The Politics of Choice

I might as well get this out of the way early on, because it is something that I feel is important to the community.
Everyone's heard about the old adage that goes, "Don't discuss politics or religion at dinner."
Well, we discussed politics, now we're going to discuss religion.

But not really religion per se, we're going to talk about a facet of religion that provides such an interesting...and often violent, battleground.

I'm talking about pro-choice versus pro-life now.
Now there's two sides that are clearly visible in this battleturf:

Pro-life and pro-choice.

Truth be told, both sides aren't mutually exclusive from each other. It is possible to be pro-choice and pro-life.
The problem is, people don't want to accept that. They want to believe that "choice" is slang for "death" and "babykilling", and nothing could be further from the truth. Some of the most ardent pro-choicers I've met are mothers.
And yet, some of these same people (keyword there: some.) who call themselves pro-life are all gung-ho pro-death penalty, pro-war people.
That is the inherent hypocrisy of the "pro-life" movement.
But I'm not going to offer talking points on what side is better. I'll just leave it at this: If you think pro-choice means "baby killing", there's a reason you're not meeting SAP.

Choice is important to us students because we have a lot of candidates out there pushin' some mean pieces of legislation concerning abortion. Our very own Solomon Ortiz is one of the most pro-lifeyest candidates (and guess what other house committee he's in? the house armed services committee. Heh, heh, Mr. Ortiz).

I don't have anything against Mr. Ortiz, but believe me, there's a lot of candidates out there, like him, who seem to think abortion is a big issue in elections.

Got a secret for you.

It's not.

Roe v. Wade is set. Any politician who wants to overturn it is in need for serious help.
Why? The same kind of people that want to overturn Roe V. Wade are the same kind of people that believe in abstinence-only education, and the same kind of people that want to add an entire chapter on God in the constitution.

Don't get me wrong, I love God.

But I also love the separation of Church and State. It keeps us from becoming Iran or Saudi Arabia. That's what we students need to understand.

But going back to choice:

Choice is not "murder".
Choice is not "murdering babies"
Choice is "I'm pregnant, and I have the CHOICE of aborting the fetus, or carrying it to full term.)
That's choice.
We'll discuss the facets of pro-choice versus pro-life in a later installment.
For now,
I'll leave you with a cryptic riddle/paradox that I've picked up:

"Pro-Choice is Pro-Life":

A Temporary Lull

Apologies for the temporary stoppage of posts. I had to tend to some business.
And by "tend" I mean enjoy.
And by "business" I mean my spring break.


In recent news, our Scorpions have managed to pick up their record. They are now 11-21, with the last two victories earned by slaugthering (20-1, 10-0) Massachusetts's Fisher College. The team that played today was a team with better chemistry, better offense and defense, better everything overall. Congratulations Scorpions, now keep it up.

On to other news,

I had avoided touching this subject because, well, it still is somewhat upsetting. Sen. Clinton took the Texas popular vote and Sen. Obama took the most delegates. The reason I'm angry about it is because there's about 30,000 Democrats in Cameron County who voted for Hillary Clinton.
Problem with that is, I am willing to bet that of those 30k people, 20,000 voted without thinking. These people voted for Clinton because of the following reasons:

• Barack Obama is black.
• Barack Obama has Muslim heritage.
• Hillary Clinton married Bill Clinton.
• Hillary Clinton's last name is Clinton.
• Barack Obama is black.
• It was much more comforting voting for a mainstream, white candidate than voting for a black candidate.
• There was a belief that Hillary Clinton had done something for the valley.
• Hillary Clinton is a woman.
• She has "experience"
  

This was seriously why a good majority of the people voted for her. It seemed that it was better to have a white patrona than a black man running the show. Let's face it. A lot of people won't come right out and say it, but they know who they are, and they know why they voted for Clinton.
I fail to see why she identifies with hispanics. I fail to see why Congressman Ortiz ate up her nonsense and campaigned for her.
I also disagree with County Democratic Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa's actions by campaigning for Hillary. Mr. Hinojosa, BE OBJECTIVE!

On the brightside of things, the voter turnout was amazing. 44,000 votes for democrats in Cameron County compared to 1,500 overall votes for John McCain.
The downside to this brightside, is that, unless Hillary gets her act together in the next weeks, McCain's going to win.
Obama already said he wasn't going to run as vice president (a smart move, considering that it would kill his future hopes), and he wasn't going to pick her as a vice president (Also a smart move, considering that if he did, he might as well hire the sniper himself).

Either way, I'm saddened at the increaingly dimmer prospects for the democratic ticket in this election. A McCain/Lieberman ticket could seriously harm an Obama/???? ticket that is still bleeding from Hillary's attacks.

Whatever it is, there's still a lot of good fight left in everyone.
Hopefully the 44,000 Cameron County voters that turned out, come back again for the congressional races.