Life or Death

An article in the London Times today says, "Yes, abortion is killing; but, it is the lesser evil". A couple of weeks ago a murderer was executed by the state of Utah by firing squad, people questioned the state's use of a firing squad. In the past people have been charged with murder for shooting a pregnant women when the unborn baby died. We seem awfully confused about what is killing.

Decades ago I was in a political science class. The Professor stated that conservatives inconsistent because they were for the death penalty but against abortion. I found his statement insincere and pointed out that liberals were equally inconsistent being in favor of the abortion but against the death penalty. I then stated the difference between the two was one wanted to kill the guilty and the other the innocent. He became very agitated; but, then we started discussing the real issues.

There is always a lot of killing in the news, sometimes we call it murder and other times we call it abortion or casualties of war or collateral damage or whatever. We have plenty of ways of discussing acceptable killings. Some people get awards for killing or even promotions. During war both sides give out awards for killing people on the other side. Awards are nice, it means the government approves of what you have done so you need not feel any guilt.

There is a famous science experiment. College students were paid to participate in the experiment. They were sat before a panel that had little knobs and dials. They were told that the knobs and dials would provide an electric shock to someone in another room that they could hear but not see. Everytime the person in the other room gave a wrong answer the student would give them an ever increasing electrical shock. The "subjects" would scream louder and louder, they would beg. The monitor would tell the student to continue and 95% of them did, most to the point where it appeared the "subject" had passed out from the pain.

The reality of the situation was that there was no subject and no electrical shock was actually given; but, the students did not know this. After the war, the Nazis would say that they were just following orders. Social acceptance means more to most people than does doing what is right. I praise the Lord for making me autistic. He referred to us as sheep for a reason.

I don't watch television anymore and I don't play video games anymore. I am not against all television and I am not against playing video games, it is a question of time. Watching an action movie will not warp your mind, filling your mind with violent images will desensitize you to violence. Oh, I watch one show it is on 12 days a year, it is Dexter and it is about a serial killer. 12 days out of 365 is too few to have a tremendous impact. When it comes on in September, I will plug my television back in.

The debate over abortion IN THE MEDIA is not about right or wrong, it is about desensitizing you until you see it as normal and accepted. The message being blared at us is that killing is okay, not just in regards to abortion in regards to any state sanctioned killing. The message is that the government will decide what killing is acceptable and what killings are not. The issue is not you it is that the killing is authorized.

The police took a man off a Bart train in San Francisco, they sat him down and because he argued they shot him in the head. The issue was not that they felt threatened; but, instead that they felt their "authority" was being questioned. The most important thing to "Authority" is not right or wrong, it is that you accept their right to decide what happens to you.

At the G20 hundreds of people were arrested, they blamed it on a few people who "rioted"; but, they arrested hundreds. They arrested people just for being there. They were establishing their "authority" and "maintaining order". It is all garbage.

The concept of authority is garbage. It is an illusion that we have created to blame someone else for our actions. Authority is our excuse for doing things because it will give us acceptance. I don't need societies acceptance or authorities permission, I take responsibility for my choices and live with the consequences. That does not mean I am responsible for societies or authorities or anyone else's choices, I am responsible for my own.

People effect us; but, they do not choose for us. My middle child gave me an ultimatum, I will live a certain way or she will not be around me. I am sorry that I will not be seeing her until she learns to stop telling other people how to live. I have had people "tell" me what to do all my life, I will not push the button for their acceptance. That is the wrong reason for doing anything.

I do not care what "society" thinks of abortion or war, that does not make it right for me. It also does not change the end result, death. We have arranged all of our institutions to tell you what is right and wrong, the real question is whether or not you believe you are doing what is right, not best, right.

We are trained from a young age to do a cost benefit analysis, it is the same as training people that you can use any means to an end. It is wrong. We must seek to do right more than we seek to be right.

I was asked a question today. A lady who works told me about a problem with an employee and the people involved with the issue were not around. I was told there was a law suit and that attorneys and experts were involved. Yet, I was faced with today and the problem in front of me. I asked myself what would stabilize the situation until I could get all the facts and then made a decision. I risked my career to do the right thing. Not a biggie, been here before. I tell my assistants that I would rather go down for trying to do the right thing than I would be willing to keep my job for doing the wrong thing.

We want the cookies of this world, we want to live in Club Med, we want to be perfect, we want to look down on others who are worse than us, we want to decide which sins are worse and ours are never as bad as the person next to us or we might have to look at ourselves. I will tell you right here and now that I am a flawed person, I am not perfect. Same thing I tell gay people when they ask me if homosexuality is a sin. I am not perfect, I lust and sometimes I lust a lot, I did today.

It is not about imperfection, the real trap is deciding which sins are worse. My ex-wife cheated on me, it is that simple. While it had an impact on me, we do effect each other, I cannot rate her sin. I can talk about it's effect on me; but, I cannot rate it, their is no scale and we are all equally guilty. Some sins are only felt by us. I mean if I see a sexy married woman and lust for her, nobody will know; but, it is just as much a sin as if I slept with her. Sin is anything that is short of perfection it is not rated by the effect it has.

On a human scale we judge things based on effect. Attempted murder is treated as a lesser crime than is murder. Is this right? I mean if I am willing to kill someone and do my best to achieve that goal; but fail, am I anymore trustworthy than someone who succeeded? You see, the heart is the measure not the effect. Hearts are hard to measure so we mere mortals rely on effect. What is the effect of shooting someone and what is the effect of having a doctor rip an unborn child apart and sucking them up a hose? It is the end of a life.

When I was young I slammed a young boys hand in a door. I was wrong and what I did was evil. I was 12 and that does not change one damn thing. I knew what I was doing when I did it, I just didn't care. I have not let this leave my mind, he forgave me long ago. For him it was about forgiveness, for me it is about learning. I will try and learn as much from that act as I can until I die.

When my father was sick and dying I tried to take all the good out of the situation as I could. I have tried to tell others what I learned from the situation. It has helped some when they were in the same situation. We all make mistakes and we all do evil, the question is what can we learn from our mistakes, we can never learn enough to become perfect; but, we can learn and try and be better.

The London Times article was offensive because it said that if society said abortion was okay then it is. We can disagree about whether abortion is right or wrong; but, "societies" opinion, agreement does not make it so. The message I detest is that society gets to decide what is right and wrong, we have free will and should stop looking for excuses. It does not matter what the issue is.