The Inevitability of South Carolina

I was half listening to the Nightly News the other evening when I heard about a car driving into the beach at Daytona.  I harrumphed, because I had visited Daytona Beach a couple of years ago and was totally flummoxed by the fact that cars drive up and down that beautiful beach just because, well, they can.  I just assumed some idiot had gotten distracted.

But as I watched further, it was apparent that this was a different matter entirely.  A woman with three children in a minivan intentionally turned and drove into the surf.  The children were screaming for help, and the oldest trying to wrestle the steering wheel from his mother.  Others on the beach responded to the obvious distress and rescued mother and three children.

As I listened, I felt a bizarre sense of inevitability.  I almost said the words along with the commentator:  the woman was from South Carolina.

In 1994, Susan Smith achieved national notoriety when she claimed that her two children had been abducted by a black man; after a nine day search, she admitted that in fact she had pushed her car into a lake, drowning her sons.  Her stepfather, a Christian Coalition leader, admitted to having sexually molested Smith.

I only relate that story because, as with Ebony Wilkerson, it is pretty much a checklist of what is wrong with South Carolina.  A mentally disturbed woman, victim of spousal and/or sexual abuse, responsible for children.  It turns out that three days earlier, Wilkerson had called 911 from her Myrtle Beach home to report having been raped by her husband.  He had also been arrested and charged with battery in 2005.  This time around, the Myrtle Beach police appear to have been "still investigating" the call when questioned three days after she attempted to kill herself and her children.

Earlier on that same day in Daytona, her sister called the police and reported that Ebony was delusional, talking about Jesus and demons.  They actually stopped her on the road, but had no reason to hold her.

Wilkerson was 27 weeks pregnant.

Obviously, in both South Carolina and Florida, attempts were made to intervene.  But this woman had been wrestling with crises that needed intervention a long time ago.

Here in South Carolina, our governor is working hard to deny people food stamps and health care, two pieces of a struggle that could be easily addressed for so many of us.  More difficult problems of mental illness, spousal assault and isolation would require hard work from our government.  Ebony Wilkerson has had contacts with various government services, and they have been inadequate.

Poverty, racism, inadequate education, lack of family assistance, inadequate health and mental health outreach, lack of sex education and family planning, failure to pursue and prosecute the abusers of women.

I could go on.

It's been quite a number of years since Susan Smith drowned her children.  Sadly, South Carolina continues to be number 1 (or right up there) in all the wrong things.

Isn't it time we stopped worrying about whether we should be feeding people who don't have jobs and just feed them?  And how about knocking it off about the evils of the Affordable Care Act, and taking that Medicaid expansion?
  
Then maybe we can begin to address those tragedies that can be prevented with commitment and work.



   

Family Values

Maybe it's me, but "family values" means a whole lot different to the Tea Party, the Heritage Foundation and groups that actually have the words "family" and/or "values" in their names than it does to me.  I think of family values in terms of valuing families -- being sure that children have proper nutrition and a secure roof over their heads, including in school, where there should be heat in the winter and no water leaking from said roof.  And of course a decent education followed by a job that provides a living wage for a good day of work, and decent benefits, like sick leave and health insurance to provide for the children.  See, it's like a cycle.

But the folks that brag about their family values today tend to be the ones that do not value the families of those with less wealth and power than they have.  And then try to justify those other children and families doing without all that fine stuff with nonsense about killing jobs and creating debt that their children will have to pay off.

And when they say they don't want their children to have to pay off the nation's debt, they really mean their children -- not yours.

So in that atmosphere, forget about daycare, we have to fight for the adequacy of our schools.  And where far too many workers barely subsist on minimum wage, our government is convinced that the way out of debt is to continue to pay off big farms and cut food stamps.

So it comes as no surprise to learn that with all the talk about being "pro-life," pregnant women continue to be discriminated against at work.  Given jobs that jeopardize their health, limited sick leave, forced to take unpaid leave or terminated when they are unable to continue to do their job.

The ACLU and its New York chapter worked to pass the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act in New York City, which was signed into law on October 2 by Mayor Bloomberg.  As you can imagine, getting this law to go anywhere in our current Congress will be a fight.  It was introduced in 2012, and reintroduced this year.

The ACLU is asking for our support, in signing a petition to Congress to pass a Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.  Please sign, and spread the word.  And be sure to let our representatives know that all that talk about family values is just hot air without passing legislation that truly supports families.

And while we're at it, I'm thinking we should get our own legislators here in South Carolina to pass its own Pregnant Workers Fairness Act; maybe those who feel the need to safeguard pregnancy could do something more constructive than force women to carry unwanted pregnancies to term.

Taking a Stand

Earlier I today, I published a blog entry with lots of bad news, and hoped that President Obama would develop a spine on other issues, as he has on gun control.  Imagine my surprise and pleasure when I learned of his speech yesterday to Planned Parenthood.                                                                           

This was an amazing speech.  These are the strong words of support that we have been waiting for.

Comment was made by Katie McDonough in Salon that he did not actually say the word "abortion."  I think that's okay.  If you listen to the words, he does not flinch when he talks about the state laws that are assaulting woman's rights throughout the country.  He talks about the law that was passed making abortion illegal at six weeks.

I believe we have allowed Republicans to control the labeling of this debate.  We did eventually come up with "pro-choice" to combat the "pro-abortion" label.  But "choice" still brings us to "abortion."  Which is about the fetus.

It is time we redirected this debate.  This battle is about women, not that growth that may be inside of us.  That is why I believe we need to call this a fight against "forced pregnancy."  We all know, really, that that is what this is about.  It is about control, and punishment.  It has nothing to do with "preserving life" because there is no Republican support for health care for pregnant woman, much less for care for an infant when it is born.  Republicans not only seek to punish women of limited means who have become pregnant, they will punish the children that are born to women of limited means.

Here in South Carolina, we have a shameful record of infant mortality, yet some of our legislators focus single-mindedly on assuring that every woman who becomes pregnant is forced to carry that pregnancy.  With or without health care, or even decent nutrition.  These men who, across the country, are pushing these bills through their state legislators are cruel and power-hungry; they care not for life much less quality of life.  Their goal in each of these bills, no matter what warm-and-fuzzy names they give them, is to force pregnancy upon a woman.

I have said this before, but I keep being reminded that these are often the people who scream loudest for "freedom."  What they mean, though, is the freedom to control those who have less power than them.

A Pro-Choice Governor for South Carolina

You may have heard about all the idiotic anti-abortion bills floating around the SC Statehouse.  Sadly, this is business as usual for many of our legislators.  Bills like "personhood" and "preborn" and commissioning monuments to birth keep popping up, and like whack-a-mole, our good legislators continue to vote no.  But last year, one of the bills passed the House before being rejected by the Senate.  Pure single-mindedness could actually get one of the hair-brained bills turned into law.

Meanwhile, in 2010, Vincent Sheheen ran for Governor against Nikki Haley.  He's a good guy, a loyal Democrat, but talks too long and hard about cooperating, and while he claimed to be pro-choice before the primaries, he became far more wishy-washy before the general election, a fact that Haley was more than willing to use to her advantage.

We don't need a watered down republican in the Governor's mansion; we need someone who will unflinchingly defend a woman's right to reproductive freedom.

Here is a draft of a letter to Senator Sheheen encouraging him to stand up for a woman's right to choose, and vote no on any bill that infringes on that right:

___________, 2013

Senator Vincent Sheheen

504 Gressette Building

Columbia, South Carolina 29201

Dear Senator Sheheen:

I am a Democratic voter in South Carolina who is concerned about bills regarding women – and families – right to reproductive privacy. I am concerned that our state legislature has taken upon itself to redefine “life” to an absurd degree, in order to dictate mores that certain of our legislators believe to be Christian, but which are contemporary inventions.

Here in South Carolina there is much importance placed on “freedom.” Yet there are those elected by us that would vote to impose their presence within the bedroom and the doctor's office. There are bills that seek to determine unreasonable criteria for doctors who might perform abortions, which are legal procedures, and for those clinics that offer that service.

This is not only a travesty of the concept of individual freedoms These bills would jeopardize our right to religious freedom. They presume that our legislators are a religious authority, and not merely people elected to preserve the welfare of the citizens of this state.

Meanwhile, this battle over the control of a woman's reproductive choices is taking place while our quality of life in South Carolina continues to suffer. Poor education, high unemployment and low wages, inadequate health care are all issues that our legislators need to be addressing. Criminalizing a woman's reproductive health choices does in no way improve our quality of living. Rather, it drains our resources.

I understand that you are considering running for governor in 2014. I would be delighted to support someone who truly reflects Democratic values. I believe that a Democrat fights for our freedoms, and that includes the freedom of a woman, and her family, and her doctor, and her religious beliefs, in making her reproductive choices.

I would be unable to support your campaign if you vote for any of the anti-choice legislation that is proposed.

Thank you for your serious consideration of these matters, and I looking forward to your reply.

Very truly yours,

We would like to encourage you to send this letter, or some version of it, or your own original letter, to Senator Sheheen.  Snail mail will have more of an impact, but email will work. The more letters he gets, the more aware he will be of how important this issue is, not just to the women of the state, but to his election campaign.  Now is the time to let him know where we stand.

To paraphrase Arlo Guthrie, if three people did it, he might think it's some kind of an organization, and if 50 people did it, he might think it's a movement.

And it is a movement.