By By Craig Ziemba / special to the star
June 30, 2002
Craig Ziemba is a pilot who lives in Meridian.
This week we celebrate the signing of a document that changed the world by expressing a simple but revolutionary truth about mankind's relationships to each other and to the governments they would establish.
The equality of man and recognition that rights come from God and precede human governments are the foundation of our free, democratic society. Just signing the Declaration of Independence, however, didn't make the ideals of liberty a reality for all Americans, but it became the first step on the journey of modern thought that eventually led to democracy, the abolition of slavery and the recognition of the worth of the individual.
The fact that many Americans didn't enjoy freedom in 1776 in no way meant that liberty wasn't an ideal worth fighting for. Quite the contrary is true. The same could be said today for the one right listed ahead of liberty, the right to life. Since 1973, more than 40 million Americans have been denied the first right listed in the Declaration of Independence, the right to life. All other rights and freedoms are meaningless to one who is deprived of life, and I believe government's highest calling is to secure our God-given right to life.
Abortion has become the greatest moral issue facing our nation since slavery, and not since abolition has our nation been so divided and politicized over a question involving human rights. Political parties, denominations and even families line up against each other in a new cultural civil war over an issue that just won't go away.
The drumbeat of the pro-abortion army is the belief that each woman has a right to choose life or death for her unborn child, while pro-lifers believe that a baby, no matter how small, is a life worth protecting.
For decades, people have clouded the issue of abortion over the argument of when life begins. Modern technology has the answer for anyone with an open mind. Watch a baby move on a sonogram at six weeks, hear a baby's heartbeat on a fetal monitor at 10 weeks, and you will never forget it. That same child may be legally killed in Mississippi and every other state in America.
Stop your ears if you want, close your eyes if you wish, but the fact remains. Talking about abortion makes us all uncomfortable because deep down we know that a horrible crime against defenseless, unborn children is happening right here in our own state. Those of us who are pro-life are ashamed this could happen in America, while the pro-choice crowd wants us to just give it a rest.
The subject of slavery wasn't suitable conversation in polite society 140 years ago, either. "If we were alive in the 1800s we would've put an end to slavery." modern Americans sniff self-righteously. Yet, an evil just as great as slavery happens in America every day while our largest political party and many of our largest denominations support killing the unborn as a matter of personal preference.
Thankfully, enough Americans believed in the ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness 150 years ago to continue to fight for the emancipation of the slaves. I hope God will raise up another generation of Americans who will embrace the ideals of life and liberty and help those who cannot help themselves.