Friday, June 21, 2013

An Open Letter to My Mom and Other Angry 'Pro-Life' Catholics

Preface: Just gonna throw this out there, since I doubt I'll finish this draft. If I update it, I'll link back.

So when the rant end mid-screech, don't complain.




aka "Why you're not as 'Pro-Life as you think you are."


  • Note: This is the fruit of many, many conversations between my Mother and I regarding President Obama, and in general, politicians she supports.  She's a single issue voter, as she puts it, "pro-life", where-in actuality she's an anti-abortion voter.  My point, repeatedly, has been that the people she supports are not 'pro-life', and further more, outside of restricting access to abortion, are not all that supportive to the anti-abortion movement.  

Preface 

The Second Vatican Council, in a passage which retains all its relevance today, forcefully condemned a number of crimes and attacks against human life. Thirty years later, taking up the words of the Council and with the same forcefulness I repeat that condemnation in the name of the whole Church, certain that I am interpreting the genuine sentiment of every upright conscience: "Whatever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, or wilful self-destruction, whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself; whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where people are treated as mere instruments of gain rather than as free and responsible persons; all these things and others like them are infamies indeed. They poison human society, and they do more harm to those who practise them than to those who suffer from the injury. Moreover, they are a supreme dishonour to the Creator". [Evangelium vitae]
 So sure, Mom, your candidate for President currently says he's against abortion.  But he's tacked on to so many other points of the GOP far right, that considering the list above, you cannot call him 'Pro-Life', by any means what so ever.  I highlighted the many points I'm going to point out in the above selection.

Murder

How is the GOP (and hell, more than a lot of Democrats) fall under this heading?  Many ways:

Guns:
The GOP is fervent about keeping more guns available to anyone and everyone.  And the result is the rampant gun violence we have in this country.

In 2005, 11,346 persons were killed by firearm violence and 477,040 persons were victims of a crime committed with a firearm. Most murders in the United States are committed with firearms, especially handguns.
In 2006, firearms were used in 68 percent of murders, 42 percent of robbery offenses and 22 percent of aggravated assaults nationwide. [National Institute for Justice]
The Trayvon Martin incident is part of this.  His killer was not arrested because of the so called "Stand Your Ground" law, which has been pushed in many states by highly active right-wing groups. They denouce any attempt at restriction of gun sale, or of the banning of assault rifles.

How are assault weapons 'Pro-Life'?

How is such fervent support for something that is KILLING fellow Americans 'Pro-Life'?

Ironically, while Gov. Romney was in St. Louis the other week, seeking to scare/suck up to the NRA by warning them about how anti-gun President Obama has been, President Obama managed to get an "F" rating from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.  It's not like either side, Federally, has been making any in roads into this issue.  But that said, any vote to curtail gun access is the kiss of death to most state or federal GOP political careers. [Romney Assures Gun Rights Group of Fealty]

Death Penalty:
I remember you liked Gov. Perry before you got to know him.  Did you know one of his biggest applause lines during the debates was when he claimed he never struggled "with the idea that any one of them could have been innocent", while killing of 234 inmates under his watch - which, by the way, is more than any other governor ever.

Governor Romney did not have to deal with that, because as governor, Massachusets did not have a capital punishment system.  As his fact-correction site says, however:
They falsely charge a "flip-flop" on the death penalty because, while Governor, Mitt Romney did not execute any criminals. The truth is, Massachusetts does not have the death penalty. Executions would have been illegal. Romney actively fought for a death penalty, filing before the state legislature on April 28, 2005, "An Act Reinstating Capital Punishment In The Commonwealth," however the legislature voted against the act, House Bill 3834 [Whyromney.com- Death Penalty]
So how does this make him 'Pro-Life'?

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