Doug Jones, a Change Wave, and a Little Alabama Common Sense

By Regina Pickett Garson

I had my heart set on seeing Doug Jones and Stacey Abrams when they were at the Mars Music Hall in Huntsville on October 11. There is no doubt, I am an Abrams fan. She is a true Georgia queen, but this one is about Doug Jones, and he is the Democratic Nominee for Governor of the State of Alabama. 

Anyway, Jones and Abrams had a Rally. I had a ticket, and I seriously wanted to be there. The morning of, I got an email about purses. Because of security, I was either going to need a very small handbag or a clear one. I had never heard of such, but it could be that I am not as up with the times as I thought. That was the first inkling I got that it wasn’t going to work out. I had planned to Uber over. I did not have an appropriate purse, and morning of was a little late to figure that out. At my age, I need proper supplies when I leave the house. Not to mention, that was about the time I realized that it was going to be a standing-room event, and the Lord knows I have seen better days. 

Knowing what I know now, and maybe with a little serenity type acceptance thrown in, I could have asked about accessibility accommodations. Being real, I always figured that was somebody else who had that need. The hands of time sure do march on though, and I sure wanted to be there. Doug Jones had been circling the state and circling it again, getting out and talking to people, answering questions and listening to what folks had to say. 

Before I was even through pouting, I got an email that he was having a Virtual Meet-and-Greet on Zoom. So, I got a ticket for that one too. The day of, I got my coffee, logged into my computer, and got my questions ready. As to who he is, and why I wanted to hear what he had to say. Doug Jones was on the team that led the way to justice that finally closed the case for the four young African American girls—Addie Mae Collins (14), Carole Robertson (14), Cynthia Wesley (14), and Denise McNair (11), who were killed in a church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 15, 1963. Although this one took decades, anybody who lived through the Civil Rights Movement in the South has a good idea of the level of courage, strength, and ironclad will-power that it took for a White man to help secure convictions in this case. Doug Jones is an American hero. A real one. 

Once we all got logged in, Jones talked a while about his campaign, and then he went to taking questions. He didn’t just take questions; he answered them, and he went down the list. Some folks asked their questions out loud. Others, like me, typed ours in the chat window. 

Our corrections system is a concern to many of our citizens, and I wanted to ask about that: Alabama Republicans have been making a lot of noise about cleaning this state up and getting tough on crime. The thing is, despite having been in control of the State Legislature since 2010, they don’t seem to have done a whole lot about it. 

Some folks have though, Birmingham, one of our largest cities, now has its lowest homicide rate since 1954, with a 70% reduction. Their overall crime rate is down 12% just in the past year. Local officials credit the reduction in crime to a combination of intelligence-led policing, targeted enforcement in crime hot spots, and new community violence intervention programs implemented under Mayor Randall Woodfin. It sure looks like somebody in the state is getting it right when it comes to fighting crime. Alabama Political Reporter  

It concerns me what that get tough-on-crime talk is actually going to do to the lives of our citizens, most especially when the crime rate is already way down in a major city such as Birmingham. 

That brings us around to the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC). Alabama is always in some kind of Federal trouble for not meeting yet another minimum standard for its jails and prisons. I sure do believe that we should be tough on crime, keep our folks civilized, but of all the things we are right near, if not flat at the bottom, Alabama is right near the top in the number of people we have locked up. And money is not the issue here. Or maybe it is. We somehow manage to spend more per inmate than just about anybody else. Jones pointed out that we spend 25 cents of every dollar on corrections, which is more than we spend on education, and we still have one of the worst prison systems in the country. Our parole system is a mess, and our over 60 prison population has increased exponentially, which is at least partly due to what he terms our broken parole system. 

Meanwhile, these Republican politicians are talking about how we need to get tough on crime and clean up our state. How many more of our people are they planning to lock up? Governor Kay Ivey is in the process of building a new prison, and pushing for another one, but she really wanted four. But anyway, my question was on our corrections system, and I was not the only one who had questions on it.

All this while Tommy Tuberville, who is running against Jones for governor, struts around, spouting off about what a hellhole Alabama is and how we need to get tough on crime. There is no doubt that our prisons and jails are hellholes, or that we have problems in some areas. But Mayor Woodfin has already reduced the Birmingham crime rate, and the Republicans have been in control of the state since 2010, so why haven’t they done something already. There is a lot of money in crime though, and there are some very real reasons why some of these folks are a whole lot more interested in locking people up than fixing the problems that lead to so many being locked up. 

Jones is significantly more informed and rational on the subject. He discussed Alabama's prison spending, the aging prison population, and the failure of our broken parole system. He also discussed diversion programs, particularly those designed to keep young people out of prison. He went on to discuss the need for financial reviews and audits. Our prisons are not private, but a whole lot of the work is farmed out, and the money is going somewhere. The question he asked is where. We are spending way too much on our prison system for it to be continuously falling short of basic human standards. We need to do more both to fight crime and to see to the well-being of the inmates in our corrections system.

"The Alabama Solution," the documentary about the conditions in our Alabama prisons was real. Jones discussed the federal government's litigation concerning Alabama prison conditions, which seems to be never-ending. He pointed out the waste, and that we need to quit throwing money at private lawyers every time the Justice Department goes to court against the State of Alabama because of its prison system. 

Meanwhile, ask him a question, and Tuberville frequently starts talking about abortion. It has been years since I wrote about abortion politicians. Now, Y'all. Nothing has changed, and Tuberville is one of them. Abortion politicians get folks riled up over abortions. They talk about abortions even after the baby is born. That is not an abortion, and they don’t have the sense to know the difference. The thing is, he spins it like Jones is some kind of rabid abortion lover. 

Back in the 2020 Senate race, Tuberville attacked Jones over abortion, claiming that Jones supported abortions up until birth and had voted to fund late-term abortions with taxpayer money. It has already been proved and proved again that he was less than truthful on what he said about Jones and abortion. He was called out twice during that campaign alone for being less than truthful, okay for lying about Jones and his stance on abortion. PolitiFact 

To clarify, since it keeps coming up, federal law already places strict limits on taxpayer-funded abortions. Under the Hyde Amendment, in effect since 1976, federal Medicaid funds generally cannot pay for abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or when the pregnant woman's life is endangered. Similar restrictions apply to other federal healthcare programs. 

As to Jones and the abortion issue. He is sane, despite the rhetoric from the other side. Way back in 2017, Jones said: “I fully support a woman’s freedom to choose to what happens to her own body. Having said that, the law for decades has been that late-term procedures are generally restricted except in the case of medical necessity. That’s what I support. I don’t see any changes in that.” Tommy Tuberville wrong twice in attack on Alabama Sen. Doug Jones on abortion – PolitiFact 

Also Jones' words, “We have to do better when it comes to maternal and infant health, make childcare more affordable and protect women’s freedom to make their own decisions about their reproductive health, IVF and contraception.” 

Back to the Meet-and-Greet, Jones does not avoid the hard questions, and he never has. By the night of the Virtual Meet-and-Greet, he had already done 20 Town Halls. The Meet-and-Greets were just extra. I know it would have been the political event of the season to have heard him and Abrams. It was packed out, as has been true of a lot of his Town Halls and rallies. 

Despite my pouting at missing the rally, the Meet-and-Greet was a whole lot more personal than a rally could ever be. We all got our questions heard, and answered. When it comes to getting out and really talking to the people, listening to their concerns, and talking about what he is going to do about them, Jones has been hitting all the bases. I don’t guess they have bases in football though. That could be why Tuberville hasn’t been too worried about talking to folks. 

Jones talked about every single concern and issue that the attendees wanted to talk about in that Meet-and-Greet, and sometimes more than once. I asked about our prison system. I am not real happy with where the cannabis laws are going in our state either. Way too many lives have been destroyed by the War on Drugs. People don’t get the help they need because of it, and it is to the point that people will watch as their own or the life of a loved one is destroyed because of what happens if they end up in our way past messed up prison system. That system is broken too.

Jones is a staunch supporter of legalizing medical marijuana. He feels that patients should have access to medical cannabis if it provides relief, and he has spoken openly about prioritizing medical access over continued prohibition. In the Senate, Jones supported the decriminalization of recreational marijuana. From a criminal justice perspective, he argues that the justice system needs to stop locking up non-violent cannabis users and focus on more severe issues, such as the opioid crisis. Alabama Political Reporter.  

Here are some of the highlights on some of the other issues he discussed: Jones wants to pass a lottery bill to allow people to vote on it, so we can keep the money in Alabama. He also talked about the importance of trade schools, so folks can learn how to make a good living. He wants to eliminate the grocery tax, which we’ve had for way too long. He also maintains that we must increase the minimum wage in Alabama. We are number 7 on the poverty rate in this country, and lifting people out of poverty starts with raising the minimum wage. Right alongside that, we need to unclog the wait times if we expand Medicaid, which he plans to do, and I am still aggravated that neither Bentley nor Ivey accepted those funds for our state. We paid our share of the taxes on it, so the way I see it, that is like buying your groceries and leaving them in the store for the next person. Paying it forward is cool, but that is not a good plan if you need a few groceries too. We all have to eat, and we all need medical care. The Medicaid Expansion will make a big difference in a number of the health care issues in our state. That is not even to mention the hospitals that closed because of the lack of funding. 

Despite it all, the thing that concerns me the most about having Tuberville leading our state is the fact that he has not shown a whole lot of understanding regarding the importance of our nation’s military. One of the most despicable deeds I have ever seen out of any Senator was when he stonewalled military promotions to make a political point. His political grandstanding left critical positions unfilled so long as to raise serious concerns about military readiness, leaving our entire nation vulnerable. It was like playing “Russian roulette” with our national security, and he didn’t seem to grasp the fact that it was even an issue. It was just a game to him. It could be that everything is, but this is not football. I live in a military town, and I used to work on that base. I damn well believe in a strong military. He can give lip service to our armed forces until cows fly, but if he doesn’t understand the difference in supporting and undermining them, what else does he not understand. I question his judgement, and I question his good common sense. Those political shenanigans could have cost our country dearly. 

In the middle of all that, Jones has had some in the Dem camp about as mad as they can get because he was reaching across the aisle the whole time he was in the Senate. That has doubtless cost him some votes, but do you know what? I think that is one of the best things about him. He talks to people. He finds out what they think, and then he rolls up his sleeves to work with them toward a common goal. As far as I am concerned, that is what a good politician is supposed to do. Meanwhile, Tuberville made it clear that he is not interested in working across the aisle: on Page 3 of his playbook, he says, “The woke mob doesn’t get a vote in Alabama.” Tommy Tuberville Website. That says it all, because I sure do think we all need to be working together for the good of the state. 

At the end of the day, it is not about Red or Blue, it is about the good of our people and our state. Jones said something during the Meet-and-Greet that really resonated. He doesn't see this election as a Red Wave or a Blue Wave, but as a "Change Wave," with people from both parties wanting something different for Alabama. There is no doubt that I do too, and that is exactly why I am voting for Doug Jones.

Sources:

• "The Alabama Solution." HBO Documentary.
• ChatGPT provided editorial assistance.
• Doug for Alabama.
• Garson, Regina Pickett. December 10, 2017. "Abortion Politics in Alabama." Now, Y'all: On Politics, Social Issues, and Life.
• Gemini -- The Google Gemini App was used for fact checking.
• Kertscher, Tom. October 14, 2020. "Tommy Tuberville Wrong Twice in Attack on Alabama Sen. Doug Jones on Abortion." Politifact. 
• Mosley,  Brandon. September, 20, 2019. Jones: Time to Take Marijuana off Controlled Substances List. Alabama Political Reporter. 
• Tommy Tuberville Website. 
• Wooten, Mary Claire. July 3, 2026.  "Birmingham Reports 70 Percent Drop in Homicides, Overall Crime Falls 12 Percent." Alabama Political Reporter.  

Let Freedom Read -- Banned Books Week

Once upon a time, Banned Books Week was fun. Back in college, I was a member of Sigma Tau Delta, the English honor society. Banned Books Week was a big deal to us. We celebrated the books that had offended somebody somewhere, challenged conventional thinking, or simply dared to tell stories that made people uncomfortable.

There was something wonderfully rebellious about it. We were readers, writers, and lovers of literature. Of course we wanted to read the forbidden books!

Somewhere along the way, the conversation changed. What once seemed an amusing exercise in literary defiance has now become a profoundly serious struggle over who gets to decide what the rest of us are allowed to read.

According to the American Library Association, 4,235 unique book titles were challenged in 2025. This isn't simply a matter of an occasional offended parent questioning a book. Organized censorship campaigns are targeting entire collections.

Whether we agree with the ideas in those books or not, that censorship should concern every single one of us. The freedom to read isn't about agreeing with every book on the shelf. It's about protecting everyone's right to choose what they read.

October 10 is Let Freedom Read Day, the culmination of Banned Books Week 2026. 

I still believe in the joy of discovering a book that challenges everything you thought you knew. But these days, I'm not laughing quite as much about banned books. Some freedoms are simply too important to take for granted.

Let Books Be. Protect the Freedom to Read.

Artwork courtesy of the American Library Association 

Banned Books Week

This article was composed with the assistance of ChatGPT.

 

Shootings, Hate-Mongering, and Political Violence

By Regina Pickett

I'm troubled by the shooting of our former President Trump, and I know that I am not the only one. It’s not just the shooting. The hate-mongering rhetoric that spews from both political sides in this country, and sometimes from outside it, has been troubling for a while. At a certain point, it overflows. We are at that point. People get violent. Others die and suffer injury.

Hate-mongering is like that. We are inundated with hateful memes on social media, politicians who spout anger without regard for facts, and pundits who spout more. You have to dig to find unbiased news reporting on much of anything these days, and that is at least part of the problem.

I firmly believe that most people on both sides really are good and decent people who are trying to do the best they can every day of their lives. But the hate-mongering becomes a serious problem when people who may not be quite as well balanced as they could be fixate on the hateful rhetoric and end up with a version of events that has nothing whatsoever to do with reality, and a whole lot to do with hate. And one more time, we have one more nutcase with a gun.

This is not a one-off. It is unrelenting. Hateful rhetoric has been spewing from both sides since the shooting. The thing is, violence and hate-mongering rhetoric have no place in our politics, and there has been too much of both lately. The January 6^th insurrection was about as wrong on the rhetoric and violence as it could get. The violence toward Nancy Pelosi’s husband was heinous, and the hateful rhetoric that spewed after it was worse. The random and methodical mass shootings are to the point of evil. It’s never-ending, and they have been politicized too. The shooting of our former President Trump was wrong. Despicably wrong. He survived, but everybody in the crowd didn’t.

Did the country come together in prayer and contemplation? No, it did not. People spewed hate and conspiracy theory on top of conspiracy theory, as if that would solve a thing.

Sometimes, just sometimes, folks need to clean their wounds, cool the rhetoric, and figure out what really happened before bumping up the hate-mongering one more notch. Although it is still being debated, and the spinners are spinning for all they are worth, from what we know at this point, the assassination attempt was made by a member of Trump’s own Republican party. I sure do wish I had an answer, but nothing makes good common sense. I am not sure out-of-control hate and violence ever do though. Crazy doesn’t either, and that is what you get when people who are not that well-balanced end up too wrapped up in all the political rhetoric and hate-mongering. The hate-mongering feeds the fringes of both sides, and not in a good way. Be that as it may, there have been times when I had a pretty good idea that is exactly what some of the politicians intended.

This country needs a good old-fashioned coming to Jesus on all this hate-mongering and the violence it perpetuates. It needs it bad. The words of the day used to be love and peace; Now it is hate and violence. People need to quit feeding into that hate, and they need to vote out the politicians who fuel it. They are not doing the country or the people in it a lick of good.

We all know folks who would like things a whole lot better if we only had one or the other political party. However, that is not how this country was founded. It was founded on the idea that the two parties should work together and balance things out without going too far in either direction. Now, instead of working together, a whole lot of the folks in both parties would just as soon do away with the other completely. That is not how democracy works; for the folks who like to argue semantics, it is not how a democratic republic works either. The thing that worries me is that if things don’t start to get better on this one, they are going to get a whole lot worse. Y’all know that’s true.

Change such as this is a one-person, one-vote at a time process. We do not have to feed into that hate-mongering. We don’t have to put up with it either. We really do have the choice to say no to such when we take our turn in the voting booths on election day. I’m not calling out a single politician on this one today. Y’all know your districts and you know who the problems are. Taking it one vote at a time, we can solve this problem in this country. 

The AOC Debate and Old School Feminism

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

By Regina Pickett Garson

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (affectionately known as AOC) has made the Times' List of Most Influential People for 2019. Now, that is something.

I know folks on both sides who both do and do not like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. To support her or not is a big debate. She is young, intelligent and outspoken, and she has been elected to the House of Representatives for New York's 14th Congressional District. Good for her.

I am proud to see young people getting involved in politics and getting elected to office. Being real, I think it would do this whole country some good if we had more young people involved in politics. Mostly though, I think it is good when all kinds of people are represented in our political system: all colors, all religions, all ages, all genders. You get the idea.

Also though, I am an old school feminist. I am not quite as old school as my Grandmother Cash was though. Back in the day, if a woman was on the ballot, Grandmother would vote for her. It did not matter which party that woman was from, if she was on the ballot, my grandmother and other women from all over the country would turn out in droves to vote for her. There were very few women in government back then and they all knew that it really was important that women's voices be heard in the decisions made by our government, most especially the ones that impacted them the most as women. Those are my feminist roots and I surely do understand that it took a whole lot of effort from a whole lot of folks for women to get the rights and representation that we have today.

Even after all this time though, there are still times when I know good and well that certain decisions would have been different if more women had been part of the decision-making process. We are not there yet. And I know it.






Years ago, on my first trip to DC, for a Women's Equality Summit, I talked a while to some of the older feminists who were there. I was offered funding if I would consider running for office. At the time, I knew that I could not cut it, being real, I was in no way ready for such. There was also the minor detail that "I inhaled," and I never did make much of a secret about it. I discussed that with them too; it would have knocked a woman out of the running in an instant back then. Times change though and I am actually pretty glad to see that. I do not do a whole lot of "inhaling" these days either. And I did eventually find my name on the ballot when I ran as a Democratic Delegate for the last presidential election.

But anyway, one of the core values in the fight for equality that I learned from those older feminists was that you can fight for folks to have equality, equal rights and fight hard for change that you know has to be, but no matter how hard that fight and how hard you work toward those changes, the one thing you cannot do is to tell folks what to do with those rights and that equality. Equality is not about control. It is about each and every individual having the same rights, the same right for their voice to be heard and the same opportunity for a place at the table.

I am well aware that the young folks today may not look at things the same way we did. In fact, if they did, I would think that we, as a generation, had failed to teach them to think. Grandmother would have voted for a woman no matter which party she was in. I do not doubt for an instant that she would have voted for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I am also pretty certain that she would have loved her outspoken candor. Grandmother did not have a whole lot of choices though. Today, we have the privilege of women being represented in both parties. That is progress. Real progress.

The young women today might not give a second thought to things that we thought were vitally important. Given the opportunity, they might not do anything that we ever even thought about doing if we had a seat at that table. However, one of the most important things is still that we all get a seat at that table. That we are represented.

That said, I am not saying that I agree with or support every single thing that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has ever done or said. I am not even going to go there. At the end of the day, I am an old school feminist. I am also old enough to have mellowed out in my expectations of youth. I love to see the raging young who question the system and are willing to roll up their sleeves and work toward the changes that they believe in.

AOC has made a lot of waves. She is young, intelligent, outspoken and brash. Being real, I am well aware that she has a lot of things to learn. I will not join in on that debate either. She is new at the job and finding her way. I do not fault her on that one little bit. She got in there, fought the good fight and she got that job. I am not going to trash talk her one little bit. From the best I can tell, she is making an effort to do a good job and to learn the ropes. One thing that she may be dealing with more so than some of the others is that instant fame has a way of doing a number on your head and it could be that she is dealing with some of that too. I am pretty confident that she is going to figure that one out too though.






I am well aware that, if they are lucky, even the youngest and the most outspoken among us eventually grow older. Despite some folks' fear of her hot headedness, I also realize that, at the end of the day, she only has one vote, just like everybody else in the House of Representatives.

With all of the above considerations, it does my heart good to see that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has a seat at the table. I think it does the country good too. Before she is done, I think that she is going to do some good. I for one love to see the questioning youth, the ones who stand up and shout and question the system when they see things they do not like. The ones who work for change.

It could be that a lot of folks on both sides really are afraid of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and for what she stands for. It could also be that her raging youth is a reminder to some that their own youth is quickly fading. I do not see that as a threat at all; I see that as a promise that there is hope for the next generation in this country.

Make no mistake, the torch will be passed and her appearance on the scene is a good indication that the next generation is getting ready. They are moving forward to take their place at the table, to take their turn at working toward the things that they think are important for this country. We from the boomer generation are starting to slow down a little and I for one am looking forward to seeing what she and her generation can do.

That is my two cents on the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez debate.

Also see: Time 100 Most Influential People for 2019 for the rest of the folks who made the list.

Labor Day and the Folks Where I Come From

By Regina Garson

"Remember the workers and thank the unions."

Labor Day is one of those days that I never really thought much about. But Labor Day is about the working folks and their rights in this country. It could be that Pea Ridge, where I grew up, was more important in that than I will ever know. I picked up tidbits from my granddaddy, "Bill Pickett," when I was a kid but kids do not really have the understanding to comprehend such until they are a whole lot older.

Pa Bill used to tell me about work in the coal mines. Those were some hard times and after working to the bone, poor as dirt the whole time, trying to feed his family, he was disabled with Black Lung. Now, after all those years, Black Lung is showing up again among the coal miners. I just heard that the other day. That is not a good thing.

The stories Pa Bill told me about life and work in the coal mines was what got me started writing in the first place. Before it was done, it had me thinking pretty hard about politics too.

Pa Bill was involved with the United Mine Workers of America and so were a lot of his family and friends in the Pea Ridge area. Sam Littlefield was among them. He was an important union leader and he is buried right there in Macedonia Cemetery. President of the United Mine Workers District 20 in Alabama, Sam Littlefield was shot and killed under very dubious, "supposedly random," circumstances in a hotel burglary, in Washington DC.






Although I could see that happening with some of the DC hotels that I have been in, he was up there for some important meetings to discuss some of the workplace issues that the coal miners were facing. A lot of the powers that be were not wonderfully happy that the coal miners were standing up for better conditions in the mines and their rights as workers. The circumstances of Sam Littlefield's death were never properly resolved in much of anybody's eyes, except maybe those of the folks who represented the coal mine owners and operators who also had an interest in those meetings. They were apparently quite happy that it was "declared" a random burglary.

Knowing the things that Pa Bill told me and where I came from, what our people went through, and then Sam Littlefield giving his very life working to make things better for the coal miners while others flat out died or worked until they were completely disabled and could not work another day in those mines, I have a real hard time when folks do not understand that unions and the rights of working folks are important. Blood was shed and lives lost when folks started trying to improve the conditions for the workers in this country. They were working to the bone and still starving.

It was not just on Pea Ridge though, it was all over the country. Those old union members did a lot of good toward improving the rights of the workers in this country and some of the ones from Pea Ridge were right there leading the fight. Give them a thought and a little bit of thanks as you fire up the grill. Remember the sacrifices of the good hard working folks who came before us. And that's my two cents on Labor Day.


Image Credit: Pixabay

Abortion Politics in Alabama

Logic, rhyme and reason have all left the state when it comes to abortion in Alabama. And I don't mean abortion per se; I mean "abortion politics." Make no mistake: None of this is honestly about abortion and it surely isn't about seeing to the rights and well-being of newborns. Both our laws and our record on such things as childhood poverty, infant mortality, healthcare and education all prove that one.

People in these parts get so riled up about abortions, they can't see straight. Some politicians, we are going to call them "abortion politicians," most notably the ones who don't have a logical platform to stand on, can't tell you one good thing they are going to work toward, and have a past that would make Mae West blush, routinely use the abortion issue to get people riled up against opponents to whom they can't hold a candle and don't have a chance beating this side of Hades in a real debate on real issues.

Not a platform to stand on? No problem. Yell, "Abortion!" Abysmal record? No problem. Yell, "Abortion!" Questionable behavior? Not a problem. Yell, "Abortion!" Really seriously questionable and abysmally immoral behavior? Yell, "Abortion! Abortion! Abortion!"

The special Alabama Senate race has taken the whole thing with abortion politics to entirely new levels. These abortion politicians have been keeping that abortion ball rolling, Kayla Moore, Roy Moore's wife, coined a brand new abortion term, "full-term abortion," just for her husband's campaign against Doug Jones. Not that it had any basis in reality, but it was surely a good play. It got folks riled up real good and they are still talking about those full-term abortions, which still don't have any basis in reality.

Not to be outdone, a copy and paste post flooding social media began by stating, "Doug Jones is not just pro abortion ... he is pro-late term abortion .... up until the time that the baby is outside the womb."




Let's take a minute here. If the baby is outside the womb, it has already been born. There goes that logic and reason again. In addition to federal standards, set by the Supreme Court, the different states also have guidelines. Ours is Alabama Code Title 26. Infants and Incompetents § 26-22-1 

I am not a lawyer, but from my understanding of that code, it is illegal to perform an abortion in Alabama if the fetus is to the point of viability. Different states set that point somewhere between 20 and 24 weeks. One point is clear though and that is that if the fetus is able to survive outside the womb, it is an illegal abortion.

Doug Jones said that he believed in following the law when it comes to abortion and he was clear on that. This thing about full-term and outside the womb abortions and twisting his words in a knot is at its very best a pile of abortion politician malarkey.

The Real Opponent

 

So what is going on here? In the current special election in Alabama, we have Roy Moore and Doug Jones running for the U.S. Senate seat that was left vacant when Jeff Sessions accepted the position as Attorney General under President Trump.

Roy Moore is mostly famous for not quite believing in equality for all. Since this discussion is abortion politics, I am not going to go into all that here. A nutshell is that he has made national news repeatedly because he did not  think that some group was entitled to equal rights under our laws. That includes discriminating against folks who have religions that are different from his, not believing that women deserve the same opportunities, not believing that those in the gay community deserve the same opportunities, including same-sex marriage, serving in the military, and the list goes on to include matters of racial equality.

Regarding all of these things, this has absolutely nothing to do with whether I might agree with any single person's choice of a lifestyle. However, one thing that I believe very strongly in is that we should all be treated equally under the law. That is a core American value and that one little detail is where I, along with a whole lot of folks seriously do not agree with Roy Moore.

If you are going to take a job in which you swear to uphold the Constitution and equality for all, then you need to be upholding the Constitution and supporting equality for all. If for some reason or other, you don't believe in equality for all, then you need to be getting another job, which is pretty much why he lost the jobs that he had in the past that related to upholding the law with equality for all.

The other thing that is very curious about all this is that, as a judge, for reasons that are perhaps now obvious, Moore has a very soft record on prison sentences for sex crimes. In the meantime, he was sending people to prison for refusing to obey whatever given law while he was breaking his own set of laws regarding equality. So what do you when questioned on such a matter as your belief in equality and upholding the laws that you have sworn to protect? Much less why you are breaking them. You yell, "Abortion!"

As to Doug Jones, the best I can tell, he never has made a whole lot of noise. He is not a grandstanding kind of person. He is a lawyer and served as a federal prosecutor, most famous for bringing the Klansmen to justice who were responsible for bombing a church and killing four little girls back in 1964. I have never heard a single thing that would come close to a smear on his character. Nothing. Not one iota. Just a smart hardworking man who not only believes in but also will work for equality for everybody. Coincidentally, if you hurt little girls, he is going to put you in jail. And he has spent his career doing just that.




So what is Moore to do when he is running against Jones, his integrity is questionable and his ability to uphold the law has been shown many times over to not be exactly where it should be? He yells, "Abortion!"

This happens repeatedly in Alabama. At the very least, it changes the subject, which is very often the only reason it was brought up in the first place. Things get mighty uncomfortable when you throw in the part about Moore being a mall stalking pervert that hit on teenage girls. I don't blame him for wanting to change the conversation.

And the thing is, it works. At the mention of abortion, people forget all about those very serious and important issues that were once part of the discussion.

Real Issues

Now, I am not saying that abortion is not a real issue. I am just saying that it is to the point that abortion politics are more an issue in Alabama than abortion ever was.

A recent headline, "Moore using Abortion to Shame Conservatives into Turning out to Vote for Him," nails it. That is exactly what he is doing and what so many politicians have done before him. If there is not a logical reason why anybody in his or her right mind would vote for you, play the abortion card. And these folks have it down to an art.

I am not buying any of that. Anybody with half a lick of sense knows that the best way to do something about the number of abortions is to nip it in the bud, before there is ever a problem. Make damn certain that every single person who is old enough to even halfway consider making whoopee has access to good, dependable and affordable birth control and that they know how to use it.

Do Something Real about the Abortion Rate

With today's wealth, technology and infrastructure, we have a real opportunity to reduce the number of abortions, not just in Alabama, but throughout the entire world. However, every time real progress is made on that, somebody starts lamenting that some poor woman somewhere might be making whoopee on somebody else's dime.

Folks get all riled up at the very thought that a poor person who has no means to afford birth control might engage in sexual intercourse, and they cut the funding and pull the access to the birth control, which increases the number of abortions all over again. You can't have it both ways. Either you do something about the abortion rate or you don't. None of this, but, but, but… poor women ought to be buying their own birth control. I am not even going to argue that they should be buying their own birth control, of course they should. 

Put Up or Shut Up

What I am saying is that if folks honestly wanted to do something about abortion, they would. Cut the highfaluting hoity-toity moralizing. You either do something real to cut down on the number of abortions by putting birth control where it is honestly needed or you shut your mouth. It is way past time to either "put up or shut up" when it comes to abortion.

I don't see that happening any time soon though. How could these abortion politicians convince folks to vote for them when the abortion card is the only thing they have going for them? And I do mean the only thing. The most ridiculous thing of all is that it works and now we have a mall creeper pervert arguing the abortion card. Everybody in town knew that he was a mall creeper pervert. I used to work at a mall. No. Just no. I sure know better than that malarkey.

That's my two cents. What's yours?

Gone Political

The blog here, formerly named Regina Garson’s Blog has gone political and renamed to accommodate My Two Cents (commentary on politics, social issues and life). My original blog is not gone though. It has been updated,upgraded, expanded and moved to my ReginaGarson.com domain site, which used to be my author page and writing portfolio. It’s all still there. It has merely been rearranged and this Blogger Blog site will now be the home to My TwoCents, political and other commentary.

In the meantime, I’ve definitely been busy.

Connect with Me!

I have a brand new writing group on Facebook, Writing in the Digital Age. Writers at every level are welcome.

What used to be my author fan page on Facebook is now a hub for networking and talking shop for writers, editors, and social media influencers. Drop by to chew the fat if you take a notion.

My Y’all Facebook page focuses on Southern life and culture. It’s just to kickback and have a little fun, share a laugh. 

Twitter is rocking and there is a little bit of everything there. I do follow back.  My handle is @ReginaGarson

Although I lagged behind some, I am now on Instagram as well. Be sure to follow me there, my handle is reginagarson.

Like just about everybody else who loves to cook, I'm pretty active on Pinterest too these days. Feel free to check out by boards. In addition to recipes, my various musical involvements tend to pop up there. ReginaGarson on Pinterest.

That is it for now.

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Don’t forget to check out my new blog site: Regina Garson’s Blog.