Cobb

Folks who love to hate single mothers sit in dark political corners now that welfare and AFDC have been savaged. They have nothing left to talk about. It is not clear to me (I haven't read 'Nickeled and Dimed') that our internal Second World is not functioning well. But it is clear that our national culture is dominated by yuppie scum who don't understand or respect that Second World properly. Howard Dean is proof. And again I say the Democratic nominee should resemble a football coach with a fat head and a bushy moustache. Because a righteous blue collar politics is not present on the big stage, our political culture dogs all the creatures of Eminem's oevre. But you and I know the people who listen to DMX or Patsy Cline and drive trucks are as red-blooded as you and me, even though their blood may be thinned by Wild Turkey. Sentiment against broken homes and youthful pregnancy is heavily cultural and slightly socio-economic.

I believe the American Second World functions as well as any other Second World, they just don't get the respect of politicians. Keep this in mind when the six-figure journalists intone morally about the dangers of youthful sex. They themselves could not imagine their bourgie life saddled with rugrats, it doesn't mean women are incapable or those who do are inferior. That is economics talking. So the political sentiment in favor of a morning after pill is harmonizing with the pseudo-feminist idea of sexual liberation as in 'Friends'.

My daughters have been raised thus far in the kind of suburban environment that teaches charity towards others and believes that there are not tall buildings in Africa. I'm willing to wager, despite biology, that they are on track for the yuppie economy if not values. So I expect that childbirthing should be delayed. So it is very likely that I will get them a five year supply of Norplant for their 13th birthdays. But this is part of a plan, not a carefree 'choice'. The day after pill is carefree.

I don't want to make any value judgements about the kind of woman who doesn't know when she's going to need such a pill, but clearly the drug companies are invested in that being a market big enough to profit from. You can hear 'This just encourages irresponsibility!' dripping from my conservative lips.

So in respecting the fact that young women are going to choose pregnancy and it puts them into the Second World economy, rightly or wrongly, it is up to us in our class to respect them nonetheless. If America can sustain both a first and second world domestic economy integrated and unequal, then it is perfectly acceptable that we have all types of contraception available. But the day after pill makes me uneasy. It represents a huge investment in an irresponsible convenience. (And it's leading our women astray). It sells the carefree lifestyle of the first world sybarite to the second world market. That doesn't sit right with me. I can't respect the chooser equally to the planner and this gives the choosers one more choice.

Still, it's better than the choice of abortion.