Garrison, Thank you for your gentle wit, your joy, and your writing -- which reads like a conversation with a friend. We need your voice in these days of division, these days of the lying, profane, vulgar windbag. He seems to occupy every corner of the media landscape, like some grotesque fungus. You provide a sweet gift of light and humor. Thank you.b
I appreciate your perspectives, probably because I agree with most of them, but to set the record straight it was not a liberal but a Republican, Surgeon General C. Everett Koop appointed by Ronald Reagan, who began the whole warning label thing in 1984.
I wish those Christians at the Convention hadn't clapped too. I perhaps even vainly hope a few of the white, male, Detroit Lions fans among then might even vote Democratic this round instead.
I assure you that a significant percentage of those who will vote Republican next week will do so with fear and sorrow. They will vote not "for" anyone, but because they believe the alternative may be worse. There have been too many japes about one candidate having 23 convictions and the other having none at all. Maybe it's choosing the evil you know over the utterly unknowable.
Please deeply consider what you wrote: choosing evil. He has shown us he's evil. He's told us what he will do if re-elected. How could anyone be worse than this horrible, profane, lying man?
Here's a thought: if you don't believe in the freedom to have an abortion, then don't have one. But it's sheer arrogance to believe it's your place to legislate that for other women.
Is it sheer arrogance for us to have laws against other kinds of murder? You and many others have bought into a meaningless slogan that started with a book called Our Bodies Our Selves. That child in your womb is a living being with a right to life. Only recently in human history has it become glorified as a right for every woman to dispose of her living child in her womb (usually to please a man). I used to see things your way until I realized how wrong it is. Here is an article I wrote about women I know who’ve had abortions. Maybe that will give you some historical perspective. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lEoG-ejm08bdL3wLODBgVRAf_JxkJmBg/view?usp=sharing
Yes, it is sheer arrogance to believe that you have a right to dictate another woman's reproductive choices. And you don't know your history. Termination of pregnancy has been a fact throughout history. In some indigenous tribes, a mother could terminate a pregnancy (or even allow a newborn to die) if she determined that it was warranted. There was no penalty. But if another person killed a child, it was considered murder. Are you able to understand the difference? The mother carrying that child was the one who had the sole right to determine it's fate. You are so sadly twisted in your perception of women and men. Creator gave women the power of bringing new life into this world. Woman are the sole owners of their bodies and their choices are between them and their Creator. You have some sad, old, broken ideas about men and women. That's your right but you do not have the right to foist your brokenness on other women.
Then they are voting against a women's right to her own body. Trust women. Women don't abort "for any reason." Their reasons are many, complex and complicated and should be a decision made between themselves, their doctor and their god. Not your business and not decided by your religious beliefs. Period. Certainly not a decision to be made by a bunch of old white men who don't know a DNC from IVF. And who don't care enough about the fetus after 9 months to fund childcare, medical care, public education, equal pay, paid family leave, or any of the other much needed supports to care for the health and survival of that baby into adulthood. Pro-life party is only a pro-birth party and only when it serves their agenda to keep control of women. Trust women.
Trust women to turn against their own children in their wombs? We allow abortion for any reason, that’s a fact. What happened to mother love? What happened is that women were brainwashed by men like Hugh Hefner to think they should please men by essentially desexing themselves. We’ve been Hefnered! Abortion is not a good thing. Contraception and abortion both make women available for men to use and discard, denying the full nature of our sexuality by trying to eliminate our fertility and when contraception fails, as it does even when used perfectly, the god of sexual freedom demands we offer the conceived child as a human sacrifice. I was around when the slogan Our Bodies Our Selves was coined. And I believed it for a while when I was a young woman. I came back to the other side after I saw the casualties of that way of thinking. It simply defies logic to claim that a human child in its mother’s body is not a separate human being with a right to love from its mother and father and a right to life. It has a different DNA for one thing, duh! I know of a lot of pro-life people who work to help women who keep their children. What a bunch of distorted statements and accusations liberals parrot. Think for yourself. Look into your own heart and realize what a set of slogans has done to convince women believe that their natural fertility must be squelched.
I do think for myself and am speaking for other women who are asking for the right to think for themselves. Stay out of of their private business. You are entitled to your opinions and to your own body. But you are not entitled to anyone else's. I repeat Trust Women. Most women do not use abortion as birth control. Abortion or a DNC is medical care. It is necessary in many instances when the birth is not going to plan. Contraception gives women control over their bodies. It doesn't mean they will have sex whenever and with whom ever. That is ridiculous and extremely judgemental. If you think I am a liberal good. I am. Look up the definition. If you think my statements about Pro-life are out of line - read Project 2025. If you think the United States was founded on Christian Nationalism you are sadly mistaken. Our freedoms mean we are free to worship - or not worship - as we please. Free to not conform to your ideals or beliefs or anyone else's. That is what makes this country great. And women deserve the same freedom to have their rights to their own bodies without government interference. Thou shalt not judge lest ye be judged.
We forbid any other kind of murder, and until the middle of the last century we forbade the murder of children in their mother’s wombs. It’s not private business. I don’t trust murderers.
Each fetus, which means offspring in Latin, is a living human being.
Many many women who use contraception become pregnant because it’s predictably fallible. They blame themselves but tables I’ve seen at Planned Unparenthood’s websites show that the most reliable form of birth control fails for six out of every 100 women EVERY YEAR. Contraceptive mentality leads to the false sense that we can deny the natural fertility built into our bodies and when it fails as it often does, then the result is most women by the age of 40 have had an abortion. Our control over our bodies starts with recognizing that we are fertile beings, and not being willing to kill any children we conceive even if they weren’t “according to plan.”
Garrison, Thank you for your gentle wit, your joy, and your writing -- which reads like a conversation with a friend. We need your voice in these days of division, these days of the lying, profane, vulgar windbag. He seems to occupy every corner of the media landscape, like some grotesque fungus. You provide a sweet gift of light and humor. Thank you.b
The library they should name after you is St. Anthony library - my personal favorite - and from what I hear was yours back in the day.
Thank you for hanging in there and continuing to write in this dark days.
I appreciate your perspectives, probably because I agree with most of them, but to set the record straight it was not a liberal but a Republican, Surgeon General C. Everett Koop appointed by Ronald Reagan, who began the whole warning label thing in 1984.
Great writings . I love you. Thank you. You are an erudite writer. Please keep your Posts Coming. I love you.
What will you do if he wins? Will you survive the hellscape and being a witness to the end of the American experiment? I will not.
This was a fine tribute to your friend. Thanks, as always, for your wit and gentle humor. We need these moments of sanity!
A lovely post today, Garrison. I’m glad you got to talk to your friend.
I wish those Christians at the Convention hadn't clapped too. I perhaps even vainly hope a few of the white, male, Detroit Lions fans among then might even vote Democratic this round instead.
https://open.substack.com/pub/jonathanbrownson/p/scoring-points?r=gdp9j&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I assure you that a significant percentage of those who will vote Republican next week will do so with fear and sorrow. They will vote not "for" anyone, but because they believe the alternative may be worse. There have been too many japes about one candidate having 23 convictions and the other having none at all. Maybe it's choosing the evil you know over the utterly unknowable.
Please deeply consider what you wrote: choosing evil. He has shown us he's evil. He's told us what he will do if re-elected. How could anyone be worse than this horrible, profane, lying man?
Many will vote against the party officially on record as the ABORTION FOR ALL AT FOR ANY REASON party.
Here's a thought: if you don't believe in the freedom to have an abortion, then don't have one. But it's sheer arrogance to believe it's your place to legislate that for other women.
Is it sheer arrogance for us to have laws against other kinds of murder? You and many others have bought into a meaningless slogan that started with a book called Our Bodies Our Selves. That child in your womb is a living being with a right to life. Only recently in human history has it become glorified as a right for every woman to dispose of her living child in her womb (usually to please a man). I used to see things your way until I realized how wrong it is. Here is an article I wrote about women I know who’ve had abortions. Maybe that will give you some historical perspective. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lEoG-ejm08bdL3wLODBgVRAf_JxkJmBg/view?usp=sharing
Yes, it is sheer arrogance to believe that you have a right to dictate another woman's reproductive choices. And you don't know your history. Termination of pregnancy has been a fact throughout history. In some indigenous tribes, a mother could terminate a pregnancy (or even allow a newborn to die) if she determined that it was warranted. There was no penalty. But if another person killed a child, it was considered murder. Are you able to understand the difference? The mother carrying that child was the one who had the sole right to determine it's fate. You are so sadly twisted in your perception of women and men. Creator gave women the power of bringing new life into this world. Woman are the sole owners of their bodies and their choices are between them and their Creator. You have some sad, old, broken ideas about men and women. That's your right but you do not have the right to foist your brokenness on other women.
Then they are voting against a women's right to her own body. Trust women. Women don't abort "for any reason." Their reasons are many, complex and complicated and should be a decision made between themselves, their doctor and their god. Not your business and not decided by your religious beliefs. Period. Certainly not a decision to be made by a bunch of old white men who don't know a DNC from IVF. And who don't care enough about the fetus after 9 months to fund childcare, medical care, public education, equal pay, paid family leave, or any of the other much needed supports to care for the health and survival of that baby into adulthood. Pro-life party is only a pro-birth party and only when it serves their agenda to keep control of women. Trust women.
Trust women to turn against their own children in their wombs? We allow abortion for any reason, that’s a fact. What happened to mother love? What happened is that women were brainwashed by men like Hugh Hefner to think they should please men by essentially desexing themselves. We’ve been Hefnered! Abortion is not a good thing. Contraception and abortion both make women available for men to use and discard, denying the full nature of our sexuality by trying to eliminate our fertility and when contraception fails, as it does even when used perfectly, the god of sexual freedom demands we offer the conceived child as a human sacrifice. I was around when the slogan Our Bodies Our Selves was coined. And I believed it for a while when I was a young woman. I came back to the other side after I saw the casualties of that way of thinking. It simply defies logic to claim that a human child in its mother’s body is not a separate human being with a right to love from its mother and father and a right to life. It has a different DNA for one thing, duh! I know of a lot of pro-life people who work to help women who keep their children. What a bunch of distorted statements and accusations liberals parrot. Think for yourself. Look into your own heart and realize what a set of slogans has done to convince women believe that their natural fertility must be squelched.
I do think for myself and am speaking for other women who are asking for the right to think for themselves. Stay out of of their private business. You are entitled to your opinions and to your own body. But you are not entitled to anyone else's. I repeat Trust Women. Most women do not use abortion as birth control. Abortion or a DNC is medical care. It is necessary in many instances when the birth is not going to plan. Contraception gives women control over their bodies. It doesn't mean they will have sex whenever and with whom ever. That is ridiculous and extremely judgemental. If you think I am a liberal good. I am. Look up the definition. If you think my statements about Pro-life are out of line - read Project 2025. If you think the United States was founded on Christian Nationalism you are sadly mistaken. Our freedoms mean we are free to worship - or not worship - as we please. Free to not conform to your ideals or beliefs or anyone else's. That is what makes this country great. And women deserve the same freedom to have their rights to their own bodies without government interference. Thou shalt not judge lest ye be judged.
You are repeating slogans that deny the reality of the normal love between parents and their children even before they are born.
We forbid any other kind of murder, and until the middle of the last century we forbade the murder of children in their mother’s wombs. It’s not private business. I don’t trust murderers.
Each fetus, which means offspring in Latin, is a living human being.
Many many women who use contraception become pregnant because it’s predictably fallible. They blame themselves but tables I’ve seen at Planned Unparenthood’s websites show that the most reliable form of birth control fails for six out of every 100 women EVERY YEAR. Contraceptive mentality leads to the false sense that we can deny the natural fertility built into our bodies and when it fails as it often does, then the result is most women by the age of 40 have had an abortion. Our control over our bodies starts with recognizing that we are fertile beings, and not being willing to kill any children we conceive even if they weren’t “according to plan.”