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Hot Off The Press – What is a Statesman, and What is Coercion?

By Theresa Fritz Camoriano

Kentucky’s former governor, Louie Nunn, recently died, and the press has been praising him for being “courageous” and “a statesman”, because he broke his campaign pledge and raised taxes.  I did not know Governor Nunn well but had talked with him a couple of times, and I am sure it would not have been difficult for the press to find many genuinely positive attributes that they could have praised.  However, misleading or tricking voters surely is not something most of us would consider to be a positive attribute.  If breaking promises to voters makes a person courageous and a statesman, then Bill Clinton must be the most courageous statesman we have seen for many years! 

In recent reports on pro-abortion and anti-abortion groups commemorating the Roe v. Wade decision, the C-J highlighted a comment of an abortion supporter concerning a fund that had been set up to help poor women pay for abortions.  The abortion supporter’s comment was that it would be a shame if a woman were coerced into having a baby because she could not afford an abortion.  I can understand a shotgun wedding being called “coercion”, or blackmail being called “coercion”, but I have never considered a person’s inability to afford something to be “coercion”.   So, based on that logic, I now understand that I have been coerced into not buying a mink coat or a Rolls Royce car.  I have been coerced into not taking long vacation trips around the world.  I have been coerced into working for a living.  Gosh -- I never realized I had been so victimized!

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