Roy Exum
Let’s just suppose a woman in her mid-30s has been gang-raped, horribly beaten, and is on the verge of a long recovery at Erlanger Hospital. Let’s further picture her crying husband on one side of the bed and her doctor and her pastor on the other. I firmly believe there is nowhere in that room for a politician and, what’s more, any agonizing decisions that must be made are most certainly no one else’s business.
Sadly, the Hamilton County Commission believes otherwise. In a most blatant display of foisting the prejudices of others upon the very people who elected them to serve, Commissioners Sabrena Smedley, Randy Fairbanks, Jim Fields, Marty Haynes and Chester Bankston have joined a circus of clowns. And now the Commission – as a governing body -- has stepped outside the realm of public service in yet another vain attempt by mankind to legislate morality.
The issue before us is Amendment 1 on our November ballot. It asks voters to answer Yes or No to the question if the constitution should be amended by saying: "Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion. The people retain the right through their elected state representatives and state senators to enact, amend, or repeal statutes regarding abortion, including, but not limited to, circumstances of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest or when necessary to save the life of the mother."
What the amendment doesn’t say is that what we’ve got right now is working fine. A woman in Tennessee is free to make choices about her body, just like a man can do.
Micah Greenstein, who is a Jewish Rabbi in Memphis, summed the issue up succinctly by asking five questions to those who support it. "Politicians or doctors? Who decides what's best for a woman's health? A rape victim and her minister, or a religious zealot who would impose his will on all Tennessee women and families? Who decides what's best for a woman's health? Some political candidate or the female cancer patient herself in consultation with her doctor and priest?"
My point exactly. Amendment 1 looks like an innocuous item until you begin to connect-the-dots, “follow the money,” and realize where our state is headed if such an idiotic notion were to pass. I’m not for abortions – not at all -- but I am also not a fool. Face it, we live in a nation where a full 50 percent of babies now being born are out of wedlock and none of the “religious zealots” have a workable solution. Abortion is certainly not the answer but shouldn’t the zealots turn their sanctimonious focus elsewhere?
As the Rev. Rosalyn Nichols told a group this week, "It is not counter to my faith that I stand against Amendment 1 -- it is because of my faith,” the minister said. “I urge every woman and every man who loves a woman and every woman who loves a woman to vote against Amendment 1 and take as many people as you can to do the same."
Frankly, I would have loved to have heard Sabrena Smedley or Randy Fairbanks climb on a stump and speak openly about their deep and personal beliefs about abortion before they were voted into office. I’d have given anything to hear their solutions on rape, incest, and saving the life of a mother. All any opponent would have had to do would be answer, “It is none of my business and has nothing to do with the position I seek.”
Talk about going down in flames! I’ll guarantee you Commissioners Smedley and Fairbanks would have been voted down as losers. The same would have happened if Fields, Haynes or Bankston had told their constituents they would work tirelessly to assure a women’s health would be best served by the state legislature rather than any medical choices that any female in their districts would make about their own bodies. This is nuts!
I refuse to consciously believe Sabrena Smedley would vote to give her freedom to make decisions about her body to some hairy-legged state legislator she has never even met. If she is, in fact, that blind, how do you feel about the vow she promised to do her very best to serve “all the people” in Hamilton County. Her reputation among her fellow females right now has to be atrocious. Are you kidding me?
Equally amusing is the fact that almost all the “zealots” are against “big government,” “needless legislation,” and will fight for “a right to privacy” yet have no qualms about forcing their prejudices on all the rest of us. There are many Christians who believe in Jesus Christ but have differing opinions. Just don’t push them unwanted on me. That’s why we have so many tribes. My goodness, there are five different kinds of Presbyterians in town.
I think it is commendable that Commissioner Tim Boyd saw through the ruse, saying, “This resolution is not related to the business of the County Commission,” and that Greg Beck, Warren Mackey and Joe Graham knew better. While no one since the beginning of time has figured a way to legislate morality, another truth is that you can’t cure stupid.
Now the Hamilton County Commission is being touted statewide in its official support of Amendment 1, and that makes everybody who lives within its confines look like the very Bozos who got us into this mess. The Hamilton County Commission is way out of line. Welcome to the circus.
royexum@aol.com