"He instinctively can find the shining greatness of our American culture and does a good job of highlighting it (although he also does have those rare lapses when he writes about hockey, but that is something caused by impurities in the Eastern waters or something)." Erik Keilholtz
Under the patronage of St. Tammany
Mark C. N. Sullivan is an editor at a Massachusetts university. He is married and the father of three children. Email
I came up with several Democratic members of Congress who oppose abortion and support the war in Iraq. They include:
Rep. Chris John (D-La.), running to succeed John Breaux as US Senator from Louisiana. Zell Miller (D-Ga.) is leaving the Senate, but Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) remains.
A two-part series on pro-life Democrats and their prospects (I * II) done by Mary Meehan for Human Life Review notes the party once had a significant pro-life presence in its congressional ranks.
Quiet as it's kept, the diminishing Democratic majority in Congress for the past quarter of a century equals the rate at which pro-life Democrats have been abandoning the party.
In the 95th Congress (1977-78), Democrats had a 292-seat majority in the House of Representatives, which included 125 pro-life Democrats. Now, as a minority, Democrats are down to 204 seats, with 28 pro-life Democrats.
* * *
A French emigrant Catholic writes at Godspy of war and abortion as two faces of evil. I applaud her conciliatory tone, but find I don't quite agree with the dichotomy she describes.
My sense: Firemen and policemen responding to an emergency are acting selflessly, as are soldiers who defend their country, or fight for the freedom of others. Raising a child is an exercise in selflessness. Carrying and bearing a child is, too. Snuffing out the life of unborn child who is inconvenient is not.
In other words, warfare can be pursued for a good cause. Can the same be said for abortion?
Where the political parties in this country reflect the same side of the coin, in my view, is in the exaltation of personal gratification and gain over and against personal responsibility or the notion of sacrifice for the greater good. A fixation on "freedom of choice," on one hand, and on tax-cuts and the pocketbook, on the other, smacks of selfishness; so, too, for that matter, does sloth in the face of the world's dangers and challenges. (Via TS O'Rama)
* * *
A pro-life Democrat, Congressman Bart Stupak of Michigan, eloquently and succinctly explains his opposition to embryonic stem-cell research:
We are in the midst of a tremendous new debate; in the midst of a tremendous new policy direction; in the midst of a tremendous new revolution. We cannot afford to treat the issue of human embryo experimentation lightly, nor can we treat it without serious debate and deliberation.
We must ask ourselves, what makes up human beings? What is the human spirit? What moves us? What separates us from animals? How about the human soul? Scientists and medical researchers can't find it, can't medically explain it, but writers write about it; songwriters sing out it; we believe in it.
It is because I believe in life and the human soul that I cannot support embryonic research or research that destroys human life.
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