Daughters of the Shadow Men

1:17:17 PM EDT

posted by Bob8930 on Sep 7, 2008 at 09:33 AM

"At least the Democrats aren't bombing abortion clinics and killing the occasional staff member. Talk about a contradiction in terms. You kill someone who is undeniably post-term and therefore human in the service of a fetus or an undifferentiated ball of cells that may or may not be. Talk about screwy thinking!" At least Republicans haven't picked a candidate who collaborated for several years with a person who set off bombs at government institutions, whose final act of terrorism was to plan an attack on an army dance hall, which luckily killed three of his collaborators instead of a dance hall full of soldiers. Suppose, Turtle, that there was a Republican candidate who had worked closely with such a person - a person, who, while the candidate worked with him, declared that bombing of abortion clinics was just and he didn't blow up enough of them? Would we be considering such a man for the presidency? Would this terrorist be running free and teaching at a university? Your concern for terrorism is a highly selective one."   posted by turtle48 on Sep 6, 2008 at 01:29 PM  Well, gehi6, I certainly respect your opinion. I am a registered Democrat and Obama supporter and I certainly would want to keep the tent big enough to include someone like you. The question is would you want to translate your personal views regarding abortion into public policy that would have to be swallowed by everyone regardless of whether they liked it or not? If the answer to that question is no, then that sets you apart from the Religious Right. If the answer to that question is yes, I am against abortion therefore it should made unavailable to anyone regardless of circumstance then I would say you are a closet Republican. No disgrace there, just an observation. It isn't about mind control. It's about the Democrats representing those people who happen to believe that a woman should have some say in her own reproductive destiny. That choice isn't just about abortion. It's also about contraception, family planning, effective sex education so young men and women both know their bodies work etc. I don't get off on the idea of aborting a fetus. I think it should be decision that is approached with a lot of thought. It's not like having a wart removed from your nose. I think plenty of other options such as adoption need to be available to those women who feel they are carrying a child they are unable or unwilling to care from. These options need to adequately funded. What I don't to have happen is a return to pre Roe vs. Wade where abortions could only be obtained illegally and at great expense. A lot of woman died or were permanently sterilized in operations performed by quack doctors. The poorest of the poor resorted to sticking coat hangers up their uterus in an attempt to abort the fetus. You can imagine the rate of fatal infections that resulted from that strategy. At least the Democrats aren't bombing abortion clinics and killing the occasional staff member. Talk about a contradiction in terms. You kill someone who is undeniably post-term and therefore human in the service of a fetus or an undifferentiated ball of cells that may or may not be. Talk about screwy thinking!

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12:54:46 PM EDT

Don't smirk.  If you have been following the Miss America pageants you will know that a lot of these candidates are very smart, highly educated, highly talented, as well as beautiful. They can just about knock your socks off in every department, but could one act responsibly as commander in chief should anything happen to McCain?  It tooks like now it is going to be a very close race. 

I think most men would be like McCain, they would be ready to put their money on Palin if it comes down to a woman president.  As for me, I love her passion for life.  Children all over the place, including a Downs syndrome baby during an age when abortion advocates like to scare women with the scenario of a retarded baby in there and unable to abort it! 

I am all for the great challenges that untrammeled life presents to us.  A trip down to the abortion clinic has got to be one of the grimmest there could be for a woman who feels she must make this choice for the good of all. 

As for the pregnant 17 year old, well have you ever tried to stop a teenager from having sex if he or she was so inclined in an age when all teens can have sex thanks to abortion and good birth control (that sometimes fails) and the scorning of that ridiculous abstinence theory, which by the way does not work unless the teen is surrounded by a very strong support system, parents and elders who practice restraint in their own lives when necessary. Sarah Palin would have undoubtedly preferred her 17 year old daughter practice abstinence until marriage, but teenagers have their own reasons for rebelling.     

So what does her pro life views have to do with her being a possible good commander of the military?  Well, for one thing a son in Iraq is going to give her huge lessons on what it is like to be the mother of a soldier son being shot at on a regular basis.  I believe if she loves her son, which I think she does, after his tour in Iraq she will keep a hand of restraint on the trigger.  She will not countenance firing without considering the consequences. 

George Bush seemed to have no sense of consequence or even a good grip on reality.  I heard him respond to a reporter on TV how could he justify the many deaths and casualties.  This was when Iraq was being invaded.  He said, "There will be no casualities!"  I wondered if I heard right?  Hmm, that was before the US marched into Bagdad and 'secured' it  The Iraquis finally got over their disbelief, too, and went after the guns, thousands of them, millions of them, it seems stored in every possible cache all over Iraq. And Bush was exposed as a very strange commander in chief indeed.  How did he get so out of touch with reality? 

I think Palin shows signs of being a good deal more grounded.  I think if she had to take command she would be for getting her son and everyone else's son out of there if they did not have to be there.  It is a woman's prerogative to change her mind, and I think after going along with the men all she could, she would embrace change and do what would best serve her country and all its children. 

I know how I felt when my son was in the military for seven years.  I was scared all the time and he wasn't even on the front lines.  He was navy, but he was sailing all over the world, into the Persian gulf, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, stationed in Japan 3 years, Australia.  There was a crisis when he questioned military authority just a little too much and risked getting booted out of the navy.  He went to the admiral once and requested he not have to listen to prayer every day over the loudspeaker because he did not believe in god and it was forcing religion on the troops whether they wanted it or not.  His buddies told him don't do it! But he fought for his right not to be coerced.  The admiral stopped the prayers instead of kicking him out of the navy for insubordination.  He said to this effect, I don't agree with you, but men like you are the kind of warriors we need to lead in battle.  You will stand up to anybody for what you believe.

I think Palin has room in her heart for her 17 year old daughter's baby no matter how she might rebel, even if she should get criticized for being a bad mother. You know the instituition of marriage can cover a multitude of sins.  I found that out from my parents' marriage.  Both parents constantly violated their marriage vows, but my dad, especially, would preach about the virtues of marriage, I think because he thought nobody knew who his infidelities were with, nor did we dare accuse him, he was such a ferocious reacter to criticism of any sort.  I saw how the institution of marriage, somewhat of a religious idea, could be twisted to serve dishonest people.  Religion has long had the reputation of being used to justify persecution of non believers. 

You have to look closely at the people's behavior who seek to lead.  Are they honest?  Are they compassionate?  Are they willing to stand up for what they believe?  Are they intelligent enough to handle all the complex issues that being commander in chief entails?  Above all, can they take criticism and profit from it? By a lot of these standards I believe Palin to be a good human being, just as I believe Obama to be. The next few months will show us what McCain is made of.  He after all, will be the first commander-in-chief, Palin his strong woman helper should he win.  May the strongest candidate win our presidency!     

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2:47:27 AM EDT
Blog entry I wrote for g4life on Azcentral.com tonight in response to many comments, some very long. http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/g4life 


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11:03:10 PM EDT

These are the latest photos of the new teenage heartbreaker, plus my grandma outfit for taking my grandson to the movies, and I just had to show these neat thongs I bought for $1 to the thrift store yesterday. 

He took me to see "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" at my expense or something like that, and you know what I liked it.  I think all those star wars characters go better in a movie where everyone is a cartoon.  It was pretty satisfying entertainment, and then we came home with him complaining he had not eaten for a week, no food in the house, etc.  And he found out I had been to the store and bought all his favorites.  This is a list of what this kid ate:  a carton of blackberries, nearly a carton of strawberries, 4 kiwis, two dishes of bean and macaroni homemade soup, and a slice of wheat flatbread spread with Fleishman's olive oil based margarine which is what is keeping me fat I love it so much on this flat bread.  But Dante is skinny, I suppose because he goes so long between eating.  LOL

He said on a scale of one to ten his dad is eleven in rough dads  We argued who had the meanest dad.  I think this means his dad won't let him do everything he wants to do or hardly anything.  His dad got off early and they took off to Ralphie's house.  Dante likes to go over there and play more video games. His dad is still video game king.   

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12:32:29 PM EDT

Here is the letter I wrote to the Arizona Republic opinions this morning.  They wrote back saying they will consider it for publication, and directed me to a blog feature on their Arizona Central website.  I created a new blog immediately under the name of g4life.  You can view it and my profile  and the following letter in my first blog entry by going to ArizonaCentral.com.  I also was able to tell about and list the link to my journal as well as to my Youtube account, gerryking40.  (Cant upload any more there until Doc's computer is fixed) It has been a busy morning!  Remember g4life.   http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/g4life

"I thought Bryan Howard disingenuous in his My Turn article when he suggests all Planned Parenthood wants to do is provide birth control and vital information for teens. It is also the biggest abortion provider in the country with teens probably the group that takes advantage of this service the most, so this is undoubtedly the main reason many parents now distrust the organization. Once sexual intercourse is accepted as a given the risks of pregnancy rise with parents not even working or ready for children.  Then guess what, abortion becomes the only sensible answer. Planned Parenthood has continally fought even passing a law in Arizona that teens must inform parents before seeking an abortion.  I remember reading Bryan Howard years ago in another My Turn saying teens should not have to inform their parents of a pregnancy as they may be religious zealots who will not approve of abortion!  He said in the same article that he believed every pregnant teen should have an abortion because teen pregnancy could only ruin their lives!  I regard Bryan Howard as a dangerous zealot himself.  Abortion is not only against God's law but against  Mother Nature's.  

Geraldine Hitt"

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2:43:25 AM EDT

This is one of his latest paintings which I think reflects his state of mind and body very well.  He explained that he canceled hs appt. because he was too ill, which makes perfect sense.  We always try to appear at our best to our doctors.  Doc, like many alcoholics, always hopes to keep the doctor in the dark as to how much he really drinks.  He is of the school that challenges the doctor to fnd out what is wrong with him if he can.  So naturally he cannot go to the doctor when he is feeling ill.  That would be a dead giveaway. 

I think by next week he hopes to be and look more sprightly, so hopefully the doctor will  not say I am reserving a room for you at your closest rehab or you are a dead man!  Doc does not like to deal with crisis.  He avoids crisis.  He puts off crisis which is why he is still with us today.  He wants to die, but just not today, so that is why he sips, he does not gulp. 

His doctor is from India.  Doc hopes he does not have any idea how Americans drink. I am sorry that Doc has such a cunning streak.  He believes his doctor is against him, and he must not cooperate with him any more than necessary.  This is why all of his doctors have been useless to him up to now.  I said, Fine, my last alcoholic companion broke all this doctor appts. right up until his lung cancer metastisized to every organ in his body and even to his bones and he only had 3 weeks to live.  That companion tried to say it was all his doctors' fault because he had missed his lung cancer.  The doctor asked him when his pain started and he said, Yesterday! 

Doc does not like any bad example stories told to him about my last companion.  He shook off this awful story with little effect.  It is not easy to scare Doc.  He poured himself a drink.  I said, have you ever thought that the reason you feel so rotten is because you have poured yourself so many drinks?  He does not reply.  I leave.  This story would be funny if it werent so sad, but I choose to laugh at him as long as I can. 

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10:14:06 PM EDT

Today I received a letter sent out to all registered members of the democratic party of which I am one and have been for many years that I think was largely crafted by Barack Obama.  I am preparing a small check of $10 to send back as well as a copy of my journal entry today written out of many years of protesting abortion, not as a republican but as a democrat.  I know there are probably many more democrats like me who do not believe in abortion but feel they have been high pressured to be pro choice to belong to the  democratic party!  That is more like mind control than freedom to think as we believe. 

I think this force control by the pro choice faction is the Achilles' heel of the democratic party just as war is for the republicans.  In his letter Obama states that "change is ending a war in Iraq that should never have been authorized and never been waged and that has distracted us from winning the war against al-Queda." I could not agree more. 

Now I am going to suggest that Barack address the right of all people to have their own opinions about right to life whether they belong to the democratic or republican party.  He says he is ready to fight narrow special interests.  Then he needs to fight the basically narrow special interest group that is represented by the abortion advocates. They have become a fiercely vocal bullying group that have penetrated into the media years back, basically high pressuring all newspaper people to become pro choice if they called themselves liberal.  To me liberal does not mean pro choice.  Never meant pro choice.  Liberal meant believing in equality for minorities, opportunity for all, development of blacks, hispanics to take part in our world in meaningful ways.  This was why I became a democrat because I believed in the change that the great civil right movment called for, and was won at the cost of lives of brave men. 

I saw a democrat in Bobby Kennedy who saw the futility of war as a way to solve problems and promised that he would curtail war in all forms if he became president.  I was thrilled to be a democrat when John Kennedy averted nuclear war with Russia in the Cuban missile crisis when 11 men out of 13 in the room thought war had to be waged, nuclear war!   We just don't know how much the world owes to the wisdom and restraint of the Kennedys that nearly fatal day. 

I believe Barack Obama has the same kind of intelligence and restraint that averts and contains war instead of ignites and expands it.

War on the unborn does not enoble mankind.  We can point that out over and over again, but many seem not to be able to reason about this solution, perhaps because it is such a tempting quick fix. But we will be so long in removing the stain on our souls from thinking of ourselves and not the life that mother nature asks every mother to protect.  We need change in the democratic party, a new beginning, a pledge to respect our almighty god the giver of all life who is all that is going to save a people fallen on hard times.  Who have lost their way.    

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7:35:35 AM EDT

When I would be agitated all the time with what was going on on my family website, I could not fully enjoy my other contacts as I have been doing since I left.  Yesterday I had some really nice conversations with both my oldest son Gary and my youngest son Dan.  They are both great film buffs, and Dan and I discussed the Michael Medved book, "Right Turns." Medved was a film critic on TV for quite a long time, partnering with Jeffrey Lyons. Dan has written alot of movie reviews for our family site.  He wants to read the book which I purchased to my thrift store as there is a tremendous discussion in it of Mel Gibson's move, "The Passion of the Christ."  Mel Gibson is Dan's favorite movie maker.  Medved as a Jew negotiated changes in this movie with Mel over lines that Jews strongly objected to, implying that they were solely to blame for the death of Christ. I was surprised to learn that Dan has avoided seeing "The Passion of the Christ" which I did, too, for a long time.   However, when I saw it I thought it was the best movie ever made about Christ, the most adult, the most heart. I loved the language Mel insisted the characters speak which many thought would kill the movie, but which many people around the world have thought gave it great authenticity as I did. This movie is now one of the most popular of all time.  Dan who reads up on these stats all the time as a film maker says Mel Gibson personally banked 200 something million from this movie.  The book says that so far it has made 400 million around the world, and it was published in 2004 so it sure to have made more by now. 

We agreed that he should bring Dante over on Saturday, so he can stay with me while Dan is at work.  Dante and I will go to the matinee movie before noon.  I am going to the store  today to get some of his favorite fruits, etc.  He has not been over for a while so we will have fun.  They have closed the pool for repair. We will not be able to go in there, I am sorry to say. It may not open again for the year. 

Dan is coming on Monday to work on Doc's computer.  Doc has contacted HP and they want him to try a few things first to see if power can be restored.  Dan is the very one to do it.  Doc did not want him to come last night as he said he did not feel well.  He must go to the doctor today and fears he will be told he only has months to live.  I think he is a little paranoid as he never recalls what a big binge he went on the day before he feels terrible.  I do not believe Doc's blood tests will detect imminent death.  His sight is also dimming because of cataracts.  He is starting to show signs of being between a rock and a hard place. 

My son Gary says he has seen all the movies at Blockbuster and is waiting for new ones, including all the foreign movies which he loves.  I told him to go the public library and he might find some he has not seen.  They have a tremendous supply of foreign movies.  He says French movies are  his favorites.  I meant to tell him that I want to cast him in a bit part in my series about life in a pool bar, as Gary loves pool so much he insisted on a pool table in his new house, but with the divorce, he says his ex took the pool table to her new house along with him for a little while. She then kicked him out and took her boyfriend back and the pool table is still over there.  Gary had to go back to their old mansion which he is trying to fix up to sell.  His ex comes from great wealth and paid $800,000 for the new mansion out of her trust fund. Gary says he will go back to the life style of the hard working construction guy in a modest little house somewhere.

I want him to play my son come to play pool with his mother as he did once in a while when I was going to the pool bar.  He and I are a good match, as my son Dan and I are. 

My grandson Jamal loves to play pool and he is also good at ping pong which I love second to pool.  I love playing with my kids.  I am looking forward to Saturday with Dante. 

 

I tried to call Dante on his new text phone, but it has already been turned off and his mother gave me her new phone number. I can hardly keep up with her, as she has always loved loved loved cell phones and uses up her minutes so fast nobody can get her on the phone.  I have her girlfriend's numbers, her mother's numbers.  I call them and they track her down for me. She says her little boy, Dante's half brother, is recovering from a pretty severe operation to remove his tonsils and adenoids.  His were so big and infected they swelled at night and caused trouble in breathing.  He is only 3 years old.  Dante was never sick, while her two little ones have been far more prone to take cold. Dante takes after his dad who seemed to have a wonderful immunity.  In fact, Dan went without having a cold for so long that when he got one when he was about 7, his nose got stuffy and he said to me, "Mom, you are going to have to take me to the doctor, I can't breathe good out of my nose!"  I had to laugh as he was hardly even sick When he got chicken pox he only had about ten and his sister had a thousand and almost had to be taken to emergency.  Got to love a kid like that!    

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1:32:14 AM EDT

I felt with the Palin nomination, Right to Life received the biggest boost in years in the convention halls.  Again and again the camera played on that little Palin baby who has Down's syndrome as different people took turns holding him, including his little sister, who at one point wet his hair and plastered it down.  I have often contemplated how the death of the aborted child must play out in heaven for once life has begun I do not think there is any way of destroying it.  The life in the fetus will simply go where all people go once the body has died. And I picture many people prepared to receive this spirit, barely conceived in some cases, perhaps relatives who have volunteered to take the child just as adoptee parents do in this world.  And if no relatives are available other parents coming forth.  

I think the hardest part of their spirit existence for these little children would be to feel that their mothers and probably their fathers were rejecting their reality as real children. I know in my family children have miscarried very young, but their mothers built a whole fantasy life around them.  One of my sister's babies died in the womb when 8 months along.  My sister named her Carmen, and after that Carmen was always remembered in heaven.  When the family pets died, Carmen came and took them.  My sister knew what she looked like, because she had dressed her and had her buried in the cemetary.  After all, she was almost ready to be born.  My sister always thought stress killed her, one of her bad asthma attacks when she was grasping for air. 

I 'knew' how many children I would have and that they would be 3 boys and one girl.  I can't remember when I didn't know that. I found a baby picture once that I fell so in love with I started a scrap book centered around this photo.  My first child, a son, bore a stiking resemblance to this baby picture I had saved years before.  I came to think I might have been wrong about my third son until I had an 'accidental' pregnancy when I was 42 years old.  My oldest son was 21 years older than my youngest son, but he had been destined to be my son long before he was born, so he arrived quite late but strong and happy to be here. 

And so the aborted baby, too, must be destined to play a difficult role in that parent's life  I have often done an exercise in my life, that of thinking about all the children who have been conceived passing on to the other world, along with all the pets, all the animals, everything that lives and dies.  It is hard to get used to the idea of such an inhabited afterworld which must be literally teeming with life.  I think that the stars without number teach us to think of many many worlds out there, room for everybody.  No problem. Not like in this world, where people sometimes groan at the thought of one more.  And do not believe they can handle it. 

I have often wondered what the mother used to think with these big families of yesteryear when she missed her period and knew there might be one more.  I knew I could only handle 4, so I had a tubal ligation when the last one, Danny, was born.  And nearly died of that and the caesarian.  The doctor said he could tie my tubes if I had a caesarian, and there would be no need to go through childbirth.  In fact, he was determined he was not going to go through it.  He preferred a fast caesarian.  I thought when my heart was about to arrest, what a pretty kettle of fish that will be if I have to leave that darling little baby without a mother.  l prayed very hard for God to save me and my prayer was answered. 

It was easy for me to turn down sex for years, because I did not believe in abortion.  I remained a virgin until marriage at 20, never even coming to a climax in any other way while necking, so as not to spoil our wedding night.  Times in between I would stop penetration, so there would be no risk of an unwanted child.  And many other women around me both old and young went through life without an abortion, and some of them did not have large families either while others did. 

Belief in abortion erodes this kind of support system to keep young girls from getting pregnant too young.  The young have sex thinking they can always get an abortion if something happens, and then when it does some can't bring themselves to do it, so bear children they are not mentally prepared for, as the young father is not either.  Still teens are the most apt in any group to seek an abortion now days. 

When I was young I and others thought that if there was a young girl getting pregnant too young, or if there was the rare abortion either self administered like my mother's, or done with the help of an illegal abortionist, there had not been a good enough support system to help prevent the tragedy.  The extended family had not done their job.  Nor the town nor the church. 

Today I think those who have promoted abortion must share the blame for this vital breakdown in society by not recognizing that the child is a separate entity from the mother.  I donot think that the law should provide a legal means for an abortionist to take life.  If we recognize the fetus's right to live from conception then we will want to make abortion illegal once more because it is a crime, the crime of taking life.  Judges who think otherwise must share the blame, presidents, all who become part of the process.  We do not make it easier for anyone else to take life, provide them with a better means, protect them.  That would be considered very wrong.  So why does the child who needs so much protection in the first few weeks of life get deemed to be an acceptable victim of death by abortion?

The abortionists get to go free and will not be called to justice until an after life.  It will take facing their children face to face for many parents to realize that their aborted child is a separate entity and couldnot be flushed out like a monthly mens and forgotten about.  We have never had such savage wars in our society as the ones over abortion.  Why because people are trying to defend killing.  And that tends to make them very mean.  People get very defensive about the bloodshed that is required to abort a child. It is always hard to call causing a death a good thing, something we choose to do.     

I tended my daughter's child free for 4 years when she got pregnant with a boyfriend she had broken up with, who wanted nothing to do with the child  He broke her heart.  He even told her that if she would abort the child he would make up with her!  She, of course, chose the child. She had to leave college for a couple of years to have the child.  But the child turned out to be a blessing to the family as children usually are. 

People can always be found here who are willing to help a young girl have her baby and who will even help find adoptee parents if she feels she cannot take care of the child.  Parents are having to go to foreign countries to find babies to adopt!  But the importance of survival of the child has to be taught to the young, strong enough to counter the allure of the abortion solution. The legal abortion solution will claim many more lives until enough support can be found to overturn Roe and Wade. 

I have faith that many will embrace the right to life belief in time.  And in that awakening gentler and more optimistic people will be born.  People more at peace with themselves. Happier because they are moving toward the light.      

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4:10:12 AM EDT

Despite one of the liveliest republican conventions I have ever seen, I have to conclude that when McCain says "I would rather lose an election than lose a war," I believe that him losing the election is exactly what is going to happen.  His words are prophetic.  How can it be good to keep on trying to 'win a war' that should never have been started in the first place?  It was a premptive strike, there were no weapons of mass destruction.  I still keep seeing the painful sight on CNN of US troops looking everywhere, into just about any hole in the ground for those weapons with Bush saying, "They are here, never fear, we will find them." 

I also thought that the Vietnam war went on far longer than it ever should have done due to some US leaders expanding it instead of recognizing that this was another war that could not be won.  Those years of pounding that country to smithereens with US bombs was so painful to see. 

McCain was a soldier who served in that war with incredible bravery.  He did what was demanded of him and more but I recall him coming home after he had been freed with bitterness toward those who had opted to 'lose this war' instead of fighting on.  In those five years in a Hanoi prison camp he must have dreamed of seeing his tormenters thoroughly defeated, so that all those years of suffering would not be in vain. 

But I believe that US leaders who ended the war could not afford to listen to those who said the US had never 'lost a war.'  I thought all those years of bombing showed we had lost this war to tough guerilla fighters already, with the idea that scorching the earth with explosions was the only way we could possibly 'win.'  I thought those years of incredible bombing showed we had become a super power that had lost its way, spiritually and morally, and would justify anything we did as necessary.  I believe we left that country's people hating us far more than if we had stopped the war, with implacable hatred for what we were doing, for our inhumanity to the very earth that we bombed so many years. 

Obama voted against starting a war in Iraq.  He pointed out that we needed to concentrate on Al Quida not Iraq.  Trying to win a very expensive war in Iraq, Bush has not been able to containAl Quida in Afganistan and this faction has come back to life.  We are overextended.  Al Quida is the faction that was guilty of planning and executing 9/11.  By this reasoning, Obama shows to me that he is brilliant if inexperienced.  I thought last night Palin mindlessly re-echoed McCain's win the war philosophy. Mindless because the war in Iraq has already cost ruinous amounts of money. 

I love the fact that the republican party is embracing right to life more than it ever has, but to me, this embrace of the 'winning a war' solution is not compatible with pro life.  To me both McCain and Palin have the great weakness of thinking dealing death in war in order to 'win' is not wrong.  I do not believe that they will further the cause of pro life.  I believe that our creator abhors war as a solution.  A premptive strike is unforgivable.  Iraq did not plan and execute 9/11.  Al Quida did, Osama ben Ladin did.  Bush was trigger happy.  A very scary guy. 

I will not vote for McCain because I think he will cost us more lives.  I do not believe that withdrawing from the country as Obama has said he will do will lead to any worse results, because once we are gone, that country will go to civil war, or whatever the factions that are the strongest dictate. We would have to stay there forever with a very strong presence to win this war the way McCain visualizes.  We cannot afford to do that.  Millions have been spent.  After seven years we are war weary. 

I believe the bombing of Iraq is what will have embittered the Iraq people with hatred that will be a long time in dying.  Would we thank liberators who came to our country and bombed it to smithereens in order to help us? 

It is so easy for politicians to distort the facts to justify war.  I believe in the long run Obama will be doing more to save life than any of the candidates.  Clinton voted for the war.  She is also pro choice.  I believe Obama as a black man must accept pro choice in order to be the democratic candidate. Blacks have remained loyal to the democratic party, and rightfully so, because they owe the democrats for more advances of their civil rights.  The pro choice faction have control of the democratic party for the moment which I think is dead wrong.  The democratic party is being held hostage by the pro choice faction, and democrats like me have no choice but to fight any destructive force from within.  I am a democrat and do not like to see my party standing for something that is intrinsically wrong. I trust Obama's perceptions.  I think he is exceptionally intelligent, and if he sees wrong in the democratic party, he will fight it.  I think that is why he did not choose Hillary as his running mate, because she has embraced pro choice too publically and too long.  Pro choice is death, and it is a stone that will weigh down the democratic party toward defeat.  Because of Obama's attitude about the perils of war, I believe he is the best choice for president.   

In his book "Right Turns" Jewish Michael Medved who is a believer and a practicer of Judaism says that the Jewish religion has always been intensely pro life, and has inspired Christian religions more than can ever be acknowledged, but he says that secular Jews who have fallen away from the values of Judaism have embraced abortion as their cause.  He sees this as a mindless and dangerous philosophy that has spread its insidious evil across the land.  I was so heartened when I read his book, "Right Turns."  I just could not understand why Jewish people would embrace abortion so ferociously.  He does not undertand it either, but he, a Jew, condemns it.  Now I understand that these are just some Jews and they have been joined by many other Americans of all faiths who have abandoned their love of God.  Jews are not the only ones to fall away from the more difficult paths.  He says that abortion actually increased the number of unwanted pregnancies it was supposed to diminish substantially because women were encouraged to join a sexual revolution that promised sex without consequence of pregnancy with the simple solution of abortion.  The right for a woman to 'choose what to do with her own body' even if it means killing her child. Michael Medved says that orthodox Jews do not think of a child as merely a piece of the mother's body therefore expendable, but a baby in the early stages of development as is thought in most faiths. 

Secular means relating to the world or to the temporal rather than to religion. Worldly, in other words, without perhaps even a belief that God or the spirit exist.  Medved says many Jews have become secular as have many of other faiths.  But to me, the commandment "Thou Shalt not Kill" applies across the board.  We don't jump to war as a solution anymore than we take the life of the unborn child.  We do everything we can to solve our problems without war. 

Years ago, as a pacifist, a non believer in war, I thought if someone held out a knife to me and said, "Now kill, or I will kill you.'  What a dilemma that would be.  But as I told my ex husband Dean's commanding officer I would not be able to take up the gun if I were called to war.  Men were being drafted then to serve in the Korean war.  Those who were drafted went to Korea generally.  Dean joined the air force to prevent going overseas. I went to see his commanding officer because he tried to kill me!  I told him I thought the military philosophy of life had further unhinged his mind.  He was too close to violence all the time in the service to reach.  I was more than likely going to be his first 'kill'  in the military.

I believed in non violence when handling his violence.  I think so many women die who try to fight a man with superior strength.  I felt sure I would be killed by this unstable man if I tried to fight him with hatred and cunning    I prayed to God to help me when he attacked me one night, and God answered.  He came down and hovered above me, as Dean put his hands around my throat, after five hours of torture, ready to choke the life out of me.  I was already dying.  I could not feel any more pain.  I looked up and saw the light. And I felt ecstacy.  I would soon see God. 

Dean saw this ecstacy in my eyes and he dropped his hands and said, "I would kill you, but it wouldn't do any good."  He saw eternal life in my eyes.  He could not kill me, because I believed.  He could only destroy my body but "I" would be gone.  That is a story out of my years of torment married to this man.   

I forgave this man as God counsels we forgive those who trespass against us.  He would have to account for his sins.  But I did not want to carry hatred around in my heart that would weight me down like a stone I could never dispell. I would not progress.  Forgiveness made me strong again and above all helped my son Raymond who also forgave his father, sobered him up years later, took care of him periodically for years, even to taking him to cancer treatments, and benefited from it.  My ex truly loved him.  His redeeming himself with love for our son was my reward for not hating my ex. 

An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is the justification for war.  Jesus taught turn the other cheek.  If we do not learn what he meant we will be trapped in war forever.

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