Wednesday, June 18, 2014

What is the Greater Evil, Public Breast-Feeding, or Human Persecution?

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE
What is the Greater Evil, Public Breast-Feeding, or Human Persecution?
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When Karlesha Thurman, 25, went to pickup her Accounting degree from Cal State Long Beach, she walked away with much more than a degree, she found herself embroiled in a vicious controversy. When Karlesha attended her graduation ceremony, she decided that she wanted to share the happy event with her three-month-old daughter, Aaliyah, and to commemorate the event for posterity, she had a photo of herself breast-feeding Aaliyah while wearing her cap and gown. Later, she published the photo on the internet, and all hell broke loose.
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Personally, I really admired Karlesha’s foresight, because I too was an infant when my mother graduated from college, and I wish she would have had the foresight to do exactly what Karlesha did. Such a photo would have been of immeasurable value to both me, and my family, today. Because it would have not only shown me and my now deceased mother during a very tender moment, but it would have also provided me with an opportunity to show my grandchildren the kind of stuff that their great grandmother was made of. It would have demonstrated her dedication to the importance of education by continuing in school in spite of her pregnancy, and her cap and gown would have symbolized her triumph over adversity. So nothing could have been of more value.
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But that’s not how many in our society view such matters. Instead of looking at those things that are important in life, they’re more interested in convention, conformity, and forcing their often twisted values down the throats of others, and that’s one of the most divisive and destructive problems that we have in America, and the world, today. It is that exact mind-set that is responsible for 99% of all human conflict. So I felt obliged and honor-bound to become engaged in this controversy, and try to use the backward thinking of those who would criticize this young mother as a teaching moment. .
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There is absolutely nothing "inappropriate" about breast-feeding in public - in school, in church, or, in fact, anywhere else. That's what breasts were designed for. Women all over the world, and every form of mammal have been doing it since life on Earth began. So who are Karlesha’s critics to try to second-guess God and/or nature by trying to shove their perverted, bourgeois, social conventions down the throat of either this young lady, or the throat of God.
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It wasn't this young mother who was being "inappropriate," it's the thinking of her critics that's inappropriate. The primary reason that they believe that exposing a woman's breasts in public is inappropriate, is because of the inappropriate and perverted way in which they’ve come to view a woman's breasts - as sex toys, instead of the extremely efficient and natural glands that they’re designed to be. So if they can't look at a woman's breast without thinking of sex and perversion, that's not this young mother’s problem, it’s their own. So her critics need to get over it and do something constructive - like putting more effort into learning to mind their own business.
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But one of Karlesha’s critics, a woman by the name of Linda Jackson, said the following:
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"Women’s breast are used as sex toys, because that is the way women portray them. Are we second guessing God when we go into the privacy of our homes to have sex? It’s God’s way of procreating, right? If breasts are looked at in a perverted way, it’s in no small way because of the way women want them to be viewed. I don’t know who’s the worst attention hog. This one or the idiot that decided to share her wedding ceremony with her newborn by dragging the poor thing down the isle on the train or her dress. If this genius just had to have her pic taken right then, I’m sure the little one would not have starved to death in the five seconds it took to snap the picture. But then, she wouldn’t have had a reason to pop out a tit, and get however many hits on you-tube it takes to become an internet sensation. There are plenty of natural body functions that are necessary to perform on a daily basis. But just because they’re natural doesn’t mean they need to be carried out in the public eye. Creating a life is one, and flopping out a tittie to feed one is another. Name some more. Come on. I know you can do it."
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Linda, you said, "Women’s breasts are used as sex toys, because that is the way women portray them. Are we second guessing God when we go into the privacy of our homes to have sex? It’s God’s way of procreating, right? If breasts are looked at in a perverted way, it’s in no small way because of the way women want them to be viewed."
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Those sound like the words of one of those ignorant, out-of-touch, conservative bigots. You just stereotyped ALL of the women in America – including yourself.   Do you view your breasts as sex toys? If not, how can you sit there and indict every other woman in America? It sounds to me like you’re saying, while you have class and a sense of what is proper, every other woman in America is a exhibitionist slut, and lack your good, common sense. You must be quite a lady to make such a sweeping assumption.
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In addition, with all of your good sense, can’t you see that you’re propagating the very same backward-thinking mind-set and philosophy as those sexist conservative bigots who maintain that women who wear sexy clothes are ASKING to be rapped!!!?
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INQUISITION WHEEL
Take a minute to think, lady! You don’t corner the market on neither wisdom, intellect, nor morality. Breast-feeding a child in public doesn’t do nearly as much damage to society as people who try to shove their beliefs down the throats of others – in fact, public breast-feeding doesn’t do ANY damage to society. On the other hand, there are people with exactly the same mind-set as you, and are just as convinced as you are on this issue, who think that it’s immoral for Black people to even be born and breathe "their" air. And as we so tragically witnessed just recently, there are others who believe that it was so immoral for Travon Martin to wear a hoodie, that it warranted his brutal murdered.
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So let there be no doubt about it, Linda. The young mother who loved, fed, and nurtured her child in public is not the problem; it is people with your closed-minded mind-set who are not only the problem in this country, but around the world. As we speak, President Obama has a military team in Nigeria trying to retrieve and return to their families 200 kidnaped girls who were kidnaped by people who think just like you. In their case, however, they felt that it was immoral for girls to go to school, so they went to their school, kidnaped them, and now threaten to sell them on the open
market.
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So open your mind, Linda! Neither you, I, nor anyone else is qualified to be the arbiter of how other people should live their lives. In order for us to maintain an orderly and hate-free society, people like yourself are simply going to have to learn to mind your own damn business. As I see it, the standard should be, as long as a person is not doing anything to harm anyone else, they should be free to establish their own moral code and live their lives the way they see fit, and without it having to be approved by Linda – period.
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Intrinsic to every zealot's passion for moral propriety lies the seeds of tyranny. So the solution to your moral outrage is quite simple, Linda – if you think it’s morally outrageous for a woman to display her breasts in public, then keep YOUR blouse buttoned up, and don’t take your tittie out.
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Congratulations, Karlesha, on your daughter, your courage, and your degree. Aaliyah's going to be very proud of you someday, and I'd be very honored if you'd place this article with her keepsakes to let her know that many of us are proud of you today.  You go, girl! 
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Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.
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