You can't speak “Truth to Power” without using some sort of personal experience to justify it. The average person might have entirely no respect for that which you have gone through, or witnessed, or in general “believe” but some will. My own personal conservatism stems not from a set of values that I was born with, or indoctrinated into from my parents, but again from a set of injustices incrementally forced upon me by those that seek not to enrich but destroy. It was actually the progressive agenda that repelled me further and further away from what would have once been liberal views, and in the end had no space in my view point.

Looking back I had finished high school like most people, with principals about as far reaching as my own arms, Democrat, mostly liberal, and looking forward to the voting process. I liked Reagan. It was hard not too, because he was a likable person who was on the TV a lot, making the media look silly when they spoke ill of him. He reminded me of my grandfather, only a lot less Archie Bunker, and a lot more Russell Huxtable. It was more first true viewing of “Truth to Power” as I couldn't be persuaded, no matter how hard they tried to agree with the anti-Reagan sentiment that flooded the airwaves, and the print media of the day. Are you going to believe me or your lying eyes?

When they started that whole ordeal of placing stickers on everyone saying “Choice” or “Life” when I was in college, I dutifully put the “Choice” sticker on my chest and walked around with that ear to ear grin, of self importance on my face. After all the enlightened male of the late 80's was never going to get laid if they didn't truly understand the women that they hoped to make their willing accomplices in such endeavors. I was actually for the most part mildly Pro-Choice, since I had fallen under the spell of many years of public education and the “most women are raped sooner or later” mentality that had been beaten into my head. To this day I probably still could be convinced that first trimester abortion is almost ok, but at the time I was “all in” and reality was smacked into me from a friend who happened to be female, and it was my ability to understand HER experience that helped me to potentially get my first conservative view. Her bravery to educate me about what she thought about abortion, to this day sticks in my mind after 20 years.

Now keeping in mind that she wasn't all that subtle, when she walked up to me and peeled the sticker off my chest, got my attention pretty quick. She related to me that her sister had an abortion, and like most women that she had followed up on was never the same after the experience. “She had lost her soul” were the words she had started with, and then explained to me that she “personally” believed that that was the hidden goal of the Pro-Abortion zealots. She didn't sell me on it completely, but she had opened the door to a reasonable and respectable view that I would keep my eye on. Then there was the whole Partial Birth abortion talk in the 90's which took any respectable reasoning out of the debate, and I had to take a stand that “all or nothing” treatment of the issue made me Pro-Life. Later in life, I married a woman that was so Pro-Life {again because of the soul robbing experience of abortion} that she was able to get me to watch the “Silent Scream” and I was a lot more comfortable with the Pro-Life stance I had adopted when there was no viability to accept late term abortions under the “all or nothing” philosophy of the Pro-Choice crowd.

Now that doesn't mean that I am a hate monger, who will never accept abortion in general. I do completely stand on principals, and one of the greatest arguments that her {the ex-wife} and I had had still involves abortion. She had tried to make me promise {during the complicated pregnancy of our third child} that if something were to happen to her and she was incapacitated, that the baby would be first priority. “I will die, before I will let my baby die!” was a favorite expression of hers, and I couldn't just accept that. My stance was simple when I used the actuality versus potentiality argument for what I would do. As Pro-Life as I had become to this day I still believe that a fetus is a “Potential Baby” and the mother is an “Actual Mother” and I was {and always would be} too much of a coward to have to explain to the two children she already had, why she was dead, and worse yet, I would have impeded with her right to “choose” if she couldn't personally choose on her own. I think that putting others in a position of choosing life or death of anyone is unfair, if it goes against their own values, and for that I apologized to her, but at least didn't lie to her.

In the end it was a moot point, as we had a baby girl, who had some issues at birth, but at nine years old now, is perfectly healthy. Our marriage wasn't, and her mental health deteriorated to the point where she has only seen her children about 6 times in the last 5 years. A lot of this {to her own admission during those times she attempts to get help, for her mental problems} are still attributed to that decision she made with the coercion of many others to abort what would have been her second child, potentially. Her horrible depressions each year at the anniversary of the abortion she had had got worse, and longer, and more unexplainable. It encompassed her whole year, and by the time that last child was a year old we were divorced, and her poor decision making skills had forced me to get full custody of the kids, for their own safety. It still makes me sad to think about it all, and despite what most people on the left side of the debate would say, it effected the lives of 2 males and 3 females, meaning myself, my son, my two daughters and my ex-wife. The males of course never have any say in “choose” but they can be effected.

It's part of the great lie, that most women don't even comprehend that Susan B. Anthony herself was extremely Pro-Life. Some of her writings on the matter would be considered hate speech by a large quantity of the left, and I see her point more clearly everyday, as liberal judge after liberal judge declare war on States rights to legislate abortion laws. I'm not even talking about banning it outright, which I actually believe will never happen, but simply the law to inform women about the consequences of abortion. It is far more archaic and evil to keep people of any gender from the information that is vital to an informed decision, and time and time again it is damaging, and perhaps intentional. I look at people like Abby Johnson who was a true believer in Planned Parenthood until she had the “indoctrination event” of watching an abortion ultrasound. She found her way to to religion when they started “promoting” abortion as good for profits, but the ultrasound found her quitting, going to Coalition for Life, and being sued by Planned Parenthood for knowing too much. Nobody will bat an eyelash about the woman getting the abortion's right to “privacy” when used for Pro-Choice approved propaganda.

Call it a line in the sand, call it a belief in something greater than one's own feelings. Call me a hatemonger, archaic, whatever you want. Like most debates, I believe I'm right and others believe I am wrong. I stopped respecting those who fight for abortion, and fight against the death penalty a long time ago, because I don't think they have a good moral compass. I know that somewhere along the lines, I heard a lecture from a doctor at the Catholic Medical center in Boston. I wish I could remember his name, but I will never forget the answer he had to a really stupid question. Say what you want about Catholics, and I can agree with some of the more radically stupid things they have done over the century, but nobody with an ounce of intelligence can denigrate the excellent things they have done for the world of medicine. Under the guise of “He who deals disease shall also deal the medicine” they have sunk large quantities of religiously faithful donations into cures and treatments of disease, discomfort, and so many other medical issues, that I will always respect their opinion on medicine. The stupid question was as follows, “Why doesn't God cure cancer?” and the answer was brilliant, “Since I believe in God's ability to guide us all, I used to believe that someday someone will be born with the knowledge to cure cancer,” after a snarky noise from the questioner he added, “Thanks to abortion I now think those prospects are fifty fifty,” ;8o)