#502 Can we think of creative referendums? March 13, 2020
What Creative Ideas for Future Referendums Can We Offer? While we offer current possibilities for 2020 U.S. ballot measures on our website, Peace and Life Referendums, because of our perspective we can offer all kinds of ideas that others might not think of. Perhaps activists in those states or locales where the ideas might be workable will be inspired to do all the legwork necessary to make them happen. We plan to add a page to the website with suggestions and any helpful information we can offer about them. We’ve thought of two so far, but it would be a stronger page with more – and besides, haven’t you had an idea kicking around in the back of your head that you’d like to share? Here are two we have already:
There’s a campaign for Sanctuary for Life cities to have abortion-free zones. Wouldn’t it be marvelous to have sanctuary cites for migrants (see video from Vox) and Sanctuary for Life cities be the same cities? The principles of compassion and human equality are the same. What about a city referendum that has both?
While the Hyde Amendment bans U.S. federal tax money from paying for abortions through Medicaid, there are 16 states that fund abortion with their state tax dollars; pro-lifers have failed in attempts to have it otherwise. But the Peace Tax Fund takes a different tack on the issue of war: the bill allows people to be conscientious objectors to having their taxes go to war, and provides that those dollars go into specified alternatives, peaceful forms of defense. Wars aren’t generally conducted by U.S. states, of course, but the principle could apply not just to abortion, but to the death penalty. Eleven of the states who fund abortion don’t have the death penalty, and so a campaign for a taxpayer conscientious objection fund would focus on abortion. But five states do have both: Arizona, California, Illinois, Montana, and Oregon. Send all ideas or thought on developing these ideas or even good artwork to:
Around the Web
Gebre Menfes Kidus has written a Facebook post on the consistent life ethic.
Long-time CL Endorser Mary Meehan has written Wanted: Pro-Life Democrats who will Run for Office for the Human Life Review.
What used to be socially-approved killing – lynching – has a U.S. House of Representatives bill passed to make into a federal crime, by a vote of 410-4.
Our Latest Blog Post John Whitehead offers “Remember Pearl Harbor—Keep ‘Em Dying”: War and Racism in the Pacific. We published this on March 10 because that was the 75th anniversary of the firebombing of Tokyo that killed 80,000-100,000 people and kicked off the months-long bombing against 66 Japanese cities. This of course culminated in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. John details how extreme racism helped enable so much killing – along with the more hopeful point that subsequent history shows that racism can be overcome.
Kathryn Jean Lopez Stop the Death Penalty, National Review, February 24, 2020 I do think that good Christian pro-life people need to examine the witness of not having mercy for a Nick Sutton. People respond to love. Mercy is for the guilty. We can’t be callous in these circumstances, or our arguments about the life of the most innocent might not be heard. I understand why the governor did what he did, but the death penalty should prompt more of a cultural examination of conscience. It could bring a lot of people of good will — those “pro-life” and “social justice” groups that seem strangely divided — together.
Responses/News Tips/Questions to share are all welcome.
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