OP-ED
by Adrie Min
Dear Editor,
I am writing in reply to the passing of Constitutional Prop 128 last November in Montana. I am not trying to be political, but I feel this issue is about the health and well-being of our whole society.
The founders of this nation, having suffered under the yoke of British tyranny and well aware of what history taught, declared that people should be free and independent. Their ideas, outlined in the Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson, were further developed into what became the U.S. Constitution.
To protect the people’s rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, we need government. Everybody for themselves with no rules to live by creates chaos and will not last. So, a republican form of government was chosen, representing the people; a government chosen from people among their peers: of the people, by the people, for the people with no special rights for anybody. Unique in world history! People steering their own destiny, instead of a few powerful families or a king ruling by decree!
So, representatives were chosen, employed by the people to entertain certain jobs necessary to PROTECT people’s rights, run a smooth society, clearly outlined in the constitution. A republican form of government was born, not a democracy! A democracy is mob rule!
None of the elected government officials have special rights, but the same rights as the people that chose them. None of them can pass laws violating people’s rights or excluding certain groups of people from exercising their God given rights. Laws legally passed have to apply to all equally!
The US Constitution limits the power of government; it gives the government certain enumerated powers. Not unlimited powers, as certain individuals think nowadays.
Everybody can hammer a nail in a piece of wood; some people are better at it than others and become carpenters. That doesn’t mean that those who aren’t carpenters can’t still hammer a nail into wood anymore!
However, it seems that over time the ‘real’ carpenter saw the non-carpenter as a threat to the ‘real’ carpenter’s livelihood. So, a carpenter’s association was formed to petition the government to pass a law prohibiting non-carpenters from driving nails in wood to protect their livelihood.
Sorry, I mean to say that society can now be protected from quacks that think they can hammer a nail in a piece of wood the way only a real carpenter does it!
Many professional groups have been able to just do that certain thing! Petition government officials to pass laws prohibiting people from doing stuff that comes naturally to them unless they attend expensive schooling, pass numerous exams, have annual licensing fees and abide by the ‘rules’ set by the governing carpenter’s body, all to protect society from a nail being hammered wrong!
To collect the annual licensing fees and to make sure that people stay within their turf, the government created a department of labor. All to make sure that non-carpenters do not drive a nail in a piece of wood the wrong way and also to ‘protect’ society.
Of course, we need enforcers of these laws and regulations so over time, agencies like the ATF, OSHA, DEA, TSA, FDA, CDC, BLM, Forest Service and other enforcing government bodies, also at state level, were born! All for the good of society and to protect us from ourselves!
And so, society became an entanglement of rules and regulations; even lawyers need to specialize! The people were not free anymore. Government became all-powerful. Now a government license was required for even the most mundane jobs, like serving food to your fellow man, selling fruit at a fruit stand or opening up your own business. You mention a profession, and you need a government license! And crossing the street at the wrong place lands you in jail.
Except the individuals running for office, they don’t require a license, but they have proven to be the most dangerous of all! When this nation started, people were free. They could pursue their dream without government interference and keep the fruits of their labor.
Gradually the people in this nation have been made to believe that government officials have more power than the ‘regular’ citizens and that they can pass laws for anything. Every year new laws enter the books, but very few are being repealed.
When you vote for a person to represent you, you delegate your authority. You do not relinquish it. The government official may now act on your behalf within the constraints of the constitution. But they cannot abuse that power to pass laws to control you. And they cannot pass laws to enable certain groups of people to have increased privileges, or by law take away certain rights from groups of people because of some perceived threat. A lawful law passed for one, is a law passed for all!
That brings us to the ultimate right that is endangered. The right to Life is the ultimate right! Without Life and the RIGHT to Life, all the other rights have no meaning. Everything starts with life! Life starts in the womb! All men are created equal, not born equal!
Take a bald eagle’s egg, and you go to jail and get fined. The bald eagle’s egg does not contain a chicken, a kangaroo or sloth. It is a bald eagle in the making!
And so is the human fetus. It is not a blob of tissue, a cancerous growth, nor will it grow into a donkey. It is a HUMAN being in the making, ordained by the creator with certain unalienable rights, the most important one: the right to life!
People have the right to life and so the right to protect that life. The prospective mother has the right to protect her own life and, as the temporary governor of an incoming soul, has the obligation to protect this incoming life; just as our elected government officials have the obligation to protect the people’s rights to life.
Kahlil Gibran, Lebanese poet and artist (1883–1931), speaks of children in his book, The Prophet. A woman, who held a babe against her bosom, asked, “Speak to us of children.” And he said:
Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls.
For, their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the Infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far. Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness, for even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves the bow that is stable.
Life is sacred, life is God. And as the great poet said, the mother is not the owner of that life, she is the temporary protector of an independent soul. She is the bow, not the archer. The bow is merely the instrument to compel the arrow, the new life, into the world.
Life is opportunity for the individual soul and for society as a whole! Abortion kills a human being, denies the soul and souls it would otherwise be connected with their destiny.
A government, which is We the People, condoning or even promoting abortion, promotes the cult of death, not only for the aborted soul, but also for society as a whole. What goes around comes around. When we cherish our God-given freedoms and want to keep these for posterity, life has to be nourished by government and the mother as the temporary governor!
Thank you.
Adrie Min • Ryegate, Montana