There
is something I want to ask the man who murdered George Tiller and all his
celebrators and apologists. I put the same question to Bill O'Reilly and to
Operation Rescue who both singled out Tiller for condemnation. I ask assuming
it was no coincidence that Tiller was known as one of the small percentage of
doctors who perform late-term abortions. The question is this:
If you
believe we are full human beings at the moment of conception, why single out a
late-term abortionist? Why is he
worse than any other? If you believe we all have souls that deserve equal
protection, what difference does it make if a fetus is the size of a roly-poly
bug or an almost-born baby? If late-term abortions seem particularly
troubling to you, you know what you are? A liberal.
It
is the left that believes fetal development matters. It is the left that
believes that a fetus's rights grow as it does, that early on the
mother's interest in controlling her body outweighs the fetal interest in having
a place to incubate until it becomes a person. When it does become a person, we then may put its interests
above the mother's. Figuring out
when that happens has always been the left's heavy burden. Drawing lines is harder for those who
see truth in shades of gray.
In
fact, if you see truth as black and white, you don't have to draw lines. Truth draws them for you. The right is supposed to believe life
begins at conception, period. The
right is supposed to believe it doesn't matter how far along the fetus is. The right's heavy burden is holding
onto the belief that destroying a fertilized egg by morning-after pill is just
as wrong as a late-term abortion (or as the murder of a 3rd-grader, for that
matter).
The
people who chose George Tiller as public enemy #1 are not up to that burden. I
want to tell them and I especially want to tell Tiller's assassin: You have
admitted to gray. You never stopped to think about it, but that Tiller
churned your guts more than any other abortionist shows that, no matter what
you claim, you understand that it makes a difference how far along a fetus
is. You believe a 7-month-old fetus is more a person than a 7-day-old
invisible cluster of cells. That's what we on the left have always
thought was obvious.
Finally:
common ground. But our stance is
informed by what we know. Your stance denies it.
Deep
down we're all scientists, which is only to say we all believe our eyes.
We may have hopes and dreams about how things go. We may wish for a soul
that outlives the body, but we're all afraid of dying. We may pray to an
omnipresent, loving father, but we all at times feel lonely. Some of us
may even pretend a two-cell life is the same as a trillion-cell life, but we
all know it's not so.
The
man who shot Dr. Tiller knows. And he went and told the whole
world. He killed for tenets that his choice of victim shows he does not hold.
He would have done better to hire a skywriter to spell out in great smoke
letters:
"I'M CONFUSED!"
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We all complain about the lousy job our President has done and the mess this country is in. But if you helped put Bush in the Oval Office, you need to accept some responsibility for what he did there. If you give a laptop computer to a monkey, and the monkey smashes it on a rock, it doesn't make much sense for you to yell at the monkey. Even if the monkey reached out for it. Even if you asked the monkey, "Are you sure you know how to work this?" and he nodded enthusiastically.
I'm not trying to make you feel bad. There's no point in beating yourself up. The issues of our day are complicated. Voting well is hard. It's a skill, like anything else. You just don't have it. And given that, maybe you should sit this next one out.
There's no shame in being a bad voter. We're all bad at something. At most things. I stink at gardening, chess, speaking French, and figure skating. Do I feel bad about it? No. I just avoid those activities.
I also stink at basketball. In high school I didn't even try out for the team. That didn't mean I lacked school spirit. I liked the team. I went to games and cheered and rooted for them to win. I knew that the best thing I could do to help was to never touch a basketball.
"But," You may object. "Don't we all have the right to vote?" Of course we do. We also have the right to sing, but sit at any Karaoke night for a couple hours and tell me if you still think every right should be exercised by every person.
You probably see a lot of ads that say "Vote!" but those aren't for you. Those ads are only meant for people who know how to vote. Just like Chevy ads are only for people who know how to drive.
Not voting takes no time at all. You can not vote right up until the end of Election Day. Even if you've moved recently. Even if your driver's license has expired. There are many places to not vote so the lines are short.
I'm not saying you can never vote again. If you want to improve and work hard, I'm sure you can. But don't start with a presidential election. That's like trying a Rachmaninoff concerto for your first piano lesson. That's not how it's done. You start with Chopsticks and work your way up. So it is with voting. Start small. Maybe you and a group of friends can vote over what movie to watch. Did you pick a good one? If so try to pick an alderman or mayor. If your pick gets elected, watch them a few years and see how well you did. If it turns out you voted well, maybe move up to choosing a state legislator. Go slowly.
But for right now, just accept yourself as you are and take a break from voting. Next Tuesday, go straight home from work and watch the returns come in, secure in the knowledge that you did your part to not mess up the outcome. Be proud of yourself for being a good citizen. By not doing it a disservice, you will have done your country a great service.
I'm sure whoever is reading this to you will agree. And they and I and people all over the world offer you in advance our deepest gratitude.