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archived: 25 Apr - 1 May, 2004 Back Next APRIL 29, 2004 UPDATE
STEVEN JONAS, MD, MPH, MS, Introduction As I said in my column on this topic that was published on April 8, 2004, TPJ, “On George Bush and Religion”, organized religion and its exploitation is an obvious major feature of the Bush II Presidency, one that I like to refer to as the Georgite regime. There is a view held in some quarters that this is simply cynical politics: that many Right-Wing Republican policies fit into and/or reflect the agenda of the Christian Right, which then forms the electoral center of the Bush Base. Certainly, many of the top Georgites appear to be anything but True Believers: Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz, Perle. They all seem eminently secular. As for Karl Rove, who knows if he has any true beliefs one way or another. But does that view apply to the top-dog Georgite, G.W. Bush himself? Is he simply a cynical politician, mouthing phrases to take advantage of a group of Right-Wing voters who just happen to hold, very strongly, to a particular brand of hellfire and brimstone old-fashioned Protestant theology? I don’t think so. I think that this George is a true believer, himself. As our European Editor, Michael Carmichael, has said, there is no person more firmly attached to preconceived notions that “Born Again,” reformed alcoholics/drug addicts, especially those who happen to be not-too-bright. And that background makes G.W. Bush even more dangerous. In this column, you will find some further evidence to support my position (and one or two other observations on political religion as well). We will also briefly examine why the Georgites have met with such success in a country in which their professed religious views are those of a rather small minority. On the True Meaning of the "Gay Marriage" Amendment George Bush has come out foursquare in support of this proposed amendment. I think that his position reflects his true religious beliefs because he has never said anything to the contrary. That the putting forth of this proposal happens to open up the Georgites to the charge of "political distraction" is in my view planned by them, which however they don’t want to become the subject of public discussion. By getting the controversy onto whether or not the proposed amendment is planned as a political distraction pulls the consideration of it away from the real issue, and where the position is coming from. The real issue is that by destroying the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment (which surely applies to civil marriage under state laws) the amendment would fundamentally change the nature of the Constitution. Once that is done, in the future any group of people could be put into the "no-equal-protection-for-you" category, based simply on who they are, not anything that they have done. Where the position comes from was clearly framed by two leading Republican Senators. In a statement Sen. Trent Lott made when he was still Majority Leader (revealing that he is an equal opportunity bigot). He stated that homosexuality is a sin and it is a sin because the Bible says so. G.W. Bush has never said anything different. Rick Santorum, the third highest ranking Republican in the Senate and well known for his open adherence to the doctrines of the Republican Religious Right, last April compared homosexuality to bigamy, polygamy, incest and adultery. Bush’s response was to praise Santorum as "an inclusive man.'' Bush’s True Views on Homosexuality Do you believe that Bush is just “playing politics” with this one? Well, about six weeks ago there was this little news item (which many of you may have already seen): “Tennessee county wants to ban gays” Thursday, March 18, 2004 Posted: 7:29 AM EST (1229 GMT) Copyright 2004 Associated Press. DAYTON, Tennessee (AP) -- The county that was the site of the Scopes "Monkey Trial" over the teaching of evolution is asking lawmakers to amend state law so the county can charge homosexuals with crimes against nature. The Rhea County commissioners approved the request 8-0 Tuesday. Commissioner J.C. Fugate, who introduced the measure, also asked the county attorney to find a way to enact an ordinance banning homosexuals from living in the county. ‘We need to keep them out of here,’ Fugate said. …..Rhea County is one of the most conservative counties in Tennessee. It holds an annual festival commemorating the 1925 trial at which John T. Scopes was convicted of teaching evolution. The verdict was thrown out on a technicality. The trial became the subject of the play and movie “Inherit the Wind.” I didn’t hear or see anything from the President saying something like, “Well, folks, preserving the American institution of marriage is one thing, but any move to illegalize homosexuality is definitely beyond the pale.” (Of course, since this highly unread, uneducated man can hardly be expected to know to what that last phrase refers, he wouldn’t use those precise words. But if he thought the thought, he could express it in his own simplistic language.) Such silence reveals volumes about how this man thinks. Even more frightening to contemplate is the direction in which our beloved country would be headed were he to be re-elected. On Firing Gays for Being Gay Need more convincing on what Bush really believes? Get this one (which I received over the Net; don’t know the original reference):
BUSH ALLOWS GAYS TO BE FIRED FOR BEING GAY
1. Debates, 10/11/2000. Opening Up the Country to More Dangers It should be noted here that not only does this religious-based view of homosexuality lead to proposals to fundamentally change the nature of our Constitutional Democracy, but it also further opens up the country to threats of terrorism. Consider the subject of a cartoon by Mike Lukovich (Newsday, Feb. 28, 2004): A bin Laden caricature is addressing several other Islamist caricatures, saying: "Here's my plan for destroying America: we sneak in and marry each other." Needless to say a couple of those being addressed do look doubtful, although we don't know for what reason. Bush, Religion, and the Money At this point one might say, how does Bush hold get all the political money he does, given that his position of religion and how it should govern the country, how it should either stand above the Constitution or be the justification for changing its very nature, it so at odds with our history, and surely with the personal views of many of his donors. This is an issue that we shall come back to from time to time and shall deal with only briefly here. Of course it is his economic, environmental, and social policies. For example, there is “globalization,” otherwise known as the “Federally-sponsored capital and job export to secure lower labor costs and higher profits” program (strongly championed by the DLC and Pres. Clinton, one must note). Here is a list of companies in the “globalization” business that are major (up to hundreds of thousands of dollars) Bush contributors: American Express, Bechtel, Convergys, Dell Computer, Delphi Automotive, Fidelity, Ford, General Electric, Hewlett Packard, HSBC, McKinsey & Co, Sallie Mae. How many of the executives of these companies do you think believe in the religious doctrines that Bush obviously believes in? How many of these executives don’t think about those religious doctrines and their implications for the future of Constitutional Democracy in the United States when they are thinking about what Bush economic, social, and environmental policies, to say nothing of his anti-labor, anti-national domestic spending policies, do for their corporate profits and personal incomes? Now then (and we will end the discussion of this one for now), how many executives of the German corporations, large and small, that funded the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party starting in the mid-1920s thought about the social doctrines that Hitler had spelled out in Mein Kampf when they were thinking about what Hitler would do to the Communist and Socialist Parties and the labor movement in general? Ah the lessons one can learn from history, if one only looks _____________________________________________ APRIL 27, 2004 UPDATE ONCE AGAIN Once again, James and I climbed aboard a bus at 4:30 am to petition our government for redress of grievances. This time, it was for women’s reproduction freedom and health. We were part of one Planned Parenthood bus from Durham. Seeing only one bus and remembering all the phone call and direct mail exhortations to attend the march, I was apprehensive that this call to show our political power might fall flat.
I was afraid that if we didn’t turn out the numbers, we would forever weaken our position, dooming Roe v. Wade. As you know by now, I was worried over nothing. Our bus was one of 5 from Durham Chapel Hill that had left from different locations. The media has stated that the organizers had a permit for 750,000 and that there were 800,000 people. The organizers are claiming well over a million. It seemed to us that there were at least a million. Junkie: This article sets the figure at 500,000 -- Abortion Rights Advocates Flood D.C.; This article sets the number at 800,000 – Abortion-rights supporters rally in Washington; and the organizers put the figure at 1,000,000 -- Over a Million March in Washington for Reproductive Rights; Planned Parenthood Contributes Hundreds of Thousands to One of Washington’s Most Historic Moments The march started at noon and the entire street was packed tightly with people, spilling up onto the sidewalks. Usually, you can gauge crowd numbers by how long it takes for the march. It took over four hours for the entire procession to wend its way back to the National Mall.
However, this doesn’t present an accurate picture of how many people there were, because the march got bogged down at the Ellipse green in front of the White House and people broke off there and back tracked to the mall. The march route was never published or distributed. On Sunday, I considered this an organizing flaw, because we were never sure where we were going. In retrospect, I think it was to prevent the opposition from being organized. There were only a handful of counter-demonstrators as we stepped off the mall at the corner near the Washington Monument at 14th and Constitution. They were contained by mounted police officers who formed a barricade between us. Then as we neared 17th Street, both sides of Constitution for about a block and a half were lined with single file protestors reading from the Bible and displaying their grotesque bloody fetus posters. There were at most 150 of them. They were clearly the extremist group. The crowd easily drowned them out with chants of “Pro-Life, you lie, You don’t care if women die.” There were many wonderful aspects to this March for Women’s Lives besides the large numbers of people. The most impressive thing was the undertaking itself. There were 10 lead organizations with a 1000 sponsoring groups. It was incredibly well organized. The buses had staggered arrival and departure times to prevent traffic jams and bottlenecks. Our bus was directed to a metro stop at the end of the green line in Maryland. We were met by event staff, round trip Metro passes were distributed, and we were assigned the Archives Metro stop as our arrival and departure point. Other volunteers directed marchers at the metro stops, passing out pink plastic megaphones, pink pom-poms, signs and stickers. We arrived at the Mall by 10:30. Scattered throughout the Mall were more volunteers with pre-printed pads for us to sign our names, addresses, phone numbers, and emails in order to get an accurate count of attendees, to not have to rely on the media or law enforcement for estimates. We were then given fluorescent green stickers that read “Count me in”. That was when I knew that this was the real deal- that this event was taking grass roots organizing to a whole new level. We proceeded to the sign for “C26" where we had been instructed to meet up with other North Carolinians. We milled around, watching huge monitors. Hillary was speaking when we got there. All the speakers were good, stressing exercising out power, remaining optimistic, going back and organizing and re-defeating Bush. Kerry organizes were there in force. They said what needed to be said and kept us geared up and entertained until the march began. A favorite thing for James and me, is to read other people’s signs. See our pictures for our sampling.
Some signs were really strong expressions, but most were the pre-printed, colored signs of sponsoring organizations. Specific recognizable groups, besides the obvious- Planned Parenthood, NARAL, NOW, etc.- were various denominations and clerical groups, law students, “future medical providers of abortions” wearing their scrubs, students, and Pro-Choice Republicans. Young women and girls painted their bellies with “My body, My choice” or more outrageously, “Bush, stay out my mine” or ‘My Bush for President”.
The majority marched wearing colorful t-shirts with slogans of their group. People sang songs and laughed. Every so often groups of “Cheerleaders”, in black and pink, lead cheers. Children punched around pink Planned Parenthood beach balls. The crowds, colors, noise and variety created a carnival atmosphere. This joy and boldness was another remarkable, unique feature. After living in the South, where I feel I have to be at a minimum discreet, if not apologetic, for my pro-choice stance, this was a validating, liberating experience. I was most moved by the dignified bravery of an older woman in a chocolate brown tee shirt whose baby blue lettering read, “I had an abortion.” We left re-invigorated by experiencing that the progressives do know how to organize and that the people will respond--- that “if you build it, they will come.” We must hold on to this joy and boldness, and this commitment that brought a million people- women, men, old and young, single and families, of all colors, religions, and ethnic backgrounds, from every state in the country to Washington, DC for one event. We must hold on to it and allow it to sustain us and buoy us as we head into this election season, for this all important election to rid ourselves of the foul Bush Administration. James Gheen (Age 15) Once again I have taken to the streets with my mother in order to peacefully destroy the right-wing. Sure I didn’t get much sleep, waking up at four am and riding a bus, and I didn’t study for my EOC’s (End of Course tests) but freedom is more important than comfort. Upon reaching DC I was amazed at the sheer size of the crowd. I was seeing pink for half a mile in a large rectangle. Even gays and lesbians were showing their support for the right to choose to have an abortion (how ironic that they can’t make another decision because of the same people who represent the Christian equivalent of the Taliban.) If this march did not wake up the pro-life members of congress to what the voters want then it doesn’t matter, we’ll boot these Republicans out of office anyway. Speaking of pro-life lunatics there was a minor counter demonstration, one gross (pun intended) to match our one million, and a truck that had the ten commandments, pictures of aborted fetus’, and spouted right-wing propaganda. The counter-demonstrators were waving crosses and (again) pictures of aborted fetus’. In the words of a sign by a pro-choicer “Yes, I know what a fetus looks like and abortion is still a human right.” One pro-life sign said
YOU, NOW You can tell that this guy shares many opinions of the Taliban. Oh, by the way, God didn’t allow terrorists to destroy the World Trade Center, their fanaticism allowed them to. WE (liberals) didn’t cause 9/11, fundamentalists, and all they stand for, did! On the bus I had the unrealistic expectation of verbally taking on these crazies (one of my reasons for wanting to go). I decided to settle for starting a classic pro-choice chant “PRO-LIFE THAT’S A LIE YOU DON’T CARE IF WOMEN DIE.” There is nothing in this country that I oppose more than these fanatics. These people fail to realize that forcing women into motherhood is a good way to increase the death rate of pregnant mothers and increase the number of babies born into families that can’t satisfy their physical or emotional needs. I think we should support teaching about and legalizing contraceptives. Abstinence is a good idea, but sex is such a primal force that adolescents will be hard pressed to ignore it and condoms dramatically reduce the risk of unwanted pregnancy (and the metaphysical debate that goes along with it) and STD’s.
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