"Rights of Conscience"

Teenager caught stealing
earrings, swallows them,
is betrayed by x-rays.

Rights of conscience, what an absolutely super idea! You may have heard about Bush’s lame duck proposal to establish something termed “rights of conscience.” This is meant to apply to doctors, nurses, and other health professional and basically says they do not have to participate in procedures that offend their consciences. Abortion is, of course, the main target here but there seem to be no precise limits. One interesting thing about this proposal is that you apparently do not suffer any consequences of any kind when you refuse to provide the service. If you claim that it offends your conscience, that’s it. This is unlike any other act of conscience that I know of. For example, to use one from Rachel Maddow, if you are Amish, and your religious beliefs do not allow you to drive, that is your right, but you will not be hired as a bus driver. Or, more importantly, if you are a conscientious objector, you may exercise your moral right, but you may end up in jail, or at least forced to perform other duties that you may not like. In other words, while you can insist on your conscientious objections, you expect to pay some kind of price. This is apparently very different from what Bush has in mind. But I think rights of conscience is a great idea if, that is, we are allowed to apply it more broadly. My conscience tells me that I should not have to pay taxes when I know they will be used for military purposes. If we had the same rights of conscience that Bush is proposing for the medical profession I could do this with no fear of jail, fines, or whatever. Similarly, if I had such rights of conscience like those Bush is proposing I could simply refuse to serve in the military with no fear of any consequences. Or, say my conscience did not keep me out of the military, but did not allow me to handle weapons. I could refuse and not have to worry about being put on latrine duty or permanent dishwashing or some other punishment. What if my conscience forbade me from wasting water by watering my lawn? The neighbors wouldn’t like that. What if a mechanic refused to work on the cars of Republicans? You see here, I hope, the endless range of possibilities if we all just had these rights of conscience. Just think how smoothly society would function if no one ever had to do anything their conscience denied them with no fear of the consequences? We wouldn’t have to have either cultural prescriptions or proscriptions, a simply delightful anarchy would prevail. You have to hand it to Bush, he’s a real thinker. You may say, well, such rights only apply to the medical profession. But that would be discriminatory in the extreme. The ACLU would probably never stand for such a thing. There would be lawsuits, except, of course, for those whose consciences would not allow them to hire lawyers. Then, too, it might be hard to find a judge who would take on such cases because of his conscience. And what would happen to those, like Bush/Cheney, who apparently have no consciences at all? (alas, we already know where that leads). What if my conscience told me not to bring an infant into the world that was clearly unwanted, and would probably be uncared for and even abused, would the doctor’s conscience automatically have priority over mine? Perhaps if there are medical personnel that are unwilling to perform legal medical procedures they should be retrained for other professions, like monks or nuns. Aw, shucks and gee whillikers, it’s just too complicated for me. I guess we should just leave it up to the lame duck, he’s got a long while to go, I’m sure he can come up with further even more idiotic ideas.

Speaking of our lame duck, he seems to be in full denial mode. Nothing that has happened in the past eight years is his fault. Of course there is some doubt that he even knows what has happened in the past eight years. The world’s greatest serial loser, and the worst President ever. He’s leaving the White House with his head held high (he says). Perhaps that will distract everyone from the tail between his legs.

They love sleaze in Georgia. Republican Saxby Chambliss won re-election to the Senate, beating out his Democratic opponent by a sizeable margin. You remember Chambliss, he was elected to the Senate by defeating Democrat Max Cleland, a triple amputee war hero, in one of the slimiest, rottenest, most dishonest, unethical, and disgusting campaigns in American history. It must have been tough for those Georgians to have to pick between a Republican sleazebag and a bona fide war hero. But how could he have lost this time with the omnipresent, dynamic, and brilliant Sarah Palin campaigning for him? I don’t think it’s the “crackers” that do it, maybe it’s too many overly fermented peaches? How I want her to be the Republican candidate for President in 2012!!!

Favorite short poems:
FOG

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

Carl Sandburg

TILT:
Some of the finest chef’s knives are made specifically for the left or right handed.