Baby Farming In Minnesota

Earlier this year a measure was processing in the Minnesota Legislature permitting and regulating baby farming (paying women to have babies). Click here to see one article on this issue. To read the text of the measure (S2965) and (HF3448). An article describing some positions of Minnesota legislators click here. It appears to be a bi-partican sponsored bill.

Obama's gives comprehensive answers but trips over his achilles heal.

While John McCain’s performance at the California Church was a definite disappointment the responses of Barach Obama revealed a comprehensive grasp of the dire predicament in which our country finds itself . In particular he excelled in his answers to the questions about evil and economic diversity while McCain was embarrassingly shallow on these these critical issues.

Obama’s achilles heal is the subject of abortion where his continued acceptance of money and support from the abortion industry lobbyists and PACs is totally contradictory to the positions he so elegantly discussed moments before. In this segment of the interview he seemed to excuse or even regret his denial of rights to babies born alive during an attempted abortion. He offered the excuse that the measure (In Illinois) did not contain a certain amendment.

Fortunate for us the business of the Illinois legislature is a matter of public record. The bill did contain the amendment he described. What is also in the record is his arguments against the bill. Essentially he argued that the lives of such children should not be protected because they would be an embarrassment to the abortionist. While he now says he would support such law an apology would have been more appropriate than the misleading and incorrect excuse he did offer. This glaring inconsistency with the rest of his answers was most disappointing.

Disappointing but not surprising. In his best seller, The Audacity of Hope, he made it clear in his story of his entry to politics that his funding came from the abortion lobby. He revealed this by saying that he could not accept funds from the human rights organization and PAC (lobby) to which I belong. This effectively signaled that he had bought into the conservative view that rights are not inherent to being human but granted by the powerful when and if they choose to do so.

Since the abortion issue is not the only right to life issue on our plate this year the evaluation of the leading candidates’ life values needs more analysis. At the moment it is clear to me that there is no truly pro life candidate being considered. Today (August 28) is the 45th anniversary of the "I have a dream" speech of Rev. Martin Luther King. He understood that the liberal ideal revealed in the founding documents was the dream that we all (or at least us liberals) seek. He quoted the pro life ideal, "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal." Human rights acrue to humans because they are human not because the powerful choose to grant them.

McCain reveals callous perspective of poverty and jingoistic sense of evil

The televised appearance of Democratic and Republican candidates at a California Church has stirred up some strong feelings. The media and the pundits have been having a somewhat predictable and shallow run with the story. My next few blogs will try to present some of my reactions to the candidates and maybe the media.

First I'll tackle McCain. The media seems to feel he "won" the evening and I admit he was in a good mood and managed to avoid his now almost traditional gaff or confusion in his presentation. Assuming, then, that his foot was safely on the floor I will take his answers as his best shot at answering the questions.

Clearly the interviewer and the audience were predisposed to view him as their candidate and he likewise appeared to assume he was in that position. Unfortunately this led the interviewer and the audience to accept almost unchallenged several flippant and simplistic answers. Two of them I find very troubling as they are topics we desperately need our leaders to be well informed about.

The first shocker was his answers to the questions about "evil". He answered yes to the first (does evil exist?), skipped the next (how does he define evil?), chose one of a multiple choice question (ignore, negotiate, destroy?) by saying he would kill it and he promised to get Ben Laden if he was President. The apparently exhausted his sense of evil. Since Obama pledged the same some time ago this leaves us with no differentiating input from McCain on the subject of evil. It seems to me critical that our leaders have a good sense of what is evil and what is good in our public life so that our rights are protected, our positive participation is encouraged, and the common good is achieved.

The second area was the questions addressing economic disparity among Americans. He gave a quick answer to the question about the the annual income that marked the line between middle class and the rich. He placed the line at several million! Apparently he sensed his foot in mid air and made a quick claim that he was just joking. Unfortunately that about where he left it as his only answer talking around or ignoring all the rest of the questions on the topic. Given the economic mess and multi generational debt created by the current administration it seems we need a leader with some sense of what most Americans face in this area.

Given his reputed idealism on many topics these two responses significantly deflate the reputation. The combination of his middle class "joke" and the news of his many homes served to accentuate this deflation over the following week.

Family Traditions

Twenty eight years ago my parents began a family tradition of a biannual family renion. While both of my parents have gone to their eternal home the tradition continues. This week over sixty descendants of Jack and Clarissa with their spouses have gathered for this wonderful celebration of family and God's love.

We number the generations from Jack and Clarissa. This year the bulk of the dozens of children present are of generation four. They are testimony of God's creative drive in this family. Arrival day was highlighted by news of conceptions, births and adoptions and news of the progress of the generations through life.

An awesome pro family experience occurred on banquest night as each generation-two branch took to the stage and beginning with the oldest introduced the next younger member describing their virtues and talents. Special reports were provided about missing branches and members not present due to distance,age and health.

In the background was also an appreciation of the rapidly departing generation one siblings of Jack and Clarissa. My sister writes a blog about My Uncle Sylvan who died in WWII and her latest posting include the letters of his brothers to their mom grieving his death. To read these moving testimonies of familial love click here.

Generations of Priests

My pastor recently celebrated forty years as a priest. His memories include the departure of most of his seminary classmates from ministry. Looking at the pictures of his ordination reminded me of my own ordination to the Diaconate 24 years later.

Today I saw pictures of the ordination of Dennis Schenkel for the Memphis Tennessee Diocese and read his excellent blog entry about some of his thoughts during the Ordination liturgy. His essay is an a meditation on priesthood and a tribute to the faithful priesthood of a pastor from his own past.

Faithful priesthood certainly is the hallmark of those, like my pastor, whose vocations have been so critical to the faithfulness of the parishes they have served over the years. Thank you Father Schenkel for sharing your ordination. To read his blog article entitled "Touched" please go to the following URL,

http://vitamea.cybercatholics.com/vitamea/2008/06/09/touched/

Undoing Unethical Political Practice

This weekend and this morning I was able to catch the speech of Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. to The Detroit NAACP and to part of that at the National Press Club. I am pleased that he had these opportunities and that some media had the courage to show them whole.

This episode is an example of the worst of modern campaign underhandedness. If you can’t find something in an opponent’s positions on the issues that the electorate will reject or about the candidate himself or herself that is unacceptable then go to the next step. Associate your opponent with someone or some group whose positions or personality would be unacceptable.

In this case a bad guy could not be found. At least the several attempts to associate Obama with Islam or Chicago criminals failed to wash. The tactic then was to begin with an association that the candidate clearly claims, his Christianity. A bad guy was needed, however, and the voluminous writings and widely distributed sermons of his pastor were mined. Apparently the only hope of smearing such a prolific and nationally respected clergyman was to circulate sound bites of his sermons out of context.

This tactic has been used also against McCain, mostly by fellow Republicans. The idea that if someone endorses a candidate that the candidate agrees with all the positions and biases of the endorsee is preposterous. It has been claimed again and again this year. The demands that candidates repudiate and condemn some person or group are widespread and while it may be appropriate in some few cases it appears to be mostly a diversion from the valuable debate and discussion the electorate deserves.

The reputation of Rev Wright has clearly been maligned. All those I have spoken with who are negative on him base their position on the You-Tube sound bites and not his books or his sermons in context. Despite all the calls of Obama supporters that he shut up and go away the Pastor deserves the chance to respond in the same arena where the attack took place.