99 Percenters -- Writers' / Leaders' Site

Some 35 years after Roe vs. Wade women are still the victims of religious ideology embedded in government, and special interest who use this controversy to keep the time and energy of the American people focused on an issue that divides them, instead of issues that might unite them.

Despite it being the 21st century, the United States being a nonsectarian nation, ignoring the 14th amendment, Equal Protection Clause, the fact that 51% of the U.S. population is female, and we have many women’s advocacy organizations, with the law, and the numbers, we are stuck in this endless battle which in Jefferson’s “wide wall of separation between church and state” is really about women’s equality, and women’s civil rights. There is no moral or legal standing for the infringement upon a women’s freedom of choice, self-determination, or access to healthcare or any other services she so chooses, and anything to the contrary is sectarian idiocy and dogma, a failure of both society to act against injustice, and the government to defend its citizens who it is solely beholden to with all the resources available to it.

But still, here we are being confronted by ideologically driven legislators, with beliefs they think they have a right to legally impose on other citizens. It is fundamentalism when you don’t understand that “Freedom of Religion is Freedom from Religion”, the politically ambitious which aren’t ideologically driven at all, they just want the religious base vote, so they will pursue power by suppressing other peoples civil rights without a thought, and the supporting cast of special interest organizations, media, and the pundit / entertainer class. That is where we come to the meat of the newest outrage, FOX Entertainment’s long time talking head, Rush Limbaugh.
Rush Limbaugh has been a provocative and polarizing entertainer for some time now, I guess if you blend in, and aren't controversial then you wouldn’t be successful. He has spent many years narrating his own version of conservative talk radio and cable television and is no stranger to outrageous rants or comments.

So, when women’s healthcare issues began hitting a frenzied state once again fueled by attacks on Planned Parenthood, outrageous republican legislation nationwide, GOP presidential primary campaign rhetoric, along with a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on the Obama contraceptive coverage rule which featured an all-male panel with no women representatives, the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee's special hearing in response to the GOP’s decision to prevent women from testifying brought us the testimony of an articulate 3rd year Harvard Law school student named Sandra Fluke.

Her well presented testimony was not well received by extreme right wing conservatives, or those that make a living instigating them, so Rush Limbaugh let loose with a rant, to include calling the young lady a “slut” on national television. The private and public backlash from that “Freudian slip” was quick and severe, the President was quick to call the young lady in support of her courage, and to grab the political high ground, Rush was unapologetic expanding on some of his claims, but as sponsors pulled out from his show, as the FOX network and he were beginning to see the economic impact, he did offer a strained apology, but those are superficial and meaningless, and Ms. Fluke rejected it. As of this writing twenty advertising sponsors have pulled out of his show, and several radio stations have dropped his show.

This women’s rights issue specifically targets the 99% demographic making it a 99% issue violating Human, Civil, and Equal Rights. It is about settled federal law, the protection of women, and enforcement against individuals, groups, organizations, corporations, and governing bodies who attempt to suppress, inhibit, or deny any woman healthcare, or her personal freedom of religion, which is the freedom of self-determination. This is about the over reach of certain minority religious doctrine into the machine of government which has brought injustice to a broad class of citizens that represent fifty one percent of the population of the United States, and this is about misdirection because nothing is allowed to be sustained for decades, to ebb and flow by accident. This is a diversion, and it’s delaying progress on many of the other issues that Americans should be up in arms over and addressing.

But, as we see the drag of these issues on women, on all of us, we should seize the momentum, and mobilize as never before. We are many, and in a consumer society, we should continue to make our feelings and demands known economically. If it is money that drives their world, then we should deprive them of it, through economic protest we should “Defund the Hate”. Use your power of the purse to compel change, as well as your voice, vote, and pen. The Limbaugh case is one example and I would boycott the products, services, and ideas of every advertiser of his show after calling them, every pundit /politician, every organization, charity, corporation, and every state that backs these policies of inequality. This is the 21st century, we need to move deliberately and in mass with actions that will finally put this issue to rest.