Choosing Life, Meaninglessly

 I LIVE DEEP within the dark depths of a far right wing "red" state, in a county in which, the almighty be thanked there sits a major university in a reasonably progressive college town, a town which my father, who like I attended the university, described as "an oasis in the midst of a vast wasteland"... Away from the university and the college town, out in the cultural wastes of the county, the bizarre often occurs. Out there, deep in the woods, far right sorts often gather together, conduct military drills in camo fatigues, carrying AR15 assault weapons and Bibles, spouting quotes from George Wallace, Nathan Bedford Forrest and Donald Trump, just...doing their thing. The most recent instance  of the bizarre involved the quorum court, which voted, along party lines, to declare the county a "pro life" county. All Republicans voted yea, all Democrats voted nay. The Democrats did not attempt to leave the building, the county, or the state to forestall this latest instance of far right lunacy, perhaps fully aware or at least suspicious that beneath their trench coats the right wingers were most likely armed with fully automatic assault weapons, and were unafraid to use them. To the majority Republicans their proclamation doubtless seemed to be of the most profound significance, although to any intelligent person of discernment it says nothing, does nothing, and is nothing. If an actual poll were taken of the residents of the county, it would probably be close to half pro abortion rights, half against abortion rights, about like the rest of the country. The United States has actually a majority in favor of a woman controlling her own reproductive choices, but its close, with most red states favoring government control. (Conservatives are not so much "pro small government" after all.) But the point is that no matter how skeptical one is of human decency, one must admit that only a psychopath is not "Pro life". All sane beings stand in favor of their own right to exist, and in favor of the existence of life on Earth generally. What conservatives cannot seem to grasp is that people who advocate for the right of pregnant women to choose their own reproductive choices are not "pro abortion", are in fact "anti abortion", but "pro choice". Nobody has ever organized a protest encouraging women to have abortions, but only, to advocate for their right to so choose, free of government interference, in support of the law of the land, Roe v. Wade, which, despite the nonsense currently being propagated by the lunatic evangelical right, was correctly decided. The "pro lifers" will simply have to live with that inconvenient fact.