Just Wait

Before heading to bed last night, I checked my various news feeds one last time. One of the links sent me to a great cartoon. The focus of the barb is this: In many states, a woman must go through a waiting period before she can have an abortion, but the President of the United States unilaterally can go to war at the drop of a hat.

It is a novel way to drive home a sharp point. Via our laws, we require a waiting period before ending the existence of one faceless individual -- and that's predicated on the belief that a fetus is a viable human -- yet there is no mandated waiting period for a president to order the end of existence for hundreds or thousands of faceless individuals. It is particularly odd for conservatives to come to the aid of the one (the unborn), but they are just as willing to throw the many (the born) under the bus.

As I have pointed out before, I believe the reason WHY so many people are ardent "pro-lifers" is that a fetus represents a blank slate. We can project on it any attributes we desire and, in the fetal state, it can't object or disappoint us. So, for many people, the unborn comes to signify the ideal human.

And ideal humans -- not flesh-and-blood ones -- must be protected at all costs.