Showing posts with label Kerry Max Cook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kerry Max Cook. Show all posts

Thursday, March 8, 2007

WHEEL OF FORTUNE - SELFISH REASONS TO BE PRO-LIFE (2 of 3)

It is Speech Day in Middle School and you are not ready. But that’s Okay because your last name begins with a “V”, the teacher always proceeds in alphabetical order, and there is only time to do about half the class. Besides, they will focus on those who have yet to be videoed, which you have already taken care of on a previous assignment. You are home free.

But then the teacher announces that the video equipment is down today, so those people will have to wait until next week. Fine, there is still the rest of the alphabet in front of you. But Aaron Aphaski is absent, Gale’s was very short, and Harry was not ready to go today. He was counting on not having to give his speech until next week. Idiot. He got what he deserved. (Snicker) Wow, two more speeches down. I’m getting a little nervous. Get the teacher talking; try to eat up some time. Terry Tauling was not ready either. Darn. Wow, we are up to the U’s. This is going to be close. Please, oh please let the bell ring before it is my turn!

Just like in that classroom, fortunes in life can change quickly. Those who feel superior and safe today, able to make careless remarks about the worth of other human lives, can find themselves suddenly near the bottom of the “desirable” list.

Kerry Max Cook spent 20 years on death row for a murder he did not commit as has happened to many others we are discovering through DNA testing. We are an accusation away from being treated undesirables who deserve barely humane treatment.

In the 1930’s, the Christian world was in agreement that contraception was not in keeping with the Christian message. Approximately 70 years later, the right to kill the baby in the womb is seen as a right by many Christians. At the Right to Life March in Washington D.C. were persons with disabilities marching with signs asking, “Are we next?” Around the world we “weed out” people in the womb who are the wrong sex, inconvenient, and not as able as we would like them to be. What does that say to the people who are around that are in these same categories but who happen to be outside of the womb? Does that not make them “less than?” Will the slippery slope continue? We are all an accident away from being in such a category.

You could find yourself all of a sudden a member of an undesirable nationality as did U.S. citizens who were German and Japanese in WWII, or today, coming from the Middle East. You may be detained and have your rights withdrawn, or simply have people hate you for being of that ethnic descent. (Not to mention how the Native Americans, African Americans, or the Irish for the matter have been treated. And the list does not end there.)

It may be that you associate with the wrong persons. Lives were wrecked during the McCarthy period because persons were accused of talking to the wrong people. An interesting expose on this is the movie “Good Night and Good Luck.”

An unscrupulous man looking to cash in might destroy your company, your job, your benefits, and your pension and over night you can be “one of those people” looking for a hand out to make it through the day.

It is dangerous not to be pro-life. It takes a minute and a reshuffling of the cards to find oneself on the wrong end of the deal. We are all one body in Christ. To love others is to love oneself. We cannot hate without becoming less ourselves.

“Do you hate (them) because (they’re) pieces of you?” - Jewel