September 15, 2008

The Culture War and High School

In my Government class we're learning about the culture war! Our book, written by a Republican, says there are two sides: Orthodox, who think traditional moral values trump personal liberty and that morality can be defined by a black-and-white, unchanging set of views, and Progressives, who think personal liberty is more important than traditional values and morality should be considered in light of the realities of modern life.

I had kinda thought the whole "Culture War" thing was at least winding down. No such luck. The lovely lady over at What To Expect When You're Aborting put up a post today correcting this misconception with her own first-hand experience.

By all legal evidence the culture war about abortion is over. Roe v wade, Medicaid funded, second trimester having abortion is on the books. And that’s what’s so frieghtening about these people. According to them, the law is wrong. That civil right is wrong. Imagine people outside of a voting both telling you your very right to excerise your choice and cast a ballot IS WRONG. It’s jaw dropping.

And their presence was felt all the way into the recovery room. The mandatory counseling session, the literature in the clinic, the scowl on the mothers at their young pregnant daughters in the waiting room were all a direct result of the actions of the culture warriors.

I was seething that my body was subject to this debate. That some punk 17 year old who has never had the nerve to stick his trembling shaft into the slit of a woman, who has doesn’t have the right to legally drink, who has never had a period, who will never know what the fuck it feels like to have his nuts up for debate, has the fucking unflinching audacity to shame ME?


So, the Culture War rages on. Sigh. On the one hand, it strikes me as really ridiculous, but on the other hand I know that I'd have as hard a time reaching a compromise as a pro-lifer would, because for me it's a RIGHT that they're stepping on, and for them it's a LIFE that I'm messing with - pretty black and white, all things considered.

There was apparently an epic discussion of reproductive rights in Creative Writing today, but I missed it, because I'm in Independent Study that period while the rest of the class works on Nonfiction. The assignment was to write a letter to the next president for some contest, and my teacher says I have to do it anyway, because the winning letters are actually sent to the president. So I guess I need to get writing on that! I'll post it here when it's done, of course.

Oh, Mondays. I don't like them.

1 comment:

Ol Cranky said...

because for me it's a RIGHT that they're stepping on, and for them it's a LIFE that I'm messing with

ahh, but that RIGHT they're messing with is some woman's life