RIGHT TO CHOOSE ... POORLY?
Feminism’s legacy should be carried on by mothers who teach their daughters to make intelligent choices
BY HEIDI HARRIS

Heidi Harris hosts “The Heidi Harris Show” weekday mornings, 8 to 10 a.m., on NewsTalk 720 KDWN in Las Vegas. Visit her website www.heidiharris.com. Other stories by Heidi Harris

American women are the most privileged on Earth. We have the freedom to determine virtually all aspects of our lives, with the exception of who our parents are. We have a right to choose whom or even if we marry or bear children, and our rights are protected in case of divorce. A woman can choose any career her aptitude and work ethic will allow, or choose to be a full-time mother.

With all these choices available to us, you’d think we’d choose wisely, but alas, some women don’t. The recent case of Jessie Davis is a classic example. She’s the Ohio woman, pregnant with her second illegitimate child by a married man, who was found murdered on June 23. While no reasonable person would say that she deserved to die, the fact is, her terrible life choices led directly to her death. 

You won’t hear anyone in the media say this, of course, and I wonder why. There ought to be a lesson from every tragedy, right? Whenever there’s a school shooting, the first lesson we’re supposed to learn is that guns are evil. Anytime a politically correct viewpoint can be strengthened through a tragedy, it’s all we hear about. However, when a lack of personal responsibility is to blame, the silence is deafening. 

In the case of Jessie Davis, she chose to get pregnant twice by a married man who had three other children with two different women, one of whom he terrorized for more than 10 years. His violent record was available to anyone who did a little snooping. 

It may sound obvious, but if you choose to involve yourself with a violent man, you risk injury. Have children with such a person, and your nightmare never ends. He’ll try to control you by using the children, resent having to pay child support for kids he didn’t want, etc. Add to the mix a jealous wife, and the outcome is predictable.

The true victims in this case are the children. Two-and-a-half-year-old Blake was born into a home without a father, and now has no mother. Chloe, the child Jessie was carrying, never had a chance to be born into the chaos that was Jessie’s life. 

Feminism has brought American women a greater awareness of their place in the world, and young girls today take for granted many of the options their grandmothers could only dream about. Of course, feminism today has gone too far, becoming more anti-man than pro-woman, and now men are often portrayed as inferior in TV shows, commercials, etc. Men are still viewed as the enemy by some feminist-asauruses, who haven’t shed their “I am woman, hear me roar” mentality of the ’70s. 

With freedom comes responsibility, and the legacy of feminism should be carried on by mothers who teach their daughters to make intelligent choices. By refusing to acknowledge the poor choices Jessie Davis made, and the lessons that should be learned from the wreckage of her life, we do our daughters and the brave women who fought for those choices a disservice.