Finding Purpose

Here's an enjoyable look at life and purpose that actually makes some practical sense.  If you have the luxury of choices along the way, here's what it might look like.

Some hard questions.
Am I doing what in my heart I love?
If not, am I close?  Are adjustments available?
Time for some changes?
Short term and long term, do I see some goals?

Thanks and a hat tip to Kenny Smith for pointing this one out.  He's a farmer/rancher sort of fellow.

Recent History, Bill Moyers

For a little perspective on how we've changed as a culture, this narrative reaches back to the early 20th century in the South when memories of the Civil War still touched the thinking of folks. Marshall, Texas, is home to Wiley College, a centerpiece in the Civil Rights Movement.

Transcript:

Hobart Key: I’ve often thought, you know, that I was lookin’ backwards through rose-colored glasses. But for good luck, when I was little, I kept a sort of a diary for part of it… and I …and I look back at that diary and the writing’s not too good, but it says just what I’m saying now …..

Bill Moyers:… in those days …

The Realization

The day comes for all of us when we realize ... we were wrong and we'd known it all along.  We'd always suspected there was something more, but we hoped it wouldn't be devastatingly bad.

So this precious young lady was making her way through the last weeks before giving birth to her first child.  She chatted with her baby there inside her and sang songs for both their sake.  It was a little scary for her and she worried sometimes about what her baby was going through.  The days passed, and her anticipation soared -- she found herself falling in love with the child she had yet to meet face to face.  When the day came, suddenly she was a mother with a newborn in her arms, and the love that had been stirring in her poured out like a river; she'd had no idea how deeply in love she was with this little person, this tiny center of her universe.  She was forever changed, irretrievably redefined by the life she'd brought into the world.

She bore two more children before ... 

Cecile Richards tells of her own abortion, “It was a decision my husband and I made. It was a personal decision. And we have three children that we adore and that are the center of my life. And we decided that was as big as our family needed to be. That was really the story. It wasn’t anything more dramatic than that." 

Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards was asked, "When does life start? When does a human being become a human being?"

Richards replied, "Every woman has to make her own decision." 

Pressed again to say when she thinks life begins, she said, "I'm a mother of three children. For me, life began when I delivered them. They've probably been the most important thing in my life ever since. But that's my own personal decision, right?"

That's an interesting question. Does my preference determine when my child's life begins?

I don't think CEO Richards was completely truthful. I don't think she watched her belly in the weeks before delivery and thought of anything other than her living babies. As wiggling and heartbeat and hiccups and response to her voice were all obvious, she thought of her babies and called them by name. I suspect she knew the truth but for political reasons, she said otherwise. 

This is a troublesome and confused world.  

Elizabeth the Great

As I walked towards the schoolyard, I heard the crowd yelling.
“Go home! You do not belong here,” one woman yelled. The other
said with a furious face, “Do you want to get lynched? Burned?”

They told us to go home and get out of here, or get lynched. They
saw me and started chasing me. There was no room for me to
escape. I was surrounded. I was hit on the head by several
bottles and even rocks. I was so terrified I can’t talk. My
lips just froze and my eyes set to look straightforward. I was
unable to cry, unable to scream, and I regret my decision to
go to school. Never before I felt fear at this level.

Suddenly out of the blue, a nice old white woman came out
of the crowd. She held my hand and calms me down, whispering.
“Its okay darling, don’t be afraid. Lets try to walk towards the bus
stop right by the soccer field, and I’ll bring you home”

I skipped school for days.
I was traumatized and haunted by nightmares. ...
One day, an agent from the US marshal came to my house.  ...
They took me to school in their black cars, followed by several
 military jeeps with canons on the roof. For once, I felt safe.
 I was sure I’m going to school from that day onwards.

Elizabeth was met by an angry mob on her way to school.  It was 58 years ago today in 1957. Elizabeth Eckford was just 15 years old. 

Our Supreme Court had ruled that segregation was unconstitutional, but it was not a popular decision in southern states.  Elizabeth Eckford and eight other teenagers were the Little Rock Nine. They were to be the first black students to attend Little Rock Central High School after the court ruling.  Vicious opponents gathered at the school to challenge them and their decision.

The plan was for the nine students to enter the school together, but the meeting place was changed the night before and Eckford didn't get word of the change.  She arrived alone and was met by 400 angry white folks shouting threats and insults.  

The governor, Orval Faubus whom some of us remember with chagrin, had deployed the Arkansas National Guard around the school to keep the black students out.

Faced with armed soldiers and threats from the crowd, Eckford ran from the school grounds in tears.   So much for day one.

The city's Mayor, Woodrow Wilson Mann, asked President Eisenhower for federal troops to step in.  Eisenhower sent the Army 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock and took command of the Arkansas National Guard.  With the governor stymied for the moment, the Little Rock Nine started school at the end of September. Soldiers were deployed at the school for the entire year, yet many of the students were abused, including Eckford who at one point was pushed down the stairs.

Governor Faubus continued to fight integration.  The following year, he ordered Little Rock’s four high schools closed rather than allow it to continue. As a result, Eckford did not graduate from Central High but took correspondence courses to complete her requirements. She went on to college and received a BA in history from Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio.

At just fifteen years old, Elizabeth and the others did their part to change things.  They did what was right, it had a price tag, and it wasn't over quickly.  Being the target of hate and malicious intent is devastating, and more so when you're a child and you're aggressively attacked by adults.  With extraordinary courage rarely seen at any age, young Elizabeth did her part for what was right.

On my short list of heroes, Elizabeth Eckford.

Also on the short list, Ruby and her family.

Three years later, Ruby Bridges fought the same battle in New Orleans.  Ruby’s family made the decision to stand up for their rights and enrolled Ruby into the first grade at an all white school. She would be the only black child there.  

Ruby arrived for her first day of school in the escort of four U.S federal marshals and to a threatening crowd of angry parents and teenagers. Ruby remembers thinking the crowd must have been for Mardi Gras. Furious parents took their children out of school claiming that they would not return until Ruby had left. It was a promise they kept. For that academic year, the school taught only five students, Ruby and four white kids.  Ruby was only 6 years old.

Imagine, if you will, the effect of such prejudice on both black and white children.   What might be happening in the mind of one of those little first graders whose parents, spewing their ignorance and bigotry, snatched them out of school.

Apparently, not every battle is for old warriors.

Today, economic inequality and unaddressed system failures are returning America's schools to virtually the same segregation we fought so hard to change.  Should the issue again be a priority?  Is the same courage still required?

Life, Abortion, and Conscience

How does one face the issues objectively?

• 2014: Half of pregnancies among American
women are unintended, and four in 10 of 
these are terminated by abortion.[1]

• The U.S. unintended pregnancy rate is
 significantly higher than the
 rate in many developed
 countries.[2]

• The reasons women give for choosing abortion 
underscore their understanding of the responsibilities
of parenting and family life. Three-fourths cite concern for
or responsibility to other individuals; three-fourths say they
cannot afford a child; three-fourths say that having a baby
would interfere with work, school or the ability to care
for dependents; half say they do not want to be a
single parent or are having problems with their
 husband or partner.[3]

An unplanned pregnancy is not a minor event.  It's a life changer. Choices available can challenge both our conscience and our ability to walk them through.

In the news, we see the industry that removes a developed fetus and disassembles it for the sale of individual organs and tissue samples.

Planned Parenthood explains on their website, "...you may also need a shot through your abdomen to make sure that the fetus's heart stops before the procedure begins."  See more here.

Ultrasound technology now gives us a better view of the unborn child, and the visual impact is significant.

So where can we find an objective position that's consistent with conscience?

In a perfect world perhaps, every unintended pregnancy would be prevented. The world isn't perfect, though, and hundreds of thousands every year have to face the reality.  Is abortion a choice I can make in good conscience?

• What about when birth control failed?
• What about a forced or coerced impregnation?
• What about a problem that threatens the mother's health or life?
• What about an underaged victim?
• What about a life that is totally unprepared for a child?
• What about a single mom who just can't afford another child?
• Is it different if the baby has a significant health problem?
• Is it different if pregnancy is just a few days or weeks along?
• Is there a difference between the first weeks and the last weeks of a pregnancy?

The difficult choice is often faced by women and girls who've perhaps had little opportunity to see life beyond their microcosm, who've been coached by equally uninformed friends, or who only have access to a way out rather than a way forward.

• Medication abortion accounted 36% of abortions

 before nine weeks’ gestation, in 2011.[5]

Far be it from me to judge the conscience or decision of another. Often, I suspect, they're hard-pressed by difficult circumstances with no good options in sight.  That's their reality.  Some have alternatives for real help like CareNet in southern Maryland.

Planned Parenthood, however, is a separate issue.  As a corporate entity, they've taken the position that abortion is the solution.  It accounts for about half of their clinic income, not the 3% they claim. Their business model preferentially provides termination for their pregnant client with virtually no attention to healthy alternatives that exist.  The organization is openly hostile to those who would offer help that didn't include abortion as the preferred end.

Recent news shows PP staff and management as they deal with the business of abortion and disposal of the remains. Publically, they discuss 'fetal tissue', but the reality is troubling if you look further. There is in fact a market for hearts, lungs, brains, various glands and tissue from well developed fetuses,  We call them fetuses because it would be troublesome if we called them children.

A six-week embryo

At what point is that transition identifiable? From fetus to child; ovum and sperm, fertilized ovum, embryo, implantation in the womb, first movement, and later, viability.  At some point, we have a child in the equation.

Amelia was born at 23 weeks

and a few days.  Her twin brother

was born 10 days later.  PPHood 

would routinely abort such a child

and sell her remains.

The result of the political and ideological battle is that our culture now allows the termination of pregnancy as a convenience for any reason.  The argument for choice is largely based on misrepresentation of both the act and the meaning.   It's rather large and divisive.

The questions continue.

Trickle Up

In past centuries, we called it 'divine right'.  Today, it's 'trickle down', the obvious rightness of the rich living at the top of the nation's immense economy and at the expense of a workforce that gets the leftovers.

Equal opportunity suggests that anyone can rise on their own efforts. We have so many stories of folks who began with a good idea and hard work, and made their way to success.  Supposedly, anybody can do it in America, the land of opportunity.  That's not today's reality.

The capitalist process of competition and a free market may actually shed a portion of the population from the bottom of the model.  Those who miss out on education and a safe childhood are the usual victims.  That isn't the path they would have chosen.

Poverty is not a choice.  No one chooses to be poor, to be unable to feed their children or to afford a home in a safe neighborhood.  No one chooses for their children to grow up with crime and drugs and violence on the street where they live.  It's done to them by a series of social structures and mechanisms.

Escape from poverty for you and your family  requires an opportunity context.  There has to be a place, schools, employment, adequate income for living, and a safe community for your kids.  The notable individuals who've made it out of poverty and achieved significant success had help along the way.  Without help, there's little chance of success for anyone.

Here's the challenge for Republicans and Democrats alike.  

The poverty numbers are not the measure of our health.  
The relevant metric is economic inequality.
The GAP between rich and poor has widened in recent decades, and it continues to do so.

All but the top 20% have lost ground, and the bottom 60% has effectively been left behind.

Consider the impact that might have on most of the population.

----------

Trickle Up!  Among the more grotesque examples of what actually happens is the Walton family.

Mom and Dad Walton did well with putting Walmart on the map.  They built the company, enjoyed the success of their efforts, and gave about $5B to charitable work.

The second generation Walton heirs, worth about $148B, have given 0.04% of their income to charity.  When compared to Buffet and Gates (who've given 27% and 36%, respectively, according to Forbes), the Waltons are oddly ... stingy, selfish, what?

The heirs own about 50% of the corporation and will receive about $3.21B in dividends this year, yet their employees are rather poorly treated.  A single mom working at Walmart is likely to be below the national poverty level and eligible for food stamps.

Since Walmart and the Waltons have refused to budge on wages, you and I pick up the tab.  Our taxes subsidize Walmart's operating expenses.  Walmart has been under scrutiny lately for costing taxpayers $6+ billion a year in social assistance because of low wages and the artificially limited hours they give employees.

“A single Walmart Supercenter costs area taxpayers between $904,542 and $1.75 million per year," according to The Americans for Tax Fairness. (That's $3000 to $5,800 on average for each of 300 workers).”  

Most Walmart workers can only dream of making $25,000 in a year. Meanwhile, the Waltons get $25,000 per minute from their Walmart dividends.

That's how trickle-up works.  Corporations and the top level wealthy individuals extract extraordinary wealth from both their employees and their community.  The gap widens, mobility decreases, poverty and crime increase along with social unrest.  It has happened before.

The U.S. economy is one of the most unequal in the developed world.  Do your own inquiry, then perhaps make sure your representatives are aware of your concern.