An opportunity to DO something

[banjo]

HR 618, “To implement equal protection under the 14th article of amendment to the Constitution for the right to life of each born and** preborn** human person”, was introduced this year by Rep. Duncan Hunter [R-CA] and 81 cosponsors. Presently it is in the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties. This bill may very well ‘die’ in this subcommittee but if that happens it doesn’t have to go quietly. Following is a list of the members of that subcommittee, their addresses and telephone numbers. If you wish to thank Rep. Hunter for his efforts…….2265 Rayburn House Office Bldg., Washington, DC 20515, (202)-225-5672. Full text of bill at http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-618

Hon. Jerrold Nadler [D-NY]
2334 Rayburn House Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20515
(202)-225-5635
(Chairman)

Hon. Trent Franks [R-AZ}
1237 Longworth H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515
(202)-225-4576
(Ranking Member)

Hon. Arthur Davis [D-AL]
208 Cannon H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515
(202)-225-2665

Hon. Mike Pence [R-IN]
426 Cannon H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515
(202)-225-3021

Hon. Debbie Wasserman Schultz [D-FL]
118 Cannon H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515
(202)-225-7931

Hon. Darrell E. Issa [R-CA]
211 Cannon H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515
(202)-225-3906

Hon. Keith Ellison [D-MN]
1130 Longworth H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515
(202)-225-4755

Hon. Steve King [R-IA}
1432 Longworth H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515
(202)-225-4426

Hon. John Conyers, Jr. [D-MI]
2426 Rayburn H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515
(202)-225-5126

Hon. Jim Jordan [R-OH]
515 Cannon H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515
(202)-225-2676

Hon. Robert C. Scott [D-VA]
1201 Longworth H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515
(202)-225-8351

Hon. Melvin L. Watt [D-NC]
2236 Rayburn H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515
(202)-225-1510

Hon. Steve Cohen [D-TN]
1004 Longworth H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515
(202)-225-3265

Remember the words of Mother Teresa, “Little things are indeed little, but to be faithful in little things is a great thing.”

 

[vern_humphrey]

For those who just tuned in, here’s a lesson in civics and government. One man will determine of this ammendment goes anywhere – the Chairman. He can block any bill or proposed amendment forever. And the Chairman of every committee is a member of the majority party in Congress.

And in this case, the chairman is:

Hon. Jerrold Nadler [D-NY]
2334 Rayburn House Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20515
(202)-225-5635

Nadler is as likely to let this get to a vote as the Big Bad Wolf is to allow a vote on eating Little Red Riding Hood.

Remember: When you vote for a Congressman or Senator, you also vote to give the senior members of his party extraordinary powers.

 

[banjo]

Remember: When you vote for a Congressman or Senator, you also vote to give the senior members of his party extraordinary powers.

Good advice, Vern, but we shouldn’t get discouraged. “God does not call us to be successful; He calls us to be faithful”. Another gem of wisdom from Mother Teresa.

 

[vern_humphrey]

Good advice, Vern, but we shouldn’t get discouraged. “God does not call us to be successful; He calls us to be faithful”. Another gem of wisdom from Mother Teresa.

That’s true. But when I vote, I always ask myself, “What are the ramifications of this vote? Who will get extra power in the Senate or House because of my vote?”

And I don’t vote to increase the power of the pro-abortionists.

 

[banjo]

That’s true. But when I vote, I always ask myself, “What are the ramifications of this vote? Who will get extra power in the Senate or House because of my vote?”

And I don’t vote to increase the power of the pro-abortionists.

I agree with you 100%!

 

[bmmckinney]

This is a small part of my prolife talk I have put together. It basically explains why voting for people doesn’t matter, it hasn’t mattered in the past on issues of social reform:

The entire history of social reform is characterized by examples of the hurtful images which have been used to dramatize injustice and shock the conscience of the culture. No great injustice is ever outlawed until the public is forced to change its collective mind concerning the humanity of the victim and the inhumanity of his victimization. Not slavery, not child labor, not civil rights abuses or any other systematic oppression. Effective reformers are seldom popular. Popular reformers are seldom effective. We don’t care what people think of us. We care what they think of abortion.

It’s nice to talk about people in office who support life but laws don’t matter, people’s choices matter and if we can’t make abortion unthinkable, then people will continue to support it and women will continue to do it.

 

[vern_humphrey]

Laws do matter – they are society’s official condemnation of an act.

I can remember segregated schools, separate waiting rooms at the bus station for Blacks, drinking fountains labeled “White Only.”

That was changed by laws – laws were passed and enforced.

 

[bmmckinney]

Vern,

Here’s part of my prolife talk. Remembering back to history it wasn’t the laws that gave blacks in this country equal respect it was people’s feelings and choices to treat them as equals:

We want there to be a debate in this country about abortion. If the civil rights movement had gone the way of the abortion debate we would still have segregation in bathrooms, restaurants, schools, and everywhere else in this country. The term abortion has lost almost all of its meaning in this country, people will most often think of choice and reproductive freedom rather than the horrific reality of abortion.

Abortion supporters will celebrate a woman’s choice to do whatever she wants with her body, they certainly don’t want others to see what that choice does to the body of an unborn baby.

– Vern in our country because of the way our system of government works people’s feelings on an issue ultimately effect the laws, not the other way around.

 

[vern_humphrey]

Vern,

Here’s part of my prolife talk. Remembering back to history it wasn’t the laws that gave blacks in this country equal respect it was people’s feelings and choices to treat them as equals:

No, it wasn’t – it was the 101st Airborne Division with fixed bayonets at Central High in Little Rock. It was US Marshals escorting Black children into hitherto segregated schools. It was the FBI tracking down and arresting people who burned Black churches and killed civil rights marchers.

It was laws – law after law after law that enforced civil rights.

We want there to be a debate in this country about abortion. If the civil rights movement had gone the way of the abortion debate we would still have segregation in bathrooms, restaurants, schools, and everywhere else in this country.

Absolutely. The Civil Rights movement got laws passed and got the laws enforced.

The term abortion has lost almost all of its meaning in this country, people will most often think of choice and reproductive freedom rather than the horrific reality of abortion.

And right now the **law **backs them up. Society has not expressed its disapproval in a formal way – by making abortion illegal.

Abortion supporters will celebrate a woman’s choice to do whatever she wants with her body, they certainly don’t want others to see what that choice does to the body of an unborn baby.

And I agree – which why so many get so angry at the sight of a poster of an aborted baby.

– Vern in our country because of the way our system of government works people’s feelings on an issue ultimately effect the laws, not the other way around.

So were those rubber bayonets the 101st Airborne Division used at Little Rock?

 

[bmmckinney]

Vern,

Technically you are correct. The point I didn’t make clear enough was that the reason so many whites stood side by side with blacks around MLK Jr. was because they were people of good will. Let me post more of my talk so you can see the points I make towards how we have to think about ending abortion, the slide references relate to the powerpoint talk I put together so just ignore them: the main point to consider when reading the following is to see that historical lessons teach us that people weren’t given personhood rights from society outside of the law by the apathetic until their victimization was seen. So I say that the more we show the reality of abortion, the more we reach those who don’t care or are against the unborn baby.

---

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote his Letter from Birmingham Jail in response to clergymen who were critical of his approach to fighting segregation. In it he said the following:

“I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s greatest stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the Ku Klux Klan member, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action’; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a ‘more convenient season.’

(Slide 14, lynching)

Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection. But when the injustice of it was brought before the TV cameras of America as our black brothers and sisters were attacked with dogs, hoses, and other forms of violence, people saw the evil that words alone could not convey.***

***Victims always want their sufferings to be known. And the people who respond to their plight do so because they have become intimately aware of the injustice. They know about good and they know about evil. Their knowledge of evil convicts them; their knowledge of good motivates them. Having seen both life and death, they fight for the lives of the oppressed. It is through the exposure of injustice that they and others are convicted to respond.

In MLK Jr’s words “…we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.”

Today there is no debate about the use of graphic imagery to convey injustices from the past; it is a “no-brainer.” People page through history textbooks that contain graphic images; they flock to museums that show images of yesterday’s injustices; they line up to watch movies that convey the mistreatment of peoples by previous generations.

Why, then, is there a debate today about the use of abortion imagery? For this simple reason, that such imagery shows a present atrocity not a past one. The guilt of historical crimes lies with our ancestors, not us. The guilt of present-day crimes lies with no one but us. It is easy to say, “Shame on them.” It is difficult to admit, “Shame on us.”
Whenever an injustice occurs, we have one of four roles to play: the victim, the persecutor, the bystander, or the defender. We may not have a choice about the first role, but we certainly do about the latter three. We can be guaranteed that if we follow our consciences and become defenders of the weak and vulnerable, we too will face mistreatment, not only from persecutors but even from bystanders who are being put to shame.

---

 

[vern_humphrey]

Vern,

Technically you are correct. The point I didn’t make clear enough was that the reason so many whites stood side by side with blacks around MLK Jr. was because they were people of good will. Let me post more of my talk so you can see the points I make towards how we have to think about ending abortion, the slide references relate to the powerpoint talk I put together so just ignore them: the main point to consider when reading the following is to see that historical lessons teach us that people weren’t given personhood rights from society outside of the law by the apathetic until their victimization was seen. So I say that the more we show the reality of abortion, the more we reach those who don’t care or are against the unborn baby.

And there I agree with you. We must show abortion for the grisly crime it is.

However, to make progress, we have to also have the law on our side. And that must be a main effort of the pro-life movement.