Life is letter writer’s one issue and she is proud of it
Julia Backaus
Neillsville
Editor:
“No,” with a wink and a smile was my reply to this recent remark. The cheeky question didn’t surprise me; it’s not the first time I’ve heard it. It did however inspire me to set the record straight.
While it’s true many educators vote Democrat for various personal and professional reasons, there are a few of us that don’t. While I can’t tell you why others vote the way they do, I can tell you why I will not vote for the Democratic platform, despite not always agreeing with the conduct and rhetoric of the current commander-in chief.
I vote for a platform not based on one person, but based on one issue and one issue alone, pro-life. While many criticize “single-issue politics” as being narrow minded, I find staying focused keeps me congruent in all areas of life and actually trickles down to impact the issues of lesser importance that others stake their vote upon.
Yes, I am pro-education. Yes, I am prosocial programs that help end poverty. Yes, I am pro many things that both political parties proclaim to endorse. In fact, I am even pro-choice; pro choosing self-control (morality) over promiscuity (selfishness) to avoid an unwanted pregnancy in the first place. (Don’t be fooled America, the majority of abortions are not due to rape, life-threating conditions for the mother, etc.; many, if not most, are a perverse form of birth control.) Let’s fix our sexually immoral society through renewed moral convictions, not murder.
But, if we lay all of these platforms and social agendas aside, can’t we all mostly agree that we by nature are trying to preserve our own life in some form or fashion? Let’s simply talk about COVID-19 for just a moment. Our country is currently in a state of hypervigilance trying to protect its people from contracting and transmitting COVID-19. Why? To preserve life. As of Oct. 10, 2020, the current U.S. COVID-19 death toll was at 214,184. Guttmacher Institute reports 862,320 abortion deaths in the U.S. in 2017, more than four times the current COVID-19 deaths. A more accurate comparison might be to do a weekly average; 5,354.6 U.S. COVID-19 deaths vs. 16,583 U.S. abortion deaths, more than three times the current rate.
Based solely on numbers, which should be the greater social concern? I wonder if the general public would think differently about the abortion atrocity if CBS played melancholy classical music with weekly abortion death statistics the same way they do for COVID-19 every Sunday?
As a high school counselor, I have met with, talked with and even cried with students whose home and family lives are far from ideal. But never, in all my conversations, have I thought it would have been better for this student to have been aborted. You see, my belief is to value every child who walks through my door as uniquely designed by their Creator with an individual purpose and destiny. This fundamental viewpoint (shaped by my pro-life convictions) gives me the desire to instill in each one of them hope for a better tomorrow and belief that they are worthy of unconditional love.
We all head to the polls with our own set of priorities and persuasions. I pray our nation remembers its founding fathers’ words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Let us never forget the first right listed; life.
