PR for People Monthly APRIL 2017 | Page 35

The term “traditional values” in the US are almost entirely religion based. One continuing and particularly contentious issue is under the heading of “Pro- Choice/Right to Life,” Conservatives and Reactionaries are almost universally against it because the “church” defines the beginning of life at conception. It’s not about the woman’s right to choose because if life begins at conception, abortion is murder. Liberals believe that the woman’s right to control over her own body is paramount and that she should have the sole discretion over whether or not to allow this pregnancy to proceed to term.

Fact: a fetus is not viable until at least 22 weeks, and even then, fewer than 10% survive. So, if the fetus cannot be expected to survive (i.e. become a person), how can this be considered murder? At 24 weeks approximately 50% will survive and it’s not until 27 week that viability approaches 90%. Solution: Arbitrarily place viability at 24 weeks and allow the pregnant mother to terminate an unwanted pregnancy at any time up to then.

Reactionaries are defined in the dictionary by their opposition to change. But I see them as even more radical than that. They seem to prefer the values and pace of a simpler more “idyllic” time when life was more predictable, represented now, perhaps, by the 1950s. Good jobs on the production line for male high school grads, no men in the ‘ladies’ room, no marijuana (let the kiddies drink beer, it was good enough for us), blacks in their ‘place’, separate but equal, no ‘miscegenation,’ the US as the only major power left standing, Eisenhower in the White House and a white Puritan ethos fits all.

The Liberals want untrammeled “progress” and are willing to go into debt to achieve it. The Conservatives are interested in conserving what they have (i.e. “I’ve got mine, screw you”). The Reactionaries are against any change and, in fact, want to go back to a time when they had more and you (by implication) had less.

I hope this helped.

Dave Bresler is CEO of the New York City-based Network!Network!, which is a community of business development professionals, entrepreneurs and business leaders who meet monthly to find synergies and make connections that expand business.