When making public statements, shouldn’t those statements actually state?
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When news breaks out, organizations frequently offer up their two cents on the topic at hand. Sometimes these statements clarify the issue or a group’s stance -- but only sometimes.
Today, we received this official statement from the American Psychiatric Assn. on the Fort Hood, Texas, shootings:
“The American Psychiatric Association is saddened and shocked by the events at Fort Hood on Thursday, November 5. Our hearts are with the soldiers, the families, and all the members of the Fort Hood and military community affected by this tragedy.”
Couldn’t the same be said of most people’s reactions -- and the location of their hearts? Here’s what the position looked like in its entirety.
And last week, there was this from the National Women’s Law Center on the gang rape of a 15-year-old California girl who’d attended a dance:
“The circumstances reported about this brutal assault, as well as the shocking inaction of those who stood by and watched it happen, are shocking – and should be widely condemned.’
Again, society didn’t seem to need much urging.
If you’re going to make a statement, then do so. Here’s one this week from the National Right to Life Committee on a legislative move in the House:
‘The Ellsworth language is a political fig leaf made out of cellophane -- it directs the federal Secretary of Health to hire a contractor to deliver to abortion providers the payments for elective abortions, payments that are explicitly authorized by the bill [on page 110]. This is a money-laundering scheme -- a federally funded ‘bag man’ will deliver government funds to abortionists. This is federal funding of elective abortion.’
Here is that statement in its entirety.
Whether you think the statement is an accurate reflection or a grotesque parody of the current political debate, at least there’s a point in saying it.
-- Tami Dennis