By Jill McLaughlin
What do you do when intimidation, bullying, and harassment in our public forums has become the norm? This is a norm that is being rammed through by the right-wing pundits and religious right. What do you do when one of the very few late-term abortion providers left has his protection by federal marshals removed just weeks before his clinic will be overrun by anti-abortion groups for two days straight? Understand this. The people who are showing up at the town hall meetings and ripping signs out of a Black woman’s hands and applaud while she is the one being shown on national television being escorted away, and the anti-abortion groups showing up at clinics and celebrating the murder of an abortion provider are of the same ilk.
Their bullying, their harassment, and their calls for blood are all meant to make you shut up. They want you to keep your head down while they stomp on and rip away your rights as a human being. Again, these people are of the same cloth and are being whipped up by those on the right with power and have their backing. They are not satisfied with Obama’s rhetoric of seeking common ground. One only need look at the events of Notre Dame and Dr. Tiller’s murder two weeks later to understand this. You only need look at the recent controversy surrounding the arrest of Henry Louis Gates and Obama’s capitulation to the racist good old boys club which has resulted in Harvard telling Gates he should move because of the death threats he is receiving to understand this. Your silence buys you or those you care about nothing. Meanwhile, a Black man is being shot somewhere just for being Black in America and an abortion provider is being targeted somewhere just because he understands that a woman has the right to control her body and her life.
In the face of this onslaught what will you do? You cannot be quiet, even if they threaten violence.
Keep quiet and keep your head down and they win. Stand up and speak out in the face of this and you will empower those who feel as you do and know what’s right to do the same. People should have been marching in the streets when Henry Lewis Gates was arrested and standing by the fact that his arrest was indeed racially motivated and that a number of Black men are not even arrested-they’re just shot-no questions asked. But this was swept under by the vicious attack dogs of the right and the capitulation of Obama. Had people in this country who care about humanity been in the streets we could have changed the terms of this debate. Under Bush millions were horrified by the right-wing agenda being nailed in place by that Regime. Many voted Obama hoping he would bring about the change they longed for. His seeking common ground with these very same people is not bringing about this change and is beginning to prove as more of a horror. It is we, the people in this country who care about humanity who must step forward and bring about the change we need.
Though our numbers were small we were there in Notre Dame when the anti-abortionist extremists were there and we were there in Kansas after Dr. Tiller was murdered. We have a courageous and committed few who will stand up for the rights of humanity but we need to grow.
World Can’t Wait along with various chapters from the National Organization of Women will be going to Omaha the weekend of August 28th and 29th to protect Dr. Leroy Carhart and his clinic from the anti-abortionist extremists who are taking big advantage of the fact that the protection provided him by federal marshals has recently been removed. Read and distribute the World Can’t Wait’s Call to Come to Omaha. An attack on him and his clinic is an attack on women and their rights. Anyone who cares about women and humanity as a whole must take a stand and join us.
If you cannot join us please consider donating to this righteous effort. Right now the NOW chapter of DuPage in Illinois is trying to organize buses, but needs the money up front to secure the buses. You can donate toward buses by going to Chicago World Can’t Wait Here. Spread the word that there are others who will courageously stand up and speak out in the face of these attacks.