#399 School Shooting, Gerber Baby - February 23, 2018
The Origins of School Shooting With heavy hearts, we once again condemn a mass killing, this one in Florida. Once again, we observe that a culture which approves some forms of killing must contend with what a killing mindset does to cause unapproved killing. This point was elaborated eloquently in an article published by the Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity, a libertarian anti-war group, entitled “Merchants of Death: America’s Toxic Cult of Violence Turns Deadly,” by John W. Whitehead (not to be confused with our CLN President), President of The Rutherford Institute. After detailing militarism in US culture, he says:
“So when you talk about the Florida shooting, keep in mind that you’re not dealing with a single shooter scenario. Rather, you’re dealing with a sophisticated, far-reaching war machine that has woven itself into the very fabric of this nation. You want to stop the gun violence? Stop the worship of violence that permeates our culture.”
March for Our Lives: March 24 Plans are forming for a Washington, D.C. march against gun violence on March 24, organized in part by the students who survived the Florida shooting. Local actions around the U.S. are expected on the same day. Plans are in the works for consistent-life contingents. If you’d like to participate in planning or let us know you’ll join, please write us at weekly@consistent-life.org.
More Roe Anniversary Consistency Coverage The Arkansas Catholic has an article about Bishop Anthony B. Taylor in Arkansas. We covered why he said he wouldn’t attend the Arkansas Roe anniversary pro-life rally – because the keynote speaker there, state attorney general Leslie Routledge, had pushed for an execution spree that killed four prisoners. The article reports on the Roe-mourning mass he held. The importance of the consistent life ethic was emphasized.
Gerber Baby Every year, the Gerber company selects a “spokesbaby” for the year, and this year they’ve selected 18-month-old Lucas Warren (pictured). Olivia Summers comments: “We live in a world where countries are bragging about leading the world in eradicating Down syndrome through selective abortions, bullies tell mothers of children with disabilities to kill their children . . . Much of the world seems to be feeding into the dangerous lie that unless a person can be ‘perfect’ they cannot be ‘happy,’ and it is compassionate to kill them . . . Lucas’s nomination is a ray of hope.”
Latest CLN Blog Post In “Sterilizing the ‘Unfit’,” John Cavanaugh-O’Keefe discusses the family of Carrie Buck, of the notorious Buck v. Bell US Supreme Court case that opened the floodgates for involuntary sterilization of those deemed unworthy, with Oliver Wendell Holmes’ infamous line that “three generations of imbeciles are enough.” John details how outrageous it is to characterize the three generations of this family that way, showing the bigotry involved.
Carrie Buck with her mother Emma Buck; her baby Vivian
Quotation of the Week Shelly Douglass A World Where Abortion Is Unthinkable, Plough Magazine
A peaceful world, where there are other ways of solving conflicts than killing each other, a world where rape is also unthinkable, and where economics do not force women into sexual activity. . . One of the guidelines for nonviolence is that if you want to go someplace, you have to “go by getting there.” If you want the world to be one way, you have to live that way, and that helps the world become that way. Imagine a world where war and abortion are both unthinkable, and then start to live as if we already lived in that world – that moves us along the path.
Responses/News tips/Questions to share are all welcome.
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