FOLLOW THE TRAIL

The axiom 'for every action, there is a reaction' should have people thinking ahead to what those reactions of consequences might be. The Cheney/Bush administration neglected to do this when they declared war in Iraq. As a result, the pain and price paid in human suffering will last for decades. A far cry from the scenario they had fancied...that we would be greeted as liberators and met with flowers and wild greetings.

While Pro-Lifers think that they would not condone murder, the are expressing relief that Dr. Tiller will no longer be doing abortions. In fact, no one will be doing the difficult and humane acts he was doing or making lives possible for so many people. A life is not just a fetus growing to term., it is all humans of all ages who search not only for life, but quality of life for all. There will be no more happy babies or happy parents in the future simply because Dr. Tiller was assassinated. A 9 year old girl, impregnated incestuously by her father. should not have been required to become a mother under those conditions. Yet there are those fanatics out there who would have had her carry the baby to term regardless of the cost to the child-mother, her infant, and the family members (if there were those) who would forever carry the shame and scar of the father's actions. Most importantly, how would that infant develop self-esteem if it were kept in the home with this child-mother, or if put out for adoption, only to learn later in life of its beginnings.

When we thought ethanol would free us from oil dependency, we were feeling freer and hopeful until we realized that more fuel was expended to make the ethanol from corn than it was worth. Brazil seems to fare better using sugar beets.

An unexpected figure came out of an article on BBC under technology.

The horror of the World Trade Towers bombing was the nucleus for many more deaths beside those in New York. Deaths followed in the workers who cleaned up without masks. The people who fought and those who worked in Iraq, adding the Iraqis themselves. These deaths had news men and women also being killed...a fact not as common in previous wars Aid workers were not immune to the pull of death. The events are like links in a chain. They extend, breakout, shorten, and continue in places that would surprise those who do not understand the connectedness to these deadly events.

Pro-Choice, Pro-Life, Anti-Abortion

At last I find a kindred soul who can say all the things I think I have been saying for a long time...but he says them so articulately and tactfully!

Probably everyone is in one of the three categories, right? Oops, probably not so you would notice! It has always escaped me that so many6 people consider themselves Pro-Life but really mean they are pro-fertilized-ovum and no longer have interest after birth. Probably one with the least regard for life would be G W Bus, who for eight years allowed children to be conceived and born, only to have a very large per cent die before they reached their first birthday...long, painful, hungry short lives. I do not understand any religion in today's enlightened world that could allow this to happen...but it did.

Jeffrey Reel is no one I know or am apt to meet, judging from the paper in which he stated his views. However, he should have more people than are available in the small town in the Western part of the State hear his views. I wonder how long the hypocrites who call themselves Pro-Life, who 'talk the talk' but don't 'walk the walk' will be able to keep their blinders on and live in their world of denial.

Perhaps, one day being pro-life will include quality of life in that equation. I doubt I will live that long, sadly, to see it universally.

MALE CONTRACEPTIVE COMING SOON?

Ever since the contraceptive pill for women has been on the market, men have sat back , making the assumption that unless they resorted to vasectomies, contraception was up to women . Then HIV came along making genital contact somewhat risky, since it was discovered that infection was being passed around through casual sexual contacts and from people who had transfusions with tainted blood, so that HIV was now being passed to people other than contact with gay men.

Interestingly, some men learned that the only way there could be no 'failure' of contraceptives was to have a vasectomy. This could happen only to men who were sure they wanted no , or no more, children. Some, fearful of later regret, have reversible vasectomies. Regardless of the intent of possible reversal, all reversals are difficult and may not be possible.

Finally, scientists have detected a human gene flaw which can be linked to male infertility. The study of Iranian families found mutations in the CATSPER1 gene which controls a protein determining sperm movement. "Researchers say the finding could lead to treatments for infertile men - and potentially to a new contraceptive."

If males take total control of their own sperm so that women can no longer trick them into fertilizing their egg and claim contraception failure, (thus insuring a paid-for child rearing with out the bother of living with the father or sharing responsibilities of raising the child.) No reader can be shocked to see it, still all too often, in our society.

Since I believe one can be both Pro-Life and Pro-Abortion to maintain quality of all lives, I do not think a male contraceptive will take away all spontaneous mating in humans, but it might help lower the number of unwanted pregnancies. It will surely allow both men and women to be on a more equal playing field, both more in control of their own ability to decide if they wish to take on the responsibility of parenting with that particular sexual partner. Nothing will solve all the problems but I think it would be a healthy start. It might assure that quality of life will go on beyond birth...an element that is too frequently ignored by the zealots preaching life in the embryo but care little about the children who come into the world only to die of malnutrition or disease before the first year of their life is through. That incongruity of goal makes me distrust the sanctity of the fertilized embryo when it is clear that, after birth, that embryo-now-a -human child will be sentenced to rejection, hardship, starvation, and misery.

IN MEMORIAM: GEORGE CARLIN

George Carlin was too young to die by our current actuarial standards. While Tim Russert was eulogized for days and days, I will miss George Carlin most. Tim Russert left a hole in the media water and it will be immediately filled. Carlin leaves so much original material, it will take much longer for him to be replaced on the humor and humane circuit.

George Carlin was a thinker 'outside the box'. He shocked some people and was very clear that the profanity was his spice in his 'stew'. Always frank and addressing truth as he saw it, he gave opinion on religion and many other topics. He could see things as no one else seemed to define them. His monologue on Stuff was hysterically funny and hit so truthfully.

The applause he got should never be forgotten. His Pro-life in Anti-woman monologue is what many people believe but few can say so well. He could add much to any discussion, far more than most of the journalists on TV. For that reason, even Keith Olbermann had him on Countdown and it was a far more interesting show than some of the self-appointed 'pundits' he occasionally has speaking.

I, for one of many, will feel the loss of this man's brilliant mind and his ability to make us hear messages when he wrapped them in humor. Thank you for leaving us your recorded wit. You will never be forgotten.