After Roe...when a subject is highly controversial...

Living in a post-Roe world

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Some thoughts in the wake of Roe vs. Wade being struck down. Both sides ginned up the debate over the past 50 years or so. As a result, the conversation collapsed down to a woman’s right to choose. Not a person’s right to access healthcare–to have access to a particular healthcare procedure. A procedure that could save that person’s life. Due process and a fundamental right to privacy got pushed aside as individualism was put at the center. The fundamental human right to healthcare is questioned. You want to tell a woman’s story that will mobilize a vote? Talk about a woman going through IVF. Talk about a woman whose fetus isn’t viable and is past the first trimester. Tell stories that middle class and rich people identify with. Remember Ryan White? He was a teenager from Indiana who contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion. He was seen as blameless.

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800K souls lost to COVID-19

800,000 souls lost to COVID-19

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2021 was bookended by COVID. We started the year hoping that the pandemic would end and we could get back to some kind of normalcy. But, here we are. Not only does COVID remain at the forefront, with the Omicron variant it looks like the pandemic will continue to disrupt our lives well into 2022. People are tired of living their restricted life and with all the uncertainty. They want it to end. They want to return to normal, even if it’s a “new” normal. They question how much longer they can continue keeping their distance and wearing masks. Maybe they should ask their friends and family how they got through World War II. Oh yeah, the 1940s are now barely at the edge of living memory. How soon we forget.

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500,000 people dead due to COVID-29

500,000 souls lost to COVID-19

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The news today reported that half-a-million Americans have died from COVID-19. That’s more Americans dead from COVID-19 than died in WWI, WWII, and the Vietnam War put together. That’s enough dead to fill Arlington Cemetery. Perhaps if we keep talking about the dead in terms of numerical comparisons we don’t have to feel the pain and sadness of the pandemic. Perhaps if we focus on a headcount we don’t have to think about how our government failed to address the crisis. But every soul lost has left an empty spot behind on the hearts of all who knew them. No amount of counting will erase that.

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