Planned Parenthood: Exploiting Mother's Day

I received a news item from LifeNews.

It did not surprise me.

Allegedly, Planned Parenthood, the billion-dollar abortion provider, is trying to use Mother's Day to raise money.

Even though a big part of its business is helping to prevent women from becoming mothers.

According to LifeNews, Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, sent out a fund-raising request. In it she shared part of an editorial her daughter wrote saying she got her pro-choice views from her mother and grandmother, former Texas Gov. Ann Richards.

"It's true that I have had lots of rewarding moments in my career. So did my mother," Cecile wrote in the email LifeNews.com cites. "But knowing that my daughter is carrying on the legacy of fighting that my mother passed to me trumps 'em all."

Richards then reportedly went on to write: "This Mother's Day, I'm honoring that legacy with a Planned Parenthood Federation of America Mother's Day gift. Join me."

Richards allegedly said passing on her pro-choice beliefs to her daughter Hannah and her younger children Lily and Daniel is "the best gift any mother can give her children."

"My mom did that for me and my siblings. And I've worked to do that for [my children]," she wrote.

In the email, Richards also allegedly admitted that promoting abortion was more important to her mother than even promoting equal rights for African-Americans.

"In all of my mother's activism — from the civil rights movement to the ERA — nothing meant more to her," she said.

Abortion over civil rights and women's rights? Wow.

I guess that's how you become a billion-dollar business.

A Margaret Sanger Clerihew

Margret Sanger
Eugenicist haranguer
Thought with certain groups it would be good
To strongly “encourage” Planned Barrenhood.

Robert Frost clerihew

In those woods Robert Frost
really was lost.
But always looking for ways to make a dime,
he stopped to scribble a rhyme.

Obama: An abortion extremist

Highly respected columnist and First Amendment expert Nat Hentoff noted in an April 24 piece (“Infanticide candidate for president”) that he “was once highly motivated to vote for Barack Obama for president.”

He finds much to like about Obama, he says, but he has nevertheless changed his mind after discovering Obama's views on abortion.

“But on abortion, Obama is an extremist,” Hentoff writes. “He has opposed the Supreme Court decision that finally upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act against that form of infanticide. Most startlingly, for a professed humanist, Obama — in the Illinois Senate — also voted against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act. …

He goes on to cite a report that Obama "voted to kill a bill that would have required an abortionist to notify at least one parent before performing an abortion on a minor girl from another state."

Hentoff quotes Obama’s recent campaign statement that if one of his young daughters ever became pregnant ... “I don't want them punished with a baby.”

Hentoff comments: “Among my children and grandchildren are two daughters and three granddaughters; and when I hear anyone, including a presidential candidate, equate having a baby as punishment, I realize with particular force the impact that the millions of legal abortions in this country have had on respect for human life.“

Check out the full column at http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/hentoff042408.php3

Sorry, I won't be there

I've just received an invitation to my high school's "First Annual Alumni Recognition Dinner."

It's an evening for "reconnecting with old friends" and so on.

I won't be going.

It's not because of the cost - $60 per person, $115 per couple - though that certainly makes it less inviting.

To be honest, I've stayed connected with anyone I really wanted to be connected with over the years.

You see, high school was not a happy four years for me.

Get out your violins ...

I was that shy, non-athletic, religious good student afflicted with a bad case of acne who liked literature and, shudder, wrote plays, short stories, and poetry.

Yep, the guy who got called all those names and was the butt of countless jokes.

Geek. Fag. Egghead. Crater face. Arnold Zitful. (Some of my classmates were creative!)

But I was also the guy whose class notes so many people seemed to want.

Oh, not everyone did that sort of stuff. Most did nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

So I won't be going.

The only reason I can see going would be that after seeing my lovely wife a few of my former classmates might be forced to reevaluate their views of me.

But I can enjoy her company at home.

Maybe share a new poem or a song with her.

And we can use that $115 to go out to some place we'd both enjoy and create some new happy memories.

As for folks reading this, I'm not looking for pity. But maybe there are a few other shy types who had similar experiences. Maybe some are going through that sort of thing still.

You are not alone.

There is hope. Hang in there.

Post-Pennsylvania limerick

Keystone State voters have spoken
and left Obama's folks chokin'.
"We've got a big lead,
why won't she concede?"
But Clinton quips, "What are you smokin'?"

Prayer in action

The other day I posted at another site about a prayer initiative calling for prayers for the Rochester community.

Someone responded that what Rochester needs is action, not prayers.

I agreed that the community needs action, but that it also needs prayer. The two belong together.

Looking back at history, that has clearly been the case. People of faith - people of prayer - have seen a need, and responded.

In Rochester, for example, they created programs and agencies to help the homeless, battered women, people in need of health care, seniors, the dying, and more.

Think of such places as the Mercy Center, DePaul, the St. Joseph Neighborhood Center, the Open Door Mission, the Salvation Army, Bethany House, the Mercy Center with the Aging, Andrew's Center, Francis House, the Catholic Family Center, Ss. Peter and Paul Soup Kitchen, and more.

All created by people of prayer.

If you look at the nation's top charities (as listed by Forbes), we see a similar pattern of prominent agencies created by people of prayer: The Red Cross, Catholic Charities, the Salvation Army, the YMCA, Feed the Children, Goodwill USA, Food for the Hungry, and more.

Prayer and action. The two belong together.

Granted, some of these agencies and programs are no longer directly tied to one religion or another, but that does not negate how they began. Prayer and faith being put into direct action.

We are blessed as a nation to have so many people of prayer reaching out to others.