An End and a Beginning

I must confess I was close to tears when our dear "Luther at the Movies" decided to close shop two days ago. And I can't tell whether the tears were due to sadness or laughter, because he was funny even in his au revoir.

But in his farewells, he leads us to another blog which is a treasure, and that is the blog of First Things. I have thoroughly enjoyed the three days that I have read it, and his assistant (wink wink, nod nod), Anthony Sacramone definitely lets a bit of Dr. Luther through in his writings, even if his ironic style is a little more subdued.

But I have to say, I really appreciated this post by another blogger on First Things, Professor Robert George of Princeton University. It is a clear and concise reasoning as to why abortion should be illegal in the United States.

"For now, what I hope you will consider is simply this: The child in the womb either is or is not a human being–a member of the human family. If he or she is, then he or she is entitled as a matter of basic justice to the protection of laws and, indeed, to the equal protection of the laws. For a voter or public official to seek to deny to the unborn elementary legal protections against killing that we favor for ourselves and others we regard as worthy is a gross and appalling injustice. There is no way around this. Once one concedes the humanity of the child–as one must in view of the plain facts of human embryogenesis and early-intrauterine development–the principle of the profound, inherent, and equal dignity of every member of the human family requires the legal protection of the unborn."

His letter is a response to Anne Rice, who states that she is Democrat because she is Christian and Pro-Life, and who has endorsed Hillary Clinton. While I could take issue with a lot of things that she has said in her endorsment, I really am going to focus on one statement:

"As a student of history, I do not think that Americans will give up the legal right to abortion. Should Roe vs Wade be rolled back, Americans will pass other laws to support abortion, or they will find ways to have abortions using new legal and medical terms." says Ms. Rice.

As a student of history, has Anne Rice noticed that the very reasons why we are told that abortion should remain legal are the very reasons why we were told that slavery should remain legal? That slaves are not quite human? That in order for a way of life to be maintained, the institution needs to be kept in place? That this particular class of people are only entitled to have any control over their own lives whatsoever is if those who are responsible for their well-being (slave owners or the mothers) choose to give them that right (through liberating them or allowing them to be born?).

The American government used this argument to rationalize the continual violation of treaties with Native Americans. The same arguments were also used by the Nazis in exterminating the Jews and other "inferiors," by Stalin in dealing with various classes he didn't like, the Turks in dealing with the Armenians, the British treatment of the Irish, Muslims in dealing with infidels, and one could take this all the way back to ancient times with Greeks, Assyrians, and Cain vs. Abel. And abortion is every bit as much an atrocity as those listed.

This theme repeats itself throughout history. The person/people/class/goverment/empire that is in control has a right to decide what rights those inferior have. But as an educated society, when we look back at history - we always see the injustice that was perpetrated. We need to be able to see the gross injustice that is being perpetrated now.

Every year we are slaughtering MILLIONS of PEOPLE whose very existence is viewed as an insult by the very people whose own actions brought them into existence.

With slavery, people fought long and hard to eliminate it, and it was an act of law that did so. With genocide, we have repeatedly gone into countries to put a stop to it, to destroy governments that condone it (most recently in Afghanistan and Iraq, and our presence in Iraq is continued in part to prevent this from happening again). Through our study of history, we have looked back at how we have treated other human beings, and grieved and learned from our mistakes not to repeat them (though as long as we are sinful, and as long as there is power, they probably will be repeated).

And THAT is what we should be seeing from history, if we are students of it.