Isn’t offending communists the whole point?

Plans for a monument on Parliament Hill to honour the estimated 100 million or so innocent men, women and children killed at the hands of Communist regimes around the world, on the other hand, have hit a snag, with the NCC worried that a “Memorial to the Victims of Totalitarian Communism” risks giving offence to communists. … [S]everal members expressed concern the name was too provocative, and should be revised to eliminate any mention of communism.

“I was unsettled by this name, and other members of the committee agreed with me,” Hélène Grand-Maître, one commission member, said at the public approval hearing. “We should make sure that we are politically correct in this designation…. I feel this name should be changed.”

Clearly, we have a little ways to go in changing historical consciousness on this one.

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Rebecca adds: We need to learn a lesson from the English.  Just as they label terrorism carried out by Muslims in the name of Islam to be “anti-Islamic activity,” since Islam is a Religion of Peace, we should recognize that Communism is fine – it’s just never been implemented properly, so its victims actually died because of anti-Communist activity.  Isn’t it obvious?

Competitive suffering is a bit of a mug’s game; it doesn’t do anybody any good to argue over which atrocity was greater, and usually such discussion has very ugly undercurrents.  I remain baffled, though, that civilized people who would (rightly) recoil in disgust if someone wore a baseball cap with a swastika or the SS insignia think a red star hat, or Che shirt, is just fine.  I would never minimize the sheer evil of Nazism, but it’s extinct today, while the offshoots of Communism are alive and well and causing death and persecution to this day.

Abortions pose a risk for future babies. This is one of the risks of abortion that is unknown and (I think) uncontested.  

As an aside, from what I can tell, this Canadian study is not in the Canadian press. Is it just me, or do we get study after study after study on issues small and large–in particular when the researchers are Canadian? Just not when the A word comes into play.

Just because abortion is also a moral issue and sometimes a political issue don’t mean it isn’t also a medical one. Buck up medical reporters! Take a deep breath and at least ask some questions about stuff like this.

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Andrea adds this link, which says the study is “thorough and well-conducted” and “supported by a body of research.” This from a thoroughly pro-abortion source: see the part about how “[t]he most important message is not that this should be used in any way to prevent women having a termination of pregnancy…” OK, we get it. No women should EVER be denied access. But a refusal to report these sorts of findings amounts to denying women legitimate information.

“What this world needs is a little wonder,” so says the ringmaster of The Butterfly Circus.

It’s a movie under the theme of hope in a short film competition. (It says you need to log in to view, which I wanted to do, but before logging in, the movie started to play.)

I liked it, but I can’t tell you why, because it would spoil the ending.

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Brigitte would like to warn you: Make sure you grab your kleenex before hitting play, OK? What a beautiful little film.

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Andrea adds: I should add it’s a short film, just 20 minutes. And yes, I cried too, but wasn’t sure if I was just being overly emotional. Very moving.

I’m always interested in discussions of the intersection of the two. Here’s one, in case you are interested in such matters too:

What we have in two cases being deal with at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario is a case of the state trying to tell a church and a religious organization what to do and that is scary. One case involves the rights tribunal examining whether a Roman Catholic bishop should be forced to reinstate a gay man as an altar server, the other a non-Catholic trying to get tribunal to rule that a Catholic school cannot favour Catholic teachers in its hiring. Both should be thrown out, neither should have even been looked at.

Julie Desjardins wrote in to PWPL with her story yesterday. I asked if I could share it, and she has said yes:

I am a registered nurse who will soon be practising on a First Nations reserve in rural northern Manitoba and I am also a proud mother of a beautiful one year old son. I am in an exciting and wonderful season of my life but like many other people, I have had my share of other, darker times.

I grew up in an evangelical family and consequently would have considered myself pro-life however, in my twenties, away from my faith and living in the UK, I found myself pregnant and afraid.

What would not have been an option in another lifetime, suddenly became the only way out. With no counselling, no support and certainly no information, I chose to have an abortion. Of all the decisions and events in my life that I would change if I could – including the death of my beloved mother – this is the one thing I would change above all others. Of all the things I’ve said or done that are worthy of regret or repentance, this is the one thing that can consistently drive me to my knees.

I have never taken part in any public activism related to the abortion “debate” but whenever the conversation bends in that direction, I choose to tell my “story”; I find that an otherwise academic discussion, based on political correctness, can take on a human face and sometimes make a change of heart.

Because of this, I choose not to hide my own past but rather to speak openly of it in order that I might persuade people to take another look at our societal assumptions.

I think talking about this and choosing to not to remain anonymous are very courageous things. We as a society are making this “choice” without thinking, and those who advocate for “access” do so without thought for the long term consequences.

I would highlight there is a silver lining in Julie’s story too. Women who have had abortions are not condemned; they are not alone–and they can find redemption and go on to do great things as Julie is. I think that is important. Some might be incapacitated by fear and guilt; we know statistically that depression is more likely for women who have had abortions. And so I would somehow like those women who have had one to be encouraged. Mistakes are made in every life, and if we can admit to them, we can cope with them and move on.

Thank you to Julie for writing. She’s interested in hearing any comments/responses that come in even as she packs up to move, so I’ll make sure she gets them.

…when humanity is dead:

Miss Capewell, who has a five-year-old daughter Jodie, went into labour in October last year at 21 weeks and four days after suffering problems during her pregnancy.

She said she was told that because she had not reached 22 weeks, she was not allowed injections to try to stop the labour, or a steroid injection to help to strengthen her baby’s lungs.

Instead, doctors told her to treat the labour as a miscarriage, not a birth, and to expect her baby to be born with serious deformities or even to be still-born. She told how she begged one paediatrician, ‘You have got to help’, only for the man to respond: ‘No we don’t.’

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Tanya adds: A family member of mine went through the identical thing, only with twins. We mourn them to this day, and though the babies both breathed on their own for a couple of hours outside the womb, the hospital called it a miscarriage. I have a lot of words for what happened; ‘miscarriage’ isn’t one of them.