Eye On Modesto

An Infringement on Religious Freedom or Good Social Policy…

By EOM Staff

Everyone is talking about religious freedom and the need for government to stop meddling in religious affairs, such as contraception.  They are complaining that making religiously affiliated organizations, such as hospitals, provide birth control coverage is an infringement upon their religious beliefs and freedoms.  They are forgetting that decades ago the government made polygamy illegal.  Polygamy was a religious practice of the Mormon Church.  It was determined by the government (and most people agreed), that allowing men to have multiple wives went against our culture and was detrimental to society.  It was felt that women in plural marriages have a lower status than their shared husband.  That the rich and powerful men could corner the supply of eligible young women, leaving a portion of other men unable to legally have intimate relations with a woman.  This could create the circumstances for infidelity, rape and general crime born out of frustration and resentment.

Some religions believe in honor killings, but they are illegal here in America.  Are we discriminating against those religions by making it illegal to kill your daughter over a perceived disgrace to the family?  The social benefits of not allowing the murder of young women outweighs the right to religious freedom for those that believe in honor killings.

Every once in a great while, social policy that benefits a majority of citizens will take precedence over religious freedom.  No one is suggesting that a woman who doesn’t believe in birth control should use it.  Thousands and thousands of women work at religiously affiliated hospitals and schools across the country.  Most of them believe in birth control and use it.  98% of Catholic women will at some point in their child-bearing years, use birth control.

The social benefit to making birth control readily available is enormous.  There will be fewer unwanted and abused children.  There will be fewer abortions because unwanted pregnancies can be avoided.  There will be fewer children living in poverty.  There will be a lower rate of domestic violence which is often brought on by poverty.  More teen-age girls will graduate from high school and go on to college because they were able to avoid a teen pregnancy.  There will be fewer children being supported by our tax dollars because women were able to control when and how often they have a child.  Having birth control accessible to all women of child-bearing age is a win-win situation for all of us.

On a side note – religious organizations are starting to have a great amount of influence over our political system.  If this continues, religions will be running this country.  How do we choose which religioun should do so?  And if religious organizations want to have influence over our government, they should start paying taxes to it.

Government Mandates?

By EOM Staff

The conservative right is aghast at President Obama’s attempt to make birth control easily accessible and affordable for all women.  I understand the religious aspect of opposing this, however, if you don’t believe in birth control just don’t use it.  Churches, synagogues, and other religious institutions are exempt.  But I just saw Sarah Palin on the news asking “how dare the government MANDATE that we do anything? How dare they MANDATE that insurance companies pay for something?”  Funny, she supported a republican proposed MANDATE to require women wanting an abortion to have an ultrasound, listen to a fetal heartbeat and then sit through a pro-life lecture from her doctor (even if the doctor supports abortion rights) prior to having the procedure done.  This republican proposed MANDATE forces both the woman and the doctor to comply with the government telling them what to do.  If passed, would this MANDATE require insurance companies to pay for a medically unnecessary ultrasound procedure?  How would that be any different from requiring them to pay for birth control?

The conservatives are forgetting that several years ago the government MANDATED that if an insurance company covered Viagra, they must cover birth control.  Imagine the reaction of men across this country if insurances suddenly stopped paying for that magic little blue pill that they love so much!

Apparently the only acceptable government mandate is a republican one  that infringes  upon the rights of millions of American women.

Prepare yourselves men.  Your mothers, your wives, your sisters, and your daughters will take to the streets soon.  Will you support them?  Or will you sit back and let the conservatives eat away at their rights?

Please Don’t Sell Our Future MID!

By an EOM Contributor

Modesto and Turlock are the nucleus of our agricultural growth.  The water rights and the water are the absolute lifeblood of agriculture in the Modesto/Turlock region.  Reliable and low-cost irrigation water available to MID and TID is the main reason why agriculture is so productive in our area and farmland prices remain strong.  Irrigation water must be protected.  It provides thousands of jobs for our agricultural community and local economy, in addition to many spin-off industries.  This is an example of the multiplier effect (another example – $25 million from SF water vs. $500 million in jobs and food from our valley).  We feed the county, the state, the nation and the world with our agricultural products, all because of our water!  We are talking jobs, jobs, jobs and food, food, food!  I don’t want anyone cutting deals and messing with our water!!  As a voter and resident of this county, I certainly don’t want to see the farmers and owners and ratepayers blackmailed or short-changed with our food supply because we sold off our water.  One important reason for our nations strength and prosperity is that historically, we have always grown our own food, provided for our people and have not depended on foreign nations for it.  Along with selling our water, we would be selling our inheritance and our very soul over this issue.

On behalf of the farmers, landowners, rate payers and voters, I respectfully request that the MID board be of one mind and vote to sell NOT ONE DROP of our water to San Francisco.  MID and TID should focus on agricultural water and electricity and NOT be in the municipal water business.

If we give up our water, we are so screwed both now and in the future!

What you’ve just read was a spoken plea at a recent MID meeting by a local resident.

Attorney Frank Carson Fails his Client

By Emerson Drake

Modesto Attorney Frank Carson, a dedicated headline chaser, has allowed a client of his to be abused by the District Attorney.  He is representing (name withheld due to age) who has been charged with five felony counts for participating in a joy rides with a few friends.  His actions consisted of driving golf carts on the Grounds of Stanislaus State  University.

The carts never left the grounds but all were hit with five counts of auto theft.  This would seem to be an egregious miscarriage of justice.  But our friend Frank, despite having been paid, has as of yet to provide an active, aggressive defense. We sincerely hope Mr. Carson will turn this sad situation around and help this family.

Attempts were made to offer Mr. Carson an opportunity to explain his lack of activity but to this point he has failed to return calls.

We will be following this situation closely.

And The War On Women Continues

While many members of the GOP are trying to convince us that we are engaged in a “war against religion”, the truth is that we are engaged in a war against women.

President Obama’s health care plan requires employers who provide insurance to cover birth control with no co-pay.  This makes IUDs and birth control pills much more affordable for low income women.  The only employer exemption is for churches and other places of worship whose primary purpose is to impart religious beliefs.  Religiously affiliated groups, such as hospitals, are not exempt because their primary purpose is to provide health care not to impart religious beliefs.  This is what the GOP has called the war against religion.  Now, if someone is personally opposed to birth control for religious purposes, there is certainly not going to be any pressure for them to use it.  But for a woman who happens to work for a religiously affiliated hospital, her insurance must cover her birth control, if she chooses to use it.  Surely we can all understand that controlling how many times and when she gives birth is a priority for all women.  Survey after survey has shown that 85 – 89% of Catholic women use or have used birth control, even though the Church prohibits it.   A recent survey reported that 98% of Catholic women said birth control is their business, not the business of the church.

GOP hopeful Rick Santorum would like to ban sex education and instruction about contraception from schools.  He voted against funding pregnancy prevention programs for teens and voted for the “family cap” and “illegitimacy cap” which would have financially penalized low income women for having too many children and penalized states for children born out of wedlock.  How does one justify wanting to financially penalize women for having children, and then promote taking away birth control?  He has repeated said that birth control is wrong and should not be “allowed”.

Can’t we all agree that the best way to reduce the number of abortions in this country is to promote sex education and teach teens and young adults how to prevent unwanted pregnancies?  I believe we should promote abstinence along with information about pregnancy prevention.  Teaching abstinence alone doesn’t work.  Sarah Palin promoted abstinence to her children and now has an out of wedlock grandchild.  Bristol Palin has said that she was on the pill, but didn’t take it regularly.  A little education goes a long way.

This is far from being a war on religion.  We are all free to follow any religion we choose, or no religion at all.  This is nothing but a blatant attempt by so called religious men to control the lives of all American women.

We won’t allow it.