Friday was the parent-teacher conference at the school and, per laws of physics, the chain of parents ahead of me extended over their alloted face time with the teacher; thus, arriving at the appointed time entailed a wait out in the hall. In anticipation of parental wait times, the teacher hung up essays written by the entire first grade class out in the hall, entitled If I Were President.
With one exception, every child's essay's points were confined to the following:
I would stop the war in Iraq.
I would bring all the soldiers home.
I would give the poor people money.
I would give the poor people food.
I would move into the White House.
Two of the boys added "I would play" as the final point.
My son reports that the entire first grade class except himself voted for Obama in the mock election. Were they under the misimpression that we don't give money and food to the poor people now, and that Obama's the only candidate who would do it? Who guided them to think that the only policies worthy of the President are of pacifism and redistributive socialism?
As I said, there was one single exception to the above manifesto; I'm proud to report that my son singly strayed from the lockstep with this opening sentence of his essay:
I just voted while my two preschoolers were fawned on and given slices of poundcake by the pollworkers. My four year old son gazed all around the place hoping to spot McCain and Obama somewhere in the room, greeting all the voters.
Here in Obama's home state of Illinois, the political winds are blowing in such a way that voting for McCain has about all the effect of voting against Castro. From my small sample of mass going Catholics I've spoken with, I think if McCain wins it'll be by the grace of God that resides in the Protestants. Or maybe that's just the Chicago regional Robocratic hue that stains the Catholics of the Chicago Archdiocese.
In the conversation I had last night with our friend, a practicing Catholic mother of four whose husband is trying to nose into Obama's victory bash in Grant Park without a pass, I brought up the subject of Obama's stance on the Born Alive Infant Protection Act and the promise to sign the Freedom of Choice Act.
1.1 million babies are aborted each year here, and this election is a pivotal moment to change that direction. She replied, "I'm not a one-issue voter," which translates to "I don't give a crap about the 1.1 million babies."
God help us. If He is, I haven't been shown it in my parish.
Update: When I went to pick up my kids at the parish school this afternoon, an announcement came over the PA with the final count in the mock election, which no doubt correlates with how the children's parents will have voted.
The score: McCain 55, Obama 149. A loud cheer erupted throughout the school. Catholic kids in their uniforms scurried and whooped about the parking lot, cheering and giving each other high fives. I seethed. My two fine sons, raised right, voted for McCain. They know enough about abortion to be against it. The oldest felt sensitive about the defeat on the ride home.
The "Catholic" vote in my home parish is an abrogation of moral responsibility, an abuse of citizenship. God save our country!
Al Franken to Catholics: Vote For Me, You Big Fat Idiots
In a tight race for Minnesota's contested seat in the US Senate beginning to slightly shift in favor of Republican incumbent Norm Coleman, it doesn't help Democratic candidate-comedian Al Franken to have his anti-Catholic bigotry erupt back in his face at this time. The Catholic League's press release details some choice morsels of Franken's hate speech, including mocking the Eucharist and the crucifixion of Jesus. To the devout and sensitive, that brand of "comedy" is less amusing than sitting on the Kaiser's spiked helmet by mistake. In a race where every single vote's going to count, Catholics should give Franken the spike in remembrance.
To see the Christian case against voting for Obama, go here. Click the full page spandex thingie in the upper right of the page viewer. It fits on a single printable page, and holds links to supporting evidence on each point made for those who are interested.
The guide comes from CatholicVote.com, but no Christian can afford to draw divisive sectarian lines at a time like this. Heck, I'd say run with it if it were from JehovahsWitnessesVote.com. (Now that, ah say, that's a joke, son!)
Jill Stanek is a controversial figure. Her detractors (and they are legion) on Internet forums and elsewhere say she's a loon, that Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois, fired her as a labor and delivery nurse on grounds of incompetence.
And then there's her side, the one everybody else believes: that Stanek was fired by Christ Hospital because she discovered they were leaving unwanted newborn babies to starve to death in a dark closet with the dirty linens. Stanek went on to testify before the Illinois Senate, where then-State Senator Obama killed the state version of the Born Alive Infant Protection Act.
This video is simply one of the most stirring productions I've ever seen. Watch it and decide for yourself who's the loon, and who's doing God's work. Don't worry. Despite the appearance of the video still, there's no graphic gore or violence. Oh, and please pardon the odd leader and trailer.
Jill's termination by, if you'll excuse my momentary dyslexia, Antichrist Hospital, is a win for the Pro-Life movement and the babies of the world Jill now serves in her greater capacity as a public figure.
Yes, there really is a group called "Prolifers for Obama." Liars. If you like that, here's another one for ya!
Mentioned in the site:
Welcome from Doug Kmiec, a former Reagan administration official with expired prolife credentials. Oh, yes, and a link to buy his Probama book.
BO's plans to expand government social spending. Now that's prolife, tell ya what!
Glaringly omitted:
Obama's pledges to Planned Parenthood to have a pro-Roe litmus test for Supreme Court nominees, and to make the first thing he does as President to sign the Freedom Of Choice Act into law.
I'm reminded about something a lady I knew told me from her early childhood. While playing outside, she and her friend shaped poop into small servings and arranged them on supple leaves. Despite their best efforts to pass them off as cake, however, they couldn't fool a single kid into taking a bite. Even though they were very interested in what was being offered, they could tell right away it was really only a bunch of crap.
Vote The Common Good: the Other "Catholics for Obama"
Out of nowhere last week, I got a visit from a comment poster self-identified as "SisterSharon" from VoteTheCommonGood.com. The comment looked just like this posting on the Blogspot blog she created, and it was peppered on three Obama and abortion related posts here as well as on a few other spots around the Net. SisterSharon's been back to visit this comment thread a couple times.
This video is the centerpiece of the presentation on their web site, and as of now it's got 2,500 views. Compare that to 1.2 million views of RosaryFilms Catholic Vote 2008 I embedded here. The soundtrack is John Lennon's Imagine. The chanters managed to musically moan and sigh through the inconvenient lyrics that go "imagine there's no heaven, no religion too."
"Uhh-hhh! Uhhh-hhhh! Imagine all the people..."
What is The Common Good, and how do we vote for it, you ask? Why, the Common Good is liberal things, of course! Their whole platform is here, and the broadstrokes are to give amnesty to the illegals, get more people in unions, cut and run in Iraq, and end capital punishment. They're also against racism, classism, and sexism. Trade agreements "have to serve the common good," which by definition means we need to sign treaties to trade liberal things.
Fair enough. While I wouldn't agree with these people that there's a religious imperative to vote for liberal things, there's nothing there to stop you from voting for them either. The Church is pro-choice in that regard, with one glaring exception. The Big A, dripping, in brilliant crimson. These guys are totally "Catholic" on abortion, right?
Um, not completely. Their platform statement on abortion, start to finish, reads:
Promote policies that prevent and reduce abortions by supporting women and families. Ensure robust alternatives to abortion, including adoption.
Hasn't it occurred to these people to abolish abortions? You know, "abolish", as in "Abolish capital punishment," which I seem to recall reading just recently. Just under the abortion statement in their very platform, actually.
It wasn't phrased as such either because their hearts really aren't in the Right to Life cause with gusto (being liberals and all), or because such a statement would be incompatible with electing their favorite candidate ever, Obama, and they're not gonna let a little thing like the Freedom of Choice Act stand in the way of electing Obama (being liberals and all) because of all the other Common Good he'll usher in with the tide.
On the tangential issue of health insurance, SisterSharon sent me an article here ("as a point of reference", she says). It's from the National Catholic Reporter (also known as the National Reporter to us orthodoxish Catholics), whose premise is that Obama's health insurance policy is in line with the teaching of the American Bishops. Actually, it compares Obama's and McCain's proposals. Guess which one is described with the words "common good" in the article?
I don't see this as a black/white issue between these two candidates; it's not as if McCain's policy is to "let 'em die and rot," and that we don't have Medicaid already. But let's just say Obama's health insurance is what the bishops want, and McCain's health insurance policy is unacceptable to them.
That still doesn't outweigh the fact that Obama is for keeping abortion legal at every stage and against every restriction on it. 1.1 million dead babies each year, and keeping 'em comin'. Who says the Big A outweighs the other Common Good issues at election time?
The Pope does, that's who! When keeping or ending abortion is at stake, everything else takes the back seat, which is what I've been saying all along.
As the numbers bleakly continue to point to an Obama victory this election, a historical opportunity is repeated as St. Blogustine draws a convincing comparison of Barack with the most sympathetic character in the historic Nuremberg trials HERE. I don't hold high hopes for him to do anything but stay the course he's navigated his entire political career, during which, from a legal standpoint, Obama has proven never to have met the abortion he didn't like.
The Parable of the Talents comes to mind for me, which ends with an ominous warning I frequently have to remind myself to live up to:
For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
How much graver the implications for such a man so rich with God-given talents, holding the nation's highest office, with a moment presented him where he can choose to save or end millions of innocent lives with the stroke of a pen, literally.
This movie is moving in more ways than one. While it places abortion at the forefront of the list of issues to vote for, it also contains a segment showing peace demonstrators, which could serve as a loophole for those Catholics who are throwing their support on the wrong side of this election. ("See! Look, Marge, it's OK to support Obama. He's the guy for peace!")
That little peace sign can stuff a sock into the mouth of the conscience of a Catholic voter inclined to cast a ballot for Obama, the candidate who's hellbent on deregulation and permanentizing abortion. Religious Left voters will see what they want to see (as are we all so inclined), but the producers of this film didn't have to go and place that visual sticking out so conveniently for them to grasp onto like that.
As today's polling numbers bear out, the election's nothing like in the bag for McCain. Catholic voters weigh in at 20% of the national total, a key determing factor in who wins US presidential elections. With so many US Catholics wandering astray from the flock, they're not voting overwhelmingly prolife, and it's going to take more than this little viral video to get them to vote the right way.
Join the prayer effort here (or roll your own). Only God Himself can move hardened hearts.
