Response to a Friend's Journal Entry

[marenlmc]

They closed the previous window--cutting off my journal entry, which I was in the process of writing.

And speaking of cut, here's mine.

Anyways, as a I said in a comment to 

Comments

[satyreyes]

I think teens are second-class citizens in a different way than women and minorities might be. Teens have fewer rights than adults, and not only is this explicitly institutionalized in law, but everyone thinks it's a good idea -- teens, we are told, are less responsible than adults and hence ought not to have the rights that are supposedly conditioned on responsibility. (And all the adults who exercise these rights do so responsibly. Suuure.) Women and minorities, on the other hand, are not explicitly made second-class citizens -- they have the right to vote, to take an obvious difference, and hence have the political power to insist that they be made "first-class" citizens. Nor does everyone agree that these groups are targets of legal discrimination, and those who do agree on this usually consider it a bad thing. Comparing the rights denied to teens to the rights denied to women understates teens' disenfranchisement.

You're dead-on in saying that war can be used as political cover for the abrogation of rights. But I'd reiterate the point from my post, which is that we can't shut down Congress whenever there's a war. It just means we have to keep an eye on our politicians at all times, not just in time of peace.

A question! You mention, I think correctly, that men and women can both be horribly burdened by an unwanted pregnancy. What kind of input, if any, do you think the prospective father should have on the decision to get an abortion?

[marenlmc]

The reply to the question in your last paragraph (what kind of input should a father have in the decision for abortion) might be too personal and cynical for an LJ comment. Ask me in person or on the phone, and I will be happy to answer.