Pro-Life or Die

Awesome Cartoon found on this Awesome Blog!

This piece from the New York Times really highlights the biggest logical problem with the pro-life stance: people will stand behind it to the point of death.


The Catholic Church is severing ties with St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix.

The hospital’s offense? It had terminated a pregnancy to save the life of the mother. The hospital says the 27-year-old woman, a mother of four children, would almost certainly have died otherwise.

Bishop Olmsted initially excommunicated a nun, Sister Margaret McBride, who had been on the hospital’s ethics committee and had approved of the decision. That seems to have been a failed attempt to bully the hospital into submission, but it refused to cave and continues to employ Sister Margaret. Now the bishop, in effect, is excommunicating the entire hospital — all because it saved a woman’s life.

The real consequences of this seem to revolve around the fact that mass can no longer be held in the chapel, which seems a little silly since, like the article points out, Catholic mass is held in generic chapels of non-affiliated hospitals and airports all across the country. I suspect some funding may be in danger too, which would be unfortunate for a hospital that clearly will put everything on the line to save a patient’s life.

I’d love to ask this bishop why this already-living woman’s life means to little to him and God? Isn’t there a good chance that the baby would have also died if the mother died? What life is being saved by letting the mother die in that case?
This sad, backward decision should be shocking not only to skeptics, but also to people claiming the Catholic faith. And good for the nun who chose that woman’s life over her membership to the church - she at least has her priorities straight.

S.A.M.

The Best Idea That My 17-year-old Self Ever Had

 

Really, I must ask this: What is it about High School that traps and changes people for the rest of their lives?  Why is High School so important to people?

Part of me wants to say that the idea that high school is the “most important four years of your life” is really just a self-fulfilling prophecy.  If enough people around us stress its importance, in many cases we will also eventually assign it value.  Since it has no exceptional inherent value beyond being the middle years (for most) of formal education, maybe we stuff it with whatever value we can easily grab: “I’ll have these friends for the rest of my life!” “This is the last time we can REALLY have fun!” “I’ve defined my whole identity here!”

But, really, do ANY four years of our lives have such a formative impact on us?  Maybe the period of 0-4 years old holds such importance, when we go through some of our most quick and dramatic developments as humans.  I think college would far-overshadow high school as formative since this is usually a period of being on one’s own for the first time, choosing the first solid steps of one’s life path, transitioning into a self-reliant adult human.  It just seems silly to me that people probably couldn’t remember all of their 7^th grade teachers or 5^th grade spats, but people cling to high school like it’s the last life preserver flung from the titanic.

Yes, I have a reason for my rant!  I was apparently the one who missed the memo that high school was a turning point in my life.  Since I was a little girl, I dreamed of jobs and college.  College, I thought, must be incredible!  You get to pick your classes in things you’re interested in, and your classmates usually share your interests!  You’re free to come and go as you please, because, of course, you’re living free of your parents.  No one will “make” you go to church, or “make” you do anything, really!  High School just seemed like a glorified 8^th grade in a new building – four more years of waiting for that magical school called “college.”  During my senior year of high school, I had already found my way into college and pulled double-duty with night classes – I had a semester of college classes finished when I got my high school diploma.  Maybe that is why, when I walked out of high school in my cap and gown, I decided there was no reason to look back.  I was only really close to one high school friend, and since we went to the same college, we kept in contact for a few years before drifting off into our own endeavors.  I simply had no interest in anyone else, I think.  When I was a junior in college, I was offered a career at the company I’m still working for now.  By the time I graduated from college, I had a new set of “work” friends, and my priorities were already reset for a corporate ladder climb and adult-style life.  I didn’t even show up for the whole cap-and-gown ordeal that time.  College was fun, I learned a ton, and it’s where I met Dixie, so I loved those aspects of it.  I keep those things with me.  But when my 10-year High School Reunion came around a few years back, I politely declined, out of lack of interest.

But, now, we are in the wonderful world of the internet, and I received a friend request on Facebook fro m a girl from High School.  To say we didn’t get along with each other may be an understatement – we were just polar opposites that clashed often because we happened to be stuck with a number of mutual friends.  I decided to accept, since she seemed to just want to be friendly, and I held no ill will.  I made it a conscious decision on graduation day to leave all of my bad feelings and bad words I might have had for anyone in high school exactly where they belonged – in high school.

It has been interesting seeing what she is up to, and we shared a few comments.  Then, this morning, I noticed a status from her about a famous guy I’ve always liked.  I began to read the comments that followed between her and some other people we went to high school with.  They were all about me.  My high school locker, my high school crushes, all in a mean and cliquey light.

You have GOT to be kidding me.  More than a decade later, they were STILL discussing these things?  And now, they’re doing it while I’m in the virtual room.  I thought about defriending her right off the bat, but there was something that seemed just as high-schoolish about that, and I really don’t feel like getting dragged into the drama I left behind so long ago.

I clicked “like” instead.  The “like” was personal - for the decision I made on graduation day to let go of it all, which may have been the best idea my 17-year-old self ever had.

S.A.M.

“Dear School, Why Don’t You Teach? Love, Sam”

 

Handwritten letters from Mickey Mantle to Marilyn Monroe

You may have seen this story about things the next generation will live without. (I know I forwarded it to at least a few people, and received it from two others.)  Dixie and I were talking about it yesterday, and she surprised me with this fact.

“Do you know it’s true - they don’t teach cursive writing anymore? It’s not even a part of my kids’ school curriculum!”

At first it didn’t process that this was any big deal.  I pointed out that while she prefers her beautiful feminine loops and curls, the closest I ever get to writing in cursive anymore is failing to pick up my pen between hurried printed letters.

“But, you DO sign your name! How are these kids going to even have a legal signature?”

Wow, um, good point!  Maybe they practice signing like their favorite baseball players and musicians?  Then again, if that’s the case, the situation may be worse than I thought.  I haven’t seen a player sign his name legibly since Mickey Mantle.

“And, you know, I inquired more about the curriculum – I can’t believe I’m paying to send them to a private school and THIS is considered a good education now!  They don’t teach kids how to write business letters or any letters at all!  The school said that writing business letters will be outdated by the time these kids graduate.”

Are you kidding me??  I draft formal letters at least a couple times a month, and Dixie, who works with a lot of legal matters, drafts them almost daily.  We’re talking about those letters that start with your return address and contact information in the upper right-hand corner and then the contact info of the addressee below that, and then format your letter in a formal style.  You really mean to tell me that in 10 years there will never be a need for formal style of written communication of any kind?  Maybe the transition explains why one of my local city council members recently sent an extremely crucial communication that started with the awkward and childish, “Dear Mayor, I hope you got my last email.”

Concerned that maybe Jonah and Lily were unintentionally being sent to some bizarre neo-hippie school, I asked a colleague who has kids around the same age about cursive.  He said his school told him the same thing!  He was clearly angry about this, and resorted to teaching his children cursive and the like at home.

Still, this seemed so hard to believe.  I did some research to see how many people were uncomfortable with this shift, and found this article from the Boston Globe:

"It's a very disturbing problem," said Kate Gladstone of Albany, N.Y., who has a website specializing in handwriting improvement. "I see people in their 20s and 30s who cannot read cursive. If you cannot read all types of handwriting, you might find your grandma's diary or something from 100 years ago, and not be able to read it." There are practical concerns as well. Sometimes we don't have a computer, or the professor won't let us bring it to class to take notes. Or sometimes, as happened in New Orleans hospitals during Hurricane Katrina, computers lose power and medical orders and records have to be written out by hand.

Wait – people can’t even READ cursive anymore?  Are you kidding me?

I love technology, but let’s not forget the basics!  After all, we might accidentally leave our Smartphone at home for a day, or lose our purse, or break our laptop… and we shouldn’t be SO tied to these things that we would literally be lost without them.

Sincerely,

Samantha

(wink)

Update On The Search For KafirGirl

I’m surrounded by New, New, New! New year, new office locale, new semester at school with new classes, and even a new haircut. I hope everyone had a wonderful Solstice / Holiday Season / Christmas / Festivus / Everything! I have been MIA thanks to tons or recent chaos in my life (mostly my work and school life), but when I’m surrounded by all of this newness, I’m reminded that a new blog entry is probably a good idea.

I was also gently prodded by a reader a few days ago, which prompted me to check my A-Mail (My Anonymous Atheist E-mail Account), SweetAtheistMistress@yahoo.com. There, I found a message about a new Facebook page dedicated to the search for KafirGirl. When I saw that, I knew it was time to return.

LET’S FIND KAFIRGIRL!

If KG just tired of her blog, or life got in the way, I can completely understand that. However, it seems a number of people share my concerns that she may have been threatened or harmed. If that is the case, that is a threat toward all of us who blog about atheism or criticize religion, and we should do everything we can to show our support for her.

I am making my own Facebook account so that I can support this page. I hope that any readers out there who have Facebook accounts will do the same.

S.A.M.