George Tiller’s Murder – a Missed Wake-up Call?

The man who gunned down one of the few doctors in the U.S. to perform late-term abortions could be sent to prison Thursday for the rest of his life, but he may have gotten what he wanted all along: It is now markedly harder in Kansas to get an abortion.
via George Tiller Murder: Scott Roeder Faces Life Sentence, But Some Argue Abortion Provider’s Killer Got His Way.

The recent sentencing of Scott Roeder to life in prison for the murder of Dr. George Tiller caused me to revisit this painful issue from last year. Given the accelerating craziness of the Tea Party crowd, the arrest of the militia group in Michigan, and the insane responses to the health care reform bill, that act of ultra-rightwing violence now seems like a wake-up call that we hit the snooze button on.

Here’s something that is both topical and positive on the topic:

The Texas School Book Repository – from Roger Ebert [UPDATED]

Do the schoolbook publishers of America have standards? Courage? Ethics? In what sense do they stand behind their product? For “product” they sometimes produce, and not textbooks in the traditional sense. I ask these questions for a reason.

Right-wingers from Texas will be deciding what will be added and taken out of the textbooks of America’s school children. They form the majority of the 15-member Texas State Board of Education. They believe current textbooks are slanted toward a liberal viewpoint, and that discussion of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, which one member describes as “hooey,” wrongly excludes a consideration of Creationism.

Read the rest from Roger Ebert…

And see also…

• Confessions of an Aca/Fan: The Struggle Over What Gets Taught in Texas: An Interview with Rebecca Bell-Meterau.
• Textbook cases – latimes.com.
• Potential Texas school books: Was Jefferson Davis that bad a guy? | Opinion L.A. | Los Angeles Times.
• Outside Texas, alarm over textbook changes – latimes.com.
• Editorial – Rewriting History in Texas – NYTimes.com.
• Texas Conservatives Win Vote on Textbook Standards – NYTimes.com.
• What Values Are Apparent in Your School Textbooks? – The Learning Network Blog – NYTimes.com.
• Huffington Post: God, History And The Texas Public Schools: A Debate That Impacts All Of Us.

Some Final Thoughts on the murder of Dr. Tiller

Well, I will probably continue to think about the murder of Dr. Tiller and the issues it raises, but there’s only so much I want to say about it here. A friend of mine cautioned me against saying anything at all, pointing out that, the way things are, no one ever changes their mind on the topic of abortion anyway. But as I said in my first post, it had more to do with standing up and being counted, registering my anger, than with any notion of changing any anti-abortion fundamentalist’s point of view. That being said…

I’ve been hearing – for instance on NPR this morning – other people echoing the view that the violent and inflammatory rhetoric of groups ranging from Operation Rescue to Army of God must be seen as bearing some of the responsibility for acts of violence such as the murders of Dr. Tiller and Dr. Bernard Slepian, the bombings of reproductive health clinics, etc. And I’ve also been hearing calls to restrict or criminalize such speech.

Much as I disagree with – and loathe – the vile sludge that issues from groups like Operation Rescue, and much as I believe that it contributes to these acts of violence, I can’t see myself agreeing with attempts to legislate those groups into silence. For one thing, it’s hard to see any such attempt succeeding.

More Thoughts on the Murder of Dr. Tiller

I’ve been thinking more about the murder of the Kansas abortion provider, Dr. Tiller…

Scott Roeder, the alleged killer, and other anti-abortion fundamentalists have been told over and over again by groups like Operation Rescue and others that abortion is murder, and that people who have or provide abortions are murderers. That abortion clinics are “death camps,” and that people like Dr. Tiller are guilty of murdering 100s or 1000s of children a year, year after year, for decades. That all the efforts to end this mass murder – the pleas and prayers, protests, legal actions and attempts to pass or change legislation – have been unsuccessful. And they are told that Biblical scripture supports killing doctors who provide abortions to stop them.

Hearing all of this over and over, having it pounded into their heads by speeches and sermons for years – is it any wonder that one of them finally picked up a gun to stop these heinous crimes? Which is why I think groups like Operation Rescue that have propagated these views bear a large burden of responsibility for the death of Dr. Tiller. They’ve been telling people for years that he was a mass murderer that the law was powerless to stop, and someone finally listened, and acted.

Kansas Abortion Provider Murdered

Dr. George Tiller, a Witchita, Kansas, doctor who provided abortion services was gunned down yesterday while ushering for services at his church.

I’m not sure what to say about this. Numerous voices have already chimed in on both sides, and it is hard to know what I can offer to the discussion, beyond my own anger, sadness and outrage.  But, yes, just as we go to demonstrations, one more face in the crowd, to register our views, I want to stand up and register my anger, sadness and outrage over the murder of Dr. Tiller.