NewsChannel 8 | Sunday Stories

Beverly Kirk Blog

Monday June 01, 2009 at 1:22 am

Sunday Stories

category: Politics

COMMENTARY

A hodgepodge of thoughts for this blog post. First and foremost, the murder Sunday morning of Kansas physician, Dr. George Tiller, well-known for performing late term abortions. He was gunned down at his church in Wichita. While all of the details of this case are yet to unfold, the timing comes as new attention is being paid to the abortion issue with the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. President Obama has condemned Dr. Tiller’s murder in very strong terms as have several prominent leaders on both sides of the abortion debate. But, what this crime does is put abortion front and center in a way that may make some try to use it for political gain. It’s not hard to imagine supporters of abortion rights pointing to the attack as an example of the extreme views of some who oppose abortion. It’s unclear whether the person arrested in connection with Dr. Tiller’s death has any connection to anti-abortion groups, and police are likely investigating that angle.

This wasn’t the first time Dr. Tiller had been targeted. He survived a shooting back in 1993, and his clinic was bombed in 1985. Pro-life groups are today emphasizing they don’t support violence against abortion providers, but that’s not likely to stop pro-choice groups from pointing to those who routinely call abortion providers “baby killers” and “murderers” and saying the words used in the debate matter. In other words, if it turns out the person suspected in the shooting is rabidly opposed to abortion, the pro-choice groups may blame the harsh rhetoric.

The second issue is the nomination of Judge Sotomayor, her writings and assumed views on race, and the allegations by some Republican conservatives that she’s some kind of racist or bigot. Her critics are pointing to remarks she made in 2001 as proof of her bias. She said, “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.“ Interestingly, earlier in the remarks she speaks of the struggle in America between being proud of one’s heritage and the country’s ethnic diversity and making sure “we can and must function and live in a race and color-blind way that ignore these very differences that in other contexts we laud”. A few lines after the passage that has caused such an uproar, she says she believes “that we should not be so myopic as to believe that others of different experiences or backgrounds are incapable of understanding the values and needs of people from a different group. Many are so capable.“ That doesn’t sound like the ranting of a racist. It actually reminds me of the “two-ness” struggle W.E.B. DuBois writes about in “The Souls of Black Folks“, of being of two thoughts and two souls as it relates to being a black American. Judge Sotomayor will be on Capitol Hill this week to make the rounds and meet with Senators. While we’ll most likely have to wait for the confirmation hearings later this summer to hear her address this issue since she‘s unlikely to shed any light on her views during this visit, it will be very interesting to see how she explains exactly what she meant. Separately, but related to the abortion issue, those on both sides of that debate are eager to find out more about Judge Sotomayor’s stance since she doesn’t have much of a paper trail providing clues to her views.

posted by Beverly Kirk