HEALTHCARE LAW
A modest proposal for preventing abortion
I am outraged. The Alabama ruling on stored embryos for in vitro fertilization is the last straw in legislative attempts to control women’s bodies. I’m not a big fan of IVF, but I am a fan of women having agency over their own bodies and families having control over their lives.
In a world where the population is approaching nine billion, these people who call themselves “pro life” are often the same people who refuse to provide child care for those babies born out of rape, incest or just plain poverty. They prize an unborn fetus over a living adult woman. They’re the same people who are just fine with supporting weapons for genocide in one place and refusing to protect life in others. The hypocrisy of that is unconscionable. And it’s anything but pro life. It is a denial of life as it really is.
I am baffled by the people who vote for these draconian restrictions on choice. How does it benefit our society to shackle women, families and their children with the lifelong burden of unwanted offspring…or to refuse parenthood to those who have the means and desire to support healthy children?
Our government has no business controlling women’s bodies; it never has. But if they want to prevent abortion, perhaps they should start with mandated vasectomies; they’re less costly and much simpler than childbirth.
Susan McCabe
PALESTINE
We must push for immediate, permanent ceasefire in Gaza
As a lifelong Democrat and Jew, I am ashamed of my government. I am furious about the pretense that my safety in the world depends on depriving a whole population of their rights and their lives. Defunding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine and aiding Israel’s war is not combatting antisemitism – it is participating in genocide.
In January, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found that Israel may plausibly be committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Major human rights organizations have likewise said the war crimes perpetrated by the Israeli state, its soldiers, and settlers constitute genocide.
One month after the ICJ ordered “immediate and effective measures” to protect Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip from the risk of genocide by ensuring sufficient humanitarian assistance, enabling basic services, and preventing the killing of civilians, Israel has refused to comply.
How has Israel actually responded?
By opening fire on Feb. 29 on a crowd of people, gathered near aid trucks, desperately seeking food. At least 112 Palestinians died and more than 760 were wounded.
By blocking aid from entering Gaza, resulting in aid shipments falling by half in the past month.
By continuing to bomb, starve, and deny life-saving medical aid to Palestinian civilians. Since the ICJ ruling, at least 3,523 Palestinians, an average of 120 per day, have been killed.
How has the U.S. responded?
By cutting funding to UNRWA after unsubstantiated claims by Israel that 12 (of 13,000) UN staff in Gaza participated in the Hamas attacks.
By continuing to send bombs, other weapons and billions of dollars to Israel, contributing to the slaughter of over 30,000 civilians, including more than 13,000 children.
If the U.S. will withdraw funding from the one international agency providing humanitarian aid because of an alleged (and unproven) 12 “bad apples,” then surely we must immediately stop sending billions of dollars to a country that has committed war crime after war crime, is engaging in genocide, and is actively ignoring the highest court’s mandate.
We must restore UNRWA funding, stop US shipments of weapons to Israel, and push for an immediate, permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
Yve Susskind
Uncommitted
During the years 1964-65, while still in high school, I was drawn toward President Lyndon Johnson for championing and signing both the Civil Rights Act and the Economic Opportunity Bill (part of his declared “War on Poverty”).
Meanwhile, Johnson was becoming more committed to supporting the Diem regime in South Vietnam. By 1966 the media was transmitting that war nightly into our television sets. What I witnessed was government sponsored killing of civilians as well as the enemy, the napalm-bombing of whole villages and American soldiers dying in the jungle.
I wasn’t then aware of the word for it. But I was becoming a “Conscientious Objector.” I realized that once one was inducted into the military, a soldier could no longer make his own moral choices. One simply had to obey. As one soldier’s mother lamented, “I sent them a good boy and they made him a murderer.” I chose instead, to protest the war and to help others escape the draft.
Today, I face a similar dilemma regarding our nation’s President. Whereas I support Biden’s domestic agenda, I can no longer, in good conscience, abide by his policy of using taxpayer money to provide the weapons used to commit acts of genocide against a people who are justly entitled to their own sovereign state, especially as the aggressor is so clearly implicated by decades of repression, land theft, and an insulting failure to abide by United Nations Resolutions. These and other acts have led directly to the creation of the other’s armed political resistance, including the tragic massacre of last October.
Biden’s policy makes us an accessory to this genocide. To my mind, this is no different than supplying a friend with an AR-15, knowing that it will be used to commit mass murder.
Therefore, I am marking “Uncommitted” on my Democratic Presidential ballot to send the message that the cycle of American involvement in foreign wars is no longer acceptable. Our nation’s economy and our stature around the world would greatly improve by exporting more food, clothing, medicine and technology in place of death and destruction.
Art Chippendale
2024 ELECTION
Another option in March primary
In the February 29 edition of the Beachcomber, I submitted a letter titled “Consider Ranked Choice Voting”. I want to make one correction regarding how Democrats can vote.
In addition to Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Dean Phillips, the ballots we received also allow voting for “Uncommitted”.
If enough voters choose “Uncommitted”, it could result in sending uncommitted delegates from Washington State to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on August 19 — 20.
These delegates would have five more months (March to August) to decide who would be the best candidate. “Uncommitted” won two delegates in Michigan’s primary this year.
Melvin Mackey
CLEANING UP
Let’s keep our home tidy
Dear Vashon neighbors: I’d like to ask people to help clean up Vashon’s roads. I frequently bicycle around the island and have noticed a fair amount of litter on the roadsides.
I’ve recently organized some ad hoc litter pickups, and it feels really good to remove litter from our environment, especially plastics. It doesn’t take much to make a difference! Just an hour or two can result in a significant amount of cleanup. There’s quite a sense of accomplishment when you’ve cleaned up a section of road!
I’d like to ask that you all consider picking up roadside litter near your homes or along your favorite walking routes. If everyone contributes just a little bit, we can do a lot to clean up this special place that we call home. Thanks for your consideration.
Henry Haselton
