Pro-Life

 Okay. I am unhappy with the way we are handling our words here in America. 

Let's start with the one that has been stuck in my craw the longest: I am not "pro-abortion." I support a woman's right to choose what happens to her body. This puts me in the category of "pro-choice." I can't say that I am "pro-life" because a bunch of religious zealots beat me to that particular label. Why can't I go ahead and say that I am pro-life of those who have already achieved personhood and call those other folks "pro-fetus?" 

Because I'm not in charge of labels. 

I feel this "pro-life" label would allow me to extend my beliefs about gun control. I think there is an obvious link between common sense regulations that might keep more of us who have achieved personhood alive longer and the "sanctity of life." Forcing rape and incest victims to carry their pregnancies to term just so we have a more target-rich environment for the next school shooting seems like a sum-zero equation. 

And while we're on the subject of target-rich, can somebody please point me to the moment in our history when being anti-fascist was a bad thing? I'm pretty sure the Greatest Generation got their label because they were just that. Nazis were something we were trying to destroy, not integrate into our major political party's platform. I'm proud to carry the antifa flag.

And then there's this whole business of being woke. As I have opined here on numerous occasions, I would rather be accused of being awake than asleep at the wheel. I am terrified to think that there are those who find the phrase, "Florida is where woke goes to die" a source of pride. Remaining alert to changes in culture, science and politics feels like a good choice to make, if you're into that whole choice thing. Which I am. Just because it is a new idea does not make it wrong. As a matter of fact, most old ideas that have been replaced by new ideas have turned out to be something we call progress. Which is why some of us end up getting called "progressive." Who wants to keep the life on this planet habitable for the next generation of consensual humans who aren't Nazis. That's the life for which I am pro.