They Just Don't Get It

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

March 22, 2006

These days, the thought that "They just don't get it" comes to my mind a lot. Or maybe they just don't want to get it.

Take Matt Dubay, for example. He's the 25-year-old Michigan man who is suing his ex-girlfriend to get out of paying child support.

His logic?

Well, she could have had an abortion. That was her choice.
He ought to have a "choice" too, and since he didn't, he shouldn't have to pay a cent to help support little Elizabeth.

Matt Dubay thinks that the "principles of reproductive choice" ought to let him say to his girlfriend, "Have an abortion or I get to walk away."

Nice, huh? Either way, he'd have zero consequences and zero responsibility. Now some men have been saying that since time immemorial, but this time Dubay and his lawyers at the National Center for Men want the courts to back them up.

That group had been looking for someone like Dubay for years, so they could take their "Roe v. Wade for Men" argument to the courts. They say that women must be "required to share reproductive freedom with men," and argue that women are permitted to abandon their babies, so men should be able to do the same thing. Say what?

This lawsuit, which has been splashed across the media recently, is supported by men who want to control women's bodies. The other side of Matt Dubay's coin is the men who want to force a woman to have a baby for him (i.e. block her from having an abortion) because that, too, should be his "choice."

The bottom line is that it's her body, so it has to be her decision. Once there's a baby, that child is entitled to support from both parents, plain and simple.

And let's add to that list of people who just don't get it: the 353 members of the House of Representatives who still haven't signed on to support House Resolution 4197. Hundreds of thousands of Katrina survivors are still homeless and far from their families. Businesses are key to rebuilding the Gulf Coast, but no one is giving them any information either.

An election is scheduled next month, but there's still no plan to make sure every registered voter can go to the polls—wherever they may be living right now. . Does your representative support this crucial bill?

Talk about folks who just don't get it—what was going on at the FBI in summer 2001? According to federal court testimony, FBI agent Harry Samit warned his supervisors more than 70 times in the month leading up to Sept. 11 that Zacarias Moussaoui was a terrorist suspected of plotting to hijack an airplane. But no one listened. A former top FBI counterterrorism official admitted in court that he had never laid eyes on an urgent memo sent to his office by Samit.

It gets better...or worse, rather. Samit tried to get a warrant to search Moussaoui's belongings, particularly his computer, but got nowhere. Samit's main supervisor, who was later promoted, actually removed information about Moussaoui's connection to a Chechen group linked to Osama bin Laden from a warrant application. The warrant was eventually obtained, but not until after Sept. 11. Scary, frustrating, sad stuff.

And finally, something the majority of the country just doesn’t get, including me: Three years later, we're still at war.

Early this week, while most of us were beginning our days, exactly three years ticked by since the start of the war in Iraq. Given the global protests and letters to the editors I saw over this weekend, most people agree with me: It's been three years too long.

George W. Bush keeps uttering those three little words—"stay the course"—while more and more people out there (you and I always knew!) are figuring out there never was a course.

Leaders in Iraq say the country is now deep into a civil war, with 50-60 Iraqis dying daily, and our country's own heartbreaking losses mounting. And for what? So George Bush can reach some imaginary goal?

If you're as angry about this whole situation as I am, I hope you'll join me and tens of thousands of others on April 29 in New York City, and together we will March for Peace, Justice and Democracy. NOW is mobilizing with the anti-war, environmental, civil rights and labor groups, and religious communities who have joined our call for peace.

Death counts are rising, support is dwindling, and our voices are growing louder every day. The war-mongers can't ignore us anymore. Join us to speak out against the insanity.

Anthropologist Margaret Mead told us never to doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Just think of what all of us, together, can accomplish.

For equality, peace, justice, and democracy,

Kim