Townhall...
Speaking For
the Voiceless
By Kathryn Lopez
Oct 28, 2011
“For
a renewed respect for human life,
from conception to natural death ...”
Seared
in my memory is the sound of
Kobi Cudjoe, gasping for air, as he read that prayer.
He
was one of the petition readers at
the special mass held on Oct. 23 at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in
Washington,
D.C., “Honoring the Gifts of Persons with Special Needs.” From his
wheelchair,
he could only be heard as pleading for all those whose lives may be
undervalued
by a society that sees their disabilities as burdens, and the
differently abled
as more handicap than human. Just weeks before, the same church had
hosted the
more well-known mass for Supreme Court justices, lawyers and other
dignitaries.
That one makes news -- this one, not so much.
It
is easy to dehumanize the sick, the
weak and the disabled. Pulitzer Prize-winning commentator Paul
Greenberg noted
one way to do so a few days later, addressing a crowd in Manhattan:
“Verbicide
must precede homicide,” he said. And so whether it be the Down syndrome
baby or
an unborn child with another adverse prenatal diagnosis, “speak of a
fetus, not
an unborn child,” Greenberg said. “Vocabulary remains the decisive
turning
point.”
The
folks at The Human Life Review
were celebrating an early Thanksgiving. They gathered in gratitude for
the work
of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette columnist Greenberg, naming him a
“defender of
life.”
But
he didn’t always start out that
way.
“When
Roe v. Wade was first pronounced
from on high, I welcomed it,” he said in his remarks.
It
didn’t come up at the dinner, but
Greenberg’s example stood as a corrective to Gov. Rick Perry of Texas,
who had
earlier in the week announced on “The O’Reilly Factor” that a man can’t
be 50
or 60 and change his mind on major issues. We all know what he was
doing there
-- aiming for a primary blow against the shifting views of rival
candidate Mitt
Romney. But he was not making a defensible point.
And
it wasn’t just abortion that
Greenberg had changed his mind on. “Start off opposing abortion and
you’ll
start questioning euthanasia, too.” He recalled, with the great, tender
passion
of a touched conscience, the death of Terri Schiavo, the cognitively
impaired
woman who was denied food and water for 13 “long days.” With Schiavo’s
brother,
Bobby Schindler, who runs the Life and Hope Network, which helps
families
facing the same pressures to end life, in the audience, he said, “It
would have
been kinder to shoot her.”
Most
of us have moved on. Perhaps many
have on abortion, too. “It is settled law,” he said, quoting defenders
of legal
abortion. “Another generation,” though, Greenberg reminded us, “was
told Dred
Scott v. Sandford was settled law.” But, as Greenberg reminded us: “No
good
cause is forever lost.”
Novelist
(and medical doctor) Walker
Percy wrote, in 1981: “To pro-abortionists: According to the opinion
polls, it
looks as if you may get your way.” I’m not sure he would write that
anymore.
Polls are changing. And the language of dehumanization has reached a
pitch of
desperation. The same day Greenberg was being honored for his change of
heart
and subsequent leadership, abortion-advocacy groups were sending out
hyperbolic
emails about a “Let Women Die Act” the House of Representatives had
supposedly
passed. The House passed a bill, all right, but it would simply protect
taxpayer money from being used on abortions as part of the health-care
legislation passed in 2010.
But
Percy might not be surprised at
the continuing turn of events. Back then, he wrote: “Picture the scene.
A
Galileo trial in reverse. The Supreme Court is cross-examining a high
school
biology teacher and admonishing him that of course it is only his
personal
opinion that the fertilized human ovum is an individual human life. He
is
enjoined not to teach his private beliefs at a public school. Like
Galileo he
caves in, submits, but in turning away is heard to murmur, ‘But it’s
still
alive!’”
There
were no predictions from
Greenberg. “Win or lose, what’s important is that we bear witness” to
the
dignity of man. Like Mr. Cudjoe, we should all be speaking for those
who have
no voice.
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