Editor,
I was concerned when the comedian and abortion advocate Bill Maher made headlines recently when he admitted that abortion “kind of is murder.” Then he stated, “I’m just OK with that. I am. I mean there’s 8 billion people in the world. I’m sorry. We won’t miss you. That’s my position on it.”
Maher’s honesty exposes the deepest fault line in American culture. It is not between Democrats and Republicans, or between believers and secularists, or between any other two commonly identified demographics. It is between those who consider life to be inherently sacred and those who consider it to be an instrumental means to other ends.
There is a reason America’s founders embraced the declaration that “all men are created equal” at the risk of their lives. They knew the alternative: a class-driven society in which monarchs and despots rule their subjects. This is precisely what they sought independence from as they birthed what Abraham Lincoln would later call “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”
This is a binary choice: Our leaders should serve us as their co-equals, or we serve them as our superiors.
Folks, if we no longer believe that our governmental institutions can be trusted to serve us, that our votes count and our elected officials will do what we elect them to do, and that our courts will administer justice fairly to all citizens, our democracy is imperiled. If you’ve been in this country more than 25 years, you can see how our Judeo-Christian values have eroded, and we are seeing the results of it in our current culture. I’m a senior, and I’m just waiting to hear Bill Maher, and others like him to say “I’m too old” so I should just be eliminated to make room for others, and would be good with that. I know I’m not as productive as I used to be, but don’t all lives count? I hope Bill Maher’s message bothers you as it did me. Make your vote count this year. God bless America.
Norman Phillips
Woodland
