We Get the Behavior We are Willing to Tolerate

“We get the behavior we are willing to tolerate”. 

Apply this axiom to what we are willing to tolerate from our government representatives, from our local committee office all the way up to the President of the United States.

What behavior are we willing to tolerate?

This past Friday the Pro-Life Coalition of Pennsylvania held a public forum outside of Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick’s local office in Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania to voice our concerns with his support of the Equality Act. A Republican, Fitzpatrick in 2019 said he would not vote for that version of the Equality Act without a religious exemption; however, two years later he voted for the 2021 version of the Equality Act which specifically notes there is no exemption for religious concerns. 

Here is some of the fine print of this act as currently written and waiting on a Senate vote.

*This legislation authorizes individuals and or government officials to punish Catholic hospitals and/or health care professionals who decline to commit abortions or gender transition surgeries.  It allows no provision for conscience rights, as any reference to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act is expressly disallowed.

*Taxpayer funding of elective abortions would now be a result of the “equality” act.

*Minors who wish to pursue gender transitioning surgery/hormonal change would not require parental consent

*Anyone who identifies as opposite to their biological sex would need only to state this fact to join same sex schools and teams.  Also, no questions asked to enter private facilities such as restrooms, locker rooms, or women’s shelters.  In other words, a biological male who perceives himself as a woman can now attend a girls-only school and proceed to play on the same athletic field, regardless if any hormonal therapy has taken place or not. This could have a profound effect on women’s sports and sport scholarships.  Also, a biological male can enter a women’s shelter if he so states he identifies as a woman.  The Equality Act contains no acknowledgement that males and females are biologically different.  What happened to “follow the science” as we have been admonished to do for global warming or Covid concerns?

 I have no idea how they plan to protect a woman in a shelter if a straight male enters, clearly planning to exploit the Equality Act for his own purposes, which could include assault, rape or murder. Apparently Fitzpatrick didn’t see the need to consider or protect these women’s rights.

Now is the time to hold our representatives’ feet to the fire.  One of the positive results of Friday’s rally is there was a genuine sharing of information how to get involved in local politics in order to have your voice heard.  Search for local Facebook pages for your local township, call your state representative to obtain information of local party committees, ask neighbors and friends if they have any contacts.

Politics is like commerce.  We buy a particular product because we like what it does and we pay for it with our vote.  Once we notice a degradation in the quality of the product, we can opt to take our business elsewhere.  We should never put the failed product back in our pantry or closet and simply say, oh well, nothing I can do about that.  There is always something you can do and silently tolerating poor performance or behavior should not be our default.