Consider the mythical Bill Jones. He’s a quiet guy who owns his own house free and clear in your quiet neighborhood. He minds his own business. You and the rest of your neighbors see him and wave but you’ve never had any real interaction with him. You don’t know his preferences or hopes or fears.
Now let’s imagine that your house burns down. You meant to get to that frayed wiring – a little preventive maintenance would have done the trick but you just didn’t get around to it. You hate to leave such a nice neighborhood. It’s quiet, it’s convenient to all the important things in your life; in short, it’s comfortable.
So, you approach Bill Jones and offer to buy his house with your insurance money. He politely refuses because he wants to continue to live in this nice neighborhood. Now what?
Well, you’re a nice person and you’ve made a good offer on Bill’s house. It’s your comfort vs. Bill’s intransigence. It’s inconvenient for you to make new arrangements for living and Bill’s reasons for living there don’t seem as compelling as yours. Being a nice person, you are personally opposed to murder but in this case you’ll make an exception! Once Bill is out of the way, you can buy his house and your life can proceed as before. End of mythical Bill Jones.
This sounds ridiculous – ludicrous, even. But it’s the logic I’m hearing from “nice people” in light of the Supreme Court’s pending decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a draft decision leaked in the last few days.
Nice people are saying, “Well, I’m personally opposed to abortion but what about poor Susie who finds herself pregnant at 15?” The unstated assumption there is that it sure will be inconvenient/uncomfortable for Susie to have a baby; in this case murdering the baby is okay. Sure, the baby is quiet and minding its own business (just like Bill Jones) but Susie’s comfort and convenience is more important.
These Nice people are empathizing with Susie – they are implicitly putting themselves in Susie’s shoes and inadvertently admitting that, “If I were Susie, this is what I would do.” !! Maybe they’re not so nice.
There are lots of scenarios we could put forth for why your house burned down in Bill Jones’ neighborhood. Not every one has an element of your own culpability. Your house might have been raped. It might have had a birth defect. Perhaps the mold in the basement is threatening the life of the mother. Or it could be your own doing. Perhaps you promiscuously burned down your prior three houses, too.
Still, none of these cases provides a satisfactory finish to the sentence, “I don’t believe in murder, but…”
Perhaps it’s what we should reply when we hear someone spew the “I’m personally opposed” stupidity.
“Well, neither am I in favor of murder, but in your case …”
~John Bingaman, May 2022
