Is The Grapes of Wrath No Longer Required Reading?
It looks as if the addlepates of the GOP are going for broke and it seems they are in it to win it and the Independent voter (and common sense) be damned.
I went to sleep last night after having happened upon this story from NPR, in which the news organization revealed that the GOP platform committee, in preparation of the GOP Convention in Tampa, FL next week has :
“adopted the same anti-abortion language it included in GOP platforms in 2004 and 2008. It seeks passage of a constitutional amendment that would extend legal rights to the unborn, essentially banning abortion. The language in the platform includes no exceptions for rape or incest.“
Gotta love a group of primarily 50+ year old white males who decide that forcing a young girl or a woman who has been raped to give birth to a child. And while we are at it, why not tip our hat to that same group of men whose budget would “slash about $48 billion from Medicaid programs and cut food aid by more than $36 billion”?
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 1.8 billion – that’s billion – people would be cut-off from food assistance if these cuts were to take place.
I have dabbled in embracing the Catholic Church since my boarding school days (where we were required to pick a church and attend). I have been hesitant to officially become a member due to the sexual abuse scandals and because of the Catholic Church’s stance on the use of condoms.
But I did offer respect to the Church because they essentially put their money where there mouth had been. Catholic charities at least enter areas where pregnancy has facilitated poverty and have attempted to remedy some of the more immediate effects of the same.
(And the Catholic Church’s stance on the use of condoms is changing. Pope Benedict XVI recently stated that the use of condoms to preserve life may be justified. He said, “there may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility.”)
But the GOP…no such thing.
When I read of ideas and ideology such as forcing women and girls to give birth after a rape or incest; when I read about slashing social programs in the face of those same proposed amendments, I think to myself, The Grapes of Wrath. Is the book no longer required reading for high schoolers?
