For those of you too young to remember, "Sophie's Choice" is a brilliant novel that would be later made into an equally brilliant movie starring the more-than-equally brilliant Meryl Streep. Unfortunately, the Republicans are using the main plot point as their template for governing.
To review, "Sophie's Choice" chronicles a period of the life of a writer named Stingo. He is trying to complete his first novel and moves into a boarding house also inhabited by two lovers, Nathan Landau and Sophie Zawistowska. As the story unfolds, Sophie begins to tell Stingo of her life as a concentration camp survivor. It is in this arena where Sophie, then mother of two children, makes a fateful choice upon her entrance to the camp: Only one of her children is allowed in with her. The other must be left behind to face certain death. (I realize this is a quick summary, but I don't want to spend this entire diary discussing the plot points.)
You might think that this allegory might be stretching it a bit. I disagree. Why?
The following:
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There you have it. They will allow funding for the National Institute of Health and help kids with cancer. You would think that this would be a magnanimous gesture. However, as explained by Chris Hayes, they are only doing this because one of their standard bearers, the Wall Street Journal, is hammering them over the fact that the shutdown, which they started (not the Obama Administration as they suggest) over their hatred of the Affordable Care Act, is hurting these kids.
So, here's the choice: they will refund the NIH and a few other things, but nothing else. Take it or leave it.
So, kids who need food are left out.
The flu season is upon us, but flu shots that could protect children from dying are on hold.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will stop its flu program. Every fall, it monitors the spread of the flu and figures out how best to direct vaccine programs. During the shutdown, however, it will be “unable to support the annual seasonal influenza program,” the Department of Health and Human Services said. The CDC also has to stop providing support to states “for infectious disease surveillance.”
"Who does the shutdown hurt the most?" Minneapolis Star-Tribune 10/2/2013
Tell me, is this that different from the choice that Sophie Zawistowska had to make?
If you disagree, I understand. Let's try another allegory.
"...some animals are more equal than others."
Napolean, "Animal Farm" by George Orwell
Later.