James Pouillon, one of the people shot in Owosso, Michigan, apparently was shot because of his views on a woman's inviolable right to kill her babies.
Provided she does so within the legally prescribed time currently available under American law.
Sounds different, when I put it that way. Here's another version: He was shot because of his pro-life views.
I think of Mr. Pouillon as being pro-life. Like me.
Labels Matter
What people are called really does make a difference."Anti-abortion" is what people are, when they try to force their views on others, and stand in the way of a woman's right to choose. They're dead-set against the tolerant, open-minded "my life, my choice" standard that has applied since Roe v. Wade liberated American women from the oppression of pregnancy caused by male chauvinist pigs.
"Pro-life" is what people are, when they think that, on the whole, it isn't nice to kill babies and sick people: and that we shouldn't do it. I'll grant that this involves forcing someone else's views on a woman who found out that somewhere in the last month she picked up an unwanted parasite (I remember when the was the 'correct' view of a baby): or the family who is tired of waiting for granny to die.
Labels matter, because they can suggest or imply how the reality they identify is supposed to be viewed.
As I said before, I call myself pro-life. It's not that I'm unsymapthetic with someone who didn't expect to get pregnant, or a family waiting for an inheritance: but I'm also concerned about the person who can be killed, quite legally, in this country.
Back to James Pouillon
According to police and the prosecutor, it wasn't Mr. Pouillon's beliefs that angered the assailant, so much as the sign he carried outside the Owosso, Michigan, high school."...It was Pouillon's presence outside the high school that seemed to drive Drake to kill, said assistant prosecutor Sara Edwards.I can see why that sign angered the killer.
That 'seemed to bother him .... the fact that he was outside the high school with his signs in front of children going to school,' Edwards said...."
"...Students said they regularly saw Pouillon outside their high school and that he often greeted them, but didn't shout slogans or try to start up a conversation with them.
" 'I can see someone spitting on him or punching him, but shooting him is pretty stupid,' said 16-year-old Curtis Wisterman...."
(AP)
"...James Pouillon stood with a sign that pictured a chubby-cheeked baby with the word "LIFE" on one side and an image of an aborted fetus with the word "ABORTION" on the other...."It must feel bad, to see what "anti-abortion" people are talking about - and realize that impressionable youth are being exposed to the idea that a woman's right to choose involves killing babies.
(AP)
Harlan James Drake, the accused killer, killed Mike Fuoss, too, and would have also shot another person if he hadn't been stopped. Mr. Drake seems to have been rather angry that day.
As I said yesterday, I'm quite sure that people who staunchly uphold a woman's right to choose/kill her baby wouldn't use a gun to hurt anyone.
I do think, though, that it's important to remember what those "anti-abortion" people think they're trying to do.
Related posts:
- "Mr. Pouillon's Dead: Pro-Life Protester Shot"
(September 11, 2009) - " 'I Hate Barack Obama' - Maybe Not the Best Message from a Pulpit"
(September 1, 2009) - "Ted Kennedy, the Catholic Church, and Our Law"
(August 27, 2009) - ""Your Life, Your Choices" is Back"
(August 23, 2009) - "Pro-Life Americans Declared Terrorists: It Can't Happen Here?"
(July 6, 2009) - "Late Term Abortions Reality Check"
(June 2, 2009) - "Dr. George Tiller's Murder Link Page"
(June 2, 2009) - "Fear of Right-Wing Extremism: Commie-Hunting in Reverse"
(April 19, 2009) - "Capital Punishment: for Troy Davis, it's Personal"
(April 18, 2009) - "Pro-Life? You May be a Dangerous Domestic Terrorist! MIAC Says So"
(March 23, 2009) - "Conservative? Liberal? Democrat? Republican? No, I'm Catholic"
(November 3, 2008) - "Life: It's a Single Issue, and an Important One"
(November 2, 2008) - "Capital Punishment: Killing Those Who Deserve to Die"
(October 2, 2008) - "Pro-Abortion Slogans Sound Nice, Hide Nasty Facts" (November 15, 2008)
- "Prosecutor: Anti-abortion sign angered gunman"
The Associated Press (September 11, 2009) - "Police: Shooting suspect offended by anti-abortion material"
CNN (September 11, 2009)
2 comments:
In the words of James M. Pouillon's eldest son:
It will be impossible for some to believe, but my dad really didn’t care about aborton.
He did this to stalk, harass, terrorize, scream at, threaten, frighten, and verbally abuse women. He had a pathologic hatred of women: his mom, my mom, everyone.
After my mom finally left him and he lost his favorite punching bag the violence and abuse that was always contained within our 4 walls was unleased on the people of Owosso.
My dad used the pro-life movement and 1st Amendments foundations to defend him, support him, and enable him. He fooled them all.
He was at the high shool because my niece was there, and female family members were always his favorite targets.
Again, my dad didn’t care about abortion. He wanted to hurt people, upset people. He enjoyed making people suffer.
His goal was to be shot on a sidewalk. His goal was to make someone so angry, to make them feel so terrorized, to make them feel the only way they could make him stop was to kill him.
His pro-life stance was the most perfect crime I personally know of. He hid behind the 1st Amendment and was allowed to stalk, terrorise, harass, be obsene, ect. These things are crimes. Offending people isn’t a crime, and having different political views isn’t a crime, but he committed several crimes over the last 20 years and got away with it.
Yes I really am his oldest son. Owosso is now rid of a mad man.
FSM_Ed,
You could be right. There are jerks who use one bit in Ephesians as an excuse to boss their wives around.
Besides, "everybody knows" what those anti-abortion people are like.
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