An open letter to Senator Obama

[TitanTiger 20,511]

The Audacity of Hope: A Second-Generational Query

Sherif Girgis of Dover, Deleware, is a senior philosophy major at Princeton University and a 2008 Rhodes Scholar.

Dear Senator Obama:

As an immigrant from Kenya, your father found new hope in America’s noble principles and vast opportunities. The same promise brought my parents here from Egypt when I was still too young to thank them. Now you have inspired my generation with your vision of a country united around the same ideals of liberty and justice, “filled with hope and possibility for all Americans.”

But do you mean it?

As a legislator, you have opposed every effort to protect unborn human life. Shockingly, you even opposed a bill to protect the lives of babies who, having survived an attempted abortion, are born alive. Despite your party’s broad support for legal abortion and its public funding, most Democrats (including Senator Clinton) did not oppose the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. You, however, opposed it. Your vision of America seems to eliminate “hope and possibility” for a whole class of Americans: the youngest and most vulnerable. You would deny them the most basic protection of justice, the most elementary equality of opportunity: the right to be born.

As a prerequisite for any other right, the right to life is the great civil-rights issue of our time. It is what slavery and segregation were to generations past. Our response to this issue is the measure of our fidelity to a defining American principle: “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life.”

You have asked me to vote for you. In turn, may I ask you three simple questions? They are straightforward questions of fact about abortion. They are at the heart of the debate. In fairness, I believe that you owe the people you would lead a good-faith answer to each:

1. The heart whose beating is stilled in every abortion — is it a human heart?

2. The tiny limbs torn by the abortionist’s scalpel — are they human limbs?

3. The blood that flows from the fetus’s veins — is it human blood?

If the stopped heart is a human heart, if the torn limbs are human limbs, if the spilled blood is human blood, can there be any denying that what is killed in an abortion is a human being? In your vision for America, the license to kill that human being is a right. You have worked to protect that “right” at every turn. But can there be a right to deny some human beings life or the equal protection of the law?

Of course, some do deny that every human being has a right to life. They say that size or degree of development or dependence can make a difference. But the same was once said of color. Some say that abortion is a “necessary evil.” But the same was once said of slavery. Some say that prohibiting abortion would only harm women by driving it underground. But to assume so is truly to play the politics of fear. A compassionate society would never accept these false alternatives. A compassionate society would protect both mother and child, coming to the aid of women in need rather than calling violence against their children the answer to their problems.

Can we become a society that does not sacrifice some people to help others? Or is that hope too audacious? You have said that abortion is necessary to protect women’s equality. But surely we can do better. Surely we can build an America where the equality of some is not purchased with the blood of others. Or would that mean too much change from politics as usual?

Can we provide every member of the human family equal protection under the law? Your record as a legislator gives a resounding answer: No, we can’t. That is the answer the Confederacy gave the Union, the answer segregationists gave young children, the answer a complacent bus driver once gave a defiant Rosa Parks. But a different answer brought your father from Kenya so many years ago; a different answer brought my family from Egypt some years later. Now is your chance, Senator Obama, to make good on the spontaneous slogan of your campaign, to adopt the more American and more humane answer to the question of whether we can secure liberty and justice for all: Yes, we can.

Preach it, sister.

[WinCrimson 61]

He says he is against such legislation because it could lead to further legislation limiting a women’s right to choose. Even though I'm very much pro-choice, I'll have to disagree with him on this.

I will say, however, that I don't think the abortion issue will be a big one in this election. There are too many other issues that have emerged in recent years that will garner most of attention.

[TitanTiger 20,511]

Talk about literally tossing out the baby with the bathwater. That's an idiotic reason to be against common sense.

[arnaldoabru 11]

The anti abortion people always get me about the rights of the unborn in the mothers tummy.After it is born they don't give a rat's ass about it.

[AUJarhead 70]

The anti abortion people always get me about the rights of the unborn in the mothers tummy.After it is born they don't give a rat's ass about it.

Ummm... not quite.

Jessica's Law

The bill was introduced by U.S. Congresswoman Ginny Brown-Waite (R-Florida).

Rated 0% by NARAL, indicating a pro-life voting record. (Dec 2003)

[TitanTiger 20,511]

The anti abortion people always get me about the rights of the unborn in the mothers tummy.After it is born they don't give a rat's ass about it.

Complete and utter bull****. The vast majority of the crisis pregnancy centers that attempt to help women either have their baby and be able to support themselves or make it easier for them to get pre-natal care and put the child up for adoption are run by "anti-abortion" people. The largest segment of people adopting said children comes from church-going people who oppose abortion. The Catholic church alone dwarfs almost all others in this regard.

Groups like Feminists For Life work with colleges to help create programs where a girl that has an unintended pregnancy doesn't have to choose between having the child and getting an education. They and Democrats For Life similarly work with government, private organizations and people of faith to not just protect the unborn legislatively, but to remove the primary things that drive women to believe that abortion is their only real choice: lack of financial and emotional support.

I could go on for days showing you the myriad ways in which pro-life groups and individuals step up to the plate without fanfare and self-congratulatory back patting from the white pastor of my church back in Nashville that after having 4 biological kids decided to adopt two African-American kids who were brothers to keep them from either being aborted or be consigned to a life with a drug-addicted mom or bounced in foster care to the families that adopt children from war torn areas of Africa or the unwanted girls in China. And their stories in turn affect hundreds of others who went to our church. There were dozens of families in my church that had kids of other races or a blend of biological and adopted kids. Many even adopted older children that were well into elementary school age.

One of my best friend's sister got pregnant as a teenager. Mercy Ministries in Nashville took her in for almost a year, helping her through pre-natal care and transitioning to becoming a mother, giving her life-skills and job placement and transportation and a place to live while doing it free of charge. Had she chosen to place the child up for adoption, they would have assisted her with all of the same plus the legal services needed to do it right and find a loving home for her child, also free of charge.

Bottom line: you don't know what you're talking about. You're blathering weak and tired rhetoric to excuse the inexcusable. In the future, it would be helpful when discussing others and their attitudes that you actually understood the people you wish to profile with one or two pithy statements.

[BamaGrad03 0]

I am as pro-life as they come. And while I can understand (but not agree) with pro-choicers who want the right to abort in the 1st trimester...I'll never understand a position held by a party that says it's a champion for human rights...that indicates that it's ok to murder an otherwise viable fetus with a late term abortion.

Just makes no sense to me.

[arnaldoabru 11]

The anti abortion people always get me about the rights of the unborn in the mothers tummy.After it is born they don't give a rat's ass about it.

Complete and utter bull****. The vast majority of the crisis pregnancy centers that attempt to help women either have their baby and be able to support themselves or make it easier for them to get pre-natal care and put the child up for adoption are run by "anti-abortion" people. The largest segment of people adopting said children comes from church-going people who oppose abortion. The Catholic church alone dwarfs almost all others in this regard.

Groups like Feminists For Life work with colleges to help create programs where a girl that has an unintended pregnancy doesn't have to choose between having the child and getting an education. They and Democrats For Life similarly work with government, private organizations and people of faith to not just protect the unborn legislatively, but to remove the primary things that drive women to believe that abortion is their only real choice: lack of financial and emotional support.

I could go on for days showing you the myriad ways in which pro-life groups and individuals step up to the plate without fanfare and self-congratulatory back patting from the white pastor of my church back in Nashville that after having 4 biological kids decided to adopt two African-American kids who were brothers to keep them from either being aborted or be consigned to a life with a drug-addicted mom or bounced in foster care to the families that adopt children from war torn areas of Africa or the unwanted girls in China. And their stories in turn affect hundreds of others who went to our church. There were dozens of families in my church that had kids of other races or a blend of biological and adopted kids. Many even adopted older children that were well into elementary school age.

One of my best friend's sister got pregnant as a teenager. Mercy Ministries in Nashville took her in for almost a year, helping her through pre-natal care and transitioning to becoming a mother, giving her life-skills and job placement and transportation and a place to live while doing it free of charge. Had she chosen to place the child up for adoption, they would have assisted her with all of the same plus the legal services needed to do it right and find a loving home for her child, also free of charge.

Bottom line: you don't know what you're talking about. You're blathering weak and tired rhetoric to excuse the inexcusable. In the future, it would be helpful when discussing others and their attitudes that you actually understood the people you wish to profile with one or two pithy statements.

You mean the same Catholic church that doesn't allow birth control.Or the Christain organizations who forced Pres Bush to do away with funding for a program in Africa to help ditribute condoms to combat the spread of AIDS.

[TitanTiger 20,511]

The anti abortion people always get me about the rights of the unborn in the mothers tummy.After it is born they don't give a rat's ass about it.

Complete and utter bull****. The vast majority of the crisis pregnancy centers that attempt to help women either have their baby and be able to support themselves or make it easier for them to get pre-natal care and put the child up for adoption are run by "anti-abortion" people. The largest segment of people adopting said children comes from church-going people who oppose abortion. The Catholic church alone dwarfs almost all others in this regard.

Groups like Feminists For Life work with colleges to help create programs where a girl that has an unintended pregnancy doesn't have to choose between having the child and getting an education. They and Democrats For Life similarly work with government, private organizations and people of faith to not just protect the unborn legislatively, but to remove the primary things that drive women to believe that abortion is their only real choice: lack of financial and emotional support.

I could go on for days showing you the myriad ways in which pro-life groups and individuals step up to the plate without fanfare and self-congratulatory back patting from the white pastor of my church back in Nashville that after having 4 biological kids decided to adopt two African-American kids who were brothers to keep them from either being aborted or be consigned to a life with a drug-addicted mom or bounced in foster care to the families that adopt children from war torn areas of Africa or the unwanted girls in China. And their stories in turn affect hundreds of others who went to our church. There were dozens of families in my church that had kids of other races or a blend of biological and adopted kids. Many even adopted older children that were well into elementary school age.

One of my best friend's sister got pregnant as a teenager. Mercy Ministries in Nashville took her in for almost a year, helping her through pre-natal care and transitioning to becoming a mother, giving her life-skills and job placement and transportation and a place to live while doing it free of charge. Had she chosen to place the child up for adoption, they would have assisted her with all of the same plus the legal services needed to do it right and find a loving home for her child, also free of charge.

Bottom line: you don't know what you're talking about. You're blathering weak and tired rhetoric to excuse the inexcusable. In the future, it would be helpful when discussing others and their attitudes that you actually understood the people you wish to profile with one or two pithy statements.

You mean the same Catholic church that doesn't allow birth control.Or the Christain organizations who forced Pres Bush to do away with funding for a program in Africa to help ditribute condoms to combat the spread of AIDS.

You would have been more honest to just say, "I was wrong and I have no real rebuttal." You skip right over the fact that your idiotic blanket statement doesn't stand up to scrutiny and launch into non-sequiturs.

Call me when you reach adulthood and can engage in big boy discussions.

[RunInRed 16,487]

What a joke of a post. Disappointed in you. Did TigerMike steal your login credentials or are you just trying to fan the flames of the few minority voices on the board?

Is it really earth shatering news to you or any one else that Obama's positions do not propogate these conservative principles? And further, why would it make him or any other candidate who does not pass this litmus test any less supportive of the American dream?

[BamaGrad03 0]

Is it really earth shatering news to you or any one else that Obama's positions do not propogate these conservative principles?

So jabbing a pair of scissors into a LIVING BEINGs (a being that would be viable if born that very instant) head is a conservative principle? Funny, seems like a humanitarian principle to me.

Barak Obama: A candidate with a message of hope...as long as you're old enough to defend yourself.

[WREGL3 0]

what i find funny is that this is seriously being discussed as a political issue. This is a moral decision and if a candidates view on this is why or why not you would vote for them ....well, that is pathetic.

[TitanTiger 20,511]

What a joke of a post. Disappointed in you. Did TigerMike steal your login credentials or are you just trying to fan the flames of the few minority voices on the board?

Is it really earth shatering news to you or any one else that Obama's positions do not propogate these conservative principles? And further, why would it make him or any other candidate who does not pass this litmus test any less supportive of the American dream?

No, but it does run counter to his espoused belief in civil rights and caring for the disadvantaged and those who don't have a voice. And such things should be pointed out if one is being fair. It's not like I don't have a lot of good things to say about Obama, but on this issue he deserves to have his feet held to the fire.

[TitanTiger 20,511]

what i find funny is that this is seriously being discussed as a political issue. This is a moral decision and if a candidates view on this is why or why not you would vote for them ....well, that is pathetic.

First of all, lots of political issues are moral issues. Obama has framed a lot of issues relating to how we as a society take care of the poor as a moral issue. This one is no less so.

Yeah, whether or not you think a child should be violently suctioned limb from limb or a late term baby delivered all except for the head so you can not call it a birth on a technicality, then ram scissors into its skull, suck out the brains and collapse the head to deliver it the rest of the way...yeah, it's pathetic to not vote for someone based on that. Or to provide that if in the midst of one of these abortion procedures the child miraculously survives and could live outside the womb that we actually attempt to help it do so. What was I thinking?

Get real.

[BamaGrad03 0]

what i find funny is that this is seriously being discussed as a political issue. This is a moral decision and if a candidates view on this is why or why not you would vote for them ....well, that is pathetic.

First of all, lots of political issues are moral issues. Obama has framed a lot of issues relating to how we as a society take care of the poor as a moral issue. This one is no less so.

Yeah, whether or not you think a child should be violently suctioned limb from limb or a late term baby delivered all except for the head so you can not call it a birth on a technicality, then ram scissors into its skull, suck out the brains and collapse the head to deliver it the rest of the way...yeah, it's pathetic to not vote for someone based on that. Or to provide that if in the midst of one of these abortion procedures the child miraculously survives and could live outside the womb that we actually attempt to help it do so. What was I thinking?

Get real.

Served.

[bojack34 2]

what i find funny is that this is seriously being discussed as a political issue. This is a moral decision and if a candidates view on this is why or why not you would vote for them ....well, that is pathetic.

First of all, lots of political issues are moral issues. Obama has framed a lot of issues relating to how we as a society take care of the poor as a moral issue. This one is no less so.

Yeah, whether or not you think a child should be violently suctioned limb from limb or a late term baby delivered all except for the head so you can not call it a birth on a technicality, then ram scissors into its skull, suck out the brains and collapse the head to deliver it the rest of the way...yeah, it's pathetic to not vote for someone based on that. Or to provide that if in the midst of one of these abortion procedures the child miraculously survives and could live outside the womb that we actually attempt to help it do so. What was I thinking?

Get real.

AMEN!!

[WREGL3 0]

what i find funny is that this is seriously being discussed as a political issue. This is a moral decision and if a candidates view on this is why or why not you would vote for them ....well, that is pathetic.

First of all, lots of political issues are moral issues. Obama has framed a lot of issues relating to how we as a society take care of the poor as a moral issue. This one is no less so.

Yeah, whether or not you think a child should be violently suctioned limb from limb or a late term baby delivered all except for the head so you can not call it a birth on a technicality, then ram scissors into its skull, suck out the brains and collapse the head to deliver it the rest of the way...yeah, it's pathetic to not vote for someone based on that. Or to provide that if in the midst of one of these abortion procedures the child miraculously survives and could live outside the womb that we actually attempt to help it do so. What was I thinking?

Get real.

Let me guess..Republican? So you voted for W because he is anti abortion. Let me say this. Where in my post did I say that I was pro abortion. Because your post definitely makes it seem as though i am. I am definitely not pro abortion. Let me ask this. Is George W Bush anti abortion? Save time ...Yes he is. Can you still get an abortion in this country? Let me see....yes you can ...legally too. I understand kind of what you were trying to do with all your shock and awe speech about abortion I just think there is more to it. I understand that you and I want a candidate with good morals. Show me one. Do i think the democrats are pro choice? they say they are. Do i believe the repubs are pro life? they say they are. Prove to me that they think that way. Here is what I believe. I think that they are all a little of both. And they have to be. Let me ask you this. If a woman is violently raped and she finds out she is two weeks pregnant...she should....have the rapists baby.....xxxxxxxxxxx ....try again. It should be her choice to abort that egg if that is her choice. Where does your candidate stand on immigration (illegal)? Nevermind you probably could care less your too busy trying to scare everyone about ramming scissors into a childs brain. Of course everyone is for that....stupid. And by the way that was sarcasm just so you know that I am not for that. What else?

War Eagle and have a great night.

[BamaGrad03 0]

Nevermind you probably could care less your too busy trying to scare everyone about ramming scissors into a childs brain. Of course everyone is for that

Obama voted FOR it.

[RunInRed 16,487]

Bunch of old white men shouting about abortion.

[WREGL3 0]

Nevermind you probably could care less your too busy trying to scare everyone about ramming scissors into a childs brain. Of course everyone is for that

Obama voted FOR it.

What exactly did he vote for ....the scissors? I hate the man i am just trying to understand where you are coming from. Did he say scissors? I must have missed that my entire post was about some damn scissors comment. He has no morals...hell he is a terrorist. We shouldn't even consider him in this discussion. Would you expect him to vote with morals. I understand that we want leaders with morals and that point was made earlier by someone who is not you. I also think that there are other issues we need to worry about more than if someone calls themselves pro life or pro choice. I understand that it helps decide who has the morals we want them to have I just think they all lie about things like that to a degree. Now if obama did vote for something that said ramming and scissors and childs brain in the same sentence then we shoud go back to public hanging and start with him.

have a great night.

War Eagle.

By the way who is your ideal candidate?

[TitanTiger 20,511]

Let me guess..Republican?

Sort of. Fiscally populist/moderate and socially conservative mostly. I tend to vote Republican because they have been the only ones that even give life issues a hearing.

So you voted for W because he is anti abortion.

It was more complicated than that.

Let me say this. Where in my post did I say that I was pro abortion.

You didn't. And I didn't say you did. You said it was pathetic to bring this "moral" issue up in deciding on how to vote. I took issue with that.

Because your post definitely makes it seem as though i am. I am definitely not pro abortion. Let me ask this. Is George W Bush anti abortion? Save time ...Yes he is. Can you still get an abortion in this country? Let me see....yes you can ...legally too. I understand kind of what you were trying to do with all your shock and awe speech about abortion I just think there is more to it. I understand that you and I want a candidate with good morals. Show me one. Do i think the democrats are pro choice? they say they are. Do i believe the repubs are pro life? they say they are. Prove to me that they think that way. Here is what I believe. I think that they are all a little of both. And they have to be. Let me ask you this. If a woman is violently raped and she finds out she is two weeks pregnant...she should....have the rapists baby.....xxxxxxxxxxx ....try again. It should be her choice to abort that egg if that is her choice. Where does your candidate stand on immigration (illegal)? Nevermind you probably could care less your too busy trying to scare everyone about ramming scissors into a childs brain. Of course everyone is for that....stupid. And by the way that was sarcasm just so you know that I am not for that. What else?

War Eagle and have a great night.

You really need to read more posts before barging in here trying to explain this to me. Ask our longest standing Democrat posters here, Tiger Al and TexasTiger if they've seen quite a few changes in my views over the last 3-4 years. I'm plenty able to balance many issues of moral significance. I've criticized Christians for being too wedded to one political party and for the lip service many Republicans give to life issues. Hell, one of the reasons I voted for Harold Ford, Jr. in the Tennessee Senate race two years ago was that I wasn't convinced the GOP guy was truly committed to pro-life issues and even though Ford wasn't for getting Roe reversed, he was in opposed to partial birth abortion (that's the "scare tactic" where they shove scissors in the baby's head and I'm sad to say it's not fiction and that Obama opposed the ban), was in favor of parental notification laws and had concrete plans for attacking the root causes of most abortions in this country that didn't just entail giving every teenager a condom or an Rx for oral contraception.

Finally, I'm a practical man. I don't think for a second that it's the baby's fault that a woman gets raped and thus they shouldn't have to pay the ultimate price for that man's sin. But given that less than 3-4% of all abortions happen in this country because of rape, incest and the life of the mother combined, I would accept that to eliminate the 96-97% of abortions that are performed for non-emergency reasons.

[WREGL3 0]

Let me guess..Republican?

Sort of. Fiscally populist/moderate and socially conservative mostly. I tend to vote Republican because they have been the only ones that even give life issues a hearing.

So you voted for W because he is anti abortion.

It was more complicated than that.

Let me say this. Where in my post did I say that I was pro abortion.

You didn't. And I didn't say you did. You said it was pathetic to bring this "moral" issue up in deciding on how to vote. I took issue with that.

Because your post definitely makes it seem as though i am. I am definitely not pro abortion. Let me ask this. Is George W Bush anti abortion? Save time ...Yes he is. Can you still get an abortion in this country? Let me see....yes you can ...legally too. I understand kind of what you were trying to do with all your shock and awe speech about abortion I just think there is more to it. I understand that you and I want a candidate with good morals. Show me one. Do i think the democrats are pro choice? they say they are. Do i believe the repubs are pro life? they say they are. Prove to me that they think that way. Here is what I believe. I think that they are all a little of both. And they have to be. Let me ask you this. If a woman is violently raped and she finds out she is two weeks pregnant...she should....have the rapists baby.....xxxxxxxxxxx ....try again. It should be her choice to abort that egg if that is her choice. Where does your candidate stand on immigration (illegal)? Nevermind you probably could care less your too busy trying to scare everyone about ramming scissors into a childs brain. Of course everyone is for that....stupid. And by the way that was sarcasm just so you know that I am not for that. What else?

War Eagle and have a great night.

You really need to read more posts before barging in here trying to explain this to me. Ask our longest standing Democrat posters here, Tiger Al and TexasTiger if they've seen quite a few changes in my views over the last 3-4 years. I'm plenty able to balance many issues of moral significance. I've criticized Christians for being too wedded to one political party and for the lip service many Republicans give to life issues. Hell, one of the reasons I voted for Harold Ford, Jr. in the Tennessee Senate race two years ago was that I wasn't convinced the GOP guy was truly committed to pro-life issues and even though Ford wasn't for getting Roe reversed, he was in opposed to partial birth abortion (that's the "scare tactic" where they shove scissors in the baby's head and I'm sad to say it's not fiction and that Obama opposed the ban), was in favor of parental notification laws and had concrete plans for attacking the root causes of most abortions in this country that didn't just entail giving every teenager a condom or an Rx for oral contraception.

Finally, I'm a practical man. I don't think for a second that it's the baby's fault that a woman gets raped and thus they shouldn't have to pay the ultimate price for that man's sin. But given that less than 3-4% of all abortions happen in this country because of rape, incest and the life of the mother combined, I would accept that to eliminate the 96-97% of abortions that are performed for non-emergency reasons.

I appreciate your post and passion. I guess the one thing i still disagree with is that I am willing to let the 3-4% have the abortion for emergency reasons.

Have a great night and War Eagle.

[TitanTiger 20,511]

Actually, I am also in favor of the 3-4% for so-called emergency reasons...if it meant ridding us of the moral blight that is abortion for birth control reasons. My actual position is only when the life of the mother is at stake.

[DKW 86 7,441]

what i find funny is that this is seriously being discussed as a political issue. This is a moral decision and if a candidates view on this is why or why not you would vote for them ....well, that is pathetic.

Wow, we just completely severed morals and politics. Well then, we can let ourselves off the hook for slavery, for the Holocaust, for segregation, for racism, for literally whatever we find objectionable in the life of others. Afterall, if we need moral imperatives to take political action, it just shouldnt be taken...

Let me guess, your last name is Neitzsche right?

[WREGL3 0]

what i find funny is that this is seriously being discussed as a political issue. This is a moral decision and if a candidates view on this is why or why not you would vote for them ....well, that is pathetic.

Wow, we just completely severed morals and politics. Well then, we can let ourselves off the hook for slavery, for the Holocaust, for segregation, for racism, for literally whatever we find objectionable in the life of others. Afterall, if we need moral imperatives to take political action, it just shouldnt be taken...

Let me guess, your last name is Neitzsche right?

not my last...my middle