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| You Call Yourself What?
Questioning the Essence of Being Pro-Life
It’s like being a self-proclaimed fashionista but buying only into the likes of mainstream Ralph Lauren and Versace and failing to recognize the market in vintage and underground designers.
It’s like boasting that you’re an ice cream connoisseur but only eating the most basic chocolate ice cream and avoiding the piña colada and toffee flavors.
It’s like calling yourself a sporty guy, dribbling a basketball with ease but without the slightest inclinations of how to bat a baseball or how to putt at a green.
So it is with many pro-lifers. They take this political stance of being “for life”: being out-spoken against abortion…yet many pro-lifers fail to rally behind the life already here.
Please, no matter what side of the political spectrum you’re on, don’t misunderstand me or become defensive. I must first state that I generally agree with pro-lifers; aborting a fetus is the bloodshed of innocent life. I can list all sorts of statistics of the genocide that abortion has caused simply in our country alone. We have lost a generation. Since the passing of Roe vs. Wade in 1973 to today in 2009, there have been approximately 50 million abortions in the United States. Considering that the U. S. population is approximately 300 million, the abortion statistic is staggering; a sixth of our population has been murdered.
To bring it to a more local and personal level, know this: every week in Orlando there are two hundred abortions: one thousand of these procedures a month. Yes. It happens here, in our city.
These aborted fetuses are children. What if one of those lives was meant to be the scientist who discovered the cure for cancer? What if one of those children was destined to be our next U. S. president? What if one of those babies grew up to be the journalist who managed to keep the newspaper industry alive?
They are not simply a choice. They are lives. They should be here with us.
The pro-life movement has been active in spreading awareness of this tragedy. Using graphic imagery of aborted fetuses, organizing silent demonstrations outside abortion clinics, and even offering free ultra-sounds to expectant mothers has all been effective. There are truly passionate people who hold the signs, who pass out the educational literature, and who counsel young mothers debating the decision.
But is that passion being spread for the cause of all life? Because being pro-life is being against abortion, yes…but there’s so much more.
Are we taking the same kind of stand for the other rejected children? What actions are pro-lifers taking for the cause of the orphans?
Today, there are 143 million orphans in the world; One-hundred and forty-three million. That’s an unimaginable number. “But they’re all in those third-world countries,” you may say. I thought the same, but the 2008 U.S. Census proved me wrong. There is a reported 2.9 million children here in the United States without a mother or father.
Locally, via the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) website, I can browse the brief biographies of some of these children who are up for adoption. The bios are upbeat and light-hearted, but reading between the lines uncovers stories of neglect and abuse.
Christopher is four years old. The portrait of him on the website shows a young, black boy, not quite at a smile but grinning as if to hold back laughter. He is outside, looking off camera. The sun shine beams against his face. He has somewhat pointy ears.
His bio is relatively longer than some of the other children’s. They describe him as “adorable…quiet, yet physically active and curious.” When he was born he experienced a few medical problems, but he is now recovering and progressing. The DCF ensures that Chris will “melt your heart in a minute”. He became part of the system when he was three years old, taken away from his mother due to neglect. He attends a special pre-school that provides therapy for his language delay. Yet, his lack of speech does not hold him back from being friendly and engaging.
Chris despite his challenges faces life with excitement. Will a family mirror his courage and excitement of life, inviting him to become a part of their family?
Shouldn’t pro-lifers be pro-life for enriching his life?
Where are the demonstrations on Christopher’s behalf? Who’s counseling him? Is anyone passing out his picture?
There are victims on the other end of the life-span that we have also neglected: the elderly in the United States.
The National Research Council reports that between one and two million Americans sixty-five or older have been injured, exploited, or mistreated by someone they depended for care or protection.
What are pro-lifers doing to prevent stories like this:
Last month a certified nurse aide (CNA) at a long term care facility in Texas was arrested on charges of abuse. The CNA took an eighty-year-old resident into her room, locked the door, and, for reasons unreported, began beating the resident. The resident managed to activate the call light by the bed. When other staff entered, they witnessed the beating and reported seeing blood on the resident’s bed. Confronted by co-workers, the CNA admitted to “popping the victim”.
The tragedy continues with the story of an eighty-seven-year-old man who was the victim of aggravated battery. The senior citizen resided in the Alzheimer’s Unit at the Champaign County Nursing Home. When the elderly man would not return a gait belt, a device used to transfer residents (and valued at less than ten dollars!), a CNA at the facility reacted with an open fist. The care-taker punched the man in the face two times.
Does Aretha need to belt it again? R-E-S-P-E-C-T!
Are these mistreated individuals not from the generations before us who fought our wars, who taught us in school, who created our cities? I don’t see the big rallies outside the court rooms of the trials against these CNAs. I don’t hear of anyone counseling these elderly victims.
If we fight so much for the right of children to live…shouldn’t we also make sure that the life we give them can be lived with freedom and dignity?
They all deserve a voice: the baby in the womb, the child with a held-back smile, the elderly whom the word care has been lost on, and everyone in between. If we’re going to call ourselves pro-life, let’s be for life all throughout life.
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| I decided to don an apron yesterday, become a Merry Maid, and tidy.
This is not an irregular occurrence. Oddly, I actually like cleaning.
My challenge of yesterday though was not a weekly chore. It was our family bookshelf.
Come to think of it, "bookshelf" may be an understatement. It's more of a "Book-Everest".
It is a double, 7-shelf wonder that my handiman father constructed.
It's lovely framework though can't be appreciated when such an avalanche of literature and other of my family's miscellaneous items has engrossed it.
We have stuffed it to one-and-a-half times it's capacity. We have placed trophies, spare change, sunglasses, party favors, and tourist-things-we-have-been-conned-into-buying-during-our-travels into every spare space that a book does not occupy.
I realized my service was needed and this shelf needed updating when I found this book title: 1988 Current Therapy.
1988! 20 years ago was current to our library! I know we have a hodge-podge of medical books that hold a wealth of information, but I'm sure that there are plenty more "current therapies" since 1988...just like how that year was when the first Die Hard was released and more informative Bruce Willis' predecessors came after that [like Die Hard 2, 3, and 4!].
Rummaging through our collection I also found a cassette set of Learn Spanish Now!
...this was from when I "took" a course of Spanish during high school.
I was homeschooled.
"Donde esta el banjo?" is all I can recall. You gotta admit, if it's the only one I know, it's at least a lifesaver!
With these and other titles such as Demons, Witches, and the Occult, Diet Alternative, and How to Raise an MVP I've made large piles of giveaway books. Eyeballing them, there seems to be over 200.
There are scores of libraries world-wide in which this stack of unused information has beat in number.
I also counted, we have over thirty Bibles.
With our family, no wonder it's the number-one selling book in history.
My favorite find this through this rummage of 80s literature and baby shower take home figurines?
A book called 52 Ways to Tidy and Clean Your House. | | |
| I don't call myself a predictor of the future, but I do want to be recognized when I foresee it.
With that in mind, I want to call this:
In the future, we would be able to smell things via the internet.
What do you think?
Which ever way you go, give me my props when it happens!
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| Youtubers getting sponsored by JCPenney?
bizzare.
new favorite word: ampersand.
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| A fatal collision. A brain injury. A 30-day coma. An intense rehabilitation.
It's been a journey.
In the hospital, at a time when a simple squeeze of the hand would be breaking news, God gave my mom a promise: Glorie will again see, talk, walk, and sing praise to Me.
My mom held God to that promise.
TRUTH: He never breaks one.
Today, a year later, we're seeing it fulfilled.
See: Glorie can see out of both eyes, though she may need to upgrade her eyeglass prescription. With the wonderful array of fabulous eyeglass frames available, it's not a complaint.
Talk: Glorie's sweeter voice does not inhibit her talking ability. With her help we went over our family-plan cell-phone minutes...again.
Walk: Glorie can walk independently now. Gilbert the Walker (Walter the Walker has since moved on) makes an appearance at only select occasions. Her balance is improving daily.
Sing praise to Me: Glorie joined my Dad in the church choir. The first song she sang with the choir? Glory of God. I kid you not.
I had always thought resurrections were a Jesus and New Testament thing.
Last summer that belief changed. Last summer...everyone changed.
People often ask "When will she be her old self again?"
Although sincere and caring, they're asking the wrong question.
Rather, "What is God doing in her now?"
Not only did He refresh her life, but He is refreshing her character too:
-Her consideration for others has reached a new level: she not only hears you, but listens.
-Her "rush-rush" attitude has transformed: she's learned how to take her time.
-Her desires have focused: with this new perspective, she's excited about returning to school.
God has been working on me too.
Last year, I suddenly had to step up.
I had to temporarily fill in the "Big Sister" slot.
Responsibility and maturity are scary things, especially when they're thrust upon you.
Yet more things have been thrust on my mom.
I've admired my mom greatly, yet God has grown her even more.
She was always the one to give help and advice.
This journey caused her to accept help and advice.
It has changed my dad as well.
His million kisses a day have now doubled.
His God-desires have grown too.
He's not the known-talker of the family, but now he's ready and eager to share what God has taught him through this journey.
For all of us, family and family-time have become an unspoken priority.
Family dates have not only become more frequent, but now we don't have to be dragged into it. We want to be there.
Another frequently asked question: "What's next?"
Ultimately, we can never know what God has on his Upcoming Events calendar for us, but these are our desires and the desires of Glorie:
- She wants to gradually get back into school and into the Nursing program. She plans to audit a Medical Terminology class in the Fall semester.
- Her passion and gift for make-up artistry are still boomin'. She wants to eventually work again for the MAC company...and to get there, she wants to practice on YOU!
You all have been a matchless encouragement in this Glor(ie)y Journey.
This year has testified that my family is surrounded by a community that gives their all.
June 25th marked one year.
I've dubbed this year the Year of Miracles and have not found a more fitting title.
GLORY to GOD. | | |
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