Do abortions contribute to the lowering of the crime rate in this country? This question was being debated in Slate Magazine six yers ago by Dr. Steven D. Levitt, author of "Freakonomics" that became a bestseller. But now we may have an answer from a well-known source. Let's say it's a troubling one. It makes us ask the questions of whether these talk show formats are conducive to the discussion of such hardcore issues as race, abortions etc.
Author of many books including the 1993 best seller "The Book of Virtues," former education secretary in the Reagan administration, former director of drug policy during George H.W. Bush's administration, and current talk show host, William Bennett, is a well-known public figure. He talked about the potential of reducing crime by aborting all black children.
"I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down," radio talk show host Bennett said in his broadcast.
"That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do but your crime rate wuld go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky."
William Bennett tried to defend his position. "I was pointing out that abortion should not be opposed for economic reasons, any more than racism or, for that matter, slavery or segregation should be supported or opposed for economic reasons." He went on to say that "immoral policies are wrong because they are wrong, not because of an economic calculation. One could just as easily have said you could abort all children and prevent all crime to show the absurdity of the proposition."
When somebody like Bennett says things like that even in an attempt to make a point, people tend to get surprised by some type of revelations. Does this go back to the old plan repatriating all Black people to Africa. Already, as a country, we are dealing with issues of mistrust and people who think others have hidden agenda. When the common, ordinary, uncultured man hears such statements, he'll start being panicked and worried that his offsprings may be exterminated in some type of modern-day apartheid. Even South Africa did not get to that point. Little by little, these types of public statements erode the foundation of respect for the person of color or Black man and woman. In a case of emergency as revealed by Katrina, the slow, sleeping indifference may manifest itself into inactions by those who are called to provide services to everybody regardless of skin color, staggering statistics of crime, birth rate, past history.
Now, maybe the format was not appropriate to get into these kinds of issues. Will Bennett lose his talk show? We doubt it. We are sure people will pay closer attention now. The worst thing about it is that he may end up getting more listeners as a result of this brouhaha.
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