Pro-life message is a positive one
The Super Bowl is coming up. Living here, with the Colts poised to win it again behind the elder Manning, how could one not know this? Unfortunately with it comes freedom of speech on the bidding block.
How much is a 30-second Super Bowl advertisement during these difficult economic times — $2M? … $1M? Or are they going for the bargain price of only $750,000? Whatever the cost, it seems that the National Organization for Women (or a coalition of woman’s groups) want to block one “advocacy ad” they don’t agree with.
Tim Tebow, a star college quarterback (Heisman trophy winner) and his mom are going to deliver a pro-life message. All hands on deck, paint those protest signs, e-mail CBS, quick get someone to sponsor an “equal” length announcement standing up for a woman’s right to abort an unwanted pregnancy. I have little idea of the content of Tim’s and his mom Pam’s ad, but I have read it basically states that Pam was advised medically to abort her pregnancy with Tim because of health risks. Pam decided to ignore the dire prognosis and bring Tim into the world. Apparently he is a talented athlete and their point is the world is a better place with him here. How dare they point that out.
Of course, I cannot but help wonder what the opposite point of view might be. Instead of having serial killer Ted Bundy executed, his mom would have done society (and many innocent victims’ families) a great favor by having had an abortion instead. Put Adolf Hitler on that list, too. Why not just rattle off a top 10 list of heinous individuals that never should have been born.
The missing link of course is how would one know? Perhaps the destruction of numerous embryos for stem cell research will yield a DNA test for which the result will accurately predict that a baby will be a menace to society and we can take preemptive action and stop that killer from being born.
Babies in the world are already being aborted because they are the wrong sex — not what the parents want, or the government mandates. Most of these babies deemed to be the “worthless” sex are female — why isn’t this same coalition of woman’s groups screaming at the top of their lungs against this social injustice?
I’ll tell you why. For the same reason they adamantly supported Bill Clinton’s presidency even though he was, and still is, a sexual predator. Because these so called women’s groups believe that abortion is an ultimate right of any woman, every woman. (The NRA’s similar stance against any form of gun control or regulation is often harshly criticized as indefensible and archaic.) They believe abortion rights must be unilaterally defended and even though Bill Clinton is a cad, he and his wife are staunch abortion rights defenders.
The bottom line is the pro-life message is a positive one, choosing life over death, and insisting women take responsibility for the life they have created by giving birth, and giving that life a chance to be someone special. What positive message can abortion rights advocates give in comparison?
— Douglas Elia, Terre Haute
Time for America to face deficit crisis
I would like to address an issue that has had scant attention from your editorial page in the hope that you will become active along with millions of other Americans, and that issue is the enormous deficits that have been incurred in budget years 2009, 2010 and proposed 2011.
It is inconceivable to me and many others that we can charge our future generations with an individual debt of approximately $3,000 per person for each of these above years. This is not a Republican versus Democrat issue. This is an issue of the economic survival of this nation.
I find it inconceivable that there has been almost absolute silence from most editorial pages, yours included. It does not require an individual have a degree in economics to understand that each and every American citizen has liabilities exceeding $300,000 per person that have to be paid via taxes, inflation, growth or combinations of all the above. I contend that the pain of inflation and taxes will curtail growth to such a level as to be unsustainable for repaying this fantastic debt.
Sad to say there are other issues awaiting the populace in Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security unfunded liabilities that our coming to us very soon.
It distresses me to hear our president, in his State of the Union address, make a half-hearted joke that freezing a level of spending that reflects less than one-half of 1 percent of the spending expected by the Congress will be addressed later. I was at least as much disturbed to hear the laughter from the House and Senate members to his comment. It tells me that some are absolutely not serious in containing spending or reducing the debt.
I contend that unless we as a nation get realistic about the spending and debt the outlook is very bleak for this nation. One only has to look at a number of nations to see the Impact of imprudent fiscal policy, think Argentina, Venezuela or Cuba to cite a few.
I believe the average reader understands that individuals cannot spend themselves into prosperity and governments cannot do so any more than they can. Most recently we have seen the problem manifest itself in our schools, libraries and infrastructure at a local level. I encourage readers to start a dialogue regarding this issue as the deadline is fast approaching.
— Raymond E. Broshar, Terre Haute
