When I read about the murder a few hours ago, I was going to post something to the effect that the apologists should be making statements shortly. There was always a script for it. Pro-life groups would condemn the act and after about 24 hours or so there’d be a“but” attached to the condemnation. It’s always something to the effect that the victim of the murder was, after all, someone who took innocent life, but killing is never, ever acceptable. Well, things are moving a lot faster these days and not everyone is quite so delicate about it.Statements have been pouring out from pro-life groups, abortion rights groups and everyone else who will make a statement. Randall Terry, for one, does not seem to feel constrained to express any condemnation other than to regret that Dr. Tiller was not afforded time to meet his Maker.
Grandpa Eddie reminds us of that report that had some right wing panties in a bunch. The one that referred to home grown terrorists. Sounds like it was right on to me. He also provides a retrospective of violent acts of terrorism targeting abortion providers.
Fitness for the Occasion makes the very simple, but insightful, point that things like this are the problem with calling abortion murder.
So, there are lessons about domestic terrorism, lessons about rhetoric and how not to use it, and I’d hope there is a lesson about thinking hard about how a public message might affect persons who have serious mental health issues.
Randall Terry and his group are pushing this. The guy who did it belonged to that group and had their phone number with him when he did it. It's been a rough day. Dr. Tiller was a great man. He was so much more than just an abortion doctor, but that will be lost in all the hype over this. He did adoptions, he did free health care, he did lots of things.
ReplyDeleteLet's see, we can learn that many of the people who claim to be "pro-life" are actually completely full of shit...oh, wait a second, we already knew that, since they also tend to be pro-war, pro-death penalty, and anti-any of their precious tax money going toward health care or other social services for the people they want to force to have babies. So, ummm...guess I'll have to think about this a bit more....
ReplyDeleteQualifying it as "someone who took innocent life" is putting it mildly. I just finished reading the comments on a conservative blog. Many of them were along the lines of "murderer of tens of thousands of children." To be fair, other commenters flatly condemned the assassination without qualification. Others, naturally, jump on liberals for "politicizing" Dr Tiller's murder as if the right has never done such a disreputable thing as, say, exploiting 9/11 for political gain.
ReplyDeleteAs if the commission of terroristic Acts and hate crimes against people for their political and ideological beliefs could run the gammut without being FURTHER politicized?
ReplyDeleteStalkers, Harassers and Terrorists don't get to frame the debate. They want to make all Americans De-Facto Christians...or else! Anyone else find that patently offensive?
You cannot claim to follow the Prince of Peace while weilding a club to ensure alliegance. That's like claiming moral high ground while standing waist deep in shit.
It makes no sense.
This Emperor has no clothes. Threatening me with further violence will only cause me to scream it louder.
Let's face it Randall Terry's group, and others like it, were either directly or indirectly behind this act of terrorism. They all reveled in the fact that a "mass murderer" was taken out. They are all terrorists and their tax-exempt status should be removed and they all should be investigated for acts of terrorism and support of terrorists and terrorist activities. If a Muslim shot and killed a Jewish Rabbi or a Catholic Priest I think we all know that he would be charged with an act of terrorism......or christians and Jews would be in an uproar.
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