Politics As Usual

So. I read an OpEd in the NY Times tonight.
Can This Be Pro-Life?

And I need to just say this.
I am SO f'n sick of hearing about Sarah Palin and her "charging for rape kits".
Her town charged the victims insurance companies. Not the victims. No victim was charged, no victim paid. it's not a good example of her rabid Christianity.

"Oh but that's horrible. That's adding insult to injury. Those poor people. The town should have paid for it. She's such a damned crazy Christian..."

Hmm. Ok, well, let's pull together a hypothetical. Lets say you live in a town, in say, Alaska. And your town doesn't have a large budget. In fact, maybe you live in a town that's economically depressed because, hmm, let's say you aren't producing a lot of oil up there because oil is cheaper elsewhere (thanks America for demanding those low oil prices "The government should DO something" so we can keep on consuming. There's plenty more dinosaurs were they came from! ) Oh, and you aren't cutting down trees (keep it green folks) and salmon is being overfished. etc etc.

So here you are in piss poor Alaska with zero dinero in your town budget. Hypothetically.

And rape kits are, hmm, say $800? $1000? each including test results against the town police budget. Now, I don't know how many rapes you have per year in one town but lets say it's including domestic assault rapes, say drunk husbands, that they are collecting 12 per year. Maybe 15? That's $12-$15,000 against the police budget. Coincidentally maybe what, hypothetically, 2/3 the cost of a new cruiser? Or a part time admin?

Let's say the funding is such that you are choosing between a drug program for the kiddies, a crossing guard and a police website...or 15 rape kits. Kits that can be paid for BY INSURANCE. By big business. By someone else...BESIDES the town. That you can take the Dr visit, collect evidence, and charge someone ELSE the fee.

Is that mean? Are we victimizing the victims?

I'm sorry but no. That sounds actually like good fucking fiscal planning.

Being mean is having zero funding, so you don't BUY any rape kits at all - and no evidence is collected.

Being mean is not being able to prosecute a crime because you didn't have the funding for kits.

Being mean is not having a police presence, a crossing guard, a whatever to keep everyone SAFER.

Charging a phantom insurance company a fee for something so your town can stay on budget seems pretty damn creative.

Frankly, she rose in my estimation.

As my husband put it "You know, there's a lot more concerning things about that woman."

As I put it "If THAT'S what troubles you, so be it, but that's not even a penguin on the tip of the iceberg for me. If you are going to put together a lynch mob, at least have the right rope."