It is easy to blame Karen Handel.
It’s easy to single her out; to direct all anger and frustration over the Susan G Komen for the Cure’s decision to stop funding Planned Parenthood’s breast cancer screening efforts. It’s easy to look at Karen Handel, a far-far-far-far-far right, strong-strong-strong anti-abortion zealot (who once ran for the governor of Georgia on a pro-life platform), and say, “It’s on her. It’s all her. I blame her.”
And, in many regards, I do blame her. I blame her for reducing Komen, a wonderful organization, into an inevitably fringe, irrelevant operation. I blame her for politicizing something that shouldn’t be politicized. I blame her for ruining a fantastic thing. I blame her, I blame her, I blame her and, though we’ve never met, I hate her. I really hate her.
And yet …
Every so often, in life, we have friends who marry someone we loathe. The new spouse is loud and obnoxious and demanding and controlling, and we blame our friend’s change in behavior on the new addition. Which, really, is 50-percent bullshit. Nobody forces a person to change. If your friend starts acting differently upon being married, your friend deserves much of the blame. He changed. He mutated.
It’s on him.
Somewhere along the lines, Komen’s board thought it wise to hire Karen Handel. They surely knew her background; surely knew her positions. When she said, “Let’s dump Parenthood,” the group went along. She’s the front person, and maybe even the primary decision maker. But, I assure you, she’s not the only decision maker.
Regardless, this doesn’t end well. I’m no psychic, but I’ve been around. Karen Handel has this job for another two weeks. Three, max.
It’s been brought on.
