A friend's devastation
It happened a long time ago, but the memory of it is fresh on my mind today.
A childless young couple moved into my neighborhood. The young woman and I had become fast friends when she confided to me one morning that she was pregnant again and hoped finally, third try, that this pregnancy would result in a full-term healthy baby human. Two months later she confessed to me the harrowing details of her third miscarriage.
She awoke in the night with the abdominal pain of which she was all too familiar. After an agonizing hour or so of contractions, she expelled the fetus into the commode. She gingerly retrieved the bloody mass, daubed it clean and dry, swaddled it in a soft cloth, and called the coroner to come pronounce it dead. The coroner happened, also, to be the local funeral home owner, and he didn't hesitate to suggest that a tiny coffin was available at a discounted price.
A day and time for the funeral was agreed upon and he graciously offered to coordinate with the cemetery for plot availability and graveside services. A short obituary was hastily written the next morning and faxed to local and state newspapers noting the two unnamed predeceased siblings along with other relatives.
Wait. My story diverged into what my friend might have felt obligated to do in today's post-Roe v. Wade world. What she actually did was to flush the gelatinous blob down the commode, go back to bed, and cry herself to sleep.
JANET HILL
Fairfield Bay
Dependable source
I've been a subscriber to your paper for many years; in fact, I almost can't begin my day without the Democrat-Gazette. I was apprehensive when Mr. Hussman came to our Rotary Club to tout the new online version, but have come to love it, and in some ways like it better than the old paper version.
However, I do not care for the new pop-ups. They get in the way of smoothly touching to turn the pages. In addition, I no longer get the sections of the paper shown across the bottom of the screen and have to do a lengthy scroll to go from section to section. I will try to get used to these changes as I have happily adjusted to the online paper. Thank you for providing Arkansas with a dependable newspaper.
NELSON BARNETT
Batesville
They aren't concerned
People pleased by the SCOTUS ruling overturning Roe v. Wade may bask in the satisfaction of saving unborn babies, but they may be personally impacted more than they think. It's not likely a "pro-life" senator's mistress will be denied a safe abortion, but poor women will die, be driven into further poverty, or suffer other disastrous consequences.
What is the intent of those who have packed the court, hypocritically and unscrupulously, with those chosen and willing to do their bidding? Like other passionately defended distractions--guns and LGBTQ--the abortion issue is used by the extreme right to distract from the already indefensible and growing wealth disparity. Stagnant wages are tied to the billions amassed by CEOs trading currencies and hiding profits in tax havens. Are ultra-right lawmakers really concerned that an impoverished woman may abort her fertilized egg?
They couldn't be concerned about saving babies. If they were, they'd be ruling to ban assault rifles, and secure the right of children to grow up in a world free from toxic chemicals and disastrous levels of CO2. The ruling Thursday against the EPA's ability to regulate CO2 emissions demonstrates that real-life conditions of the people, even of the planet, aren't of concern to these five regressive members of the court, parsing and manipulating abstract interpretations of constitutional law to justify opinions that favor corporate over human and nature's rights. For the sake of our children, we have to see through this racist, misogynistic, anti-environmental and anti-poor smokescreen.
SHELLEY BUONAIUTO
Fayetteville
Two strikes, and out
With much hypocrisy, thanks to the spineless Republicans on the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, there is no such thing as women's rights anymore. We are going back to dark caveman times where women are considered enslaved to the male and are no longer free and equal citizens. If we are going down this road again, politicians of both parties need to "compromise" and pass more comprehensive laws to include rape and incest, and provide no loopholes for punishment for these heinous crimes perpetrated on vulnerable female children and adults. Also, policing of these crimes must be beefed up--swift on punishment and not minimized. Better yet: Get rid of all laws on abortion and leave this decision to the female and her doctor.
The "Supremes" should ban another thing that is not in the Constitution--get rid of Citizens United and take "big money" out of politics.
Republicans also talk about "citizens' Second Amendment rights," yet they do not fully support the right that children should be safe in schools. Children's rights for safety play second fiddle to the money politicians receive from the NRA to run their political campaigns, to the detriment of schoolchildren.
Recently in one newspaper article, Democrats and Republicans in Washington crowed about the gun agreement passed that both parties demonstrated to voters that they know how to compromise and make government work while leaving room for each side to appeal to its core supporters. This compromise is a big joke and does not get to the root of the problem. Children's right to safety is not a joke.
It is time both parties get their acts together and do what caring electors sent you to Washington and to state capitols to do. Stop playing games!
God save our democracy and our country.
LOUISE HENDERSON
Hot Springs Village
Just a puppet for him
Remember when you go to vote for our next governor that Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the hand-picked and personally trained puppet of the world's worst lying con man, Donald Trump.
PAT SNYDER
Maumelle