Tuesday, December 4, 2007

The price . . .

The quote:

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty

has been attributed to several sources throughout history including amongst them Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry. No matter if either of these icons actually said it, they both definitely knew it first hand. And it is somewhat of their legacy that our vigilance is required not only eternally but constantly, and arduously.

The checks and balances of our governmental powers serves us by giving us many opportunities to prevent any tyrannical power from subjugating us. Certainly our founders could predict that tyranny could come forth not only from a monarch, but from the people as well . . . the tyranny of the masses. But did they predict the tyranny of the gerrymanderers, the loophole hounds, the push pollers, and the hatemongers? It's hard to say. What is clear is that the complexity of our system protects us, but also requires a level of vigilance that can only be described as . . . complex. Because those that would deny you of your rights have figured out every way of working this complex system to do so.

The most endangered right in this country, is probably a woman's right to choose. This right, which was specifically guaranteed by the famed case of Roe vs. Wade, is under constant assault on every front imaginable. But here's the rub; at odds with a woman's right to decide the fate of her own body, is the imagined right to life of the fetus. I say imagined not in a pejorative fashion, but only to highlight the point that there are no grounds yet established for any rights to the potentially human.

The purpose of this site is to reduce the price of liberty. Perhaps through a disciplined exploration of this issue, we can find a way to either accept our differences and live with the choices that our neighbors make (that don't affect us), or reduce the size of the battlefield upon which this war would be fought. Either way would be a welcome reduction in demand of our scarce and valuable vigilance.

4 comments:

  1. The bottom line on abortion is this: All human beings started as embryos. No one “created” themselves. The scientific community has proven that human DNA fully forms at the moment of conception, and science defines what is there as a unique individual of the species homo sapiens. The US was founded on the concept that all human beings are created equal, and endowed by our creator with the inalienable right to life. To support legalized abortion, you either have to say this basis of our country is wrong, that the government can take away the right to life. Or, you have to agree with institutionalizing the prejudice that the way all human beings start is not good enough to count for all new human beings. If the right to life is taken away by our government, they can feel free to take away any other human right. All other discussion about abortion is irrelevant unless it addresses this root issue.

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  2. I appreciate someone who is trying to explore this very important issue without bashing others.

    A couple questions and comments I would have for the author - and like you also said - I'm not writing this in an attempt to insult or belittle anyone. I am a christian who loves God, but who is also very imperfect and have made many, many mistakes along the way, and have found errors in my own beliefs at times. Although I believe abortion is a great evil in our society, I know I am no better and no worse than someone who has fallen into this trap. With that in mind....

    - You said the "imagined right to life of the fetus". I think we need to go back and address an issue that comes even before that: the real or imagined idea that a fetus is not a living breathing human being, due to either a point in time in his/her development and then also a due to whether the child is on the inside or the outside of their mother's womb.

    -Another issue is the freedoms of our country. I do not believe our founding fathers ever intended for our liberties to be used at the cost of another's life, regardless of what our forefathers' faiths were. I guess even this issue boils down to how one answers the question of if a baby inside a mother is a human.

    It's funny, but we don't typically hear pregnant mothers say "I am pregnant with an embryo or a fetus, and in just a few days/weeks/months I'll be pregnant with a human." Common sense tells us, she has a baby living inside her, regardless of what particular stage it's in. Humans create humans. Dogs create dogs. Cats make cats.

    Let's also say that the mother goes into labor and the baby is born prematurely. Baby is the same age or perhaps younger than some of those being aborted. But now if a hand is laid on that child, it's murder. A matter of a few inches of flesh - of being on the inside or outside of a mother's womb - is the determining factor of whether a baby is a human or non-human? Of whether the destruction of the critter is considered murder or merely convenient disposal of living tissue? Explain this.

    Let's say a pregnant mother loses her baby due to being assaulted. Now in some states, that perpetrator can stand trial for murder. I would suspect that many who would support abortion, would also support that perpetrator being accused of murder. So, in this case whether or not is it considered murder is only determined by who did the act. If it's the mother or a doctor, then it's only a clinical procedure of unwanted tissue. If it's anyone else, then it's murder. Can you explain this paradox?

    I want you to know I feel for those who get pregnant and find themselves in some unfortunate circumstances and at the time, feel they cannot handle the added responsibility of another mouth to feed. Or just the inconvenience of it. I do feel for them. However, we are all put in situations at times that we would rather not go through. But it does not change the fact that we still have to go through them. Soldiers who find themselves in a firefight cannot just get up and leave because they don't like what's happening to them. Daddies don't have the right to just walk away from that child and mother because they didn't want her to get pregnant. Sometimes we go through things where doing the right thing is going to burden us, is going to hurt for perhaps a long time.

    Often times what we want to say is our right is actually only our attempt to rationalize a wrong behavior for the sake of our own convenience. I have tried to rationalize many behaviors that in my heart I knew were wrong. I think it's a quality of being an imperfect human. However, my rationalizations never changed the wrongness of what I was doing.

    Trying to make a debate of whether a baby or embryo or fetus is a human or not - it's only a smokescreen and a rationalization so that we can do what we want without anyone else telling us what to do. I feel for people who do get an abortion - it seems like an easy way out of a difficult situation - but killing a child is never going to be the right answer to a situation, no matter how good it may look at the time. That person will eventually come to see the truth of what they did, which is murder, whether it be legal or not. And although there is forgiveness, there are still the painful consequences and regrets that one will deal with the rest of their lives.

    I say all this not in a condescending way. Like I said, I cannot see myself as any better than anyone else. I only respond for the sake of our country's soul and the mothers and family members who will be affected. Of all the victims of abortion, ironically enough it is probably the unborn children who are the least victimized by the act. They go to a better place while the rest of us here on earth are left to deal with the shattered hopes, dreams and lives.

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  3. In regards to your statement aboutbeing 'potentially human' If the sperm comes from a human male, and the egg comes from a human female, what else could the result of their fusion be other than human? A human being is not defined by its age, size, height, weight, intelligence or even race, it is defined by its genetic code, its DNA, which in the case of an unborn child, is human. Not only is the fetus a human being, but it is its own individual,for its DNA is different than that of the mother or father. And please don't delete, I would sincerely appreciate a response on this matter, I am curious how you will respond to my arguments. Thank you

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  4. If the sperm comes from a human male, and the egg comes from a human female, what else could the result of their fusion be other than human? <<<<

    What comes to be is a human embryo.
    An interuption of a life process.

    That said, An acorn may one day evolve into a tree, but is it yet a tree? It, too, has a unique DNA code all of its own. If we interupt its evolving process, did we kill a tree?

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