Living in Austin is an odd experiance. Austin is truly a dicotomy. A liberal stronghold surrounded by arguably the most conservative state in the union.
Living here you see alot of clashes between liberal beliefs and conservative beliefs. One thing that I don't understand is that how people can decided that all issues are black and white, and that if someones doesn't happen to see things as "whitely" as you do, they are EVIL!!!
Lemme give you and example. Planned Parenthood is opening a very large center here in Austin in the near future. The construction of this building has been delayed for a long time because the conservatives in the area have been pressuring construction companies to decline building for PP. When all of this first came to light, there were opinion articles flying back and forth from both sides with flames that would make even the most jaded internet forum member blush.
One of the things that really makes me shake my head is when the right refers to the left as pro-death and when the left refers to the right as anti-choice. Do these people that the opposition is really pro-death or anti-choice?
And the people like me, who are caught in the middle are labled as evil by both side. Me, personally, I believe in a woman's (and man's to some extent) right to choose, but I don't believe that abortion should be used as a standard form of birth control. On the other hand I think abortion has its place. If a 13 orphan is raped and gets pregnent, should she have this child? There is no way for this girl to support a baby. What about me and my wife? We are struggling to get by while I go to college, if she were to get pregnent, we would consider getting an abortion. Children make lives more difficult in the best of circumstances. I'm not saying that having children is a bad thing, but having them when your not prepared or not able to take care of them is bad. Along that same thought, I believe that putting children up for adoption is also not the best idea. There are too many children waiting for adoption that will never get adopted as is.
This same discussion can be used when talking about the dealth penalty. One side things you should never put someone to death, the other side believes that it is the right thing to do. Again there is the grey area I fall into. I have become more liberal in my beliefs since coming to the University. I don't really think it is because of being at a liberal school, but rather, I'm in a place in my life where I am spending more time looking at the outside world, I'm less ego-centric. I used to belive whole-heartedly that the death penalty was the way to go, but a few years ago there was a newspaper article that changed my mind.
There was a man convicted of the rape and murder of a girl. He was sitting on death row waiting for a needle. New technology in DNA research eventually proved that the man didn't rape the girl or murder her. He was set free after spending 20 years in prison and like 2 months from being put to death. That made me think, what had happened if that research hadn't been available. A free man would have been killed for a crime he didn't commit. That got me to thinking, well if this has happened once, its possible that it could have happened before. What kind of society do we live in where the innocent are put to death by the state? If we accept that accidents happen, and that the greater good outweighs the good of a single person, how many innocent deaths is too many? And how would YOU feel if you were the one waiting for a needle for a crime you didn't commit.
NOW before the flames start, I'm not saying that the death penality should be abolished. If you have 50 people (as an outrageous example) witness Joe Blow murder Officer Skippy, I'll stick the needle in his arm myself. On the other hand, if the only witness to a murder is a convicted kiddy porn distributer that is getting a deal for his testimony, I wouldn't feel right about sending that guy to the chair (or bed depending on which state you live in).
Just like the abortion issue, there are varing shades of grey to every issues. What would be nice, is if everyone would agree to this.
Well now that i'm sure that i've done a good job alienating everyone with some part of what I've said, I realize most everyone will think I'm evil, but thats ok, thats what the name is for.
