Too Bad He Missed the Point
October 1st, 2008 at 09:01pm Gary Tiffany
I got my first “complaint” letter to the editor a couple of Sundays ago. The write was taking me to task for what I said in my first post, “Choices, Choices”, about the subject of abortion and how the Democrats feel one way about it and the Republicans feel quite the opposite, at least according to thier platforms. I said it seemed strange logic to me for the Republicans to not want to allow a choice to have the child, but did want to give parents the choice where to send the child to school.
The writer made the assumption that I was a supporter of abortion and proceeded to blast me for that belief. Unfortunately, I made no such assertations in the article one way or another. I believe it’s a personal decision. What the writer failed to grasp, in his zeal to trumpet his opposition to abortion, was the dichotomy of the Republican stance. On one hand, they are staunchly supportive of your “right to choose” where you want to send your child to school. If your child’s school is not up to par, you should be able to choose to send him or her to another, better, school regardless of what that costs the educational system. On the other hand, they don’t want to allow a family a choice as to whether having a child at a particular point in time is right for them. I’m not making any judgements on whether abortion is right or wrong. I don’t know an individual’s personal situation. It’s just that the logic of the two stances seems odd. How does one support choice for one thing and not the other?
Anyway, it’s nice to know that someone took the time to read the post and to write a letter, even if he didn’t get the point I was trying to make.
Gary Tiffany
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4 Comments Add your own
1. CD | October 1st, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Choice of abortion and choice of school are on opposite ends of the spectrum. The right to chose abortion- the right to kill an unborn child. Not a good thing for the child! The right to choose a school-one closer to home or better teachers. A good thing for the child. Abortion is all about ME !It’s just another way that people don’t have to take responsibility for their actions! What about my free time?? If the child isn’t right for your life at the time and would take away your ability to party or you can’t afford anonther child, there is always adoption. But abortion is the quick easy way out. Who cares what God wants or who the baby could have grown up to be. Choice of school means you pick what’s best for your children. You are thinking about someone other than yourself. That is the difference between abortion choice and school choice. One is selfish! The other is selfless!
2. Gary Tiffany | October 2nd, 2008 at 2:15 pm
I guess I’m not as good explaining myself as I thought because you seem to have missed my point, too. It’s NOT about abortion. It’s about the Republican platform stating that they want smaller government and they want people to have the ability to make choices about what they think is best for themselves as far as what school to send their kids to, whether to carry a gun or not, and a host of ohter things. But bring up sex education or abortion and all of a sudden the general populace doesn’t seem to be smart enough in their eyes to make an informed decision, so the party says that they know what’s best for you. THAT’S where I see the odd logic. Why is the public intelligent enough to decide on most things, but not on these topics? I don’t care what the topics are, the fact that someone else is telling me they “know what’s best” for me, when I’m an intelligent, thoughtful, college-educated individual, bothers me.
Anyway, thanks for offering your opinion. I hope you’ll continue to read and I hope you’ll vote.
Gary Tiffany
3. Drew Williams | October 29th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Gary - CD is correct. You really are comparing apples to prime beef. Two totally different items.
I think choosing your candidate based upon abortion stance is pointless. There is no way Roe v. Wade is going to be overturned in the near future, regardless who is in office. The country is simply too divided on the issue.
Now, that being said, eventually we have get away from abortions. No one likes them. period. Even liberals (of sound mind) don’t like abortions. But liberals feel it is an unfortunate necessity in today’s society. I think everyone agrees that the way to stop abortions is to reduce unwanted pregnancies. I think eventually science will help solve this issue.
The point is, abortion is not just a “personal decision” as you call it. By advocating this stance, you are in favor of abortions in the first trimester. You are against the potentially healthy unborn child having a chance to live. History is filled with “uh-oh” babies that turn out to be the best thing in someone’s life.
The forever sticking point will be for cases of rape and incest. I’m not sure those problems will ever go away. And thus, very difficult decisions will have to be made.
Anyway…school choice is a whole other issue. Competition in the marketplace is a good thing. Competition in schools sort of sounds good, until you think about the children going to “lesser” schools. The only real choice is to continually strive to improve the education system as a whole. (a lot easier said than done)
Again TWO TOTALLY DIFFERENT ISSUES that have nothing to do with each other.
4. Gary Tiffany | October 30th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Drew - I don’t disagree with you at all. I think we are somewhat on the same page. If a voter makes the decision to vote for a candidate solely on whether the candidate supports or does not support the right to an abortion, they are not a very informed voter.
For most of the country, it’s not that important of an issue. They would like to see abortions be rare, and like you say, the best way to do that is to reduce unwanted pregnancies, which means we must educate our children on more than abstinence only. And I would agree that most of the country wants abortion to remain legal. It’s certainly a better option than the back-alley abortions we would have if Roe v. Wade were ever overturned.
I also agree that competition in the school system is good. We were able to choose to send our children to a private school and they got a great education. Not every family can do that. Being able to choose schools in the public system would be a help. However, the schools can’t do it all. Parental involvement and promotion of education is a must. When the parent is involved and makes the child do the homework and attend class, the child will learn and will blossom.
My point in writing the original blog entry was not to question either of the topics or try to compare them, it was simply to question the support or non-support of the act of choice. Why do we believe it is necessary to restrict choice on one hand and encourage it on another - regardless of what the topics of choice are? I didn’t intend to imply that the issues I mentioned had anything to do with each other, just that in one instance, the Party supports an individual’s right to choose and in the other, it doesn’t.
Thanks for posting. I like the discourse. Please vote on Tuesday.
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