My fellow Texans,
In light of recent events in the State of Texas, it is my duty as a citizen to stand up and speak out against the government. We must no longer stand for the tyrannical abuse of power run amok in our state. Our state, and country, were founded on the ideas of people starting new lives, moving out West to be who they are, knowing they were safe, wrapped in the freedoms and rights given to our citizens. Our Founding Fathers left persecution to seek a new beginnings, free from the judgment and intrusive control of the ruling powers. Somewhere right after the Founding Fathers left, as Dr. Phil would say, we drove this off into the ditch.
Texas Governor Rick Perry (a.k.a. Governor Zoolander, Governor Good Hair, et al.) has called another special session in the Texas Legislature to push through his ideologically based abortion legislation (herein referred to as TXSB5) under the translucent veil of being beneficial to women's health. Even after Wendy Davis (State Senator - Ft. Worth) filibustered for nearly 11 hours to voice her well based, educated, informed opposition to the bill, the governor knows better and calls a special session. (I must have missed when the Governor graduated from Harvard Law.) After hundreds of people line up to protest the bill, Governor knows best.
And all of this over four weeks. The Supreme Court gives a woman the right to an abortion up to 24 weeks (when a fetus is viable outside of the womb). TXSB5 will limit that to 20 weeks. The Republicans backing this bill are arguing for no exceptions, not even in rape and incest cases. Republican Jodie Laubenberg showed yesterday she has never seen an episode of Law and Order: SVU with her statement "In the emergency room they have what’s called rape kits, where a woman can get cleaned out." Not only is this statement utterly offensive prima facially, but it's an absolute untruth. How do these people get elected to "represent" us? With today's technology, we should be holding our representatives to a higher standard. There is absolutely no reason a member of the government cannot use Google. Furthermore, there is no excuse for not being informed. If our legislature was informed, they would know a poll from ThinkProgress.com shows 80% of Texans do not want the legislature considering this bill in a special session and 63% of Texans believe the state already has enough anti-abortion laws on the books. But Governor knows best.
This bill, if passed, will not only limit the time of abortion to 20 weeks, it will also limit the availability of women's healthcare to the women of the state who need it, essentially killing women of the state by denying them access to preventative care they cannot afford on their own. The bill, if passed, will close 37 of 42 abortion clinics in the state, leaving clinics in only Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and two in Houston for all women in the state of Texas. Something tells me the Governor and Lt. Governor wouldn't have to go that far for Viagra.
The Governor needs to be calling a special session to help the children in this state who are here, living and breathing citizens of our state. According to www.feedingamerica.org, seven states exhibited statistically significant higher household food insecurity rates than the U.S. national average of 14.7%: Mississippi was first on the list with 19.2%. Coming in second, the first loser, was our great state of Texas with 18.5%. According to the Texas Food Bank Network, the USDA defines food insecurity as meaning “consistent access to adequate food is limited by a lack of money and other resources at times during the year.” This means there are men, women and children in our communities who are going hungry every single night. Why doesn't the Governor care about the children who are here?
On the day in which the Governor called this second special session to take up his women's health issues, Texas murdered their 500th inmate since 1982. Her name was Kimberly McCarthy. She was pronounced dead at 6:37 p.m. Kimberly McCarthy was a black female. She was tried, and convicted, by a jury of 11 whites (and one not). When McCarthy's attorneys raised the issue during appeals, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled she should have brought her claims to light sooner. And with that, our state murdered a woman.
In recent weeks, with all these events taking place in our state, the Governor has been out trolling the East coast, delivering a message of prominence in Texas. He is selling how our state is great for making money, how are state has a reasonable cost of living. The Governor is on the East coast talking about how wonderful our state is...and he is leaving out everything else: the truth, the real image of what's going on in our state. Our state is restricting the rights of its citizens. If the Governor was being honest, no one would want to move here. Move to Texas, where you can make a lot of money and we'll give you a gun, but for that, you must give up all of your rights. You must conform, you musn't be different. If you're a freethinker, a pot smoker, an atheist, sexually active and/or gay, don't move to Texas.
Which brings me nicely to my point, our image to the nation as the State of Texas is one of extreme conservatives who like their guns and like executin' people. Our image must change. We must purge the system of the status quo and raise the bar. Instead of regressing into history, our state should be paving the progression of modern history.
After all, we did put man on the moon.
Always in love,
CC
Sources:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/hundreds-protest-proposed-abortion-restrictions-as-texas-lawmakers-take-key-vote/2013/06/23/75d538aa-dc75-11e2-a484-7b7f79cd66a1_story.html
http://www.policymic.com/articles/50909/senate-bill-5-if-you-re-looking-for-passionate-pro-choice-advocates-try-texas
http://tfbn.org/food-insecurity/
http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/hunger-facts/child-hunger-facts.aspx
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/24/jodie-laubenberg-texas-rape_n_3493220.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57591241/texas-carries-out-500th-execution-with-kimberly-mccarthy/
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
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