Strapped to a yellow backboard, your 6-year-old closes her eyes; you’re with her in an ambulance. Through the window you see lights flashing. Your mind races: Did you bring your insurance card? Did you lock the door? What if you’d called earlier? Will she be OK? Is it your fault? Who can you call? Are the other kids OK? It’s the worst night of your life.
She’s wheeled to a room. You take a deep breath, hold her hand tightly. You wait. You wait. You wait. She looks so small, so helpless. Her eyelids flutter but she’s still just lying there.
At last a nurse pulls the curtain back. 'I’m sorry he says,' there’s no one on duty who is allowed to help your daughter right now. Female patients can only be treated by female doctors.'
New laws apply in your state, promoted by an organization called 'Moms for Righteousness' who lobbied for this gender-appropriate care recently passed by your state legislature. In the near future, all doctors will be male; women will be treated only while their bodies are completely covered. Increasingly powerful, this group fosters a feeling of strength and community among some Americans who have long felt overlooked and believed their values were scorned.
'Moms for Righteousness' is now infiltrating communities across the nation, influencing state governments to pass other extreme policies. Their religious values led to book-banning in many schools and libraries, so that now information your daughter needs to understand her world is no longer available. When she grows up, birth control will not be permissible for her, and pregnant mothers will be required to carry to term — even at risk to their own lives.
Publicly funded private schools everywhere will limit enrollment to only one ethnic group. Voting laws will require proof of loyalty. National borders will be closed to immigrants. Marriage is between a man and a woman.
What you have just read is fiction.
But it’s just one election away from fact.
Many aspects of daily life are already being dictated by people we don’t know, who have an agenda we are not informed about or don’t agree with because it’s based on their religion not yours. Women have already lost Roe v Wade protection. The actual organization Moms for Liberty is powerful, and has changed your life without asking you. They have forced the removal of books from your child’s school and limited the kind of education your child’s teacher can present. They are not, mind you, trained educators; and frequently have not even read the books they want banned.
Emboldened by these views, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas argued recently the Supreme Court 'should reconsider' Americans’ rights to contraception access, same-sex relationships and same-sex marriage.
Attacks on news organizations threaten free speech here and abroad. Immigrants are reviled, asylum seekers are blocked from the borders of the land that once promised a home for the oppressed. Our allies in Ukraine can’t count on our aid. Voters find their most fundamental duty as citizens, voting, made difficult. Insurrectionists stormed the Capitol, threatening your elected representatives.
Your life has been changed by a small minority; you were not consulted.
Moms for Liberty are the grown-ups down the street where you grew up — who always yelled at you to stay off their lawn, who thought you shouldn’t use 'swear words' or play in the streets.
You should also know they do not practice what they preach.
The organization’s already dubious reputation has been deeply tarnished by a rape accusation against the husband of its leader, Bridget Ziegler, while it appears she and her husband have been involved in a threesome sex caper.
Not sure if these are the people to be telling the rest of us — or our children — how to behave.
We sure as heck don’t need grown-up bullies telling us how to raise our kids or what medical care any of us can have.
— Sharon Kourous is a member of Stronger Together Huddle, a group engaged in supporting and promoting the common good of all. She can be reached at mcneil102@icloud.com