Wisdom Calls

Want to know how to vote in the coming elections? If you are like most people these days, knowing how to vote is a challenge…deep down you want men and women of integrity to hold our elected offices; the problem is, with so many issues and creative ways politicians define their positions, it’s easy to get lost as to which way to vote. The issue of abortion, as odd as it sounds, can make voting quite clear and can provide you with insights on how to vote…let me explain.

Wrapped in a person’s view of abortion is not only how they will vote on the sanctity of life, but also how they will represent their constituents (that is, how they will represent you and I) in government, how they conduct themselves in private, whether they act in our interest or their own, how they will vote on financial concerns, such as taxes and spending, how they will vote concerning the agendas of special interest groups, and so on…lets look at this a bit more deeply…

First, let’s be honest about abortion. Abortion is the deliberate taking of another person’s life. The unborn child is of no other kind than human kind. That makes the embryo, or any other term used to define it, human. Location does not determine what something is. It is what it is. Just because an unborn child is in its mother’s womb does not cause it to be part of the mother any more than putting a pie in the oven makes the pie part of the oven. Finally, the unborn child in any state from conception to birth is alive (the cells, which are human, are not dead). Simply because the unborn child needs the safety of the mother’s womb to grow and survive in the few months after conception, does not make the unborn child not human or not alive; it means its life depends on the mother for survival. This dependency is similar to a child in their first years of life or a patient in a hospital that needs treatment to survive. Neither of these latter examples calls for a legal precedent allowing for the taking of life. In short, the unborn child is human, alive and dependant.

When we vote for someone in office, we want them to represent us in a way that we are unable or incapable of doing ourselves. We expect our elected officials to have moral character in both public and private life. If a man will cheat on his wife, he will cheat on his country. The existence of human kind depends upon its leaders, whether the President of the United States or a county board official, regardless of the level of office, to have integrity and represent the strong and the weak. If a man in office does not value the unborn child, or worse, considers it not worthy of protection, so much more that man will not value your life or those in your family. The value of human life is utmost to the pursuit of individual liberty and justice for all, for it is only those that value all of human life that will pursue the cause of individual liberty and justice for all. If you are old and worry about medical care, if you are African-American, Hispanic, or another minority concerned about equal opportunity, if you are religious and desire freedom to worship, and if you are not yet born and desire simply a chance at life, you must be represented by someone that values life, and thus must vote for someone that protects life.

Let’s connect a couple of dots…a pro-abortion stance or position is a choice for one thing; the choice for self over others. The thought is really “I am more important than anything and anyone”. Ending the life of an un-born child is ok because it gets me what I want – freedom from the responsibility of my actions or, as a politician, power and votes. All one needs to do is see what a late term or partial birth abortion (the baby is in the process of being born and is killed before full delivery) looks like to see what value the pro-abortion politician places on human life. An elected official that is pro-abortion is one that has different categories for life, or perhaps better said, places different value on various stages of human life – a scary thought indeed if you are yet unborn, elderly, a member of a minority, a person of religious beliefs, or just an ordinary citizen. If even one of our elected officials places his value or personal convenience over the lives of the people he/she represents, as a people we have lost hope in being represented fairly because each decision made will not be for the people’s benefit but for the benefit of the elected official -whatever is more expedient to accomplish their needs and desire. Whether it is re-election, more power, or greater tax dollars to fund projects, an official who places them self over others will enact legislation that accomplishes what is best for themselves or their special interest, and not for the public.

The correlation between the importance, or lack of importance, that one places on the value of all stages of human life can not be overstated. Once you cross the line and decide that some stages or kinds of human life are not worth protecting, you have made a decision that some human life is dispensable.  Whatever negatively affects your ability to accomplish your goals becomes expendable…in the case of abortion, money, votes and power are offered or exchanged for the “right” to take life. Are the elderly and medically challenged next if those that are in power deem the cost of care too expensive? When people of power are willing to compromise life for money, power or votes, anything and everything becomes possible. Certainly this is not how to ensure the long term viability of our country.

So here’s how this helps with voting. One of the essential components needed to prevent societal decay is the protection of life. Not valuing all human life equally and regarding it worthy of protection permits moral variations that will always negatively affect the weakest or most disadvantaged persons. It is imperative that we are represented in government by men and women that will protect those that need protection as an equal to those that do not. If the pro-abortion candidate does not value the unborn child, they do not value those that need the most protection. If you do not protect those that need the most protection, you do not stand for individual liberty and justice for all. If you do not stand for justice for all, you stand for justice for some, and not for others. Since you stand for justice for some and not for others, you cannot and should not be permitted to hold office where your responsibility is to govern all people equally.

Voting is a privilege and carries great responsibility. When we vote, we are aligning ourselves to the person we are voting for and to their way of thinking. May we all vote for men and women that will preserve life, govern for the people, and ensure that the government and laws that we leave to our children guarantee them the same rights and freedoms that we enjoyed when we born. Happy Voting…

Richard M Hartian
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