I heart schadenfreude

So, according to a Missouri newspaper a group of neo-Nazis decided to adopt part of a highway. This is what they reported:

The Springfield, Missouri, chapter of the National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi organization, thought it would be cute to adopt a section of highway along West Bypass between Sunshine and Farm Road 142. MoDOT allowed them to put up a sign along the road bearing the group's name, and members posed with it, Seig Heil-ing and whatnot (pictured). Afterward, they went home, put on their swastika-print jammies and drifted off to thumb-sucking sleep, secure in their white pride.

But then came the Jews of Kansas City.

Who went to the city council and got the very same stretch of highway named after Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, whose family was murdered during the Holocaust. Rabbi Heschel marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. and appropriately wrote, "A Jew is asked to take a leap of action rather than a leap of thought." He also believed that racism was the gravest threat to humanity.

And now the Nazi Party of Springfield is responsible for cleaning the Abraham Joshua Heschel Memorial Highway.

Ha!

Murder in Kansas

Dr. George Tiller was a physician providing abortion services in Wichita, Kansas up until yesterday when he was murdered at his church.

From 1989-1992, I helped women enter health clinics despite rows of protesters from Operation Rescue (OR) sitting in front of the doors.

I helped women over fences and through back doors. I learned to create a "toothpaste corridor" and was kicked and punched by old men and young women alike. I met some of the loveliest people in the world who awoke with me at 4 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday mornings and staked out womens health clinics throughout the city waiting to learn which one would be "hit". I worked on Westmoreland and Figueroa, in Sherman Oaks, East L.A. and Tustin.

I learned what humiliation a woman would go through to see her doctor and what humiliation a group of people would resort to in order to prevent a woman from taking care of her health.

Dr. Tiller was a frequent target of anti-abortion violence throughout his career and yet, despite the risk to himself and his family, he continued to provide these essential health services in a place where those services were almost, if not absolutely, non-existent.

Bill O'Reilly has targeted Dr. Tiller for 4 years for providing abortion services. He deserves some of the fault in this murder. His campaign made Dr. Tiller a nationwide target warning of Dr. Tiller's "judgment day."

Randall Terry, the founder of Operation Rescue, said yesterday: "George Tiller was a mass-murderer. We grieve for him that he did not have time to properly prepare his soul to face God. I am more concerned that the Obama Administration will use Tiller's killing to intimidate pro-lifers into surrendering our most effective rhetoric and actions."

Today I made a donation to Medical Students 4 Choice, whose mission is to make reproductive health including abortion services a part of standard medical education.

To Dr. Tiller's family and friends, I wish you peace. To anyone who would deny a woman the right to make her own decisions about her health, I hope you never have to make a choice, but if you do, I hope it is your choice to make.