Although I consider myself to be a liberal on many issues, I am strongly against abortion. I have six children and I knew they were real and living long before they finally emerged.
My pro-life stand is apparently different than that of the G.O.P., however. Today when The Decider vetoed the bill on stem cell research, he indicated that he wanted to protect "innocent human life." You could have fooled me.
Is it pro-life to preemptively strike Afghanistan and Iraq? Is it pro-life to support the Israeli attack against Lebanon? Is it pro-life to run detention camps where the prisoners have been held without trials and are routinely tortured?
Stem cell research would involve the use of unwanted embryos, formed by laboratory conception (otherwise known as in vitro fertilization). These embryos are very young and not well developed. According to Islamic teachings, they do not yet have souls--which are granted at 120 days after conception. They are potential life.
The children being killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Lebanon are not potential life. They are living. But while The Decider appears to staunchly defend the right of potential life, he does not show nearly the same concern for the living.
And this is the case not only in the Middle East. What about the children who live below the poverty level because their parents earn minimum wage while the parents' bosses--The Decider's friends--take home millions or billions? What about the children of New Orleans who were abandoned by the U.S. government? What about the children who are forced to study for standardized tests to make their schools look good but may not actually be learning anything beyond filling in the correct oval with a number 2 lead pencil? Where is the concern for "innocent human life"?
As I watched the evacuations of American citizens on the news today, another thought came to me. If the Israeli aggression is justified, why do Americans need to be rescued from it? And why are the foreigners spared while the Lebanese are condemned?
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