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opinion
Issues, not abortion,
should be debated
This week should really
be one to remember at Cal State Long Beach. First of all I would
like to offer my support and best wishes to the organizers,
women and hopefully men that will take part in Thursday's "V-Day
2002 College Campaign," event here on campus.
Prior to Thursday's event though we will be "honored"
by the GOP mayoral debate. Yes, politics is completely about
big business and people so out of touch with society that they
think they are actually serving the people, but hey it should
be pretty exciting to see how hypocrisy and mudslinging works
up close and personal.
One of the big topics of debate on television these days is
gubernatorial candidate Richard Riordan's track record of supporting
anti-abortion groups despite sometimes stating the opposite.
The interesting thing about these ads is that they are being
supported by Gov. Gray Davis, who is attacking somebody he may
not even run against. This seems to be a smart idea for the
Davis camp, since essentially all politicians are equal these
days, to highlight the one big difference he has with Riordan.
What is amazing is the use of abortion rights as a platform
to be nominated to office. Similar to such political grandstanding
as "the war on drugs" and "getting tough on crime,"
abortion rights have become a stance every politician must defend
and explain.
But a simple question needs to be asked. Have any of these politicians
heard of Roe v. Wade?
In case they have not, this is the case that set the precedent
protecting a woman's right to choose, a right that cannot and
should not be taken away.
By allowing abortion to be legal, many people have had options
rather than bringing a child into the world that they are not
emotionally or financially able to support. More important is
the fact that it has saved the lives of women who may die during
childbirth and has allowed rape victims to not have to live
with any further memory of an awful incident in their past.
Here's another quick question, why do men feel it necessary
to decide what a woman can do with her own body?
This is the question we should all ask ourselves. Abortion is
still an issue today, because conservative, religiously righteous
men make it an issue.
No, I'm not saying that abortion rights are not an issue otherwise.
What I am saying is that if a right exists then there's no reason
to try and take it away. Yet, day after day and week after week
men like Riordan make it a point to take away the freedoms we
already have.
Just for the record, while Riordan has the decency to flip flop
on the abortion issue, his GOP opponents Bill Jones and Bill
Simon Jr., are not quite as smart. Both Jones and Simon are
both anti-abortion and pressing Riordan on his stance.
Despite all the dirty in-house politics though, it seems obvious
that Riordan will win his party's nomination and that all the
mudslinging will just polarize the GOP's differences.
I find it interesting that men fight tooth and nail over a woman's
right to her body, simply for votes. There are bigger more pertinent
issues in the world, so why don't all these politicians leave
good solid standing rights alone and genuinely work on making
this world better.
What would be more beneficial is if all of these politicians
discussed how they plan on providing a better education for
our children or how they plan to create jobs to cut our unemployment
numbers.
Since this is California, it may be interesting if they brought
up the energy crisis that Davis seems intent on avoiding since
all blame has been placed on him or how they plan on instituting
programs to cleanup our environment.
Instead all politicians, democrat and republican, turn elections
into one issue races, the one issue of debate now is abortion,
a right that is still protected by our government, whether they
like it or not.
Alex Roman is a journalism major at Cal State Long Beach.
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Alex
Roman
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