A few articles
Oct. 31st, 2006 12:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
moominmuppetUnsurprisingly, this is a pet peeve of mine:
Had the criminal, David McMenemy, been Arab or Muslim, this would have been headline news for weeks. But since his target was the Edgerton Women's Health Center, rather than, say, a bank or a police station, media have not called this terrorism - even after three decades of extreme violence by anti-abortion fanatics, mostly fundamentalist Christians who believe they're fighting a holy war.
Since 1977, casualties from this war include seven murders, 17 attempted murders, three kidnappings, 152 assaults, 305 completed or attempted bombings and arsons, 375 invasions, 482 stalking incidents, 380 death threats, 618 bomb threats, 100 acid attacks, and 1,254 acts of vandalism, according to the National Abortion Federation.
Abortion providers and activists received 77 letters threatening anthrax attacks before 9/11, yet the media never considered anthrax threats as terrorism until after 9/11, when such letters were delivered to journalists' offices and members of Congress. (link thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mactavish)
It's also deeply colored my experience of "fear of terrorism" in the US. I was escorting before 9/11. I was aware of the statistically small but real chance that I or people I loved could get injured or killed in doing abortion-related work. I think it was sort of an odd experience for a lot of people associated with abortion work to see the rest of the country suddenly trying to adjust to the idea of the same types of worries we took as part of daily life. That doesn't mean I think anyone should have to deal with that kind of stress/fear/worry, but it does mean that I found the intensity of the reaction a bit foreign (no, really, lightning strike still more likely, garden-variety crime way more likely), and the continuing refusal to recognize that we have our own homegrown terrorists to be the height of hypocrisy.
And in other cheery news: A Maryland appellate court has ruled that consent cannot be withdrawn once sex has started. (link thanks tochameleonpixie)
So disturbing I don't even know where to start.
Had the criminal, David McMenemy, been Arab or Muslim, this would have been headline news for weeks. But since his target was the Edgerton Women's Health Center, rather than, say, a bank or a police station, media have not called this terrorism - even after three decades of extreme violence by anti-abortion fanatics, mostly fundamentalist Christians who believe they're fighting a holy war.
Since 1977, casualties from this war include seven murders, 17 attempted murders, three kidnappings, 152 assaults, 305 completed or attempted bombings and arsons, 375 invasions, 482 stalking incidents, 380 death threats, 618 bomb threats, 100 acid attacks, and 1,254 acts of vandalism, according to the National Abortion Federation.
Abortion providers and activists received 77 letters threatening anthrax attacks before 9/11, yet the media never considered anthrax threats as terrorism until after 9/11, when such letters were delivered to journalists' offices and members of Congress. (link thanks to
mactavish)It's also deeply colored my experience of "fear of terrorism" in the US. I was escorting before 9/11. I was aware of the statistically small but real chance that I or people I loved could get injured or killed in doing abortion-related work. I think it was sort of an odd experience for a lot of people associated with abortion work to see the rest of the country suddenly trying to adjust to the idea of the same types of worries we took as part of daily life. That doesn't mean I think anyone should have to deal with that kind of stress/fear/worry, but it does mean that I found the intensity of the reaction a bit foreign (no, really, lightning strike still more likely, garden-variety crime way more likely), and the continuing refusal to recognize that we have our own homegrown terrorists to be the height of hypocrisy.
And in other cheery news: A Maryland appellate court has ruled that consent cannot be withdrawn once sex has started. (link thanks to
chameleonpixie)So disturbing I don't even know where to start.
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-31 07:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-31 08:12 pm (UTC)Clinic bombers may commit atrocities and those may be acts that terrorists also use but if we aren't terrorized, and clearly without the media's consent most of us won't be, then they can't be terrorists.
Personally, I don't believe in a terrorist threat to this country. So long as we aint chicken, they aint terrorists.
I am scared of religious extremists though and their ominous threat really does go underreported.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-01 01:43 am (UTC)well
Date: 2006-11-01 05:00 am (UTC)Well I look forward to the lawsuit for the guy who 'pulled out early'. He gave consent, and did not live up to promises made. Since consent can not be taken back after the begining of intercourse, you must find him guilty. Any other ruling is sexism.
Which of course it is. But it would be great to see it play out.