New and Old

This is a commentary. Comments from me on just about any topic under the sun. What subject is chosen on any given day is totally random. Normally I choose something that grabs my attention from news feeds. Maybe it is a happening in my private life that strikes me as odd or interesting. Some happenings are absorbing – like a sudden death of a family member or friend. These happenings cause a pause in my routine of life. In those moments I think outside my norm. And ponder.

At times the color of the sky may be my fancy. Or a soaring bird feeling its freedom to experience whatever. A smell, soft caress of a passing breeze, or a barely distinguishable sound – something out of the ordinary that suddenly comes into my awareness. That now has my attention and words spill out.

The daily news parade informs and builds momentum. Some stories gain mass in odd ways. Interest grows from several directions until the media carries it far and wide. It is the momentum that interests me, and the birth of many a paradox.

An example: death and misery in war torn areas. Refugees fleeing to safety with the clothing on their backs. Small children held tightly to a mother’s chest, or a father’s shoulders. The view of a mutilated body in the street, blood still fresh upon the pavement. Switch to the next story – wham! – it is about a nasty storm that battered a small town in the Midwest and shredded homes. Family photos stab the mud. American refugees seek safety at an undamaged school building. Covered bodies give witness to the deadly force of Mother Nature. Wham! Switch to another story of death and destruction.

Then in the middle of this news are other items of interest. Poverty in an economically distressed region, the dire living conditions, especially of the elderly and the very young. The quality of life shown clearly to be of low value.

And then the next story about Right to Life and Anti-Abortion.

Get it? Quality of life. Life itself. The denial of relevance of these two polar issues while humanity already living struggles to survive, struggles for dignity. If these people struggle, why do we press for an unwanted child to be born into such conditions. Yes, in America. We have plenty of poverty, birth defects, ill health, pollution bearing disease and reduced cognitive abilities.

If we welcome the unborn to this mess without working hard to remove the mess, why? Why would we worsen the context of life while ensuring more life is added to the mix?

Many states do not allow gay couples to adopt or foster orphans. Many states do nothing for poverty yet insist that poor mothers give birth to their babes in poverty. Why? When that state does little or nothing to help families in poverty improve their circumstances and climb out of poverty?

Please note my argument here has nothing to do with the issue of women’s right to make their own decision. I am only looking at living conditions and whether the child is wanted and what the nation does with such a child.

If we are not willing to educate, provide healthcare, daycare, housing, and nutrition to this same baby when the family into which it is born is unable to care for it, why do we insist it be born? Especially when churches, schools and local governments do not address these needs either?

We Americans need to understand the consequences of our political opinions, our ‘ethical’ beliefs. When we are fully aware of the conditions and consequences of our decisions and laws, are we ready to pick up the broken pieces and care for them? If not, why do we stubbornly insist on making matters worse?

There are other ways to curb unwanted pregnancies. Encourage that rather than ensuring misery.

September 7, 2021