"You Shall Be a Great Poem"

by: Walt Whitman
This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any one or number of persons, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body... The poet shall not spend time in unneeded work. He shall know that the ground is always ready plowed and manured... He shall go directly to creation. from "Preface" (Leaves of Grass, 1855 edition)

An anger I never knew I had.

There was a comedian on TV the other day. A very attractive woman in her mid-twenties. She was quite the character, talking about a variety of things that genuinely made me laugh. Then she started talking about how she drinks a lot sometimes, which is fine I suppose. But in the next sentence she mentioned how she drinks even more now that she's drinking for two. I was immediately incredulous and repulsed. She then continued to say, "Don't worry, I'm not keeping it." This pissed me off more than anything else she said. She went on to talk about her friends and how they were all at the age where, if someone said they were pregnant, you didn't know whether to congratulate them or ask them if they needed a ride. People in the audience were laughing. I couldn't watch it anymore.

All the folks that know me well know that I don't get angry about too many things. I'm pretty easy going, will take things as they come, and try not to get too heated about anything. If you've only seen me while I'm driving then you may think differently - a whole new side of me comes out when I'm battling traffic. But one subject that gets me genuinely angry is abortion. I've only recently realized this anger, and it's something that I've considered not being angry about in the past but it won't go away. Whenever it's mentioned in the media, among my friends and colleagues and seen elsewhere in the world I am both saddened and angered - saddened that millions of lives have been lost because of this institution and angered that people think its an OK thing, even a good thing.

I first realized this emotion when in a bioethics lecture in a Boston University biology class. One could argue that Boston is a crucible for this controversy in that it's an extremely leftist town yet maintains a high concentration of free-thinking, honest, moral people. The situation is no different in the university setting, a school that has a Planned Parenthood on its campus and boasts a large community of young people with a wide variety of opinions and political agendas. In this class we began talking about the Human Genome Project, one which will sequence the entire human genome and allow for the rapid identification of genes ranging from eye color and height to disease prominence. Most of the class agreed that this technology could be used for a great many good things: if I were scheduled to get brain cancer at age 50 and a scientist could tell me that at age 21 by looking at my genome, I would want to know that so I could take the necessary preventative steps. Diseases could be eliminated early and people could know more about themselves.

There is a down side, however. What if a life insurance company got hold of your genome, sequenced it, and learned that you weren't going to live much longer? They could deny you coverage. But the scariest item that we discussed is the potential use of genome sequencing to artificially fertilize a handful of human egg cells, identify, select and implant the best and brightest, and eliminate the rest. A similar use would be to analyze a child in utero, see its future, and decide whether to keep him/her or not. All of these sound like we're trying to play God, and that's an entirely different subject, but during this lecture whenever it was mentioned to use the technology to eliminate undesirable embryos, a spark ignited in my heart. When asked to in class I voted against the use of this technology, but I also wanted to stand up and say something about the immorality of the practice. A large contingency of my class was for the aforementioned use of the technology, and I couldn't find the words to say out loud. I just got incredibly angry at my classmates who would promote abortion, and that ire has not been extinguished.

Abortion is a topic that spans various walks of life and is a sensitive subject to many, especially young people. "Sexual freedom" is an idea that began when my parents were young and has only intensified since. Why can't I have sex with the person I love when I'm a teenager and I really love them? Why can't I just use condoms, birth control and abortion technologies? I'm free to do whatever I want with my own body, right? The truth is, you are not. Most laws in this country deal with what you can and cannot do with your body - laws against murder, drugs and rape are prime examples. With regards to sexuality, all we have in this day and age to control its use is a moral code by which we are all called to live. We are called to understand what our sexuality is, that it is a gift from God that we are to wield not as a toy for pleasure but instead as a holy scepter designed for consummating the highest of bonds between a male and female and for the inception and bringing forth of children. The way to destroy this attitude that abortion is OK and should be permitted, even promoted, by our government is by learning to properly use our sexuality, by appreciating the value of human life, and by realizing that "a person's a person, no matter how small" (thank you, Dr. Seuss). In the womb we are identified biologically by our DNA - any scientist will say such. Whether or not you believe that God had a hand in picking the one sperm out of millions of distinguishable ones to fertilize the egg and make you that unique person you are, you cannot argue with this fact. You are a human being from conception whether you like it or not - it's how we all began. I implore you to recognize that, appreciate it, and respect it. Choose life. Your parents did.