Rotten Rodham

Rotten Rodham
by Heather Roscoe

Hillary Clinton's speech, as I interpreted it.

I stand for a free-er America, as long as I'm free to take away your rights. I am woman, hear me roar...or squeal and scream if I don't get my own way. Let me remind you, if I am not voted into the senate I will raise hell for all of you peasants, don't think that I can't! In order to persuade you that I'm caring and matronly, I'm going to exploit little children. I still think it takes a village to raise a child!

Most of Hillary's painfully long speech was tolerable. Just the expected blather about the economy and senate elections, however, once she started mentioning children I became outraged.

Our children are our responsibility. Ours. The reason why we call them our children is quite simply because they are not hers.

Even though it was deftly disguised, Hillary was exploiting our children before our very eyes on Tuesday. She held them aloft, the innocents who cannot make decisions for themselves and she waved them in front of our eyes. She told us, in too many words, that if we don't do exactly as she commands our children are going to die. They're going to be shot in school and they're going to starve!" She held them aloft and shook them in front of our faces.

People cheered, and chanted, and waved "Hillary for Senate" signs wildly. But if you could take away all of the noise of the crowds, all of the yelling and screaming, if you could somehow mute them, all you would hear is the crying of an unborn child.

Children are so easy to exploit. We've come a long way from the horrible factory's of the early 1900s, where children worked in hot, inhumane conditions for long hours. That's child exploitation. Likewise, mothers exploit their children when they abort them, as an after thought to sex, a mere annoyance that needs to be taken care of.

If Hillary is so concerned about children, then what about the millions of murdered children that are flushed down the drain at abortion clinics? Are they less important than the murdered children of Kosovo?

With cunning and heroics, the president came to the rescue of those Kosovar children. He swooped down from his perch atop the White House, looked into their wide, frightened eyes and said "I'll never leave you" but he didn't save the tortured children of his own country, the one's that he had sworn to protect eight years ago when he was elected. Perhaps he thought that he was elected president of the world, that's why he can gallivant around the world in his cape and skivvies saving the dumb humans from themselves.

I was proud of Gore for shedding the last of his banal image and donning the new mask of the charming politician. Now we know that he is thoroughly integrated into he Clinton way of life.

The man disgusts me.

In his speech, Al Gore said the greatest gift his parents gave him was love. Not true. The greatest gift they gave him was the chance to live. A chance which he has chosen to deny others.

Gore promised us last Thursday that he would not give up on us, that he would protect us. Well, he already failed and he's already broken his promise, before he even has a chance to put it into practice. Al Gore wants to protect Americans? Then start with the simplest, most basic form of protection: give them the right to life. The Declaration of Independence gives us the right to the pursuit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Gore is concerned about happiness and liberty, but what about life?

Gore used the example of young Ian Malone to illustrate how caring and just he is. Malone, still an infant was born with complications which left him with a disability. The HMO's failed Malone's parents and and counselors suggested that they give him up for adoption. His parents, outraged at such a suggestion took action. "Because they fought for their baby," Gore said, "today Ian has the health care he needs to stay alive."

"Because they fought for their baby..."he though that this child was worth fighting for, this child who was lucky enough to be given a chance. Would he have considered it worth his time to try and save Ian Malone if he was aware of the baby's defects before he'd been born?

"If you entrust me with the presidency, I will fight for you! I mean that with all my heart."

In Gore's happy little circle, in his contented bubble, saying that was enough and anything's possible. How much he still has to learn.

-"Let there be no doubt, I will protect and defend a woman's right to choose! The last thing this country needs is a supreme court that overturns Roe v. Wade." Okay, so that was what he meant when he said he would protect us and fight for us. He'll protect most of us, but not all.

Everyone has the right to change their mind. However, Gore wrote in 1984 "It is my deep personal conviction that abortion is wrong." Perhaps his convictions aren't so deep and personal after all. Perhaps his convictions, and those of the first lady are based on what's popular at the time.