Thursday, July 30, 2015

Not Another Boy

"Another boy!"

Those are words stated by a Planned Parenthood staffer during the dissection of an aborted baby. A boy. A baby boy. Call it a lump of tissue. Call it a symbol of choice among an evolved, civilized people. Call it whatever you want, but as we herniate ourselves attempting semantic gymnastics, let us at the very least have the guts to call it for what it is.

Another boy.

Two simple words, the significance of their meaning dependent upon their surroundings and who is uttering them. Proclaimed from the delivery room, they represent joy and happiness as another boy is welcomed into the world. From this Planned Parenthood clinic, they represent the horror of a conscience seared by sin and wickedness

Another boy

Together, these two words represent one dead baby. Separately, they represent an untold throng of boys who preceded this precious life, snuffed out by crushing forceps and dismembered on a plate for parts.

Another boy.

As a people who claim to stand for justice and the rights of those who cannot speak for themselves, this is a test of those claims. Do we truly stand for justice, or is justice simply defined by whatever pulls on our collective heartstrings at any given moment? Is justice a constant? Or is it dependent upon whatever the media chooses to sound the klaxon over in order to whip the civilized into a moral and ethical frenzy? When a lion is "taken" by a dentist, the conscious of a nation collectively mourns and shouts for justice. How much more should that conscience mourn and shout for justice when the one taken is "another boy"?

Another boy.

The biggest obstacle for people to get past in order to change their minds about the nature of abortion isn't that it protects choice. It's that it means admitting that abortion is and always has been murder. It's easy to get upset over a dead lion. Doing so doesn't mean admitting culpability for millions of other dead lions. In order to change one's mind about abortion, however, that is exactly what one has to do; strip away all the whitewashed terms like "choice," "reproductive rights," and "tissue" and call it for what it is.

Another boy.

What is his name? What are the names of the boys (and girls) who collectively form the "another"? When will we finally stand up and declare that everything else that we worry about when we step into the voting booth pales in comparison to our moral obligation to stand up for the boys and girls who die each and every day in this country? There is no greater issue of justice then this. May our voices go forth with a new pronouncement from this day forth:

Not another boy!