Respect?

I think Colorado is probably a leading state in its use of what are sometimes called vanity plates, which include specialized plates and personalized plates. The high incidence is no surprise in the People’s Republic of Boulder, at least, where vanity characterizes the prevailing mood and lifestyle. Personalized plates say something about you personally (duh!), like your initials or something clever, like 2TH DR (“tooth doctor”) for a dentist, or RODEKIL for an asshole (that one lives a block away from me). Specialized plates advertise some special interest or organization with which the owner is associated, such as one of the universities or colleges in the state, or various military categories and honors, or organizations like the Elks Club or the Knights of Columbus, or numerous other categories.

But by far the most frequent one I see says RESPECT LIFE. I was surprised to learn, on researching this on the Colorado DMV page for license plates, that this is actually intended to memorialize “the victims and survivors of the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School” (the plate also includes a picture of the columbine, which happens to be Colorado’s state flower). This kind of takes the wind out of my diatribe, but I’ll indulge in it anyway. The basis for it is (or was) the assumption that most of the people displaying this plate were what is called “pro-life,” and I suspect that a significant proportion of those displaying it take the slogan in this sense rather than in reference to the Columbine shooting. This assumption seemed to be supported by a noticeably heavy presence of these plates in the parking lot of the Adventist hospital where I am perforce spending a lot of time here lately, as the “pro-life” ideology seems to be particularly associated with religion, and more particularly with right-wing fundamentalism or Roman Catholicism. And as used in this context, it usually means exclusively “anti-abortion,” which is a rather different matter than “pro-life.”

Now, I am no great fan of abortion; I accept it reluctantly only in cases of life-threatening emergencies. But the issue here is not abortion as such, but the use of the term “pro-life” to mean primarily, if not exclusively, “anti-abortion.” Those using it in this context are always referring to the life of what they sometimes call the “unborn child,” which to begin with is a contradiction in terms. If it’s unborn, it isn’t a child yet. A fetus is not a child. An embryo is not a child. (Okay, I may be splitting hairs on an arguable point, but humor me.) However, the term is used consistently by pro-lifers in talking about abortion because it’s emotionally loaded, and the people using it are appealing to emotionalism. More to the point, in focusing exclusively on the life of the fetus or embryo, they implicitly, if not explicitly, disregard any other sort or form of life, including that of the fetus after it is delivered. Are they in favor of free and readily accessible health care for the child after delivery? Not hardly. Do they care if the child whose life they have so zealously respected in utero is born into a totally unsuitable environment, enduring a miserable childhood, suffering from poverty, neglect, and abuse, and probably growing up to be a societal burden as a misfit or a criminal? Not likely. Do they respect the life of the mother? Maybe, but probably not as much as that of the fetus, and certainly not if her life is endangered by carrying the fetus to term and an abortion would save her life. Are they against the death penalty, a.k.a. state-sanctioned murder? Of course not. Are they against war, which is notably disrespectful of the lives of everyone involved, and of civilians who aren’t involved? That would be unpatriotic. Are they in favor of economic and environmental justice because injustice in these areas affects the quality of life of billions of people? I doubt it. Are they vegetarians? Probably not. In all these senses in which “pro-life” means far more than simply “anti-abortion,” they are considerably more tepid, if concerned at all, about any life but that of the “unborn child,” nor even about that after delivery. And they call that “respect for life.”

How about respect for intelligence? Can I customize a plate that says RESPECT INTELLIGENCE, with a picture of a brain instead of a columbine? Life can get along quite well enough on its own with little or no help from me; in fact, in view of the catastrophically exploding world population, it’s getting along all too well. But intelligence needs all the help it can get and suffers continual setbacks. As I suggested in an earlier post, the reason so many people voted a blithering, psychotic halfwit into the presidency (or came close enough to doing so to give him a chance to steal the election) is because so many of them are blithering halfwits themselves; they got what they deserved. But the people with intelligence didn’t; they deserved better. But they’re in a distinct minority, and we know what happens to minorities and their opinions in a “democracy.”

If I’ve been unfair to pro-lifers or inaccurate in portraying their attitudes, tough shit. All’s fair in polemics. I’ve always been bad at debating because I consider anyone who disagrees with me an idiot.

By the way, for the first two chapters of the greatest literary masterpiece of the last week, click on “View my complete profile,” and on the profile page, click on “Time flies like an arrow.” I’ve already bogged down after two chapters (only one of which is even vaguely narrative) because I haven’t decided yet what I want to write about. The Muses have already deserted me. Probably went to a museum.