Dr. George Tiller, age 67, was assassinated this morning at his church in Wichita, Kansas. Dr. Tiller's abortion clinic had been a national focus of anti-abortion protest in the early 1990s. An anti-abortion activist had attempted to assassinate him in 1991 as well, but he survived his wounds.
Fortunately, the vast majority abortion opponents are as horrified by this murder as the rest of us... Yet we have to take strong steps to keep it that way. Attorney General Eric Holder must treat this as an act of domestic terrorism, for that is precisely what these shootings are: an attempt to frighten abortion providers. A suspect has already been arrested, and if he is found guilty, the courts must make an example of him. We simply cannot allow terrorism--especially that which pretends to a religious purpose--to take root on our soil. The folly of looking the other way can be seen all over the world from New York to Northern Ireland.
Moreover, the Obama administration must use every tool at its disposal, including those granted to in the Patriot Act, to investigate the network of anti-abortion groups in Kansas for ties to the suspect. Any person or group who rendered material assistance to a terrorist must be held accountable. Unless and until we can be certain this is the act of a single person acting alone, we must assume this act is not isolated and that the terrorists are plotting to strike again.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Domestic Terrorism Looms
Posted by Dr. Strangelove at 6:59 PM
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8 comments:
Also, assuming this suspect publically identifies with a certain religious faith, and cites his (/her?) faith in that religion as the reason for his actions, members of that religious faith - particularly high ranking ones that others follow - must stand up and publically, loudly, denounce this man as NOT being of their faith, as demonstrated by his godless actions here. All members of his chosen religion must make it clear that his actions repulse them.
Just like for any supposedly religiously motivated terrorist.
(ps I must admit my first reaction to this story was a rolled-eyes type "oh yes, well that's *very* christian isn't it?!". Apologies if he's not christian - that was an assumption on my part - but if he does turn out to be supposedly christian, all true Christians should be absolutely furious with him for sullying them too)
To paraphrase Forrest Gump, Christian is as Christian does.
If a minority of Christians aren't intolerant, right wing, bigots then maybe they aren't really Christians. Maybe they are something better.
I wonder how the right wing would react if the suspect(s) in the shooting were hauled off to Gitmo and waterboarded 180 times in 30 days. Or sent to secret CIA prisons in Europe and never heard from again.
Or is that just OK 'cause they're ragheads?
Hmmm...LTG, you have an intriguing idea there.
Use RICO to indict his entire church and waterboard the lot of them.
But seriously, this is something we've blogged about for a long time. The right wing is all for constitutional protections when it helps anti-abortion terrorists off the hook. The right was beside itself worrying about the rights of the accused after the Waco, TX tragedy.
But when critics of the Patriot Act said, "but this can be applied to all kinds of domestic political activity" the right wing dismissed them as disloyal.
If a left wing terrorist had murdered an AIG exec or something during the Bush years, you can bet there would be a wide net cast looking for conspirators.
One man's freedom fighter is another's terrorist. True in Ireland also.
You're right LTG. That's why the Omagh bombings were such a turning point - they were indiscriminatory, with a complete mix of people killed. But I digress.
I honestly believe that if the terrorists/alleged terrorists who've been winding up in Gitmo were in fact Christian (of pretty much any flavour), the whole Gitmo situation would not have happened. But because they're both non-Christian and non-white, they're sufficiently different for it to be 'ok'. :-(
I realize I'm pretty late to the discussion, but I think it bears repeating *why* women have late-term abortions. Most often, such abortions are for reasons like anencephaly (head fails to develop property), Trisomy 18 (a fatal chromosomal abnormality), and other pretty awful outcomes.
Oh,and also rape. An 11 year old girl may not even realize she's pregnant until it's too late for an early-term abortion and giving birth would rip her body apart.
While I respect women who choose not to have prenatal testing, I was happy to submit to a number of blood and ultrasound tests even as a fairly young, low-risk pregnant lady. Because I didn't want to go to Kansas. Or Holland.
As a pre-teenager, I remember watching the Operation Rescue protests of Dr. Tiller's clinic on TV from my grandmother's Topeka home. I thought it was screwed up then, and it's even worse now.
-Seventh Sister
Seventh Sister - you're very right when you say to think about the reasons. Can't find it right now, but I read an article the other day about patients of Dr Tiller's who've chosen to speak out, about their reasons for seeking their late-term abortions, and about the care they were provided with. All of them were thanking him.
The stories were horrendous - these women were aborting babies that would not have survived a month, let alone to their first birthday, even with all the technology we have now, and what's more, would have been in terrible pain, despite all the drugs we have now. When given the choice between finishing the pregnancy now, greatly lessening the risk to the mother, lessening the overall trauma for the parents, and increasing the time for grieving; vs going through with the birth, and having to watch a malformed baby slowly and painfully die, I know which I would choose.
And yep, kids who are pregnant as a result of rape definitely should not have to go through with the pregnancy (even if the baby is healthy - imagine if you were adopted, and at some point you tracked down your mother, and discovered that your father was a rapist) - that's just not something a child should have to experience (think of the children!).
The other thing that stuck with me was that one patient said that Dr Tiller had sat with her, talking, making sure she was physically ok, and etc, for several hours. He didn't delegate one of his nurses, or simply leave the patient - this physician cared that much that he personally stayed. And of course he continued helping people despite the death threats and attempts on his life. RIP.
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