Richness of reading the Sunday paper
The Sunday New Mexican newspaper was excellent a week ago. I hope readers took time to read the Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart’s column (“Vote: It’s your superpower,” Commentary, July 10) about the dismal Democratic turnouts for midterm elections. I was heartbroken back in 2010 and 2014 after midterm elections that led to the Republican tea party fanatics taking over Congress. Democrats, wake up!
I also appreciated the editorial (“True pro-lifers support families and babies,” Our View, July 10). You mentioned there are 33 maternal deaths for every 100,000 births in Mississippi, and New Mexico received a C+ in this department. And yet we insist we are the “best country in the world.”
Years ago, I worked at Navy Hospital in San Diego on a “complicated obstetrical ward.” Our obstetrical department delivered 400-plus babies a month, and my ward had 26 beds for prepartum and postpartum women who were having complications, some quite severe, with their pregnancies and deliveries. When I told people where I worked, they would laugh and say, “What’s so complicated about having a baby?” Pregnancies can be very hard on the woman and families, as well as life-threatening, and the general public needs to know that.
This brings me to the next discussion: The deletion of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court. Women in all cultures face and bear a heavy burden for pregnancy and caring for their young. I have a book by Elaine Morgan, The Descent of Woman. In it, she says that if women were as careless in taking care of their young as men were in begetting them, then the human species would have died off millions of years ago.
Why, then, are men not held responsible for irresponsible behavior? Men have abused, coerced, belittled, raped and abandoned women causing pregnancies, and also have ignored the responsibility of these pregnancies that result in fatherhood. Whatever happened to male birth control? And, yes, Viagra should be taken off the market. I’ve also read that raising a child will cost about $200,000 for a child to reach age 18. So, guys, fork it over and grow up!
Here we all are at an impasse. So many problems to solve, and we need to elect a Senate that will actually listen to the people and enact legislation: Gun control, safe and legal abortions, climate change solutions, and migration. The list goes on. By the way, Doonesbury, Pearls before Swine and Non-Sequitur all were excellent comic strips on Sunday.
Oh, and since Donald Trump says he won the 2020 election, he has now been president twice; therefore, he can’t run again!