Must-Read Interview, First Published Young Voices Submission, & More
Here's the latest dispatch.
Good morning!
Welcome to Outsider on the Inside. I hope this dispatch from in and around the nation’s capital on underreported topics finds you well.
If you’re just discovering my musings, here’s a backgrounder.
Here’s what I have for you:
Meet Senator Julia Coleman: Rising Republican Star in Minnesota
Before being sworn into office, Senator Julia Coleman and her husband Jacob learned they were expecting identical twin boys. Naturally, they were overjoyed by the news.
Then they were told she was pregnant with monochorionic diamniotic twins, a rare pregnancy where twins share one placenta and have one connection to the mother. This made her pregnancy especially high-risk.
Some doctors rashly insisted she undergo a procedure called selective pregnancy reduction to eliminate one baby to supposedly save the other.
Coleman, who was raised Catholic and is pro-life, found this suggestion appalling and unacceptable.
“We instantly said, ‘No, we're not choosing between our sons. There's no situation where that's going to happen,”’ Coleman remarked.
“My son Charles, his growth was really bad,” she added. “So we decided to take them out [at 33 weeks]. And we finished the legislative session on midnight May 17th. And my boys were born at 1pm on May 18th. So they timed it out perfect.”
“It is something so beautiful to see how they [the twins] just are drawn to each other and connect with each other,” beamed Senator Coleman.
“I cannot imagine having to look James in the eyes and say, ‘Well, I killed your brother right next to you and you grew along next to his little dead body,’” the mom of three said.
Read at Town Hall and watch our full interview on YouTube below:
OC Register: Don’t Make Gun Owners Pay for Crimes They Don’t Commit
My first op-ed through the Young Voices Contributor program is out and it’s in my hometown paper the Orange County Register.
Here’s an excerpt:
The city of San Jose in California recently made history, but not for anything good. Gun-owning residents will soon be required to pay a premium price to exercise their Second Amendment rights.
Mayor Sam Liccardo, a gun control advocate, recently announced a new “innovative” ordinance in response to the tragic mass shooting that befell the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) rail yard in May.
The new law will mandate gun owners pay liability insurance and an annual fee for costs incurred by gun-related violence. And at what cost? The freedom to exercise their right to keep and bear arms legally without being burdened with arbitrary financial burdens.
California already has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, with 107 restrictive provisions in the books. Last year, there were over 2,220 homicides in the state — a 31% increase from 2019.
Law-abiding gun owners shouldn’t be held criminally or civilly liable for crimes they don’t commit. Since these gun owners aren’t responsible for these acts of violence, how can they be responsible for the wrongdoing of others?
Podcasts You May Have Missed
Here are the latest District of Conservation episodes you may have missed:
EP 199: Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm Has a Proterra Problem (ft. Matthew Foldi)
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—Gabriella