Who are these people?
Although this thread isn’t specifically debatable, I’m putting it in Great Debates because the abortion topic seems to fit here. But this is more a rant really. Mods, please feel free to move.
One of the things that separates true adults from children is the full realization of certain truths – in spite of what our culture teaches or what we would like to think. One these truths is Most of the evil in the world is committed by people who differ only very little from ourselves. Movies make out evil doers to be somehow alien, even literally non-human. They are Other. Its good Guys vs. the Bad guys. But in reality, there is just us – people.
You’d think at 33 I’d know this. I’m a gulf vet, a former prison guard. I’ve seen enough of the world to know. But the old way of thinking dies hard. Probably TV’s influence mostly. I haven’t watched more than a thimbleful of TV in the past three years and, man, it really clears your head! Highly recommended.
The internet is what has opened my eyes though. Ever read News of the Weird? There are enough horrors in that supposedly amusing column alone to keep a thoughtful person awake at night. Here’s a little tidbit the web brought me: In 1969 California authorities discovered that a 14 year old girl had been kept tied to chair in the same room since she was 20 months old. (Google “Genie” and “tield to a chair” for more.) Never spoken to, she had no understanding of language. By all accounts her father genuinely believed he was protecting her.
I’m not a Christian anymore, mostly because of reflection on horrors like this, but I’m still a theist enough to realize that there but for the grace of God go I. He wasn’t an alien, a vampire, a monster. Just a man like me.
So you say, but that guy was crazy. Well, I’m not really sure what that means. But there’s plenty of examples of sane people committing unspeakable acts. Concentration camp guards are the quintessential example. Want an American example? Read up some on Andersonville of the Civil War.
Christians are supposed to understand this. That (1) being a sinner is the worst thing that can happen to you and (2) we are all sinners. They are supposed to believe that it is worse thing to be a murderer than to be murdered. That a prostitute is more to be pitied than a AIDs victim. But you can tell they don’t really believe this. Once out of church they fall right back into that Us vs. the Others mindset (President Bush!) It takes a saint to really keep this idea in the fore.
But I digress too far.
I’ve got to get off the ‘net.
Yesterday I visited what appeared to be a humor website. I was downloading prank calls and “funny” vids. Turned out a few were actually very disturbing. One was a montage of aborted babies. Not just stills, but moving video so that you could see the way their limp and broken bodies hung in the holder’s hands. Some of them were in pieces.
Words do not do it justice. You have to see it to see it. Prior to this I could have reflected on the phrase “bodies of aborted babies” all day and never come near the horror of seeing it.
I was pretty upset by it. But not half as upset as I was when I woke up this morning with the realization that somewhere in my city another man very like me was also waking up, was getting out of a bed like mine in a house very like mine. Maybe even just down the street. That he was shaving and eating and getting a car and driving to work just like me. But instead of spending the day goofing off on the ‘net like me, he was spending it killing babies.
You see its one thing to be in favor of a “woman’s choice” and discuss it on the ‘net. Or even to have an abortion yourself, traumatic though it might be, feel remorse but then convince yourself that it was for the best and continue to be “pro choice.” But what is going in the heads of people who live it every day – who see it, touch it and smell it for a living? That’s what I want to know. How does a person study medicine, supposedly attracted to the idea of helping people, and end up killing babies for a living? Does he say, “Yes, this is ghastly. But if I didn’t do it, someone more incompetent would be doing it and it would be much ghastlier?” That’s just ludicrous.
Are you getting my drift, friends? Abortion is a horror, yes. But what horrifies me is that people actually do it. I’m am horrified by the abortions, yes, but much more horrified for the abortionists.
So, fellow Dopers, can you put a word in for the abortionists? Are you yourself one? Please step up. I’m listening.
Here is the vid. It is very, very awful. Warning, warning, warning. Yada, yada, yada. This is not porn, or a joke. I consider it educational, mods. No one has to follow this link who doesn’t want to. But if you’ve ever put in a word for “pro choice,” then I think you should have a look. (Just like I think that everyone who eats meat should once in their life kill and dress an animal. But, hey, what do I know?) Hide your head if you want to. Right click [URL=]here if not.
“But you say [Roman “games” victims] are criminals and deserve to die? Perhaps. But what did you do to deserve to watch it?”
- Seneca
[link killed. Playing bloody scenes with a background music that goes “ass and titties”!? NOT appropriate. Have some damn sense, we’ve had plently of decent abortion debates without pulling this sort of crap.]