Kendall Stanley: Ah yes, peace on earth
What an exciting concept, peace on earth. Not that we’ll have it anytime soon.
Russia vs. Ukraine. Israel vs. Hamas. More little skirmishes here and there where people are dying as is often the case for nothing of real importance.
One columnist wrote recently of the line from Budha — if you are going to war with others, dig two graves — one for you and one for them. In the end, there are few ultimate winners.
As we contemplate Christmas and goodwill toward men, conditions in the Middle East have devolved to mass destruction and a humanitarian crisis.
Pushed to the edge of Gaza and barred from entering Egypt, Palestinians are being squeezed between Hamas and a determined Israeli force trying to eliminate Hamas once and for all.
It is a fool’s errand.
Despite the U.S. efforts to push Israel to stop its indiscriminate bombing of Gaza, many areas of Gaza have been leveled and are unhabitable.
Watching the evening news is disheartening as doctors are shown struggling to provide the barest minimum of care, filthy water flows in the streets of makeshift “villages” and people openly ask where they might go so they aren’t in the line of fire.
Israel has put two million lives on hold in Gaza and has been rejecting efforts calling for a cease fire. Negotiating and end to fighting is a long, long way off.
A quandary, indeed.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, a counter-offensive has stalled just as winter is about to make life miserable on the battlefield.
That excursion by Russia has come at a horrific cost. Prior to the invasion, it was believed Russia had 360,000 ground troops. The most recent estimate is 315,000 Russian troops were killed or incapacitated in the fighting so far.
Russia has gone so far as throwing released prisoners into the breach, where their lack of training and experience will probably only add to the carnage.
It seems that peace on earth at least this year reads an eye for an eye.
Of course not
So you think exemptions to Texas’ anti-abortion law designed to protect the health of the mother means a woman can get care to save her life actually works. You would be incredibly wrong.
Enter Kate Cox, a 31-year-old mother of two who was 20 weeks pregnant when she found the child she was carrying had virtually no chance of survival.
Her doctor said that giving birth could irreversibly keep her from getting pregnant again, an outcome she and her husband wanted — they want more children.
Cox got a Texas judge to give the OK for an abortion, but then loathsome Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton jumped into the fray and the state’s supreme court held up the judge’s permission. For Paxton, the doctor’s expressed opinion that an abortion was necessary was not enough.
And here’s the kicker — under Texas law it is illegal for health professionals to provide help and assistance and, in the spirit of vigilantes everywhere, everyday citizens could “out” someone helping or getting an abortion.
Those laws are stiff — doctors and health facilities can lose their license and be sentenced to up to 99 years in jail.
So let’s say you are someone, say a Kate Cox, whose doctor says you need an abortion. You have to find a doctor who is willing to declare that you need an emergency abortion, and then must prove that the need is there under the law.
To keep the doc in the good graces of the state you go to a court to have the court say yes, it’s OK in this situation that you have an abortion.
Then the state says no.
What’s a woman to do? She goes out of state for the procedure.
If I were Kate Cox I would never set foot in the state of Texas ever again.
What the situation in Texas shows is how cynically anti-abortionists tout exemptions to their anti-abortion laws but in reality for women, just try to get one.
Kate Cox tried and look what it got her.
— Kendall P. Stanley is retired editor of the News-Review. He can be contacted at kendallstanley@charter.net. The opinions expressed in this column are those of the writer and not necessarily of the Petoskey News-Review or its employees.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Kendall Stanley: Ah yes, peace on earth
