Current Events > High School Valedictorian Pulls Off Speech Switcheroo to Denounce GOP Bill

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/2021/06/lake-highlands-high-valedictorian-pulls-switcheroo-on-commencement-speech/

What an inspiring young lady. I find it hard to believe she's from Texas. Here's her speech:

Paxton Smith
Valedictory Address
May 30, 2021

As we leave high school we need to make our voices heard. I was going to get up here and talk to you about TV and content and media because those are things that are very important to me. However, in light of recent events, it feels wrong to talk about anything but what is currently affecting me and millions of other women in this state.

Recently the heartbeat bill was passed in Texas. Starting in September, there will be a ban on abortions that take place after 6 weeks of pregnancy, regardless of whether the pregnancy was a result of rape or incest. 6 weeks. Most women dont even realize theyre pregnant by then. And so, before they have the time to decide if they are emotionally, physically, and financially stable enough to carry out a full-term pregnancy, before they have the chance to decide if they can take on the responsibility of bringing another human into the world, the decision has been made for them by a stranger. A decision that will affect the rest of their lives.

I have dreams, hopes, and ambitions. Every girl here does. We have spent our whole lives working towards our futures, and without our consent or input, our control over our futures has been stripped away from us. I am terrified that if my contraceptives fail me, that if Im raped, then my hopes and efforts and dreams for myself will no longer be relevant. I hope you can feel how gut-wrenching it is, how dehumanizing it is, to have the autonomy over your own body taken from you.

And Im talking about this today, on a day as important as this, on a day honoring the students efforts in twelve years of schooling, on a day where were all brought together, on a day where you will be the most inclined to hear a voice like mine, a womans voice, to tell you that this is a problem. A problem that cant wait. I refuse to give up this platform to promote complacency and peace, when there is a war on my body and a war on my rights. A war on the rights of your sisters, a war on the rights of your mothers, a war on the rights of your daughters.

We cannot stay silent.

At that very moment, an LGBT Eagle with rainbow feathers landed on the US flag, shedding a tear and turning it into the Antifa flag. Everyone in attendance stood up, sang The Internationale, and pledged fealty to Karl Marx and Charles Darwin. The principal was sent to reeducation camp and later died due to small brain syndrome.

Everyone went to Starbucks and ordered a double soy milk kombucha latte that day.

Semper Fi.

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Was it Texas or Alabama where the people that passed this bill were all white men?

She's very courageous making that speech knowing it will be reported and she'll get attacked for it.

It was in Alabama that a group of white men voted for a similar bill.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-48275795

Men controlling women's bodies. It's obscene.


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It would not surprise me if she is not subjected to any number of threats of violence in the days to come.

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literally the only thing this will do is subject future speech givers to random pat-downs. when the cruelty is the point, hearing about the cruelty isn't going to change your mind.

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Good on her, but this is Texas we're talking about, so it's going to fall on a lot of deaf ears.

Best to get out of the state, it's a lost cause.
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threetimes posted...
threetimes posted...

Men controlling women's bodies. It's obscene.

I really wish people would stop trying to make this argument. Some of the most pro life people I've ever met were women. This issue is a lot more complex than bUt sExIsM


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TommyG663513 posted...

I really wish people would stop trying to make this argument. Some of the most pro life people I've ever met were women. This issue is a lot more complex than bUt sExIsM

But historically most of the limitations and justifications have been by males. Knowing *some* women are pro life doesn't overrule that....

Look at the state elected representatives who voted - how many were female?

TommyG663513 posted...

I really wish people would stop trying to make this argument. Some of the most pro life people I've ever met were women. This issue is a lot more complex than bUt sExIsM

but its still mostly old white men making the decisions for everyone

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TommyG663513 posted...

I really wish people would stop trying to make this argument. Some of the most pro life people I've ever met were women. This issue is a lot more complex than bUt sExIsM

So wrong he posted it twice.

i love topics like this. i know who to ignore and block so they dont ruin my own topics

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thronedfire2 posted...

but its still mostly old white men making the decisions for everyone

It's still mostly old white men making damn near every decision out there. Look at the entirety of Congress and who the CEOs of major corporations are.

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_BIueMonk posted...

So wrong he posted it twice.

i love topics like this. i know who to ignore and block so they dont ruin my own topics

How exactly am I wrong?

I am very much pro choice btw

I grew up in the Catholic church. Damn near every single woman in that circle was very pro life.

This issue is more complicated than bUt sExIsM

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TommyG663513 posted...

How exactly am I wrong?

I am very much pro choice btw

I grew up in the Catholic church. Damn near every single woman in that circle was very pro life.

This issue is more complicated than bUt sExIsM

As myself and others have posted, it has and *still* is largely decided by men so saying "men making decisions for women" is accurate. Feel free to provide evidence that pro life bills have been passed by >50% female bodies of government.

Ruvan22 posted...

As myself and others have posted, it has and *still* is largely decided by men so saying "men making decisions for women" is accurate. Feel free to provide evidence that pro life bills have been passed by >50% female bodies of government.

Damn near everything is decided by men. Sorry that this is your first time ever hearing about this, but who do you think made all of the laws we follow?

Can you find any law at all that had the congressional support of even 40% women? Do you understand what the gender makeup of congress currently is and historically has been?

Also, we have women in Congress who are pro life

Also, abortion rights effects men too

Also, you can have a moral objection to abortion and feel legislation is the best way to curb that.

The stance that "men just want to control women's bodies" has always and will always be a bad faith representation of the issue that attempts to paint the issue as way more black and white than it actually is.

Again, I am pro choice. Get that one through your head. I have the same basic political opinion of what looks like everyone in this thread. I just hate the same stupid hack argument that I often see in these discussions.

Do you really think abortion rights get restricted WITHOUT the support of pro life women? NEWSFLASH women being pro life keeps that movement alive. Start acknowledging that there are reasons to be pro life that aren't purely based in sexism and then you can be a part of the discussion.

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all of that instead of "sorry, i misunderstood the conversation"

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Aeriis posted...

why are you being so aggressive about this?

I'm explaining a position. I'm not being aggressive. I dislike it when my side (left wing) makes terribly bad faith arguments when they could easily make good faith arguments that are extremely valid.

Those arguments do absolutely nothing to counteract the fact that A LOT of women are pro life and without them the pro life stance has zero viability.

There are perfectly valid reasons to be pro life that don't involve sexism. Well, I guess I would call them low validity, but I'm also very strongly pro choice.

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Medussa posted...

all of that instead of "sorry, i misunderstood the conversation"

Yeah you should explain it to him for me

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TommyG663513 posted...

Damn near everything is decided by men. Sorry that this is your first time ever hearing about this, but who do you think made all of the laws we follow?

Can you find any law at all that had the congressional support of even 40% women? Do you understand what the gender makeup of congress currently is and historically has been?

Also, we have women in Congress who are pro life

Also, abortion rights effects men too

Also, you can have a moral objection to abortion and feel legislation is the best way to curb that.

The stance that "men just want to control women's bodies" has always and will always be a bad faith representation of the issue that attempts to paint the issue as way more black and white than it actually is.

Again, I am pro choice. Get that one through your head. I have the same basic political opinion of what looks like everyone in this thread. I just hate the same stupid hack argument that I often see in these discussions.

Do you really think abortion rights get restricted WITHOUT the support of pro life women? NEWSFLASH women being pro life keeps that movement alive. Start acknowledging that there are reasons to be pro life that aren't purely based in sexism and then you can be a part of the discussion.

Ok as Aerris said you are *really* aggressive about this. A few points
A) I never said there are no pro life women or legislators please stop putting words in my mouth
B) I never disputed you being pro choice again please stop putting words in my mouth.
C) The reason I ask about anti abortion laws passed by women is because this topic *specifically* affects them (unlike say nuclear armaments). For you to keep harping that "there are pro life women" implies that the laws are just as influenced by them as men and therefore the "men making decisions for women" isn't a valid statement. If a group of twenty people decide something that only affects one person in the group, EVEN if that one person supports it, it still comes across as 19 people deciding for 1.
D) Lastly you keep mentioning "just sexism" - who are you saying is making this statement? There's a big difference between the statement "it's not right that one group passes laws that affect another smaller group" and "all the men are doing this just to be sexist"

Ruvan22 posted...

Ok as Aerris said you are *really* aggressive about this. A few points
A) I never said there are no pro life women or legislators please stop putting words in my mouth
B) I never disputed you being pro choice again please stop putting words in my mouth.
C) The reason I ask about anti abortion laws passed by women is because this topic *specifically* affects them (unlike say nuclear armaments). For you to keep harping that "there are pro life women" implies that the laws are just as influenced by them as men and therefore the "men making decisions for women" isn't a valid statement. If a group of twenty people decide something that only affects one person in the group, EVEN if that one person supports it, it still comes across as 19 people deciding for 1.
D) Lastly you keep mentioning "just sexism" - who are you saying is making this statement? There's a big difference between the statement "it's not right that one group passes laws that affect another smaller group" and "all the men are doing this just to be sexist"

Really aggressive about this? Lol that is a pathetic ad hominem to try to paint me as unreasonable.

Pretty much all of your points are straight garbage

Painting pro life as "just men wanting to control women's bodies" is a bad faith argument that tries to paint pro life beliefs as "just sexism"

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TommyG663513 posted...

It's still mostly old white men making damn near every decision out there. Look at the entirety of Congress and who the CEOs of major corporations are.

this country was founded by old white men making decisions to benefit other old white men. Liberty and justice for all my ass. women and people of color are SoL

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Conservatives cheered the pants shitter for posing with a gun but will likely send death threats to this girl. Real great bunch they are.

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Humble_Novice posted...

What an inspiring young lady.

Yes. Complaining about not being able to commit murder "legally' is very inspiring. *eyeroll*

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Weezy_Tha_Don posted...

this country was founded by old white men making decisions to benefit other old white men. Liberty and justice for all my ass. women and people of color are SoL

You forgot to mention that the vast majority of white people are in that SoL class too. Just because a CEO is white means he is a savior to all white people.

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@Aeriis

Do you know what aggressive is? It's an attempt to ad hominem? It is a lazy intellectual tactic. Stop being so lazy and make an effort. Why are you so unbelievably lazy? Sorry I can't quote you out of context to show you how lazy you are, but you haven't posted much.

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Mr Sandbag posted...

Yes. Complaining about not being able to commit murder "legally' is very inspiring. *eyeroll*

If you believe that and by extension follow conservative logic as to why abortion is murder then you should never masturbate again. Youre killing potential babies when you do it. Just letting you know. Not looking for an argument. Just a heads up so you can stick to your morals.

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TheVipaGTS posted...

If you believe that and by extension follow conservative logic as to why abortion is murder then you should never masturbate again. Youre killing potential babies when you do it. Just letting you know. Not looking for an argument. Just a heads up so you can stick to your morals.

Do you really hate science so much that you don't understand the difference between a sperm and a fertilized egg?

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Humble_Novice posted...

myself will no longer be relevant. I hope you can feel how gut-wrenching it is, how dehumanizing it is, to have the autonomy over your own body taken from you.

I agree with her 100%

It bothers me that people don't seem to care about how fucked up it is to say "You don't have body autonomy. The governent owns you and we will tell you what you can and can't do with your own body"

That's so utterly fucked up

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Mr Sandbag posted...

Do you really hate science so much that you don't understand the difference between a sperm and a fertilized egg?

He feels entitled to make bad faith arguments against pro life ideology

Like guys, it really isn't difficult to make a good faith argument against pro lifers. You just have to stop being a partisan hack.

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I actually see his point, although I agree there are plenty of smarter and more relevant arguments to be made.

But it's 100% true that the only reason why sperms aren't considered to have souls is because it would be super inconvient to believe that. It would forbid masturbation as well as protected sex and would call for men to do everything possible to preserve their sperm, near all of which would die anyway.

So therefore it doesn't have a soul purely due to how immensely impractical it would be for men if that was the case. Not for any religious or spiritual reason.

But a fertalized egg instantly does because God said so. Now it's not a pain in the ass for anyone except women, that's when God decided soul is a thing.Hands tied ladies, men can do whatever the fuck they want but you don't have the rights to your own body. God has ruled it.

Yeah that's a bullshit argument. It's more of an attack on religion than the abortion debate itself tho

I don't think it's fair to dismiss the point out of hand purely because it's not a strong argument against pro-lifers let alone an argument for abortion. The point is still right. The "soul" camp is still utterly full of shit and should be called out as such

If we indulge sci-fi and pretend that science invented a way for unborn babies to develop outside of the female body. Either in an incubator from conception (at an expensive cost) or by being placed inside a male body, that entire camp of soul people would instantly oppose it and still demand the women suffer. It's entirely about them not being inconvenienced.

Dave Barnhart, a Christian pastor touches on it well here:

The "unborn" are a convenient group of people to advocate for. They never make demands of you; they are morally uncomplicated, unlike the incarcerated, addicted, the chronically poor; they don't resent your condescension or complain that you are not politically correct; unlike widows, they don't ask you to question the patriarchy; unlike orphans, they don't need money, education, or childcare; unlike aliens, they don't bring all that racial, cultural, and religious baggage that you dislike; they allow you to feel good about yourself without any work at creating or maintaining relationships; and when they are born, you can forget about them, because they cease to be unborn...You can love the unborn and advocate for them without substantially challenging your own wealth, power, or privilege, without re-imagining social structures, apologizing, or making reparations to anyone. They are, in short, the perfect people to love if you want to claim you love Jesus but actually dislike people who breathe.

Prisoners? Immigrants? The sick? The poor? Widows? Orphans? All the groups that are specifically mentioned in the Bible? They all get thrown under the bus for the unborn.

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Inferno Dive Dragoon posted...

Good on her, but this is Texas we're talking about, so it's going to fall on a lot of deaf ears.

Best to get out of the state, it's a lost cause.

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TommyG663513 posted...

Really aggressive about this? Lol that is a pathetic ad hominem to try to paint me as unreasonable.

Pretty much all of your points are straight garbage

Painting pro life as "just men wanting to control women's bodies" is a bad faith argument that tries to paint pro life beliefs as "just sexism"

Thanks @Aeriis for pointing out the aggressive parts I was referring to. Regardless, it *might* be an ad hominem if that's all I said. Instead I asked valid questions that you then refused to answer - showing that your mis-understanding of the topic was still lacking evidence. Again, you put words in my mouth - I never said "Just", which would imply that's ONLY reason. Please (for the third time) explain this connection you keep drawing between "men controlling women's bodies" to "sexism"

Ruvan22 posted...

Thanks @Aeriis for pointing out the aggressive parts I was referring to. Regardless, it *might* be an ad hominem if that's all I said. Instead I asked valid questions that you then refused to answer - showing that your mis-understanding of the topic was still lacking evidence. Again, you put words in my mouth - I never said "Just", which would imply that's ONLY reason. Please (for the third time) explain this connection you keep drawing between "men controlling women's bodies" to "sexism"

No you put words in my mouth and didn't understand anything I said. I didn't respond to your points, because they were garbage. You are even kind of sort of admitting that attempting to label me as aggressive was just an ad hominem. You don't get points for making arguments that don't address what I'm saying.

It really isn't hard at all to make good faith arguments against pro life stances. Think about it for a minute instead of regurgitating radfem arguments on the issue.

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TommyG663513 posted...

It's still mostly old white men making damn near every decision out there. Look at the entirety of Congress and who the CEOs of major corporations are.

yes...that's the problem...

TommyG663513 posted...

I really wish people would stop trying to make this argument. Some of the most pro life people I've ever met were women. This issue is a lot more complex than bUt sExIsM

The difference in attitudes between men and women is usually very small. There are a few areas, and a few countries where more women than men are in favour of restricting access to abortion. You're right, it doesn't precisely work as a pro-choice argument.

Humble_Novice posted...

I find it hard to believe she's from Texas.

??

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Fam_Fam posted...

yes...that's the problem...

Yes and you can't make that argument and only specifically apply it to pro life/choice laws. It applies to every single law ever. Obviously it is a problem, but you're also trying to discredit all of law on the basis of the racial and gender makeup of congress.


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TommyG663513 posted...

Yes and you can't make that argument and only specifically apply it to pro life/choice laws. It applies to every single law ever. Obviously it is a problem, but you're also trying to discredit all of law on the basis of the racial and gender makeup of congress.

your logic is off, if you're saying an argument is invalid if the claim made also applies elsewhere. no one is trying to discredit anything, discuss other laws, or say that's the only factor.

TommyG663513 posted...

He feels entitled to make bad faith arguments against pro life ideology

Like guys, it really isn't difficult to make a good faith argument against pro lifers. You just have to stop being a partisan hack.

If you already know being pro life is bullshit then why are you pulling this fucking trolling stunt?

What_ posted...

If you already know being pro life is bullshit then why are you pulling this fucking trolling stunt?

Because people can and should make good arguments against pro lifers instead of bad ones.

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Fam_Fam posted...

your logic is off, if you're saying an argument is invalid if the claim made also applies elsewhere. no one is trying to discredit anything, discuss other laws, or say that's the only factor.

And that is called being inconsistent

Maybe don't use racism/sexism accusations to explain laws and attack the law itself

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