It seems that I lack any intellectual understanding. There are times when I just don’t get it. As much as I love the country in which I was born and in which I continue to live I wonder about our system. I believe in our representative form of government and while it seems fair that the majority should rule with deference to the minority, I wonder about our capability to govern ourselves. Our system of government depends on an informed and intelligent electorate. Our population while highly literate and generally educated seems to be fiscally and morally irresponsible. Credit card debt is out of control, our bankruptcy rate continues to increase, and we pay professional athletes a great more than we pay teachers, medical professionals, police, and fire protection professionals and on and on. Morally we ignore the sanctity of marriage vows, sex outside of marriage is expected, and a whole list of other moral issues.

In 1940 the US congress passed a law protecting the bald eagle. It became against the law to kill or trap the bald eagle, to disturb an eagle’s nest, to possess an eagle feather, or to destroy an eagle egg. The protection for the egg was based on the logic that by destroying an egg an eagle would be destroyed. There are very stiff monetary and prison penalties for violating this law. The bald eagle is our national bird and I believe that it makes sense to protect it.

At the risk of being criticized for comparing apples and oranges I would like to consider the human egg and our lack of protection for it. The question “is a human life as important as an eagle life?” The answer would seem to be no. With the famous “Roe vs. Wade” decision it became legal to invade a human nest (the womb) with a sharp instrument and kill a human baby. This decision was made by judges and not the majority of our citizens. Judges are required to be educated in the law and are theoretically chosen for their wisdom. Our society trusts judges to make wise and fair decisions about the laws of our land. The argument was that a woman should have the right to decide if she wanted to give birth to a child.  Perhaps the choice would be better made before a baby is created.

Here we are in a country whose people claim to believe in the sanctity of human life and unborn eagles are protected by law and unborn human babies are not protected at all. Can you see my confusion? Millions of dollars are spent each year on the killing of thousands of babies in this country that I love. We will answer God for our actions and it will not be pretty.  You might want to think about how much you value human life when you vote this fall.

Your brother in Christ,

Daniel Harsh