The abortion issue vis-a-vis Roe v. Wade has been something that I have struggled with for many years.

When I was in law school, some eighteen years ago, I believed the issue was not about trimesters or when life actually began. As far as I was concerned, life began at conception. The issue for me revolved around consent, as well as rights versus obligations, and privileges versus duties and responsibilities.

My thinking was very simple, if a woman willingly engaged in an activity that would or could result in the conception of a child, it was her responsibility to have the child, then either rear the baby or put him or her up for adoption.

I believed in personal autonomy. A woman had a right to choose and the choice was not whether or not a pregnancy should be terminated, but whether to have sex in the first place.

In those instances of incest and rape where the woman had not willingly consented, but was violated in the most heinous of ways, then she should have had the right to choose whether to terminate the pregnancy. I did not believe violence should beget violence, but I was not going to force a woman who had suffered at the hands of another to carry, and then bear the child of her attacker.

Further, I had no problem with abortion where the life of the mother was at risk.

I believed that with education of ourselves and our young people regarding sexual activity, as well as personal responsibility, the necessity for abortion would be the exception, rather than the rule.

After all, reasonable, thinking, and responsible individuals did not screw up and get pregnant, did they?

And, if they did, they did the “right� thing, got married, and prepared to bring a child into the world, didn’t they?

During the two-week period between the end of finals my last semester of law school and graduation, I prepared to move from Baton Rouge to start a job elsewhere in the state, take the bar exam, and get married.

When I was cleaning out my apartment, one of my friends from law school came by. She had a great new job lined up with an old and prestigious all-male law firm. She had a new boyfriend and, weeks before, had been very excited about the events in her life; however, on this day, she was upset and crying.

This friend was twenty-five years old and one of the smartest women I knew. She was unmarried and pregnant. She had broken up with the biological father a couple months before. This old boyfriend already had one child from a liaison with a girl in high school.

The friend explained she was scheduled to have an abortion on the following day, but needed someone to drive her to and from the procedure. She said she knew how I felt about abortion, but she did not know who else to ask. The current boyfriend did not know she was pregnant and she wanted to keep it that way.

I struggled with what to do, but eventually decided it was her choice and she certainly had a legal right to have an abortion. I told her I would take her.

The next day, I picked her up and drove her to the clinic. There were dozens of people picketing outside. She covered her head with a sweater. I did not feel as though I had anything to be ashamed of, so I merely walked through the protesters with her. Just before we entered the clinic, I made eye contact with a wizened old man holding a poster depicting pieces of a fetus. He screamed at me: “Abortion does not make you not a mother. It makes you the mother of a dead baby.�

For a long time after that, he visited me in my dreams.

The friend had her abortion and we parted ways. We kept in contact here and there, but the friendship was effectively over.

I have no doubt every time she saw me she thought of the abortion because every time I saw or spoke to her, I certainly did.

Her baby would have been born in September of that year.

He or she would have been fifteen this year.

In a perfect world there would be no rape and there would be no incest.

In a perfect world each of us would think about our actions and take responsibility for who and what we are.

In a perfect world there would be no need for abortions.

Dare I say it? Ours is not a perfect world.

These days I still believe in personal autonomy, the right to choose, and inherent in each right and privilege we have as American citizens are equally important duties and responsibilities; however, while still a conservative, I now firmly tow the pro-abortion line.

If we made abortion illegal, only those who could not afford to travel abroad or pay “private� physicians to secure the procedures would be forced to bear these unwanted children.

Yes, they could give them up to adoption; however, with our current welfare system and programs, these extraneous babies would be little more than meal tickets for their mothers.

Perhaps, years ago, I had even believed and adopted that arrogant elitist stance that some people needed to be saved from themselves, simply because they did not know any better or had not been taught any better. For that is where I believe the concept of legislating morality began.

For the record, I do not believe in legislating morality, despite an acknowledgement it is done repeatedly in this country.

Back in law school I actually thought making abortion illegal would deter women from carelessly getting pregnant because if they knew they would have to have the baby, they might actually consider their actions beforehand, rather than live for years after dealing with the guilt; however, I have learned there are people who are just not that way.

A sister of someone else I know has already had three abortions and she came from an influential upper-middle class family. For her, she simply could not be bothered with taking one little pill every day, if she got pregnant, abortion was the perfect form of birth control for her.

Thus, there are people who can have an abortion and not give it another thought.

It occurs to me that if that is, indeed, the case, do we really want those people forced to have their children? My answer is no, I don’t.

However, for my friend from law school, I have no doubt she has suffered the anguish of her actions and decision.

Notwithstanding, these days, I do not care whether anyone feels guilty about having an abortion or not. I really don’t. It is really none of my business.

We all have crosses to bear. We all have things to regret. It’s part of living, as well as being human. Not all mistakes are equal in their severity or consequences, but mistakes are mistakes. We should have the right to make them. I guess I am Libertarian in that sense.

I would much prefer to see the resources, passion, and energy we have poured into this fight over abortion (as well as other morality issues) channeled and focused into doing things that are positive and might actually make a difference.

There can be a cure for cancer and AIDS in our lifetime.

I would love to see Social Security (particularly the disability and welfare aspects of it) revamped and reformed.

The entire welfare system needs a good cleaning, as well.

The tax code could be made a great deal simpler which would pare down considerably the number of IRS employees out there.

Our education system is in crisis and our most valuable resource in this country is our children; however we treat them as either prizes or consumables.

And, that’s just a start here in this country.

There is so much we could be doing abroad, as well.

My point in all this: We each need to look in the mirror and rather than espousing our virtues and virtuous ways to ourselves and others, get off our collective arses, put our money, brainpower, and effort into looking around and seeing what each of us can do to make our small corners of the world better for all of us.

I guess that’s enough from me for now, I owe my Congressman a letter and I promised cookies for the local fire department’s bake sale…

If everything went smoothly, my furnishings were packed and shipped yesterday, and I am now working to clean the apartment. Given how filthy it was when I moved in, I will be returning it in better condition than it was presented to me.

Somehow, I still expect a “discussion” because that seems to be the way of things here. Of course, it is the way of things in a lot of places in the US, too.

Here is the next photo. I am not posting these in the order that I took them but instead in the order I find most interesting.

I have mentioned before that I have yet to visit a city in Europe that does not have an Irish pub. This photo has little artistic value, but I find amusement that the most popular hang-out for many of the American expatriates is the Irish pub that is 200 yards from my apartment.

Why go to an Irish pub when you live in France? I went to a French bar, and the girlfriends of my colleagues said jokingly they were glad that I wouldn’t be tempting their boyfriends with my Friday evening happy hours any more.

Apparently, the concept of a get-together to celebrate the end of a work-week was new to my colleagues here. I’m glad I could introduce them to an American way of celebrating being alive another week.

Tomorrow, a more “artistic” photo.

Technorati Tags: letters from Europe, photography, photos, photos of Europe, photos of Grenoble, pictures

When I was working at Morgan Stanley, I had a colleague who is one of those guys who can explain what an idiot you are without ever uttering an epithet. He employs an economy of language that I envy and a deceptively simple approach to what is often covered in layers of jargon and shibboleth. Whenever a client would call up and ask him, say, why the market went down that particular day, he would answer “More sellers than buyers.”

The other day, The Paper of Record published a story on the economy that included this gem:

For every encouraging sign, there is an explanation. Consumer confidence is bouncing back from what were arguably some of its worst readings in years. Gasoline prices - the national average is now $2.15, according to the Energy Information Administration - have fallen because higher prices held down demand and Gulf Coast supplies have been slowly restored.

I know that the press considers itself to be the nun at the party, and I don’t think that this article is directed at the current administration. (If Mr. Clinton, or Ms Clinton for that matter, was president, The NYT would likely print much the same article. And partisans would be bitching about the unfairness of it all). It’s merely an illustration of the media mindset that requires it to play Cassandra at every possible opportunity.

However, the graf quoted also betrays a profound lack of understanding vis-a-vis market economies. Allow me to explain.

Prices go up, demand goes down. Demand goes down, prices go down. Prices go down, demand goes up. Demand goes up, prices go up. Prices go up…

Those uncomfortable with the law stated above should reflect on the wicked success of the world’s command economies.

Those unfamiliar with a basic law of economics shouldn’t be writing articles in The New York Times.

I’ve put up a rambling, incoherent post on various stories at Bloggledygook as a way of catching up on my blogging.

For now, I will just send you there and add this bit of obelisk-envy in Buenos Aires. I can’t tell for certain, but this looks like a collaboration between Christo and Xaviera Hollander. But really, what self-respecting man would wear such a color?

Bwaa haaaa haaa haaa. Jack didn’t take my keys away. I get to

*** Continue the rest of the story ***

for you. And today, the story is gifts you can buy your geeky friends. And if you are feeling particularly nice, you can buy two and send one of them to me!

How about a Keyboard for your Cellphone? Definitely a great Geeky gift.

Or from Thinkgeek.com you can get this Pi as a way to help you come up with creative reasons to spend your hard earned cash on a T-shirt.

And don’t forget about a Gesturing Death with a Microphone. What a great geek gift of a 4foot Death that you speak into the microphone and watch his mouth move and eyes light in sync with your words.

Go on… you know you want one of these…