I’ve always known it: Readers quite often say it better than — well, the usual columnists. In an unusual move, I’ve dedicated this space to a letter written by Diana Smith, the mother of nine children, grandmother of seven children. Smith, a long time East Valley resident is doing what she can to awaken women to frightening games being played in the political arena. She warns women their emotions are manipulated, while their freedoms to choose for themselves are at high risk. Read on:
“Dear East Valley Women:
Are you having the same nightmare that keeps haunting me, that we’re living in the pages of novelist George Orwell’s “1984,” where the federal government of the United States is a totalitarian regime manipulating its very own citizens? Well then, wake up! It’s time to get out of the twilight zone and into the bright light of what’s really happening with President Obama’s recent Health and Human Services mandate.
Reality check #1: The president is not as interested in helping women as he is in gaining votes! Yes, you heard me. Abortion is no longer a winning issue for liberals, so the president has shifted his debate to contraception or “health care preventative services.”
Reality check #2: Every woman in the U.S. already has absolutely unrestricted access to reproductive/family planning services aka: contraception/abortion. There are no laws against the drugs, devices, procedures, services or methods that fall under “the mandate.”
Reality check #3: When Mr. Obama says he’s “committed to making sure that all women have ‘access’ to these important preventative services,” he’s really saying that he wants American women to get these preventative services for free, but we know that everything has a cost.
Reality check #4: Women are being manipulated by this mandate; yes, you read that correctly, manipulated! Under the guise of making sure, the president is pitting women against one another; either you’re “for it” or “against it,” right? This twilight zone is really a smoke screen to distract each one of us moms, grand-moms, sisters, daughters, and girlfriends from seeing the true issue: freedom of conscience, which according to Oxford and Webster means the right to follow one’s own beliefs in matters of religion and morality. A constitution guaranteeing freedom of conscience and the inner sense of what is right or wrong in one’s conduct or motives, impelling one toward right action: to follow the dictates of conscience. (Random House Webster’s College Dictionary: 1999. New York.)
Reality check #5: It’s imperative that we, as women, unite behind the cause of freedom — the freedom of conscience. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has already proposed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 2012. Call your federal senators and representatives and ask them to support SB 2043. Talk to all of your girlfriends, daughters, mothers, and grandmothers. Encourage them to take action against this manipulation of American women. It’s not about who’s for it and who’s against it. It’s about standing together to protect our inner sense of what is right or wrong, it’s about the protection of our own health and integrity as women, as well as that of our daughters and granddaughters.
Wake up, girls — let’s stand together against the president’s mandated violation of our core convictions. Let’s be informed and equipped to discuss the realities with friends and neighbors, and let’s get registered to vote, because, here’s reality check #6: Every vote counts!
Thanks for listening.”
I stand with Diana. What’s at stake is far more than so-called free contraception; it’s our very roots of autonomy. In a nation and a world where women have never, ever enjoyed such conveniences and good health care, we are at risk of losing it all. Stay informed. Our families count on it.
East Valley resident Linda Turley-Hansen (turleyhansen@gmail.com) is a syndicated columnist and former Phoenix veteran TV anchor.
AZMom 2405 posted at 10:36 am on Sat, Mar 3, 2012.
I guess you don't mind a bunch of conservative white men telling American women what they can do with their bodies. Contraception is an essential piece to women's reproductive health. Availability should not be curtailed by religious beliefs.
How come no one is talking about the easy availability of Viagra? Horny men walking around with a drug induced hard on is much more frightening than anything the new health care law considers.
Accuracy posted at 11:14 am on Sat, Mar 3, 2012.
Diana Smith wrote: “Are you having the same nightmare that keeps haunting me, that we’re living in the pages of novelist George Orwell’s “1984,” where the federal government of the United States is a totalitarian regime manipulating its very own citizens?”
Ahwatukee mom Diana Smith has home-schooled all nine of her children. Over the past 26 years, home-schooling has been the fastest growing segment of education in the country. The oldest of her seven children have graduated and have either completed or are pursing college.
Diana Smith stated, "Our overarching goals were to train their character, develop in them a love for learning by giving them the tools for learning. If parents can find a vision, they can find the tools to help them achieve that vision".
downtownresident posted at 11:18 am on Sat, Mar 3, 2012.
I pity you poor ultra-conservative Mormon radicals. You just can't get over that feeling of persecution by others. And to think that a black man might have knowledge of a white woman's body and how it works must really worry you.
You are the ones doing the manipulation here, not the President.
Get over it! The earth isn't flat, Joseph Smith is not a prophet (more like a crackhead) and Obama was elected by a majority of the voters.
Just what make either of you an expert on morality? I think you are both peddling mindless hysteria.
downtownresident posted at 11:55 am on Sat, Mar 3, 2012.
Accuracy ,
Aside from being a mouthpiece/cheerleader for the letter writer, what is your point?
Is there some special talent associated with having children and having them in college???
Accuracy posted at 12:38 pm on Sat, Mar 3, 2012.
Downtownresident’s question: …… “what is your point?”
The Ahwatukee mother warns women that totalitarian system is based on control and manipulation of information, which allows leaders to govern without oversight.
Strict control of all aspects (through totalitarian regime manipulating) and productive capacity of the life surely didn’t happen in Diana Smith’s home-schooling of all nine of her children in Ahwatukee.
Mike McClellan posted at 1:13 pm on Sat, Mar 3, 2012.
First, as to "free contraception" -- If you have health insurance and your employer doesn't cover it 100% (or have individual health insurance), neither the insurance nor the contraception is "free."
Second, Ms. Smith's call for women to wake up looks like it's falling on deaf ears, in that the more Santorum spoke of it, the more support from women he lost. Women's votes in Michigan, for example, went decisively to Romney. And the majority -- in big numbers -- believe that contraception should be part of health insurance coverage.
Third, if you agreed with the Blunt Amendment, you then agree that if an employer was against immunizations for moral reasons, he could prevent his employees from being covered for immunizations by health insurance he'd provide them. Talk about Big Brother . . .
Cerulean posted at 7:43 pm on Sat, Mar 3, 2012.
#1 President Obama is gaining the female vote because “s l u t” (a dirty, slovenly woman) is not a term that most women find endearing.
davidflucier posted at 2:37 pm on Sun, Mar 4, 2012.
Get a drool towel...this woman (Hansen) has really lost control...I haven't read such tripe since the McCarthy hearings of the 1950's.
samkat posted at 5:42 pm on Sun, Mar 4, 2012.
What we really need to be aware of is the so called right wing conservatives who keep screaming that their religious freedoms and personal rights are being eroded but they have no problem in dictating their Taliban like views upon everyone else. I am no flaming liberal by any means but I am wary of people who are trying to create a virtual church style government that dictates what I can say and what I can do while stealing my tax money to pay for their religious charter schools. Linda: There was a time when I would have agreed with some of your articles but lately, you sound like a shill for the male dominated Mormon church.
Masterrogue666 posted at 7:33 pm on Sun, Mar 4, 2012.
samkat: The government your are describing is called a theocracy. I can respect what you said, and how you said it. However, downtownresident abject hatred is clear to everyone. That's the type of person that I find spooky.
mnjcpa posted at 8:04 pm on Sun, Mar 4, 2012.
What a fantastic outline Diana Smith and I congratulate you for ignoring the mindless culture that has dumbed down America. Your kids will be part of the few that actually have their heads on straight. You're right - it's our freedom that's at stake.
VofReason posted at 1:43 pm on Mon, Mar 5, 2012.
Maybe more contreceptions amoungst liberal nuts is not a bad thing. May lead to less liberal nuts in the long run.