March 14, 2017: Del Rio News-Herald * OPINION * Letter to the Editor * Big brother, simple sister

Letter to the Editor,

Benevolent Big Brother Government (BBBG) and Sweet Simple Sister Citizen (SSSC)

BBBG: I’m your bossy, I mean, benevolent big brother; I’m here to take care of all your healthcare needs.

SSSC: Thanks for being so kind and generous; helping me out this way.

BBBG: I’m a whole lot smarter than you are; I know what’s best for you.

SSSC: You’re my BBBG who knows everything and knows what is best for me.

BBBG: I know you need free birth control pills so you won’t get pregnant.

SSSC: If you say so, but I’d really like to have children someday.

BBBG: Sure, sure, someday, but not now. This is not the right time for you to have any children. You can’t afford to have children; you’re poor, you don’t have an education and you don’t have a job.

SSSC: Can you help me get a good education and good job so I won’t be poor?

BBBG: Yes, sure, someday; but for now all I can give you is free contraceptives.

SSSC: Okay.

BBBG: Now if your birth control pills don’t work, then I can give you a free abortion.

SSSC: I’m not sure I would want to have an abortion if I got pregnant.

BBBG: (Sighing exasperatedly and speaking slowly so SSSC can understand the complexities of modern day life.) Please pay attention carefully to what I am saying. You – cannot – have – a – baby.

SSSC: So if I wasn’t poor; if I wasn’t uneducated and unemployed then I could have a baby?

BBBG: Well, not really, because then you’d be fabulously rich, you’d be highly educated, have a demanding and lucrative paying job and you wouldn’t want to have a baby.

SSSC: So when could I have a baby?

BBBG: I guess, never.

SSSC: Oh. (Bemoaning; feeling sad and lonely because BBBG will never allow her to have a baby.)

BBBG: (Lamenting; sometimes SSSC is so difficult. Poor thing, she doesn’t understand the way life works. I’m so glad she has me to tell her how things work and what is best for her.)

Marian Casillas, Ed.D.

Del Rio