When Born Children Are Dying

The pompous idiots at our SC State Legislature have been going at it with gusto again this year.  Liston Barfield of Horry County has introduced H 3324, which would create a commission to study the creation of an "unborn children's monument."  We might consider this an adjunct to the ever popular H3323, Barfield's House version (same as the Senate version) of the Personhood Amendment.

Before we get all paranoid about the expansion of the right-wing-nut arm of the Christian movement, let me explain that these dudes have been offering these amendments every year for some time now.  In fact, in 2009, our own Wendell Gilliard cosponsored the monument bill.  Let's all hope that he has matured and understands the difference between right-wing-nut "freedom" and democratic "freedom."

The personhood bill would guarantee the right to life for all born and "preborn" human beings.  Unlike a "preowned" used car, a "preborn" human being is a fetus without any miles on it.  Basically, it's a ridiculous made up word to try to justify the belief that life is the same before birth as after birth.  Be aware that the only thing this bill promises is the right to life.  Not health care, not a roof over a woman's head while the fetus is growing, not a nutritious diet.  Just "life."

The Post and Courier headline yesterday tells us that in Greater Charleston black infants died at a much higher rate than white infants in 2011, which researchers attribute to poverty and other sociological factors.  The article talks about the number of children that die before their first birthday.  For the state, there are approximately 8 deaths per 1,000 infants under one year of age.

Isn't it appalling that Barfield and the other idiots who brag on their Christianity are wasting so much of their positions of responsibility working to shame women who choose not to bear a child, rather than improve and maybe increase the chances of life among those babies who have been born?

Distractions

Our legislature here in South Carolina can't get those personhood bills out fast enough.  They don't much give a damn what happens when a baby gets born, but they stay up nights wondering how they can make a woman keep that fetus under their control for as long as it takes.  And then once that woman has an actual baby, they won't have to worry about keeping her under their control.  All they have to do is make sure she is totally, 100% on her own.

I wish these "personhood" schemes were actually funny.  But they come from unbalanced minds that believe that the word "freedom" means they get to control others, and the word "religion" means theirs.  As with the gun "debate," there really is no debate.  The people who believe in life at conception to the point where they obsess over making laws about it are not willing to share ideas.  Nor are they ever going to share a penny to be sure that a pregnant woman has health care and a healthy diet.

Take, for example, Liston Barfield, who proudly sponsored H 3323, companion to the Senate bill S 83.  To look at his background, you would not come away thinking the man had a whole lot of understanding of biology, but he does know his own religion and he does know how to network.  In fact, he happens to be Secretary on the Board of Directors of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

If you are wondering where you have heard of ALEC, this is the powerful corporate lobbying group that has its dirty fingerprints not only all over state and federal bills, but all over our politicians.  ALEC works for folks like the Koch brothers, ExxonMobile, and PhRMA, to make sure  that bills get written just the way they like them.

If this sounds like a strange alliance for someone who is concerned with "personhood," it all comes under the heading of power and hypocrisy.

I'd like to be able to at least leave you with a chuckle.  The "word" "preborn" should crack me up the way I used to enjoy the invented word "preowned" when car dealers started substituting it for "used."  Except that "preowned" became an actual part of the vocabulary, and damned if I know what people think it means.  I fear that "preborn" is just about to become another one of those invented words that scare and confuse people.

As distasteful as this whole thing is, though, I believe we need to know about all the corrupt legislators that keep our minds off our pocketbooks by keeping them focused on a woman's vagina.  So maybe I started with "personhood" and ended up with ALEC.  The fact that the whole way our government works is so convoluted is why it doesn't work for us at all.