Did the title get your attention?
I figured it would.
Yesterday I was nearby the planned parenthood here in Bloomington. I was dropping Kim of to one of her classes and she pointed out a middle aged man in a black jacket and khaki pants holding a rosary and silently reading a small piece of paper standing in the parking lot adjacent Planned Parenthood. As we were stopped at the stop light I found myself fixated on him. Kim said she saw him out there just the previous day as well.
He seemed so attuned to his task. He kept his head bowed and never stopped to look at his surroundings. I wondered to myself what he could be praying for. It was a stupid question really... He must have been praying to save unborn children. He must have been asking God to cleanse the building of what evils a death took place withen it's walls.
As the light turned green and we drove away I said to kim
"Doesn't that seem kind of stupid,"
Yet as soon as I said it I knew I had made a mistake. Inside I immediately knew that I had spoke that without realizing the full scope of my words. The first voice that spoke was my Liberal voice, the one that governs most of thought but unfortunately the Liberal voice is not always the most compromising.
In retrospect I had a sense of admiration for the man. He reminded me a lot of myself.
Just this last May I stood outside of a polling place near my hometown and held an Obama sign for 5 hours. This was my election day objective as given to me by my campaign coordinator. It might seem like a stupid task to most but I carried it out with zeal. I stood for those 5 hours with pride knowing that I was serving my cause and creating visibility. Sure my legs hurt, I got rained on a couple times, and I got a bunch of dirty looks but I was a soldier on the front lines....
I think that the man at Planned Parenthood was in a similar situation. Perhaps he was sent to do that by his church. There was something oddly powerful about him. Perhaps it was the rosary hanging from his hands. Rosarys I have always associated with Catholicism and archaic traditions from it's past. He was not a protester. He did not appear to be wanting to garner attention, he was merely there to pray for his cause...and like me standing outside of the polling place, he stood there with concentration and zeal.
There are those in my Liberal Circle of family and friends who will probably think that ideas like this are blasphemous but I have always had a sort of admiration for the Pro-Life community.
It comes back to my Adoption. When speaking about politics with people I like to mention that I'm a product of Pro-Life ideologies. I don't know very much about my adoption but I know that my birth mother was a christian and that she chose the option of life because she knew in her heart and through her faith that it was the right one. It is something that I shall be forever grateful for. Part of me wonders if there was any Pro-Life influences that might have guided her during her days of decision. I find it hard to believe she couldn't have....
This is one of the main reason why beliefs are pretty much aligned with Fundamentalist Christians on abortion. I think the value of a human life overrides the woman or the mans choice to avoid the life altering complications. I think the life cycle of a human being is the essence of beauty. A child is so full of life, and hope, and happiness. I just don't understand how people could chose abortion.
I understand a woman's right to choose, and it is her body but the thought of anyone killing an unborn child is horrible and inexcusable. My birth mother could have chosen abortion and I would not be here typing this now, and every little effect of I have had on the microcosms of this world would never have happened. That story is the story of every unborn child though.
I'm sorry If I have gotten to into politics, this has been something on my mind for awhile and when I saw the man standing with the rosary I felt compelled to express it.
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2 comments:
Pro life I can understand. However, tell me how it is you would explain to a child that they are the product of, let's say, a brutal rape? They are the product of an event that has forever scarred an innocent woman. They are the tangible outcome of the horror that was a night that would come to represent a terrible turning point in someone's life; a point where their sense of self, their sense of safety, their sense of the world came crashing in - much the same as the disgusting bastard of a man came through her window just before forcing himself on her, threatening her life as he beat and raped her.
Tell me, how would you inform that child that they are the flesh and blood that came from that event? What words would you use to inform that child that his mother has feelings so much greater than 'hate' for the event that marked the child's conception?
What if you were that child?
I don't know...But I do know what it is to live knowing that you are a creation of unknowns. I know what it is to feel like your not even your own self. Self is more than flesh that is true but self is also in the DNA, and the personality, and the skin color, ect.To take all that and realize that it is not my own is difficult at times. Yet, I would not trade my outcome. I know there are a lot of rape victims out there too that somehow learn to cope with the fact of their creation. Somebody conceived me and didn't want me and yet life turned out okay in the end. Though the circumstances might be different for rape there has to be hope, I have to believe that. If Abortion is the choice of the woman than so be it. I understand that all may not view life in the same context that I do. Yet I still think, for all human lives there is hope. In the darkest corners there is always hope.
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