A Prayer for My Family

Many of you will know this feeling. Your father, an otherwise intelligent and thrifty man, will vote for the silver haired gent who owns 11 houses and thinks 5 million barely breaks middle class. McCain may seem the least responsible steward of the economy you could imagine, and yet, your father will vote for him. Your mother, respectful, tactful, generally wise, will offer her franchise to a woman who likens herself to a pitbull with lipstick. Your sister and brother in law, though in principal against war and violence in the abstract, will vote for war in violence in the here and now to encourage, in the abstract, the distant possibility of a Supreme Court appointment that will overturn Roe V. Wade, sending thousands of mothers with unwanted pregnancies to bloody back alleys again.

It's not like these are stupid or uninformed people. Perhaps even they've seriously considered the consequences of their actions. But have they thought about the future they are voting in? Do they understand that Sarah Palin doesn't think that global warming is necessarily a man made phenomena, and thinks that 'drill here, drill now' is a swell rallying cry, and hasn't met a wolf she hasn't tried to shoot? Do they know her nearly hysterical fundamentalist attitudes toward gay rights, her efforts to ban books written by and about homosexuals? Do they know that a conclusive committee of 10 Republicans and 4 Democrats said that she abused her power in trying to a have son-in-law fired from the Alaskan police force and in firing a police supervisor who courageously carried out the letter of the law in refusing her petty dictatorial desires? Do they know about John McCain's previous 'pro-choice' stance? Do they think he is now truly a principled carrier of the 'pro-life' aspidistra and not just one more political opportunist, working their heart strings for an easy 'Catholic' vote. Do they know that his chief foreign policy aide, Randy Scheunemann, was a major neoconservative, a founder of the hawkish Committee for the Liberation of Iraq and was an enthusiastic supporter of the Iraqi exile and Pentagon favorite, Ahmad Chalabi. In short, one of the chief architects of the Iraqi war? Did they not hear the bellicose cries of John McCain condemning Obama for wanting to negotiate with 'enemies' and instead singing half heartedly that we might 'bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran?'

Did they think it was really a joke when Sarah Palin suggested that we are --at this very moment -- actually at war with Iran? You could almost hear Randy Scheunemann cheering from the peanut gallery. War with Iran, after all, is part and parcel of the neoconservative 'global strategy'.

But it looks like they will be good, pious Catholics, voting 'pro-lfe'.
Is it really possible that they don't understand their principle of 'life' is being played like a fiddle by liars in high places,and has been for the last two decades? Do they care so much about Catholic institutional assertions and so little for everything else in our society that they would destroy distant cities and nations--for the sake of forcing a woman to bear an unwanted child?

I hope not. God help them to vote with a clear mind and a good heart. And if they still must be wed to the Catholic academic considerations of 'instrinsic evil' rather than the evil they can witness for themselves in the eyes of a hungry child, let them consider this simple possibility. Voting for a candidate who is more likely to increase the economic health and well being of the underprivileged will likely lead to a dramatic decrease in the incidents of abortion, rather than voting for the candidate who has not. If they view abortion as such an intrisinc evil, one hopes they have the good sense to vote for the candidate who is most likely to decrease its occurence--and it isn't John McCain or Sarah Palin.

Here are some interesting statistics to consider:

From Sojourner's Magazine

Abortion was decreasing. When President Bush took office, the nation's abortion rates were at a 24-year low, after a 17.4% decline during the 1990s. This was an average decrease of 1.7% per year, mostly during the latter part of the decade. (This data comes from Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life using the Guttmacher Institute's studies).

Enter George W. Bush in 2001. One would expect the abortion rate to continue its consistent course downward, if not plunge. Instead, the opposite happened.

I found three states that have posted multi-year statistics through 2003, and abortion rates have risen in all three: Kentucky's increased by 3.2% from 2000 to 2003. Michigan's increased by 11.3% from 2000 to 2003. Pennsylvania's increased by 1.9% from 1999 to 2002. I found 13 additional states that reported statistics for 2001 and 2002. Eight states saw an increase in abortion rates (14.6% average increase), and five saw a decrease (4.3% average decrease).

Under President Bush, the decade-long trend of declining abortion rates appears to have reversed. Given the trends of the 1990s, 52,000 more abortions occurred in the United States in 2002 than would have been expected before this change of direction.

How could this be? I see three contributing factors:

First, two thirds of women who abort say they cannot afford a child (Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life Web site). In the past three years, unemployment rates increased half again. Not since Hoover had there been a net loss of jobs during a presidency until the current administration. Average real incomes decreased, and for seven years the minimum wage has not been raised to match inflation. With less income, many prospective mothers fear another mouth to feed.

Second, half of all women who abort say they do not have a reliable mate (Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life). Men who are jobless usually do not marry. Only three of the 16 states had more marriages in 2002 than in 2001, and in those states abortion rates decreased. In the 16 states overall, there were 16,392 fewer marriages than the year before, and 7,869 more abortions. As male unemployment increases, marriages fall and abortion rises.

Third, women worry about health care for themselves and their children. Since 5.2 million more people have no health insurance now than before this presidency - with women of childbearing age overrepresented in those 5.2 million - abortion increases.

The U.S. Catholic Bishops warned of this likely outcome if support for families with children was cut back. My wife and I know - as does my son David - that doctors, nurses, hospitals, medical insurance, special schooling, and parental employment are crucial for a special child. David attended the Kentucky School for the Blind, as well as several schools for children with cerebral palsy and other disabilities. He was mainstreamed in public schools as well. We have two other sons and five grandchildren, and we know that every mother, father, and child needs public and family support.

What does this tell us? Economic policy and abortion are not separate issues; they form one moral imperative. Rhetoric is hollow, mere tinkling brass, without health care, health insurance, jobs, child care, and a living wage. Pro-life in deed, not merely in word, means we need policies that provide jobs and health insurance and support for prospective mothers.

I also hope they take a hint from this ardent conservative who ended up canvasing for Obama and wrote about his experience here

Let me make it clear: I'm pretty conservative. I grew up in the suburbs. I voted for George H.W. Bush twice, and his son once. I was disappointed when Bill Clinton won, and disappointed he couldn't run again.

I encouraged my son to join the military. I was proud of him in Afghanistan, and happy when he came home, and angry when he was recalled because of the invasion of Iraq. I'm white, 55, I live in the South and I'm definitely going to get a bigger tax bill if Obama wins.

Curly, who is white, went on to describe canvasing for Obama in some of the poorest black areas of Charlotte, North Carolina. He described announcing the surprise of those who answered the doors and then announcing that... "We're from the Obama campaign,"

And just like that doors opened and folks with wide smiles came out on the porch to talk.

Grandmothers kept one hand on their grandchildren and made sure they had all the information they needed for their son or daughter to vote for the first time.


Young people came to the door rubbing sleep from their eyes to find out where they could vote early, to make sure their vote got counted

This is something that's always amazed and saddened me about Catholic conservatives, they will casually destroy the future of the children whose lives they can see, for the 'potential' future of children who don't yet exists.

What kind of human actually thinks like that? Humans that care more about children in the abstract, then in the here and now. The Catholic church has a pretty lousy record for getting the human stuff right, from Copernicus, through the inquisition to the concordat, they've been wrong about some of the most important decisions and policies of our time. Their concern for humanity can perhaps best be measured in its inabiltiy to condone contraceptive use, even in the face of a massive AIDS epidemic that has slaughtered millions across the world, especially in poorest Africa and Haiti. Jesus never said a word about 'abortion' or 'contraceptives', but he had an awful lot to say about treating poor people badly in the here and now. Please think on that before you blindly caste your vote based on what 'the Church' seems to say. More often than not, it's been wrong: academically, scientifically, and morally. Of course, you'd have to have a mind and morality of your own to determine that. Luckily, many Americans still do.

Here is his conclusion.

I've learned that this election is about the heart of America. It's about the young people who are losing hope and the old people who have been forgotten. It's about those who have worked all their lives and never fully realized the promise of America, but see that promise for their grandchildren in Barack Obama. The poor see a chance, when they often have few. I saw hope in the eyes and faces in those doorways.

My wife and I went out last weekend to knock on more doors. But this time, not because it was her idea. I don't know what it's going to do for the Obama campaign, but it's doing a lot for me.

Amen.