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News
The Quietest Room In Town
arrive together. They will check In an hour or so, they will come
The article that follows was|
printed in The Greensboro News &
Record in Ann Landers.
THE QUIETEST ROOM IN
TOWN. They have been expecting
you. They knew that eventually
you’d show up. It won't be possible
for you to know what is happening,;
so I’m going to take the liberty of'
filling you in.
The beginning for you will be
when you stagger to your car. The'
beginning for them will be when a
bulletin goes out on the police radio i
reporting the location of a serious
accident with instructions to
"proceed at once."
You won’t hear the sirens. The
ambulance and the police car will
together. They
you over and pronoimce you dead. A
few curious motorists who heard
the crash will stop their cars and
walk back to look at your broken,
bloody body. Some of them will get
sick.
The ambulance driver will roll
out a leather-covered stretcher.
The attendent will stuff your hands ,
under your belt and grab you under
the arms. The driver will take
hold of your legs. You will be
placed on a stretcher and covered.
They will drive you to the
coroner’s office, where a deputy
coroner will wheel you over to a big
scale. He will remove the blanket,
shake his head and say, "Another
**
one.
Cultural Comparison
by Saswatti Datta
After being in the United States for over six months, the basic differences in human
behavior between the two countries of India and the United States becomes evident
from time to time. The difference in behavior and self-expression is remarkably
noticable in the behavior of the women of the two countries. It would be good to point
out that the differences are mainly because people ih both the countires bring up their
children in a different atmosphere, governed by a different set of values. I am taking
this opportunity to present to the western world a glimpse of the gradual upbringing
and later on, the role of women in the Indian society. As I come from Bengal, and
have encountered Bengali society thoroughly, I would like to introduce Bengal,
Bengali family structure, and Bengali women in general. Time to time, 1 will refer to
the importance of the historical part and geographical signifigance of Bengal. This is
not necessarily a generalization about Indian women as a whole.
The state of West-Bengal is at the eastern end of the gangelic plain of Northern
India. It is protected by the Himalayan Mountain region in the North and the Bay of
Bengal in the South. Because of the natural boundaries protecting her, Bengal
flourished in isolation, and gained significant superiority in folk culture and religion.
Investigation into its history reveals that any outside invader, including the British
considered Bengal as a dangerous and superior land. People of Bengal are basically a
mixture of four ethnic groups known as Kols, Drauidians, Mongolians, and Aryans.
The capital of today’s Bengal is Calcutta. This city owes its origin and supremacy over
the whole country and its position as the imperial Capital of British India entirely to
the British influence. In history, the rise of Calcutta also marked the tilting of the
modern Hindu culture towards European civilization. This modernization and
Westernization was the result of the impact of British economy, administration, and
educational system.
Even the strong British influence on the local culture could not alter the life pattern
of men and women inside a family. It is important to mention that the present middle
and upper class people in Calcutta do not actually originate from Calcutta. Most of
them belong to big joint-families in the rural Bengal and at some time in the past a
■ fraction of the family had migrated to the city. Most of these families still have
properties in rural areas.
Lrt us now look at the concept of joint-family. A joint-family is like a fraternal family,
where the head of the family is the father, then on the eldest brother. With rapid
urbanization and modernization, the concept of joint-family is quickly vanishing from
Indian society. Still then, the root and affiliation of all family culture and function
originate to a joint-family. It is the most important group an individual belongs to and
towards which an individual has rights as well as duties. An ideal joint-family
demands that brothers and their family units should live together in the same
household, sharing equally the economic fund as common property, and contributing
to the family to the l^st of their ability. The property ownership is also joint. The
principal function of any member of the family is to contribute economically and
gather together with the other members on social occasions like weddings, funerals,
and religious festivities.
Unlike rural families the urbanized middle to upper class families do not consider
the birth of a girl as an unfortunate affair anymore. Often if she happens to be the
first-bom, the family rejoices at her birth and welcomes her in the same way they
rejoice at the birth of a male child.
Continued in next issue
they
back and move you again. You will
be placed behind a large glass
window so your wife or your
husband or your parents or a friend
can identify you. You won’t see the
agony and pain in their eyes, and
it’s just as well. Nor will you hear
the screams and sobbing when they
lower the sheet and ask, "Is this
your husband - wife - son - daughter
- brother - sister - friend?"
As I was saying, they are waiting
for you - the police, the ambulance
crews, the coroners at the morgue
and the morticians. They are
expecting you. Remember this
tonight, when you toss down that
last drink and climb behind the
wheel.
Your clothes will be cut off with
scissors. You will be weighed and
measured. The deputy coroner will
make a record of yom injuries, cover
you up, and wheel you to a room
with white tile walls. There are
hoses in that room. Traffic victims
are almost always a bloody.mess.
You will be cleaned up (as much
as possible) and moved to a long
hall with several stretchers lined
up against its pale green walls. In
that hall are 41 crypts. If it has
been a slow evening you will have a
stretcher and a crypt all to
yourself. But if it’s Christmas,
NewYear’s, or Memorial Day
weekend you may have lots of
company. They will go away and
leave you there in the quietest room
in town.
Abortion And The Next Four Years
by Colman McCarthy
Citizens opposed to abortion had
unexpected victories on Election Day.
In Michigan, an amendment barring
Medicaid funds for abortion passed 58
percent to 42 percent. In Colorado, the
use of state money for abortions was
defeated 60-40. Arkansas voters, in a
similar denial of funds, passed an
amendment stating that "the policy of
Arkansas [is] to protect the life of every
unborn child."
With that progress, and with the
Republican Party platform stating that
"The unborn child has a fundamental,
individual right to life which cannot be
infringed, " and with George Bush and
Dan Quayle both opposed to abortion,
the next four years ought to be a safer'
time for fetal life. It could well happen
that the number of annual abortions-15
million, or one life destroyed every 20
seconds-will decline.
Two difficulties are in the way: Bush
and Quayle. In the weeks before the
election, both flubbed chances-in
answers to reporters’ questions-to show
they had a grasp of the moral, legal and
medical complexities of abortion. By
their answers, both revealed they aren’t
prepared to lead, only to muddle on.
Bush says his views on abortion are
’evolving in favor of life." While this
evolution proceeds a pace-Bush has
shifted positions four times in the past
10 years-what’s needed is a sign that he
has gone beyond anecdotal arguments.
In the Oct. 13 debate he told a story-"I
hope it doesn’t get too personal or
maudlin’’-about the death of a daughter
to leukemia. The answer lacked
connection to the question, which was
about aborting babies that are
discovered through amniocentesis to
be severly sick.
This paint-him-into-the-corner
question is regularly thrown at
opponents of abortion. If the answer is,
"no exceptions, abortion is killing even
when the fetus is sure to be born
retarded or with Tay-Sachs," the prolife:
position can be dismissed as heartless
and dogmatic. If the answer is,
"exceptions can be made," the obvious
comeback is the one Michael Dukakis
in fact did come back with: "Who are
we to say? ’Well, under certain
circumstances abortion is all right but,
under other circumstances, it isn't.’"
An advance in the prolife
position-often misunderstood or
deliberately distorted-would have
occurred had Bush said that tragedies
like deformed or imperfect fetuses are
not resolved by imposing a second
tragedy of willfully destroying what is
alive and growing. Instead, he
delivered a rambling nonanswer that
was unpersuasive in helping the
country think through the slogans and
screaming.
The who-are-we-to-say question,
raised by Dukakis, has an answer: We
aren't to say. In Rachel Weeping "The
Case Against Abortion," James
Burtchaell writes, "Women should
have control over their own bodies, it is
said, and I agree; but not life-and-death
control over the bodies of their
children."
A growing coalition on the
left-feminists, environmentalists,
animal-rights advocates, pacifists-is
arguing that life-and-death control
shouldn’t belong to anyone on any
issue. Not hospital mercy-killers, not
judges or juries who sanction death-roW
executions, not militarists who dispatch
the young to war, not corporations
selling the unsafe or untested, not
handgun owners wanting
self-protection, not those who want to
eat, wear, dissect, cage or himt animalS/
not exploiters or rapers of the land, and
not destroyers of human life when
found in its weakest form, the fetal
state.
Dan Quayle has been attacked fot
saying that he would advise ai'
impregnated rape or incest victim-even
his wife-to carry the child. This position
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