Rejecting Tapeworm Economics And Its War On Families (Carolyn Baker)

[Tace]

Carolyn Baker -- World News Trust

Feb. 4, 2007 -- A frightening story came across the radio waves this week and was later reported by MSNBC:

“Texas governor orders STD vaccine for all girls.”

Governor Rick Perry had just signed an order making Texas the first of what is likely to be many states to require that school girls be vaccinated against Human Papiloma Virus (HPV), implementing what at first blush appears to be sensible and humane legislation attempting to prevent the spread of the deadly STD.

Perry, who usually votes with the conservative Christians who oppose this order, parted company with them, and little research is required in order to understand why, given Perry’s cozy relationship with Merck, the vaccine’s manufacturer. Not only is one of Merck’s principal lobbyists Perry’s former chief of staff, but his current chief of staff’s mother-in-law, state legislator, Dianne White Delisi, is the state director of Women In Government. Add to that a $6,000 political contribution from Merck for Perry’s re-election campaign and Merck’s generous donations to Women In Government, plus a top official from Merck sitting on the Women In Government business council, and all the dots begin to connect.

Suddenly, Mr. Champion Of Family Values, Rick Perry, has dumped the fervent anti-fornicators of the religious right in favor of remaining in bed with Merck. If we didn’t know about that liaison, and if the governor's order weren't so draconian, we might be tempted to applaud his concern for the health of young Texas women.

Last week in Chile, on the other hand, President Michelle Bachelet took on the Roman Catholic Church and right-wing opposition there by signing a decree that the morning-after pill be available to girls as young as 14, even as the Constitutional Court of Chile ruled that she could not do so. In the same week, however, Bachelet held a special ceremony in La Moneda, Santiago’s presidential palace, celebrating new laws that ensure that working mothers can nurse their children in the workplace, even when there is no daycare center on the premises -- another long-time taboo in Chile’s traditionally Catholic, patriarchal milieu. Moreover, Bachelet affirmed that her administration was “guaranteeing that people have the tools to exercise a loving, spiritually strong maternity or paternity, and allowing the bonds between mothers and children to be enriched.”

Say that again Michelle! That people have the tools to be good parents? You mean tools like guaranteed daycare for all Chilean children, which you have instituted since you became president in March, 2006? You mean a national healthcare system that is now “looking forward to an unusual surplus of funds for 2008 and is currently evaluating how best to spend the unexpected additional money”? And what about the unprecedented pension plan your administration is implementing which guarantees that no one need retire in poverty and that every person over 60 will have all necessary health care for free? And those generous student loans that can be partially re-paid through community and professional service instead of graduating from college with a life-sentence of debt servitude? And the generous new tax credits and guarantees you are now offering to small businesses?

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[Demeter]

1. k&r Too Bad the Title's So Uninformative

I know, it's not your fault!