‘gate moncv’ so that no prisoners are releasedrn. .. with empty pockets.” All thisrnwouldn’t be so bad for Adington if itsrnelected officials understood that one ofrnthe government’s more important functionsrnis to protect the life and liberty ofrnthe citizens in its jurisdiction. But Arlington’srnofficials don’t care about Barryrnor the crimes his subjects commit underrntheir noses.rnAfter Meredith Miller’s savage murder,rnthe Courier published an editorialrndenouncing the District because itsrncrime spills over into Arlington and suggestingrnthat the race for mayor mightrnmore appropriately be called a race forrnzookeeper. The reaction? A member ofrnthe county’s governing board canceledrnhis subscription to the paper. The editorial,rnhe wrote, implied “that our neighborsrnin the District of Columbia are lessrnthan human” and was “mean-spirited atrnbest and racist at worst.” The rest ofrnthe board probablv thought so too, butrnsimplv didn’t say as much. Yet their silencernspoke olumes. When MeredithrnMiller was shot in the chest, Arlington’srnpolice chief said nothing. The chairmanrnof the County Board said nothing.rnThe board’s vice chairman and even itsrnlone Republican, supposedly some sortrnof conservative, were mute. Evidently,rnArlington’s ruling class won’t criticizernthe District or its mayor, and it doesn’trntake a genius to figure out why. Morernthan three-quarters of the District’s residentsrnare black.rnThen, of course, there’s the Crackhead-rnin-Chief himself. Arlington’s muka-rnmuks won’t rebuke him, no matterrnhow many of his criminals run the countv’srnstreets, for one simple reason. LikernBarry and the residents of the District,rnArlington’s voters are principallyrnDemocrats. Indeed, while the rest ofrnthe American electorate went solidly Republican,rnhoping for a change from thernacquisitive, corrupt socialists who ranrnCongress, Democrats in Arlington wonrnthe election hands down. SenatorrnChuck Robb needed more than 50 percentrnof Northern Virginia’s vote to defeatrnOliver North. Arlington voters gavernRobb 66 percent of the vote. A hardnosedrnschool reformer went down to defeatrnat the hands of Adington’s Democraticrnmajority, which preferred arnlongtime school bureaucrat. And thernincumbent chairman of the CountyrnBoard defeated a Republican who advocatedrneliminating the personal propertyrntax on automobiles. Yet the vice-chairmanrnof Arlington’s board thought Arlington’srnvote for the Democratic Partyrnshowed it was an “island of sanity in arnworld gone mad.”rnActuallv, it’s a sign that Arlington’srnresidents care as much about crime andrnother issues that inspired the Americanrnelectorate’s anti-Democratic revolt asrntheir governing board, aird that ArlingtonrnCounty has been absorbed by thernfederal citv. Its entire economy dependsrnon its proximity to Uncle Sam. No wonderrnArlington thumbed its nose at thernrest of the country, just like Washington,rnD.C. Like the District, Arlington isrnno longer part of the real America,rnwhich brings us back to the dark ironyrnof Meredith Miller’s murder. YoungrnMeredith might still be alive in the realrnAmerica, but she died thanks to a judgernin the District. The judge in questionrnloosed a man later arrested as a suspectrnin the murder, Anthony Higgins, afterrnMiggins wrote him a letter. “Sir, I havernlearned my lesson and I know [sic]rnlonger wish to be a ictim of society,”rnHiggins pleaded.rnWhen MT. Barry promulgates his newrnparole program and his pals at Lortonrnhead back home to see the folks, onernwonders how many will stop in Adingtonrnfor a shooting or two and whether anyonernin Arlington will even care.rn—R. Cort KirkwoodrnOUSAN SMITH, confessed murderessrnof her own children, tells us a great dealrnabout what is going on in a society whererntoo many children growing up in brokenrnhomes are exposed to violence and evenrnmurder.rnWhat kind of mother would kill herrnown children? According to the press,rnthe case of Susan Smith is horrible butrn”not unusual.” Obviously, such murdersrnare statistically very unusual, andrnthey are usually committed by womenrnwho are mentally defective and morallyrndegraded. Nonetheless, the press continuesrnto describe Mrs. Smith as “one ofrnus,” a woman subject to a temptation wernall face.rnBecause Smith laid down the red herringrnof a black abductor in order to misleadrnthe police, a ruse that was exposedrnm a few days but which gave the pressrnthe opportunity to concentrate on the issuernof racism, the Smith murders havernbeen compared with the O.J. Simpsonrntrial, but the really relevant parallel isrnPaul J. Hill, the Florida pro-life activistrnwho shot and killed an abortionist andrnhis bodyguard and wounded the bodyguard’srnwife. Forbidden to pursue a defensernof justifiable homicide, Hill hasrnbeen convicted of murder and sentencedrnto death.rnBoth the Smith and Hill cases havernaroused public anger, but the obviousrnconnection has escaped the pundits’ attention.rnHill dramatized through illegalrnviolence his outrage at a greater violence:rnthe routinization of baby-killing, institutedrnby doctors who violate the Hippocraticrnoath, in the name of “women’srnright to choose.” In the name of science,rnwe now have fetal tissue researchrnand more recently an establishment-certifiedrnpush for human embryo research.rnDr. Frankenstein no longer hides in thernbasement—he is government-funded.rnBut the Smith case is even more revealingrnof the truth we don’t want tornface, that it is women, not doctors, whornare ultimately responsible for millions ofrnabortions. This logic suggests that perhapsrnHill should have adjusted his aim.rnSmith’s snuffing of her children’s livesrnshould be viewed as a double retroactivernabortion, though it was technically arndouble murder. She merely offed thosernkids in the wrong trimester—a distinctionrnof degree, but not of kind. Theyrnwere in the way. Raising children is hard.rnShe felt bad. She mav even have sufferedrnpremenstrual tension, which I amrnsure will be taken into consideration. Wernwill hear about her feelings, and her feelingsrnabout her feelings as well.rnI am waiting for the call from GloriarnSteinem, from Anna Quindlen, fromrnEllen Coodman, and from SenatorrnKennedy, for justice for Susan Smith.rnSurely they have the courage of theirrnconvictions. Susan Smith, more thanrn”Jane Roe,” embodies not what we wantrnto be, but what we are: a nation wherernthe crematoria burn brightly, wherernthere is justice based on constitutionalrnprinciples, where pregnancy and evenrnchildbirth can be adjusted to “choice.”rnAfter all, this is a democracy. We don’trnlive in the Middle Ages, thank goodness.rnWe don’t believe in Joan of Arc, but wernhave our heroines. Somewhere—inrnBoston or New York or Los Angeles, butrnnot in Union, South Carolina—therernshould be a statue of our anti-saint, SusanrnSmith.rn—].0. TaternFEBRUARY 1995/7rnrnrn