off as the old woman growled and mumbled under her breath, stiffly bending to collect her spilled belongings.
He looked at his phone again; 2:37pm. Would this ride never end?
The doors opened. A couple more people got on and the previously immobile business man leapt from his seat to rush out. A grey-haired, older man in a green argyle sweater and the tall rubber boots of a farmer took his place. The doors began to slide closed once more, but just before the portal could completely seal a girl stuck her school bag in the narrowing gap. The doors opened in response to the impediment and she stepped lightly into the car.
The high school boy sat a little straighter and pulled a small mirror from his pocket, checking his meticulously coiffed hair. She was pretty.
She wore her high school uniform almost as carelessly as he did – top two buttons undone, navy skirt tight-rolled to expose a dangerous portion of bare leg. Her eyes were large and luminous and her pretty face liberally decorated with glitter – cheeks, eyes, lips. She looked almost like a fairy, he thought and had a sudden, comic vision of shaking her to obtain pixie dust. He smiled, but did not look up at her directly. It seemed someone else was skipping school today too.
She sat down, crossed her legs prettily, and immediately began texting on her keitai. She made no show of noticing him.
Why do girls do that, he wondered? Going to so much trouble to make him look and then pretending like he didn’t exist! Of course, he mused ironically, he himself was far too self-conscious to even look at her directly so talking to her was certainly out of the question.
He sighed to himself silently. Oh well, he thought wistfully. At least I’ll have something nice to look at until I get home.
He checked his phone; 2:41pm.
He could not help but stare at the girl’s legs. She must walk a long way to school every day, he thought. Muscular lines were vivid in her slender calves and thighs, made all the more tantalizing by the fact that her skirt covered exactly enough skin to avoid indecency, but not one millimeter more. It might be nice to walk behind her up the platform stairs when she got off, he idly supposed, even if not his stop. He could always hop on the next train.
She caught him looking and he quickly pretended to be texting; 2:43 pm.
Was that a smile he saw? Did she like that he had noticed her? He pulled out his mirror again. Was she interested? Could he talk to her?
Of course not, he thought immediately, but chanced another peek anyway. The girl had bent over to dig determinedly through her school bag. A heart-shaped necklace fell out of her gaping collar and he sucked in a breath as he caught the unmistakable flash of bright pink bra and olive cleavage.
She looked up at him and he turned his head as if looking out the window. His cheeks flushed brilliantly pink. She had smiled at him that time!
His keitai buzzed.
Karaoke tonight? It read.
Yeah, he wrote back. Meet at station: 6:30.
It was 2:45 as he pressed ‘send’.
The train lurched suddenly and he gasped in surprise. Breaks squealed and the young man was thrown out of his seat. The car quickly came to a halt, but the shaking did not cease. Bags and briefcases crashed down from the luggage rack and the other riders exclaimed in dismay. The girl he had been ogling screamed and the toddler began to cry.
The farmer in the argyle sweater shouted, “Earthquake!”
It was a big one too. The train car lurched and bounced. People shouted and cried. The shaking went on and on then intensified. He had experience earthquakes many times without concern. This was Japan. You waited for the shaking to stop then cleaned up the mess, but this was something completely different. It felt as though God himself had picked up their little car and given it a long, vigorous rattle.
Then everything went still. The train was eerily silent. Very slowly the passengers picked themselves up and collected their scattered effects. Taken by a suddenly brave impulse, he offered his hand to the girl and pulled her to her feet.
“Wow,” she said shyly. “That was a big one.”
He nodded, but before he could reply a voice
crackled across the loudspeaker. “There will regrettably be a delay. We humbly apologize for the inconvenience. Please wait for instructions.”
No kidding, he thought ruefully. They would probably have to get off now and walk to the next station, then God only knew when the trains would start up again. So much for karaoke. They stood in silence for several minutes waiting to be told what to do next.
“Mommy,” the little girl exclaimed abruptly, pointing toward the ocean. “What’s wrong with water? Why is it going away?”
Everyone looked. Something was wrong. His eyes widened.
He had seen the same ocean out this same window for over a year every day on his way to school. Where was it now? He could barely see the waterline anymore. There was only bare, grey sand. Several boats hung awkwardly from docks at their moorings as the water inexplicably retreated, bows pointed high, sterns buried.
No one spoke. Everyone stared at the inexplicably missing sea. Minutes passed. His keitai buzzed again, but he did not answer it.
“Wait, what’s that?”
“Do, you see something?”
“No, it’s nothing. We just need to wait.”
“No, I see something out there. It looks like…”
The old lady with the shopping bags made a strangled sound then started murmuring a prayer. She rocked back and forth clutching a strand of juzu prayer beads. The businessman started shouting and pulling on the doors to the outside. When they did not open, he ran to the next car, his panicked screaming audible long after he was out of sight. The child began crying again.
The ocean…
“Oh, God…” the young man breathed.
Taller than an office building, a great, sable juggernaut raced towards them. He wanted to scream. He wanted to run, but the awesome vision was paralyzing. In that towering wall of water, the young man saw inexorable Death.
Someone seized his hand and he jumped. He stared into the terror stricken eyes of the high school girl. She was breathing very quickly.
“Please,” she whispered fearfully. “Please, look at me… And… And… I’ll look at you! I don’t wanna… I don’t wanna see... Please, look at me.”
He nodded, squeezed her hands, and stared into her pretty face. A tear leaked from her eye to make a shimmering trail through the glitter on her cheek - So beautiful.
A low roar came to his ears. It grew louder and louder, but he and the girl continued to gaze into each other’s eye terrified eyes. She squeezed his hands more tightly.
“My name is Masato,” he breathed.
“I’m Marika,” she answered.
The noise grew deafening. He pulled Marika tightly against his chest - so small and warm. He buried his nose in her hair. The smell made him think of flowers – Sakura, perhaps - The kind that would soon turn the cherry trees in the park pink, and under which his friends would sit singing, eating, drinking, and laughing. Maybe, Marika would be there too - Hanami together. He clenched his eyes tightly closed, concentrating on Marika’s sweet scent.
The thirty-foot tidal wave struck the train.
On March 11, 2011 over 18,000 people of Tohoku lost their lives in the worst tsunami in Japanese history. The death toll was six times the number killed on 9/11. The bodies of many of the lost were never found and their stories remain untold, their families and friends never knowing their fate.
November 24, 2015
President Trump Implements “Crystal Clear” Policy – Mass Arrests
WASHINGTON (Rooters) Nov.10, 2019 – Overnight, local law enforcement and federal agents along with active military and state National Guard personnel executed simultaneous raids on multiple sites in some 500 cities and municipalities across the country in the largest operation of its kind ever attempted.
The number of those detained nationwide is yet unspecified, but one state department official commenting on the condition of anonymity stated that it was clearly in the tens of thousands if not more.
As dawn rose over Dearborn Michigan dozens of semi-trucks, trailers packed with what law enforcement described as “a combination of illegals and national security risks”, were seen leaving the city in convoy. Officials were unwilling to speculate on where the detainees were being taken, instead directing inquiries to the Department of Homeland Security. As of the publication of this report, DHS has not responded to repeated requests for comment. Similar scenes have also been reported in Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, and dozens of other major cities.
When questioned about the constitutionality of the move President Trump cited executive privilege and stated, “I don’t need the permission of anyone to defend this great nation from those who mean us harm. It was true under President Lincoln and it’s just as true now,” a seeming reference to the 1861 suspension of habeas corpus. An 1862 executive proclamation on the suspension states in part:
“Whereas, it has become necessary to call into service not only volunteers but also portions of the militia of the States by draft in order to suppress the insurrection existing in the United States, and disloyal persons are not adequately restrained by the ordinary processes of law… during the existing insurrection and as a necessary measure for suppressing the same, all Rebels and Insurgents, their aiders and abettors within the United States, and all persons discouraging volunteer enlistments, resisting militia drafts, or guilty of any disloyal practice, affording aid and comfort to Rebels against the authority of United States, shall be subject to martial law.”
The move was deemed unconstitutional at the time by the Supreme Court, but remained in effect until 1865.
When asked if such a drastic move was necessary, Trump responded, “You folks in the media just don’t get it, do you? There are people on our very shores who want to kill us. These are the same people who had block parties on 9-11. These are the same people trying to kill our military personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, and Iran. If they are going to commit treason against the United States then they should expect to be called on it and brought to justice. This problem has festered for decades and no president before has had the cajonés to find a solution to it. Well, I do… once and for all… final. ”
When asked what act of treason these thousands of men, women, and children were accused of committing the president responded, “Anyone who puts forward a view of the world that is anathema to Democracy, the U.S. Constitution, and the safety of our nation is engaged in ideological treason. We have to know who these people are, where they are, and what they are doing 24-7. We have to have total transparency, crystal clear transparency… I’m not going to have another 9-11 on my watch.”
When asked if he was referring to Muslims Trump answered, “Sharia would be one example. It’s completely incompatible with our laws and our democracy. ”
Though still unconfirmed at this time preliminary reports indicate that the offices of the Nation of Islam, the US Islamic Council, and the ACLU were also raided in the massive police action and numerous senior organization officials arrested at their homes. Dozens of Mosques and Muslim owned businesses were also reported in flames in multiple cities, but the government denied any responsibility. Thousands of Trump supporters are rallying at the national mall and in the streets across the country in support of the crackdown.
An official at the State Department, again on condition of anonymity noted, “Of course the U.S. federal and state governments would never condone violence against anyone, but people know the enemy is among us. They’re scared and demand action. It’s understandable that some of this boils over into violent acts, as regrettable as that is.”
This morning on the House floor, U.S. Representative Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota) took to the floor to condemn the action but, Trump supporters filling the gallery shouted so loudly that the Representative’s remarks were inaudible. He was taken into custody for questioning by capitol police after exiting the podium for “suspected anti-American sympathies”.
The number of those detained nationwide is yet unspecified, but one state department official commenting on the condition of anonymity stated that it was clearly in the tens of thousands if not more.
As dawn rose over Dearborn Michigan dozens of semi-trucks, trailers packed with what law enforcement described as “a combination of illegals and national security risks”, were seen leaving the city in convoy. Officials were unwilling to speculate on where the detainees were being taken, instead directing inquiries to the Department of Homeland Security. As of the publication of this report, DHS has not responded to repeated requests for comment. Similar scenes have also been reported in Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, and dozens of other major cities.
When questioned about the constitutionality of the move President Trump cited executive privilege and stated, “I don’t need the permission of anyone to defend this great nation from those who mean us harm. It was true under President Lincoln and it’s just as true now,” a seeming reference to the 1861 suspension of habeas corpus. An 1862 executive proclamation on the suspension states in part:
“Whereas, it has become necessary to call into service not only volunteers but also portions of the militia of the States by draft in order to suppress the insurrection existing in the United States, and disloyal persons are not adequately restrained by the ordinary processes of law… during the existing insurrection and as a necessary measure for suppressing the same, all Rebels and Insurgents, their aiders and abettors within the United States, and all persons discouraging volunteer enlistments, resisting militia drafts, or guilty of any disloyal practice, affording aid and comfort to Rebels against the authority of United States, shall be subject to martial law.”
The move was deemed unconstitutional at the time by the Supreme Court, but remained in effect until 1865.
When asked if such a drastic move was necessary, Trump responded, “You folks in the media just don’t get it, do you? There are people on our very shores who want to kill us. These are the same people who had block parties on 9-11. These are the same people trying to kill our military personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, and Iran. If they are going to commit treason against the United States then they should expect to be called on it and brought to justice. This problem has festered for decades and no president before has had the cajonés to find a solution to it. Well, I do… once and for all… final. ”
When asked what act of treason these thousands of men, women, and children were accused of committing the president responded, “Anyone who puts forward a view of the world that is anathema to Democracy, the U.S. Constitution, and the safety of our nation is engaged in ideological treason. We have to know who these people are, where they are, and what they are doing 24-7. We have to have total transparency, crystal clear transparency… I’m not going to have another 9-11 on my watch.”
When asked if he was referring to Muslims Trump answered, “Sharia would be one example. It’s completely incompatible with our laws and our democracy. ”
Though still unconfirmed at this time preliminary reports indicate that the offices of the Nation of Islam, the US Islamic Council, and the ACLU were also raided in the massive police action and numerous senior organization officials arrested at their homes. Dozens of Mosques and Muslim owned businesses were also reported in flames in multiple cities, but the government denied any responsibility. Thousands of Trump supporters are rallying at the national mall and in the streets across the country in support of the crackdown.
An official at the State Department, again on condition of anonymity noted, “Of course the U.S. federal and state governments would never condone violence against anyone, but people know the enemy is among us. They’re scared and demand action. It’s understandable that some of this boils over into violent acts, as regrettable as that is.”
This morning on the House floor, U.S. Representative Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota) took to the floor to condemn the action but, Trump supporters filling the gallery shouted so loudly that the Representative’s remarks were inaudible. He was taken into custody for questioning by capitol police after exiting the podium for “suspected anti-American sympathies”.
August 15, 2015
Amazon Author Page Now Up!
My David Meredith Amazon author page is now live! I hope you'll stop by and check it out!
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B013R6K5R6?...
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B013R6K5R6?...
April 29, 2015
To the Wrongfully Excluded - Ostracism
There is a lot of chaos and violence in the world today and as a result a great number of people feel excluded, ignored and helpless to access the benefits and goods of life and citizenship which many of us take for granted; Boston, the Supreme Court, the many struggles of the disabled... So many people who feel left out. It inspired me to pen this acrostic poem...
Ostracism – An Acrostic Poem
-David Meredith
Out beyond the resplendent walls,a luminous city shines effulgent on a lonely hill – a solitary beacon against tellurian night.
Songs of joy abound within from throats harmonious, agnate, fully initiated into that fine company with all the splendor and fanfare it entails; willfully ignorant and indifferent to the strange and the aberrant without.
The unjustly excluded crowd near the immutable barrier - clawing, pleading, yearning for subsumption, battering themselves against that impervious barricade like twilit moths - frantic but inconsequential - invisible to the exultant residents, yet they themselves missing no whisper nor glimpse of the celestial coterie; no slightest privilege of the great and the beautiful remaining unperceived
Relentlessly, thoughtlessly are they occluded by accident of fate, impeded by fatuous custom, stymied by imperishable convention, lost and dismayed in perpetual, Cimmerian dusk - that which they desire lying tantalizingly near, yet ever beyond their suspiring grasp.
Aspirants become foolishly perhaps.
Constant and unceasing in their placation
Imperturbable in their unwavering entreatment, hopeful that one day some transcendent creature might provide portal and key; that cracks of lambency might split that hermetic façade to spill across those desiccant slopes
Suffusing the unjustly excluded at last with the light and privilege of the protected select
Making them a grotesque curiosity no longer, a malformed oddity no more, but rather a perfectly incorporated, diacritical portion of the whole - unmaligned and unmolested ad infinitum.
Ostracism – An Acrostic Poem
-David Meredith
Out beyond the resplendent walls,a luminous city shines effulgent on a lonely hill – a solitary beacon against tellurian night.
Songs of joy abound within from throats harmonious, agnate, fully initiated into that fine company with all the splendor and fanfare it entails; willfully ignorant and indifferent to the strange and the aberrant without.
The unjustly excluded crowd near the immutable barrier - clawing, pleading, yearning for subsumption, battering themselves against that impervious barricade like twilit moths - frantic but inconsequential - invisible to the exultant residents, yet they themselves missing no whisper nor glimpse of the celestial coterie; no slightest privilege of the great and the beautiful remaining unperceived
Relentlessly, thoughtlessly are they occluded by accident of fate, impeded by fatuous custom, stymied by imperishable convention, lost and dismayed in perpetual, Cimmerian dusk - that which they desire lying tantalizingly near, yet ever beyond their suspiring grasp.
Aspirants become foolishly perhaps.
Constant and unceasing in their placation
Imperturbable in their unwavering entreatment, hopeful that one day some transcendent creature might provide portal and key; that cracks of lambency might split that hermetic façade to spill across those desiccant slopes
Suffusing the unjustly excluded at last with the light and privilege of the protected select
Making them a grotesque curiosity no longer, a malformed oddity no more, but rather a perfectly incorporated, diacritical portion of the whole - unmaligned and unmolested ad infinitum.
