On letters, columns, and civility

Other items in this column include:
*U.S. Supreme Court sides with Pro-Choice forces in Louisiana case
*In memoriam

By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO — We Jews have a love for debate.  Argument, in its purest sense, helps us to clarify issues, to determine right and wrong, and sometimes to set us upon specific courses of action.  It’s for that reason that I welcome, even relish, articles and letters to the editor with diverse, even opposing, points of view.

Yet, sometimes, as the editor and co-publisher of this publication, I feel obligated not to run an article, or simply to delete a letter to the editor.

Why would I do that?

Most often, it is because the article or letter-to-the-editor in question fails to meet the expectation of civil debate and, instead, devolves into name calling.  We can debate issues all we want, so long as we are civil with each other, but once we start referring to other people as “idiots” or “lackeys” or “sell-outs” or any of hundreds of other derogatory terms, then it’s no longer a debate.  It’s simply childish, playground brawl in which I have no interest in this publication participating.

Other letters that we receive are anti-Semitic or racist screeds, in which some letter writers presume to tell us what “you Jews” are like.  I’m certain that it’s precisely to deal with such communications, that God saw fit for computer makers to invent a delete button.

Unfortunately, social media provides their users with many opportunities to vent their bile, to vilify people with whom they disagree, to defame and to libel, and to mischaracterize and impugn, all without any regard to truth or propriety.

However, on San Diego Jewish World, we try scrupulously to curtail such kinds of articles or letters.  Occasionally, some comments that don’t meet our standards regrettably slip by us, but we try to remain vigilant against character assassination, unfounded or unproven charges, unsubstantiated rumors, and other weapons of uncivil, destructive discourse.

If you read an article with which you disagree, and you wish to take exception, please don’t just fire off an epithet.  Please, by all means, take the time to debate the ideas set forward in that article.  Explain why you think, the ideas therein are mistaken,  without disparaging the characters of the people who either are described in the article or who wrote the article.  Nobody has to insult anyone else to get a point across.  Most of our readers are highly intelligent, discerning people. Insults only cause them to lose their respect for the writer, who in the process gains no converts to his or her point of view.

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U.S. Supreme Court sides with Pro-Choice forces in Louisiana case

The U.S. Supreme Court’s three Jewish justices — Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Elena Kagan — voted in the majority with Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor in a 5-4 decision striking down a Louisiana law intended to restrict abortions.

That state’s law said that any doctor providing abortion services needed to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of his or her place of practice.

Writing the majority opinion, Breyer said the statute was similar to one in Texas that already was struck down by the Supreme Court. He said the law “imposes an undue burden on a woman’s constitutional right to choose to have an abortion.”

Roberts, joining the court’s four liberals, said he felt bound by the precedent set in the Texas case.

The court’s decision was greeted enthusiastically by Sheila Katz and Susan Hess, respectively the national CEO and the New Orleans president of the National Conference of Jewish Women.

In a joint statement, they said:
“NCJW is so glad that the Supreme Court has once again upheld our constitutionally-protected right to bodily autonomy, ensuring that that the state’s three clinics can remain open and continue to serve the nearly 10,000 Louisianans seeking safe and legal abortions every year.

“However, this fight is far from over as anti-abortion lawmakers across the country continue their sustained and coordinated attacks on our reproductive freedom. Indeed, the law struck down today represents just one of the nearly 450 state laws restricting access to reproductive health care — which range from outright abortion bans to biased counseling mandates to medically unnecessary regulations imposing onerous requirements on providers and patients — passed since 2011.

“As if this terrifying trend wasn’t enough, the Hyde Amendment has denied abortion coverage to those enrolled in federal health programs for over 40 years despite tireless efforts to end this discriminatory policy. Significantly, even where abortion is available in theory, structural barriers to care resulting from long-standing social and economic inequities often make this basic health care unavailable in fact, disproportionately harming people of color, young people, immigrants, low-income people, rural communities, and LGBTQ individuals.

“As people of faith, we refuse to remain idle while moral autonomy, health, and lives are at stake. Every single day, we advocate for abortion rights and access for all because of Jewish values, not in spite of them. NCJW calls on Congress to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act (HR 2975/S 1645) to establish a federal standard safeguarding access to high-quality care and securing our constitutional rights by protecting patients and providers from political interference. Our lawmakers must act now to ensure that everyone can make their own moral and faith-informed decisions about their body, family, and future.”

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In Memoriam
* Julia Dina Schulmann, daughter of Joseph & Joanna Schulmann and Lily Schulmann, has died, Chabad of University City announced on Monday.  Funeral arrangements are pending.

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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World.  He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com. Free obituaries in memory of members of the San Diego County Jewish community are sponsored on San Diego Jewish World by Inland Industries Group LP in memory of long-time San Diego Jewish community leader Marie (Mrs. Gabriel) Berg.