Every year, as we all know, Time Magazine honors someone as its “Person of the Year,” and sometimes it’s not even a person! But this year it will be, and my vote goes to Sandra Fluke. My reason is that she will be the first “Person of the Year” to become so solely because a right-wing talk show radio host made this person famous. Of course we’re talking about Rush Limbaugh who inartfully, to say the least, called Ms. Fluke (which rhymes with luck), a “slut”, much to his subsequent chagrin.
The reason for the epithet was that Ms. Fluke was to testify to a congressional panel about insurance coverage for birth control, or the so called contraceptive mandate in Obamacare. Being a law student at the time at Georgetown University, a Catholic institution, which reasonably would be against subsidizing birth control for its employees or students, Ms. Fluke thought they should be forced to pay for it. Harry Reid figuring this would be a great opportunity to publicize the Republican “war on women,” decided to put Ms. Fluke out there as an example of such a great injustice.
Given that calling a woman a “slut” on radio, and for one who has the reach of Rush Limbaugh, is a bit impolitic, what exactly did Ms. Fluke want? This is an uncomfortable question, but it must be asked, and answered honestly. She wants American taxpayer dollars to pay for her sexual lifestyle, or more accurately protect her from it. Does that make her a “slut”? I don’t know and would not care to judge the woman based on my own conception of morality. I’m far from perfect as are we all. But should our tax dollars pay for something to protect her from her sexual lifestyle? Especially if many of us have a strong moral or religious objection to it?
Be that as it may, my vote is for Sandra Fluke as Time’s “Person of the Year,” something only Rush Limbaugh could pull off.