Orwell's Grave Interviewed By South Dakota Newspaper

Perhaps this is a little self-promotion, but I bring to your attention an article in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader newspaper, which interviewed yours truly for a piece published in today's Sunday edition.

Nestor Ramos, Argus Leader reporter, who says he reads my blog, has a good wrap-up entitled Abortion Lands S.D. in Nation's Psyche. Here is how he reports his interview with me:

Like every political Web log worth it's [sic] links, "Orwell's Grave" took note of South Dakota's new law. Steven [sic] McArthur, who writes the left-leaning blog from his home in Montpelier, Vt., said he was familiar with the concept of tarring whole states over an issue. His home state's image recently took a hit when right-wing commentators took issue with what they thought was a light sentence for a convicted pedophile, he said. Vermont was casually referred to in some circles as "the pedophile state."In South Dakota, McArthur said, "I haven't seen as much reaction, but if the left is doing the same thing as the right did on Vermont, then they're just as stupid as the right are."McArthur, unlike many bloggers, says he is not going to condemn the whole state."There are people of good faith in South Dakota who believe they are doing the right thing," he said.

I said this last in the context of talking about how every state projects many sides to an issue and that we should not condemn an entire state on the basis of just one side, or one group of people. I also talked about how the South Dakota abortion law was the creation of a small group of men in the South Dakota Senate and House, pushed by radical interest groups, who want to control women's lives and women's health choices. They may believe they are doing the right thing, but that does not make them right.

Ramos asked me what I thought about some people's image of South Dakota swinging far to the right with this decision and how it might make South Dakota look bad if Roe v Wade is overturned. I said that if the people of South Dakota fail to invalidate the law through the referendum process this November and it ends up in the Supreme Court and Roe is actually overturned, then South Dakota will go down in history as the state that started the ball rolling towards a catastrophe for women's rights. I said it would be an inescapable conclusion, although if it weren't South Dakota it probably would be some other state that sparked such a Supreme Court reversal.

I asked Ramos if he was aware of the Purity Ball 2006 which is taking place on April 7 in Sioux Falls. He was not, but promised to look into it. I referred him to my piece in Orwell's Grave.