Republicans can’t duck the abortion issue

There is that old expression that the light at the end of the tunnel may be a train coming from the opposite direction. That is the message that I would send to the political leaders in 22 states and the Republican majority in the House of Representatives on the issue of abortion.

While the majority of American citizens favor retaining a woman’s right to an abortion, these politicians and most of the potential Republican candidates for president, continue to move blindly towards either an outright abortion ban or one so unreasonable, that it defes logic.

Somehow, the results of votes taken in Wisconsin and other states, have not caught the attention of the zealots who sit up nights trying to think up another penalty for people involved in the abortion process.

Up to the present, the very bad abortion laws passed penalize the doctors, the patients, the neighbor who drove the patient to the clinic and the person who got an abortion pill in the mail. No doubt, there are many more restrictions yet to be invented that will make you scratch your head.

One person seems to have fgured it out that there is a train coming from the opposite direction that will take its toll on the Republicans, is Congresswoman Nancy Mace (RSC).

Mrs. Mace keeps warning her colleagues that they are making a monumental mistake and will pay a big price in 2024 if they continue to ignore the will of the public on this hot issue. Somehow, her warnings continue to fall on deaf ears and they will pay a price next year during the national elections.

To date, a handful of Republicans have announced their intentions to run for president and each and every one has found a way to dodge giving a full answer to any questions about abortion.

They all start out saying that they are pro-life and then say that the matter should be handled by the states. It is interesting to watch them cringe in front of a TV camera when pushed for a more specifc answer. Some favor a ban but are not sure for how long. Others say we will follow the will of the people.

The next pending declared candidate for president, Florida Governor DeSantis, favored a six-week ban, which every woman in America pro or con, will tell you is an unrealistic number. As a married man and the father of four daughters, I can tell you that most women have no idea whether they are pregnant or not within six weeks.

I know that DeSantis is playing to the neo-conservative faction of his party, but if he wins a primary what is he going to tell the moderate women in America when he is in a general election? DeSantis has shown himself to be an artful dodger when he talks to the Florida media, but he faces a much more probing media crowd outside of the Sunshine State.

What is comical is the recent change of tone on the part of former President Trump. He has switched from pro-choice to pro-life and now bashes DeSantis for his six-week ban.

No one should forget the fact that

Mr. Trump put three pro-life judges on the Supreme Court and thanks to them the Roe v. Wade decision was overturned. These same three told a Senate Committee that they would always follow precedent but in the Roe case, they threw precedent out the window.

I often wonder what happens when the three Trump justices have their brown bag lunch and the subject of abortion comes up. As a result of their decision in the now famous Dobbs case, Republicans all over the country are taking it on the chin.

There is a Democratic Senate thanks to their decision and the House almost went Republican, all because of the Dobbs case.

Each week there is another press report that the Republican Party is looking for a middle road on this issue so they can be prepared for next year’s election. That train has already left the station and they will all have to live with the consequences of the Dobbs fasco.

The amusement parks are open for business and booming. We have Adventureland in Farmingdale, and for those unafraid to embark on a journey, you can always head to Coney Island. Kids and adults of all ages are drawn to them like bees to honey. But why is that? After all, when you watch anyone ride on a roller coaster, they all scream so loud it’s like they have just stared death in the face.

But thrill-seeking is certainly not limited to amusements parks. In fact, “the need for speed” is common and not limited to “Top Gun” adventures in flm. The need to face anxiety-producing situations and survive them is one of the reasons people travel to foreign lands. Going on a trip overseas is thrilling but also harrowing and exhausting. A friend of mine just got back from a trip to Italy and the frst things she said was: “Gee, it’s good to be home.”

New York Times once did a series on NASCAR and asked me to comment on the sport. As I did my research I became aware that NASCAR was all about the rush of confronting death and coming out alive.

As every athlete enters the arena, they feel the anxiety of competition and hope to overcome this apprehension by winning. Gladiators did it in Roman times, but all athletes are playing the same game, the game of facing up to their fear and surviving the challenge. After all , isn’t that why they use terms like “sudden death playofs?” The thrill of victory always stands adjacent to the agony of defeat.

Later on, other psychoanalysts such as Helen Deutsche and Otto Fenichel picked up on this theme and labeled it counterphobia, or the tendency to enter fearful situations in order to master and control them as a way of managing repressed childhood anxieties. This theory of defense is very helpful in explaining why athletes refuse to retire.

Many adults seek out frightening scenarios through sports. Mountain climbing puts your life at risk as does cycling, boxing, surfng, snowboarding and waterskiing. Sports are riveting enough to draw crowds who are satisfed simply with the vicarious thrill of watching someone firt with death. NASCAR, Formula One, and drag racing are all based upon the thrill of facing death and surviving it. Bob Lipsyte, the award-winning sports writer for The

EARTH MATTERS

May 13 this year was selected by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as Global Big Day. Birders all over the globe responded by heading out to the forests, jungles, beaches and grasslands to locate 7,463 species of birds.

The United States leads in numbers of checklists and birders, with 45,000 birders turning in 71,000 checklists, locating 727 species of birds, a large chunk of the close to 900 species endemic to the US.

The abundance of birds in the tropics meant that a much smaller group of dedicated birders in Columbia managed to top the species fnds, with 1,433 species, followed by Peru, Brazil, Ecuador, and India.

Every contribution was important. Botswana and the Congo, with just 7 checklists each, managed to identify over 200 species of birds in each country. The 143,000 checklists submitted on ebird.org in 24 hours shattered last year’s world record of

132,000 checklists.

Birders here in Nassau County did their part, submitting 112 checklists with 166 species on Big Day. Suffolk and New York City birders were equally hard at work with each county tallying around 150 species. New York State birders together identifed 259 species, with Nassau and Sufolk leading the pack.

I headed out of my usual stomping grounds to Alley Pond Park in Queens. We managed to locate 54 species, though it was frustrating birding, where we heard many more birds than we saw. Aided by the free Merlin app from Cornell and hard-acquired knowledge, we could reliably identify most of the calls.

If you use Merlin, regard what it tells you with a grain of salt- it hears human voices as Great Horned Owls, can be fooled by Mockingbirds, and is confused by overlapping calls. That said, it can also point you to what might be in your vicinity to verify vi-

JENNIFER WILSON-PINES Earth Matters

sually.

High numbers fagged by ebird. org were 11 Wood Thrush. This park is a prime breeding spot for these lovely birds which have the most melodic song of all birds (in my humble opinion). That lovely song can be

You may be surprised to know that Sigmund Freud briefy touched upon this dynamic when he said that athletes repeatedly compete in order to obtain trophies, which serve to remind them that they faced up to their fears and overcame them. However, since the drive to face up to the fear and survive it is unconscious, the athlete is destined to be like Sisyphus, and endlessly push the boulder up the hill only to have it fall back down again.

They are unaware of what their drive to compete is all about and so are destined to be like Sisyphus and keep on competing long after their fnancial needs are met. You can see this compulsion to compete in Tiger Woods whose body has been ravaged by injury and yet he keeps on pushing that boulder up the mountain.

This counterphobic behavior, be it an amusement park ride, a trip to a foreign country or being a weekend warrior is considered to be a highly adaptive defense. It provides us with thrills, adventures, excitement and even an ever-so-brief awareness that we are fnally conquerors of all of those childhood anxieties and insecurities that once plagued us and made us afraid of the dark.