NH House Republicans Fail to Support Nursing Mothers

This week in NH, we saw Republicans congratulating themselves on being "women friendly" because 19 year old college student Yvonne Dean-Bailey was elected to the NH House in a special election.

At the same time, this week the House Commerce committee voted to retain SB 219, a bill that would require businesses to provide a space other than a toilet stall, for nursing mothers to express breast milk. 

They voted to retain the bill because they lacked the courage to kill it outright. They knew it would be seen for what it is - a failure to support women and children. A failure to live up to their own oft-touted family values. They knew it would be seen as another instance of the GOP war on women. 

This is the party that loudly proclaims to speak for the unborn - yet here we see how little interest they have in providing even a modicum of support for even the newly born. 

More Prattefalls

Ah Cornerstone - how the family values have changed. Only a few years ago, founder Karen Testerman expounded on how holding hands should be discouraged because it "leads to other things."

I wonder what she makes of Miss Pratte's television viewing:

Where is Mr. Right? #Bachelorette #whydoiwatchthisshow
— Ashley Pratte (@AshPratte) July 16, 2013

This is a show where a woman is shown dating and kissing numerous men on television, in an attempt to meet a husband. This season began with one woman and 25 guys.  Every week at least one of the potential suitors is eliminated. When the show reaches the final episodes she shares a night alone in a "fantasy suite" with each one of the final three, before choosing the one she will pretend she's going to marry. 

According to one former contestant, there's a lot more than hand holding going on behind closed doors. This year, word is that  Desiree will be taking the bachelors for a test drive.

From the Cornerstone website:

Relationships are wonderful gifts given to us by God. As we read in the Bible, the most-intimate relationship is marriage between a husband and a wife.

Apparently the most intimate relationship can also be given to us by a television reality show! 

Let me be clear - I'm no prude. I don't care what any of these people do, or who they do it with. (It is silly that they pretend they're going to get married.) I don't care that Ashley watches this tripe (as mockworthy as it is). The trouble with wagging a prissy moral finger and presenting yourself as possessing superior values is that you're setting yourself up for a fall. 

Like having some jerk on the internet point out that you (of the allegedly superior moral values) are cooing on Twitter while watching a show about a woman who is paid to be on a reality show, and who is having sex with some of the contestants. Isn't there a word for that? Anyone? Karen Testerman? 

Cornerstone's Prattefall

@AshPratte The dry cleaner called, Ashley. Your white robes are ready for pick up. #fauxChristian
— susanthe (@susanthe) July 14, 2013

After the Zimmerman verdict was announced on Saturday night, Ashley Pratte the Executive Director of Cornerstone Action/Policy Research sent out the tweet you see above. 

Zimmerman not guilty #justice
— Ashley Pratte (@AshPratte) July 14, 2013

An adult man who killed an unarmed boy was found not guilty, and Miss Pratte* calls this justice. 

In my own understated way, I called it as I saw it, and mocked Miss Pratte. 

From Cornerstone's mission statement: 

Cornerstone communicates with a reasonable, persuasive, and compelling voice on family issues in the media and in the halls of Concord.  We believe the origins of our culture were purposely rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition, and thus advocate for the traditional New Hampshire values of personal responsibility, strong families, limited government and free enterprise.  

I guess I just don't understand contemporary Judeo-Christian values. Is applauding the not-guilty verdict of an adult man who killed an unarmed boy what Jesus would do? Is finding this verdict "justice" the use of a "reasonable, persuasive, and compelling voice on family issues?" 

More from the mission statement: 

We believe that one person can make a difference in his or her community. In our democratic-republic form of government, public policies essentially stem from the values, attitudes, and behavior of people and institutions. Therefore, changing laws without changing the hearts, minds and lives of people proves futile. We believe that influence over hearts and minds are earned by compassion in service, wisdom in relationships, and intellectual excellence in persuasion.

Oh, well, that explains it. Ashley was trying to influence hearts and mind by her use of compassion, wisdom, and intellectual excellence.

A perusal of the Cornerstone website reveals a lot of Christian oriented material. They have a compassion project. They have a page of lessons on social justice from the  the Heritage Foundation. Cornerstone has a page promoting Focus on the Family's Truth Project, which claims to be dedicated to showing the importance and relevance of living the Christian world view in daily life. 

An unarmed teenager is dead. I'm still not getting how cheering the fact that his killer was found not guilty fits into the Christian world view. 

I'm aware that this verdict has created a lot of anger and discussion. That's neither here nor there. A woman who is the Executive Director of an organization that allies itself with Christianity should have had the sense to keep her opinion to herself.  She could have tweeted something compassionate out, about sadness for all of the families involved, since Cornerstone claims to care so much about families. 

Instead, she got mad at me. Miss Pratte's response to my jab was:

Blatant disrespect and unnecessary. I hope the @NHDems condemn this type of behavior. @susanthe #nhpolitics pic.twitter.com/AlG6ntXtdx
— Ashley Pratte (@AshPratte) July 15, 2013

Given that I don't work for  (or belong to) the NH Democratic Party, I'm not sure what Miss Pratte is hoping to accomplish by calling upon them to chastise me. (They haven't even tried) A couple of Ashley's buddies retweeted her plea, but she wasn't able to get the kind of media juice for it that she seems to have been hoping for. 

She's right though. It is blatant disrespect. And it is deserved. Someone who could send out a tweet congratulating the killer of an unarmed teenaged boy doesn't deserve my respect. Her respect for the family of Trayvon Martin is nonexistent. In the land of Cornerstone, only some families have value. 

* Since I'm guessing Ashley doesn't identify as a feminist, I chose to eschew the term Ms. and go with the old-school Miss, given that she's unmarried.