This is in response, in part, to the infamous abortion article Robert Gressis wrote in 1996 for the university of dayton's "flyer news", but more so in response to the menagerie of follow-up replies to it. To be honest, I have not even yet read any of them (nor am I sure I want to), and it was only by chance that I happened to read Rob's article. However, there is one thing I'd like to say about this vicious cycle - please stop. Abortion is not it. It does not justify the effort it takes to write articles about it. (I realize I just painted myself into the hypocritical corner, but as they say; "when in Rome...") Abortion does not justify the effort it takes to set up and maintain abortion clinics. Abortion does not does not justify killing the doctors at those clinics. Abortion does not justify standing along main street holding up pro-life signs. Abortion does not justify population control.
If you feel strongly about abortion one way or the other, you might eventually ask yourself why I feel this way. It is my stance that abortion is an idiotic thing to discuss because discussing abortion is not going to solve anything- and I believe that almost everyone agrees that there is indeed a problem that does require solving here.
The pro-lifers and pro-choicers continually battle back and forth with neither side ever really getting anywhere at all. This, again, is because abortion is not (and never has been nor will be) the real issue. It is merely a symptom- and as every business student learned in MGT311, treating symptoms will achieve no permanent good; it is the causal problem that must be remedied.
Abortion is the runny nose that we are constantly wiping as we crusade to stamp out choice or life, depending upon which side of the fence you have fallen. Surely, though, even the youngest of the ill realize early on in the affliction that simply wiping the nose will not make the cold go away. So why do we keep blowing our abortion-boogers all over our newspaper-tissues and television kleenexs? What we need to do, in order to solve this abortion question- and in turn become a better society, is to ignore all that and identify, and rectify, the real root of the problem.
Now, I have not spent years of thought on this, but my wild guess as to what the problem is lies somewhere with the fact that abortions are necessary at all. The only way that I see this abortion symptom ever going away is to eliminate the need for them- which means that the people who are getting pregnant and having abortions need to stop getting pregnant. But, as history proves, there is no law or religion that can accomplish that. That is because there is no law or religion that can control the human mind as much as it would like. In a simpler example, there is no law or religion that will fix the gun "problem" in this country. You can ban as many guns as you want, or legalize any guns you want, but there will always be shooting deaths - that is, of course, as long as people decide that there will be shootings.
So, screw the Brady Bill and all forms of gun control, because if a person wants something, legally or illegally, they'll find a way to get it. This is because the human mind is one of the most powerful things in this universe we mistakenly assume is our own. It is the minds of people that need to be correct (and thus, perhaps, corrected) if this society is ever to improve. And I'm not talking about governmental mass-mind control that makes everyone nice, law-abiding citizens. (I'm sure the government is quite pleased with the way everyone is acting right now.) What I'm talking about are thinking, reflective, intelligent citizens who don't need to abide by laws to know and do right from wrong.
So, getting back to abortion, the right thing is not to be blind enough to get pregnant in the first place, and therefore not we won't wastes years debating on when gobs of flesh become living gobs of flesh. All I am asking for is that people begin to critically think about what is going on, and not just choose to be on one or the other of the present sides. If anything is ever going to improve, we have to stop getting bogged down in all the hyped-up, main stream and accepted flaws in our society, and begin to truly critically examine ourselves to get to the real problems, so that we may eventually get on the road to recovering from this widespread illness. Unfortunately, I am not lucky enough to be one of Rob's close friends, but at least I know, from his articles, that there is one person who is on the right track. I laughed out loud with his article, because the way we are treating abortion now is a funny thing. In my own defense, I am not trying to make a mockery of those people who have, are, or will suffer the effects of an abortion.
I am just sick of hearing and talking about this issue, because it is not helping anyone. The only way to help people- ourselves- is to... aww hell, I don't know.
