"I Vote Pro-Life!"

"I Vote Pro-Life!"

Have you seen a bumper-sticker bearing this slogan?

If you have, could you explain to me what it means?

Somehow, I think that it means that the person displaying this bumper-sticker takes extra-special care to only vote for candidates/incumbents who are anti-abortion.

If this is the case, though, why doesn't the bumper-sticker read, "I Vote Anti-Abortion!"!?!

It's one thing to want to protect the unborn from being terminated before their chances at life begin, but I personally have issues with how this kind of sanctity of life too often ends at the exit of the birth-canal.

If we actually voted "Pro-Life" and our candidates won, would we still have the death penalty, for instance?

Wouldn't we be working harder to actually rehabilitate our inmates instead of being smug and comfortable with simply locking them up and throwing away the key, even if we don't execute them?

Do I sound like a "bleeding-heart liberal" to you?

Well, if this mindset is one of a "bleeding-heart liberal," I'm proud to be one.

I'm not talking about turning prisons into country clubs or anything like that.

All I ask, when it comes to prisons, is that they become places where people are treated with dignity, given chances to improve themselves, and--I would hope--learn how to either become good citizens who will be an asset on the "outside" or else will learn to bloom where they're planted and find ways to make positive differences.

But why wait until people get to the place where they end up doing the crimes that will make them end up serving the time!?!"

I'm tired of seeing kids slipping through the cracks!

They slip through the cracks when they clearly need help and are simply "passed on" in school--and when there are programs out there that could really turn them around while they're still young, but this or that keeps them from qualifying to take part in such programs.

They slip through the cracks when schools get closed down in favor of having them to ride buses far away from their neighborhoods to attend overpopulated schools where there have been drastic cuts in teachers and resources in order to save money.

Are we going to pay now for education or pay later for prison!?!

I've just written down my thoughts. These aren't thoughts that I've suddenly started thinking about now. This is my philosophy.

So, why have I decided to write it all down now?

Sometimes, people get inspired to write something at a certain time by reading and/or listening to some kind of news report, etc.

This just happened to be one of those days for me.

I went over to the website for The Sad Orphan Foundation and found a notice written there by Roger that went like this:

Wednesday, September 18, 2002

NOTICE TO CONTRIBUTORS: Please do not send any further donations. The Sad Orphan Foundation will suspend operations effective immediately. I am very proud of what we were able to accomplish over the past two years. I am sure that what we did for these children will be remembered for the remainder of their lives. I just can not continue at the pace I have for the past five years. I no longer have a life of my own and what I have seen has thrown me into somewhat of a depression.

In all honesty I have to say that the orphanages of today have not changed from when I resided in them in the 1950s-60s. The children are no longer being physically abused. However, the children are being held as if they were prisoners locked within a prison. They are allowed very little contact with the outside world. These poor kids when released one day will not know how to interact with those who were raised in the outside world. They will go from ralationship to relationsip and marriage to marriage; thinking all along that it is their partner who is the problem. I hope that one day someone will come along who has the intelligence to see what is being done to these children.

I did receive some notes from the children at the Baptist Children's Home. One of the messages states "Thank you for not forgetting about me." That was more than I could handle.

THANK YOU to all of you who helped us. I do not know if we saved any children along the way. But I can tell you this: You saved me by showing your kindness towards these innocent children.

Roger Dean Kiser

Hopefully, there will be a time when somebody who is able to will be able to help out this worthy cause in some way. Perhaps, that someone is you or someone you know.

All I know is this: We need to start thinking about what it really means to be "Pro-Life," because there are a whole lot of kids slipping through the cracks out there!

I'm going to put a messageboard bitem at the bottom of this editorial, and I hope that as many people as possible will use it to give information about individuals and organizations working to address this problem of remaining "Pro-Life" on this side of the birth-canal.

You can share links to websites you know of and/or produce, and you can share bitems to stories/articles/poems/etc. you've written here on this subject.

Some examples:

Organizations/People helping orphans; at-risk kids; single parents and/or parents raising their kids in poverty; "problem" kids; elderly/infirm people wishing to stay in their own homes; and the list goes on and on!

Go here to add to it:

ID: 523657   (Rated: 13+) Information Needed!!!  A Forum To Go With My "I Vote Pro-Life!" Editorial by AJ Looking On The Bright Side