To the Editor:
Let’s start with a woman’s right to have a choice in determining her future and what happens to her body. I’m referring to the right to an abortion specifically.

The decision to have an abortion or not should always be solely the choice of a woman. No man should ever interfere with that choice. If a man claims to have a right to be included in that choice because he is the father or politically motivated, he is wrong!

If you are a man and enter into a sexual relationship with a woman, whether she is a wife or not, the decision to conceive should be agreed upon before entering into that relationship.

If the decision to have a future family was never agreed to, then the choice to carry a child to its birth should be a woman’s alone. She will bear all of the burden of the physical changes and risks to her body and health. She as we all know in truth will be the primary caregiver and possibly the only caregiver for that child to adulthood and maybe beyond.

Many men are not even willing, after having recreational unmarried sex, to be a part of that child’s life. Couples should use birth control but it’s not always 100-percent effective and abstinence is not realistic for most human beings.

The majority of men, if they had to endure a pregnancy, would not tolerate women telling them what a man can do with his body and men especially would not allow a majority-female-dominated government to dictate what males can or cannot do with their bodies.

Men, face up to the fact that an approximate 15 minutes of pleasurable fornication for sexual recreation does not allow you to dictate a woman’s life for the rest of her life by forcing her to have a baby she does not want.

Women who are raped or coerced into sex, possibly with drugs, or forced to have sex by family members etc. should not be imprisoned psychologically and physically for the rest of their lives while being forced to rear children they don’t want.

Many of the same people who don’t support choice for women also don’t want to put the government’s tax dollars into programs that support single women and their families.

A great movie that backs up a woman’s choice to abortion is “Cider House Rules” starring Charlize Theron, Michael Caine, and Tobey Maguire, released in 1999.

Some Republicans are behaving like the United States equivalent of the Taliban. Let’s look at and review why I’m saying that.

The Texas Taliban are fanatical religious conservative fundamentalists who want to take away a women’s right to abortion, which women have had for approximately 50 years.

They support any path to voter suppression because the last two Republican presidents won only by the Electoral College and not the popular vote, which is the total number of votes by the country’s citizens. They accept the support of extremists like the white supremacists Oath Keepers and Proud Boys who teach separation of the races and are otherwise divisive of our countrymen.

The Texas Taliban wants everyone to have and carry a gun, including undocumented untrained people who possibly have a questionable character and background. The Texas Taliban doesn’t believe in science and the use of it when our government is trying to help the nation get past this COVID-19 pandemic.

The Texas Taliban and some other Republicans across the United States wanted to on Jan. 6, and still want to, install a facist supreme leader like Donald Trump.

The Texas Taliban would also like to keep the conversation going about Texas one day seceding from these United States. Tell me again why the Republicans attract white supremacists and people like them? That’s OK, we know why!

They want a nation like the old days where equal rights were reserved for white men only; not even white women were included. Sorry guys, but as hard as you try, that ideology will fail in the long run. As far as I can tell, many of the ideals and beliefs of some Republicans look a lot like the ideals and beliefs of the fanatical Taliban in Afghanistan.

We people who are pro-choice for women’s reproductive rights are always misrepresented by Republicans and pro-lifers who say we are pro-abortion, which is a deliberate lie for political reasons.

We who are pro-choice are not in favor of women getting abortions! We simply want the choice to give life or not to give life to be each woman’s individual choice, not the government’s and specifically not a government dominated by men.

As far as what God thinks about a woman’s choice to abort a life inside her, let that be a judgement between a woman and her God or her conscience. The Bible says, if you’re Christian, that the Almighty reserves the right to judgement.

What happened to the Republicans’ platform of less government interference into our personal lives and personal freedom in what we do with our bodies?

They want you to be able to choose whether you smoke and drink yourself to death, which I agree with. They talk about taking the life of unborn babies when it suits their argument against abortion but brush aside the deaths of the more than 30,000 children who died in our 20-year war in Afghanistan as necessary colateral damage, in order to kill a few thousand terrorists.

How about the children in this country who are born to women and men who don’t want them and are consequently uncared for properly and may have miserable existences? The Republican Party is exhibiting its greatest levels of hypocrisy and double standards, and lies these recent years.

The Republican American Taliban led an unlawful and terrorist insurrection on Jan. 6 against our state capital and our democracy. They wanted to reinstall a facist dictatorial supreme leader named Donald Trump. Are Republicans going to deny this fact?

The Texas Taliban also has made it lawful for anyone in Texas to own pistols without a permit, and without systems of check and character references. That includes all firearms.

I believe in the Second Amendment and that all law-abiding citizens should be allowed firearms, including pistols, long guns, and semi-automatic guns that look like assault weapons with removable magazines. Laws that are made to control criminals should not remove Second Amendment rights from law-abiding citizens.

But, that being said, the Second Amendment should have some common-sense attached to it given that weaponry has drastically changed since it was written. Our society is now more likely to have people who lose their minds and easily kill many.

The National Rifle Association has become a political hack whose intentions are more in line with Republican victory than their original mission statement. The NRA was officially incorporated in 1871 and its primary goal was to “promote and encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis.”

The NRA now will not even acknowledge or discuss the need for mandatory handling and safety training for all gun owners as a requirement. Do the NRA and the Texas Taliban want every inexperienced idiot or nut-job to have a firearm?

Don’t tell me all of you have never met a person who shouldn’t have a gun. Go ahead, tell me you don’t know what I’m talking about. Firearm owners must be determined, competent, trained, law-abiding citizens who are versed in gun safety and storage.

Do we really need to revert back to a time where men have to carry guns everywhere they go to prove their machismo?

Anyone who knows me can tell you that I am a pro-gun-rights American.

I consider private gun ownership to be a part of our national defense infrastructure. In some countries, military service is mandatory and, when you are discharged and go home, you are given your service weapon in case of invasion.

People ask, “What do you need a firearm for when you’re not hunting with it?”

First of all, it is merely a tool. Yes, it is designed to kill but not solely for murder. Many other tools and instrments are not designed to kill but are used for murder.

When I was in school during the 1960s, I got more than just an academic education. The Cold War was still on and we had drills hiding under our desks and putting our heads in our lockers.

This educated us in preparedness for serious possibilities of invasion. The Boy Scouts also regimented us and taught us to “be prepared.”

We could have a major environmental disaster like Hurricane Katrina where law enforcement is nowhere to be found or we could face the unlikely possibility of being invaded or of civil war. In those scenarios, I want to be prepared, not pushed around like sheep. It’s what my father taught me and our family thinks is sensible not radical.

We lived in the country and grew up knowledgeable about the safety and thoughtful use of firearms. Most Democrats who want to take away guns and gun rights have no background handling guns and are scared because of their ignorance and the criminal use of guns they see every week in the news.

They are happy to submit their Second Amendment rights to law enforcement and the national defense branches of service: fine for them but I believe ultimately it is misguided.

Most of these Democrats were raised in cities and only know that gun use equals crime and death. You have to understand that position. It’s a valid one. But we who live in rural areas grow up differently and live differently and should not have to live by rules that are better suited to city dwellers.

So, in summarizing the issues of abortion and gun ownership, our Republican-dominated Senate and Republican-dominated conservative Supreme Court need act on what is sensible and reasonable as a matter of the real facts, the truth, and some transparency of their real motives. They should not act on unfounded unsupported opinions and lies backed by political agendas.

Believe me when I tell you that the political culture of extreme conservatism and liberalism will be the downfall of our country if our leaders don’t start emulating honorable behavior. Yes, that goes for all Americans!

Timothy J. Albright

Meadowdale