Tea at Trianon: The Wen Firing

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, August 2, 2019

The Wen Firing

From Crisis:

July was not a good month for the former CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. And I am not taking about Cecile Richards. I am referring to Leana Wen, who, after suffering a miscarriage early in July, also suffered a job loss when on July 16 the Planned Parenthood board of directors showed her the door after only eight months on the job. Wen had replaced Cecile Richards who after 12 years retired as president in April 2018, and whose tenure was marred by scandal that Planned Parenthood abortion centers trafficked in the procurement and sale of aborted baby body parts. This was made known to the public thanks to the 2015 release of Center for Medical Progress undercover videos.

Wen came to Planned Parenthood in September 2018 after distinguishing herself as Baltimore Maryland’s heath commissioner. Many believed that the fact that she was a licensed M.D. was a deliberate signal that Planned Parenthood sought to emphasize its mission as a provider of women’s health care. The organization has not had a physician-president in nearly 50 years. Nonetheless, any cursory glance at the numerous media commentary on the Wen ouster immediately reveals that Wen and the board of directors had serious “philosophical differences.”

Indeed, Wen’s latest explanation appearing last Friday in The New York Times puts an end to all doubts about it. The op-ed headline reads: “Leana Wen: Why I Left Planned Parenthood—I believe abortion is about health care, not politics. Many of my colleagues disagreed.” She openly discusses the “daily internal opposition” she endured. Wen states: “Indeed, there was immediate criticism that I did not prioritize abortion enough.” She sought “to counter those who associate the organization with only abortion and use this misconception to attack its mission, I wanted to tell the story of all of its services—and in so doing, to normalize abortion care as the health care it is.” (Read more.)