Remembering Memorial Day

This is my Father-in-law's flag.  He was a sergeant in WWII.  I never had the chance to meet him.  He served our country with honor and dignity.

The Flag is woven. You can get a feel for how heavy it is by looking at the stars.  They are embroidered into the fabric. The material is thick and yet, you can almost make out the stripes behind the fold.  This flag has physical weight, but it has a greater weight, by far. It has significance.

I have a friend who currently serves as a special ops officer in the military.  He was visiting recently and another friend commented about how friendly he is.  Without skipping a beat and without actually thinking, I said, "He is one of the nicest people.  It is almost hard to believe he kills people for a living."  Of course, he does much more than that, but it is a part of his job.

Years ago, I was talking to a candidate for State Senate, here in NH.  There must have been  bill in progress that had something to do with Planned Parenthood. If I recall correctly, it was to disallow tax dollars to feed their business.  As I explained that they are the largest abortion vendor in the world, he said, "But they do so much good." I shook my head, tried to compose myself and walked away from him.

He followed me across the room.  "Friends don't walk away from each other." he rebuked.  I apologized.  "We can disagree." he told me, but when a legislator disagrees, they back that with the power of the law.  Do we really understand that they make laws?

Unlike my friend in the military, who does kill people during wartime as part of his job, the people at Planned Parenthood kill the most vulnerable and innocent of our society.  The people that do abortions may be nice people, but let us not lose sight of what they do in the clinics.  We need not hate them, but we must hate what they do.

As we seek to elect legislators, we must remember that they will make laws.  Those laws will be enforced with guns, prisons and fines and fees.

When I remember the brave men and women of World War II, I am struck silent by the thought of their utter and complete willingness to fight for freedom, especially for those who could not fight for themselves.

Elections are coming.  Please be informed.  Please be vigilant. Please remember the weak and vulnerable.  Please remember the valiant too.  May their sacrifice be held as the highest honor to the USA.

Dear Candidate

Dear Political Candidate,

My name is Darlene. We have not met.  I've been told that you are not ProLife.  You are listed as a Republican on the Republican ballot here in NH.

ProLife is a modern term that usually means anti-abortion to most people.  It means a great deal more than that to me.

I would venture to say that you are ProLife when it comes to your friends and family members.  It is very unlikely that you would be willing for someone to "make a choice" to pull your nephew's arms and legs off and crush his skull or to have digoxin injected into your co-workers heart, causing a heart attack so that she would die within a few hours from the excruciating pain and oxygen deprivation. These are two common abortion procedures.

I'm pretty sure you are a person that would not want a two-year old to be placed into a vat of poison that would burn her skin and mucous membranes causing a slow, painful death that would take anywhere from an hour to 3 days. This is another abortion procedure.

So, what age would it be appropriate to take such actions? Or is it that you don't personally have a connection to the people to whom these atrocities are being committed?

Should only those who are perfect and beautiful, productive and smart be provided protection under the law?  Who determines this criteria?

Wouldn't that exclude a huge swath of people? What about your grandmother or your great aunt?  When they are no longer providing a service to humanity, should they no longer be protected from imposed death?  What if they were ill or disabled?

As a candidate for public office, you are agreeing to take on enormous responsibilities.  If elected, you will have great influence.  You will have the ability to enact laws that either protect innocent life or protect those who would murder the most vulnerable of our society.

If only the person contracted to kill another can see the person being killed, does that make it ok?  Only the abortion facility staff ever see their victims. So, is that what makes it ok to kill the most vulnerable of our society?

Maybe it is ok to kill older people or the disabled, if we use their remains to power electric plants. Or in some other way, make a person deemed useless useful by taking their body parts after we kill them and using the for research or mulch.

If you believe that people should be protected from imposed death, then you are ProLife.  I hope you will think about the scenarios depicted herein.  This happens every day.

I would be very happy to meet with you or talk at any time about how you might be able to protect people from murder, so that we do not see a future like that of Nazi Germany.

You have a chance to be a tower of hope in a time of great importance.  Will you be lifted up above the base to protect people?

What would you say in response to this letter?

The Most Marginalized

Luke 15:4

What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?

Hear, Jesus alludes to a magnificent truth.  God cares for the one 

most marginalized: the one that wandered off, the one that didn't keep up, the one that wasn't like all the others, the one, perhaps, that no one else wanted. 

While I have been preparing for the first Board meeting for the newly formed Savethe1, I have been poring over the governing documents.  The foundational premiss of the group and its mission is to advocate for that one that is most marginalized.  We are that one.  

I love the vision of Jesus reaching out with his staff and as He reaches for that one afar off, He catches all as the curved staff brings the outlier in.

We are a group of people who were conceived and born as a result of rape or incest, or are women who have conceived by rape, or some who were born with fetal anomaly. We are used by the pro-abortion movement to prove the 'need' for abortion and we are used by the proLife movement as a concession or exception in an attempt to pass legislation that would presumably save some babies from abortion.  

Some even say 99% would be saved, because 1% of all abortions are committed in cases of rape, incest and fetal anomaly, including Down Syndrome. 

The biggest problem with this logic is that we are people, not exceptions.  We are no less human beings than someone conceived with wine and roses.  There is either a baby worth saving and protecting, or there is not.

Obviously, the pro-abortion crowd, knows this.  That is why they used the argument of the need for abortion in case of rape in Roe v Wade.  The fallacy of adding the trauma of abortion onto the trauma of rape as a means of helping the first victim is absurd.

When a woman conceives due to rape, there are two victims. Both need our care and neither should be punished, especially not by the death penalty.  

In what ways do you think Jesus would advocate for the 1%?

Teddy Bears and Tattletales

Teach your kids to talk.  No one likes a constant tattle tale, but silence is the enemy. 

There are so many problems that can be handled with some discussion.  Everyone develops at their own pace and by their own unique path.  It is amazing to me that when children don’t meet predetermined standards, they get labeled as slow, or ADD or ADHD or whatever.  

Communication is a very important part of development. Some kids are better at it than others.  Let’s face it, some adults are better at it than others.  I have five children and they are all different. My first spoke clearly articulated sentences at about a year old. My third child had a significant speech impediment and wouldn’t talk to non family members until she was five. 

Our family is all about talking it out.  When we had anything come up that was disturbing or exciting or even monotonous, we talked.  Whether we were hanging in the living room or sitting on the end of the bed at night there were targeted times to talk.  We talked when we got up in the morning, as we went through our day and every time something significant happened, we talked about the behavior we should choose, the implications for the future and the best perspective to have. 

We were very involved in our church when the kids were younger.  My husband and I taught Sunday School and worked with the youth among other stuff.  So, once when the kids had a dispute and parents took great offense.  We talked about the Biblical response.  We talked about the way various people perceived the situation and how they dealt with it.  We talked about the leadership style of the people involved and how they might handle each circumstance.

This should not be perceived as an absolute in our relationships. There were plenty of things I found out about years after they happened.  It was the general rule though and probably has a lot to do with that fact that people are amazed at the maturity of our children and what they have been able to accomplish.

Suffering in silence was the hallmark of my childhood.  We were taught how to keep the secrets of our abuse.  If you ask relatives, they will tell you I was sneaky.  I didn’t know any better.  Our abusers were adept at teaching us how to be quiet and not let on what was happening.  The training and terrible threats were very effective.  We became very covert too.  My sister and I acted out in different ways, but neither of us could talk about the abuse until well into our twenties and thirties.  There were other women too that told of his brutality.  Because we kept silent, he went on free to continue the reign of terror. 

There is a statute of limitations on child abuse, even child molestation.  Even when we could talk about it, nothing could be done.  So, teach your kids to talk.  "See something, Say something" is not a bad motto to have.  Hopefully, they never know any abuse, good communication is essential for success.  

How do you find ways to keep your kids talking?