What if Duke were in Durham, South Dakota?
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There's no actual Durham, South Dakota, but what if what allegedly happened between members of the Duke Lacrosse team and a female "exotic" dancer happened in South Dakota, and the woman became pregnant?
For all these questions, assume you reside in South Dakota:
If you were that woman, would you want to keep that baby?
If you're not that woman, do you think she should be forced to give birth to that child, or be subjected to criminal penalties if she manages to get an illegal abortion in SD?
If you're not that woman, do you think that although she didn't deserve what happened to her - no one does, no matter what line of work they're in - nonetheless, she should be forced to give birth to that child because you believe that life begins at conception and abortion is murder and therefore should be illegal and a woman who gets an abortion should be criminally prosecuted as well as forced to have that baby?
Or, maybe you are someone who would say that she did deserve what happened to her, that it's a risk in her line of work and she must suffer the consequences?
What do you think should be done to the perpetrators? What crimes have they committed and to how much criminal punishment should they be subjected?
Or are you someone who thinks it was all just a prank and again, given her line of work, she accepted such risks as part of the cost-benefit analysis?
Should the father of the baby marry this woman?
Should the father of the baby be allowed to help raise this child?
Should the father of the baby be allowed to stop the mother, assuming she doesn't have an abortion, from putting the baby he's sired up for adoption?
Should the father of the baby be financially responsible for the mother and the child?
What about the parents of the Duke students? Are they responsible? To what extent? Should they be prosecuted? For what?
What about the Duke administrators? What about the judges and lawyers involved with the fifteen teammates with prior arrest records? Any responsibility in there?
I know pretty much nothing about South Dakota. Maybe people who behaved like the Duke Lacrosse team allegedly behaved don't ever live in South Dakota, or at least save such behavior for when they're out of state, careful only to possibly impregnate women who don't want to be impregnated in states that allow abortion.
Regardless, what disgusts me the most when I combine what allegedly happeneed with the Duke team with the ban on abortion in South Dakota and the information in this New York Times Sunday Magazine article about El Salvador's eight-year old set of laws that ban abortion, is our failure - OUR failure as a society, a government, a collection of humans - to work so hard to criminalize primarily the outcome of behaviors rather than make those initial behaviors be the focus of our efforts.
What if we stopped saying boys will be boys?
What if we stopped saying she deserved what she got?
Why can't anti-abortion proponents stop saying that they want to force this country of nearly 300 million, which is not a country governed by any one specific religion or religious text - but by the U.S. Constitution, to become like the governments and countries that are governed by religious texts?
Why aren't people who choose to adhere to tenets of a particular religion or moral code that clearly isn't shared by a statistically significant portion of this country's population satisfied that people of a like mind will uphold those tenets?
Why must those people seek to criminalize behavior that is permissible under the tenets or moral codes to which a statistically significant portion of this country's population adheres (yes, Conservative Judaism allows for abortion, it pegs it to viability, not conception)?
Those who want to criminalize behavior in the name of God (knowing that some people just want to criminalize abortion because they think it's murder, separate from anything related to God) seem to me to be the most blasphemous of all, since - I would think - they should then believe that it is God - and not fellow members of humankind - who makes final judgement on us all.
What if Duke were in South Dakota?
For all these questions, assume you reside in South Dakota:
If you were that woman, would you want to keep that baby?
If you're not that woman, do you think she should be forced to give birth to that child, or be subjected to criminal penalties if she manages to get an illegal abortion in SD?
If you're not that woman, do you think that although she didn't deserve what happened to her - no one does, no matter what line of work they're in - nonetheless, she should be forced to give birth to that child because you believe that life begins at conception and abortion is murder and therefore should be illegal and a woman who gets an abortion should be criminally prosecuted as well as forced to have that baby?
Or, maybe you are someone who would say that she did deserve what happened to her, that it's a risk in her line of work and she must suffer the consequences?
What do you think should be done to the perpetrators? What crimes have they committed and to how much criminal punishment should they be subjected?
Or are you someone who thinks it was all just a prank and again, given her line of work, she accepted such risks as part of the cost-benefit analysis?
Should the father of the baby marry this woman?
Should the father of the baby be allowed to help raise this child?
Should the father of the baby be allowed to stop the mother, assuming she doesn't have an abortion, from putting the baby he's sired up for adoption?
Should the father of the baby be financially responsible for the mother and the child?
What about the parents of the Duke students? Are they responsible? To what extent? Should they be prosecuted? For what?
What about the Duke administrators? What about the judges and lawyers involved with the fifteen teammates with prior arrest records? Any responsibility in there?
I know pretty much nothing about South Dakota. Maybe people who behaved like the Duke Lacrosse team allegedly behaved don't ever live in South Dakota, or at least save such behavior for when they're out of state, careful only to possibly impregnate women who don't want to be impregnated in states that allow abortion.
Regardless, what disgusts me the most when I combine what allegedly happeneed with the Duke team with the ban on abortion in South Dakota and the information in this New York Times Sunday Magazine article about El Salvador's eight-year old set of laws that ban abortion, is our failure - OUR failure as a society, a government, a collection of humans - to work so hard to criminalize primarily the outcome of behaviors rather than make those initial behaviors be the focus of our efforts.
What if we stopped saying boys will be boys?
What if we stopped saying she deserved what she got?
Why can't anti-abortion proponents stop saying that they want to force this country of nearly 300 million, which is not a country governed by any one specific religion or religious text - but by the U.S. Constitution, to become like the governments and countries that are governed by religious texts?
Why aren't people who choose to adhere to tenets of a particular religion or moral code that clearly isn't shared by a statistically significant portion of this country's population satisfied that people of a like mind will uphold those tenets?
Why must those people seek to criminalize behavior that is permissible under the tenets or moral codes to which a statistically significant portion of this country's population adheres (yes, Conservative Judaism allows for abortion, it pegs it to viability, not conception)?
Those who want to criminalize behavior in the name of God (knowing that some people just want to criminalize abortion because they think it's murder, separate from anything related to God) seem to me to be the most blasphemous of all, since - I would think - they should then believe that it is God - and not fellow members of humankind - who makes final judgement on us all.
What if Duke were in South Dakota?
JBlog Me
7 Comments:
Fabulous piece, Jill. I'd like to include it in the Carnival of Feminists, if it's ok with you.
Sure, Terry - thanks, and thanks for asking. If I weren't so pressured for time, I would turn it into a more solid op-ed submission.
You bring up several questions that I believe many have not thought of. Now the missing part...what are your solutions?
These questions and several other are plaguing our national leaders. Coming up with well thought out solutions is something entirely different.
The discussion is needed, and a noble thing to spark. And, picking apart someone else’s solution is the less difficult task.
"It is not the critic who counts, not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or how the doer of deeds might have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred with sweat and dust and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, if he wins, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."
You sem to have a sharp mind for seeing multiple side of an issue. Help us come up with answers.
great write up!!
I have no idea what to think about this case so far, every news article seems to shed a little more light
justthis one
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,191096,00.html
i hope justice is found
Anon the First - you are right, coming up with the solution is much like that quote - would you mind providing the author of the quote? I've never seen it before but can understand its imagery.
Anon the Second - Thanks. Yes, it's hard to imagine that it will get any better before it gets much worse.
It is part of an address by Throdore Roosevelt titled Citizenship in a Republic.
Here is a link to the rest of the address:
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/3745/tr.html#it_is_not
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