Well, it happened again. I find myself once again agreeing with someone I very seldom agree with – Hillary Clinton. And it’s only been a week since last time.
This time the issue is Saudi Arabia – the only country on earth where women are by law forbidden to drive – anywhere, for any reason, period. And if they do, and if they are caught, they face arrest, imprisonment, firing from their job, and other severe punishments.
Well, a few days ago, about 30 Saudi women said “Enough” and took to the road anyway. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, when asked about their conduct, said “What these women are doing is brave and what they are seeking is right. I am moved by it, and I support them.”
In my capacity as Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee on the Middle East and South Asia, I was in Saudi Arabia (and Iraq, Bahrain, and Kuwait) about a month ago. While in Saudi Arabia, I met with a group of Saudi women’s rights activists, and the prohibition against women driving was one of the many topics we discussed. They informed me of their intention to protest the driving ban in the near future – which just occurred the other day.
Hillary supports them, and so do I. I had brought up my criticism of the driving ban at several meetings with high Saudi government officials while in Saudi Arabia, including in a meeting with members of the Shura Council (which is comparable to our United States Congress.) Hopefully Saudi officials will decide not to retaliate against these women, as many Americans (including members of our Congress) will be watching. It’s hard to believe that in the 21st Century, approximately one half of the adult population of a nation are forbidden to operate a motor vehicle. I’m with Hillary on this one.
A couple of other interesting news items which I’d like to comment on briefly. First, in NBC’s recent broadcast of golfing’s U.S. Open, NBC cut “Under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance. Where will it end? Jordan Sekulow, Chief Council for the American Center for Law and Justice stated that “NBC crossed a troubling line and offended millions of Americans by cutting the phrase ‘Under God’ from the Pledge of Allegiance. The phrase ‘Under God’ is not a throw-away line, an afterthought.” NBC should be ashamed.
And finally, the Mercatus Center, a libertarian think tank just released the results of a study ranking the 50 states on the “freedom” scale. They based the results on such things as gun rights, taxes, regulations, and so on. The freest state according to the study? New Hampshire (interestingly the state’s slogan is “Live free or die.”) New York is dead last on the freedom scale (no real surprise there.) Ohio unfortunately ranks 42nd (eight from being the least free.) We’ve got some work to do!
See you next week.