I am surprised that no one saw the connection to the plight of Nikki Haley, Liz Magill, and the Abortion Law in Texas. You had to be living under a rock not to be aware of Haley’s misstep in the New Hampshire’s preprimary backlash that she has been still trying to correct as she seeks to keep momentum in that primary. She was asked a simple question, “What started the Civil War?” Her response was a series of responses about the need for freedom and individual rights and built a CONTEXT around what caused the war, but she left out the obvious answer, “It was slavery!”
Everyone pounced and even the Inquirer has her dilemma on the front page. Her competitors made her look silly. DeSantis, posed with his wife and child to give him that sense of sensitivity and compassion that he lacks, responded, not about the actual issue, but because “she caves when the pressure is on.” How could he respond with a real response since he has created a one man stand against the history of African Americans in our culture? “Slavery will help them get jobs in the future by what they learned on the plantations.” Even our president wrote, “It’s about slavery.” I think that he wants people to know that he gets one thing right as he flounders on protecting the Palestinian civilians through the horror of the Israeli attacks. Joe, to do nothing is to do something.” That is a key ethical principle.
So, what does this have to do with the Republicans and others attacking Haley when she was asked the simple question, “What started the Civil War?” Like Liz Magill and the other presidents of universities that met before the house committee, Nikki started with the larger context of what started the war, a desire for equality, freedom, and the nature and purpose of government. It was only after she was attacked by her colleagues that she said, “Why slavery, of course, “EVERYONE KNOWS THAT.” Recall that Haley removed the confederate flag from the South Carolina Capitol when she was Governor after the horrific killing of black people.”
Liz Magill and her other president colleagues did the SAME THING. They first spoke in the need for context as defining the question. Later, when they realized that a black and white answer was really what was needed such as “slavery” for Haley, the Presidents said that they should have been more DIRECT and said, Antisemitism and Islamophobia are always wrong. They didn’t add quickly enough that EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT.
All of this was summarized by a couple in Texas who were dealing with the black and white nature of the Texas Abortion Law which couldn’t address the context and gray areas that are still not recognized in that state particularly for the need for late term abortions when medically necessary. The couple said, “The abortion bans ignore shades of gray.”
Most in our culture are familiar with the movie, “The Fifty Shades of Grey.” It is a soft porn film. But the courts when questioned about what defines pornography, Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart responded in 1964 to his test for obscenity, “It is difficult to define, but I know it when I see it.” The phrase seems to imply that there is a gray area until I know it is or it isn’t. Perhaps why the title was “The Fifty Shades of Grey (play off of the word gray)” meaning that it was a challenge to define it in simple black and white categories. Obviously, the censors passed it on as R rated but certainly not X rated. It was gray. R meant that anyone under 17 had to be accompanied by an adult. It is interesting that Magill and her colleagues as well as Haley were not afforded the same distinction. They were given an X rated response with no shades of gray of the importance of some things being obvious that are assumed and how they affect and are affected by the context in a response.
Stefanik and various high roller benefactors of these universitys needed something in black and white first. Like censors of film, Haley, Liz Magill, and the other college presidents knew that EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT IS WRONG. LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT CONTEXT. What are the shades of gray? Gray only works when black and white are needed up front of those needs of others for the black and white. That’s something that Haley, Magill, Women in Texas dealing with the necessity of a late term abortions, and others know because they didn’t get the right order of things in terms of what was needed reversed. The need for black and white at times are required before you address the greater context. A hard lesson to be learned!
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