Abortion: Once and for all

Totally out of the blue today, I was walking back from Quiznos and I'm greeted by a bunch of loud hicks on H Street holding pictures of dead babies. These weren't like, Catholic students or anything, these were bona fide hicks, definitely not from around here (maybe Virginia, I guess...). Honestly, they weren't really being that obnoxious, as protesters go. There was a guy standing on a down-turned milk crate, yelling about something or other, but aside from that it was just a lot of posters, a lot of dead babies, and a lot of flannel shirts.

None of them even approached me, but what I was so struck with and what irritated me so to the core about this whole operation was that there were little kids handing out literature. These people are throwing their single-digit age kids into a political fray about which they know absolutely nothing and can't even begin to understand. How heartless can you be, to deprive a child for even a MINUTE of their childhood to further YOUR political beliefs? These kids should be out playing kickball, building forts, riding bikes, and terrorizing each other -- not handing out palm cards on the streets of D.C. for a cause that is so far removed from their world as to be nearly irrelevant. Don't corrupt your kid's childhood just because you feel like crusading for some high-minded ideal. I secretly hope that all these kids turn out to be homosexual bleeding-heart liberals just to spite their stupid parents.

Not only that, but it's a weekday. You have to believe that wherever these people are from, their kids should be in school right now. So now, whatever parents are allowing their kids to be sucked into this whole thing are depriving them of education, the best investment a person can make in this world. I certainly don't want to belittle the global anti-child-labor movement, but this ideological exploitation of children is simply agregious. The fact that a person is willing to take their child out of school to make people feel guilty about supporting a woman's right to choose is indicative of a larger social problem. Working-class, Christian rightists care more about indoctrination and blanket ideologies than they do about anything else; they are willing to exploit their own children for political purposes, and not only that but to deprive their own children of the most important factor in quality of life (education). You just have to hope this isn't a trend in the child's life. You would hope that they at least get a semi-adequate education so that they can form their own opinions rather than listen to ideologues from Blumpkinville, USA.

While I'm discussing the topic generally, I'll weigh in only slightly on the abortion issue. In general, I support abortion. As I've said before, I support POST-birth abortion, up to an infinite number of trimesters. There are certainly some people that I know who need to be aborted. Ted Kennedy comes to mind. All flippance aside, though... my general reasoning is that knowing what I know now, and being a middle-class guy getting a halfway-decent education, is this: I would rather be aborted than live a shitty life in some slum someplace, and grow up to be a jizz moppa at the porno theatre. Some people argue that you never know who might grow up to be the next Einstein or Martin Luther King. I find this logic spurious. By that logic you kill just as many Hitlers and Stalins. So it's a moot point.

Most of all, though, it's no one's business, certainly not the government's, to decide how a couple wants to deal with pregnancy. It's even more alarming that people want the government to invoke some kind of moral imperative in creating anti-abortion legislation. Furthermore, get a job, and stop protesting on my campus. How many people's minds do you think you change? I'd venture a guess of zero. Most college students (especially at GW) already have a well-formed opinion on this (whether or not they can argue it, or hold it for the right reasons, is debatable, but the point remains). This is the essence about what bothers me about politics -- get off your moral high horse, stop going after these grandiose, often amorphous ideals, and HELP SOMEONE. Do something concrete for someone so that their life can be that much better. Don't just bitch and yell. And for the love of god, LET YOUR KIDS BE CHILDREN AND KEEP THEM THE FUCK OUT OF YOUR POLITICS.