Birdshot in the Behind

Below the Belt: A Biweekly Column by NOW President Kim Gandy

February 22, 2006

What a month!

News in Washington travels fast. News on the Armstrong Ranch, it seems, suffers a bit of a delay.

The "news" — by the time it reached us the next day, it was more like history. Dick Cheney shot an acquaintance, Republican Harry Whittington, on a quail hunt at a lobbyist's Texas ranch (just another weekend with his favorite lobbyists?)

Why did he wait nearly 24 hours? I can make an educated guess about that one. When I was growing up in Louisiana, my dad went on lots of hunting trips to Texas, hosted by his employer for senior management — and they did a LOT of drinking. My guess is that if anything had happened, and medical care was already available, they might well have waited long enough for the alcohol to leave everyone's system before notifying the authorities. After all, that would have made for a very different story on the evening news.

The news was like an alarm clock — or, perhaps, birdshot in the behind — for the mainstream media. Clucking mad that the report reached them nearly 24 hours post-shot, they cried foul to the White House. "When did the president know?" "Why did it take so long to reach the public?"

I, for one, am a little confused. Did the media expect something more? Actually the surprising thing is that anyone learned about it at all.

This is the same lack of responsibility and accountability that has stretched the war in Iraq to nearly four years and that de-funded Army Corps of Engineer rebuilding plans for the levees in New Orleans. This administration invented the "Shoot first, answer questions later — but only if you feel like it" strategy. And now reporters are crying foul?

The media chose this most recent breach to finally say, "Wait a second." But an inhumane federal budget and a war that has cost too much for too long get nary a blink of an eye. Where are their priorities? (although it's nice to finally see the media wake up over something)

Make no mistake: At the end of the day, this incident was more than a simple failure to report a hunting accident. It was a symbol of the disregard that Bush and Cheney exhibit everyday. They each have a constituency of one: each other. And as long as people sit silently and accept their daily transgressions, they'll have no reason to care what we think. And no reason to change their ways.

Homeland Security director Michael Chertoff vowed to change his ways in front of a House panel investigating the utter collapse of government during Hurricane Katrina. But all I heard was more of the same: Chertoff blaming former FEMA Director Michael Brown, who in turn says it's all Chertoff's fault. This lack of accountability must be a virus. And no one blaming Bush, who directed FEMA to concentrate on homeland security instead of disaster planning. And the virus is spreading!

The House panel concluded that lapses at every level of government, right up to the White House, exacerbated the disaster that has taken more than 1,300 lives so far (yes, Katrina continues to claim new victims) and caused tens of billions of dollars in damages.

"Government failed because it did not learn from past experiences, or because lessons thought to be learned were somehow not implemented," the House panel's report said. If that's true, we're in trouble, because I've never seen an administration so incapable of learning from past mistakes — or fixing their current ones.

And now for something completely different: Wal-Mart does something right (okay, it took pretty heavy pressure!). The corporation will comply with an order from the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Pharmacy to dispense prescriptions for emergency contraception. Kudos to the NOW activists and others who have been working on forcing Wal-Mart to play fair!

Clearly, thanking Wal-Mart for complying with an order from the state is a bit much. But maybe there's more where this came from? For starters, they could go ahead and stock this necessary contraceptive in their stores across the country, and not just in Massachusetts. Word from their company spokesman is that they are "actively thinking through the issue." Excuse me? Women don't have time to wait. While they think — even "actively" — women's health and future are at stake. These are our rights. And, as the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Pharmacy pointed out this week, we have the law on our side.

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day filled with love (and lots of chocolate!) Since Valentines' Day falls smack dab in the middle of Freedom to Marry Week, every year I vow to do my part to ensure that every couple is afforded the same rights to marry and build a family. One day, victory will be ours.

As Coretta Scott King, whose words resonate still, put it in 1998: "We are all tied together in a single garment of destiny... I've always felt that homophobic attitudes and policies were unjust and unworthy of a free society and must be opposed by all Americans who believe in democracy."

Those of us who still believe in perfecting our democracy carry her cloak, and her fight.

Cheers,

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