Protect Others

Recently I wrote about my silly experience with Hulu and the need to protect ourselves from new age spiritualities that promise us an easy path to heaven.

Well today I want to talk about the dignity of human life and our need to protect it at all costs.

It is encouraging to see so many activities surrounding the big March for Life in Washington, D. C. on the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade.  As I was looking over the schedule, it occurred to me that it stretches out for days.  This is significant because our concern about every human life should expand beyond just one day.

And beyond abortion as well.

I just finished a book by Samantha Power, a former United States Ambassador to the United Nations (The Education of an Idealist.) It was a pretty hefty book—556 pages—and required a marathon reading session to complete it before it was due back to the library where it surely had a long waiting list.

I mention it because when Power was young, she traveled the world, often going into very dangerous places as a reporter.  With that background and her commitment to providing humanitarian aid and rooting out foreign corruption (which often disguised itself as humanitarian outreach), she raises our sensibility to the very real strife of people around the world.

By recalling personal stories of tragedy that she witnessed or uncovered during her time as ambassador, she was able to work to hold the leaders of corrupt countries accountable for the mass murders and other atrocities they carried out against their own citizens (which still goes on today.)

So in light of the fight against abortion, let us remember to include and pray for all of those who fight daily for life, health and peace in parts of the world where keeping their family alive and their children fed is a constant struggle. It is horrible to take the life of an infant.  It is horrible for families in war-torn countries to live under oppression as well.

One big takeaway from Power’s book is the reality that, while we may not be able to fix everything, we must do what we can.  Power’s said “I heard one question more than any other during my time as UN ambassador: ‘But what can one person do?’”

Her response was to quote from a *book she favored:

Big problems “are most often solved by a sequence of small solutions, sometimes over weeks, sometimes over decades.”

One thing she feared was “individuals experiencing a kind of doom loop in which, because they could not single-handedly fix these large problems, they would end up opting to do nothing.”  She, too, had to fight this when looking at the state of the world.

So now, on the 47^th anniversary of Roe vs Wade, I salute all of the tireless warriors who have kept up the fight against abortion, as well as those who continue to stand up against corrupt and oppressive governments.

In the face of such human tragedy, they have never given up, and together their individual voices continue to work toward the protection of our most vulnerable, making a difference in this world.

Janet Cassidy
janetcassidy.blogspot.com
janetcassidy.blubrry.net

* Switch:  How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath