As a political
activist, February 21st always brought to mind the assassination
of Malcolm X and his historical legacy.� On February 21,
1989 all that changed for me when that date assumed a
double meaning with the birth of my second child.
My wife was
told that she would need to have a caesarian delivery
due to the circumstances of the birth of our first child
(a child who did not survive).� They scheduled it for
February 21, 1989 at 8am.� When the doctor mentioned the
date I immediately thought of Malcolm X and the irony
- for lack of a better term - of my daughter (I did not
know her gender prior to her birth) being born on that
day, twenty-four years after Malcolm�s death.
At 3:55am on
the morning of February 21, 1989 my wife woke me and told
me that it was time to go to the hospital.� At 6am my
beautiful daughter was born and I entered a new life.�
Perhaps the irony of her birth is that February 21st
came to be a day for me of both sorrow and joy, integrally
linked.
Reflecting on my daughter�s birth I frequently find myself
thinking about the words of the great philosopher George
Carlin, particularly when he said:� "Once you leave the womb, conservatives don't care about
you until you reach military age. Then you�re just what
they�re looking for. Conservatives want live babies so
they can raise them to be dead soldiers."�
On this February
21st (2012) we find ourselves engrossed in yet another
round of discussions about what women should be doing
with their bodies, a discussion that is never matched
with what should happen during the lives of those who
are, under whatever circumstances, born into this world.�
The hypocrisy from the political Right has never ceased
to amaze me.� It was up to me and my wife to do what we
could to make the best for our daughter with very little
help from the state.� Well, we have been fortunate to
have been able to do that.� But the political Right could
not have given a damn whether we were capable of taking
care of our daughter or not.� In fact, they seem to be
quite comfortable watching the lives of millions collapse
into nothingness, just as long as those millions have
the alleged right to be born.
When my daughter
was born all that concerned me was ensuring that my wife�s
physical condition was excellent and that my daughter
had a peaceful, healthy and productive life ahead of her.�
That is about all that any of us can ever ask.� Something
else that I wanted and continue to want is that no politician
or political force ever has the power and ability to tell
my baby girl what she can do should she become pregnant.�
The fact that we even have to argue this out decades after
the Roe v Wade decision reminds us of not only the winds
of politics but the utter disconnect that exists for so
many people between an alleged right to be born, on the
one hand, and a legitimate right to live a healthy, secure
and productive life on the other.
Yes, I am for
the right to life, but a right to a good life where women
have control over their bodies, not a �right� that life
is determined by political opportunists who know about
as much about science as I know about the dark side of
the moon.
Indeed, February
21st has many meanings for me.
BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member, Bill Fletcher, Jr., is a Senior Scholar with
the Institute for
Policy Studies, the immediate past president of TransAfricaForum and co-author of Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path
toward Social Justice (University of California Press), which examines
the crisis of organized labor in the USA. Click here to contact Mr. Fletcher.
