Thankfully, we have the right to disagree

Steve Metz, Henderson

Wednesday, May 27, 2009 | 2:02 a.m.

Robert Slaby, in his Saturday letter to the editor in the Las Vegas Sun, wrote about the supposed hypocrisy of the left, using abortion as his proof of liberal double standards. I would ask some easy questions in response.

First, what would someone call the deaths of more than 4,200 American soldiers in Iraq, for an immoral war of choice and ultra right-wing ideology, if not total hypocrisy?

Next, the conservative movement has always been for the death penalty. I guess those conservatives see no hypocrisy in that, given they think they have found what is a legitimate reason for killing bad guys. An eye for an eye.

It’s the same kind of reasoning we think we liberals have when it comes to when life begins, when we start out as just a few split cells and hardly a human at that point. I sneeze and kill more cells than that!

And, lastly, Mr. Slaby used the word “torture” in his descriptive attack. The last time I looked, the only people approving of torture were in the Republican Party. Their justification for their actions were three yes-men Justice Department attorneys, willingly approving of their bosses’ desire to torture, using what scholars have called sophomoric, childlike legal analysis.

If Mr. Slaby wants to debate when life begins, we can have that conversation as the rest of America debates it. Both sides justify their personal and/or religious beliefs using any means they can.

But no ideology has the market cornered on intellectual honesty or humanity. Liberals and conservatives see the world through different prisms. I accept his right to find abortion immoral, so he should counsel his children and friends about the right to life. But please don’t tell my daughter that she doesn’t have a “choice” when it comes to her own body. That’s what makes America great.