Randall Terry should be water boarded.

1.6.09

Yesterday, after the brutal assassination of Dr. George Tiller, President Obama released the following statement:

I am shocked and outraged by the murder of Dr. George Tiller as he attended church services this morning. However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence.

It was a relief to hear the word "outraged" even though the statement itself was appropriately measured. It Bush were still in office, I'd fear a "chickens coming home to roost" type statement, which would, of course, make my head EXPLODE. I mean, rocket, clear off my neck.

The thing of it is, I don't want measured. I want someone, anyone, to stand up and call it like it is. These anti-choice people are religious fundamentalist terrorists, period. There will be no reasoning with them, there will be no middle ground, and they won't stop.


Anti-Choice demonstration in Toronto, 2007. They didn't like me taking their picture. Which begs the question, if you don't want attention, why aren't you just off praying somewhere?

But we're measured. Because that's how you win the argument, right? Tell that to Randall Terry, head honcho at Operation Rescue and de facto anti-choice leader:

George Tiller was a mass-murderer. We grieve for him that he did not have time to properly prepare his soul to face God. I am more concerned that the Obama Administration will use Tiller's killing to intimidate pro-lifers into surrendering our most effective rhetoric and actions. Abortion is still murder. And we still must call abortion by its proper name; murder. Those men and women who slaughter the unborn are murderers according to the Law of God.

My articulate response to this? Get your pens ready. "Aaargghhuuuhhh." I have lost all will to try and come up with a reasonable, measured argument against people who are CRAZY and get a seat at the table. Why do these religious nuts, these men (SO many of them are) get any say about what women choose to do with their bodies? Why do we have to react in a measured way when one of them goes off the reservation and commits murder? They shot a man, point blank, in the head while he was in the lobby of his church. In front of his family and his community. A man who has been living with the threats for decades. A man who was shot twice 16 years ago and still continued to show up for work every day and provide health care to the women who needed it.

What we are dealing with here is not just a feminist issue, this is a civil rights issue...a human rights issue. And the sooner we all stop being pushed around by people who claim that "God" is on their side, the sooner it will actually be a fair fight.

3 comments :

  1. Carlyjay8:41 PM

    Tracey, you couldn't have said it better. I'm horrified by this. If a "pro-life" advocate wants to try to convince me to believe in their side of this issue with discussion and debate, I'm only too happy to listen and take part in a sane, adult conversation about it. I'm happy to entertain their opinion. But this was a clear case of brutal murder, and the actions of terrorists to murder in the name of "pro life" only belittle their very platform.

    Here's the thing. Whether or not you believe what Dr. Tiller did for a living was morally right or wrong, at least we can all agree that it was legal, according to Kansas law. The ethics or lack thereof of his profession was something that we could at least debate; something we all had a RIGHT to debate.

    But murdering a father of 4, a grandfather of 10? That's wrong. There's no debate there. It was illegal, that's for sure. It was cold-blooded murder not only in dictionary definition but in criminal code definition.

    And guess what? He may have been killed, but someone else is just going to take his place. Someone else will do the job he no longer can. Killing him didn't kill the profession. It just belittled the pro-life stance. Murdering someone in cold blood in the middle of a Sunday church service has only hurt that cause, and shown the militant pro-life hypocrisy.

    As I saw someone write on a facebook comment earlier today, the pro-life cause would be better supported if they took their war to congress, instead of taking a gun to a Sunday church service.

    RIP Dr. George Tiller.

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  2. Carly, thank you for being so articulate when all I could muster was "Aaargghhuuuhhh". It's nice to have you on the blogosphere!

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  3. Anonymous1:07 PM

    "Aaargghhuuuhhh" is right. How can you use 'reason' & 'measure' against such monstrous people. f#ck.

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