Where Do I Begin?

Without a doubt, the most difficult problem I encountered when beginning to write this column was how to focus on only one of literally hundreds of topics one could potentially use to easily show how George W. Bush has been the worst president we have ever had. While there is definitely no shortage of information displaying the countless bad decisions—most which have had devastating effects on our country—Bush is responsible for (i.e. going to war for false reasons, turning one of the nation’s largest surpluses into one of the nation’s biggest deficits, creating one of the largest waves of job losses since the Depression, enacting unprecedented legislation catering to the wealthy and corporate America that would even make the Reagan administration do a double take—including both tax cuts and rapidly depleting environmental standards, the list goes on…) I would like to focus my column on a group often excluded in American politics. For women- and especially young women that have just turned of voting age- it is more important than ever to get out there and make your voice heard. Since Bush took office in 2000, American women have begun to experience a perpetual decline in rights and it’s only getting worse.

The Unborn Victims Act:

The latest rollback on women’s rights was implemented in April when the Unborn Victims Act was established. The Unborn Victims Act states that federal law enforcement will be able to bring charges for the harm of a fetus, as well as its mother, during a violent crime. It has also been carefully worded so the bill specifically grants individual, separate legal status to a fetus or embryo beginning at conception. I remember watching the bill being signed on the news as Bush and his collection of post-middle aged men applauded each other with religious zeal for their noble humanitarian effort on the part of women across the country. Obviously, everyone agrees on the need to protect pregnant women but, within a legal context, it becomes glaringly obvious that this law is only the latest element of the religious right’s concerted effort to slowly chip away at Roe vs. Wade (the very foundation of women’s reproductive rights) as anyone who kills a pregnant woman during a violent crime will most likely be going to jail for life anyway.

The act was vehemently promoted by Bush and several other religious anti-abortion organizations- including the National Right to Life Organization. And, in order to solicit support from those not solely concerned with creating a backdoor for the “moral majority” to women’s rights, the Bush administration took advantage of the tragic, yet sensationalist-laden Laci Peterson case by dubbing it the ‘Laci and Conner’s Law’.

This latest piece of legislation was signed by Bush less than six months after passing the Partial Birth Abortion Act of 2003 (PBABA), thus unveiling a carefully constructed agenda on the part of the steadily encroaching religious right and the drunk driving, semi-literate, corporate lap-dog who has deemed himself “appointed by God” to the American presidency (which might make sense since he wasn’t elected by the people) to disseminate women’s rights across the board.

I know many of you kids feel powerless and I know that many of you feel as your vote/voice doesn’t count but just remember that you make up the largest percentage of the voting public in America, and if we can all organize and motivate each other just enough to get out there and we can do something about this criminal in office.


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