Rick Perry, Texas Oppressor-in-Chief

I am utterly amazed at Perry's assertion during a speech to the National Right To Life Convention regarding the protesters who stormed the Texas Senate Building to Protest the Legislation being considered to shut down nearly all the abortion facilities in Texas that "The louder they scream, the more we know we are getting something done.”

 This is the absolute definition of oppression. It's the kind of thing you hear from a Sadist as he inflicts pain on his victims. It's like saying "scream for me baby, let me know that you understand the Master is at home." Smart managers know that when the people protest, they should listen and try to figure out what is is that is causing pain.

Perhaps there is something Perry can learn from the citizens of Texas who are often as smart as he is, as well-educated or even better educated than he is.

This is the voice of a bully. Can Texans be this unaware of the sound of the bully snorting his determination to dominate his victim?

In this case when male Senators n try to legislate women's issues they need to comprehend that women live in a world very different than theirs. Women inhabit a body very different than a man's. Their biological imperatives and responsibilities are so incredibly different a man needs to stop, listen, learn and respect what he's hearing. Otherwise, he is just a sadomasochistic patriarch. Aren't we done with that culture?

Women demographically out-number men, equal their numbers in the workplace and have demanded equality. They deserve equality even if men are threatened by it.

 When Perry attacked Senator Davis because she was a single mother who should know that every life is important in this same speech, he makes an astonishing cognitive leap assuming that she might have wanted to abort her child. The fact is that Wendy Davis had a single mother who CHOSE to have her daughter. The fact is that Wendy Davis herself elected to have her daughter. Not all women may make a similar decision given a huge variety of circumstances that confront them. However, that should be their choice, not something a complete stranger in the Texas Senate decides he knows better than they what they should choose.

Recently, in this economy Republicans from State to State and even in the Congress have done everything except create jobs that might encourage women and their husbands to conclude they can afford children, or that their insurance will cover the sometimes terrifically expensive consequences of their pregnancies. 

Pregnancy is not an easy nine months for many women. Many women have miscarriages: estimates are as many as 500,000 to 1,000,000 miscarriages occur each year. A gynecologist I spoke with recently said that there is a vast and unacknowledged continent of grief among women attempting to have families.

Many women discover they have genetically defective fetuses who may not live after birth or indeed may cause the mother life threatening illness. There is nothing more devastating than discovering the long desired child the family longed to love has died before the pregnancy has been completed or will die shortly after birth.

Into this enormity of feminine grief and risk, Republican men barge with their ignorant determination that they alone know what is best for all women. If Republicans want women to have children they should do everything possible to give them hope that there is an economic future that will enable them to afford the child and give those children the kind of life that will be part of the American Dream. They should be out there creating jobs, building infrastructure, encouraging business, expanding educational opportunities, reducing the need for student loans. Republicans should be creating an economic and cultural environment that tells women and their families that children are an asset to their economic futures, not a detriment.

Draconian measures to coerce women to endure pregnancy will only make child bearing unpleasant, painful and demeaning. Surely Republicans are smart enough to know that oppression is not part of the American Dream. Republicans should do everything possible to encourage woman, honor women and give them the opportunity to feel good about being American mothers. Why is that such a hard idea for them to grasp I wonder?

 Ironically, until they grasp this essential insight, Republican economic obstructionists who devote their legislative efforts to dictating women's reproductive choices are themselves often responsible for women deciding to have abortions or not to have children at all.