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Bill Napoli: South Dakota's Cowboy Messiah
Mar. 9th, 2006 08:48 amI first saw this posted on http://www.warrenellis.com . I tracked down the original transcript from http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/jan-june06/abortion_3-03.html. Reading this has given me a glimpse into the mindset of the religious right here in America. And to tell you the truth it's a pretty fucking scary place to be. To me personally, it actually seems very close to some of the cultural perceptions (and misperceptions) we hold of fundamentalist Muslim countries. You know the ones we, as a nation, are so eager to sacrifice American lives to bring freedom and democracy to.
PBS REPORTER FRED DE SAM LAZARO: (South Dakota Senator Bill) Napoli says most abortions are performed for what he calls “convenience.” He insists that exceptions can be made for rape or incest under the provision that protects the mother’s life. I asked him for a scenario in which an exception may be invoked.
SENATOR BILL NAPOLI: A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life.
So if a woman is raped in South Dakota, she damn well better have been 'religious' (and lets not pretend that the good Senator here means anything else but Christian), a virgin and was planning on remaining a virgin until her wedding night to justify an abortion (how do you prove that in a court of law again?). All this is being heralded under the banner of 'States Rights'. An arguement that sadly seems to be used to justify the worst Puritan instincts in the American character. Slavery and segregation anyone?
Here's another quote from the transcript from Senator Napoli:"When I was growing up here in the wild west, if a young man got a girl pregnant out of wedlock, they got married, and the whole darned neighborhood was involved in that wedding. I mean, you just didn't allow that sort of thing to happen, you know? I mean, they wanted that child to be brought up in a home with two parents, you know, that whole story. And so I happen to believe that can happen again."
I am biased and I won't pretend to be anything but on this issue. I do not care what paticular God you worship and what paticular laws you must obey unto him. I do not care if you believe that God cast man out of the gates of Eden for the sin of Eve. I do not care if you believe if that sin has condemned all women eternally to be nothing more than incubation machines for the great unborn. This is not Eden. This is not a fallen world waiting to be redeemed. Nor is this the 'Wild West'. This is not the frontier where God, Guns and whiskey are the strong arm of the law. This is the fucking United States of America. And in this country a woman is a human being first, a citizen gauranteed certain unalienable rights, amongst which stands (or should stand depending on when you might read this) the right to choose whether or not she is ready and willing to assume the mantle of motherhood.
I'm not the brightest guy in the world, but it seems to me that there is no shortage of orphans in the world right now. Maybe the christian conservatives should look into adoption. Why in fact, I do believe there are plenty of recently orphaned children in Iraq right now. Plenty of good Americans have died to bring those children democracy, Americans who were in fact, like you, once unborn! So open your hearts as the good book tells you to those less fortunate around you and as far as the rest of us? The sinners, the fornicators, the heathens and the unbelievers? WWJD? He'd forgive us so why don't you
PBS REPORTER FRED DE SAM LAZARO: (South Dakota Senator Bill) Napoli says most abortions are performed for what he calls “convenience.” He insists that exceptions can be made for rape or incest under the provision that protects the mother’s life. I asked him for a scenario in which an exception may be invoked.
SENATOR BILL NAPOLI: A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life.
So if a woman is raped in South Dakota, she damn well better have been 'religious' (and lets not pretend that the good Senator here means anything else but Christian), a virgin and was planning on remaining a virgin until her wedding night to justify an abortion (how do you prove that in a court of law again?). All this is being heralded under the banner of 'States Rights'. An arguement that sadly seems to be used to justify the worst Puritan instincts in the American character. Slavery and segregation anyone?
Here's another quote from the transcript from Senator Napoli:"When I was growing up here in the wild west, if a young man got a girl pregnant out of wedlock, they got married, and the whole darned neighborhood was involved in that wedding. I mean, you just didn't allow that sort of thing to happen, you know? I mean, they wanted that child to be brought up in a home with two parents, you know, that whole story. And so I happen to believe that can happen again."
I am biased and I won't pretend to be anything but on this issue. I do not care what paticular God you worship and what paticular laws you must obey unto him. I do not care if you believe that God cast man out of the gates of Eden for the sin of Eve. I do not care if you believe if that sin has condemned all women eternally to be nothing more than incubation machines for the great unborn. This is not Eden. This is not a fallen world waiting to be redeemed. Nor is this the 'Wild West'. This is not the frontier where God, Guns and whiskey are the strong arm of the law. This is the fucking United States of America. And in this country a woman is a human being first, a citizen gauranteed certain unalienable rights, amongst which stands (or should stand depending on when you might read this) the right to choose whether or not she is ready and willing to assume the mantle of motherhood.
I'm not the brightest guy in the world, but it seems to me that there is no shortage of orphans in the world right now. Maybe the christian conservatives should look into adoption. Why in fact, I do believe there are plenty of recently orphaned children in Iraq right now. Plenty of good Americans have died to bring those children democracy, Americans who were in fact, like you, once unborn! So open your hearts as the good book tells you to those less fortunate around you and as far as the rest of us? The sinners, the fornicators, the heathens and the unbelievers? WWJD? He'd forgive us so why don't you
