It’s the center, stupid.

          Last week, people were outraged over the Susan B Komen Foundation’s decision to defund Planned Parenthood. 

          In the midst of the controversy, I wrote a friend, “I think this aroused such a stir, even though only poor women are affected, because people are so fed up with the ideas emanating from the far right and how they’re affecting public policy.”

          The money is again flowing, and the official seen as responsible has resigned.

          This week, there is an outcry over the Obama Administration’s decision to require Catholic hospitals to provide coverage for contraceptives in the insurance plan for their employees. 

          There is already talk of compromise, and there is finger pointing from current and recent White House staffers as to who was responsible for the decision. 

           Here again, many of the people affected are low-wage employees. 

           For now, the Church occupies the center but that could change if a reasonable compromise is proposed and rejected. 

           Ditto if GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum repeats his claim, first made on Fox News, that President Obama is “a hostile president, not just to people of faith, but to all freedoms.”

           Whether religious organizations and people of faith should be exempted from laws that are contrary to their beliefs will be debated in Annapolis as we consider marriage equality. 

            When that debate moves to the voting public during a referendum, the center will again prevail, as it usually does.