Reposting Detroit News blog “Abortion: Taking it to the Streets”

(This blog first appeared in the “Politics Blog” of The Detroit News on July 9, 2013. Sadly, it is still true today in light of the outrage over Planned Parenthood and its supporters struggling to defend these baby butchers.)

Abortion: Taking It to the Streets

Back here in D.C. after a glorious week in Northern Michigan, I was struck that as I walked to my office, a smattering of homeless folks and young ladies in pink shirts with clipboards were on literally every corner.

“Sir,” one such pink lady cheerfully called to me, “can I talk to you a minute about women’s rights?”

I normally don’t engage, but with sweat dripping down the back of my neck today I decided to go for it. “Okay,” I said, “if I can ask you a question first.” She smiled and said sure.

“You work for Planned Parenthood, right?” (It’s not that I am intuitive: her pink shirt had the organization emblazoned on the front.) “Can we talk about the rights of the little unborn girl—a woman—in her mother’s womb?”

Her smile was instantly gone as she struggled to come up with a response until finally resorting to the “right to safe and affordable abortions” as a “woman’s health issue.”

“Really” I countered. “Isn’t killing an unborn girl in the womb of an otherwise healthy woman the ultimate ‘woman’s health issue’?”

By now, the cheery young lady was ticked, and the clichés continued, only this time with a touch of venom. “Listen, a man shouldn’t be able to determine what a woman can or can’t do with her body.”

“So, why then did you ask me if I wanted to talk about women’s rights?”

She walked away, and I headed to the office, passing a homeless guy I see almost every day. “Hey, got any spare change?” he asked as he finished a 16-ounce can of breakfast beer. I threw them a couple of quarters (all I had) and walked on, trying to decide which encounter was sadder: A broken man with no hope and no home, or a young mind peddling misleading marketing for an organization that, by its own records, performed more than 330,000 abortions last year and almost one million over the past three years.

Can we just be consistent about the “love” thing?

Spent five hours today at a funeral, burial and luncheon for a friend. She died at the young age of 53 after several bouts with cancer. She leaves behind three beautiful children, but today is with her mom and dad who both died way too young of cancer. And, driving back to my brother-in-law’s house in metro Detroit to again watch over my dying mother-in-law — pancreatic cancer – I started to think about the week we saw…and Christianity.

Read Peggy Noonan’s piece in today’s Wall Street Journal about the miracle of Charleston, South Carolina, and the loving Christian family members of those so tragically gunned down by that totally, racist and f—ked up kid. I am not digressing here, but trying to make a point about Christianity and its overarching tenet – love.

That is why I was so conflicted over the Supreme Court’s ruling regarding the ban on same sex marriage. As a Christian, I believe that marriage is a sacrament, along with baptism and communion and the other four. (I think there are four and, no, praying before you give the party store clerk your MegaMillions ticket is not one of them. Although it should be.) In my heart I believe marriage is the union of one man and one woman.

But (and as Pee Wee Herman said in the landmark Pee Wee’s Big Adventure: “Everybody I know has a big but”), the underlying theme – the core of Christianity – is our love for our fellow man (and woman).

Most of the Facebook posts among my friends were positive and celebratory regarding SCOTUS’s decision. A few were mean and were posted merely to bad mouth conservatives as bigots, racists and homophobes. I ignored the latter and focused comments on the former. Why? Because many of them were from friends that are gay. Some talked of crying tears of joy when the “verdict” came down.

So today, I saw a church family get together and express their love for a young woman taken away from her grieving children. Meanwhile, people that love each and want to spend their lives together in a union previously outlawed in a majority of states, get to officially celebrate that love. I’m pretty good with that, although I wish we would show the same love and compassion to hundreds of thousands of unborn children slaughtered each and every year in this country despite the many positive alternatives. Can we just be consistent about that “love” thing?

Saw American Sniper and my wife wants “to kick Michael Moore’s (blank) ass.”

Just saw American Sniper with my wife. As we walked out of the theater and she wiped away tears, her first words weren’t “what a great movie.” They were: “I want to kick Michael Moore’s (blank) ass.”

If you see it, you cannot objectively say this movie glorifies war or “defends” President W’s decision to invade Iraq as many have suggested in the media. It is gritty, troubling and graphically depicts the horror of war – for the good guys, the bad guys and those – including the kids — sadly caught in the crossfire. But one thing is undeniable: the late American sniper Chris Kyle was and is an undeniable hero in the greatest tradition of our country…the world.

For “filmmaker” Moore to call Kyle a “coward” because he was a sniper, and then double-down on those cowardly comments, led my wife to determine: “Michael Moore – no way – saw the movie”. Or, I surmised, if he did and still believes in what he is spewing, he is more than a coward; he is a traitor, a pathetic one at best.

Perhaps Michael Moore “abandoned his post” in the theater to consult with the enemies of our country, freedom and decency. Again, he seems to be “doubling-down” in his criticism of American Sniper. Perhaps, he is just a cornered rat.

Fascinating in watching American Sniper was the lead-up, as in the mind-numbing number of previews. With the exception of a peek at the new Kevin Costner tear jerker/feel good Black or White, the remaining previews were for up-coming blockbuster shoot-em-and-blow-em-up “super hero” movies coming in months; including Fast and Furious 7^th or 50^th (not sure), two new Marvel Comics movies and a new take on Mad Max – the franchise that launched Aussie Mel Gibson. All these new Hollywood films about “imagined heroes,” led up to the feature film telling the life, times, woe and tragic death of genuine American hero Chris Kyle, directed by the Hollywood actor Hollywood loathes – Dirty Harry, Clint Eastwood.

Mr. Eastwood. Clint, if I may call you that? Once again, you made my/our day. To American Sniper detractors – Dinty Moore, Seth Rogen and former Vermont Governor Howard “the Shouter” Dean: if you really believe what you have said on camera, you should be ashamed; Very, very ashamed.

Oh, the movie is great.