Donna Locke: Freshly starched ironies

The world is full of irony. We are selective in our perceptions, and so we ignore a lot of this irony and relegate it to some part of our psyches reserved for cognitive dissonance. These are things we can’t reconcile if we think logically.

Take the political pile-on on the anti-Covid-vaccine issue. The protesters’ signs and the Tennessee Republicans’ new scripts shout “No Vaccine Coercion,” “Our Bodies, Our Choice,” “Freedom, Not Force,” “Rights,” “Personal, Private Decision.”

Those words are familiar. To women and girls resisting the efforts of Republican-controlled governments to own the bodies of women and girls as trade in a political game dictating how female bodies will be used. Our bodies, our choice, indeed.

If we don’t have control, autonomy and freedom over our own bodies, we have no freedom at all. That’s the bottom line and the essence of it all.

I oppose many government coercions, including vaccine coercion, the military draft and the forcing of women and girls to bear children they do not want to bear. Our bodies, our choice.

I don’t presume to know another’s purpose in life. I wouldn’t force anyone to change or risk her or his life to suit my beliefs or personal, political agenda. But we have a state legislature full of men and some women intent on doing this for their own personal gain, and they have passed laws undermining abortion rights, with the aim of making female bodies into property owned by them and the government. Maury County’s state representatives, Scott Cepicky and Michael Curcio, and senator, Joey Hensley, voted to control the use of women’s and girls’ bodies by denying abortion rights.

As more and more voters declare independence from political party affiliations, Republicans are keen on pleasing the portion of their base who have a history of minding other people’s business. It isn’t true conservatism.

When I lived in Georgia, I helped other women dismantle antiquated state laws relegating women to the status of property. I’ve noticed that the first order of business in most religions and many governments has been to control and restrict all the females. Something drives such tyranny (something that also starts with a “t”) and doesn’t want the balance of power to shift.

I’m pro-choice on abortion. I have my own knowledge, beliefs, and sense of things and don’t want someone else’s religion running my life. The life already here and established must have precedence and the freedom to choose what risks and responsibilities that life will/can and will not/cannot take on. I support whatever the owner of the body wants to do in personal body-affecting decisions. I am not for forced pregnancy and childbirth. These are risks, can be deadly, and always permanently damage the carrier body. It has to be a risk the individual chooses to take.

I’m pro-choice on vaccinations. But this needs to be an informed choice/decision, particularly with children. The censorship on Covid issues is appalling and dangerous.

Because of past Guillain-Barré and other autoimmune reactions to a vaccine and to infections, I can’t get the Covid vaccine or any kind of vaccine. In Guillain-Barré, the immune system gets jerked into action by a vaccine, an infection, surgery, or something else and starts attacking the nervous system. It can be paralytic and deadly. I’ve had it happen more than once and still have some numbness in part of my left hand and foot.

All the Covid vaccines used in this country have been linked to Guillain-Barré reactions in some people (we’ll never know how many) who got the jab. Guillain-Barré is said to be “rare,” but I know several people in my own circle of acquaintances who’ve had it, so I doubt it is that rare. Still, most people’s immune systems probably won’t go crazy.

I had a mild case of Covid in January and beat it off in two days with no lasting effects. Since I usually catch everything and get far sicker than anyone else, this tells me I had some natural immunity from something in my past, but I can’t prove it. In any case, I am not one to sit around worrying about Covid for myself. But a beloved family member died of Covid a year ago. There’s no predicting with any of this.

I’m just here today to point out some irony—hypocrisy—from Republican and some Democratic politicians who claim to be all for “freedom,” “choice,” “personal privacy,” and “restricting government intrusion.”

Remember that the next time they come for your civil rights. Because it will be soon.

Donna Locke is a Columbia native and can be contacted at donnalocke555@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Herald: Donna Locke: Freshly starched ironies