IF ONLY LOGIC MATTERED

At last, I have finally found an issue about which I agree with the president. I am loath to admit this, but it is true. In vetoing the recently passed stem cell research bill George Bush has finally begun to make some sense. No, not for the specific application to stem cell research – I must admit I am a supporter of both stem cell research and a woman’s right to choose – but because, in his justification for his veto, he has finally said something I can whole-heartedly get behind.

In explaining his decision to veto the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005 President Bush stated, “If this bill would have become law, American taxpayers would, for the first time in our history, be compelled to fund the deliberate destruction of human embryos. And I'm not going to allow it.” If we read “human embryos” as human life – as I cannot help but do based on his past presidential proclamations – then I wholeheartedly stand behind the president’s words. I too believe it is unconscionable to use taxpayer dollars – my tax dollars – to fund the “deliberate destruction” of human life.

No longer should my taxes be used to pay for the execution of prisoners; not another one of my tax dollars ought be spent on new and innovative military systems designed to more efficiently kill other human beings. At last the president has stepped forward and made official what I have been saying since I first became aware of the taxes I was paying.

I concur with Press Secretary Tony Snow as well – I was shocked, dear reader, to find myself in agreement with the ex-Fox News mouthpiece. But when he confirmed that President Bush indeed believes that it is “inappropriate for the federal government to finance something that many people consider murder,” I nearly jumped for joy. If this was not a explicit recognition that support for this and any future acts of war is unethical, then I don’t know what is.

At last, I have a reason to be proud of the American presidency, or at least I have a statement that does not force me to shrink beneath the shame when faced with its manifestations of power. And I, dear reader, implore you to join with me in support of this new policy in opposition to the destruction of human life.

This surely must signal the dawn of a new era of peaceful engagement with the world around us, must present a future stretching before us in which we settle our disputes though civilized means, must herald, at last, a world in which the military-industrial complex will once and for all be replaced with socially beneficial programs and initiatives. Finally, the president has come to his senses and stood up in support of peace and the value of all human life…

Oh crap. I was dreaming, wasn’t I?

The killing is going to continue unabated, isn’t it?

But at least those unwanted embryos are safe from those merciless and murderous scientists.